The Yale Globalist: Labor by The Yale Globalist

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GLOBALIST FIND US ONLINE at www.tyglobalist.org @yaleglobalist & tyglobalist@gmail.com

JOURNALISM ADVISORY BOARD Steven Brill, Yale Dept. of English

Nayan Chanda, Director of Publications, MacMillan Center Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, The New American Foundation Jef McAllister, McAllister Olivarius Nathaniel Rich, The Paris Review

Fred Strebeigh, Yale Dept. of English ACADEMIC ADVISORY BOARD Harvey Goldblatt, Professor of Medieval Slavic Literature, Yale University Donald Green, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University

Charles Hill, Yale Diplomat-in-Residence Ian Shapiro, Director, MacMillan Center

Ernesto Zedillo, Director, Yale Center for the Study of Globalization

ON THE COVER

dear

Readers,

Of the 18.6 million migrant workers who have come to the Middle East to take jobs in construction, domestic work, and other low-wage industries, as many as 600,000 may experience conditions comparable to forced labor, according to the International Labor Organization. In impoverished communities across South Asia, local labor brokers lure prospective migrants with tales of lucrative jobs overseas, forcing them to take out large loans at exorbitant rates to pay “recruitment fees” for the privilege of securing these jobs and traveling to the Gulf. Yet once migrant workers arrive in their host countries, they quickly find that these recruiters have deceived them about the nature of their work and wages; their pay is sizably reduced and, after a few months, withheld altogether. Under the Gulf countries’ kafala system of sponsorship, foreign workers can only migrate through their kafeel, or sponsoring employer, and they require their employers’ approval or judicial consent to change jobs or leave their positions—an exceedingly unlikely scenario. In Qatar and Saudi Arabia, foreign workers must also have exit permits to leave the country. Employers can use their influence to prevent employees from obtaining such permits unless they stop pursuing claims for withheld wages, and many confiscate their employees’ passports and identity documents. Banned from going on strike, forming unions, or partaking in collective bargaining, workers lack adequate means to demand recourse from their employers or seek redress through their host countries judicial systems. Unable to petition for their freedom of movement, most migrant workers in the Gulf toil in temperatures that exceed 113º F. At construction sites, health risks abound; falls, object strikes, and traffic accidents are frequent and often fatal. Heat and exhaustion regularly cause young, healthy migrants to vomit and collapse, often leading to fatalities from what authorities label “sudden cardiac arrest.” The Guardian found that in 2012 and 2013, more than 500 migrant workers from India, Sri Lanka, and Nepal died under such circumstances in Qatar alone. Some Gulf states have recently pledged to reform the kafala system, but watchdog groups point to these “promises to reform” as simply that, words designed in response to damning global public opinion rather than the beginnings of a process that could end in tangible results. Absent sustained political will from governments such as the United States and efforts by international organizations to address global governance gaps, these abusive conditions are unlikely to change. Yet, public awareness and activism can play a critical role in forcing such actors to prioritize migrant labor reform. The pieces of the Globalist’s spring issue examine the theme of labor from a variety of angles. Rhea Kumar ’18 profiles the work of India’s Bachpan Bachao Andolan, or Save the Children Mission, whose founder, Kailash Satyarthi, won this year’s Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to combat child labor and trafficking. Diego Fernandez-Pages ’18 and Jiahui Hu ’18 examine the recent intensification of anti-union government policies in Spain and Colombia respectively. Meanwhile, Kelsey Larson reports on how Mongolia hopes to protect herders’ livelihoods during severe winters by creating a nationwide livestock insurance program. As always, we are indebted to our institutional sponsors, our contributors, and to you, our readers. Warmly,

Design by Ivy Sanders-Schneider

Creative Director Chareeni Kurukulasuriya Production & Design Editors Quyen Do Skyler Inman Associate Editors Skyler Inman, Anna Russo, Christian Soler, Isidora Stankovic, Caroline Wray

Editor-in-Chief Zoe Rubin Managing Editors Grace Brody, Jackson Busch, Jasmine Horsey, Elizabeth Villarreal Editors-at-Large Rachel Brown, John D’Amico, Danielle Ellison, Aaron Gertler, Tara Rajan, Kelly Schumann, Ashley Wu

Executive Director Nitika Khaitan Business Coordinators Mitchell Hightower, Vishakha Negi, Jonathan Reed Online Editors Meiryum Ali, Josh Feng, Jerelyn Luther, Akhil Sud www.tyglobalist.org

02 contents

When Labor is Lethal Ebola’s detrimental effect on maternal health

Guardians of the Forest A Cameroonian community’s efforts to promote forest conservation

¡No Pasarán!

ELIAS ESTABROOK

Spanish unions in crisis

IRENE CHUNG

DIEGO FERNANDEZ-PAGES

“In seeking to maintain the link between social progress and economic growth, the guarantee of fundamental principles and rights at work is of particular significance in that it enables the persons concerned, to claim freely and on the basis of equality of opportunity, their fair share of the wealth which they have helped to generate, and to achieve fully their human potential.” — Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work, International Labor Organization (ILO)

“Child slavery is a crime against humanity. Humanity itself is at stake here. A lot of work still remains, but I will see the end of child labor in my lifetime.”

— Kailash Satyarthi

In Search of Security When Winter Comes Nomadic herding in the Mongolian steppes KELSEY LARSON

The evolution of Colombia’s trade unions

JIAHUI HU

Chhoti si Asha On Kailash Satyarthi and the future of India’s child laborers

RHEA KUMAR

contents 03

Roasted in Reykjavik

GLIMPSE:

Iceland’s independent coffee culture OLIVIA BURTON FEATURE:

FEATURE:

Sanction Sorrows

A critique of the West’s policy towards Russia JOSEPH HABERMAN

“I’m Tired”

The social media fight for human rights in Mexico CAROLINE KURITZKES

FEATURE:

Going the Distance

Achieving sustainability in rural Mexico ELIZABETH ZHANG

FEATURE:

16 GLIMPSE:

Exporting Intolerance How Saudi money is promoting religious extremism ALEX POSNER

Divided They Stand

The state of Russia’s “Solidarity” ELIZABETH MILES

32 United by Tragedy FEATURE:

Hmong Americans fight for justice after racially motivated violence

Children of the Sun FEATURE:

The floating islands of the Uros MICAELA BULLARD

MICHELLE KELRIKH www.tyglobalist.org

04 labor 06

Sanction Sorrows A critique of the West’s policy towards Russia BY JOSEPH HABERMAN

“W

[Above] Graphic by Chareeni Kurukulasuriya/TYG (content courtesy Flickr users MCADLibrary, CSISPoni, and Roberto Rizzato). [Below] Putin on the front page of Serbian newspaper Politika (courtesy politika.rs). spring 2015, issue 3

e hope that our partners will be wise enough to see the recklessness of their attempts to blackmail Russia.” Last October, Russian President Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin delivered this chilly condemnation of the West’s policies towards his nation to the Serbian newspaper Politika. According to Putin, the current policies are belligerent and serve only to exacerbate international tensions. Putin was referring to the financial sanctions that the United States and the European Union have enacted over the past year against the Russian Federation as a response to the country’s involvement in Ukraine. According to Thomas Graham, a senior fellow at the Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and former senior director for Russia on the National Security Council, “Russia has undertaken behavior in Ukraine…that Western leaders believe has violated the rules of the post-Cold War European order.” The Putin administration’s annexation of Crimea last March and its support, both rhetorical and material, for separatist forces in Eastern Ukraine constitute an infringement of the 1975 Helsinki Accords’ articles on territorial sovereignty and non-interference in domestic affairs. In this light, the sanctions regime implemented by the West is an attempt to assert international cooperation by coercing Russia to reverse its transgressions. Sanctions are an important diplomatic tool with myriad strategic and tactical implications. Such policies work by restricting trade with a certain country, hurting its economy, and isolating it internationally. According to Graham, the damage sanctions impose is meant to “deter, undermine, and erode the position of an adversary.” Forced under economic duress, the country will hypothetically change its policies in accordance with the imposing governments’ standards. Popular sentiment is a necessary component of this, as the sanctions aim to disrupt the economic livelihood of the country’s citizens until enough people demand change. Harming the people indirectly by restricting their economic vitality on

labor 05 the world market is the means by which sanctions succeed. However, the efficacy of such a policy relies on the assumption that the state has a sufficiently developed civil society that allows citizens to influence policy decisions. An institutional framework needs to exist through which disillusioned civilians can demand that the administration’s foreign policy change in accordance with the sanctioning countries’ wishes. Liberal democracies have such apparatuses: open elections and free media facilitate open discourse in the public sphere. In Russia, however, the Kremlin wields tremendous power over democratic structures and the political process. The central government controls news media extensively, particularly television. “Russia has so many internal problems with freedom of speech,” described Nadya Stryuk ’17, a native of the Russian city of Voronezh, adding that the government has passed many “ridiculous laws that restrict media that says anything different from the Kremlin’s point of view.” The Russian government owns, operates, or heavily influences almost all major news The remaining examples An channels. example of anfew unfinished water system of independent journalism—TV Rain, for instance—are under pressure from the Kremlin. According to Stryuk, the state-controlled media has been successful in shaping public opinion. She pointed out that, “in Russia, a majority of people believe what the media says.” The sanctions have been successful in at least one sense: the Russian economy is currently suffering its worst economic crisis since 1998. In the past year, the value of the ruble has fallen by over 50 percent, growth has contracted substantially, and capital outflow has reached $134 billion—all of which leave the Russian economy on the brink of collapse. “There is a downward spiral happening economically, and the sanctions have played a part in that,” said Marijeta Bozovic, the director of undergraduate studies for Yale’s Slavic department. Despite this, Bozovic added that gauging just how much of the turmoil has been caused by sanctions is a difficult task. “They’re certainly hurting a lot of people in Russia,” said Constantine Muravnik, a senior Russian lector for Yale’s Slavic department. “Not only the oligarchs, but a lot of people who run small businesses and depend on imports they usually get from Europe.” The socioeconomic crisis has had major effects on people’s decisions to stay or leave, as many members of the intelligentsia no longer find any reason to remain in the country. Hundreds of thousands of Russians have emigrated in response to dire economic and political prospects. “The trou-

ble right now is that we are witnessing a brain drain,” said Bozovic. “I fear that the very types of people who could be legitimate political actors and could be doing something really interesting are fleeing the country.” But the West’s larger goal of influencing Russian policy has been less successful. “You can create the anger, but you can’t necessarily direct it,” said Muravnik. People are upset about their economic circumstance, but they have not channeled that emotion towards demanding change. “There is nothing to demonstrate that support for Putin has weakened, and, in fact, quite the contrary,” Graham said. Putin’s approval rating is estimated to be around 80 percent, and “there’s no evidence that the sanctions have led the Russian population to rethink their position on Putin.” The Russian government has not altered its policies in Eastern Ukraine, where separatist forces continue to resist the Ukrainian government with Moscow’s support. The crippling impacts of Russia’s current economic crisis have not shifted Putin’s position, as Western leaders may have hoped. Putin has managed to co-opt potential popular unrest for his own political purposes. The sanctions fall right into the geopolitical narrative the Kremlin has constructed. The government has been able to galvanize support among the masses by depicting current international tensions as an example of Western oppression. “It does provide Putin an easy explanation for some of the economic difficulties,” explained Graham. Putin has been able to shield himself from blame by presenting his country’s economic turmoil as the pernicious consequence of a Western enemy trying to undermine Russian interests. The truth of this narrative can be debated, but its utility for the Putin administration is evident. The conditions that have led the Russian economy to the brink of collapse have been caused by numerous factors aside from sanctions, many of which lie beyond the direct control of the West. The precipitous drop in oil prices in 2014 is among the most prominent of these. The Russian economy is structurally dependent on the export of crude resources, so the fall in oil prices, influenced by global shifts in supply and demand, has sent damaging shockwaves throughout the country. But even if Western sanctions are not the direct cause of Russia’s economic despair, the sanctions have led the West to appear as though it were inciting more damage than it actually is, providing fodder for the Putin administration. “The Russian economy is undergoing a perfect storm, and yes, this is a perfect scapegoat,” said Bozovic. The nuances of global markets become superfluous in

the midst of the easy narrative the Kremlin has been able to construct by pitting America as the harbinger of harm. Whether or not the sanctions have been effective, we must ask ourselves if the ends justify the means. More explicitly, is adherence to international law worth the harm imposed on innocent civilians? “As it usually happens, I think the poor will be hit the worst,” said Bozovic. “It’s one thing to imagine this elite class and how the sanctions will affect them, but what about the poor, or the destroyed intelligentsia?” Muravnik stressed the malicious logic of this diplomatic tool by drawing connections to the Bolsheviks. “How is this different from when the Social Democrats of Lenin in early 20th century Russia, during the famine, sabotaged the delivery of supplies to famine areas so that more people would die and become angry at the policies of Nicholas II?” he asked. “The people become pawns in a political game, pushed to extremity in the hope that their visceral reaction will be [politically] beneficial.” Sanctions are in many ways the path of least resistance when coercing a rival power. The harm they cause does not compare to the physical destruction generated by military engagement, and they can hypothetically be reversed once the country reintegrates into the global economy. But the fact that sanctions may be more humane than military force is not a sufficient justification for their use. The antagonistic mentality towards Russia, the assumption that the country is a rival to be contained, makes the use of sanctions appear necessary. Yet, sanctions are not only failing to accomplish Western goals to coerce Russian policy; they are actively exacerbating the international antagonism that they hoped to ameliorate. “I find the Cold War rhetoric of ‘us’ and ‘them’ terrifying and a mistake on both sides,” said Bozovic. The international animosity perpetuated by the sanctions risks forcing political leaders to enact extreme measures, heightening nationalism, and disrupting prospects for cooperation. “Our partners must clearly realize that attempts to put pressure on Russia by illegitimate unilateral restrictive steps do not bring a settlement,” Putin told Politika, adding that the harmful policies “only complicate dialogue.” The only hope for making real progress in reducing tensions between Russia and the West is to reverse the sanctions regime against the Kremlin, and the mentality of hostility that supports it. Joseph Haberman ’17 is a Russian & East European Studies major in Morse College. Contact him at joseph.haberman@yale.edu.

www.tyglobalist.org

06 labor

WHEN LABOR

lethal

Ebola’s detrimental effects on maternal health

BY IRENE CHUNG (Courtesy USAID).

ternal Love Winning Africa is one of few maternity wards in Monrovia, Liberia where a woman can still deliver her baby. There, midwives don full Ebola suits and conduct chlorine spray-downs after each shift. But even so, the high exposure to blood and other bodily fluids during delivery makes the maternity ward an Ebola hazard zone. With the explosive rise of Ebola, which has infected more than 21,000 people worldwide since February 2014, the disease has chosen its afflicted victims discriminately. The crisis has been disproportionately detrimental to pregnant women, who account for 75 percent of Ebola-related deaths in Liberia and 59 percent in Sierra Leone, according to United Nations Women. The Oxford Journal of Infectious Diseases notes that the fatality rate of Ebola is around 95 percent for pregnant women with treatment, a near death sentence compared to the 60 percent fatality rate for non-pregnant patients with treatment. “The reality is that pregnant women are facing a double threat—dying from Ebola and from pregnancy or childbirth,” said Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin, the executive director of the United Nations Population Fund (UNPF). “Ebola is not only killing those infected, but also those affected. Pregnant women and girls are at greater risk.” A devastating example of health disparity by wealth, the maternal mortality ratio in developing countries is more than 14 times that of developed regions, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). Over half of maternal deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa alone, which includes Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, the countries most heavily afflicted by Ebola. The virus has deterred the roll-out of health care on both the supply and demand sides in these

spring 2015, issue 3

countries. Even as hospitals turn away pregnant patients from fear of infection through amniotic fluid, expecting mothers have also been reluctant to seek health services from fear of infection in facilities with Ebola patients. The Kenema Government Hospital in Sierra Leone, which serves three districts of over a million people, saw a stark drop in its maternal patient count in July 2014. The facility regularly delivers 150 babies and conducts 17 caesarian sections each month; however, in 2014, this number plunged rapidly, with only 93 expecting mothers seeking deliveries. The Ebola crisis has devastated the overall health infrastructure of affected countries. “They pretty much shut down everything that wasn’t Ebola treatment. There were stories of people dying of relatively easy to treat diseases because doctors didn’t want to touch them,” explained Ryan Boyko, a doctoral candidate in the Yale School of Public Health who was suspected of being infected with Ebola after traveling to Liberia in September and October 2014 to develop apps for Ebola data collection. With the decline in primary care, the availability and quality of gynecological and maternal services has also suffered. In reaction to the virus, Sierra Leone’s UNPF has reduced prenatal consultations for pregnant women by almost 50 percent. The Ebola-like symptoms of pregnancy such as bleeding and cramping have created a stigma against expecting mothers, which has resulted in an increase in the number of stillbirths in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Because women are primary caretakers in many West African societies, they are more likely to be infected with Ebola through bodily fluid contact. Additionally, as the crisis breaks down family structures and stable sources of income, women bear a greater economic burden within

family units, especially those with children. “The impact is not just in mortality, but it has social and economic ramifications that ripple the entire system,” said Dr. James Childs, a senior scientist in the Department of Epidemiology and Microbial Diseases at the Yale School of Public Health. The epidemic threatens to exacerbate the maternal health gap between high and low-income countries by further impoverishing highly affected areas, where 99 percent of daily pregnancy and childbirth-related deaths occur. “One of the reasons that the Ebola outbreak got out of hand has to do with the state of the system in these countries. There was already a deficit,” said Dr. Unni Karunakara, former president of Doctors Without Borders. “I personally feel that the system has been set back by a few years.” Experts agree that the inadequate response to Ebola—both globally and locally—has exacerbated the outbreak’s impact. “It’s almost like a perfect storm that came together,” said Karunakara. “Foreign aid, though necessary, has completely fallen short. The international community failed to meet the Ebola outbreak and the challenges posed by it.” With the initial hype of the virus reined in, both local governments and foreign aid actors are mobilizing to stem the epidemic. Yet, such relief comes too late for many women and babies. Hope now lies in the collaborative efforts of national and international aid organizations to save the 120,000 pregnant women in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone that the UNPF predicts will die without obstetric care this year. Irene Chung ’17 is a Political Science major in Branford College. Contact her at irene. chung@yale.edu.

k i v a j k y e R n i d e t Roas

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ure

lt coffee cu t n e d n e p de

“T

in Iceland’s

his is so stereotypically Icelandic of me. I’m late, I’m listening to the new Björk, and I’m in a coffee shop,” says Ólafur Ólafsson, a senior at Yale, as he sits down at Blue State Coffee. Though he has lived in New York since age seven, Ólafsson makes regular trips back home to Iceland to visit his family. During his visits, he frequents Reykjavik Roasters, a coffee roasting company and consultancy with a coffeehouse in the downtown area. While Europe’s most sparsely populated

country has international chains such as KFC, Dominos, and Taco Bell, Starbucks has never opened a chain in Iceland. Instead, the country is home to an innovative community of baristas in independent coffeehouses and roasteries such as Reykjavik Roasters. Two small coffee chains, Te og Kaffi, or Tea and Coffee, and Kaffitár, fulfill the need for convenience without sacrificing the quality of specialty coffee that Icelanders have come to expect. Ólafsson attributes Iceland’s high quality of coffee to the country’s natural spring water and organic dairy, which he claims to be some of the best in the world. Tumi Ferrer, co-owner of Reykjavik Roasters, described a more cultural difference: “What Icelandic coffee culture brings to the table is similar to what other Nordic countries do: the idea of coffee as an essential part of hospitality and an appreciation for good, strong filter coffee.” The atmosphere of Iceland’s independent coffeehouses reflects the country’s unique mixture of traditional hospitality and modernity. Almost all coffeehouses in Iceland offer free wifi, which Ólafsson described as a strange contrast with the old-fashioned furniture and record players. “The coffeehouses all use home furniture from the ‘60s and ‘70s, so it makes people my age feel like they’re having coffee at their grandmother’s house,” said Ólafsson. “You don’t get the sterile feel of stores where everything is the same.” But order a vanilla bean frappuccino from a Starbucks in the United States, Turkey, or Spain, and it will taste like any other vanilla bean frappuccino from a Starbucks in Vietnam, Chile, or Poland. With 21,878 stores in 66 countries, Starbucks may live up to its claim to offer products that transcend cultural differences. Yet Starbucks might be sacrificing local culture through its attempts to transcend it. In contrast, Iceland’s coffeehouses balance globalization and local culture while maintaining a sense of individuality and innovation. While Starbucks offers a nearly standardized experience regardless of location, Iceland’s coffeehouses reflect the country’s location at a crossroads between Europe and North America.

BY OLIVIA BURTON

“Icelanders have a sweet tooth like the US but want to easily taste strong coffee flavor like their fellow Nordic nations,” said Ferrer, winner of the 2011 Icelandic Barista Championship. Within the small community of baristas in Iceland, an elite few stand out in their dedication to quality and innovation in the coffee industry. Pàlmar Þór Hlöðversson stumbled into the coffee business in 2007 and won the Icelandic Barista Championship one year later. Now a two-time winner of the Icelandic Barista Championship, Hlöðversson co-owns and operates Pallett Kaffikompaní, a multi-roaster café in Hafnafjörður. “I’m not tied to any one roaster, so I just use what I feel like is the best and most exciting coffee available at that time,” he said. In addition to specialty coffees, Pallet Kaffikompaní has recently started offering Icelandic craft beer. Icelandic craft beer is, according to Olafsson, a fairly recent trend; prohibition of beer was not lifted in Iceland until 1989. Hlöðversson said that he serves Icelandic craft beers to appeal to a broad demographic of people who appreciate specific flavors. “When people are very much into one kind of flavor, they tend to be very much into everything else that has some flavor to it, be it wine, cheese, beer, chocolate, or bread,” he said. Of course, Iceland’s specialty coffees and top-quality coffee houses are not unique to the country. Even in Manhattan, which contains nine Starbucks per square mile according to the Wall Street Journal, it is not difficult to find an independent coffeehouse. The difference is that it is almost impossible to find bad coffee in Iceland. Icelanders will accept nothing less than the best. “All the gas stations even serve specialty coffee,” said Hlöðversson. Olivia Burton ’18 is in Morse College. Contact her at olivia.burton@yale.edu.

Reykjavik Roasters (courtesy Tumi Ferrer). www.tyglobalist.org

08 labor

GUARDIANS FOREST

plant and animal biodiversity, as deforestation erases acres of habitat. Cedric said that, in Djoum, at least fifty timber trucks were filled every day. “In Nkolenyeng, that isn’t the case,” he insisted. “We don’t cut down trees here.” Indeed, heading towards Djoum on the dirt roads from the north, our bush taxi slipped past roaring flatbed trucks carrying timber. Over several hours, I counted at least fifteen, all on their way to urban processing and distribution facilities. Rarely do local populations see much direct economic benefit coming in; they mostly just see these extracted How a Cameroonian community aspires to resources moving out. Despite the conspicuous infrastructural development on Djoum’s main BY ELIAS ESTABROOK benefit from conservation road, if the town’s timber industry is anything like those of other Cameroonian timber towns, was a forestier, a timber worker. I used national government authorized a tract of 2,575 then Djoum’s population must receive almost to cut down wood in the bush. I worked acres as La Forêt Communautaire de Nko- no money from the lumber trade. Spurred by the absence of local community in the sawmill. But when I am here, I lenyeng. Finally in control of their swath of forhave already forgotten all that. I have aban- est, the people of Nkolenyeng faced an unusual benefits from formal forestry sector activities, doned the timber business.” Cedric sat across choice: how would they define the destiny of several organizations intervened. In 2010, after consulting with an international conservation from me in the living room, the front door and their forest going forward? window open to relieve the midday heat. As Initially, from 2007 to 2008, the community non-governmental organization (NGO) and a the sunshine dried his newest harvest of cocoa experimented with timber exploitation, con- Cameroonian NGO based in the nation’s capbeans on a wooden crafted platform, he com- tracting a company to bring in equipment and ital, Yaoundé, Nkolenyeng opted for a novel pared his years of labor in the timber industry to vehicles to clear tracts of the community forest. model for managing the forest resources of its his current life as a farmer here in Nkolenyeng, a But these efforts faltered and returned no bene- community forest. Known as Payment for Envivillage in the south of Cameroon. fits to the community. Many tree trunks ready ronmental Services (PES), this new model aims Undoubtedly, he financially profited from for delivery instead lay unretrieved where they to incentivize sustainable management of the forest by compensating the community for the his direct employment in one of the industries were cut. cutting down Cameroon’s tropical forests. Timber exploitation might have made Nko- efforts it makes to keep the forest intact. As they farm and hunt around However, he conceded the destructive mental- lenyeng a far more the forest, the people of ity that accompanied this exploitation of forest industrial place. It Nkolenyeng provide an resources. “When you cut down trees, it’s to go might have looked “environmental service” sell it. You don’t even look back at what you’ve like Djoum, the closleft behind. [Imagine], I cut the wood and I est town (about 30 “The forest brings us many by leaving trees standing; in return, a donor leave to go sell. It’s my money, and I put it in my miles, or 43 kilomepocket. The damages—you don’t look at them.” ters, away), which goods, but the community evaluates the extent of the conservation and Today, Cedric is a cocoa farmer in Nko- has paved roads, gas lenyeng, and a leading participant in a local stations, and a hotel. does not know how to manage makes “payments” accordingly. project to sustainably manage the surrounding And yet such develOf course, a box of forest. opments have come them well, so that the whole cash was not just airThis forest management project would not with costs for the have been possible, were it not for Nkolenyeng’s surrounding forest. community will be satisfied.” dropped into this little rainforest village. Rathunique history. Ten years ago, the village was “It’s bad over there,” er, the presiding NGOs still in the process of securing greater legal Cedric lamented. introduced a structure control over its surrounding forest area, the “Especially in the of payment distribution land it has customarily used for generations. areas where they are The village aimed to take advantage of a novel felling trees in the bush. They don’t leave any- across various groups. In partnership with these governance structure outlined in Cameroon’s thing, they cut everything. If you go to where NGOs and a government agro-forestry program, the community of Nkolenyeng launched 1994 Forest Law, called a “community forest”, they cut down the wood, it’s empty.” or forêt communautaire. This structure theoCleared landscapes like these have grave a set of activity groups and social benefit groups, retically guaranteed 100 percent of benefits from consequences for the ecosystem and those hu- which would put the payments to work. The aca forest’s economic output to the local commu- mans who depend on it. As trees are cleared, the tivity groups covered such income-generating nity. In 2005, the people of Nkolenyeng submit- loss of their root systems unleashes soil erosion, trades as beekeeping, sustainable cocoa agriculted an application to the national Cameroonian and the loss of their canopy inhibits moisture re- ture, and collection of non-timber forest prodgovernment, asking to designate a tract of their tention in the sun-scorched soil. Hunters, trap- ucts (NTFP) in the forest. Together, these nine forest as a “community forest.” Ultimately, the pers, and gatherers also notice the diminishing groups would receive half of the PES project’s

of the

“I

spring 2015, issue 3

labor 09 budget over a five-year period, so long as the community forest consistently received highest marks for sustainable management from the evaluator, a third-party environmental consultant. Under the budgeting guidelines of the PES project, the other half of the total allocated payments would be allocated to a “civil project,” a program customized to the community’s needs. After thorough consultation, all community members present at a village-wide assembly voted to implement an electrification project with the funding. And so, the community contracted a utility company with a nearby regional office to install several electrical generators and a grid of elevated power lines that spans the length of the village. “When other chiefs visit Nkolenyeng [and see our electrical grid], they see the village is developing. We have always been a model village for others,” claimed Nkolenyeng’s traditional chief, Emmanuel. Roger, a cocoa farmer, echoed this assertion. He insisted that the village’s electrified general stores and bars attracted people from the surrounding villages, bolstering the economic development of Nkolenyeng. Today, however, several rotted electrical poles lie in disrepair, and the generators are not running. As of December 2014, the community had not yet raised the funds to undertake repairs, despite widespread complaints about the state of the infrastructure. By this point in time, the activity groups have received two payments. In agriculturally-productive stretches of the forest, some farmers are increasing their harvest and their revenue. Thanks to an improved variety of cocoa tree, introduced by the presiding Cameroonian NGO and associated agroforestry experts, the farmers who have planted its seedlings are now seeing pods emerge year-round. Christian, a seasoned cocoa farmer and head of the cocoa “activity group,” believes this investment shows great promise for the community members who took a leap of faith and planted this new variety in their groves. “Ça donne déjà,” he said. “It’s already showing results.” However, the boosted economic output of cocoa-farming, a long-time practice for the majority of the population, is an exception; other activities have not experienced a lasting positive impact from PES payments. The activity groups aimed to turn a profit and reimburse the village’s forest management association, the keeper of the PES funds. Christian, the head of the cocoa-growing group, likened them to a revolving fund for microloans. Rarely, though, did the groups produce any revenue or replenish the PES funds. “The money that is provided disap-

pears just like that, and we see nothing,” Christian explained. “We want to see the impacts on the ground. Let’s say if you give the money to the cocoa-growing group, we take the money, and we must then reimburse it. It should not disappear.” Absent this compensation through PES, how does the community fare? The people of Nkolenyeng draw many natural resources from the forest and have customarily done so for decades, without necessarily damaging the ecological integrity of the forest. The villagers cite the fertile soils, the non-timber products—nuts, wild fruits, and medicinal plants—and the ex-

alternative activities, such as beekeeping, gave the community members exciting and hopeful opportunities. Most people’s disappointment about the current state of affairs, however, tempers their former optimism. But despite the grim financial state of the PES project, there remain residents like Fabienne, Roger, and Cedric, who, empowered by new knowledge and skills, are resolute in their intention to farm more sustainably, and to never turn back to clearing their precious forest. Asked whether the forest should be conserved, several villagers insisted that they could not imagine another way. “Here in our commu-

The people of Nkolenyeng, Cameroon are employing a novel model of sustainable forestry management (Estabrook/TYG). pansive area to hunt and trap animals as among the virtues of the rainforest that surrounds them. “The forest brings us many goods,” summarized Roger, the cocoa farmer, as we sat on a bench overlooking the village’s central road. “But the community does not know how to manage them well, so that the whole community will be satisfied,” he confessed. Although the payments to activity groups largely seem to have failed their purpose, the upfront investment by NGOs in agroforestry training for improved growing practices and

nity, even if the PES project doesn’t run any more, we will always conserve our forest because of the future of our children,” one woman, Fabienne, reasoned as she sliced cassava in her smoky kitchen. “They won’t have any trees if we clear the entire forest. That’s why we protect our community forest.” Elias Estabrook ’16 is a Political Science major in Pierson College. Contact him at elias.estabrook@yale.edu.

www.tyglobalist.org

10 labor

¡No Pasarán! Spanish unions in crisis

he building on Madrid’s Calle Agustin de Betancourt is massive, in an unimpressive sense. Bulky and decisively quadrangular, it looks like some sort of prison from the 1800s, as though the architects were trying to build something elegantly ministerial but only succeeded in creating an unwieldy sprawl of columns and windows. Apart from the busy traffic of the adjoining street, the building doesn’t seem to be bustling with activity either. But this sleepy giant of a building, the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, is now the locus of a national crisis. Spain’s labor unions have declined precipitously since the 2011 elections elevated the People’s Party (PP), the country’s premiere conservative party, to power. Some call this crisis progress; others believe it is the expression of right-wing policies so reactionary that they harken back to the days of Franco’s fascist Spain. Spain’s sindicatos, or labor unions, have existed since the late 19th century and have served both as organizations for workers and as political machines, negotiating as much with the government as with corporations. When the Spanish Civil War broke out in 1936, the sindicatos sided with the Republicans, fighting against a fascist military coup led by General Francisco Franco. After Franco won the war, he outlawed winter 2015, issue 2

unions, forcing them into the underground. When Franco died in 1975 and Spain transitioned into a democracy, the sindicatos emerged from secrecy and became key players in the reconstruction of the Spanish Republic. December of 1978 saw the ratification of a new, democratic constitution. Subsequent elections put the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) in power, and under their leadership the government granted enormous concessions to unions: strengthening collective bargaining, guaranteeing workers’ rights, expanding the offices and the jurisdiction of various unions, and negotiating with both sindicatos and corporations on an even playing field. This is what Concha de Sena, an administrator for Comisiones Obreras, or Worker’s Commissions, called “the good old days,” when the sindicatos effectively legislated to defend the working class’ constitutional rights. They secured guaranteed benefits for laborers, made sure that wages were fair, and ensured that negotiations would be upheld by every party involved. Yet, the “good old days” ended abruptly in 2008. The Great Recession, or La Crisis, hit Spain especially hard. La Crisis refers to political and cultural turmoil as well as financial upheaval; many believe it prompted the greatest

BY DIEGO FERNANDEZ-PAGES

changes to the Spanish government since the transition to democracy in 1978. Old factional tensions (notably in Catalonia) resurfaced, reaction against the political system brought the PP in power, and fear pervaded the national consciousness, to the point where no conversation left out the effects of La Crisis. And this is where our crisis begins—the one centered around that languishing building in the Cuatro Caminos neighborhood of Madrid, where union representatives clamor to be heard, and government bureaucrats are too busy trying to get a depressed country back on its feet to listen to them. The government does not deny that it is signing away the unions’ rights, but officials believe it necessary to retake control of the labor force to order to stimulate growth in the wake of a tumultuous recession. “Unions are partially responsible for the crisis,” said Dr. Kerstin Hamann, a political science professor at the University of Central Florida. “They collaborated with the government on the reforms that led up to it.” Now the sindicatos are no longer able to bargain collectively, and corporations have been authorized by the government to ignore union negotiations. On the other hand, the government has managed to institute new work-formation programs and widen the accessibility of

labor 11 employment services to those not affiliated to them, it is horrible. The reforms instituted by animosity grows against institutions in power, the conservative leadership have weakened the sindicatos have become a rallying point. Pounions. According to Jose-Antonio Espin-Sanchez, unions’ representation in government as well. litical movements, of which alternative parties an economics professor at Yale, “unions serve a Now, negotiations occur almost exclusively be- like Podemos has been the most notable result, positive purpose in government.” But in Spain, tween the government and the corporations in work alongside established unions to gain legitEspin-Sanchez said, the sindicatos had three question, leaving those workers represented by imacy. Hamann feels that the unions have also serious problems: first, the regulation to which unions—and the general laborers of those indus- adopted “a more visible political role.” The rise of the right has forced unions salary growth is tied to is too to emerge from their cushy rigid; second, recent corruprelationship with friendly leadtion scandals led them to ership and enter into a very lose considerable legitimacy; public battle. But, as La Crisis and third, they monopolized winds down, Hamann said, “it work-formation programs, is still hard to tell where the which alienated much of the unions are headed.” workforce. These problems That lazy, massive buildgreatly affected public perceping, lolling in the middle tions of the unions and took of Madrid, is probably not away their moral high ground. where the solutions to these Furthermore, much of problems will be found. The the problem remains in the government offices within, unions’ original structuring. filled to the brim with uncom“These are general syndicates. pleted forms and occupied by If they were based on profespeople hostile to the very idea sions or sectors, it would make Scenes from a farmers union march (this page) and labor union march of unions, are not going to a lot more sense,” explained (opposite) in Barcelona (courtesy Flickr user Evan Bench). consider an answer any time Espin-Sanchez. In generalizsoon, let alone come up with one. But that prising labor rights, he argues, the sindicatos are tries—out of the equation. There is, however, one more area in which on-like sprawl of columns and windows is not a less adept at recognizing the needs of particular professions and neglect to set wages on a unions are still thriving. The sindicatos have graveyard. Through thirty years of dictatorship basis of productivity, opting instead to protect not lost affiliates in the same way that unions and oppression, Spanish sindicatos managed all of their workers regardless of their economic in the United States, for example, have. “Many to thrive; before that, they weathered a civil war, output. “The biggest problem,” continued Es- were afraid of losing their jobs,” said de Sena. several transitions of power, and two world pin-Sanchez, “is that they aren’t looking out for “In order to try and prevent that, they joined wars. They faced the massive economic changes of the late 19th and 20th centhe unemployed.” turies, and met the 21st deterAnd yet, this is never mined to continue fighting for what they were meant to do. workers’ rights and protecting Unions, especially Spanish their livelihoods. unions, were made to repreYet, whether or not the sent those in the workforce core values of the sindicatos who are often overlooked by can remain intact amid the government and industry, crisis is unclear. Collective not those who are not in the spirits have gone down, acworkforce at all. Perhaps the cording to de Sena, as labor sindicatos overstepped their becomes more and more indimission before La Crisis, but vidualized. Unions must now La Crisis does not also have contend with people working to mean the death of labor from home, the proliferation unions as they were originally of internet employment, and conceived. the deindustrialization of the Nevertheless, the situaeconomy. Both de Sena and tion remains dire for unions. Espin-Sanchez described the “Oh, merde,” exclaimed de future of Spanish unions in abSena, exasperatedly using the French expletive. “We’re in a terrible place right unions, so affiliation has remained more or less solute terms. “They either adapt,” they said, “or they disappear.” now. The sindicatos have been completely the same even through La Crisis.” The reaction against unions has had drasstripped of power, especially now that they no Diego Fernandez-Pages ’18 is in Trumbull longer have the right of collective bargaining. tic effects on their activities. According to HaCollege. Contact him at diego.fernandezmann their “protest function has become much It’s horrible, horrible.” pages@yale.edu. And, for unions and those affiliated with more pronounced since the crisis.” As public www.tyglobalist.org

12 labor

Going the Distance

Achieving sustainability in rural Huixcazdhá, Mexico

BY ELIZABETH ZHANG

An example of an unfinished water system in Huizcazdhá (Zhang/TYG).

ittle houses sat squarely under a cloudless sky, and every sign of human habitation seemed to be shrouded by cacti. Only the rumbles of a truck punctuated the deafening quiet that characterizes a place in the middle of absolutely nowhere. This was the community of Huixcazdhá, population: 300. Located in the Mexican state of Hidalgo, this “Twilight Zone” pueblo lives in the shadows of titanic urban centers, like cosmopolitan Mexico City to the south, state capital Pachuca to the east, and economic juggernaut Queretaro to the west. The land is arid, only capable of supporting subsistence level farming. The roads, mostly unpaved except for a few patches covered with mismatched pebbles and stones, make driving a turbulent experience, inviting horses and bare feet. Houses are three room affairs made of rocks or raw cinderblock bricks with protruding PVC pipes as substitutes for formal plumbing. Dogs, chickens, and flies tend to the liquid that drips from the pipes into dirt yards. It is the only water they will see during the predominant dry season, when natural lakes shrink to puddles, and the intermittent water supply that trickles in from state pipes goes straight from faucet to mouth.

spring 2015, issue 3

“Marginalized.” The word seems to symbolize the current state of rural Mexico, where those who resist leaving for the burgeoning employment opportunities in urban centers are indiscriminately subjected to a unique brand of government apathy. Most rural community populations live on the border of state aid cutoff points, and there exists a permanent ceiling on politically-perceived “need.” Informal and seasonal employment accounts for much of the economic activity in these communities. Despite the existence of an impressive network of welfare programs and benefits, social assistance remains inadequate in these rural environments because of the Mexican government’s ineffective spending and their own inaccessible nature. As a result, everything is half done. Water systems are built, but shortages are more common than adequate supply. Clinics are constructed, but they stand empty of health professionals for all but three to four days of the year. Schools are erected but only serve up to the eighth grade. (The families of those students serious about completing a high school education must often scrape together money to send them to larger towns.) Rural communities respond to their disen-

franchisement by further reverting to traditional practices, the last available means of maintaining their loose kinship networks. This strategy has succeeded in providing local governments with some autonomy and the ability to manage community affairs. Yet, it has done little to counteract rural-urban migration. In most rural families, everyone knows a friend or a family member who has endured a treacherous journey to the United States or scraped a living in an urban Mexican slum for the shot at a better and more inclusive life. Some even return, drawn back to an idea of home and family, but discover that isolation has turned “home” into a refuge of festering conservative attitudes, particularly regarding gender inequality and infectious diseases. A potential solution to this marginalization lies in the work of small non-governmental organizations, which have stepped up to address rural communities’ unmet welfare needs. One such example is Proyecto Estela, an NGO partner of Tecnológico de Monterrey, which chiefly distributes donated books to rural communities. Proyecto-Estela also attempts to highlight the possibility of higher education for students, who, without proper encouragement, would

labor 13 otherwise drop out of middle school in order to view with the Yale School of Management. “A guel’s flagship factory headquarters. The company’s advocacy for cleaner water support their families financially as soon as pos- company is a privileged organization, providing sible. The program’s director, Alejandra Cortes, an opportunity to educate, grow, and learn by infrastructure has been crucial to the commuexplained that only by selecting communities doing. For me, a company is more than a part nity’s growth. The federal government often with the motivation to send children to school of the business system but can act as a facilitator overlooked Huixcazdhá, as it did to many other can the organization be effective; otherwise, it’s of learning and education within society.” The communities, when allocating money for comwasted effort: “Unfortunately, communities that company that he and his brothers started took munity resources, like clean water infrastructure care that deeply about literacy are rare in rural amaranth, a protein-rich grain familiar to Mex- and sewage systems. With support and input of Mexico.” Proyecto Estela likens long-term ed- ico’s pre-colonial civilizations but since long locals, San Miguel spearheaded the construcucational goals to sustainable development—a forgotten, and processed it to be consumed as tion of a well, tapping into aquifers that provide short-term investment that, while a little more a baby’s formula and cereal. The company has a valuable and renewable source of clean water. costly at first, will hopefully begin a feedback contracts with mostly state governments to San Miguel has also invested in a community loop to improve the future welfare of the com- produce dispensaries, as amaranth covers vital center where unemployed women can develop amino acid deficits inherent in the traditional crafts to then be sold in town. The idea is to munity. equalize the balance of payments; when someGovernments and NGOs often use “sustain- Mexican diet. What distinguishes the company is a pro- one from Huixcazdhá receives a paycheck, her able development” as a blanket term in development strategies, though just what sustainability gressive philosophy that, despite resistance first instinct is to spend it outside of the comis has become unclear. It started out as a cry from local governments over the years, heavily munity. By providing more people with the for environmental consciousness, a concept for influences its labor practices. A major goal of means to sell and to spend money on goods, the reforming detrimental practices that reaped San Miguel was to hire locally, as well as to community can become more self sufficient and short-term profits by means of practices that provide women with more economic power. develop from within. Should Huixcazdhá’s experience with susdismissed long-term prospects for resource per- Mexico is known for its lack of gender equality, tainable development become a vipetuity. The concept of sustainable develable model for other rural commuopment has since expanded to encompass nities, certain issues must be solved. economic and social development theoEverything is half done. Water systems Though constantly careful to take ries in order to bring together disparate cohorts, genders, or income gaps. Public are built, but shortages are more common into account public sentiment, local government leaders have seen and nonprofit entities are attracted to the than adequate supply. Clinics are their authority diminished, and they model because it represents a move away continue to push back against San from a strict regimen of free market ecoconstructed, but they stand empty of Miguel’s efforts to bring additional nomics. They support its focus on local health professionals for all but three to government projects to Huixcaself-determination as opposed to a reliance on anemic national governments. four days of the year. Schools are erected zdhá. One of Huixcazdhá’s three rotating mayors resentfully told the But private for-profit entities may offer an but only serve up to the eighth grade. Globalist that the company had unique perspective with which to turn the taken over much of the communiidea on its head. ty. That such a large percentage of San Miguel, a food-processing comwomen in a rural community acpany based in Huixcazdhá, has played an extraordinary role in implementing sustainable a problem shared among the majority of Latin tively take part in the economic life remains a development. In the 1970s, Benito de Manrique American countries. This is especially true in the point of contention, both publicly and privately. de Lara, then a young, successful doctor in cos- rural working sphere, where men act as primary “Rural agrarian societies are very conservative mopolitan Mexico City, uprooted his life and earners, working as masons, farmhands, and and slow to change,” Diego Manrique, one of medical practice to live in Huixcazdhá, seeking shop owners. Many women, given few opportu- San Miguel’s co-owners, acknowledged. “This the peace and isolation of the Mexican coun- nities to work, subject themselves to a system- is both good and bad… the social changes that tryside to meditate on the next steps of his life. atized pattern of marriage, childbearing, and have taken place due to our presence and activDespite his isolation from the world he knew, housekeeping. Although Mexican women thus ities, especially with regard to the role and posihe became fast friends with the families of Huix- have significant control over their own house- tion of women within the community, have not cazdhá, many of whom would pass by his small holds, an extraordinary national income gap always been met with immediate approval.” Many are rightfully wary of companies that residence on their way to collect water from the remains, and domestic violence against women local watering hole. Seeing the empty standing is prevalent. San Miguel has responded by both use “social responsibility” and “sustainable declinic, he soon began offering his medical exper- offering employment to both men and women velopment” projects as a mere publicity stunt. tise to treat the people of the community. In the in the community and being accommodating to Yet, San Miguel represents the opposite. Just process, he became well acquainted not only its female workers’ hectic schedules during chil- as there are businesses whose good intentions with Huixcazdhá’s public health issues but also drearing. The company enables them to work are distorted by the lure of fast profits, there are flexible hours in increasingly technical fields companies like San Miguel. its socioeconomic hardships. Dr. Manrique knew that only work and self like product development, record keeping, and sufficiency could imbue the people of Huixca- communications. As a result, some of the most Elizabeth Zhang ’16 is a Molecular Biochemiszdhá with meaning.“Work is the means to ex- technologically literate women in rural Mexico try & Biophysics major in Davenport College. Contact her at elizabeth.zhang@yale.edu. press our human potential,” he said in an inter- can be found in the small compound of San Miwww.tyglobalist.org

14 labor #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAME- CANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA The social media fight for human rights in Mexico #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO BY CAROLINE#FUEELEJERCITO KURITZKES #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA, #FUEELESTADO #FUEELEJERCITO #FUERAPEÑA #YAMECANSE #TODOSSOMOSAYOTZINAPA #AYOTZINAPA,

I’M TIRED

hile President Enrique Peña Nieto, government officials, and federal and local police wage the Drug War on Mexico’s streets, Mexican youth and digital activists are fighting a different battle online. Their weapons are not AK-47’s or Black Hawk helicopters, but Twitter handles, videos, statuses, and hashtags. What started as an outraged response to the disappearance and massacre of 43 teenage students from the Ayotzinapa teachers training college has evolved into widespread condemnation of the mass murders, kidnappings, and corruption that reign in Mexico with impunity. On September 25th, 2014, the students were abducted in the city of Iguala while on their way to solicit donations and commandeer buses for a demonstration. Operating under orders from the city mayor, local police ambushed the students and opened fire, killing three before turning over the rest to the Guerreros Unidos (United Warriors), a local drug gang. The cartel led the remaining students to a nearby garbage dump and massacred them all. Though Mexico’s attorney general alleges that the drug gang incinerated the students’ bodies and dumped their ashes in the San Juan River, an independent Argentine forensic team has not confirmed the Mexican government’s reconstruction of events. Indeed, this mistrust may be well placed, given that independent investigators and rights groups have linked the Mexican president’s administration to the atrocity; a Proceso magazine investigative report recently revealed that the federal government had been tracking the stuspring 2015, issue 3

dents since their departure and that state securi- media in broadcasting their rage is noteworthy. ty forces were present during the ambush. Hashtags such as #TodosSomosAyotzinapa The lines between state-sanctioned violence (We’re all Ayotzinapa), #Ayotzinapa, #FueEand criminal warfare in Mexico are now more lEstado (It was the state), #FueElEjercito (It blurred than ever. But this climate of brutal re- was the army), and #FueraPeña (oust Peña, pression is a routine aspect of law enforcement the President of Mexico) are cropping up on and daily life for Mexican civilians, who have Twitter accounts and sweeping Mexico in seen more than 80,000 casualties of drug-relat- fury. After Mexico’s attorney general famously ed violence since 2006, according to Human wrapped up a press conference about the missRights Watch. The disappearance of the 43 ing students with a dismissive “Ya me cansé” students is far from an isolated incident, yet the (“Enough, I’m tired”), activists rallied not only blatant inhumanity of the act and publicly recog- in the streets, but also on their phones and comnized complicity of state and local police strikes puters, cleverly appropriating the phrase with a different chord for Mexican citizens spanning a satirical #YaMeCanse that generated more the entire socioeconomic spectrum. than 4 million public mentions on Twitter in “People from all strata of society are getting the month of November. In this digital chorus, involved,” said Aileen Teague, who researches activists are claiming ownership of the right to the history of US drug policy in Mexico. Cur- be tired, frustrated, and disappointed, pointing rently based in Mexico City and observing fingers at the Mexican government’s indifferdemonstrations that happen regularly on her ence to unchecked violence, criminality, and block, she is struck corruption tainting the by the sheer size country’s political and and inclusivity of security apparatus. the protests. “There Of course, proIt was the state have been smaller testers are mobilizing incidents of drug vion the ground, too. olence that have stirred the Mexican people, but Marching, blockading highways, and setting other recent protests haven’t inspired the same fire to government buildings in Iguala are taclevel of opposition.” Unlike previous spells of tics that many activists have adopted to voice resistance in Mexico, the Ayotzinapa protests their grievances. Yet online protests are parhave spiraled into a large-scale societal conver- ticularly important in publicizing the activism sation that transcends class boundaries. occurring in the streets for a national, and even It’s no wonder that the families of the disap- global, audience. “They’ve progressed from repeared, Mexican students, activists, and teach- gional protests, to the national level, and now ers unions are up in arms, but the role of social to the international level,” explained Celeste

#FueElEstado

labor 15 activism group from the #YoSoy132 movement González de Bustamente, a professor at the ilies, said that the use of violence has become in Mexico from 2012, tweeted five photos of one University of Arizona and scholar of journalism an additional tactical divide for the protestors. of the injured students with an accompanying in Mexico. She said that parallel protest groups “Some people want to paint murals, but others “#YaMeCanse #UNAM” on November 15th. have surfaced all over the United States, such want to throw Molotov cocktails,” she claimed. González de Bustamente noted that severe vioas demonstrations at the University of Arizona, She anticipates that it will be challenging for the lence in Matamoros, a city in northeastern Mexthe University of Washington, Freedom Uni- protestors to reshape rhetoric to keep people exico, has prevented news stations from covering versity in Atlanta, and the Ayotzinapa Somos cited, frustrated, and mobilized months down day-to-day crime altogether. “The role that used Todos protest in Los Angeles, spurred in large the line. to be occupied by mainstream media is just not Teague thinks an even greater obstacle is part by the frequent online posts by Mexican being fulfilled, so now social media is playing youth that American students are accessing. that the protestors are not focused on policies that part,” she said. She attributes the lack of re@Desinformémonos, an activism group and or tangible political reform, which involve the porting to self-censorship from journalists who Mexican digital media source, posts hourly pho- nuance and complexity of targeting real local fear reprisal from drug gangs in cahoots with tos of protesters obstructing roads and painting and federal institutions. “What the protests local or state security forces. Indeed, Mexico is murals, as well as screenshots of signs publiciz- need is a leader who can marry the sadness and one of most dangerous countries in the world anger of the moment ing the times and for journalists today; according to the PEN to simple policies or locations of street American Center, more than 80 media workers new laws. Someone demonstrations. have been killed there since 2000. needs to vocalize “In Uruguay, the In this context of forced disappearances, concrete goals in musical band It was the army censorship, and human rights abuse, activists bite-size pieces that ‘The Green Devacross the board are searching for the same, uneveryone can underils’ expresses their reachable answers. Where are the 43 students stand,” she said. Sansolidarity with who disappeared this past September? Where #Ayotzinapa #YaMeCanse27” and “Preparing a tiago Aguirre, director and lawyer at Centro Pro are the 80,000 who have disappeared in the past protest in Costa Rica for the visit of #PeñaNie- de Derechos, a national Mexican human rights decade? And why are the Mexican government to #YaMeCanse25 #Ayotzinapa” are just a frac- organization, affirmed that rights groups must and local police targeting innocent civilians tion of their tweets recognizing support from devise technical approaches so that the famithrough mass murder? When I asked Saenz Ansympathizers outside of Mexico. Other group lies of the 43 can translate their grievances into dujo this last question, her response was chillactivist handles based in Mexico City, such as workable political action. “Victims of atrocities ing. “Because they can,” she told me. @elgritomas, @fightbackmexico, @poreso- are not looking for pragmatic political agendas Mexico’s attorney general may have had propongo, and @AyotzinapaFeed, are among but for demands that are not on the table,” he enough, but so have thousands who are using Twitter to bring the claimed. UltimateMexican students, youth, ly, social media disappearances to international attention. teachers, families, and Though social media has proven instru- has a publicizing communities affected by mental in relaying the concerns of activists to power for the proundisguised violence, a broader national and global audience, it has testors, but it isn’t often committed and done little to foster the organization and cohe- lending their fight Oust Peña authorized by local and sion that could propel isolated demonstrations strategic shape or state security forces with into a lasting movement. “Logistically and purpose. little to no accountability. With formal political Nonetheless, in the face of heightened cenpractically, social media spreads information channels and processes of achieving justice ultiabout where protests are located, but that’s very sorship and with prospects of retribution from mately ineffective, “Enough, I’m tired” could be different from organizing and articulating one cartels and police looming large, social media the satirical hashtag needed to draw attention voice,” Teague said. Distilling a general spirit can offer activists, bloggers, and journalists some to the violence, corruption, and government of outrage into material demands is especially degree of anonymity, though even digital proindifference largely ignored by Mexican mainchallenging for protesters who are divided into testors are not completely immune from retalistream media. Online tweets, videos, photos, multiple factions with disparate objectives. Ac- ation. With that relative facelessness comes the and statuses are far more than just tokens of a cording to Alicia Camacho, a professor of eth- capacity to publish stories and on-the-ground digital age. They are evidence that activists will nicity, race, and migration at Yale who studies experiences of local communities that would unearth silenced atrocity and pursue justice Mexico, the families and relatives of the dis- otherwise go unheard. According to Saenz Anthrough whatever recourse is available to them. appeared have the immediate goal of finding dujo, non-independent Mexican media sources The question they need to ask is whether their their loved ones and gaining closure. Teachers portray the protestors as subversives trying to many voices are drowning out a potential loudunions and professors, on the other hand, are fo- destabilize the country and rarely publish phoer one that could rework hashtags and handles cused on students’ and teachers’ rights in Mexi- tos of the demonstrations. Teague recalls that into a unified movement with lasting change. co, and a guerrilla organization is taking a stand when two student protesters from the National against the Mexican government’s military pres- Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) Caroline Kuritzkes ‘18 in Ezra Stiles College. ence. Jaqueline Saenz Andujo, a human rights were shot in mid-November, the story was unShe can be reached at caroline.kuritzkes@ coordinator at Fundar, a Mexico City-based veiled not by major Mexican news outlets, but yale.edu. non-governmental organization that advocates by Twitter activists and independent digital meon behalf of disappeared victims and their fam- dia sources like Sin Embargo. @Global132, an

#FueElEjercito

#FueraPeña

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16 labor

EXPORTING INTOLERANCE How Saudi money is promoting religious extremism by Alex Posner

NASA satellite photograph of a sand storm in Saudi Arabia (courtesy Creative Commons). spring 2015, issue 3

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n the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack in servative brand of Islam. With Saudi dollars, tures of ISIS ideology, such as its hatred of Shia France, the escalation of Boko Haram vio- Islamic leaders who support this controversial Muslims and application of strict punishments lence in Nigeria, and the challenges posed ideology have built mosques, recruited Imams, such as limb amputations, are shared with the by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the Western world and invested heavily in schools that teach Wah- purist Salafi thought that defines Saudi Wahhabism,” they noted. “ISIS has explicitly referhas rekindled the ongoing debate about the habism. roots of religious extremism. Thomas Friedman, writing in The New enced early Wahhabi teachers, such as MohamThe contours of this discourse are familiar. York Times, did not mince words. Wahhabism med ibn Abdulwahhab, to justify its destruction Yet one clear cause of Islamic terrorism has is “the most puritanical, anti-pluralistic and an- of Shia shrines and Christian churches as it cuts been glaringly absent from the public debate— ti-women version” of the Islamic faith,“ he wrote. a swath through Iraq and Syria. Thousands of the export of extremist ideology from donors “It’s a very short step from Wahhabi Islam to the Saudi nationals have been recruited to its ranks.” in the Gulf States, especially in Saudi Arabia. violent jihadism practiced by the Islamic State, This factor, perhaps as much as any other, has or ISIS.” ahhabism first emerged in 18th century opened the door for violent extremism to thrive. Others have been just as critical. from the teachings of Muhammad ibn Consider what has happened in Pakistan “There’s no question that there has been a Abd al-Wahhab, a scholar who believed Musover the last few decades. In 1980, approxi- virus that has spread throughout the Muslim lims had erred in their adherence to the faith. mately 800 madrassas, or religious schools, op- world, a virus of ultra-orthodox puritanism,” He called for a literalist interpretation of the erated within the country. Today that number explained Muslim scholar Reza Aslan in a Jan- Quran and for a renewed commitment to Islam. has surged to about 20,000. Of these, some say uary interview on Meet the Press. “There’s also He supported labeling non-Wahhabi Muslims an estimated 20 percent are teaching as apostates, or traitors of the faith, young children to hate. “Children [at and using violence to confront them. radical madrassas] are denied contact In 1744, al-Wahhab forged an al“Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the with the outside world and taught secliance with Muhammad ibn Saud, tarian extremism, hatred for non-Musthe founder of the Saud dynasty and most significant source of funding to lims, and anti-Western/anti-Pakistan the first Saudi state, the Emirate of Sunni terrorist groups worldwide […] government philosophy,” observed Diriyah. Together, they committed Bryan Hunt, the United States’ then Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial themselves to purifying Islam, purgconsul general to Lahore, in a diploing it of heretical beliefs, and spreadsupport base for al-Qaida, the Taliban matic cable published by Wikileaks in ing the doctrine of Wahhabism. This 2009. They are exposed to an ideolopartnership proved to be one for the […] and other terrorist groups.” gy that, when applied in practice, can ages. The House of Saud preserved morph into violent extremism. this politico-religious alliance with — 2009 State Department memo While only a minority of the madrasthe Wahhabi sect and, following Saureleased by Wikileaks sas preach radical ideology, the majordi Arabia’s founding in 1932, declared ity—according to State Department it the official state religion. estimates—use Saudi textbooks that often promote anti-Semitic and anti-Christian no question what the source of this virus is — espite its rise to prominence in Saudi Araperspectives. “Jews are referred to as children whether we’re talking about Boko Haram, or bia, Wahhabism initially remained on the of apes and pigs, and Christians are sometimes ISIS, or al-Qaida, or the Taliban. All of them fringes of the Arab world. Its adherents were a included in these descriptions as well,” said have as their source Wahhabism, or the state re- very small minority within the country and acHannah Rosenthal, a former State Department ligion of Saudi Arabia.” counted for only a few percentage points of the official who oversaw the Office to Monitor and Some, however, take issue with this char- global Muslim population. In fact, Wahhabism Combat Anti-Semitism. “These textbooks often acterization of Wahhabism. Frank Griffel, a would have likely remained a footnote in history encourage students to hate.” professor of Religious Studies at Yale, acknowl- were it not for one thing: oil. This metamorphosis of Pakistani schools has edged that Wahhabism is “anti-pluralistic” and Starting the 1970s, Wahhabism underwent produced an unusual phenomenon: a younger “very intolerant,” but he disputed the idea that it explosive growth. Religious leaders in Saudi generation that is more religiously radical than has greatly influenced the growth of ISIS. “ISIS Arabia, armed with virtually unlimited wealth their parents or grandparents. But this shift in has its own story which generates out of the civil from the country’s vast oil resources, initiated Pakistani religious thought actually mirrors war both in Iraq and Syria,” he said. “Although a campaign to spread Wahhabism throughout the ideological shifts occurring across the Arab there is influence in this case from Wahhabism, the Arab world. A collection of private Wahhabi world, in parts of East and West Africa, and I would say that the majority of what ISIS actu- charities—some affiliated with the religious afas far as Southeast Asia. In almost all of these ally tries to do is independent of Wahhabism.” fairs military in the government—began to form, cases, the schools and mosques fueling religious However, Bernard Haykel, a professor of building what is today a vast global network. extremism have relied on foreign funding. Near Eastern Studies at Princeton, disagrees. “Saudi Arabia exports oil and extremism, So where exactly is this money coming from? ISIS’ ideology “is a kind of untamed Wahha- roughly in equal quantity,” explained Dr. Pervez Who is driving this shift in religious thinking? bism,” he said in an article published by The Hoodbhoy, a Pakistani nuclear physicist and At the center of the story is a network of New York Times. “Wahhabism is the closest social activist who many considered Pakistan’s well-financed religious charities based in Sau- religious cognate.” leading intellectual. “Saudi money, sometimes di Arabia. Since 1979, these private charities Heba Saleh and Simeon Kerr, writing in the hidden and sometimes overt, lies behind counthave spent tens of billions of dollars funding the Financial Times, also highlighted the links be- less Islamic charities, madrassas, and jihadist spread of Wahabbism, the country’s ultra-con- tween ISIS and Wahhabism. “Some of the fea- groups active around the world.”

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18 labor This secretive transfer of wealth often occurs during the Hajj, the annual Islamic pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. As millions of Muslims congregate for five days of prayer, religious leaders from around the world use their visits to solicit funds from Wahhabi charities. They return home, as Hoodbhoy explained, with “suitcases of cash.” And while much of this money is used for purely benevolent purposes, a sizeable portion ends up financing extremist organizations. A 2009 State Department memo, made public by Wikileaks, described the Wahhabi network in the following terms: “Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide… Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaida, the Taliban…and other terrorist groups.” Over the last 30 years, these Saudi charities have spent more than $100 billion dollars facili-

tating the spread of Wahhabism. This avalanche of money has made its way into mosques and madrassas in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Somalia, and has introduced Wahhabism into regions where it did not previously exist, weakening moderate Islam in the process. Gulf funding, in other words, has helped to produce one of the most consequential religious shifts in the recent history of the Islamic world. What would have otherwise been a fringe strain of Islam has instead been thrust into the mainstream. Wahhabism has provided the framework for extremist thinking to thrive and for terrorism to spread worldwide.

hese religious shifts must be put in context. The overwhelming majority of the world’s 1.6 billion Muslim’s are obviously peaceful global citizens who sharply condemn violent extremism. Adherents of Wahhabism remain a small fraction of the total Muslim population, and

most of those who embrace Wahhabism are not violent terrorists. However, among Islamic extremists, Wahhabism—and the ideas derived from it—is frequently cited as a source of inspiration. ISIS, Al Qaeda, Boko Haram, and the Taliban all embrace aspects of Wahhabism—directly or indirectly—as part of their ideological provenance, and they recruit new members from Wahhabi-inspired mosques and madrassas. And while Islamic terrorists represent only a sliver of the Muslim population, their violent acts capture a disproportionate share of the world’s attention. When militant extremism becomes a prominent global force, political discourse and religious pluralism suffer. The religious charities in Saudi Arabia have played and continue to play a central role in exacerbating these problems. And as long as they continue to bankroll Wahhabism’s spread, the politicization of Islam and the use of violence by

Aerial view of the Prophet’s Mosque in Medina (courtesy Flickr user Masjid Mahmood). spring 2015, issue 3

labor 19 extremist groups will remain a global challenge.

he West has neglected to confront the Wahhabi-export machine, in large part due to oil. Saudi Arabia has the largest petroleum reserves in the world. It extracts more oil every day than any other country on earth, and ships a large portion of its production to the United States. While the U.S. has inched closer to energy independence, Saudi Arabia’s continued influence over oil markets has preserved America’s deference to its power. At the same time, the Saudi Arabian government is a prized customer of the U.S.’s defense industry. In 2010, Saudi Arabia announced a $60 billion arms deal with the United States that included 84 fighter jets, 132 Blackhawk helicopters, and upgrades to over 70 military planes. The largest arms sale in U.S. history, the deal benefitted manufacturers in 44 states and helped to support over 77,000 American jobs. This narrative of job growth, coupled with the lobbying power of the defense industry, has helped protect Saudi Arabia’s reputation in Washington D.C. However, the Saudi government does not depend on its oil reserves and military spending to remain in the good graces of the United States. It also oversees one of the largest lobbying apparatuses of any foreign government in the world. Saudi Arabian donors funnel money into influential nonprofit organizations, including think tanks, charitable organizations, and American universities. The Atlantic Council, the Clinton Foundation, the Middle East Policy Council, and the Middle East Institute all receive funding from Saudi Arabian donors. American academic intuitions, including the Middle East Studies Departments at Harvard, Cornell, Duke, Princeton, Berkeley, and Georgetown, have also received generous donations from Saudi benefactors; in 2005, for example, Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal gave Harvard and Georgetown $20 million apiece. Khalid Alnaji, a registered operative of the Saudi government, sits on the board of the American Petroleum Institution. And former U.S. Senator Norman Coleman, who oversees the American Action Network (an influential SuperPAC) and the Congressional Leadership Network, has signed on as a paid lobbyist of the Saudi Arabian government. This money and influence have paid enormous dividends. In 2012, for example, the U.S. State Department examined the content of Saudi Arabian textbooks and their global distribution. While the completed report praised Saudi Arabia for some modifications to their textbooks, it ultimately concluded that Saudi

Arabia had failed to rid its teaching materials of racist and religiously divisive content. When the State Department attempted to publish the report, the White House intervened, citing the delicacy of U.S.-Saudi relations. As one newspaper headline later read, “U.S. Keeps Saudi Arabia’s Worst Secret.”

he disparaging content of Saudi textbooks has been well known for years. In 2006, Freedom House, through its Center for Religious Freedom, released a highly critical report about the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia. The study, overseen by a handful of prominent scholars and policymakers—including R. James Woolsey, the former head of the Central Intelligence Agency—concluded that Saudi textbooks “propagate an ideology of hate toward the ‘unbeliever,’ which includes Christians, Jews, Shiites, Sufis, Sunni Muslims who do not follow Wahhabi doctrine, Hindus, atheists and others.” The report explained that Saudi textbooks, which are used in religious schools around the world, “promote an ideology of hatred that teaches bigotry and deplores tolerance.” “Saudi Arabia,” the report concluded, has “sowed enmity against the West.” Unfortunately, these textbooks remain in regular use by Muslim students around the world. Even ISIS, according to The New York Times, circulates Saudi textbooks in the schools it controls. Nonetheless, the United States has failed to hold the Saudi government accountable and prevent the indoctrination of these young children.

he January passing of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has nudged the country into the global spotlight and ignited a debate about U.S.-Saudi relations. Most notably, many commentators have criticized the U.S.’s praise for King Abdullah, especially considering his failure to tame Wahhabism or grant equal rights to women. In sharing his condolences, President Obama praised King Abdullah’s “perspective” and “courage of convictions.” He highlighted their “genuine and warm friendship” and the “closeness and strength of the partnership” between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia. The President even cut short a historic trip to India to fly across the world in time for King Abdullah’s funeral. Other Western leaders issued similar statements. British Prime Minister David Cameron highlighted the King’s “commitment to peace” and thanked him for “strengthening understanding between faiths.” The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey held

an essay contest to honor Abdullah and his legacy. Most dazzling of all, the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde praised the late king as “a strong advocate of women.” Considering that Saudi Arabia bans women from driving or leaving the house without a male companion, it is hard to take such a statement seriously. This is not to say King Abdullah deserves all the blame. To a large extent, he inherited a deeply entrenched system that asserts its own authority. But on the other hand, his attempts at reform were tepid and did little to dent the Wahhabi-export machine. He bowed to his country’s religious establishment and left the private charities to operate largely unchecked. In truth, the western world’s praise for King Abdullah represents the larger contradictions at play. Despite the United States’ firm commitment to battling extremism and containing terrorist threats, it has neglected to confront one of the clearest causes of these problems. Despite its losses from 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US has ignored the facts and failed to address the problem of extremist charities in Saudi Arabia and the funds they distribute around the world.

ltimately, the issue of combatting violent extremism is highly complex. Widespread poverty, weak political institutions, and the scars of American military action all contribute—in varying degrees—to extremism in the Arab world and elsewhere. But, at the same time, there are obvious steps we can take to combat violent extremism. One step is to challenge the spread of Wahhabism, financed by Saudi Arabian charities, which contributes to the radicalization of young Muslims. To say with certainty what taming the Wahhabi-export machine would do is near impossible, but consider the possibilities: Muslim extremists, deprived of their ideological core, might fall increasingly out of favor and struggle to recruit new members. The U.S., facing a diminished terrorist threat, might be able to scale back its military operations. And the West’s often-misguided perception of Islam might slowly fade, opening the door to a new era of religious pluralism. This is the world we can live in if the international community is willing to confront the Wahhabi-funding network. If political leaders can close the spigot of money from the Gulf— particularly from Saudi Arabia, we can help bring an end to the post-9/11 chapter and open the way for a new, more hopeful future. Alex Posner ‘18 is in Morse College. Contact him at alexander.posner@yale.edu. www.tyglobalist.org

WHEN

WINTER COMES

NOMADIC HERDING in the MONGOLIAN STEPPE article & photos by Kelsey Larson

n Mongolia, the most sacred color is blue, the shade of the endless sky. Blue flags flutter on the fences of shrines to Genghis Khan, mark the sacred rock cairns that dot the Gobi desert, and are draped upon the necks of prized mares and cows. The sky is sacred to Mongolians, and for good reason: for the Mongolian herder, the whims of the weather deter-

mine their prosperity. When I asked my host father, Dugarsuren—a herder whose family shrine holds a plethora of racing medals—about the winter, his normal grin vanished. “The winter is always very hard,” he told me. “Only the best herders can make it through when the winter is very bad.” Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia’s capital, and home to half of the nation’s popu-

Cattle browse at the edge of a pasture showing signs of overgrazing, an increasing problem on the Mongolian steppe. Above: Dugarsuren, an experienced Mongolian herder, uses a spyglass to find where his animals have roamed on the fenceless pastureland. Right: An early October snowstorm dusts a building at the edge of a Buddhist monastery with a layer of white.

lation, is the coldest capital city in the world. Winter temperatures can plunge to -40°F, and most of the arid country gets between one and eight inches of precipitation a year. As I crossed the Mongolian countryside this November, the cold snaked into my lungs as soon as I took my first breath outside the warmth of the yurt, sharp crystals biting in my chest.

labor 21 Despite the harshness of the climate, Mon- (IBLI). In designing an insurance program for a researcher, it took me only fifteen minutes in golian herders have survived and thrived for herders, the Mongolian government had to take one of the newly established State Statistical thousands of years. The combination of long into account the extremely low population den- Centers to get data on livestock population, huwinters and little rain leave Mongolia with only sity of the Mongolian countryside, which would man population, and livestock mortality broken a thin layer of topsoil and an extremely short make it impossible for insurance salespeople to down by county over the last ten years. With growing season. To make the most of Mongo- calculate specific premiums for each herder and this detailed information made easily available, lia’s sparse grass, the herders raise shaggy, hardy to verify individual losses. Instead, IBLI bases insurance companies feel a level of comfort with breeds of sheep, goats, horses, cows, and yaks. its payments on overall mortality of a livestock working in the Mongolian context that they Dwelling in felt tents called gers, Mongolian species within a soum, an administrative unit never have before. herders live a nomadic lifestyle, typically moving similar to a county. So if 15 percent of a soum’s four to twelve times a year in pursuit of the best goats died in a given winter, a herder in that fter selling the insurance scheme to the grass. But still, a winter with too much snow, soum who bought insurance to cover 100 goats companies, Mongolia has faced the far too little snow, too much cold, or ice-creating would receive a cash payment equivalent to 15 more difficult task of selling the insurance alternations of cold and warmth can confound goats, regardless of how many of their herd had scheme to the actual herders. The manager of the herders’ preparations, killing a large share died. the Bayanhongor province’s IBLI program, of Mongolia’s animals in a natural who asked that I not use his name, disaster called a dzud. explained to me that when they first Blue prayer flags flutter at Gingerly sipping mugs of ferestablished the program in 2006, the entrance of a shrine to mented mare’s milk and hot yak milk “we had to teach all of the herders Chinggis Khan. tea around the stoves of herder houseabout the insurance. We hired two holds, I asked my hosts about the insurance representatives in every challenges of dzuds. Some herders soum, and in the summer, they went told me about the help their families to every household to explain to gave them in moving their animals them individually what the insurance or sending money from the cities to was.” As more than half an hour of help rebuild herds, a traditional extravel can pass from one household tension of kinship networks. Some to the next, this is no small task. told me about the hundred-kilomeThe outreach has made an impact: ter rides to better pastures on which some 95 percent of the herders that they had gambled their family’s liveliI interviewed listed the insurance hoods. Most spoke with pride of the representatives as their main source dried dung and wood they had piled of information about the program. for fuel, the shelters they had made. Most were already familiar with the But in the worst years, when dzuds program and how it had worked, swept the countryside, “No one can especially those in the area that had help,” one herding grandmother been part of the initial pilot in 2006. said. “You help if you can, but if you While the concept of formal inhelp too much, your animals will die surance was new to herders, famiinstead.” lies like my hosts’ already had their In the worst years, when dzuds swept the Two atrocious dzuds in 2000 and own structures for risk management countryside, “No one can help,” one herding 2001 pushed the lives of many herdin place. Herders place the bulk of grandmother said. “You help if you can, but if you ers out of this subsistence balance. In their trust in friends and family. My help too much, your animals will die instead.” those two years, one third of Moncountryside host mother made a dozgolia’s livestock died. “It is the most en calls a day, chatting and laughing challenging thing, a winter like that,” while holding the cell phone up in the my 41-year old host father told me, “so many peoThis program design helped create a nation- corner of the ger she swore got the best recepple lost their animals.” Faced with widespread wide insurance market for the first time in Mon- tion. “I call my daughter, my sisters, and we talk devastation, the Mongolian government and in- golia. T. Oyunbat, a World Bank risk assess- about the weather and the animals and how we ternational organizations struggled to provide ment official working on the project, explained are doing,” she explained on tiptoes. Even when emergency relief services to rural families. Some to me over a couple mugs of tea in a trendy everyone is doing well, herders freely send gifts herders, especially the rookies who had only Ulaanbaatar cafe: “We increased insurance of livestock or money to family and friends. In a picked up herding after the end of the Soviet awareness overall across the country because typical exchange, my middle-class Ulaanbaatar Union, lost their entire herds and were forced to before the program started, all the insurance host family kept a couple butchered sheep that move to the capital and settle in the slums sur- market was concentrated only in the city. Most had been gifts from their country relatives in a rounding Ulaanbaatar, where cheap Russian of the insurance companies didn’t have a single freezer, and they regularly sent those same relvodka was easy to find—but jobs still were not. branch.” Beyond providing funding and a finan- atives gifts of money and clothes. This network That search for a way to protect herders’ live- cially viable model for the companies to expand, of gifts flowing between country and city somelihoods led to the establishment of a nationwide the Mongolian government improved informa- times allows for unequal exchanges. In the dzud program called index-based livestock insurance tion systems for tracking livestock numbers. As of 2009, for instance, my host father sent to his

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22 labor hard-hit cousin enough money to buy a couple of cows to replace his losses. Rural people also support one another, which has perhaps an even larger effect upon winter preparations. Herders help watch one another’s livestock, help each other move between campsites, and sometimes even collectively pool their animals so that they are able to send the long-legged animals like cows and horses to one wintering place while keeping the short-legged goats and sheep closer by. These traditional techniques bolster herders through many tough years, but the well runs dry if the winter gets particularly harsh. In years like 2009, when record snows and low temperatures wiped out 20 percent of Mongolian livestock, families were too overwhelmed to help one another out in a significant fashion. “I was too sick to look after the animals properly,” one elderly herder explained to me. “My son couldn’t do it alone, so we lost most of the sheep because there was no one to look after them.” Some 90 percent of the herders I interviewed said that the winter had a severely negative impact on their quality of life in the next year. This particular winter also proved to be the first test for the new insurance program. For the government, it was an overwhelming success. “With the insurance, all the big players knew what their job was when the dzud hit,” Oyunbat, the World Bank specialist, explained. “We gave

out the insurance funds, got some help out that way, so the government could focus aid on people who needed it.” With private insurance supporting herders in part, the government could more easily buy adequate food and fodder aid. In areas where the program was in place during the dzud, subscription rates rose drastically in the following years, jumping from 21 percent to 35 percent of herders in one province. “Herders were skeptical about the program before then,” the program coordinator for Bayanhongor province said, “but when we gave the payouts, they realized ‘oh wow, this is something that can really help.’” Especially among rich herders, buying insurance became a useful extra way to balance their risk. But for the poor herders hovering around the 200-animal subsistence level, the program provides the least support. One elderly woman, whose son was out watching their small number of yaks and goats, said that “the insurance is not good because you do not get money sometimes, when you lose only a few animals. I lose animals to wolves, and the insurance doesn’t pay me anything.” For herders with little cash income, the payments on insurance can seem like an uncertain gamble that might or might not give them money back when they need it. When the dzud hit, these herders got relief primarily from the government, which offered a restocking program that lent farmers pregnant cows and sheep

to be paid back in kind three years later.

y November, the Mongolian landscape had turned the brown of dried grass. Even the pine trees had yellowed and lost their needles. The deep freeze of winter had already begun to settle the land into silence. Here, the risks of nature’s wrath are too great for any one family to shoulder without help, and the dangers are only growing as global warming makes Mongolia’s weather even more volatile. Creating insurance is a step in the right direction, but it will not be enough on its own for Mongolian herding to survive. As my host father stopped at his brother’s ger to pick up a goat that would be part of the winter slaughter, I looked across the still and endless landscape overarched by the blue sky. No sign of humanity existed aside from the tire tracks that exposed a duller grey of dust among the brown, paths marking the routes nomads had crossed to see family, sell animals, or move herds towards better weather. In the vast openness of the steppe, it is easy to find a space to be alone, but it is nearly impossible to live alone. Kelsey Larson ’16 is an Economics major in Silliman College. Contact her at kelsey.larson@yale.edu.

Goats, a staple food and profitable source of cashmere for Mongolian herders, graze on fresh pasture on the steppe.

labor 23

In Search of Security The evolution of Colombia’s trade unions

BY JIAHUI HU A Colombian cocoa farmer (courtesy Creative Commons).

olombia’s 2011 Citizen Security Law has done little for citizen security, and workers have been the hardest hit. Under the new legislation, police action against existing labor unions not only intensified, but also spread to grassroots labor organizations. Law enforcement officials have begun jailing even members of La Asociación Nacional de Usuarios Campesinos (ANUC), a coalition of Colombian peasant farmers. Under previous legislation, ANUC would not have even been considered a labor union. Yet clauses in the Citizen Security Law now permit severe police action against not only those organizations that bargain for higher pay for specific employees but also those that attempt to protect their minimal collective rights. “Under the paradigm of citizen security, police now have the power to prosecute other social grassroots-led organizations that might be characterized as labor unions, but not under old labor laws,” Michael Reed Hurtado, a senior lecturer in Latin American Studies at Yale University, said. Supported by President Juan Manuel Santos and approved by the Colombian Senate, the bill represents the latest in a long-string of anti-union legislation passed by the Colombian government. With citizens scarred by decades of attacks from right-wing paramilitary groups and left-wing guerrillas struggling for power, the bill’s initial sponsors might have had noble intentions: to promote peace by suppressing group violence. However, the bill aims to achieve such ends by making even the smallest symptom of an uprising or protest illegal, banning the very means by which people can express their dissatisfaction with and disenfranchisement by the status quo. According to one clause in the bill, anyone commits any act of violence against a public servant can be sentenced to as many as eight years in

prison. (There are a staggering 111 articles in total.) In other words, any group, no matter their intention, that bars a road so that a government official cannot pass, or any person who resists a police order to stop protesting, may face years behind bars. Although the Citizen Security Law is only the largest major setback in workers’ struggle for core labor rights, it is indicative of a larger and more problematic anti-union culture that exists within the Colombian government. Since the end of the 1980s, the government has passed legislation either explicitly or implicitly discouraging union membership. Beginning in the 1960s, the Colombian government has been fighting to push back leftwing guerrilla groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the right-wing paramilitary groups formed to counter the leftist groups. After almost three decades of civil conflict, the government made a push at the beginning of the 1990s to weaken labor unions because of their leftist character. Law 50 of 1990 was the first prominent legislative blow to labor unions. The legislation sought to reduce unemployment by giving business owners greater freedom in determining workers’ salaries, responsibilities and terminations. Five years later, a protest by Telecóm employees led to the explicit criminalization of social protest. Further discouraging the growth of labor unions, the Colombian government has supported collective pacts, a practice whereby businesses break up unions by only complying with union demands for workers who agree to leave the union. Although collective pacts were outlawed under a free trade agreement with Great Britain, that stipulation has not been enforced, according to research by Justice For Colombia, a British advocacy group, in the summer of 2014. Lastly, the Colombian government has

both directly carried out and condoned the murder of thousands of union leaders. Since the 1980s, there have been more union-related deaths in Colombia than in any other country. The government has launched investigations into less than a quarter of the murders and less than one percent of all threats directed against union members. Labor rights researchers often suspect that state officials themselves have been directly involved in these killings. “There is a history of repression in Colombia,” Hurtado said. He noted that, due to the culture of trade unions, labor leaders were prone to be outspoken and would often denounce government corruption. “Unions used to be important. However, they were associated with the left, and union leaders became targeted for non-union reasons, both personal and political.” Since the 1980s, Colombian union membership has dwindled from around 10 percent of the working population to less than 4 percent. Yet, Hasan Dodwell, a lawyer with Justice for Colombia, still finds reason to hope. Dodwell cites recent peace negotiations with the FARC as a sign that the government is moving to become more inclusive and allow for a greater range of political dissent. However, he acknowledges that the government’s anti-union practices have become the norm and that there is no reason to become too hopeful before the government makes concrete steps to support unions, such as by ending the culture of impunity surrounding union attacks. “Trade unions are representative of a wider phenomenon experienced by anyone who has faced murder by the Colombian government,” Dodwell said. “Social activists—whether trade unionists or not—have been targeted.” Jiahui Hu ’18 is in Pierson College. Contact her at jiahui.hu@yale.edu.

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(Courtesy Creative Commons).

n 1980, Wasal Khan, a brick kiln worker from Sirhind, a city in India’s northwestern state of Punjab, came to the capital city of New Delhi, driven by desperation and fear. His family members had been serving as bonded laborers in a brick kiln for 20 years in order to repay a debt owed to the kiln owner, who now threatened to sell Khan’s adolescent daughter to a brothel. Exploited by his employer and ignored by the authorities, he chanced across the newsletter of an organization working for the socially marginalized and somehow managed to locate their office. Khan found an unexpected source of help in an electrical engineer-turned journalist and human rights activist, Kailash Satyarthi, and his team of like-minded activists at Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), or Save the Children

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Mission. Soon after, Satyarthi the engineer and his team of like-minded activists rescued 34 brick kiln workers and the Khan’s 15-year old daughter, Sabo. This episode laid the foundations of the India’s largest grassroots movement against child labor and trafficking. Today, Satyarthi is a world renowned voice against the exploitation of children, making headlines in 2014 when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai. Aside from BBA, Satyarthi has pioneered several of India’s leading movements against child labor, including the Global March against Child Labor and the South Asian Coalition on Child Servitude, a network of 750 civil society organizations. Most recently, Satyarthi submitted a petition to the United Nations requesting the abolition of child labor

to be included as a development agenda in the post-2015 global Sustainable Development Goals. Some 550,000 people across the world have already signed the petition. BBA’s New Delhi office had clearly greeted the news of the Nobel Peace Prize with celebration. As I waited at the reception to meet with BBA activists in January 2015, several journalists and fellow activists came and left, offering their congratulations or wanting to meet with Satyarthi and the BBA’s employees. A blackboard behind the front desk reported the number of child laborers BBA had rescued to date: 83,758 as of January 8, 2015. A picture of a smiling young girl on the wall aptly summarized BBA’s key mission: from exploitation to education. But the journey from exploitation to education has been long and arduous, and it is far

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Chhoti si Asha

A small dream for India’s children BY RHEA KUMAR

from over. BBA’s efforts have led to several significant policy changes, including India’s signing of the International Labor Organization (ILO)’s Convention 182 on the “Worst Forms of Child Labor” and the passage of the 2012 Law for Abolition of Child Labor. But as Dhananjay Tingal, the executive director of BBA, pointed out to me, poor implementation of these policies prevents child labor from being eradicated completely, both in India and in other parts of the world. “The government guarantees compensation to trafficked children or child laborers and their families under various schemes and policies, and all of these are very strong,” Tingal said. “However, the families need [to receive] release certificates to avail [themselves] of these benefits and are unable to get these from the public authorities.”

Child labor activists are hopeful that BBA’s Nobel Peace Prize will lead to a renewed discussion and initiative among all sections of Indian society to ultimately end child labor. “It is extremely overwhelming—the BBA receives dozens of calls every day from common people, asking us what they can do about child labor,” a female activist working in victim assistance, who wished to remain anonymous, told me. “While everyone cannot dedicate their lives to ending child labor, at the very least they could boycott those places and goods that employ child labor.” Her statement carries weight. As I sipped a cup of piping hot masala chai, the characteristic Indian tea, I could see BBA activists busy at work on the lower level of the office. I thought of the number of times I have seen young children working at roadside tea stalls across India, seemingly content and happy with their lives. Several industries such as carpet-making, fire-cracker manufacturing, marble inlay work, filigree metal work, and many others are particularly notorious for using child labor as the children’s small thin hands are better suited for the fine motor skills required by these processes. Since children generally accept lower wages than adult laborers, it is also cost-effective for many firms to employ child laborers. The employed children are often unaware that they are victims of physical and mental abuse, denied access to opportunities that other children take for granted. Even today, India has about 60 million child laborers waiting to be rescued. Civil society organizations are doing all they can to stop child labor, but they cannot do it alone. Effective implementation of their programs and policy suggestions requires a concerted effort by all stakeholders in society: the police, local authorities, the source communities of child and bonded labor, as well as common citizens. In India and other nearby developing countries, child labor was not considered a pertinent issue until thirty years ago. Even today, the constant refrain heard from a large part of India’s population is that children have no option but to work to financially support their impoverished families. Unfortunately, such people fail to recognize that the effects of child labor encompass all of society. A study conducted by Sathyarthi and BBA titled “Capital Corruption” estimates that the amount of illegal money generated by Indian firms employing child laborers could be as high as $20,000 million every year. The income earned by child laborers thus represents a huge leakage from the nation’s economy, also impacting adult employment and income generation.

Societal attitudes towards child labor have ensured its perpetuation. The affected children have been conditioned into believing their work is a perfectly normal obligation to their families and employers. BBA rescues a large number of such children every day and takes some of them to its rehabilitation centers in Delhi and Rajasthan, as well as to rescue homes run by other organizations. But the response from these children is often negative. Some beg to be sent back. As the same female activist put it, “Many of them view their employer as their guru, their master, and what he says or does is sacrosanct. It takes intensive counseling to help them realize the exploitation they have been subject to.” Child labor also has strong links to child trafficking. As a study conducted by BBA on missing children in India shows, large swathes of children—up to 60,000 a year—“disappear” from rural areas to become bonded or trafficked labor. The “traffickers” are usually known and trusted people in the village who have lent money to the families of trafficked children. Often, they lure the families into sending their children to work in the city to repay this debt. The traffickers rarely meet their promises. “The parents send their children to work, trusting the lender’s words that the children will return within a year’s time,” explained the female activist. “Meanwhile, in the cities where these migrant laborers work, their employers tell them that they have sent their salaries back home through money orders. The money never reaches these families, and parents have no way of locating their children,” she added. Child labor is a complex issue involving multiple stakeholders, and any strategy to address it will have to be multi-pronged, simultaneously targeting civil society, the affected communities and children and the traffickers themselves. BBA has used a number of innovative strategies to increase awareness and involve civilians in programs to end child labor, including the Rugmark program and the Bal Mitra Gram, or Child Friendly Village, scheme. Initiated by Satyarthi, the Rugmark program involved labeling child-labor free carpets with a mark of certification and culminated in the formation of an international movement called GoodWeave. Bal Mitra Gram, or BMG is a more recent initiative, under which BBA activists identify school dropouts and potential child laborers and counsel their families intensively to ensure that these children return to regular schooling. Thereafter, the activists facilitate the election of a Bal Panchayat, or student body, www.tyglobalist.org

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(Courtesy Creative Commons). giving children a platform to discuss their rights and problems. A project officer, who also wished to remain anonymous, working on the scheme enthusiastically, told me how such student bodies have brought about positive changes in their villages, strengthening law and order around the school compounds, rebuilding roads in the school area and providing necessary supplies for the schools’ midday meal programs. Thus not only does BMG enable children to go back to school, but it also empowers them to demand a better learning environment. The model has been introduced in several states across India, as well as replicated in some African countries. The Bal Panchayats generate ripple effects and allow the model to spread: once people see the benefits of education over labor, they begin enrolling their children in schools. In the past decade, two formal policy changes have further provided an impetus to India’s battle against child labor. The Right to Education Act, enacted by the Indian parliament in 2009, guarantees free and compulsory education to every Indian child aged between 6 and 14 years. One of its clauses allows children to be admitted in school at any time of the year, whereas earlier they could only start school at the beginning of the year. According to BBA activists, the clause has simplified the re-enrollment of children into schools. Bhavana Kumar, who served as a consultant on child labor and education for the National Commission on Child Rights, feels that a reformed and more accessible educational system is no doubt critical to eradicating child labor. “Child labor and better education cannot be seen in isolation; there needs to be better co-ordination among the labor, child spring 2015, issue 3

welfare and education ministries to attack this problem,” she said. The second policy change happened in 2013 when India’s Supreme Court directed police officials to properly record and rescue missing trafficked children. Yet a conversation with BBA’s victim assistance division reveals that the police force is still unprepared to be the first point of contact of rescued children. The experience of civil society organizations with the police has shown that the police force has often been dismissive of child labor as an issue, saying that it has happened with parental consent. “According to standard procedures and laws, the BBA needs police presence and co-operation to conduct its raids on factories employing child labor,” the female activist added. “There have been many times when our workers arrive at the factory site in the morning, and the police don’t show up until the afternoon. By this time, the employers are able to get news of an upcoming raid and have already escaped.” The police training and sensitivity programs that BBA has engaged in have resulted in a commitment from the Delhi police to rescue 500 child laborers every month. The state of Rajasthan is already independently carrying out raids and rescue operations, determined to become a “child labor free” state. “Not only do the laws have to be enforced better, the punishment and penalties against those who flout these laws, be it middlemen or police authorities, need to be much stricter,” Kumar asserted. BBA and the government have made several breakthroughs necessary to end child labor. Yet for the journey from exploitation to education to be fully complete, everyone needs to be on board. “BBA is primarily a rights-based [organization] rather than a service delivery organiza-

tion,” Tingal, BBA’s executive director, emphasized. “We provide limited services to victims through our rehabilitation centers, but most of our work focuses on creating an environment where children are secure and enjoy their rights without our intervention.” Another team member envisaged BBA’s role as that of a facilitator, one “who provides the necessary push or impetus to government authorities, particularly the police, to rescue people from child labor. But it is primarily the government’s responsibility to protect the rights of the nation’s children.” Many people continue to live the experiences of Wasal Khan, the brick kiln worker whose daughter was rescued from a life of forced prostitution by Kailash Satyarthi and Bachpan Bachao Andolan. But increasingly, the work of such human rights activists has inspired other individuals to play their own part in the movement. Take Razia Sultan, an inhabitant of Meerut, a city in Uttar Pradesh, who worked as a child laborer in football stitching. When her village was transformed into a Bal Mitra Gram, she helped bring 75 children in the village to school through her work with the Bal Panchayat. She also initiated a campaign against schools that charged tuition fees. She was rewarded for her efforts in 2013 as the first recipient of the Malala Peace Prize. BBA has achieved much over thirty years, but perhaps its most commendable success is this: giving India’s child laborers the power to dream and have these dreams realized. Rhea Kumar ’18 is a prospective Economics major in Branford College. She can be reached at rhea.kumar@yale.edu.

DIVIDED THEY STAND

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The state of Russia’s “Solidarity” by Elizabeth Miles

“I

n 2010, we had only seven political parties,” explains Sergei Davidis. “It was one of the reasons why people came to protest in December of 2011. They began [to understand] that they have no choice.” A lawyer and sociologist, Davidis first organized protests in Moscow during the pro-democracy movements of the late 80s and early 90s. Today, he advocates for freedom of assembly and the human rights of political prisoners. “I left Russia in the summer of 2012, when the police opened a case on me and started looking,” recalls Pável Elizárov, a participant in the Bolotnaya Square protests of May 2012. After receiving political asylum, Elizárov moved to Lisbon, Portugal, where he works as a programmer in an investment bank. “It is not possible to achieve results through formal procedures,” says Ruslan Rudenko. Only 23 years old, Rudenko has already cycled through two parties, becoming a regional council member in Krasnoyarsk, the third largest city in Siberia—and resigning days before being interviewed, feeling powerless because his party has yet to be allowed registration by the Kremlin. All three have one thing in common: their involvement in Solidarnost, a political group whose name translates to “Solidarity.” Solidarity was founded in 2008 by a coalition of politicians, left-wing activists, and human rights organizers, wary of President Vladimir Putin’s decades in power. On VKontakte, Europe’s most popular social network among Russian-speakers, Solidarity has 4,573 members, discussing a charity event for political prisoners, a “Crisis” march on March 1st, and video clips on “Putin’s Economic Failure.” Solidarity has never been an officially regis-

On June 12, 2012, anti-government protestors in Moscow demonstrated in opposition to Vladimir Putin and his government (courtesy Flickr user Evgeniy Isaev). tered political party; instead, it labels itself as a “United Democratic Movement.” Rudenko attributes this name to a desire for operational freedom from bureaucracy and a local focus on street events and education. Denis Bilunov, leader of the Moscow branch since 2011, wrote, “Solidarity is an organization not so much of leaders as it is one of citizen activists. Joining Solidarnost is primarily an ideological self-identification.” He considers the modern Russian to be an extreme individualist, disenchanted with group loyalties. Yet Solidarity exists, unofficially, by drawing together those dissatisfied individuals. It operates throughout the entire Russian Federation, organized into regional offices that employ non-violent methods, including organizing rallies, picketing, and printing books, to advocate for political change. “We demand the resignation of Putin as president of the Russian Federation,” Solidarity’s Facebook description reads. “We are for the real fight against corruption… accountability to the people, for fair and free elections... We demand the immediate release of political prisoners and an end to harassment of citizens.” After 2008, Solidarity emerged as the main organization of democratic opposition, and its protests drew large crowds. Support for Solidarity reached its zenith in 2011, amidst a national wave of anti-government protest. Elizárov described the protests against alleged election fraud on December 5, 2011, which sparked a wave of activity leading into 2012, as a “landmark for Solidarnost.” On that day, Elizárov was arrested alongside Alexey Navalny, a prominent opposition activist. Navalny is now under house arrest, after nearly winning the mayorship of Moscow in September of 2013 on an anti-Putin

platform. But reform has led to a burst of competing anti-Putin groups. “Before, people who wanted to organize a political party had to have 45,000 members in 43 regions,” said Davidis. “It was impossible to achieve.” A 2012 reform package amended the rule to only 500 members, leading to the emergence dozens of political parties. Rudenko believes that “now, in the oppositional movement, it’s all about Navalny and the Progress party.” Elizárov, though far removed from local protests, helped to organize the officially registered Republican Party of Russia—People’s Freedom Party, as he felt that to participate in elections, he needed a more formal organization. Davidis is now more active within the 5th of December party, named for the landmark protest. Though all three maintain links to Solidarity, Davidis believes it has faded as “the state slightly gave up.” Davidis found that many new activists, stirred by the protests of 2011, did not want to join the old opposition groups. Yet Solidarity remains influential as a coordinator of activity between different parties, as their leaders, veterans of dissent movements, have stayed involved. Solidarity also remains an ideological call to occasional action for the casual street picketer on VKontakte. Solidarnost has never claimed to be a party, with a platform and candidates. It’s more of a Choose Your Own Anti-Putin Adventure kind of thing. Elizabeth Miles ’17 is a History major in Jonathan Edwards College. She can be reached at elizabeth.a.miles@yale.edu.

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Children of the Sun Treading the line between tradition and deception on the floating isles of the Uru people BY MICAELA BULLARD

n ancient Inca legend has it that Andean civilization was born from a lake. Soon after the creation of the world, humanity existed in a state of savage darkness. Without religion, law, or agriculture, the earliest peoples were condemned to nakedness and hunger. But the benevolent Inti, god of the sun, took pity on mankind. He sent his son, Manco Cรกpac, and his daughter, Mama Ocllo, to establish a great empire. Bearing the gifts of agriculture and textile weaving, the children of the sun walked out of the frigid waters of Lake Titicaca and shone light onto the world. spring 2015, issue 3

Visiting the Titicaca, it is easy to understand why the Incas, as well as many Andean cultures before them, thought of the lake as a supernatural basin of creation. Cutting through the border between Peru and Bolivia on the Andean Plateau, the Titicaca covers more than 3000 square miles, and draws water from a catchment area almost seven times as large. With a surface elevation of 12, 500 feet above sea level, it holds the record for the highest navigable lake on the planet. Although the Titicaca seems massive in numbers, it is even mightier in presence. When one sails on it, the light line of the snowcapped horizon can sometimes disappear, giving one

the impression of coursing through a quiet sea. On windy days, waves high enough to overturn a mid-sized boat cut through the surface. In the shallower areas, reeds grow in thickets so large that inexperienced fishermen have been known to lose their way and disappear, swallowed forever by the waters. It is unsurprising that this womb of Inca culture, with its millenary heritage and breathtaking landscapes, attracts a growing number of visitors every year. According to the Peruvian Ministry of Foreign Commerce and Tourism, 144,000 tourists visited the lake in 2014. Their presence is kindling contrasting views at one

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of the lake’s most magnificent attractions: the floating islands of the Uros. Long before Mánco Capac and Mama Ocllo surged from its depths to forge the Inca civilization, Lake Titicaca had already became the home of the Uru people. Their name, bestowed upon them by the shore-dwelling populations, is an ancient Aymara word meaning “black-blooded,” in recognition of their ability to withstand the cold. The name they chose for themselves, however, was “Lupihaques,” the sons of the sun. Two millennia ago, conflict drove the Uros to abandon the waterfront of Titicaca. They then chose to dwell within the lake, in groups of

floating islands that they built themselves. Their descendants, today numbering about 2000 in Peru, live on 42 islands that are perhaps one of the most outstanding examples of ancient human innovation still in existence. The isles are built entirely out of reeds that the locals call totora. Constructing an island takes at least a year, employing a methodology that has been passed from generation to generation. The base of the island is made out of large blocks of totora roots, which are cut from massive conglomerations of dirt and organic material that float onto the surface of the lake during the dry season. The blocks are hauled to a chosen location, staked, and then tied together to form a single unit, since the gradual rotting of the roots releases gases that make the isle buoyant. Finally, several feet of cut reeds are piled on top in a crisscross pattern. Up to ten families can then build not only their homes but also watchtowers, fish-breeding ponds, decks, kitchens, and even outhouses where human waste is filtered naturally by the reed roots. As long as new layers of totora are added continuously, an island can last up to 30 years before the roots at the base rot completely, sinking slowly down into the water from which they initially rose. A curious dichotomy has made the islands so popular as a tourist destination. They are ecological and sustainable, absolutely natural, yet completely man-made. Promoters market the floating islands as a unique way to experience life in pre-Inca times, just an hour away from the luxury hotels of Titicaca’s shores. The Uros became an ancient oddity; seemingly the idyllic survivors of the wave of globalization, and human lifestyle was reduced to the simple act of survival amongst the reeds. Yet this contrast is not always positive: it has led the children of the sun to turn their lives into an act. Engulfed in a wave of newfound popularity, the Uros are treading the delicate line between the comforts of technology and the profitable allure of ancient tradition. Ivan Lujano, president of the island Suma Kurmi, which is Aymara for “beautiful rainbow”, balances the two every day. Like most Uros, Ivan is taller and darker than the average inhabitant of Titicaca’s waterfront. He has wide shoulders and rough hands, testaments to a lifetime of weaving tough stems of totora into vessels large enough to carry 30 people. The craft was taught to him by his grandfather, a man Ivan claims is legendary amongst the Uros for having helped to build the Kon-Tiki, the raft used by Norwegian explorer Thor Heyerdahl to cross the Pacific ocean. Ivan recalls how his grandfather’s entire childhood was spent on a floating isle. The first time he set foot on the mainland, at the age of 12, “he was nau-

seous and confused”, struck by a strange form of reverse seasickness. Yet in spite of Ivan’s pride, the gap between his generation and that of his grandfather continues to grow. When asked, local tour guides will reluctantly admit that only 30 to 40 percent of the Uros continue to follow in the ways of their ancestors. Deviating from ancient customs is greatly improving the Uros’ quality of life. A government donation of solar panels in 1995 means that every island has access to electricity and even cable TV. The biggest isle contains an FM radio station that broadcasts folkloric music and public service announcements. There is also a floating primary school, though, as children must travel to the mainland to go to high school, most do not get past the fifth grade. The boat-weavers of the Uros have started lacing hundreds of plastic bottles within the interior frames of their vessels, allowing for more stable and long-lasting rafts. The introduction of electric saws to the process of island-building has considerably shortened the time and reduced the labor needed to prepare the floating surface. Even ecological changes to the wildlife of the lake that have been largely criticized by environmentalists are benefiting the Uros. The Canadian rainbow trout and Argentinian kingfish were introduced to Lake Titicaca in the thirties because they were more economically viable than the native species. These larger, more aggressive fish have led to a massive decline in the populations of endemic species like the carachi, a colorful killfish, and the mauri, a dotted catfish. Nevertheless, the change has allowed the Uros to breed and capture higher quality catch. “The native species,” remarks Ivan, “are smaller, with spikes like needles—very difficult to eat.” The Uros’ embrace of the Age of Technology has one major drawback: it is not particularly pleasing to the whims of the thousands of tourists who are the islands’ greatest source of income, and who expect to find a mystical show of pre-Incan frugality on the shallows of the Titicaca. So when the Uros present their lifestyle to visitors, they play a delicate game of concealment. At the island of Suma Kurmi, the job falls on Ivan. He gives his presentations in the middle of a circle surrounded by a low bench of woven totora, where the tourists sit. He wears a long embroidered poncho, making sure it covers the Nike brand of his sweatpants. When he talks about hunting waterfowl, he takes out an antique rifle that probably hasn’t been fired in over a century. “We also use it to hunt tourists,” he jokes, briskly covering his deceit. When he demonstrates how the Uros peel and eat “water banana,” the white ends of the totora reed, he www.tyglobalist.org

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It is believed that the floating islands were designed by the ancient Uros as a defensive mechanism to camoflage themselves within the surrounding reed jungles. Above: An Uru woman walks next to a model of a pre-Inca totora house. The surface of the island will sink about two inches with every step she takes. Bottom-right: Ivan Lujano tours visitors in his reed boat. Top-right: Tourists purchase woven reed handicrafts from the Uros. The souvenirs constitute a large source of income for the islandsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; inhabitants (all photos courtesy of InĂŠs Bullard).

spring 2015, issue 3

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makes sure not to offer any to the visitors; the foul taste, of watered-down cucumber, might make him lose credibility. He calls his large totora raft “the Mercedez-Benz of the Titicaca,” in spite of secretly owning a motorboat himself. Ivan gives much of his presentation in native Aymara, allowing the tour guide to translate for him. In the brief moments when he switches to Spanish, generally to deliver a joke, he speaks in a slow, guttural growl, as if imitating the speech of a caveman. Yet Ivan speaks perfect Spanish. He fakes inarticulacy to simulate isolation

from the mainland, to feign the maintenance of ancient patterns. Foreign visitors are generally impressed with his presentation, but to critical Peruvians, it feels fake, like the unnatural movement of animatronics at a theme park. Ancient Andean philosophy revolves around the concept of duality, named yanatin in Quechua. Yanatin argues that everything is defined by the existence of its opposite, together making a single, harmonious whole. Dark and light, mountain and lake, Manco Cápac and Mama Ocllo. Ivan Lujano and the rest of the Uros con-

tinue to live within the duality of the ancient and the modern, as they desperately try to conceal the difference between both. Driven by the inability of outsiders to understand the harmony of balance, they seem to have forgotten that the great gift of the children of the sun was not superstition but civilization. Micaela Bullard ’18 is a tentative Latin American Studies major in Calhoun College. Contact her at micaela.bullard@yale.edu.

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United by Tragedy

Hmong Americans fight for justice in the wake of racially motivated violence BY MICHELLE KELRIKH

Hmong United for Justice demonstrators in Pepin County protest the unjust assault on Sao Lue Vang (courtesy Facebook, Hmong United for Justice).

n November 5, 2014, Kevin Elberg attacked Sao Lue Vang, a 64-year old Hmong man. Vang had been hunting with his friends on public land in Pepin County, Wisconsin. An hour after he arrived, Elberg, who is Caucasian, confronted him. Elberg began yelling at Vang, accusing him of being on Elberg’s property. With his limited English skills, Vang politely apologized and stated that he would leave the property. He began walking away from Elberg, but Elberg was not placated. Suddenly, he struck Vang with enough force to push him onto the ground, grabbing Vang’s walkie-talkie so he could not call for help. He beat the Purple Heart veteran from the Secret War in Laos (a part of the Vietnam War effort) with his own rifle. Elberg continued kicking and striking Vang, leaving him with a bleeding left hand that required several stitches and several liver lacerations. He then put his hand over Vang’s mouth, so that Vang could not call out for help. Gasping desperately for air, Vang finally felt into unconsciousness. Eventually, an officer arrived on the scene and transferred Vang to a nearby hospital. He was discharged two days later, but he has been bedridden ever since and has to use a wheelchair to move around. Despite overwhelming evidence against Elberg, including an officer’s report that he smelled of alcohol at the scene, he was not arrested until three days after the attack. Even after being arrested, he was quickly released without bail at the request of Jon Seiffert, the district attorney of Pepin County. Seiffert repeatedly stated that he did not believe that Elberg had committed the crime. “This was the catalyst for Hmong United for Justice to form. Where was justice in this situation?” said Mai Vang, Sao Lue Vang’s daughter. “If he had been white, there would have been no

spring 2015, issue 3

question of a conviction. Now we’re left with uncertainty.” She now serves as a spokes-person for the group of community activists, educators, and students that formed in the aftermath of the attack. “The Hmong community is a large target of racially-based violence in places that are otherwise predominantly white,” agreed Tou Ger Xiong, a Hmong community activist in Minnesota. Just ten years ago, in a similar altercation, a Hmong hunter named Chai Suoa Vang shot eight people, killing six. (Chai Suoa Vang is no relation to Sao Lue and Mai Vang.) Wisconsin Attorney General Peg Lautenschlager personally prosecuted the case. After the ensuing conviction, anti-Hmong sentiments rose to an all time high. Wisconsin and St. Paul, Minnesota, where another large Hmong community resides, began seeing an influx of cars with bumper stickers that said things like “Save a hunter, Shoot a Hmong.” Aimee Baldillo, a Hmong attorney, argues that the racism and violence experienced by people like Sao Lue Vang and the Hmong community in general is a “sign of the media attributing killings like Chai Soua Vang’s to a belligerent culture unable to fit in in America.” The Hmong are a Southeast Asian ethnic group predominantly from Vietnam, Laos, and China. After the Vietnam War, thousands of Hmong resettled in the United States with the help of the State Department and various community agencies. Baldillo believes the social problems, along with the language barrier, that the Hmong have faced lead many white Americans to have difficulty understanding Hmong culture. “They attribute blame to them based on untrue characteristics, and they think they just

don’t belong here.” Lee Pao Xiong, a Hmong professor at Concordia-St. Paul University, and the director of the Center for Hmong Studies, echoed her sentiments. He stated that over the generations, “Hmong people have faced issues with accessing services (ESL, job training, etc) and opportunities, like employment and housing.” Other historic social problems include “high alcoholism rates, high instances of mental illness and PTSD, along with juvenile delinquency due to the fact that parents were working full time during the day and going to school full time at night.’ Baldillo and Xiong believe that these prejudices require time and community awareness to be overcome. “As of now, [I don’t] know of any policy measures being taken to specifically help the Hmong,” Xiong said. Hmong communities are left to band together and empower themselves. On December 5, 2014, over 800 Hmong and their allies marched arm-in-arm through Pepin County where the assault on Sao Lue Vang occurred. Participants walked for two miles, past the Pepin County Sherrif’s Office and the District Attorney’s office. Demonstrators held signs with slogans such as “Unite Against Hate,” “We Are Watching #Pepin,” and “Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much.” At the rally, Sao Lue Vang’s daughter, Bao Vang, spoke out: “The repercussions of this ordeal have opened our eyes to truly see that an act of violence against one is an act of violence against us all.” Michelle Kelrikh ‘17 is an Ethics, Politics, and Economics major in Morse College. Contact her at michelle.kelrikh@yale.edu.

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