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Les dirigeants de l’UE ont appelé pour la première fois jeudi (21 mars) à une « pause humanitaire immédiate menant à un cessez-le-feu durable » à Gaza et ont exhorté Israël à ne pas lancer une offensive terrestre majeure à Rafah.

Ethnic women in Bangladesh had to traverse a long hilly path to fetch water for their households, but now they can easily collect water from newly-revived springs after the village common forests conservation project. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
RANGAMATI , Mar 22 2024 (IPS)

Just a few years ago, Sudarshana Chakma (35), a resident of the remote Digholchari Debarmatha village under Bilaichari upazila in the Rangamati Hill District, had to traverse a long hilly path to fetch water for her household because there were no local water sources.

“Unchecked deforestation and degradation of village common forests (VCFs) led to the drying up of all-natural water sources in our village. We struggled to collect drinking and household water,” Chakma explained to IPS. 

Ethnic communities in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) rely significantly on forests for their lives and livelihoods. They gather water from natural sources like streams and practice jhum (shifting cultivation) in nearby forests. However, indiscriminate deforestation of the natural resources had dried up springs and streams, causing water scarcity in many areas.

The tide turned when the USAID-funded Chittagong Hill Tracts Watershed Co-Management Activity (CHTWCA) engaged surrounding communities, including those living in Digholchari Debarmatha village, as conservation volunteers to protect Village Common Forests (VCFs) in 2020. This initiative successfully revived springs, ensuring a year-round water supply.

The Strengthening Inclusive Development in Chittagong Hill Tracts Project, which the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs implemented, has transformed many lives, including Chakmas’.

“Now we can easily fetch water from nearby springs, bringing peace to our lives. Due to the arduous journey ethnic women had to make to fetch water, quarrels over who was going to fetch the water were common in the village and among families. Now, we live in harmony,” said Sudarshana, a mother of four.

Silica Chakma of Digholchari Hajachara village echoed her sentiments, highlighting the voluntary conservation efforts by ethnic communities to ensure an adequate water supply during the dry season.

“Before the restoration of our forests, we faced water scarcity. Now, we have no water crisis, as we collect water four to five times a day from the springs revived in the forests,” she said.

Silica emphasised that village common forests are conserved voluntarily, with strict regulations against harvesting forest resources without the approval of VCF management committees.

Barun Chakma, President of the Digholchari Debarmatha VCF Management Committee, emphasised the shift in mindset, stating that locals now protect the forests voluntarily, contrasting with past practices where trees were felled indiscriminately.

Enhancing Small Agriculture Sustainability

The CHT faces aggravated water crises during the dry season, impacting agriculture and homesteads.

To address this, local ethnic farmers in Digholchari Debarmatha have constructed bamboo-made dams on streams, creating water reservoirs fed by springs from the village common forest.

Pujikka Chakma, a 45-year-old female farmer, is grateful for the progress.

“After conserving the local forests, farmers do not face water scarcity for their agriculture and homesteads. We store spring water in the reservoir to irrigate cropland during the dry season.”

Thirty-seven-year-old Lika Chakma also acknowledged the benefits of the expanded use of spring water in agriculture, including cultivating various crops and ensuring food security for the community.

Conserving Medicinal Plants

In addition to addressing water security, ethnic communities in the Rangamati Hill District have been actively conserving medicinal plants for healthcare and treatments.

Lika Chakma explained, “We conserve medicinal plants in our local forests for use when we fall sick.”

Poitharam Chakma emphasised the importance of these efforts, given limited access to healthcare facilities in remote hilly areas. “Once our forests were degraded, we faced problems collecting medicinal plants. Now, we are conserving those in our forests.”

Barun Chakma provided details of the planting, a few years ago, of various medicinal plants, including Haritaki (myrobalan), Bohera (Terminalia bellirica), and Amloki (Indian gooseberry), in the Digholchari Debarmatha VCF. While acknowledging that it will take time for these plants to yield herbal medicines, he expressed confidence in the community’s ability to support health treatments in the future.

The conservation initiatives run by ethnic communities in Bangladesh address issues with water security, support agricultural sustainability, and protect priceless medicinal plants.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Dänemark ist nach wie vor einer ernsten terroristischen Bedrohung ausgesetzt, insbesondere durch militante islamistische Bewegungen. Das geht aus der jährlichen Sicherheitsbewertung des dänischen Sicherheits- und Nachrichtendienstes hervor, die am Donnerstag veröffentlicht wurde.

Der Bundestag hat am Donnerstag (21. März) ein Gesetz zur Umsetzung des Gesetzes über digitale Dienste (DSA) verabschiedet. Dabei handelt es sich um ein EU-Gesetz, das regelt, wie Online-Plattformen mit illegalen und schädlichen Inhalten umgehen sollten.

Die Arbeitskosten in Belgien sind in den letzten Jahren fast doppelt so stark gestiegen wie im EU-Durchschnitt. Das geht aus Untersuchungen von Eurostat hervor, die am Dienstag in einem neuen Bericht bestätigt wurden. Gründe dafür sind Inflation, Lohnindexierung und Arbeitskräftemangel. 

Eine Überarbeitung des europäischen Green Deals und des EU-Migrationspaktes gehören zu den Hauptanliegen der tschechischen Partei ANO (Renew/ALDE), die derzeit bei knapp 30 Prozent liegt.

Die Europäische Kommission beabsichtigt, die EU aus dem Vertrag über die Energiecharta zurückzuziehen, wobei den Mitgliedstaaten das Recht eingeräumt wird, auf eigenen Wunsch im Vertrag zu verbleiben. Dieser Plan wurde am Donnerstag (21. März) dem Parlament vorgelegt.

Le rôle de l’Organe des régulateurs européens des communications électroniques doit évoluer, compte tenu de l’extension du domaine règlementaire de ses membres à des écosystèmes plus vastes, a expliqué la directrice de la Commission européenne chargée de la décennie numérique et de la connectivité à Euractiv.

Staff from the Popular Arts Collective "La Changa" on the delivery of agro-ecological baskets on bike in southern Quito in 2020. Heifer supports this group with equipment. Credit: Isadora Romero for Heifer International

By Surita Sandosham
LITTLE ROCK, AR, Mar 22 2024 (IPS)

Shocking and ongoing levels of violence in Ecuador since the New Year followed by flooding caused by El Niño landed a double blow for those in the country who live day to day and are most vulnerable to instability.

Farming families and communities, already struggling to earn a living income, saw the entire food market disrupted. Escalating crime and violence made it more dangerous and challenging to get crops, fish and meat to market, while growing insecurity also dampened consumer demand. Reports reached us of women sleeping in their shops to protect their agri-food businesses while migration levels continued to climb.

Yet against the odds, many communities are keeping local food supplies moving thanks to ongoing collaboration with local development groups that has strengthened their resilience to shocks, offering a blueprint for cost-effective, community-led economic development elsewhere.

Many rural communities in Ecuador were able to adapt to the effects of recent events with the support of organizations on the ground, including Heifer Ecuador, the Global FoodBanking Network and others. Grassroots efforts to minimize the impact of such crises have reduced the scale of losses and the cost of rebuilding as well as the imperative to migrate, making long-term resilience a strategic investment for the humanitarian and development sectors.

This picture of hope in Ecuador should inspire the international community to invest more funding and resources into strengthening local and rural economies in Latin America and around the world so that similar shocks do not set back development gains elsewhere.

Core to building long-term resilience is learning and applying lessons from previous shocks or stressors.

For example, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers in Ecuador united to pool their produce at dedicated and sanitized collection centers and create food baskets for home delivery, targeting low-income families. Meanwhile, communities established open-air marketplaces with the help of the Heifer Ecuador team to provide farmers with a safe place to sell their produce during periods of restricted movement. This meant farming families could continue to make a living, while also supporting local food security.

Clemente Cáceres shows a crab collected. Fishermen are permitted to harvest only male crabs that reach the pre-established size. Those who do not comply with this regulation will be sanctioned.

Today, farmers are applying the same flexibility and creativity to keep food markets functioning despite criminal gangs controlling key roads and ports. This includes adapting schedules to get key commodities like coffee and cocoa to ports safely.

A second element of long-term resilience is anticipating and preparing for shocks as much as possible.

The 1997-98 El Niño brought extreme rainfall to Ecuador, resulting in agricultural losses of more than $300 million by February 1998 alone. But this year, ahead of a forecasted El Niño, Heifer Ecuador worked with partners to carry out an innovative study of the areas at most risk to help take preventative measures to reduce agricultural losses and damage.

The data analyzed the potential threat to 500,000 farmers and producers in the provinces of El Oro, Esmeraldas, Manabí, Santa Elena and Guayas, and recommended measures such as reinforced flood walls and barriers, improved soil drainage, and storage and processing for crops harvested early.

The result was that communities were better prepared this time with more information about what to expect. Some simple but key prevention actions were implemented to protect food collection centers’ post-harvest equipment, among others, minimizing the impact on food systems and local economies.

One such preventative action in El Oro province involved the co-financing of a canopy for a farmer-run association to cover and protect harvested cacao as it dried — an intervention that helped prevent the product from getting wet and losing its quality during the winter season. Similarly, in Santa Elena, Heifer Ecuador and local partners reinforced the soil around a meat processing center, channeling rainwater away from the center’s perimeter to reduce the risk of flooding and prevent the deterioration of the site’s infrastructure.

With more empowered, resilient communities, humanitarian aid can therefore be better allocated for moments of unprecedented, urgent need.

In the meantime, vulnerabilities that exacerbate the impact of shocks — like the 7.8-magnitude earthquake that struck Ecuador in 2016, which killed hundreds and displaced thousands more — must be addressed through long-term disaster risk reduction, including improvements to infrastructure and early warning systems.

The effectiveness of responding to shocks like the recent violent conflict and climate extremes depends as much on the decisions taken in preceding years as it does those taken in the moment. And with climate extremes becoming increasingly frequent, investing in long-term resilience is even more critical.

By investing in local teams and working to strengthen the resilience of rural and agricultural communities at the bottom of the pyramid, the whole fabric of society is stronger and more stable as a result. This has benefitted Ecuador when it most needed it, and by replicating this model elsewhere, it can help protect the most vulnerable around the world.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Excerpt:

Surita Sandosham is President and CEO of Heifer International

Die Journalisten der italienischen Nachrichtenagentur streiken ab Donnerstag (21. März), um gegen den möglichen Verkauf der Agentur AGI an den Lega-Abgeordneten Antonio Angelucci zu protestieren. Der Verkauf an den Rechtspopulisten würde die Pressefreiheit untergraben, heißt es.

Ce dimanche, les citoyens sénégalais seront appelés à élire le prochain chef de l’Etat. Cependant, les deux principaux poids lourds et rivaux sont hors de course. Macky Sall ne se représente pas pour un nouveau mandat tandis qu’Ousmane Sonko est recalé par le Conseil constitutionnel. La BBC revient sur les faits qui rendent cette élection particulière.

Am ersten Tag des EU-Gipfels wurde gestern entschieden, dass die Verhandlungen mit Bosnien zum Beitritt zur EU eröffnet werden sollen. Allerdings seien weitere Reformen nötig.

Die Staats- und Regierungschefs der EU riefen am Donnerstag (21. März) erstmals geschlossen zu einer "sofortigen humanitären Pause, die zu einem dauerhaften Waffenstillstand führt" in Gaza auf. Der Schritt geht auch auf einen Gesinnungswechsel in Washington zurück.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Mar 22 2024 (IPS)

The devastation of Ukraine and Gaza might seem to be beyond belief. Let us thus turn to fairy tales to find descriptions of the stony indifference of warlords.

Since ancient times lies the cottage of the mighty witch Baba Yaga close to the heart of Russia’s vast forests. It is no gingerbread house built to attract hungry children lost in the woods, although its owner more often than not has a ravenous hunger for human flesh. On the contrary, her lodge seems to have a will of its own, appearing to fence off people, rather than attracting them. Its surrounding palisade is made of human bones, which fence poles are adorned with skulls. One sharpened pole is empty, in anticipation of becoming adorned with an unfortunate visitor’s skull. Baba Yaga attaches it to her fence after feasting on the roasted body of her victim and gnawing its skull clean from flesh.

Baba Yaga

Baba Yaga broods on a great wealth and she is the ruler of all forest beings. Predators and birds are governed by her, as well as wayward cattle and coveted wild horses. It has been said that Baba Yaga is the mother of all mankind, that she is identical to Mother Earth. That she can transform herself into a cloud, that even the sun and the moon are governed by her, in addition to draught and tempests. Her abode stands close to the gates of Hell; maybe she is Death. In any case, demons and dragons obey her.

Her house rests on chicken legs. From whatever direction you approach it, the cottage turns its front towards you. To enter you have to command the moving house: “Little house, little cottage, set your face towards me and your butt against the forest”, then it bends forward like a chicken picking up a grain and the front door opens. Entering the untidy kitchen, it is difficult to discern the old crone. Either she is curled up like a cat on the slab above her oven, or she has extended her gawky body along one of the hut’s walls. The visitor may mistake her for a log, gnarled and craggy as she is. Sooner or later the witch’s scratchy, dry voice can be heard as she angrily sputters something about russkim dukhom “stench of a Russian”. With her pointed nose she sniffs up into the stale air, lifts her head, looks around until she drills the sharp stare of her luminous red, eyes deep into her visitor.

Baba Yaga is possibly not bad to the bone, not entirely evil, rather injured or poisoned by too much power. She might reluctantly develop a liking to a visitor and declines to slay him/her and instead put her reckless visitor to difficult tests to ascertain that s/he may be worthy of her trust. Her house is mined territory – each thought, every step must be carefully calculated. You must be respectful and let the witch speak before you say anything. Powerful creatures hate being contradicted, taught or admonished. Reply if asked, but watch your words. Witches can sniff out a mistake and hurl themselves on it as if they were starving wolves.

You cannot escape Baba Yaga. If you rush out of the door, she throws herself on top of a huge wooden mortar, using it to pursue her intended victim, rushing forward like a blizzard, punting her vehicle with a pestle, while she uses a broom to sweep away her tracks. Finally, the pursued victim cannot keep up the speed, staggers and falls to the ground. The witch leans over her prey and opens her huge mouth, which can be extended from earth to heaven. It is Hell opening up to devour the hapless loser, obliterating all traces of her/him.

Koščéj the Deathless

Baba Yaga has many servants, vilest of them all is Koščéj the Deathless. He may be Baba Yaga´s male manifestation, though Koščéj appears to have a life of his own. Koščéj is a powerful Tsar, with a vast kingdom of his own and an almost invincible army. It might be Hell he rules over, the name Koščéj sounds much like the old Slavic name for the place – Koshchnoye. Koščéj does not die, but he’s aging. Far back in time Koščéj found that he could separate his body from his soul. At that time, Koščéj was a handsome warrior who wanted to hide his soul so he could remain undefeated in every battle. No one dies if body and soul go on living, each on their own. However, the price was high. He now looks like a cadaver. Koščéj can through magical tricks hide his true appearance by perverting the perception of his victims. Using power and wealth he flatters and pampers his minions and if assured he is admired, or even loved, Koščéj believes the lie. Legends may offer scenes where a captured maiden allows the old monster to rest his head in her lap, while she quietly sings and asks him questions, untangling his matted hair. Koščéj becomes dazzled by what he perceives as his own excellence, a weak spot that eventually might cause his annihilation.

Koščéjs body can only be damaged by age and killed if someone finds his soul – his vulnerable humanity – and crushes it. It was by denying and hiding what he assumed to be his fragility – love and compassion – that Koščéj succeeded in transforming himself into a powerful and invulnerable being. However, that does not impede his constant search for love, a feeling that nevertheless is unavailable for a soulless man. Koščéj can neither give, nor receive love, possibly admiration, but such an emotion is based on fear, mixed with submissiveness. As a powerful being Koščéj does not hesitate to exploit his minions, among other things, he forces them to create armies and feed the evil demons that serve him like docile doves.

Maybe due to his advanced age Koščéj constantly has to prove his vigour and does every morning ride out for an exhaustive hunt in his forests. His steeds are wild and famous, some of them have three or seven legs and they can all speak. Koščéj is a bon vivant constantly on the look-out for exclusive conveniences, among other things he has a fur-lined mantle, which is warm in winter and cool in summer. His age sometimes takes its toll and he may become so tired that a servant is forced to stand behind his throne and occasionally lift up his heavy eyelids. It happens that Koščéj´s melancholy engulfs his entire court; the demons and people surrounding him then run the risk of being turned into stone and can only be awakened by the sound of a gusli, a kind of zither. In all his authoritarianism Koščéj is a lonely, insecure and thus dangerous beast.

If anyone would find Koščéj´s soul and unravel him in all his human nakedness and vulnerability, he instantly loses all his powers. Accordingly, he has made his soul inaccessible. He has impaled it on the top of a needle, placed inside an egg. This contraption is encased by an iron coffin, over which a mighty oak has grown. Koščéj’s immortality has made the oak old and strong and it encloses the coffin with its tenacious roots.

Like any kind of power, Koščéj´s strength is maintained through confirmation. The old demon has committed all imaginable sins and crimes, but his final error will be to succumb to vanity. As the Devil himself has noted: “Vanity is my favourite sin, through vanity I can manipulate anyone.”

Stories about Koščéj are an integral part of Russian lore. Aleksandr Afanasiev (1826-1871) was Russia’s greatest collector and publisher of folktales. He worked as a librarian at the Imperial Archives in Moscow and thus came in contact with folk tales. Afanasiev published a collection of more than 600 Russian folktales and proceeded to write an analysis of them, Slavs’ Poetic View of Nature, published in three volumes, each with more than 700 pages. He did not hesitate to publish stories that irritated Russia’s rulers. When the powerful Vasily Drozdov, Metropolitan of the Moscow Patriarchate, attacked Afanasiev for his publication of “obscene stories”, the librarian answered him back in a newspaper article and thus brought upon himself the unbridled hatred of Church and State. Afanasiev wrote: “There is a million times more morality, truth, and human love in my folk legends than in the sanctimonious sermons delivered by Your Holiness.”

Afanasiev could not refrain from keeping contact with his good friend, the renowned freethinker and exiled Russian, Alexander Herzen, and while visiting him in London he presented him with his collection of fairy tales. The dreaded Ohkranan, “Division of Patronage of Public Safety and Order”, found out where and when the visit had taken place. After Afanasiev´s return from his trip the Ohkranan turned his apartment upside down, until they found a manuscript with Russkie zavetnye shazki, Russian Secret Folk Tales. Afanasiev was immediately removed from his post, blacklisted and unable to find a new employment. To get money for food for himself and his family the degraded librarian sold his extensive library. He lived out his last days like a poor wretch, got tuberculosis and died destitute, only 45 years old. Ivan Turgenev wrote to a friend: “Afanasiev died recently, from hunger, but his literary merits will, my dear friend, be remembered long after both yours and mine are covered by the dark of oblivion.”

Afanasiev was far from being the only victim of ruthless Russian rulers and many great authors and philosophers have been inspired by his tales about Baba Yaga and Koščéj, while trying to tell the truth about cruel dictators. Stalin did not want to be connected with demonic doppelgängers from Russian folklore. The great poet Osip Mandelstam’s poem about the Kremlin Mountaineer might be connected with the fearsome Koščéj, the demon without a soul who reigns over a realm of death filled with smirking sycophants, who suddenly may be ossified by the demon’s remarks or bad moods.

Mandelstam was in November 1933 reading his Stalin Epigram to a select group. One of the listeners wrote down the poem and brought it to OGPU, the secret police.

Our lives no longer feel ground under them.
At ten paces you can’t hear our words.
But whenever there’s a snatch of talk
it reaches the Kremlin mountaineer.
Ten thick worms are his fingers,
his words like measures of weight,
laughing cockroaches rest above his lips,
his boot-rims glitter.

Ringed with a scum of chicken-necked bosses
he toys with the tributes of half-men.
One whistles, another meows, a third snivels.
He pokes out his finger and he alone is talking.
He forges decrees like horseshoes, throwing
one for the groin, one for the forehead, temple, eye.
He rolls executions on his tongue like berries.
He wishes he could hug them like great friends from home.

The sick and weak Mandelstam, broken by merciless interrogations, was finally sentenced to five years in correction camps. On 27th of December 1938 he died in a transit camp, just before his 48th birthday. On the 16th of February 2024, the 48 years old Russian opposition leader, lawyer, anti-corruption activist, and political prisoner Alexei Navalny died at the Yamalo-Nenets prison in Western Siberia.

Throughout history, power has in Russia been linked to make-believe and fairytale. Russian Tsars assumed superhuman, heroic attributes. Myth and ceremonies turned them into distant and mysterious sovereigns, elevated above human comprehension and Stalin followed suit. In spite of killing his enemies and jailing opponents, Vladimir Putin continues to be venerated as if he was an incarnation of the Tsars and Stalin. On 17 March he claimed a landslide victory in Russia’s presidential election, winning 87 percent of the votes in what other nations called a “pseudo-election”.

Main source: Russian Magic Tales from Pushkin to Platonov. London: Penguin Classics.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Drei Monate vor der Europawahl ist das Interesse in Deutschland so groß wie noch nie: Zwei Drittel der Wahlberechtigten bekunden laut einer Umfrage ein "hohes" oder "sehr hohes" Interesse. Zwei Parteien können dabei auf ein besonderes Engagement ihrer Wähler hoffen.

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Depuis le 1er janvier, les Kosovars peuvent voyager librement au sein de l'Union européenne et profitent à fond de cette nouvelle liberté. Mais cet argent dépensé à l'étranger fait chuter l'économie locale et menace le secteur de l'hôtellerie-restauration. Reportage.

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Depuis le 1er janvier, les Kosovars peuvent voyager librement au sein de l'Union européenne et profitent à fond de cette nouvelle liberté. Mais cet argent dépensé à l'étranger fait chuter l'économie locale et menace le secteur de l'hôtellerie-restauration. Reportage.

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La date choisie ne doit rien au hasard. C'est à la veille du 25ème anniversaire de l'opération militaire controversée de l'Otan contre la Yougoslavie de Slobodan Milošević que Moscou s'adresse aux Nations Unies. Difficile de croire que cette résolution puisse être adoptée, surtout vu les approximations et les raccourcis historiques.

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