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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COMwjFCMWik

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udGuujbSpHU&ab_channel=AwesomeBookTrailers

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You will rotate through these roles over the next 10-11 book club meetings:

1. Discussion Director

2. Savvy Summarizer

3. Clever Connector

4. Vivid Visualizer

5. Word Whiz (the whole group will do this)

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When a new boy joins their class, a group of children try to befriend him. They soon learn that Ahmet is a refugee from Syria and he has been separated from his family. None of the grown-ups seem to be able to help him, so the friends come up with a daring plan, embarking on an extraordinary adventure.

Setting: England

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Parvana is an 11-year-old girl who lives under Taliban rule in 2001. After the wrongful arrest of her father, Parvana cuts off her hair and dresses like a boy to support her family. Working alongside a friend, she soon discovers a new world of freedom and danger. Drawing strength from the fantastical stories she invents, Parvana embarks on an epic quest to find her father and reunite her family.

Setting: Afghanistan

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ERgnxYFFB0&list=PLbgA0xJswZ2eggg7Y_UZzCy62rhMUsL0_&index=2

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Twelve-year-old Amal's dream of becoming a teacher one day is dashed in an instant when she accidentally insults a member of her village's ruling family. As punishment for her behavior, she is forced to leave her heartbroken family behind and go work at their estate.

Setting: Pakistan

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmkZi-uA7zY&ab_channel=BookTrailerDiva

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As civil war flares in Syria and bombs fall across Nadia's home city of Aleppo, her family decides to flee to safety. Inspired by recent events, this novel sheds light on the complicated situation in Syria that led to an international refugee crisis, and tells the story of one girl's journey to safety.

Setting: Syria

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orXiB1ELoCs&ab_channel=ErinTigelaar

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Many countries ship plastic waste overseas. How much of the world's waste is traded, and how big is its role in the pollution of our oceans?

Most of the plastic that enters the oceans from land comes from rivers in Asia.¹ More than 80% of it.²

Only a small amount comes from rivers across Europe and North America. Together, rivers in these regions contribute just 5% of the global total. This would suggest that the world's richest countries don't contribute much to the problem of plastic pollution.

But, these numbers only look at the plastic that is emitted domestically. They don't consider the fact that many countries export plastic waste overseas. If it was the case that the UK exported a lot of its plastic waste to countries where waste management systems are poor, and lots of plastic leaks into the environment, the UK would have a large indirect impact on ocean pollution.

Here I use global data to understand the scale of plastic waste trade. I look at who the biggest exporters and importers are, and where this waste ends up.

I estimate that a few percent - possibly up to 5% - of the world's ocean plastics could come from rich countries exporting their waste overseas. That could bring the total up to 10%: 5% directly from rivers in these regions, plus a further 5% from trade.

How much of the world's plastic waste is traded?

Importing plastics can often bring economic benefits. Recycled plastics can be repurposed into other goods, and fed into manufacturing industries. This is often cheaper than buying or making virgin plastics from scratch.

In 2020, around 5 million tonnes of plastic waste was traded globally.³ We might imagine that the pandemic forced a large reduction in plastic trade, but this doesn't seem to be the case. In 2019, rates were only slightly higher, at around 6 million tonnes.

Let's put those 5 million tonnes into context.

The world generates around 350 million tonnes of plastic waste per year. That means that around 2% of waste is traded.⁴

The remaining 98% is handled domestically. It's sent to a landfill, recycled, or incinerated in the country where the waste was generated. The idea that most of the world's plastic waste is shipped overseas is incorrect. One reason why this figure is so low is that it's mostly recycled waste that's traded, and only 20% of the world's plastic is recycled.⁵

Over the last decade, we've seen a large decline in the amount of plastic waste traded. Rates have fallen by two-thirds since 2010.

What was the impact of the Chinese ban on plastic trade?

Policies in China toward plastic trade have had a large impact on the global change shown in the previous chart.

In 2016, China was importing more than half of the world's traded plastic waste. By 2018, this had plummeted to less than 1%. We see this in the chart.

The reason for this dramatic decline was the Chinese government banning the import of most types of plastic waste in 2017. This was part of a broader policy decision to stop the import of 24 different types of solid waste including paper, textiles, and plastics. These bans were implemented as a result of environmental and health concerns from contaminated waste streams.

This ban had two major impacts.⁶ The first was that the total volume of plastic trade globally dropped significantly - we saw earlier that global trade has halved since 2017. The second was that other countries emerged to take China's place as major importers. Most of them are also countries in Asia - Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Turkey, started to import much more plastic than in previous years.

Most plastic waste is traded within world regions, rather than between them

Where does plastic waste flow across the world?

Europe is the region that exports the most plastic, but it's also the region that imports the most.

This is true more generally. Most plastic is traded within a given region. European countries export most plastic to other European countries. Asian countries export most to other Asian countries.

In the visualization, we see the flow of plastic across the world.⁷ On the left we have the exporters of plastic waste; on the right, we see where that plastic ends up. The height of each bar is proportional to the amount of plastic that is traded.

Europe is the biggest exporter of plastic. But, it's also the biggest importer. Many countries across Europe trade with one another. At the national level, Germany is the biggest exporter and importer - it trades different plastics with its neighbors including the Netherlands, Poland, Austria, and Switzerland.⁸

This is also true of Asia, where Japan is the biggest exporter to other countries in Asia.

Do rich countries export most of their plastic waste overseas?

Many people think that rich countries ship most of their plastic waste overseas. But is this really true?

The short answer is no: many countries export some of their waste, but they still handle most of it domestically.

Let's take the example of the UK. In 2010, it generated an estimated 4.93 million tonnes of plastic waste.⁹ It exported 838,000 tonnes overseas.

That means it exported about 17% of its plastic waste. That's a substantial fraction - nearly one-fifth of it.

This data is for 2010, a year with good high-quality estimates of plastic waste generation. It's still likely to be a reasonable estimate today. If anything, this share might have declined slightly, because waste exports have not increased, and waste generation probably has.

When it comes to the fraction of plastic waste that is exported, the UK is one of the largest exporters. For context, the US exported about 5% of its plastic waste in 2010. France exported 11%, and the Netherlands exported 14%.

Most rich countries are net exporters of plastic waste. And this can be a significant fraction of their waste. But it's not the case that they handle most of it by offshoring it to other countries.

How much do rich countries contribute to plastic pollution through their exported waste?

This is the crucial question. While we don't have an exact answer, we can give a plausible range.

To give an exact answer we would need to trace each piece of plastic pollution back to its original source. But we can do some calculations to estimate how much plastic is at higher risk of entering the ocean because of this trade.

In 2020, low-to-middle-income countries - where plastic waste was at a 'higher risk' of entering the ocean (because of poorer waste management systems) - imported around 1.6 million tonnes of plastic waste from rich countries. Here 'rich countries' include all countries in Europe and North America, plus Japan, Hong Kong, and OECD countries from other regions.¹⁰

How much of this plastic ends up in the ocean?

Again, we don't know for sure. But we can run through a worst and best-case scenario.

Here we will assume that all of this traded waste was 'mismanaged', meaning it was not formally managed and was either littered or dumped in open landfills. In reality, not all of it will be mismanaged, but let's be conservative here.

The probability that mismanaged waste ends up in the ocean varies a lot by country.

The country where the probability is highest is the Phillippines - an estimated 7% ends up in the ocean.¹¹ We could imagine this being our 'worst-case' scenario: if rich countries exported all of their plastic trade to the Philippines, 7% of it might end up in the ocean. That would be 112,000 tonnes.¹²

In a 'best-case' scenario, only around 1% of mismanaged waste would end up in the ocean. Most countries across the world have a risk of just under 1%. In Asia, this would be typical of countries such as Thailand and Cambodia. In this 'best-case' scenario, around 16,000 tonnes of ocean plastics each year would enter the ocean from trade.¹³

This gives us an upper and lower bound for the contribution of trade from rich countries. Since around one million tonnes of plastic enters the ocean each year, rich countries would contribute between 1.6% (in the best case) and 11% (in the worst case) of ocean plastics through shipping waste overseas.¹⁴

The true figure probably falls somewhere in between. A reasonable estimate might be around 5% of ocean plastics. In reality, it might be a bit lower because a tonne of waste that is bought and traded is more likely to be managed well than the average tonne of waste in a country.
I estimate that a few percent of ocean plastics could result from trade from rich countries. A figure as high as 5% would not be unreasonable.

Ending plastic trade would only do a bit to reduce plastic pollution - what is needed are better waste-management systems

Stopping exports of plastic waste to countries with poor waste management would help to tackle ocean pollution.

If rich countries banned the export of plastic waste to these countries, we might reduce plastic pollution a bit: perhaps up to 5%.

But, an end to trade won't stop plastic pollution. Only a small fraction of the world's plastic waste is traded - under 2%. And most - two-thirds of it - ends up in richer countries, where it's very unlikely to end up in the ocean.

There are obvious reasons to reduce these exports beyond the plastic pollution problem. Countries have been guilty of exporting contaminated recycling plastic packages - one of the drivers for countries to ban plastic imports. This is unacceptable: poorer countries are not a dumping ground for the rich.

Most of the world's waste is handled domestically and most of the waste that enters the oceans stems from these countries. To really tackle the problem we need to do two things: scale waste management systems in rich countries; the fact that they are exporting waste overseas suggests they have under-invested in practices at home; and, importantly, improve waste management infrastructure and practices in low-to-middle-income countries, as this is where most plastic pollution originates.

Keep reading at Our World in Data...

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to Max Roser, Edouard Mathieu, and Bastian Herre for feedback and suggestions on this article.

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Ocean plastics: How much do rich countries contribute by shipping their waste overseas?

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Many countries ship plastic waste overseas. How much of the world's waste is traded, and how big is its role in the pollution of our oceans? Most of the plastic that enters the oceans from land comes from rivers in Asia.1 More than 80% of it.2 Only a small amount comes from rivers across Europe and North America.

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNx0XFGn54w&ab_channel=BPLibraryKids

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It tells the tale of 3 dumpsite boys, Raphael, Gardo and Rat, who live on the trash heaps of Behala and sort through it, hoping to find anything they can sell or recycle. Their lives are rugged, poverty stricken, unadventurous. This changes when the boys find something in the trash: a bag, with a key and a wallet.

Setting: Inspired by Manila, Philippines

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https://www.ximalaya.com/album/70378507

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The Boy at the Back of the Class_全集免费在线阅读收听下载 - 喜马拉雅

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萌犸One创作的有声书作品The Boy at the Back of the Class，目前已更新5个声音，收听最新音频章节The Boy at the Back of the Class-Part05。

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jgfpgoyhn8&ab_channel=BPLibraryKids

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Iqbal is historical fiction based loosely on the life of a Pakistani boy by the same name. It deals with the very real problem of child labor by telling the story of several children working in horrific conditions, and how these children, unlik most, manage to escape and tell their stori.

Setting: Pakistan

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This book was turned into a movie so this is the trailer for the movie which is slightly different from the book: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnpBc8YvGpk&ab_channel=StudiocanalUK

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THE BREADWINNER - Official Trailer - Dir. by Nora Twomey and executive prod. Angelina Jolie

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"There is no country in the world where the basic human rights of women and girls are more restricted than in Afghanistan, and no government anywhere that has expressed support for the Taliban's policies there.

In 2023, Afghanistan remains the only country where teenage girls and women do not have access to education, employment, and freedom of movement. Despite the severe economic costs of maintaining these restrictions-not only for women and girls but for the entire population-the Taliban have been persistent in maintaining these bans.

The Taliban's restrictions on women's rights are compounding the humanitarian disaster in Afghanistan that was prompted by the sharp cut-off of most foreign aid after the Taliban takeover in August 2021. Taliban regulations prevent women from working for humanitarian organizations, thus making it more difficult for women and children to get aid and secure livelihoods.

These new rules have led humanitarian organizations to suspend much of their work, because continuing to do so would mean those most at risk would not benefit, contrary to fundamental humanitarian principles of impartiality, humanity and independence. Responsibility for ensuring the well-being of the population lies with the Taliban."

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8 March 2023. What are the main challenges to women and girls' rights in Afghanistan?

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"There is no country in the world where the basic human rights of women and girls are more restricted than in Afghanistan, and no government anywhere that has expressed support for the Taliban's policies there. In 2023, Afghanistan remains the only country where teenage girls and women do not have access to education, employment, and freedom of movement.

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https://www.ximalaya.com/album/32120018

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The Breadwinner - Deborah Ellis

GRADES 6-8

The Breadwinner brings to life an issue that has recently exploded in the international media: the reality of life under the Taliban. Young Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Because he has a foreign education, her father is arrested by the Taliban, the religious group that controls the country. Since women cannot appear in public unless covered head to toe, or go to school, or work outside the home, the family becomes increasingly desperate until Parvana conceives a plan. She cuts her hair and disguises herself as a boy to earn money for her family. Parvana's determination to survive is the force that drives this novel set against the backdrop of an intolerable situation brought about by war and religious fanaticism.

Deborah Ellis spent several months talking with women and girls in Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan and Russia. This suspenseful, timely novel is the result of those encounters.

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The Breadwinner - Deborah_全集免费在线阅读收听下载 - 喜马拉雅

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The Breadwinner - Deborah Ellis GRADES 6-8 The Breadwinner brings to life an issue that has recently exploded in the international media: the reality of life under the Taliban. Young Parvana lives with her family in one room of a bombed-out apartment building in Kabul, Afghanistan.

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https://theconversation.com/explainer-tracing-the-history-of-sudans-janjaweed-militia-118926

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Sudan's Rapid Support Forces evolved from the Janjaweed militia that once terrorised the people of Darfur. mOrso1/Flickr

Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir was finally removed from power after six months of peaceful protest earlier in 2019. The protesters were hopeful for a new beginning but their quest for a civilian government has been shut down by a military council that includes Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of a paramilitary unit called the Rapid Support Forces that has its roots in the Janjaweed. Tsega Etefa explains who the Janjaweed are and why their presence doesn't bode well for peace in the country. What is the history of the Janjaweed - when did the group come together and why?
The term Janjaweed refers to the armed groups of the Arabs of Darfur and Kordofan in western Sudan. They call themselves fursan (horsemen).

Darfur, located in western Sudan, is a vast plain about the size of the US state of Texas. It is divided into three states: North Darfur, with its capital at El Fasher; West Darfur, with its capital at El Geneina; and South Darfur, with its seat at Nyala. North Darfur is semi desert, while the western and southern regions have rich, fertile lands. Darfur's population is estimated at 7 million. All Darfurians are black Muslims even though many identify as Arab based on genealogy linked to Saudi Arabia. Darfur shares borders with the Central African Republic, Chad and Libya.

The Janjaweed militia originated in the mid-1980s when Darfur went through devastating times due to a combination of factors. These included:

Chronic neglect and marginalisation by Khartoum,

mishandling of a severe drought in the Sahelia, and a subsequent famine,

the outbreak of civil war between the north and south of Sudan,

increased migrant flows from Chad,

Chadian rebels and Libyan military activities, and

the weakening of indigenous dispute solving mechanism.

All these events conspired to create a situation in which there was a collapse of law and order. Darfurians began to arm themselves. Several Arabs and non-Arab groups formed their own militias as self-defense.

The term Janjaweed eventually applied to all Arab armed groups irrespective of their origins. For example, they could be Chadian, Libyan or from other non-Sudanese backgrounds. But most of them were Arabs from Darfur. Most were Abbala camel herders of north Darfur who complained about a lack of their own abode (Dar) similar to the Fur and other Arab groups.

The famine and the collapse of law and order encouraged the formation of the groups as they could make land grabs and restock lost animals.
What role is the Janjaweed playing in the current Sudanese unrest?
The Janjaweed has a strong link to the current crisis. This is because for the past six years the government of former president Omar al-Bashir officially organised the Janjaweed militia as the Rapid Support Forces under the command of the National Intelligence and Security Services. They were used to defeat rebel groups in the country. In 2013, al-Bashir selected Dagalo, an Abbala Arab of Hemeti clan, as the leader of the Janjaweed. A year later it was constitutionally accepted as a regular force. Although the Rapid Support Forces consist of other government-backed militia groups, most of its members were Darfurians chosen by Dagalo.

According to Human Rights Watch, the Rapid Support Forces committed war crimes in Darfur in 2014 and 2015 when civilians were displaced, raped, looted, and killed.

The recent killings of peaceful protesters in Khartoum are also believed to have been committed by the Rapid Support Forces. It is commanded by Dagalo, who is now the deputy chairman of the Transitional Military Council that forced al-Bashir out of power in April 2019. The council is chaired by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan but many believe Dagalo has the real power. He is believed to be wealthy with close ties to Saudi Araba and the United Arab Emirates.
What role has the Janjaweed played in other Sudanese conflicts?
It played a big role in the Darfur conflict. When the Darfur rebels - made up of the Sudan Liberation Army and Justice and Equality Movement - escalated their attacks on government positions in April 2003, the government unleashed the Janjaweed to target the Fur, Zaghawa, and Masalit villages.

The al-Bashir government intensified recruitment to help mobilise for its counter-insurgency war against the rebels. This included signing up criminals, convicts and prisoners, as well as appointing new village chiefs.
What links do the Sudanese military have to the Janjaweed?
Politicians and military officers played a considerable role in the recruitment, organisation, equipping and training of the Janjaweed. As for the army, it has carried out military operations together with the Janjaweed. For example, during Janjaweed attacks in Darfur the National Armed Forces provided air as well as ground support.

When the Rapid Support Forces were created, they were formally recognised as part of the national regular forces. This has meant that it's been well-supplied and well-equipped - much more so than in the early 2000s.
What does the involvement of the Janjaweed mean for democracy in Sudan - is there any hope for civilian rule?
It is heartbreaking to even think of the Janjaweed on the streets of Khartoum. The failure of the international community - including the African Union - to solve the Darfur crisis in the first place allowed the Janjaweed to rise to the national political stage. It's enough to create despair.

But there is always hope. It is a good sign that the Transitional Military Council and the opposition have agreed to resume talks. The army should hand over to civilian government as soon as possible.

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Explainer: tracing the history of Sudan's Janjaweed militia

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Former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir was finally removed from power after six months of peaceful protest earlier in 2019. The protesters were hopeful for a new beginning but their quest for a civilian government has been shut down by a military council that includes Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the leader of a paramilitary unit called the Rapid Support Forces that has its roots in the Janjaweed.

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https://www.adb.org/news/photo-essays/life-after-smokey-mountain-recycling-provides-livelihood-opportunities-manilas

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Photo Essay |

In the 1990s, the Philippine Government worked to close Smokey Mountain as a dumpsite and by 2001 had moved the informal settlers living in the area into temporary housing. Most of the smoldering 20-hectare dumpsite was bulldozed and five-story blocks were built for residents of the area. But with the dump gone, many lost their main source of income - scavenging.

To help residents in the area earn a living, a cooperative was formed. After years of struggling with management and financial problems, the cooperative began to improve in the 2000s. With a grant from ADB's Poverty and Environment Fund, the cooperative began to focus on modern recycling as a replacement for scavenging.
See the photo story

Countries

Subjects

Project Number

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Life after Smokey Mountain: Recycling Provides Livelihood Opportunities in Manila's Dump Site

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Photo Essay | In the 1990s, the Philippine Government worked to close Smokey Mountain as a dumpsite and by 2001 had moved the informal settlers living in the area into temporary housing. Most of the smoldering 20-hectare dumpsite was bulldozed and five-story blocks were built for residents of the area.

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https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/d8709b3476af4c42aab55d748b34e3c6

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The Consequences of Handcrafted Carpets in India

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLJjLfNxH8I&t=244s

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Afghanistan Crisis Explained for Kids - Behind the News

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Don’t Turn Maldives Into World’s Garbage Dump

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On Sunday, Maldives President Ibrahim Solih signed into law the Waste Management Act, raising serious concerns about the rights to health and to a healthy environment, and the government’s obligation to address climate change.

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https://app.listenwise.com/students/events/881-syrian-refugees-in-jordan

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(London) - The Pakistan government is failing to educate a huge proportion of the country's girls, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today.

The 111-page report, " 'Shall I Feed My Daughter, or Educate Her?': Barriers to Girls' Education in Pakistan," concludes that many girls simply have no access to education, including because of a shortage of government schools - especially for girls. Nearly 22.5 million of Pakistan's children - in a country with a population of just over 200 million - are out of school, the majority of them girls. Thirty-two percent of primary school age girls are out of school in Pakistan, compared with 21 percent of boys. By ninth grade, only 13 percent of girls are still in school.

"The Pakistan government's failure to educate children is having a devastating impact on millions of girls," said Liesl Gerntholtz, women's rights director at Human Rights Watch. "Many of the girls we interviewed are desperate to study, but instead are growing up without the education that would help them have options for their future."

Human Rights Watch interviewed 209 people for the report - most of them with girls who never attended school or were unable to complete their education, and their families - in all four of Pakistan's provinces: Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Punjab, and Sindh. Human Rights Watch also interviewed parents, educators, experts, and activists, and visited schools.

Among the factors keeping girls out of school, Human Rights Watch found, are the government's under-investment in schools, lack of schools, prohibitive school fees and related costs, corporal punishment, and a failure to enforce compulsory education. Human Rights Watch also found poor quality within both government and low-cost private schools, a lack of government regulation of private schools, and corruption.

In addition to these factors within the education system, girls are also blocked from attending school by external factors including child labor, gender discrimination, child marriage, sexual harassment, insecurity, and attacks on education.

The Pakistan government has consistently invested far less in education than is recommended by international standards. As of 2017, Pakistan was spending less than 2.8 percent of its gross domestic product on education - far below the recommended 4 to 6 percent - leaving the government's education system severely under-funded. Government schools are in such short supply that even in Pakistan's major cities, many children cannot reach a school on foot safely in a reasonable amount of time. The situation is far worse in rural areas. And there are many more schools for boys than for girls.

Aisha, around age 30, lives with her husband and their six children in an area of Peshawar where the nearest government school for boys, offering nursery school through 10th grade, is less than a five-minute walk away. The nearest government school for girls is a 30-minute walk and goes only through fifth grade. Aisha's daughter left school when she was 9 because of her parents' concerns about her safety walking to school.

"Even parents who are not educated themselves understand that their daughters' future depends on them going to school, but the government is abandoning these families," Gerntholtz said. "Pakistan's future depends on educating its children, including its girls."

An "upward bottleneck" exists as children, especially girls, get older. Secondary schools are in shorter supply than primary schools, and colleges have even less capacity, especially for girls. Many girls who complete the top level at one school cannot access a school where they could go on to the next level. In the absence of an adequate system of government schools, there has been a massive growth in the number of private schools, many of them low-cost. But poor families often cannot afford any tuition fees and the government's near-total failure to regulate and monitor these schools means that many are of poor quality.

Newly-elected Prime Minister Imran Khan's political party's manifesto promises major reforms to the education system, including for girls' education. "We will prioritise establishment and upgradation of girls' schools and provide stipends to girls and women for continuing their education," the manifesto says. It pledges to "put in place the most ambitious education agenda in Pakistan's history, spanning reform of primary, secondary, tertiary, vocational, and special education."

"The government recognizes that education reform is desperately needed and promises to make this a priority, especially for girls - a positive step," Gerntholtz said. "We hope that our findings will help the government to diagnose the problems and identify solutions that will give every Pakistani girl a bright future."
Selected Quotes from People Interviewed Lack of investment and shortage of government schools
"I could send them if there was a government school."
-Akifah, 28, mother of three children, ages 10, 8, and 7. The family moved from a village near Multan to Karachi three years earlier, looking for work, and had no choice but to settle in an area where there were only private schools the family cannot afford, and no government schools within reach.

"My parents said, 'If you are interested enough you can walk there.' Whoever wanted to, went. I found it too far. The path is lonely and isolated and there have been cases of two or three kidnappings in that area... But then I realized I needed to study so I convinced my parents and I got friends to go so we walked to school together."
-Asifa, 20, in Punjab, who delayed attending school until she was 9 or 10 because it was a 45-minute walk from her village. The school only went through eighth grade, so after that she went to live with her sister in a town where grades nine and ten were available.

"The state has never taken education seriously-proper resources have never been allocated in any state. The problem is the priories of government-education is not a priority and they don't allocate the budget."
-Head of a nongovernmental organization working on women's rights, Punjab.

"[E]very mother wants their child to be educated, but there is not a state system to deliver the services."
-Head of a community-based organization, Karachi.
Gender discrimination in the government's provision of schools
"If you have 10 schools for boys, you have 5 for girls."
-An education expert from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Poverty and the cost of education
"The government doesn't help the poor. We can't educate our children, and we can't feed ourselves."
-Rukhsana, 30, mother of three out-of-school children, whose husband is rarely able to work due to illness, who was unable to pay for school fees and related costs, Karachi.

"The school may be free, but there are always demands for money for something or the other. Copies, stationery, every day there is a new expense. A school bag alone costs 500 rupees [US$4.76].... Every day, every day, it's something."
-Zarifah, a mother of five out-of-school children, Balochistan.

"I wanted my daughters to get educated, but I couldn't because of poverty. My husband's salary is 12,000 rupees [$114] a month. At the end of the month, we are always out [of money] and wonder what to do - it is all gone. I want a school for girls who belong to poor families."

-Halima, 38, in Karachi, mother of five daughters, ages 13 to 19, none of whom studied more than a year or two. Her husband works in a chewing gum factory.
Quality concerns and corruption
"A lot of times the teacher showed up late or he would not show up at all. We would just go and sit and then come home."
-Hakimah, 17, Karachi, describing her primary school.

"For the last five years, everyone has to pay [to obtain a government teaching position]. It's worth it just for the salary - it's an investment. This has an impact on the quality of the teaching - there's no teaching."
-Director of a community-based organization, Karachi.

"Once or twice a year they [inspectors] come, unannounced. They come for a half hour. They want tea and to be entertained. You have to please them or they will say that your school is not good. Once I made the inspector wait and he got mad and left and said, 'I will write a bad report.' My colleague went to his house and gave him 25,000 rupees [$238] and we got a good report."
-Private school principal, describing government monitoring of the school, Punjab.

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(London) - The Pakistan government is failing to educate a huge proportion of the country's girls, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 111-page report, " 'Shall I Feed My Daughter, or Educate Her?': Barriers to Girls' Education in Pakistan," concludes that many girls simply have no access to education, including because of a shortage of government schools - especially for girls.

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The book tells the story of Amira, a twelve-year-old Sudanese girl whose village is destroyed by the Janjaweed as part of the Darfur conflict. She aspires to go to school where she can learn to read and write, and, among her numerous trials, finds relief through her art.

Setting: Sudan

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https://asia.nikkei.com/NAR/Articles/The-mountain-of-garbage-that-blights-the-Philippine-capital

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MANILA Years of strong economic growth have markedly lifted living standards in the Philippines, but abject poverty remains a bitter fact of life for many people in the Southeast Asian country.

Smokey Mountain is the most famous of several garbage dumps in the sprawling capital. And even though it has been closed for two decades, it remains a notorious symbol of poverty and urban misery. The trash heap provided livelihoods for thousands of people, but the problems that created it remain unsolved.

The hill in the Tondo district along Manila Bay sits near a group of high-rise buildings.

Apart from the slum just next to it, there are few signs indicating the hill was once a mountain of garbage. A bevy of illegally occupied shanties is almost the only legacy of its filthy past.

Smokey Mountain was the spilled guts of a vast and growing city. The amount of detritus began rising around 1960 and piled up over the years, when tons of garbage from the capital was dumped at the site. The heap was so named because flammable materials in the waste would spontaneously catch fire, producing plumes of smoke.

Scavengers eked out a precarious living sifting through the garbage, collecting recyclable materials such as iron scraps and plastics and selling them to junk dealers. Some even fed themselves on the scraps of food they found.

As the dump became a dark metaphor for poverty, the government closed Smokey Mountain in the late 1990s.

But that did not help the impoverished. With little to no education or professional skills, they had no choice but to continue picking through the garbage to put food in their mouths.

Smokey Mountain may be gone, but similar scenes now play out daily at a dumpsite in Payatas, Quezon City, in Metro Manila.

Every single day, some 500 trucks carry 1,200 tons of garbage from the city to the site. As each one dumps its load at the top of the 30-meter-high pile of trash, people rush to sift through it and find anything of value.

PILING UP Payatas has been in use since the 1970s, and it has grown quickly in recent years as the country's economy has expanded. It has been dubbed the second Smokey Mountain, and some of the scavengers from Tondo even migrated here.

The mountain of garbage has reached proportions where entire communities depend on it.

Rows of stalls housing shops that purchase iron, plastic and pet bottles retrieved from the site surround the trash heap.

About 10,000 people live here, and schools and other public facilities exist just like anywhere else.

The municipal government strictly limits access to the dumpsite. A license is required to work as a scavenger, and currently 1,800 people possess the permit. Children under 15 are banned from entering the site.

Only 400-500 scavengers are allowed to work at the same time. There are two shifts: one in the morning and another in the afternoon. Scavengers earn an average 100 pesos to 300 pesos ($1.98 to $5.96) per day, which is below the legal minimum wage in Manila.

Some scavenge only when they cannot find other work, such as in the construction industry.

The Quezon government tightened control of the dump following a disaster in 2000.

The mountain of waste collapsed, triggering a landslide measuring 30 meters high and 100 meters wide. More than 200 people were killed. With dozens still missing, the death toll is believed to be over 300.

The collapsed section is now a mound covered with grass and flowers.

In order to prevent another tragedy, the municipal government places a large amount of dirt over the mountain of refuse every day to solidify the mass.

Despite the safety measures, there is no disguising the fact that this is a garbage dump and that the work is filthy and degrading.

In the dry season, scavengers work in the scorching heat, while in the rainy season, they endure the putrid odor.

But many people are stuck here, unable to find other jobs, according to Jameel Jaymalin, the manager of the site. In an ideal world, nobody would have to work here, but the grim reality is that many of them cannot even afford clean clothes for job hunting, he said.

RAYS OF HOPE There have been, however, some encouraging steps taken to alleviate the hardships of living and working at the site.

After the deadly landslide, various government and nongovernmental organizations both in the Philippines and abroad started providing aid to the garbage diggers.

One such body is the International Children's Action Network, a nonprofit organization based in Nagoya in central Japan.

ICAN has set up a workshop near the site that helps residents become financially independent. Here, women skillfully stitch stuffed animals in hopes of selling enough of them to get by.

Vivian, a 60-year-old woman, worked as a scavenger because her husband's income was insufficient to feed their family. She used to start digging through the garbage before dawn, working until she could no longer carry on, she said.

After the disaster, Vina, 51, stopped scavenging and started earning her living by selling the stuffed animals she made by hand.

Initially, retailers often rejected her products, saying they would not sell well. But she has since acquired greater skill and now enjoys developing and making new toys. Her products are sold at bazaars in the Philippines and online in Japan.

A clinic that offers low-cost health care services was established in the neighborhood with financial support. But now, it operates without outside support because local residents work as volunteers.

Mana Abe, an ICAN staffer, said the mindset of local residents has changed. "They now try to support themselves and live without receiving outside aid as much as possible," she said.

The Payatas dumpsite continues to grow and is creeping toward houses in the area. It is expected to reach its limit in a few years.

In an effort to reduce the amount of garbage dumped here, the municipal government plans to introduce a system to burn waste and generate electricity that will power local residences.

In the meantime, the Payatas community will continue to scrape by, hoping that the country's economic growth will someday reach them, too.

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The mountain of garbage that blights the Philippine capital

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MANILA Years of strong economic growth have markedly lifted living standards in the Philippines, but abject poverty remains a bitter fact of life for many people in the Southeast Asian country. Smokey Mountain is the most famous of several garbage dumps in the sprawling capital.

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South Sudanese children play at a refugee camp in northern Uganda. Geovien So/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

In April 2022, 70 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were reportedly detained and then deported by the Zimbabwe government. Once back in the DRC, their government rejected 15 of them, who were sent back to detention facilities in Harare. The incident raises legal questions around human rights and the obligations of states that are signatories to the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol. Zimbabwe hosts 22,400 refugees and asylum seekers. Parvati Nair, a professor of migration studies, answers questions about the rights of refugees and the obligations of states.

What are the obligations to refugees under international law?

In the aftermath of World War II, the international community came together to shape and commit to the human rights of displaced persons.

The 1951 Refugee Convention and 1967 Protocol marked a milestone in framing the responsibilities of states to protect those fleeing untenable or dangerous contexts. These include conflict, disasters, political oppression and other severe conditions.

It also gave refugees and asylum seekers the right to have their cases go through legal processes. A key principle within this framework is that of non-refoulement, a core legal protection for displaced persons seeking asylum. It puts the onus on hosting states to safeguard asylum seekers.

Situations such as those of the Congolese refugees in Zimbabwe offer examples of how states disregard the law, transporting refugees across borders with no regard for their rights.

Africa exemplifies many of the challenges faced by refugees, as well as many of the ways in which states fail to honour cross-border obligations to asylum seekers.

The continent hosts a high population of displaced persons. Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria and Ghana are examples of countries that host large numbers of refugees.

As political scientist Sabella Abide states, many refugees and asylum seekers suffer protracted mental and physical abuse and suffering. Four years ago, the United Nations confirmed the Global Refugee Compact as a blueprint for how states should support refugees and host communities.

Key priorities included upholding refugees' human rights and ensuring their security. But many countries are still far from achieving this.

States are contravening international law at the cost of the dignity, safety and rights of forcibly displaced people.

This is not an African phenomenon. There are numerous examples of refugee rights being disregarded from Australia to the UK and the US.

Are humanitarian priorities being eroded?

Human displacement has been on the rise globally. This trend is set to continue.

Across the world, there are more than 84 million forcibly displaced persons. This means that one person out of at least every 94 is forcibly displaced.

In the face of such rising numbers, as well as the rise in populist and neoliberal ideologies, the humanitarian priorities that led to the establishment of refugee law are profoundly threatened. There are rising concerns around border protection policies and mechanisms among states, and questions of national sovereignty.

Indeed, Africa is partnering with the European Union in the proliferation of securitised borders. The union's coast guard agency Frontex is working with West African states to construct European borders on African soil.. This is aimed at preventing the northward movement of refugees and migrants to Europe. Such actions further alienate and ring-fence displaced persons.

As the Australian criminologist Sharon Pickering has pointed out, state responses to displaced persons as unwelcome intruders - and increasingly stringent border policies - have led to the obscuring of international obligations to asylum seekers and refugees.

Deportation is sadly an aspect of refugee management, yet it goes against refugee rights.

Today, the notion of the refugee as a person needing safety has altered in practice, if not in law. Representations in the media abound of displaced persons as law breakers, deviants and criminals who are burdens on a state and its citizens.

As a result, the legal principle of non-refoulement has been overshadowed. This has had profoundly negative, even deadly, consequences on the already harsh realities of refugees.

Take the example of migrants, refugees and asylum seekers crossing multiple African countries in their northward trek to Europe. Their journey is fraught with the dangers of push back from countries like Libya or Morocco.

Does Africa have a particular set of challenges?

Africa hosts approximately a third of the world's population of displaced persons, asylum seekers and refugees.

Poverty, instability, conflict and climate emergencies form the context in which people are forced to leave home and seek shelter across international borders. They then find themselves housed, often for indefinite periods of time, in already overcrowded camps.

The movement of refugees across Africa is not new. What has shifted over the past half century is the rise in numbers. Today, one in every 76 Africans is a refugee.

If we add to this the great number of internally displaced persons - often facing more dire conditions than refugees because they do not have the same access to aid from international agencies - then we see that addressing displacement, asylum and rights is of paramount importance.

Also different from before are the ways in which states manage this growing displaced population.

Previously, refugees were supported to settle in rural areas and become self-sufficient through agricultural and other endeavours. Today, many refugees are enduring protracted displacement. They are encamped, subject to state or donor support in countries with struggling economies. They are living in legal and economic limbo.

Additionally, reliance on donors from the global north has increased. The result is that refugees have become pawns in larger socio-economic and political deals.

The latest in this context is the UK's proposed deal to send refugees to Rwanda.

Lastly, taking into account the poor human rights records that often feature in many African countries, refugee law - forged in the language of human rights and applicable to already very vulnerable people - drops from view. This has dire social and personal consequences.

Are there solutions?

The international community has an obligation to support African states and Africa's refugees. This should be in ways that are equitable and offer actual benefits for refugees and hosts alike.

The international community must understand that the rising tide of refugees may be most intense in Africa, but is globally prevalent. Good refugee management is key to a sustainable and equitable world. Environmental crises and other global challenges mean that forced human mobility is here to stay.

Shaped by colonial legacies, and political and economic challenges, Africa remains enmeshed in relations of dependency and inequality with donor states and entities.

A clear prioritisation is urgently needed to separate responsibility for refugees from short-term economic gains or cross-border struggles. A key step would be to reposition humanitarian obligations as central to development to counter existing dynamics of dependency.

In line with the Sustainable Development Goals and their promise to leave no one behind, African states have the chance to make refugee rights key obligations of states and spearhead the issue, which is of global relevance.

African states must also take responsibility for much more efficient processing of asylum claims and resettlement, and support one another. They should link refugee protection to other core interests, such as health, youth futures and social inclusion. In this way, refugee protection and support become key features of development, which should be people-centred.

Only by honouring legal humanitarian commitments and empowering its refugees can African states develop in ways that are sustainable.

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The rights of refugees in Africa are under threat: what can be done

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In April 2022, 70 refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were reportedly detained and then deported by the Zimbabwe government. Once back in the DRC, their government rejected 15 of them, who were sent back to detention facilities in Harare.

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Driven by poverty and lack of education, hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis are forced to take loans from brick kiln owners and spend a lifetime working off what they owe. The debt then usually passes on to their children, even to girls as young as five years old.
PESHAWAR, Pakistan - Squatting on the wet ground, in clothes covered in dried mud, Qaseema Khan, 8, is helping her father and brother make bricks by pushing clay into the molds. Qaseema started working at the brick kiln in the Peshawar suburb of Meera Kachori when she was only 5 years old. Instead of going to school and playing with toys like other girls her age, she spends 10 hours a day making bricks to help keep her family from starving.

"I started work at the brick kiln when my father suddenly fell ill and was diagnosed with kidney problems," she says in a shy voice. With her father bedridden for three months, his children were forced to work to escape poverty. "I wish to go to school and want to become a teacher, but I know my wish will not materialize," she says.

Qaseema's father, Kameen, has been working at the brick kiln for 25 years. When he fell ill, he had to borrow money to buy food and medicine, and ended up owing $400 to his employer and $120 to his local shopkeeper. He was told that in order to work off his debt, he had to recruit his children to work with him. "Me and my two children collectively earn $9 per 600 bricks," he says. "Usually we make 1,000 bricks in a day." When sold at market, every thousand bricks earn the kiln owners $100.

With an income of $3 per day per person, families that work the brick kilns can barely afford to eat. "Sometimes a good Samaritan will come and feed us," says Qaseema. "When it rains, we do not work and do not earn a single penny and go to bed hungry."

One Step From Slavery

Pakistan's brick-making industry is run on a thinly veiled system of bonded labor that can trap several generations of one family. Typically, it starts with an employee at a brick kiln asking to borrow money from their employer for food, a dowry, medical treatment or any other number of reasons. The kiln owner loans the money, in exchange for which the man agrees to work for a meager income or none at all, until the loan is paid off. The size of the loan starts off small, but the terms are designed to keep it growing indefinitely. These loans can take many years to pay off, often obliging the man's children to also work at the brick kiln, to keep the family out of poverty.

The practice is illegal: In 2013, the Supreme Court of Pakistan issued a ruling forbidding brick kiln owners from giving loans to workers that amount to more than 15 days of wages. But with towns and villages across the country relying on brick kilns for their survival, the law is rarely enforced.

According to Syeda Ghulam Fatima, secretary-general of the Lahore-based Bonded Labor Liberation Front Pakistan, more than 20,000 brick kilns operate across Pakistan, employing over 45,000 people "whose rights are being exploited by the brick kiln owners."

Activists say working at a Pakistani brick kiln is akin to modern-day slavery in a country that has been struggling to tackle the issue of bonded labor. Last year's Global Slavery Index by the Walk Free Foundation estimates that 45.8 million people are subject to some form of modern slavery in the world. Pakistan ranks third on the list, with 2.13 million people believed to be enslaved in the country.

Education and Action

Driven by poverty and lack of access to education, tens of thousands of children work at Pakistan's brick kilns - underpaid, overworked and exploited - even though the country's constitution states that "no child below the age of 14 years shall be engaged in any factory or mine or any other hazardous employment." According to the Ministry of Federal Education's Academy of Educational Planning and Management, by 2015, just over 24 million children in Pakistan were not in school, and over 12 million of them were girls. And an increasing number of them will end up in bonded labor, say activists.

"Lack of political will, improper and poor implementation of laws regarding child labor and bonded labor, and an absence of checks and balances on the brick kilns are major obstacles in eliminating the menace of child and bonded labor," says Jehanzeb Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regional manager for the Society for the Protection of Rights of the Child.

At the brick kiln in Meera Kachori, 9-year-old Gul Mena is filling molds with clay. "I have been working at the brick kiln for the last three years," she says. "I wish to pay off my father's debt immediately." Gul talks about wanting to play hopscotch and pakran pakrai (a traditional version of catch) with other girls, which she can never do because she is always working at the brick kiln.

"I can't quit the job," she says, a sadness in her voice. "And I know my younger siblings - willingly or unwillingly - will also have to work at the brick kiln, because we are children of a lesser god."
This article originally appeared on Women & Girls Hub. For weekly updates, you can sign up to the Women & Girls Hub email list.

BEFORE YOU GO

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Girls Trapped in Cycle of Servitude at Pakistan's Brick Kilns

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Driven by poverty and lack of education, hundreds of thousands of Pakistanis are forced to take loans from brick kiln owners and spend a lifetime working off what they owe. The debt then usually passes on to their children, even to girls as young as five years old.

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https://app.listenwise.com/students/lessons/381-teen-girls-in-kabul

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Students: Use codes to join classes, and then complete assignments.

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A series of investigative reports over the last year has revealed that underage children, most of them migrants from Central America, are working some of the most dangerous jobs in our country - from construction sites to slaughterhouses to factories - operating dangerous equipment. States like Iowa, Missouri, and Ohio are considering rollbacks on child labor protections, allowing minors, some as young as 14, to work longer hours and night shifts. Tonya Mosley spoke with New York Times investigative reporter Hannah Dreier, who has been reporting on the children, and Washington Post business reporter Jacob Bogage, who has been reporting on conservative campaign to weaken child labor laws in the states.

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The Child Labor Crisis In America : Fresh Air

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A series of investigative reports over the last year has revealed that underage children, most of them migrants from Central America, are working some of the most dangerous jobs in our country - from construction sites to slaughterhouses to factories - operating dangerous equipment.

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https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-49599377

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Refugees fleeing Syria to UK: ‘We’re not trouble’

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What became of some of the 17,000 refugees allowed to settle in Britain after fleeing the Syrian war?

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This article was most recently revised and updated by

Arab Spring, wave of pro-democracy protests and uprisings that took place in the Middle East and North Africa beginning in 2010 and 2011, challenging some of the region's entrenched authoritarian regimes. The wave began when protests in Tunisia and Egypt toppled their regimes in quick succession, inspiring similar attempts in other Arab countries. Not every country saw success in the protest movement, however, and demonstrators expressing their political and economic grievances were often met with violent crackdowns by their countries' security forces. For detailed coverage of the Arab Spring in individual countries, see Jasmine Revolution (Tunisia), Egypt Uprising of 2011, Yemen Uprising of 2011-12, Libya Revolt of 2011, and Syrian Civil War.

Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution

The first demonstrations took place in central Tunisia in December 2010, catalyzed by the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old street vendor protesting his treatment by local officials. A protest movement, dubbed the "Jasmine Revolution" in the media, quickly spread through the country. The Tunisian government attempted to end the unrest by using violence against street demonstrations and by offering political and economic concessions. However, protests soon overwhelmed the country's security forces, compelling Pres. Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali to step down and flee the country on January 14, 2011. In October 2011, Tunisians participated in a free election to choose members of a council tasked with drafting a new constitution. A democratically chosen president and prime minister took office in December 2011, and a new constitution was promulgated in January 2014. In October-November 2019, Tunisia became the first country of the Arab Spring protests to undergo a peaceful transfer of power from one democratically elected government to another.

Egypt's January 25 Revolution

Inspired by Ben Ali's ouster in Tunisia, similar protests were quickly organized among young Egyptians through social media ( see Wael Ghonim), bringing out massive crowds across Egypt on January 25. The Egyptian government also tried and failed to control protests by offering concessions while cracking down violently against protesters. After several days of massive demonstrations and clashes between protesters and security forces in Cairo and around the country, a turning point came at the end of the month when the Egyptian army announced that it would refuse to use force against protesters calling for the removal of Pres. Hosni Mubarak. Having lost the support of the military, Mubarak left office on February 11 after nearly 30 years, ceding power to a council of senior military officers. The military enjoyed high public approval in the interim before a new government, but its apparent prioritization of stability over democratic transition at times dampened optimism.

Events in other countries

Encouraged by protesters' rapid successes in Tunisia and Egypt, protest movements took hold in Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria in late January, February, and March 2011. Unlike in Tunisia and Egypt, however, the outpouring of popular discontent in these countries led to bloody-and often protracted-struggles between opposition groups and ruling regimes.

Yemen

In Yemen, where the first protests appeared in late January 2011, Pres. Ali Abdullah Saleh's base of support was damaged when a number of the country's most powerful tribal and military leaders aligned themselves with the pro-democracy protesters calling for him to step down. When negotiations to remove Saleh from power failed, loyalist and opposition fighters clashed in Sanaa. Saleh left Yemen in June to receive medical treatment after he was injured in a bomb attack, raising hopes among the opposition that a transition would begin. Saleh returned to the country unexpectedly four months later, however, adding to the uncertainty and confusion about Yemen's political future. In November 2011 Saleh signed an internationally mediated agreement calling for a phased transfer of power to the vice president, Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi. In accordance with the agreement, Hadi took over governing responsibility immediately and formally assumed the presidency after standing as the sole candidate in a presidential election in February 2012. Unable to improve conditions or maintain stability, however, Hadi's government faced armed confrontation and rebellion that in 2014 devolved into a civil war.

Bahrain

Mass protests demanding political and economic reforms erupted in Bahrain in mid-February 2011, led by Bahraini human rights activists and members of Bahrain's marginalized Shiʿi majority. Protests were violently suppressed by Bahraini security forces, aided by a Gulf Cooperation Council security force (composed of about 1,000 soldiers from Saudi Arabia and 500 police officers from the United Arab Emirates) that entered the country in March. By the end of the month, the mass protest movement had been stifled. In the aftermath of the protests, dozens of accused protest leaders were convicted of antigovernment activity and imprisoned, hundreds of Shiʿi workers suspected of supporting the protests were fired, and dozens of Shiʿi mosques were demolished by the government. In November 2011 an independent investigation into the uprising, commissioned by the Bahraini government, concluded that the government had used excessive force and torture against protesters. The government carried out some of the commission's recommendations for reform but clamped down further on opposition groups in the years that followed.

Libya

In Libya protests against the regime of Muammar al-Qaddafi in mid-February 2011 quickly escalated into an armed revolt. When the rebel forces appeared to be on the verge of defeat in March, an international coalition led by NATO launched a campaign of air strikes targeting Qaddafi's forces. Although NATO intervention ultimately shifted the military balance in favour of the rebel forces, Qaddafi was able to cling to power in the capital, Tripoli, for several more months. He was forced from power in August 2011 after rebel forces took control of Tripoli. After evading capture for several weeks, Qaddafi was killed in Sirte in October 2011 as rebel forces took control of the city. A Transitional National Council, set up by rebel forces and recognized internationally, took power, but its struggle to exert authority over the country precipitated the outbreak of civil war in 2014.

Syria

In Syria protests calling for the resignation of Pres. Bashar al-Assad broke out in southern Syria in mid-March 2011 and spread through the country. The Assad regime responded with a brutal crackdown against protesters, drawing condemnation from international leaders and human rights groups. A leadership council for the Syrian opposition formed in Istanbul in August, and opposition militias began to launch attacks on government forces. In spite of the upheaval, Assad's hold on power appeared strong, as he was able to retain the support of critical military units composed largely of members of Syria's ʿAlawite minority, to which Assad also belonged. Meanwhile, divisions in the international community made it unlikely that international military intervention, which had proved decisive in Libya, would be possible in Syria. Russia and China vetoed UN Security Council resolutions meant to pressure the Assad regime in October 2011 and February 2012 and vowed to oppose any measure that would lead to foreign intervention in Syria or Assad's removal from power. The arrival of a delegation of peace monitors from the Arab League in December 2011 did little to reduce violence. The escalation of violence, fed by funding and arms from several rival countries interested in the outcome of the situation, culminated in a devastating civil war and a massive refugee crisis affecting millions.

Other countries

The effects of the Arab Spring movement were felt elsewhere throughout the Middle East and North Africa as many of the countries in the region experienced at least minor pro-democracy protests. In Algeria, Jordan, Morocco, and Oman, rulers offered a variety of concessions, ranging from the dismissal of unpopular officials to constitutional changes, in order to head off the spread of protest movements in their countries.

Legacy

Although the protest movements in 2011 were unique in their interconnected struggle for democracy across the region, the push to end corruption and improve citizens' quality of life did not end with the Arab Spring. Protests continued for years to come, and an additional wave of protests took place in the Arab world in the late 2010s and early 2020s. In February 2019, protests in Algeria toppled the government of Pres. Abdelaziz Bouteflika; in April, Sudan's military ended the 30-year rule of Pres. Omar al-Bashir after months of protests. Iraq and Lebanon, democracies whose polarized factions rendered the governments incapable of addressing major crises, also faced massive demonstrations of their own in 2019-20. Although these individual protest movements were not inspired by one another, the scale and similarity of their grievances led many observers to refer to this wave of protests as a second Arab Spring.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Amy Tikkanen.

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Arab Spring | History, Revolution, Causes, Effects, & Facts

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Arab Spring, wave of pro-democracy protests and uprisings that took place in the Middle East and North Africa beginning in 2010, challenging some of the region's entrenched authoritarian regimes. Demonstrators expressing political and economic grievances faced violent crackdowns by their countries' security forces.

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his March a bill was reintroduced in the US House and Senate that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in certain mechanized operations in the logging industry under parental supervision. Timber industry groups have strongly backed the legislation. For Wendy Bostwick, the news was a nightmare.

Bostwick's son Cole, who had just turned 18, died in a logging accident in 2014 on a job site in Washington where his father, Tim Bostwick, was also working.

"Obviously that was a tragic situation, but somebody who does want to get into logging can and should be supervised by their parents," Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chief sponsor of the Future Logging Careers Act, said in an interview with the local Washington paper the Chronicle. "If a child is going to go into logging, what better way than to start with your family and having your family teach it to you?"

"Bullshit!" Bostwick told the Guardian. "It should open our eyes.

"One of the most dangerous jobs in the world and people want to put their children out there? Kids that age are not emotionally ready for something like this. They don't have the mental faculties to drink alcohol, but they can go out there and make life-and-death decisions? I don't think so. It's dumb and dangerous," she said.

One of the most dangerous jobs in the world and people want to put their children out there?

Wendy Bostwick

The logging bill is just one of several efforts across the US to roll back child labor protections at a time when many employers are still struggling to fill jobs.

Backed by big business and lobby groups, politicians nationwide are pushing attempts to expand work hours for minors, expand the industries minors are permitted to work in, reduce enforcement and legislate sub-minimum wages for minors. These rollbacks at the federal and state levels are being proposed even as child labor violations have soared in recent years.

The logging industry is one of the most dangerous fields in which to work in the US, consistently leading with the highest workplace fatality rate in the nation.

"If this thing goes through, there are going to be a lot more families out there like ours. It's been almost nine years and we still live it every day. We have to be careful of what music we listen to or what movies we watch, because it reminds us of Cole and the accident. We will never be right again. My whole family still has PTSD issues. My husband and I have been in and out of therapy since it happened," added Bostwick.

"Losing an adult in the family is nothing compared to losing a child. Why, why, why would anyone want a child out there? There are plenty of adults who need those jobs too."

Against this legislative drive, surveys show an already alarming surge in child labor violations. The number of children employed in violation of child labor laws has increased by 37% in the last year and by 283% since 2015, from 1,012 reported cases of children working in violation of child labor laws to 3,876 in 2022, according to a March 2023 report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

"I think what we're seeing in terms of the state push right now should be viewed as the latest multi-industry push to really wipe out regulation of child labor, not in one fell swoop, but that's always sort of the end goal of the various pushes coming all at the same time," said Jennifer Sherer, senior state policy coordinator for the Economic Analysis and Research Network (Earn) Worker Power Project, and author of the EPI report.

The 2023 Death on the Job report by the AFL-CIO labor federation noted that 350 workers in the US under the age of 25 died on the job in 2021, including 24 workers younger than 18 years old.

Ten states have proposed or passed legislation to roll back child labor protections in the past two years, including eight states so far in 2023.

Arkansas passed legislation in 2023 to eliminate age verification and parental or guardian permission requirements.

In Iowa, a bill was passed in 2022 to lower the minimum age of childcare staff and reduce staff-to-child ratios. The state's Republican majority senate also recently passed a broader bill that enables minors to work in hazardous occupations and extends permitted work hours.

"This is part of a nationwide redefinition of childhood in the United States. It's pushing Iowa kids decades into the past and it's really concerning, because I think it's going to take advantage of some of the most economically vulnerable kids in Iowa and around the nation," said the Democratic state senator Liz Bennett.

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New Jersey and New Hampshire also passed legislation in 2022 to roll back child labor protections. Missouri recently included an amendment to a house bill ( HB188) that would expand work hours for minors. Legislation to relax child labor laws has also been introduced in Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio and South Dakota.

In addition to the legislation cited in the report, Nina Mast, an economic analyst at Earn and co-author of the EPI report, noted bills have been introduced in Maine and Virginia to create a sub-minimum wage for workers aged 14 to 17 years old. A bill in Georgia was proposed but failed this year to eliminate work youth permits.

This is a nationwide redefinition of childhood in the United States. It's pushing kids decades into the past

Democratic Iowa state senator Liz Bennett

Emails obtained by the Washington Post revealed much of the legislation aimed at rolling back child labor protection was drafted by the Foundation for Government Accountability, a Florida-based conservative thinktank that touts parental freedoms in advocating for the bills.

Business lobby groups are also pushing for change. "Could extra teen working hours help restaurants with the labor shortage?" the National Restaurant Association asked last year in a blogpost calling for Congress to pass the Republican-backed Teenagers Earning Everyday Necessary Skills (Teens) Act, which would lift restrictions on when and how much time teenagers can work.

The efforts, backed by business industry groups and conservative thinktanks, often contradict federal child labor law standards.In its report, the EPI argues the goal is to challenge federal standards at the local level in order to weaken or eliminate federal wage and hour standards.

The drive to increase child labor is being accompanied by a push to undermine oversight, said Sherer. She noted that the legislation in Iowa to roll back child labor protections also includes language to relax enforcement of any child labor violations.

"The most immediate problem and consequences, I think, created by the state rollbacks is the message that it's sending, that on top of the already weak enforcement, it's the state officials saying to the business community and to workers that they're not going to be enforcing wage and hour or child labor laws," said Sherer.

Democrats have proposed several federal bills to counter the trend and the Department of Labor and Department of Health and Human Services have proposed policies to strengthen enforcement of child labor violations and increase monetary penalties for violations. Opponents of the bills argue that enforcement is already inadequate and enforcement agencies haven't been adequately staffed or funded to respond to the rise in child labor violations.

If these bills are not stopped, said Sherer, the long-term consequences for many children will be severe.

"There's really extensive research in the public health and education world on why we have developed, over time, restrictions on work hours," she said.

"Teens and high school students that get close to or exceed that 20-hour-a-week mark for paid labor during the school year end up in a higher-risk category, are less likely to complete high school, less likely to be in a position to pursue post-secondary education or training, and that puts young people on a path to fewer job opportunities and lower earnings for a lifetime. It's actually very consequential," said Sherer. "Even those pushes to extend work hours are a really slippery slope, and dangerous in terms of long-term economic outcomes for children and their families."

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'Dumb and dangerous': US sees surge in efforts to weaken child labor regulations

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his March a bill was reintroduced in the US House and Senate that would allow 16- and 17-year-olds to work in certain mechanized operations in the logging industry under parental supervision. Timber industry groups have strongly backed the legislation. For Wendy Bostwick, the news was a nightmare.

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Life of slavery — bonded labor in Pakistan – DW – 12/25/2019

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Although bonded labor was outlawed in Pakistan years ago, the practice has continued, and even expanded, in the country due to a worsening economic crisis. Ansar Ali is one such farmer stuck in the perpetual debt trap.

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https://www.britannica.com/place/Manila

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Alternative Titles: Maynila, Maynilad

Manila, capital and chief city of the Philippines. The city is the centre of the country's economic, political, social, and cultural activity. It is located on the island of Luzon and spreads along the eastern shore of Manila Bay at the mouth of the Pasig River. The city's name, originally Maynilad, is derived from that of the nilad plant, a flowering shrub adapted to marshy conditions, which once grew profusely along the banks of the river; the name was shortened first to Maynila and then to its present form. In 1975, by presidential decree, Manila and its contiguous cities and municipalities were integrated to function as a single administrative region, known as Metropolitan Manila (also called the National Capital Region); the Manila city proper encompasses only a small proportion of that area.

Manila has been the principal city of the Philippines for four centuries and is the centre of its industrial development as well as the international port of entry. It is situated on one of the finest sheltered harbours of the Pacific region, about 700 miles (1,100 km) southeast of Hong Kong. The city has undergone rapid economic development since its destruction in World War II and its subsequent rebuilding; it is now plagued with the familiar urban problems of pollution, traffic congestion, and overpopulation. Measures have been taken, however, to ameliorate those problems. Area city, 15 square miles (38 square km); National Capital Region, 244 square miles (633 square km). Pop. (2000) city, 1,581,082; National Capital Region, 9,932,560; (2010) city, 1,652,171; National Capital Region, 11,855,975.

Landscape

City site

Manila occupies the low, narrow deltaic plain of the Pasig River, which flows northwestward to Manila Bay. The swampy delta of the southward-flowing Pampanga River lies to the north of the city. Immediately to the northeast and east of the urban region lies a stretch of lowlands, beyond which rise the peaks of the southern range of the Sierra Madre. Laguna de Bay, the large lake from which the Pasig River flows, flanks Metropolitan Manila to the southeast. Enclosing Manila Bay to the west is the mountainous Bataan Peninsula. Although the city's area is constricted, it is an excellent port site because of its sheltered harbour, its access to inland agricultural areas by way of the river, and its relative proximity to the Asian mainland.

Climate

The city is protected from extreme weather conditions by the hills of the Sierra Madre and the mountains of the Bataan Peninsula. The tropical climate is characterized by a wet season that lasts from June to November and by a dry season lasting from December to May. The wettest months are July, August, and September, when thunderstorms are especially common. The average annual rainfall totals about 80 inches (about 2,000 mm). There is little monthly variation from the mean annual temperature, which is in the low 80s F (about 27 °C).

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Plant and animal life

The city is dotted with palms, banyans, acacias, and other tropical trees, and bamboo grows in many public parks. Domestic mammals-such as water buffalo, horses, dogs, pigs, and goats-are common, while wild birdlife includes shrikes, doves, and pigeons. Manila Bay abounds with sardines, anchovies, mackerel, tuna, snappers, and barracuda. The city's natural beauty is marred, however, by air and water pollution caused by the expansion of industry and the growing number of motor vehicles.

City layout

The city is bisected by the Pasig River. It is divided into six administrative divisions that comprise 17 districts. Most of the districts developed from the original fortress city of Intramuros ("Within Walls") and the 13 villages located outside its walls. About two-thirds of the districts lie to the north of the river and the remaining third lies to the south. The two sections of the city are connected by several bridges.

Although business areas are widespread, the districts to the north of the river-especially along the bay and in the city's west-central region- constitute the chief centres of trade and commerce. The district of San Miguel is the site of Malacañang Palace, the presidential residence; and several universities are located in Sampaloc, on the northeastern edge of the city. Adjacent to the heavily populated districts on the northern shore is Manila North Harbor; Manila South Harbor, the main international port, is on the southern shore. Intramuros is renowned for its 16th-century San Agustin church as well as for the ruins of its old walls and of Fort Santiago. On the south shore, Ermita and Malate are choice residential districts and the sites of hotels and embassies. The districts to the southeast are generally middle-income residential areas.

Metropolitan Manila includes the cities of Manila, Caloocan City to the north, Quezon City to the northeast, and Pasay City (located near the shore of Manila Bay) to the south and 13 municipalities. The municipalities include Makati, Mandaluyong, San Juan, Las Piñas, Malabon, Navotas, Pasig, Pateros, Parañaque, Marikina, Muntinlupa, Taguig, and Valenzuela. Metropolitan Manila was created in order to provide integrated services such as water supply, police and fire protection, and transport and to permit central planning for simultaneous and unified development.

Housing

The city has a chronic housing shortage, and tenement housing projects have been constructed by the government to help house the poor. A landmark-if ultimately unsuccessful-project undertaken from the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s was the Bagong Lipunan Improvement of Sites and Services (BLISS), initiated by the governor of Metropolitan Manila. To provide homes for squatters, the government also developed resettlement projects in and around Manila that are easily accessible by land motor transportation.

Residential buildings include the single-family dwelling; the duplex for two independent households; the accessoria, whose dwelling units have individual entrances from the outside; the apartment building with common entrance; and the barong-barong, a makeshift shack built of salvaged materials (flattened tin cans, scrap lumber, cartons, or billboards) that is common in the poor areas.

Architecture

Architectural styles reflect American, Spanish, Chinese, and Malay influences. Rizal Park and a number of government buildings were designed by U.S. architect and city planner Daniel H. Burnham. Modern buildings-including multistoried commercial houses and public and private buildings-are commonly made of reinforced concrete and hollow cement blocks. Houses of modern design-especially low, sprawling ranch houses with spacious lawns-are common in the districts of Ermita and Malate. Spanish-style houses, with tiled roofs, barred windows, and thick walls, were common before World War II and have remained popular. The churches of the city are American, Spanish, or European in character. The Manila cathedral was rebuilt in the 1950s and is an important landmark. It succeeds five earlier cathedrals-the first dating from the mid-16th century-that were destroyed either by earthquakes or during wartime.

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Manila | History, Geography, Map, & Points of Interest

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LibGuides: 7 Humanities: How can this be?

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LibGuides: 7 Humanities: How can this be?