Bill McKibben joined the Williams Community for an Earth Week talk, “Outside the Comfort Zone: Working for Change on an Overheated Planet.” McKibben is an author and environmentalist. His 1989 book The End of Nature is regarded as the first book for a general audience about climate change. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grassroots climate change movement.
For generations, the myth that what was good for the Alexander & Baldwin corporation was good for the residents of Maui allowed Hawaii’s largest plantation and land development corporation to justify its legally questionable, ecologically destructive diversion of most of the fertile island’s largest streams.
During the late 19th century, after a handful of powerful oligarchs like Alexander and Baldwin seized power from the Hawaiian monarchy through the “Bayonet Constitution,” A&B developed an elaborate ditch system diverting nearly all the streams in rain-rich East Maui and channeling the water to more than 30,000 acres of plantation land in West Maui. The diversion system has nearly driven indigenous stream life to extinction and deprived Native Hawaiian farmers from growing the historic crops that had sustained Maui for centuries.Instead of paying market rate for the water from public lands and sharing the proceeds with Native Hawaiians, as required by state law, for decades A&B has taken more than 80% of all public water consumed on the island (this means all water not supplied by private wells). That’s 165 million gallons a day, at an outrageously discounted cost of just $160,000 per year, or $3 per million gallons. Meanwhile, the island’s 155,000 residents, as well as those businesses and new small farmers that require public water, pay $4,000 for 1 million gallons of county-treated drinking water (with volume discounts for large users that reduce this to $1,100 per million gallons) –and some have to wait up to 20 years to access it. In keeping with the new Maui Independent’s mission of Informing to Empower, our first petition, Stop A&B’s Massive Corporate Theft of Hawaii’s Protected Waters, can be signed on our What You Can Do section on the right of this page, or read in full and signed here. Litigation challenging A&B’s massive water diversions began more than 20 years ago, resulting in a series of state court decisions that concluded, in a ruling in January 2016, that A&B’s water leases were indeed illegal. Instead of complying with the court, A&B, which is by far the largest donor to state politicians in Hawaii, went to the state legislature and in 2016 convinced them to pass a special law making their illegal activities legal for the next three years.
Last year, A&B closed its sprawling 32,000 acre sugar plantation which, despite using most of the island’s public water, contributed, through the constant cane burning of atrazine-laced crops, most of Maui’s industrial pollution, but less than 1/2 of 1% of its tourist-rich economy.
Earlier this year, despite the closing of the plantation and despite the fact that, as Maui’s Sierra Club has reported, ”documents submitted by A&B indicate there are 132 million gallons per day available from their existing private sources,” A&B began a duplicitously complex process to win approval of a controversial 30-year extension of three-quarters of their massive water diversions from the state’s corporate-friendly resource and water commissions. The proposed lease would resume the delivery of 115 million gallons of water a day to A&B’s 32,000 acre former sugar plantation land, about six times more than all the treated public water consumed by all the people and businesses of Maui. The arid land, made valuable by a no-strings attached water lease, would be subleased to major agribusiness corporations, with some sold off by A&B as developments with multi-million dollar estates. Because A&B owns the dozens of ditches that divert hundreds of streams across Maui, and because it also owns the tens of thousands of acres of plantation land that the ditches deliver the water to, the company is pursuing a water auction process in which it will be the only viable bidder.
This deliberately rigged system provides the sort of political cover that A&B has used for decades to disguise the inconvenient truth that it plans to continue paying a fraction of 1% of the fair market value of the water, which, even at the County’s volume discount rate, would amount to over $40 million annually.
But times are changing in Hawaii, even for A&B. Fueled by a new era of transparency and accountability brought about by indigenous and environmental rights activists, as well as people-powered new media, ever-growing waves of change have been washing against the shores of Maui for three years now. As described here, a grassroots political movement of Native Hawaiians, environmentalists, farmers and parents joined forces in 2014 to oppose Monsanto and pass a GMO Moratorium initiative. But the power of the Hawaii’s agrochemical industry to pollute without local regulation was greater than Maui’s democracy. Monsanto, allied with Maui’s pro-GMO mayor and County Counsel, won an injunction in Federal Court effectively invalidating the initiative. Maui now has the dubious distinction of being the only county or state in the nation in which a publicly passed ballot initiative was blocked by a federal court. Last year, Bernie Sanders and his populist Second American revolution fired up public interest activism on Maui, where Sanders received more than 70% of the Democratic primary vote. More recently, last November’s election delivered an upset victory by four grassroots Maui ‘Ohana (“family”) County Council Members, who have all lined up against a handout of public water for one of the state’s richest corporations. Unlike the local officials in North Dakota who opposed the Lakota people’s Standing Rock uprising with a militarized army of police and mercenaries, the people of Maui have voted a new breed of grassroots representatives to power. The island’s young leaders are willing to challenge the once unchecked power of the “old guard,” and to blow the whistle on the rigged agrochemical and land development scheme that has dominated the state for decades.Elle Cochran, the fiery Maui Council Member whose re-election in November garnered 25% more votes than any member of Maui’s old guard establishment, believes that A&B is telling the public and government one thing about diversified agriculture, and telling their investors another thing. “I want to make sure A&B understands that all of us haven’t quite bought into their picture,” Cochran says. “This is an investment is in our future and our children’s children future. It’s in our power to hold them accountable. To me this it has not been a transparent process and I am in complete dissatisfaction.”In a statement to the Maui Independent, Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, who represents Maui in Washington and is Hawaii’s best known national leader, agrees, “Water rights are enshrined in the Hawaii Constitution, and it must be managed as a precious public resource.”
“For too long,” notes Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, “the diversion of Maui’s streams and water have disproportionately negatively impacted Native Hawaiians, small farmers, and residents in rural communities. It’s time to right these wrongs and ensure that access to water is fair and equitable to all. Water is life. We cannot survive without it. ”
Kaniela Ing, a Maui member of the State House of Representatives, who helped support his family working on pineapple plantations as a teen, has led the grassroots resistance to A&B’s water theft in the statehouse. Ing calls for an end to what he has called “plantation mentality” politics. “The A&B corporation is the largest campaign contributor in Hawai‘i,” he explains. “You can expect tens of thousands of dollars for your campaigns if you support A&B. We might be the only state in the country where it is easier to change the law in the legislature than to prevail in court. It was wrong for the legislature to approve an extension of holdover permits for A&B. The biggest problem in Maui is there is too much power in too few hands.”Ing is joined by Maui’s popular populist County Council members in recognizing that the future of the island’s agriculture will depend upon whether A&B continues to receive vast amounts of public water at a tiny fraction of its market value while growing pesticide reliant, polluting mono-crops, or whether citizens and their elected representatives can transition to a system that benefits the public, Native Hawaiians, and the island’s fragile ecosytem. “A&B takes more than half the water on Maui,” Ing says. “There’s something wrong with that much power. If we’re serious about renewable, diversified sustainable agriculture, we’re going to have to break the plantation into small plots and allow small farms to pool resources, to support agricultural parks. If you allow the market to play out, A&B will lease land to other large landowners. So how do we encourage small farmers? We’re going to need some serious political disruption in order to do that.” Mark Sheehan, a leading grassroots activist (and contributing editor of the Maui Independent), believes that “the fight for east Maui water is our Standing Rock. We are the Standing Rock of the Pacific.”Tiare Lawrence, a passionate Native Hawaiian political leader who ran for Senate last year and nearly won, believes that the enormous “100 year storm” that hit Maui this winter was an omen of the times. “The rains that happened this past week are a clear indication that Maui needs cleansing,” she said at a public meeting early in January. “Here in Hawai‘i there is a history of insider backroom dealings that people are clearly frustrated with.”Maui’s new County Council Member Alika Atay, a passionate outspoken organic farmer, anti-GMO activist and leader of the ‘Aina (earth) Protectors United effort, now heads Maui’s water resources committee. Atay believes that, “the end of the plantation era brings an opportunity for native water rights. We are very similar to our brothers and sisters in the Dakotas fighting to protect the Missouri River because Ola Ka Wai: Water is life.”“We all have a responsibility to stand up for future generations,” Atay says. “This is our indigenous right that we are born with. We need to stand up and say enough of the oppression. Water and earth protectors: Maui needs you.”Atay says that a group of Native Hawaiian families are reviewing their legal remedies to water rights and unpaid profits from the past, as well as claims on some of A&B’s sugar plantation land.First year Maui Council Member Kelly King, an articulate eco business leader who co-founded Hawaii’s fast-growing Pacific Biodiesel corporation, believes that historic claims may open the way for dramatically more empowered negotiations with A&B over water rights,
“If you go back and you look at the rights of the Hawaiians and actually what’s owed to them by A&B,” Councilmember King said, “you could probably buy that whole system and most of that land with the money that they actually owe to the beneficiaries.”
Among the many similarities between the struggle of the water protectors at Standing Rock and in Maui is the surprising leadership of indigenous teenagers. Maluhia Stoner (whose name means peace in Hawaiian) spoke with compelling conviction at a crowded pubic hearing in which nearly everyone opposed A&B’s water lease extension. “Nature has taken the waters of life from you because you have the nerve to abuse such a sacred element,” the 15-year-old Hana High school sophomore said. “You have already deprived our culture of the once abundant source of life and you dare take more. I testify that the East Maui Irrigation Company and A&B is guilty for the theft of our culture and the endangerment of native and indigenous species, the choice to ignore the claims of the Hawaiian people, the people of this island, and the destruction of the home in which we will always and have always resided.”“The biggest distorter of the free market are monopolies,” Representative Kaniela Ing explains. “I think when it comes to the water supply there shouldn’t be one corporation controlling it because they become more powerful than the government and we have to do their bidding. Where misdeeds are being exposed, all of a sudden, we are told it’s ‘not Aloha.’ That’s a convenient response–and it’s oppressive.”
“The ruling class always says the sky will fall if we change things,” Ing concludes. “But we cannot let their fear tactics impede our progress.”
On April 5, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Thomas A. Shannon announced more than $566 million in humanitarian funding for Syria and neighboring countries, bringing total U.S. Government (USG) humanitarian assistance to more than $6.5 billion since the start of the Syria crisis.
Under Secretary Shannon announced the funding at the Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region conference in Brussels. The announcement includes more than $431 million from State/PRM, $127 million from USAID/FFP, and $8 million from USAID/OFDA to support humanitarian efforts in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, as well as humanitarian assistance inside Syria.
On March 13, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) released the 2017 Syria Humanitarian Response Plan (HRP), requesting $3.4 billion to reach approximately nine million people in Syria with direct emergency relief assistance and approximately 12.8 million people through multi-sector humanitarian service delivery. Overall, the HRP and complementary Humanitarian Needs Overview, released in December 2016, identified 13.5 million people in need of humanitarian assistance, including 6.3 million internally displaced persons (IDPs). The HRP reports that one of every three people in Syria is food insecure and four of every five people live in poverty. The conflict continues to displace an average of approximately 6,150 people per day.
Parties to the conflict, including the Syrian Arab Republic Government (SARG) and several armed opposition groups (AOGs), met in Geneva for the fifth round of UNmediated peace negotiations between March 24 and 31. The UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura facilitated the Geneva V conference, which included discussions on governance, constitution-making, elections, and counterterrorism, and resulted in limited progress.
INSECURITY AND POPULATION DISPLACEMENT
The Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) Cluster—the coordinating body for humanitarian CCCM activities, comprising UN agencies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and other stakeholders—recorded nearly 687,000 displacements, including approximately 44,000 new displacements, from conflict-affected areas in northern and southern Syria between February 1 and March 14. The figure includes nearly 672,000 people displaced from Aleppo, Dayr az Zawr, Al Hasakah, Hamah, Homs, Idlib, Lattakia, and Ar Raqqah governorates and nearly 15,000 people displaced from Damascus, Dar’a, and Rif Damascus governorates. The CCCM Cluster has noted no significant change in the rate of displacement between February and March.
Northern Syria
Intensified airstrikes—allegedly led by the SARG and the Government of the Russian Federation (GoRF) and involving chemical weapons—struck opposition-held areas in southern Idlib’s Khan Shaykun sub-district on April 4, resulting in approximately 100 deaths and widespread injuries, according to USAID partners, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, and international media. A subsequent attack on April 4 struck a hospital in southern Idlib, where patients had relocated following an April 2 attack on another major hospital in the governorate, international media report. The attacks follow earlier accounts of the alleged use of chemical weapons in northern Hamah Governorate’s Kafr Zeita sub-district on March 30. In response to the attacks, the UN Security Council called an emergency meeting on April 5 to discuss the suspected chemical attack in northern Syria.
Clashes between SARG forces and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), as well as between the U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) and ISIS, in Aleppo’s Menbij District are driving further displacement from and within northern Aleppo. Between February 27 and March 16, the fighting displaced approximately 60,000 people within Menbij and to other parts of Aleppo, as well as to Ar Raqqah and Al Hasakah, according to OCHA. A preliminary assessment conducted on March 3 found approximately 7,500 IDPs sheltering in open fields and alongside roadways; subsequent reports from humanitarian agencies suggest that an additional 25,000–30,000 people displaced from Menbij lack access to adequate shelter in areas of displacement. Humanitarian agencies are distributing relief items and providing affected households with health, nutrition, shelter, and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) support, while monitoring the situation and responding to other emerging needs in the area. Additionally, a USAID/OFDA partner has provided more than 1,600 emergency shelter kits to affected populations in Menbij as well as in Ar Raqqah’s Ein Issa sub-district and Tel Abyad District.
From March 1 to April 3, the ongoing SDF offensive to retake the city of Ar Raqqah from ISIS displaced more than 21,600 people, including nearly 19,500 people displaced within Ar Raqqah Governorate and more than 2,100 people displaced to parts of Aleppo, Dayr az Zawr, and Idlib, according to USG partner the International Organization for Migration (IOM). As the offensive continues, population movement remains fluid, with 1,000 additional displacements from Ar Raqqah recorded on April 4 alone.
In March, SARG forces gained additional territory from ISIS in the Aleppo sub-district of Al Khafsa, including assuming control of Al Khafsa town and a key water pumping station, which supplies water to Aleppo’s Al Bab, Deir Hafer, and Menbij districts, as well as to the city of Aleppo. The water station was inoperable for nearly two months due to damage; however, following its transfer to SARG control, the station was reportedly repaired and operating at an unknown level of capacity as of March 15, according to local media.
Between February 3 and March 9, the UN registered more than 141,000 IDPs in newly accessible neighborhoods in the city of Aleppo; the areas are not yet safe for return due to heavy structural damages and the presence of explosive remnants of war (ERW) and landmines, OCHA reports. In February, relief agencies reported 16 deaths and several injuries resulting from ERW in Aleppo. While some IDPs have returned to newly accessible neighborhoods in the city, nearly 46,000 people remain displaced in western Aleppo city, while more than 5,000 IDPs remain at the Jibreen transitional shelter in the eastern outskirts of the city.
On February 8, shelling struck a Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) distribution point in the city of Aleppo, killing four people, including one SARC staff member and two beneficiaries who had arrived at the site to collect humanitarian assistance. The shelling also resulted in several injuries.
Southern and Central Syria
Following several weeks of intensified airstrikes targeting the neighborhood of Al Wa’er in the city of Homs, SARG authorities and AOGs agreed to new reconciliation terms brokered by the GoRF on March 13, effectively ceding control of the city to the SARG. Pursuant to the terms agreement, approximately 1,400 people, including irreconcilable fighters and their families, had relocated from Al Wa’er to the northern Aleppo town of Jarablus on March 18. Al Wa’er—the last opposition-held neighborhood in the city—had been under siege since 2013, triggering shortages of medicine and other relief supplies. The UN last reached the neighborhood in September 2016.
Intensified fighting between SARG forces and AOGs in opposition-controlled areas of the Dar’a city, as well as among moderate and extremist opposition groups in southwestern parts of the governorate, had displaced up to 30,000 people as of March 22, according to USG partner the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). The fighting and general insecurity is impeding humanitarian access in Dar’a, making it difficult to triangulate displacement figures, the UN agency notes.
Clashes continue between ISIS-affiliated Jaysh Khaled Ibn Waleed (JKW) forces and AOGs in southwestern parts of Dar’a, with local media reporting high casualty figures and several executions in JKW-controlled territory. The fighting follows the extremist groups’ launch of an unexpected offensive in southwestern Dar’a in late February, during which it made significant territorial advances, including seizing control of the towns of Ain Thakar, Edqan, Hit, Jlein, Saham elGolan, Sehm Al Jolan Dam, and Tassil.
Armed groups launched a major assault on SARG positions near the city of Hamah on March 21, taking control of at least nine villages and towns and advancing within a few kilometers of the SARG-held city, international media report. The fighting has prompted at least 10,000 people to flee from the city in recent days, according to an international NGO.
HUMANITARIAN ACCESS
A UN interagency convoy, including USAID/FFP partner the UN World Food Program (WFP), delivered multi-sector assistance to meet the needs of approximately 60,000 people in the Rif Damascus towns of Madaya and Az Zabadani, as well as the Idlib towns of Al Fu’ah and Kafrayya on March 14. The UN last reached the four besieged towns in late November 2016. In addition to delivering general food rations, WFP provided households across the four towns with two bags of wheat flour and one ready-to-eat (RTE) food ration. WFP also delivered a three-month supply of nutritional supplements for the treatment of moderate acute malnutrition in 180 children across the four towns.
Intensified clashes between AOGs and SARG forces erupted in northeastern parts of Syria’s capital city of Damascus in mid-to-late March, hindering the delivery of humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected populations in the city and surrounding areas. As of March 24, an estimated 300,000 people in Rif Damascus’s Eastern Ghouta region, including in the besieged city of Douma and the besieged sub-district of Kafr Batna, remained cut off from humanitarian assistance, prompting the UN to call for a temporary suspension of hostilities to enable humanitarian access to affected areas, international media report. The UN last reached Kafr Batna and Douma in June and October 2016, respectively.
Since the implementation of a reconciliation deal in the Wadi Barada area of Rif Damascus in late January, the humanitarian situation has improved significantly, primarily due to the easing of SARG-imposed access restrictions, according to a USAID/OFDA partner. In February, the SARG opened two formal access points, facilitating the movement of civilians to and from Wadi Barada for the first time since November 2016. The easing of siege conditions has allowed commercial vehicles to deliver food, fuel, and household items, which had been largely unavailable in recent months. Nonetheless, prices for basic food commodities and household items remained much higher than in surrounding areas as of March 20, the partner reports. The easing of siege conditions in Wadi Barada has also enabled the delivery of critical medical supplies, the reopening of primary health care facilities, and the evacuation of patients requiring specialized treatment to Damascus, contributing to improved health conditions.
Pursuant to UN Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2332, the UN and its humanitarian partners continue to deliver cross-line and cross-border assistance to Syria from Iraq, Jordan, and Turkey. Between February 1 and 31, three UN humanitarian convoys delivered food assistance for approximately 64,000 people and relief commodities for more than 30,000 people via the Ramtha border crossing between Jordan and Syria; the figures represent a significant decrease from January, when the UN delivered assistance for more than 400,000 people. Insecurity in Dar’a prompted the UN to suspend humanitarian convoys traveling from Jordan to southern Syria on February 13, which likely contributed to the decrease in beneficiaries in February. As of March 12, the UN had resumed cross-border convoys via Ramtha, according to the Jordan-based Food Security Cluster.
With approximately $5 million in FY 2017 assistance, USAID/OFDA continues to support OCHA to ensure greater accountability, coherence, and transparency related to the Syria crisis response. USAID/OFDA funding also supports improved operational coordination and preparedness.
FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION
An estimated 9 million people across Syria are in need of emergency food assistance, agriculture support, and livelihoods interventions, according to the UN. The figure includes 7 million people—one in three Syrians—who are food insecure and an additional 2 million people at risk of food insecurity. By comparison, the 2016 HRP indicated 8.7 people in need of agriculture and food-related assistance.
Through implementing partners based in Al Hasakah’s city of Qamishli, WFP is supporting the emergency food assistance needs of people displaced in Menbij. As of March 20, WFP had distributed RTE rations to address the immediate food needs of approximately 35,000 people displaced across 37 villages in Menbij for five days. Additionally, WFP maintains a supply of approximately 7,500 RTE rations in Qamishli, which the UN agency plans to dispatch to IDPs sheltering in western areas of Ar Raqqah.
As of March 5, WFP had completed 200 airdrop rotations to the ISIS-besieged city of Dayr Az Zawr, where approximately 93,500 people are in urgent need of food assistance. Overall, WFP reports that the airdrop operations have provided a total of 3,800 metric tons of emergency food and other humanitarian relief supplies for approximately 90,000 people since the air operations began in April 2016.
Between March 23 and 29, USAID/OFDA partner the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) screened 66 children and 37 pregnant and lactating women for malnutrition at the UNICEF-supported clinic at the informal Rukban settlement, located along the Syria–Jordan border berm, identifying three children with moderate acute malnutrition and three malnourished pregnant or lactating women. In response, UNICEF provided ready-to-use supplementary food. UNICEF-led infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counseling at the Rukban clinic reached 12 pregnant and 52 lactating women from March 23 to 29, raising the total number of pregnant and lactating women reached with IYCF counseling at the clinic to nearly 290 since the activity began.
HEALTH
The USAID/OFDA-funded Early Warning Alert and Response Network (EWARN) reported 121 suspected measles cases in Damascus and Rif Damascus from January to February; nearly 75 percent of the reported cases originated in Kafr Batna. All cases met the clinical case definition for measles, and the SARG Ministry of Health confirmed at least 33 cases via diagnostic testing. Health officers anticipate limited capacity for additional diagnostic testing due to access restrictions in Eastern Ghouta. The new, suspected cases represent an increase from 2015 and 2016, during which EWARN reported only 50 suspected measles cases in Rif Damascus. USAID/OFDA partner the UNICEF is coordinating health response efforts in Eastern Ghouta through the planned cross-line delivery of measles vaccinations and Vitamin A supplements from Damascus.
The ongoing conflict, including attacks on health infrastructure and personnel, continues to diminish health care capacity throughout Syria. In 2016, parties to the conflict conducted at least 105 attacks on hospitals and the attacks resulted in at least 14 health care worker deaths, the UN reports. Additionally, the conflict has disrupted supply chains, contributing to reduced supplies of essential medicines and supplies, and impeded medical evacuations, particularly in areas under siege. The lack of basic utilities, such as electricity, sanitation services, and safe drinking water, has also heightened vulnerability to disease transmission in conflict-affected areas. As a result, the 2017 HRP estimates that 12.8 million people in Syria, including 4.5 million IDPs, are in critical need of health assistance, including access to primary health care services, essential medicines, immunizations, and trauma care, among other health-related needs. The figure marks a significant increase in the number of people requiring health assistance from 2016, estimated at 11.5 million. The HRP requests $459 million to meet the health-related needs of conflict-affected communities, including through the provision of life-saving health assistance, support for health sector coordination and information systems, and efforts to strengthen community resilience.
With FY 2016 assistance, USAID/OFDA continues to support several NGO partners to respond to the health needs of conflict-affected populations in Syria. USAID/OFDA-funded activities include primary health care services, training for Syrian medical workers, the provision of medical supplies, and support for polio vaccination campaigns. In addition, USAID/OFDA partner UNICEF is assisting populations sheltering at the Rukban and Hadalat settlements along the Syria–Jordan border berm. From March 23 to 29, UNICEF health consultations benefited nearly 80 children younger than five years of age; the most common cause for consultation was respiratory infection. Cumulatively, UNICEF has conducted nearly 580 health consultations, reaching more than 500 people in Rukban and approximately 70 people in Hadalat, since November 2016.
In response to the intensified airstrikes and alleged chemical weapons use in Idlib, UNICEF is mobilizing nine ambulances to transport patients to hospitals in northern Aleppo and Idlib and supporting medical treatment at four hospitals with the capacity to treat up to 22,500 cases per month. From April 4 to 6, several USAID/OFDA-supported health facilities responded to the alleged chemical weapon attacks by treating 165 severe cases, including 60 children, and 400 minor cases or consultations. UNICEF is also providing atropine, a nerve agent exposure medication, for 1,000 cases and additional emergency medical supplies sufficient to treat up to 1,500 additional severe cases. UNICEF has also distributed informational brochures to assist in identifying the chemical weapon used in the attack and is raising awareness among its field staff to increase response capacity to potential future chemical attacks.
WASH
Approximately 51 percent of Syria’s population lacks sustained access to the public water network, according to the UN. Additionally, an estimated 8.2 million people, including IDPs and those remaining in UN-declared besieged areas or in areas controlled by extremist groups, require urgent WASH assistance.
To increase water access for IDPs sheltering at the berm, UNICEF is providing an average of 12 and 25 liters of potable water per person per day in Rukban and Hadalat, respectively, and supporting the establishment of working water supply infrastructure and access points at both sites. A water supply station in Hadalat will likely be functional by mid-April, while a new borehole in Rubkan will likely be operational by late June, the UN organization reports.
With nearly $1.8 million in FY 2017 assistance, USAID/OFDA is also supporting increased efforts to address the needs of IDPs in Aleppo and Ar Raqqah. USAID/OFDA-funded activities include the distribution of hygiene kits and other relief commodities, as well as the restoration of water supply and sanitation infrastructure in conflict-affected areas.
REFUGEE ASSISTANCE
As of March 24, UNHCR had registered nearly 5 million Syrian refugees in neighboring countries, including Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey, as well as parts of northern Africa. Turkey remains the largest host nation, with nearly 3 million Syrian refugees registered in the country as of mid-March.
In coordination with UNICEF, USG partner the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) conducted landmine awareness trainings for nearly 20 psychosocial support counselors in Damascus’s Husseiniyeh, Khan Eshieh, and Qabr Essit camps; each of the camps are located in areas presently under SARG control, but previously designated as hard-to-reach or otherwise directly impacted by the hostilities. UNRWA plans to conduct additional trainings in landmine awareness for students and teachers in the coming weeks. With USG support, UNRWA is also providing primary education for nearly 45,500 school-aged children attending more than 100 UNRWA-managed schools across Syria.
WFP continues to support the food-related needs of Syrian refugees in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Lebanon through the distribution of electronic food vouchers. The USAID/FFP-funded e-voucher program enables vulnerable people to access local supermarkets, thereby helping to restore their dignity, and enables the purchase of local food supplies. To date, the program has issued more $1.7 billion in food vouchers.
The recent announcement of USG funding included approximately $397 million to continue support for the more than five million Syrian refugees as well as host communities in the region. USG funding is supporting refugees in both camp and non-camp settings to meet their basic needs, including through the provision of education, food, health, shelter, and WASH support. USG funding is also supporting refugee registration, information helplines, protection services, as well as livelihoods programming and vocational training, among other activities.
OTHER HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE
In mid-March, the UN released the 2017 HRP, requesting $3.4 billion to address the critical needs of conflict-affected people in Syria. The appeal represents an increase of approximately $300 million from the 2016 HRP, and seeks to provide agricultural support and emergency food assistance to 9 million people; emergency relief commodities and shelter support to 4.9 million and 740,000 people, respectively; health assistance for 12.8 million people; and protection services for 9.7 million people, among other interventions. As of April 6, international donors had contributed more than $501 million—approximately 15 percent of the requested total—toward the 2017 HRP, according to the UN’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS).
On March 23, the Government of Germany (GoG) pledged approximately $254 million to support humanitarian assistance and stabilization programs in Iraq and Syria. The announcement coincided with the meeting of the Global Coalition working to defeat ISIS, held in Washington, D.C., from March 22 to 23. The GoG’s plans to continue funding key efforts to facilitate the safe return of civilians and promote economic stability and security in Syria, including through demining programs, the restoration of safe drinking water and electrical systems, and the provision of education and livelihoods support. In FY 2016, the GoG provided $1.2 billion for humanitarian assistance and stabilization programs in Syria.
On March 6, the Government of Japan (GoJ) provided more than $15 million in funding to WFP to assist nearly six million conflict-affected people in Syria and the region. The contribution will support WFP’s food assistance and livelihoods programs in Syria, as well as in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. Since the crisis began, the GoJ has provided more than $88 million to support WFP’s emergency response for Syria.
During the April 4 to 5 Supporting the Future of Syria and the Region conference in Brussels, international donors pledged $6 billion to support development, humanitarian, and resilience activities for the Syria crisis response. In addition to the USG, other top donors included the GoG, the European Commission, the Government of the United Kingdom, and the Government of Canada, which pledged approximately $1.4 billion, $1.4 billion, $626 million, and $274 million, respectively.
CONTEXT
Following the commencement of peaceful demonstrations against the SARG in March 2011, President Bashar al-Asad pledged legislative reforms. However, reforms failed to materialize, and SARG forces loyal to President al-Asad began responding to demonstrations with violence, leading armed opposition groups to retaliate.
At a November 2012 meeting in Doha, Qatar, Syrian opposition factions formed an umbrella organization—the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, also known as the Syrian Coalition (SC). The USG recognized the coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people on December 11, 2012. On March 19, 2013, the SC established the Syrian Interim Government, which opposes the SARG and is based in decentralized locations throughout opposition-held areas of Syria.
On July 14, 2014, the UN Security Council adopted UNSCR 2165, authorizing UN cross-border and cross-line delivery of humanitarian aid to conflict-affected populations without SARG approval. The resolution permits the UN’s use of four border crossings from Turkey, Jordan, and Iraq—in addition to other crossings already in use by UN agencies—for delivery of humanitarian assistance into Syria. The resolution also establishes a monitoring mechanism under the authority of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and with the consent of the neighboring countries to ensure that deliveries across these border points contain only humanitarian items. The UNSC has subsequently adopted several resolutions renewing the mandate of UNSCR 2165, most recently in December 2016 with the adoption of UNSCR 2332, extending the authorities granted until January 2018.
Prior to the start of the conflict, UNRWA had registered approximately 560,000 Palestinian refugees in Syria, with more than 80 percent living in and around Damascus. Intense fighting in and around some Palestinian camps and neighborhoods has significantly affected Palestinian refugees in Syria. UNRWA estimates that approximately 60 percent of Palestinian refugees are displaced within Syria, with a further 110,000 Palestinian refugees displaced to neighboring countries. Syria also hosts an estimated 24,000 Iraqi refugees and asylum seekers, primarily in the greater Damascus area, as well as more than 3,200 refugee persons of concern from other countries.
PUBLIC DONATION INFORMATION
The most effective way people can assist relief efforts is by making cash contributions to humanitarian organizations that are conducting relief operations.
The USG encourages cash donations because they allow aid professionals to procure the exact items needed (often in the affected region); reduce the burden on scarce resources (such as transportation routes, staff time, and warehouse space); can be transferred very quickly and without transportation costs; support the economy of the disaster-stricken region; and ensure culturally, dietary, and environmentally appropriate assistance.
Water rates and rivers delves into the reasons behind the steep climb in water rates, especially for those living in Kansas City, Missouri, and asks was this inevitable and is it fair? The hike in prices is largely explained by a federal mandate requiring KCMO to upgrade its sewage system and to stop so much pollution from spilling into the Blue River watershed. But as an urban stream, is the Blue River destined to always be brown anyway? With the watershed split by the state line, to what extent is Kansas upstream causing problems for Missouri downstream?
When Donald Trump was running for president, he talked a lot about putting people back to work. And one of the industries he focused on most was the coal industry.
But there simply aren’t very many coal jobs to be had any more in the U.S. That’s not because of anything Obama did. Coal jobs are decreasing because demand for coal is decreasing, and because machines now do much of the work.
In 1985 the coal industry employed a over 178,000 miners. By 2016, it employed just 56,000.
By contrast, in 2016, wind and solar energy provided more than 6 times the number of jobs as coal. The trend is toward even more jobs in wind and solar, regardless of what Trump does.
Solar energy is exploding worldwide, an almost sixfold increase in just the last 5 years. But America ranks fifth in the production of solar energy, behind China, Germany, Japan and Italy.
If we really want to lead – if we really want to join the New Energy Economy – we have to go with the energy of the future, not the energy of the past. The other option — the one Donald Trump is proposing – leaves us following, not leading.
It’s our choice.
This fact sheet presented by The Sanders Institute defines what is the minimum wage, the history of the minimum wage, some characteristics of minimum wage workers, and the purpose of the minimum wage and wheather or not it is working.
“What you are seeking is seeking you” — a popular quote Turner mentioned spur-of-the-moment when asked what motivated her to run for office. “I never saw myself running for office, but as my life began to unfold and I had different exposure, I saw the power of public policy and what strong, committed people, especially strong personalities, could really do with the bully pulpit — to both push policy and make a difference in the lives of individuals.”
Turner served in the cabinet of Cleveland Mayor, Michael R. White, in 1999 and was the Director of Government Affairs for the Cleveland Municipal School District shortly thereafter. In 2001, Turner made an unsuccessful run for the Cleveland City Council, yet would later win her second bid for the city council in 2005.
Her time in office and her life experiences played a key role in molding her worldview and developing her political philosophy.
Turner’s Thoughts on Education
“In some ways, I feel like I’ve been a public servant all of my life,” stated former State Senator Nina Turner, affectionately looking back on her past. Turner, being the eldest child of seven, took on a number of responsibilities after her mother’s unexpected passing at the age of forty-two while Turner was a Sophomore at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio.
“I was just struggling, I was a wife, mother, and now all of a sudden I have six other people to be responsible for — with no money. So, it was really that moment, Walter, I had an epiphany, if you will, that I was going to do my level best to finish college myself and to go on to a four-year university, and to get my college degree for my mother’s memory, even though she wasn’t here to see any of that, I wanted to make her proud even in death.”
When asked what makes her so passionate about the importance of education, Turner continued:
“[My situation] gave me a sensitivity to the plight of poor people because I did grow up in a working-class family, but we were very poor and it made me really sensitive. Because education helped change my life, I do believe if people have the opportunity, that education can do the same thing for them and help more [people] become cycle breakers. That gave me my heart connection to education.”
When asked her opinions on how the United States can solve the challenges currently facing the education system, she thoughtfully replied:
“I think that the system of education is not necessarily in tune with the needs of the 21st-century learner, that in some ways we do not [in traditional public schools] have the ability to be as creative as necessary to deal with the needs and, in some cases, the trauma that so many of our young people have to deal with at a very young age.”
Turner later detailed exactly how she would like to see the United States approach education in the modern world:
“I would love to see a public-private commitment, a renaissance if you will, for K-12 education and also for us to adopt [as a nation] a K-16 model because we know in the 21st-century these young people need more than a high school diploma to compete with their peers from all over the world. If we are going to keep our competitive edge as a nation we will have to take a deep look into this and also move into action at the federal, state, and local level.”
Importance of After School Programs and the Community
Nina Turner continued, “We need more wraparound services in these schools,” which are systems that provide social workers, nurses, healthcare, make sure children have extracurricular activities, and ensure children have decent meals at school and their homes. Turner acknowledged that while these services may seem like an unfair burden, that it is important children have an environment in which they can thrive.
“We have to make sure we don’t cut art and sports programs,” Turner began, before explaining how cutting extracurricular activities for children affected her family.
“That happened to one of my nephews, who went to a school in a suburban community in Cleveland, [his mom] my sister had to pay a fee for him to be able to participate in extra circular activities, and she is a single mom and that was a burden on her. But if you take away extra circular activities so many young people wouldn’t even come to school.”
[…] We do have to decide as a nation whether or not we are going to invest dollars, but also invest concentration, in our effort to create the types of programming that help our children overcome [any] challenges they may have at home or any challenges they may have in the community.”
Turner continued, “That’s not only urban areas — that’s also our rural communities too — so many are fighting this opiate crisis, so it may not be guns and violence, but they are fighting a different kind of crisis.” She finished her thought by saying, “I’m not so sure our commitment as a nation is really keeping pace with the needs of our young people [who], through no fault of their own, may have been born to a family, or born to a community, that they need to succeed are really not there and the only hope that they have is education.”