Month: October 2022

 

During the Day of the Dead celebrations that take place in late October and early November in Mexico, the living remember and honor their dearly departed, but with celebration — not sorrow.

Marigolds decorate the streets as music blares from speakers. Adults and children alike dress as skeletons and take photos, capturing the annual joy-filled festivities. It is believed that during the Day of the Dead — or Dia de Muertos — they are able to commune with their deceased loved ones.

No one knows when the first observance took place, but it is rooted in agriculture-related beliefs from Mexico’s pre-Hispanic era, said Andrés Medina, a researcher at the Anthropological Research Institute of the National Autonomous University of Mexico. Catholic traditions were incorporated into the celebration after the Spanish conquest in 1521.

“In that mythology, the corn is buried when it’s planted and leads an underground life for a period to later reappear as a plant,” Medina said. The grain of corn is seen as a seed, comparable to a bone, which is seen as the origin of life.

Today, skeletons are central to Day of the Dead celebrations, symbolizing the return of the bones to the living world. Like seeds planted under soil, the dead disappear temporarily only to return each year like the annual harvest.

Altars are core to the observance as well. Families place photographs of their ancestors on their home altars, which include decorations cut out of paper and candles. They also are adorned with offerings of items once beloved by those now gone. It could include cigars, a bottle of mezcal or a plate of mole, tortillas and chocolates.

Traditional altars can be adorned in a pattern representative of a Mesoamerican view that the world had levels, Medina said. But not everyone follows — or knows — this method.

“To the extent that Indigenous languages have been lost, the meaning (of the altar) has been lost as well, so people do it intuitively,” he said. “Where the Indigenous languages have been maintained, the tradition is still alive.”

The way Mexicans celebrate the Day of the Dead continues to evolve.

Typically, it is an intimate family tradition observed with home altars and visits to local cemeteries to decorate graves with flowers and sugar skulls. They bring their deceased loved ones’ favorite food and hire musicians to perform their favorite songs.

“Nowadays there’s an influence of American Halloween in the celebration,” Medina said. “These elements carry a new meaning in the context of the original meaning of the festival, which is to celebrate the dead. To celebrate life.”

In 2016, the government started a popular annual parade in Mexico City that concludes in a main square featuring altars built by artisans from across the country. The roughly three-hour-long affair features one of the holiday’s most iconic characters, Catrinas. The female skeleton is dressed in elegant clothes inspired by the engravings of José Guadalupe Posada, a Mexican artist who drew satirical cartoons at the beginning of the 20th century.

On Friday afternoon in the capital city, Paola Valencia, 30, walked through the main square looking at some of the altars and explained her appreciation for the holiday: “I love this tradition because it reminds me that they (the dead) are still among us.”

Originally from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, she said the residents of her hometown, Santa Cruz Xoxocotlán, take a lot of time to build large altars each year. They are a source of pride for the whole community.

“Sometimes I feel like crying. Our altars show who we are. We are very traditional, and we love to feel that they (the dead) will be with us at least once a year,” she said.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

A battle is brewing around Europe’s rooftop over the planet’s most precious resource.

The crystal-clear waters from the Alps could become increasingly contested as the effects of climate change and glacier melt become more apparent. Italy wants them for crop irrigation in the spring and summer. Swiss authorities want to hold up flows to help hydroelectric plants rev up, when needed.

For the first time in four years, government envoys from eight Alpine countries — big, small and tiny — were meeting under a grouping known as the Alpine Convention, which was set up 30 years ago to help coordinate life, leisure and the limited resources from Europe’s most celebrated peaks.

The envoys in Brig, Switzerland, representing pint-sized principality Monaco and small Slovenia as well as powerhouses like France, Germany and Italy, focused attention Thursday on what’s known as the Simplon Alliance. Named after an Alpine pass between Italy and Switzerland, it aims to make transportation in the mountains eco-friendly, such as by favoring rail over roads, electric vehicles and public transportation over private cars.

But with global warming causing a worrying shrinkage in Alpine glaciers this year, the issue of water frozen up in the mountains, or showered and snowed on them, is growing in importance. Environmental advocates say jockeying for water isn’t being addressed with enough urgency; they want the Alpine countries to do more to secure the future of the resource that’s been bountiful for centuries.

While many parts of the world have grappled with water woes, well-irrigated and relatively rich Europe has been largely spared so far. Droughts and wildfires raise seasonal worries, but there typically is enough water for agriculture, hydropower, ski resorts, and human consumption. Swiss children were once taught their country was home to the continent’s “water tower,” according to Maria Lezzi, head of Switzerland’s territorial development office.

However, factors like global warming, the fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine on energy supplies and economic demands have made the issue more pressing.

Last month, Swiss authorities authorized a seven-month increase in the amount of water available for electricity generation from 45 of Switzerland’s 1,500 hydraulic plants — hoping to churn out up to 150 gigawatts more power. Alluding to the possible knock-on effect, the Swiss said the move could temporarily affect fish migration, “which could make replenishing fish populations more difficult in 2023.”

Meanwhile, sparse summer rainfall and a punishing heat wave in northern Italy — which melted snowfields and glaciers in the area — dried up the Po River, jeopardized drinking water and threatened irrigation in what’s known as the Italian food valley.

The “9th report on the State of the Alps” — drafted by the Swiss hosts — notes that water supply is a “particularly pressing issue” because the Alps are a huge reservoir of water, which ultimately flows to the benefit of 170 million people along some of Europe’s most famous rivers, including the Danube, Po, Rhine and Rhone.

A draft of the report, obtained by The Associated Press, noted the need for “consistent availability of Alpine water” for industry, agriculture, hydropower and other uses, adding: “Climate change puts these functions under pressure, as glaciers are receding, and precipitation regimes are constantly changing.”

“Reduced quantities of water and limited reliability of water supply will be a major issue in the coming decades,” it added.

Kaspar Schuler, director of CIPRA International, a commission devoted to protecting the Alps based in tiny Liechtenstein, said governments have done well to put water on the agenda but stopped short of steps to tackle the issue — by setting up working groups, expanding research, or coming up with ways that water can be better shared in the future.

“The description of the difficulties is well done by the Swiss, but they have still no courage to really address the elephant in the room,” said Schuler.

While Alpine resorts and villages rely on water, the major upstream users are Switzerland’s hydropower plants, which want to hold on to the water until it’s most needed to power turbines that provide some 60% of the country’s electricity.

But the biggest consumers of the water are downstream — industrial areas like Grenoble and Annecy in France, Austria’s capital Vienna, and areas around Bolzano in Italy’s South Tyrol are likely to feel an impact.

The southern Alpine towns, especially in France and Italy with their drier climates, are more likely to undergo water shortages than the northern towns, the report said. “This is particularly true of inner-Alpine dry valleys such as the Aosta Valley in northwestern Italy, already affected by significant water stress.”

CIPRA’s Schuler suggested that many have become too complacent about the Alps’ bountiful waters — and those days may be over soon.

“Until now, all the non-Alpine countries — the lowlands — were happy that the Alps have been providing so much: landscape for leisure and sports, ski resorts, and the water as much as everybody needs,” he said. “So far, everybody was happy, and the Alps delivered.”

“In future it will be a battle … about these resources because especially the lack of water can really harm a lot of people,” he said.

Environment Minister Uros Brezan of Slovenia, which is set to take over the Alpine Convention’s presidency, said regional authorities were not taking the issue lightly.

“I think the member states of the European Union and also members of the Alpine Convention are well aware that [the] water scarcity problem cannot be solved only within the national borders, but has to be addressed internationally,” he said.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

 

Thousands of demonstrators defied an official ban to march Saturday against the deployment of new water storage infrastructure for agricultural irrigation in western France, some clashing with police.

Clashes between paramilitary gendarmes and demonstrators erupted with Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin reporting that 61 officers had been hurt, 22 seriously.

“Bassines Non Merci,” which organized the protest, said around 30 demonstrators had been injured. Of them, 10 had to seek medical treatment and three were hospitalized.

The group brings together environmental associations, trade unions and anti-capitalist groups against what it claims is a “water grab” by the “agro-industry” in western France.

Local officials said six people were arrested during the protest and that 4,000 people had turned up for the banned demonstration. Organizers put the turnout at 7,000.

The deployment of giant water “basins” is underway in the village of Sainte-Soline, in the Deux-Sevres department, to irrigate crops, which opponents claim distorts access to water amid drought conditions.

Around 1,500 police were deployed, according to the prefect of the Deux-Sevres department Emmanuelle Dubee.

Dubee said Friday she had wanted to limit possible “acts of violence,” referring to the clashes between demonstrators and security forces that marred a previous rally in March.

The Sainte-Soline water reserve is the second of 16 such installations, part of a project developed by a group of 400 farmers organized in a water cooperative to significantly reduce water usage in the summer.

The open-air craters, covered with a plastic tarpaulin, are filled by pumping water from surface groundwater in winter and can store up to 650,000 square meters of water.

This water is used for irrigation in summer, when rainfall is scarcer.

Opponents claim the “mega-basins” are wrongly reserved for large export-oriented grain farms and deprive the community of access to essential resources.

 

 

Source: Voice of America

Luanda – The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, Saturday reaffirmed the need for strengthened bilateral relations between Angola and Turkey.

In a message sent to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on the occasion of the 99th anniversary of Turkey´s Republic Day (29 October 1923), João Lourenço expresses his satisfaction at the good level of bilateral relations in recent years.

 

According to the Angolan statesman, the relations will continue to be strengthened through the implementation of projects in the scope of the multifaceted and mutually fruitful cooperation between both countries.

 

In the same letter, João Lourenço highlighted that “there is an enormous source of opportunities both in Angola and Turkey”, and Turkey´s experience, “can make a fundamental contribution to Angola´s development, on a basis of reciprocity in which mutual advantages prevail”.

 

Diplomatic relations between Angola and Turkey date back to 1980 and are supported by cooperation agreements in the Fishing, Education, Science and Technology, Oil, Gas, Industry and Agriculture fields.

 

Turkey exports to Angola wheat, machinery, electrical appliances, hospital and health materials, amongst others, while Angola exports to Turkey wood, scrap iron and aluminum.

 

Political and diplomatic relations were deepened in 2008 with bilateral cooperation, when the Agreement on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation was signed in Turkey’s capital city of Ankara.

 

In addition to other instruments, the two states have signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the aeronautical authorities, as well as a Verbal Process of the Firstt Session of the Joint Committee on Trade, Economic and Technical Cooperation.

 

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Luanda – The International Association of Young Lumumbistas (AIJL) based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) Friday placed António Agostinho Neto, the first President of Angola, among the greatest pan-Africanist leaders in the world.

The information was released by the head of AIJL at the launch ceremony aimed at preparing work on the First Pan-African Youth Conference, held in that country’s capital, Kinshasa.

According to a press note from the Angolan Embassy in the DRC, the name of Agostinho Neto joins the list of several world leaders.

They include Nelson Mandela (South Africa), Julius Nyerere (Tanzania), Sylvanus Olympio (Togo), Amílcar Cabral (Guinea Bissau and Cabo Verde), Kwame Nkrumah (Ghana), Fidel de Castro (Cuba) and Che Guevara (Argentina).

Still, the list features names such as Ben-Bella (Algeria), Jomo Kenyatta (Kenya), Alioune Diop (Senegal), Cheikh Anta Diop (Senegal), Bob Marley (Jamaica), Martin Luther King Jr. (US), Malcom X (US) Steve Biko (South Africa), Desmond Tutu (South Africa), Thomas Sankara (Burkina Faso).

AIJL is an organisation created on June 19, 2009 by a group of young people residing in the DRC, with the purpose of extolling the political, economic, social and cultural history of Africa.

 

 

Source: Angola Press News Agency

Heat waves, intensified by climate change, have cost the global economy trillions of dollars in the past 30 years, a study published Friday found, with poor countries paying the steepest price.

And those lopsided economic effects contribute to widening inequalities around the world, according to the research.

“The cost of extreme heat from climate change so far has been disproportionately borne by the countries and regions least culpable for global warming,” Dartmouth College professor Justin Mankin, one of the authors of the study published in the journal Science Advances, told AFP. “And that’s an insane tragedy.”

“Climate change is playing out on a landscape of economic inequality, and it is acting to amplify that inequality,” he said.

Periods of extreme heat cost the global economy about $16 trillion between 1992 and 2013, the study calculated.

But while the richest countries have lost about 1.5% of their annual per capita GDPs dealing with heat waves, poorer countries have lost about 6.7% of their annual per capita GDPs.

The reason for that disparity is simple: poor countries are often situated closer to the tropics, where temperatures are warmer anyway. During heat waves, they become even hotter.

The study comes just days ahead of the start of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt, where the question of compensation for countries that are disproportionately vulnerable to but least responsible for climate change is expected to be one of the key topics.

The costs of heat waves come from several factors: effects on agriculture, strains on health systems, less productive workforces and physical damage to infrastructure, such as melting roads.

Study researchers examined five days of weather considered extreme for a specific region each year.

“The general idea is to use variation in extreme heat, which is effectively randomly assigned to all these economic regions and see the extent to which that accounts for variation in economic growth” in a given region, Mankin explained.

“Then the second part is to say, ‘OK, how has human-caused warming influenced extreme heat?'” he added.

Despite these calculations, the study results almost certainly underestimate the true cost of extreme heat, according to the paper — only studying five days per year does not reflect the increased frequency of such heat events, and not all potential costs were included.

Previous studies on the subject had focused on the costs of heat to specific sectors, though scientists say it is important to look at the price tag of climate change wholistically.

“You want to know what those costs are, so that you have a frame of reference against which to compare the cost of action,” Mankin said, such as establishing cooling centers or installing air conditioners, versus “the cost of inaction.”

“The dividends economically of responding to the five hottest days of the year could be quite great,” he said.

But according to Mankin, the most important response is to reduce carbon emissions to slow global warming at the source.

“We need to adapt to the climate we have now, and we also need to deeply invest in mitigation,” he said.

 

 

Source: Voice of America