As Israel unveils its final genocide push, and mass death from starvation looms in Gaza, western media and politicians are tentatively starting to speak up.

Who could have imagined 19 months ago that it would take more than a year and a half of Israel slaughtering and starving Gaza’s children for the first cracks to appear in what has been a rock-solid wall of support for Israel from western establishments.

Finally, something looks like it may be about to give.

The British establishment’s financial daily, the Financial Times, was first to break ranks last week to condemn “the West’s shameful silence” in the face of Israel’s murderous assault on the tiny enclave.

In an editorial – effectively the paper’s voice – the FT accused the United States and Europe of being increasingly “complicit” as Israel made Gaza “uninhabitable”, an allusion to genocide, and noted that the goal was to “drive Palestinians from their land”, an allusion to ethnic cleansing.

Of course, both of these grave crimes by Israel have been evidently true not only since Hamas’ violent, single-day breakout from Gaza on 7 October 2023, but for decades.

So parlous is the state of western reporting, from a media no less complicit than the governments berated by the FT, that we need to seize on any small signs of progress.

Next, the Economist chimed in, warning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers were driven by a “dream of emptying Gaza and rebuilding Jewish settlements there”.

At the weekend, the Independent decided the “deafening silence on Gaza” had to end. It was “time for the world to wake up to what is happening and to demand an end to the suffering of the Palestinians trapped in the enclave.”

Actually much of the world woke up many, many months ago. It has been the western press corps and western politicians slumbering through the past 19 months of genocide.

Then on Monday, the supposedly liberal Guardian voiced in its own editorial a fear that Israel is committing “genocide”, though it only dared do so by framing the accusation as a question.

It wrote of Israel: “Now it plans a Gaza without Palestinians. What is this, if not genocidal? When will the US and its allies act to stop the horror, if not now?”

The paper could more properly have asked a different question: Why have Israel’s western allies – as well as media like the Guardian and FT – waited 19 months to speak up against the horror?

And, predictably bringing up the rear, was the BBC. On Wednesday, the BBC Radio’s PM programme chose to give top billing to testimony from Tom Fletcher, the United Nation’s humanitarian affairs chief, to the Security Council. Presenter Evan Davis said the BBC had decided to “do something a little unusual”.

Unusual indeed. It played Fletcher’s speech in full – all 12 and a half minutes of it. That included Fletcher’s comment: “For those killed and those whose voices are silenced: what more evidence do you need now? Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?”

We had gone in less than a week from the word “genocide” being taboo in relation to Gaza to it becoming almost mainstream.

Growing cracks

Cracks are evident in the British parliament too. Mark Pritchard, a Conservative MP and life-long Israel supporter, stood up from the back benches to admit he had been wrong about Israel, and condemned it “for what it is doing to the Palestinian people”.

He was one of more than a dozen Tory MPs and peers in the House of Lords, all formerly staunch defenders of Israel, who urged British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.

Their move followed an open letter published by 36 members of the Board of Deputies, a 300-member body that claims to represent British Jews, dissenting from its continuing support for the slaughter. The letter warned: “Israel’s soul is being ripped out.”

Pritchard told fellow MPs it was time to “stand up for humanity, for us being on the right side of history, for having the moral courage to lead.”

Sadly, there is no sign of that yet. Research published last week, based on Israeli tax authority data, showed Starmer’s government has been lying even about the highly limited restrictions on arms sales to Israel it claimed to have imposed last year.

Despite an ostensible ban on shipments of weapons that could be used in Gaza, Britain has covertly exported more than 8,500 separate munitions to Israel since the ban.

This week more details emerged. According to figures published by The National, the current government exported more weapons to Israel in the final three months of last year, after the ban came into effect, than the previous Conservative government did through the whole of 2020 to 2023.

So shameful is the UK’s support for Israel in the midst of what the International Court of Justice – the World Court – has described as a “plausible genocide” that Starmer’s government needs to pretend it is doing something, even as it actually continues to arm that genocide.

More than 40 MPs wrote to Foreign Secretary David Lammy last week calling for him to respond to allegations that he had misled the public and parliament. “The public deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in crimes against humanity,” they wrote.

There are growing rumblings elsewhere. This week France’s President Emmanuel Macron called Israel’s complete blockade on aid into Gaza “shameful and unacceptable”. He added: “My job is to do everything I can to make it stop.”

“Everything” seemed to amount to nothing more than mooting possible economic sanctions.

Still, the rhetorical shift was striking. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, similarly denounced the blockade, calling it “unjustifiable”. She added: “I have always recalled the urgency of finding a way to end the hostilities and respect international law and international humanitarian law.”

“International law”? Where has that been for the past 19 months?

There was a similar change of priorities across the Atlantic. Democratic Senator Chris van Hollen, for example, recently dared to call Israel’s actions in Gaza “ethnic cleansing”.

CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, a bellwether of the Beltway consensus, gave Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, an unusually tough grilling. Amanpour all but accused her of lying about Israel starving children.

Meanwhile, Josep Borrell, the recently departed head of European Union foreign policy, broke another taboo last week by directly accusing Israel of preparing a genocide in Gaza.

“Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide,” he said, adding: “We’re facing the largest ethnic cleansing operation since the end of the Second World War.”

Borrell, of course, has no influence over EU policy at this point.

A death camp

This is all painfully slow progress, but it does suggest that a tipping point may be near.

If so, there are several reasons. One – the most evident in the mix – is US President Donald Trump.

It was easier for the Guardian, the FT and old-school Tory MPs to watch the extermination of Gaza’s Palestinians in silence when it was kindly Uncle Joe Biden and the US military industrial complex behind it.

Unlike his predecessor, Trump too often forgets the bit where he is supposed to put a gloss on Israeli crimes, or distance the US from them, even as Washington ships the weapons to carry out those crimes.

But also, there are plenty of indications that Trump – with his constant craving to be seen as the top dog – is increasingly annoyed at being publicly outfoxed by Netanyahu.

This week, as Trump headed to the Middle East, his administration secured the release of Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, the last living US citizen in captivity in Gaza, by bypassing Israel and negotiating directly with Hamas.

In his comments on the release, Trump insisted it was time to “put an end to this very brutal war” – a remark he had very obviously not coordinated with Netanyahu.

Notably, Israel is not on Trump’s Middle East schedule.

Right now seems a relatively safe moment to adopt a more critical stance towards Israel, as presumably the FT and Guardian appreciate.

Then there is the fact that Israel’s genocide is reaching its endpoint. No food, water or medicines have entered Gaza for more than two months. Everyone is malnourished. It is unclear, given Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s health system, how many have already died from hunger.

But the pictures of skin-and-bones children emerging from Gaza are uncomfortably reminiscent of 80-year-old images of skeletal Jewish children imprisoned in Nazi camps.

It is a reminder that Gaza – strictly blockaded by Israel for 16 years before Hamas’ 7 October 2023 breakout – has been transformed over the past 19 months from a concentration camp into a death camp.

Parts of the media and political class know mass death in Gaza cannot be obscured for much longer, not even after Israel has barred foreign journalists from the enclave and murdered most of the Palestinian journalists trying to record the genocide.

Cynical political and media actors are trying to get in their excuses before it is too late to show remorse.

The ‘Gaza war’ myth

And finally there is the fact that Israel has declared its readiness to take hands-on responsibility for the extermination in Gaza by, in its words, “capturing” the tiny territory.

The long-anticipated “day after” looks like it is about to arrive.

For 20 years, Israel and western capitals have conspired in the lie that Gaza’s occupation ended in 2005, when Israel’s then prime minister, Ariel Sharon, pulled out a few thousand Jewish settlers and withdrew Israeli soldiers to a highly fortified perimeter encaging the enclave.

In a ruling last year, the World Court gave this claim short shrift, emphasising that Gaza, as well as the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, had never stopped being under Israeli occupation, and that the occupation must end immediately.

The truth is that, even before the 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel had been besieging Gaza by land, sea and air for many, many years. Nothing – people or trade – went in or out without the Israeli military’s say-so.

Israeli officials instituted a secret policy of putting the population there on a strict “diet” – a war crime then as now – one that ensured most of Gaza’s young became progressively more malnourished.

Drones whined constantly overhead, as they do now, watching the population from the skies 24 hours a day and occasionally raining down death. Fishermen were shot and their boats sunk for trying to fish their own waters. Farmers’ crops were destroyed by herbicides sprayed from Israeli planes.

And when the mood took it, Israel sent in fighter jets to bomb the enclave or sent soldiers in on military operations, killing hundreds of civilians at a time.

When Palestinians in Gaza went out week after week to stage protests close to the perimeter fence of their concentration camp, Israeli snipers shot them, killing some 200 and crippling many thousands more.

Yet, despite all this, Israel and western capitals insisted on the story that Hamas “ruled” Gaza, and that it alone was responsible for what went on there.

That fiction was very important to the western powers. It allowed Israel to evade accountability for the crimes against humanity committed in Gaza over the past two decades – and it allowed the West to avoid complicity charges for arming the criminals.

Instead, the political and media class perpetuated the myth that Israel was engaged in a “conflict” with Hamas – as well as intermittent “wars” in Gaza – even as Israel’s own military termed its operations to destroy whole neighbourhoods and kill their residents “mowing the lawn”.

Israel, of course, viewed Gaza as its lawn to mow. And that is precisely because it never stopped occupying the enclave.

Even today western media outlets collude in the fiction that Gaza is free from Israeli occupation by casting the slaughter there – and the starvation of the population – as a “war”.

Loss of cover story

But the “day after” – signalled by Israel’s promised “capture” and “reoccupation” of Gaza – brings a conundrum for Israel and its western sponsors.

Till now Israel’s every atrocity has been justified by Hamas’ violent breakout on 7 October 2023.

Israel and its supporters have insisted that Hamas must return the Israelis it took captive before there can be some undefined “peace”. At the same time, Israel has also maintained that Gaza must be destroyed at all costs to root out Hamas and eliminate it.

These two goals never looked consistent – not least because the more Palestinian civilians Israel killed “rooting out” Hamas, the more young men Hamas recruited seeking vengeance.

The constant stream of genocidal rhetoric from Israeli leaders made clear that they believed there were no civilians in Gaza – no “uninvolved” – and that the enclave should be levelled and the population treated like “human animals”, punished with “no food, water or fuel”.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterated that approach last week, vowing that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed” and that its people would be ethnically cleansed – or, as he put it, forced to “leave in great numbers to third countries”.

Israeli officials have echoed him, threatening to “flatten” Gaza if the hostages are not released. But in truth, the captives held by Hamas are just a convenient pretext.

Smotrich was more honest in observing that the hostages’ release was “not the most important thing”. His view is apparently shared by the Israeli military, which has reportedly put that aim last in a list of six “war” objectives.

More important to the military are “operational control” of Gaza, “demilitarization of the territory” and “concentration and movement of the population”.

With Israel about to be indisputably, visibly in direct charge of Gaza again – with the cover stories stripped away of a “war”, of the need to eliminate of Hamas, of civilian casualties as “collateral damage” – Israel’s responsibility for the genocide will be incontestable too, as will the West’s active collusion.

That was why more than 250 former officials with Mossad, Israel’s spy agency – including three of its former heads – signed a letter this week decrying Israel’s breaking of the ceasefire in early March and its return to “war”.

The letter called Israel’s official objectives “unattainable”.

Similarly, the Israeli media reports large numbers of Israel’s military reservists are no longer showing up when called for a return to duty in Gaza.

Ethnic cleansing

Israel’s western patrons must now grapple with Israel’s “plan” for the ruined territory. Its outline has been coming more sharply into focus in recent days.

In January Israel formally outlawed the United Nations refugee agency UNRWA that feeds and cares for the large proportion of the Palestinian population driven off their historic lands by Israel in earlier phases of its decades-long colonisation of historic Palestine.

Gaza is packed with such refugees – the outcome of Israel’s biggest ethnic cleansing programme in 1948, at its creation as a “Jewish state”.

Removing UNRWA had been a long-held ambition, a move by Israel designed to help rid it of the yoke of aid agencies that have been caring for Palestinians – and thereby helping them to resist Israel’s efforts at ethnic cleansing – as well as monitoring Israel’s adherence, or rather lack of it, to international law.

For the ethnic cleansing and genocide programmes in Gaza to be completed, Israel has needed to produce an alternative system to UNRWA’s.

Last week, it approved a scheme in which it intends to use private contractors, not the UN, to deliver small quantities of food and water to Palestinians. Israel will allow in 60 trucks a day – barely a tenth of the absolute minimum required, according to the UN.

There are several catches. To stand any hope of qualifying for this very limited aid, Palestinians will need to collect it from military distribution points located in a small area at the southern tip of the Gaza strip.

In other words, some two million Palestinians will have to crowd into a location that has no chance of accommodating them all, and even then will have only a tenth of the aid they need.

They will have to relocate too without any guarantee from Israel that it won’t continue bombing the “humanitarian zones” they have been herded into.

These military distribution zones just so happen to be right next to Gaza’s sole, short border with Egypt – exactly where Israel has been seeking to drive the Palestinians over the past 19 months in the hope of forcing Egypt to open the border so the people of Gaza can be ethnically cleansed into Sinai.

Under Israel’s scheme, Palestinians will be screened in these military hubs using biometric data before they stand any hope of receiving minimum calorie-controlled handouts of food.

Once inside the hubs, they can be arrested and shipped off to one of Israel’s torture camps.

Just last week Israel’s Haaretz newspaper published testimony from an Israeli soldier turned whistleblower – confirming accounts from doctors and other guards – that torture and abuse are rife against Palestinians, including civilians, at Sde Teiman, the most notorious of the camps.

War on aid

Last Friday, shortly after Israel announced its “aid” plan, it fired a missile into an UNRWA centre in Jabaliya camp, destroying its food distribution centre and warehouse.

Then on Saturday, Israel bombed tents used for preparing food in Khan Younis and Gaza City. It has been targeting charity kitchens and bakeries to close them down, in an echo of its campaign of destruction against Gaza’s hospitals and health system.

In recent days, a third of UN-supported community kitchens – the population’s last life line – have closed because their stores of food are depleted, as is their access to fuel.

According to the UN agency OCHA, that number is rising “by the day”, leading to “widespread” hunger.

The UN reported this week that nearly half a million people in Gaza – a fifth of the population – faced “catastrophic hunger”.

Predictably, Israel and its ghoulish apologists are making light of this sea of immense suffering. Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, argued that critics were unfairly condemning Israel for starving Gaza’s population, and ignoring the health benefits of reducing “obesity” among Palestinians.

In a joint statement last week, 15 UN agencies and more than 200 charities and humanitarian groups denounced Israel’s “aid” plan. The UN children’s fund UNICEF warned that Israel was forcing Palestinians to choose between “displacement and death”.

But worse, Israel is setting up its stall once again to turn reality on its head.

Those Palestinians who refuse to cooperate with its “aid” plan will be blamed for their own starvation. And international agencies who refuse to go along with Israeli criminality will be smeared both as “antisemitic” and as responsible for the mounting toll of starvation on Gaza’s population.

There is a way to stop these crimes degenerating further. But it will require western politicians and journalists to find far more courage than they have dared muster so far. It will need more than rhetorical flourishes. It will need more than public handwringing.

Are they capable of more? Don’t hold your breath.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Jonathan Cook.

I knew I was going to be a musician. I’ve always been artistically inclined and felt if I put my mind to anything, I could “figure it out.” I could never build a car properly—I’m not handy in that regard—but with art, I’ve always been able to improvise. As a guitar player and singer, I was in many bands—I toured, got signed, and tried that whole thing. Then I met Kavi while waiting at tables at Pure Food and Wine, the Bad Vegan restaurant.

No way.

Yeah. I was touring and trying to make it, but I was always interested in the plants growing all around me, even out of the cracks of sidewalks in Brooklyn. As a suburban kid adjusting to living in Brooklyn, it was dirty but I found beauty in the plant life and birds. Kavi and I also began going away on weekends, and I was reading vintage manuals about herbs and gardening. There were always recipes for creams, lotions, and old-fashioned perfumes in the back. I realized, “Oh, I want to make my own stuff.” This was in the early aughts when we were all trying to live like it was the 19th century and doing everything DIY.

Our friends had jewelry stores and shoe stores, making all their own things. Food as a “trend” was blowing up with new attention to ingredients, essential oils, and herbs. I started making things, and we gave them away as holiday gifts to friends. They liked it, and Kavi said, “We should start a business.” She worked at an architecture firm at the time and suggested, “Oh, I could print the labels on the nice printers there.” And I decided, “All right, I’ll hand-make everything else.” And so we did it. We didn’t know exactly what we were doing, but it just exploded.

I remember seeing D.S. & Durga at local indie stores like Bird in the early aughts, many of which sadly no longer exist. This was at the beginning of modern e-commerce, around when Kickstarter was getting off the ground and before Etsy. Even without digital resources or much press, you still quickly developed a cult following.

Someone from Thrillist wrote about us at this time. I didn’t even use the internet that much, and certainly not much was sold there. I think Amazon still just sold books. But we had a website, and people could order there, and we got so many inquiries. And then Anthropologie said, “Will you make us a line?” and wholesale ordered like $26,000 of merch, which was like $26 million to us. I thought, “This is crazy.” We were able to quit our jobs. Then I realized that I could do in fragrance what I was trying to do in music, creating this whole world and discussing historical topics.

And so you just started building a line?

I taught myself how to make fragrance, which is probably the stranger, weirder part of the story. I figured it out by experimenting, writing it all down, and understanding the relationships between aromatic materials. Then I realized, “Oh, I can transition to this.” Kavi was an architect, so she knew design essentials and could work on product design, which ultimately came to be known as branding. We didn’t know what that word meant back then.

You’ve come a long way since mixing scents in your apartment. Has anything changed in your process?

We’ve always been pretty siloed in that I do all the fragrance and all the words, and Kavi does all the design. We have opinions, but there’s a level that we stay within since we trust each other. I might have a layman’s understanding of design, but she understands why X, Y, and Z can’t happen. And the same with fragrance. I just understand, “No, no, this, trust me, this is going to be good. This is the way to do it.”

It’s incredible to think you started this mini-empire by trying things out.

We started with nothing. We didn’t take investments, we funded it ourselves. So all the money kept going back into it. We were living off of it. It was doing well, and we didn’t want to change, but we also knew we wouldn’t be able to compete with the brands we respected with our basic packaging. Kavi wanted to make something much more beautiful and high-end, so in 2015 we bit the bullet and rebranded at scale. You had to spend so much money on the molding to make custom pieces, but it was great because that’s when we really launched. We were already at Barneys, but we were able to have a better presence and also to launch at Liberty and Bonmarche.

What changed with the new look?

People took us more seriously. It’s important that you make the most beautiful thing you can, highlighting the beauty of the juice inside. They’re two parts of the same coin. The other thing is that I realized I was belabored by this old fantasy that we all wanted to live in the 19th century. When that sensibility left my life, I felt so free. Suddenly, I was like, “We can just accept that we are in 2014. And it’s okay. You can build beauty around you, but you don’t need to reject it.” In the beginning, we were intrigued by the way things used to be and were rejecting how far we had gotten as a society. And I think that things took off once we realized you don’t have to dress like Peaky Blinders to feel free inside.

As a Pixies fan, I love that you have a scent called Debaser. Why did you create this perfume? How did you decide what you wanted its essence to be?

I keep a running list of names and ideas. Sometimes, I’ll say, “Oh, it’d be so cool if a thing were named this,” then I’ll say, “Let me try to make that.” Others, I’ll make something that’s so beautiful and be like, “Huh, this could fit for that idea that I’ve always had.” So they’re all different in that regard. Debaser has this big, sexy, but kind of innocent fig fragrance. I was thinking of seventh grade, hanging out with older kids, listening to this provocative music, and how influential it was to me. And how psyched I was to reference the Pixies because I just loved them. That era was so special. We’ve actually given them some bottles.

What was Black Francis’s reaction?

I’ve seen him talk in interviews and say, “Yeah, there’s this brand from Brooklyn that has this Debaser fragrance.”

Did he give any notes?

He said he liked it. They were playing in Brooklyn, and our friend knew them a little bit, so she had us backstage. I actually got to meet a few of them.

What is a dream you have?

I mean, I have a lot of them. I have a whole line that I want to make that will change fragrance. For example, when they created synthesis in computers, you began to see these giant synthesizers – modular synthesizers that were just a million knobs with wires, and almost no one could figure out how to play them live. But the potential was that you could make any sound if you could figure out how to filter a sine wave. And then, in the seventies, Bob Moog decided, “Oh, I can just put these signals and these wires in a certain order and put a keyboard on it. So if anybody can play the keyboard, they could make their own sounds.” And he made the first synthesizers with keyboards—the Moog. Then, look at what happened to the music. So, if you look at my perfume wall, it will be hard to tell someone, “Okay, this is how you make a perfume.” But I have an idea of how to put the keyboard on it and create a series of things that can work together so people can make their own creations. That’s a big dream of mine.

I’m sure you get asked this often, but have you read Perfume?

That’s so funny. No, I’ve never read it, but everyone asks, and I won’t because, not out of stubbornness, but I don’t know how to describe it. There are so many things in this world that I want to read, and I have no time for things that I don’t. If people are mystified by this crazy process of perfume, they’re like, “What? You can make a perfume that smells like basketballs?” But I’m beyond thinking that any of this stuff is impossible. All I do is the same thing a painter or a musician does. I’m taking aromatic materials and putting them to make an image or a scent that brings your mind somewhere, just like a musician or a painter does. It’s not strange to me that it has the same ability as any other art form. We overanalyze everything in this culture.

But there is something special about how a good perfume makes you feel.

I like to talk about the magic of these things. We’re living in a pretty magical universe. There’s just so much happening. The mundane is quite magical. The fact that you and I are breathing – each breath is a miracle. And so I think perfume and art forms, in general, sort of reflect God’s presence in the universe. They’re something that’s inherently magical, but I feel like everything is magical.

Have you ever created something that astounded even yourself?

I mean, I try not to have my head too far up my own ass. I’m just executing ideas, and sometimes I’ll like it. There are happy accidents. I usually will work on something and then try to “beat it” for up to a few months, and most often, I can’t. So it’s strange that there’s just this time where the thing is the best I can do. You just let it come through you. I think I naturally understand how to represent images and other art forms in fragrance. If I was going to make a dish of food that tasted like a car, I think I could figure out how to do that.

Similarly, some creators, like Jen Monroe, do amazing work with food akin to conceptual art to produce these new worlds. When you taste it, you’re transported.

I was writing a book with a chef about this. Because I look at these things as landscapes. You can create a very immersive world in any art form. The thing with perfume and music is they’re both invisible, so that’s the thing that’s extra magic about them. Because visual art is visual art, but with music, there’s this whole architecture of a symphony, but you can’t see it. And it’s the same thing with fragrance.

Do you still have time to do music?

I just came out with a solo album. It’s on Spotify under my name. And then I also have this other band, Hiko Men. We haven’t played in a while, but we made an album during the pandemic, and I also came out with three poetry books, one per year, for the past three years. So, I’m always working on other artistic endeavors.

How do you keep all these ideas in your head, let alone execute them?

Everything’s on my phone. Every single thing I do. In the modern world, there are few inventions I think that are most impactful, and definitely, the Notes function of an iPhone would be high up there for me. Any tiny thought I have can go in there, and it’s all organized, whether it’s a perfume name, a spiritual thought, or a poem. You just get it down. When you’re going to go back and put it into a book, there are the first drafts. To basically have a notebook for your mind at your fingertips that can’t get lost is one of the greatest things that ever happened.

How do you have time to juggle all of this?

You’ve got to make space and make time in your life. I think meditation is the key to everything. You have to spend some time, just as you would take time to sleep or eat. You have to take time to work on conquering the mind, or going into calmness and peace, because that’s a great foundation for everything else.

It’s inspiring that you and Kavi are partners in both business and life. Is it hard to choose when you’re “at work” versus just in the house cleaning or cooking?

I think that there is no separation anymore. But that’s the way for modern life, especially New Yorkers. Everyone’s always accessible on their phone. But we don’t email our team on the weekends unless it’s urgent. We are always kind of available, but it doesn’t feel overwhelming. It’s just intertwined and doesn’t get in the way of our home life. We’re not always together during the day, but we’re in contact. Maybe some married people don’t interact as much during the day because they’re busy at work when they get home, that’s a special time. But we already know what’s been going on, so we don’t need to sit down and download each other on the day. We’re just getting older too. I think people want to do their own thing at home sometimes.

You feel that collaboration and calm when walking into a DS & Durga store.

I don’t know if calm is…but that’s good! I mean, we have the concrete, spikes, black, and a little punk look. The concrete is beautiful, though. The coolest thing to me is that the layers of concrete have become a touchpoint. We have it at our little shop, the shop at Bergdorf, and the branch we’re opening in LA—lines of beautiful, textured concrete.

Is there any question you wish someone would ask that they never have?

It’s funny, people always ask this last question, “Is there anything else?” And I’m like, “You can prompt me endlessly, and I can say stuff, but I’m not trying to say something.” But the work speaks for itself, and I’m very available to talk about things when people ask.

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Laura Feinstein.

ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power. Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they’re published. This article was produced in partnership with The Frontier. Additional funding for this story was provided by The Pulitzer Center.

On the morning of April 12, the farmworker woke up struggling to breathe and delirious with fever.

Jiaai Zeng had spent the past month working nonstop at a marijuana farm in Oklahoma run by fellow Chinese immigrants. The job was brutal, the 57-year-old had told relatives in New York. He said his bosses made him labor up to 15 hours a day in the blast-furnace heat of a greenhouse. He was feeling awful even after a visit to the doctor, so he planned to return to New York that evening for medical treatment.

At 9:38 a.m., Zeng sent an audio message to a cousin in Manhattan’s Chinatown. In an agonized whisper, he asked her to buy a bag of oranges for when he arrived.

“I don’t want to eat anything,” he said, speaking a dialect of Fujian province. “I just want to take a look at oranges and see if I’ll have an appetite.”

About an hour later, Zeng was unconscious and had no pulse when three people from the farm drove him to a nearby hospital. They dropped him off and left in a hurry while doctors were trying to revive him, according to a hospital report.

By 11:05 a.m., Zeng was dead.

“This death is not normal,” said his nephew, Westin Zeng, in an interview with ProPublica and The Frontier. “He lives there for a little bit over 30 days: from a healthy person to a dead person. It doesn’t make sense to me. ... In my mind, there’s a logical link from his work to his illness, and from his illness to how they handle that, and a link to his death.”

The farmworker’s story gives a glimpse into the harsh and often abusive conditions endured by the tens of thousands of Chinese immigrants who have quietly become the backbone of many U.S. marijuana operations.

“It is one of the most deplorable parts of what we see in this industry,” said Donnie Anderson, the director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics, who met with Zeng’s relatives and ordered an investigation.

Cannabis farms have boomed in states that have passed medical and recreational marijuana laws. But when voters in Oklahoma approved a law allowing the cultivation of medical marijuana in 2018, legislators didn’t develop corresponding regulations to protect employees. Oklahoma’s historically weak labor enforcement system leaves the protection of workers largely to the federal government. And the U.S. Department of Labor has limited oversight because marijuana is illegal at the national level.

As a result, workers who are already isolated by language and culture have found themselves largely at the mercy of their employers, often criminals who rely on Chinese immigrant labor. As ProPublica and The Frontier have reported, Chinese mafias — some with suspected ties to the Chinese government — have taken advantage of state-level legalization to dominate a nationwide black market for marijuana.

During raids, inspections and investigations at more than a thousand farms over the past five years, Oklahoma law enforcement officers, fire marshals, federal labor inspectors and other officials have encountered a litany of abuses: bosses threaten and beat workers, sexually assault them, steal their wages, confiscate their IDs, restrict their movements and force them to work in dangerous heat with noxious chemicals and pesticides. Wrongdoing is rampant at many Chinese-owned farms, where immigrants are often so fearful of their employers and the authorities that they do not cooperate with investigations, according to law enforcement officials, court cases, human rights advocates and workers.

The mistreatment and squalid conditions are the hallmarks of human trafficking, said Craig Williams, the chief agent of the marijuana and human trafficking sections of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics.

“It’s hard to convey what it’s like until you’re standing there, looking at the people, looking at the environment, smelling the environment, seeing what they’re living in,” Williams said. “Your heart goes out to them like, ‘This is just wrong.’”

While problems are particularly bad in Oklahoma, studies and media reports have detailed similar risks nationwide to laborers, many of them recent arrivals who crossed the Mexican border illegally. Exploitation of Chinese immigrants pervades the marijuana underworld from California to New Mexico to Maine, according to interviews and court cases.

And even overseas, authorities have found patterns of mistreatment at Chinese-run marijuana sites from Chile to Ireland.

“These are people living in a situation of semi-slavery,” said a police official in Spain, a center of illegal marijuana cultivation in Europe, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for safety reasons. “They are locked up 24 hours a day. They don’t know what country they live in. They don’t have contact with the outside world.”

During raids in 2021 on cannabis plantations hidden in warehouses near Barcelona, Spain, police freed 10 immigrants from Fujian whom gangsters had forced to work to pay off smuggling debts of up to $35,000. The drug traffickers locked the workers in the dirty, windowless buildings, making them sleep on mattresses on the floor. Some of the victims spent up to a year in captivity, police said.

“Everyone has a different story, but the bottom line is that they have not escaped the darkness of China,” said Ju Ma, a Chinese human rights advocate who runs a migrant shelter in New York that has aided marijuana workers.

In the Zeng case, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics are investigating. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner recently concluded that the cause of the farmworker’s death was pneumonia.

“They are making so much money in the marijuana industry, but they are treating the workers like slaves,” Westin Zeng said. “I want to find out everything that happened and get justice for my family.”

The farm’s owners have not been sanctioned or charged with a crime in relation to the case. Jeffrey Box, a lawyer for one of them, rejected the Zeng family’s allegations that neglect and harsh working conditions played roles in the farmworker’s death.

Official data and reports on labor in the marijuana industry are sparse, and Chinese workers rarely talk about their experiences. To report this story, ProPublica and The Frontier interviewed several dozen current and former law enforcement officials in the United States and overseas, other government officials, farmworkers, human rights advocates, lawyers and others. Reporters also reviewed court documents, medical files, government reports and social media posts in English, Chinese and Spanish.

The reporting reveals a saga of despair that remains largely out of sight for the U.S. public. Zeng’s case is rare because his family has spoken out. Many Chinese immigrants enter the nation’s marijuana industry hoping to plant the seeds of new lives, but they end up suffering in silence.

“If they go missing, no one’s going to report anything,” Williams said. “I sincerely wonder how many people are buried on illegal marijuana grows.”

Zeng was born in a village in Yongtai County, Fujian. His nephew remembers him departing at dawn to cultivate rice and plum trees, and returning after dark.

“If people were carrying two baskets of stuff, he carried four,” said Westin Zeng, now a 32-year-old business consultant in New York.

A father of two, Zeng also did itinerant manual labor in Shanghai and other cities to support his family, including his father and a grandson who are both disabled. In 2021, he converted to Christianity (his U.S. relatives are Christians), which caused police in his hometown to harass him, according to an account he later wrote for a U.S. immigration court. At the same time, the pandemic was worsening China’s economic woes and the hardships of its working people.

Zeng decided to leave. His U.S. relatives lent him about $65,000 for the smuggler’s fee. The money included a payoff to expedite issuance of a passport by Chinese officials in Fujian, a coastal province whose longtime smuggling underworld intertwines with official corruption. Zeng traveled via Bolivia and Mexico, climbing the border fence into San Diego in December 2022. After Border Patrol agents arrested him, he requested political asylum and was released.

He arrived during a multiyear surge of immigration from China. In the first eight months of the 2024 fiscal year, the U.S. Border Patrol apprehended around 31,000 Chinese nationals illegally crossing the southwest border. That’s over 15 times more than the entire 2019 fiscal year.

Some Chinese border-crossers find work in marijuana operations after they arrive. Others are smuggled across the globe specifically to work in the cannabis industry.

A former senior Drug Enforcement Administration official said the agency has learned about these clandestine labor pipelines from informants and a jailed high-level human trafficker and money launderer.

“The word goes out: We need more manpower for all these marijuana farms,” said Christopher Urben, who is now a managing director at the global investigations firm Nardello & Co. “The same networks are involved in weed, money laundering and human smuggling.”

When Zeng reached New York in early 2023, he gave thanks at a Fujianese church in Chinatown and became a regular worshipper.

“He was surprised how much people were willing to support him,” Westin Zeng said. “He was really touched. He told my father it’s totally different here.”

Zeng first worked at a restaurant and then, at the suggestion of a cousin employed in the marijuana industry in Oklahoma, spent a month last summer working at a marijuana farm there. He had no complaints about that experience, his family said. He saved money to send to family in China and to pay off debts incurred by his overseas journey.

Back in New York, Zeng, who had just gotten Medicaid insurance coverage, underwent a medical checkup in early March that did not find serious ailments, according to the doctor who examined him, medical documents and his family.

On March 7, Zeng returned to Oklahoma to work at a farm in the small town of Blackwell, near the Kansas state line. Photos and public records show the 65-acre lot had six greenhouses and nine indoor grow houses and, according to Zeng’s family, the farm employed about 13 workers. The metal fence displayed signs depicting a pistol above the warning “Lawful Concealed Carry Permitted on Premises.”

Zeng earned about $4,500 a month for trimming plants, spreading fertilizer and doing pest control, his family said. His shift began at 7 a.m. and lasted as late as 10 p.m., with no days off. He slept in a cubicle in a partitioned room in the red-roofed main house.

In calls to relatives, Zeng sounded unhappy. Although his bosses and co-workers were also Fujianese, they mistreated him because they were from another county with a different dialect, he told his relatives. The meals were meager, workers were quitting because of the intense pace and the plastic-covered, dome-shaped greenhouses were infernally hot, he told them.

“He was complaining to my aunt that he had to work almost naked because it was too hot in there,” Westin Zeng said. “The only way to cool down was to spray himself with water.”

Investigators have documented heat reaching over 120 degrees at some farms, Williams said. During raids, agents routinely cut the sides out of the greenhouses to dissipate the heat and fumes from chemicals. Agents wear oxygen monitors because farmers pump in CO2 to enhance the growth of plants, a practice that depletes oxygen levels without agents, or laborers, realizing it.

“I worry about our agents’ health all the time,” Williams said. “And those workers are living in it.”

Government and academic studies have found that heat and humidity in the greenhouses can promote bacterial growth and cause heat stress, and that chemicals, gasses and other substances at marijuana farms can result in ailments ranging from allergies to fatal asthma. Other research shows that extended time in excess heat can cause human organs to shut down.

Fires and explosions are another hazard. And many farmers use toxic pesticides smuggled from China or across the Mexican border that have made workers sick in California, officials said.

The extent of such hazards at the Blackwell farm is not clear. Zeng told his family that he sometimes wore a mask because of the smell of chemicals and marijuana, his relatives said.

Box, the lawyer representing an owner of the farm, disputed the family’s allegations about extreme heat and other conditions at the farm.

Around April 9, Zeng fell ill. Someone from the farm took him to a doctor in Oklahoma City on April 10. The doctor diagnosed cystitis and a urinary tract infection — conditions that research shows can be exacerbated by heat stress — and prescribed an antibiotic, according to medical records and the relatives. (The doctor declined a request for comment.)

That night, Zeng talked to his family about flying back to New York, where his insurance would help cover further treatment.

“I want to give it a few days, wait until I get better, then leave,” he said in an audio message.

Despite the antibiotic, his condition deteriorated. His bosses bought him a plane ticket to New York for the afternoon of April 12, his family said. That morning, he recorded the audio message to his cousin.

“You can hear he was dying,” Westin Zeng said.

At 10:35 a.m., an hour after Zeng sent the message, a minivan pulled up to the emergency room at Stillwater Medical Center-Blackwell. Nurses found Zeng slumped unconscious wrapped in a blanket. They began CPR, put him on a stretcher and rushed him inside, according to the hospital report.

The woman and two men who brought him from the farm claimed they did not speak English and provided little information “other than the patient’s date of birth and his name,” the report says.

Using a Mandarin-speaking phone interpreter, the nurses got a few answers from the woman, who identified herself only as Stella. She “was not very forthcoming” and asked several times when she could leave, the report says. She denied knowing Zeng but explained that he worked at a marijuana farm, had been sick two or three days and had seen a doctor, the report says.

Stella “left with the other two males,” the report says. “CPR continued.”

Doctors pronounced Zeng dead a half hour after his arrival. Tests revealed he had sepsis and pneumonia, the report says. A hospital spokesperson declined to comment.

Zeng died at a time when Oklahoma is confronting the dark side of its rush into the marijuana frontier.

In 2018, voters passed the ballot petition that legalized medical marijuana with 56% of the vote. The petition written by citizens included virtually no regulations. The following year, the state Legislature approved several regulations protecting consumer access to medical marijuana, but it did not address the health and safety of the marijuana workers.

At the peak of the billion-dollar marijuana boom in 2022, the state had almost 10,000 cannabis farms, which have an estimated average workforce of 15 to 20 employees per site. Although a crackdown on black market marijuana trafficking has cut the number of farms, authorities still come across abusive, squalid and unsafe workplaces.

Problems are endemic at Chinese-owned farms engaged in illicit activity, officials said. Workers often tell investigators their bosses promised to pay them at harvest, then claimed the harvest wasn’t big enough. Owners sometimes offer new hires an eventual cut of the profits, and even entice them to invest hard-won savings in the ventures, then rip them off, according to law enforcement officials and workers.

“We see promised pay that hasn’t been delivered on very frequently now,” Williams said. “They think they just have to work in a really bad environment for a while and think it’s going to pay off at the end. They don’t realize they’re working on an illegal grow. And that the work they’ve done, they’re never going to get paid for anyway. To some degree, they’re selling hope.”

In a rare workplace enforcement case in 2021, the Oklahoma Department of Labor judged that four Chinese employees were owed a combined total of nearly $57,000 in unpaid wages and damages after investigators found they were not paid for months of intense physical labor at a marijuana farm in southern Oklahoma.

“We were overworked,” said Yulin Zheng through an interpreter in an interview with ProPublica and The Frontier. Nearly 50 employees worked up to 14 hours a day, no days off, and lived in trailers without air conditioning, she said.

Zheng and her husband, Chang Qin Jiang, both in their late 60s, took jobs in Oklahoma after someone told them cannabis was a lucrative industry. They were each paid $4,000 in cash the first month. But the next month, a boss told them he didn’t have the money, according to screenshots of text messages they included in a complaint to the Labor Department.

“I’ll pay the wage in several days, probably next week,” he said in a text message. “Believe me!”

The cash never came. Months later, he told them they could make money if they bought one of the farm’s greenhouses to grow and sell marijuana themselves, the couple said.

“It was like a chicken game,” Zheng said. “They were trying to keep as much money as possible.”

The employer eventually abandoned the farm, leaving many workers without food or transportation, according to the couple and court documents. The couple’s son in California drove to Oklahoma and helped them file the successful claim.

Later, an owner of the farm tried to apply for bankruptcy, but a court found she had not disclosed hundreds of thousands of dollars in income from marijuana ventures, court documents say. Public records also show that the phone number for the farm belongs to the Chinese owner of a furniture store in Oklahoma City that the FBI raided last year in an investigation that led to three other people being convicted. Investigators found that the store was being used as a front for a criminal network that trafficked marijuana to the East Coast using fake Amazon delivery vehicles.

Workers at other farms have recounted their struggles in Chinese-language blog posts. In 2021, an electrician at a farm near Maramec, Oklahoma, alleged that his employer threatened to “have our legs broken” when he and his wife asked for months of wages they were never paid. Another woman at the same farm described how a boss “grabbed an iron bar and a gun” to menace her during a confrontation over unpaid salary. Court documents show the farm was later raided and the owner convicted on drug charges.

Scams are common in other states as well, according to interviews and court files.

“What we see is Chinese nationals who are either here legally … or were smuggled in across the Mexican border and are forced into labor, or more often tricked into labor,” said Kevin McInerney, a commander at the California Department of Cannabis Control.

Agents in Southern California are investigating the recent case of a woman who invested $10,000 to work at a marijuana farm in exchange for a small monthly wage and an eventual cut of the profits. After she toiled in awful conditions, the employers refused to pay her first month’s salary. She stopped working in protest, so they drove her out into the desert and abandoned her at a gas station, officials said.

Pervasive criminality makes the marijuana business “inherently more violent” than other industries, said Whitney Anderson, who directs The Dragonfly Home, a shelter for victims of human trafficking in Oklahoma City.

Workers in Oklahoma have suffered beatings and even died in robberies and shootings. In one case, an employee told police her boss grabbed her by the hair, fired shots near her head and threatened to kill her and her daughter, according to court documents.

Sex crimes are also a danger. A 42-year-old former supervisor at a cannabis farm in Noble County is facing charges of rape and sexual battery after he allegedly assaulted an employee in her sleeping quarters in 2022, court documents say. He had previously tried to assault her at work by slipping a dose of ketamine into her drinking water to incapacitate her, but a co-worker intervened, the documents say. The former supervisor has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.

“I’m so scared [he] will take revenge on me, my daughter, or family,” the woman wrote in a request for a protective order. “I have to live in fear every single day.”

And in another dramatic incident in 2021, a Chinese worker in Garvin County escaped from a marijuana farm and ran to a nearby house, where he banged on the door screaming for help. A man and a woman chased him down and tried to drag him back across the road, according to 911 call transcripts, court records and interviews.

“They had a big old fight in my front yard,” Diann Skinner, who lives in the house, said in an interview. “They’d tackle him, he’d get up and take off and they’d tackle him again.”

Frightened neighbors and passing drivers called police, who arrived as the assailants wrestled with the escaped worker. The 37-year-old victim told officers that the woman and two men had held him against his will for three months and forced him to work. He was “extremely scared” of his captors and “believed they would try to kill him,” a police report said.

Police found 1,500 pounds of illegal marijuana, $32,000 in cash and two pistols in the run-down property, which served as a processing depot for Chinese-owned farms involved in illicit trafficking, according to court documents and interviews.

Prosecutors filed charges of kidnapping and drug trafficking against the suspects. But the victim quickly left the state, making it impossible to pursue the kidnapping charge. The two men were convicted of the drug offenses and sentenced to two years in prison. The charges against the woman were dropped.

The day after Zeng’s death, his distraught nephew hurried to Oklahoma City and met with a man and four women from the farm. They had a tense conversation in the lobby of an apartment building, he said.

“They said, ‘We did everything right,’” Westin Zeng said. “The attitude of these people to me was, the whole tone of the conversation was, ‘It was your uncle’s fault.’”

The group did not give their names and offered to pay $50,000 if the family kept silent, Westin alleges. He said he refused.

ProPublica and The Frontier used photos, social media, public records and other sources to identify the owner of the farm, Xiuna Chen. Westin Zeng recognized her as one of the people at the meeting.

Chen has not been charged with any crime. But public records show that her Blackwell farm has multiple ties to another farm that was recently raided by the Oklahoma Organized Crime Task Force, which led to six indictments. The defendants have pleaded not guilty.

Chen referred reporters to Box, her lawyer, who accused the dead worker’s family of trying to “shake down” his client “for a ton of money.”

Another woman that Westin Zeng recognized from the meeting is Zhixin Liu, who on social media goes by Stella — the name given by the woman who brought Jiaai Zeng to the hospital. Liu’s phone is on the marijuana license for the Blackwell farm, and she is identified as its owner on a report by firefighters who responded to a fire there in April.

In 2022, Liu established a corporation with Zenith Top LLC, an Oklahoma City firm that has been raided for allegedly setting up illegal marijuana ventures, public records show. She listed her address as a house that belongs to a suspected owner of Zenith Top, according to public records and court documents. The owners of the firm have not been charged, though agents have executed search warrants and initiated money forfeiture actions against them that are awaiting trial.

Liu declined requests for comment.

While in Oklahoma, Westin Zeng met with the state anti-drug director and an official at OSHA. Officials at both agencies told ProPublica and The Frontier that they are investigating the farmworker’s death and the Blackwell farm.

The family’s engagement with authorities is unusual. Many workers who feel they have been victims of wrongdoing don’t have contacts in the U.S. or their relatives are fearful and speak little English, officials said.

Last year, the state narcotics bureau succeeded in building a human trafficking prosecution in a grim case: The accused ringleaders forced women to work as prostitutes at a brothel catering to owners and managers of Chinese-owned marijuana farms, flying the women to Oklahoma City from New York, according to court documents.

In general, though, the reluctance and elusiveness of victims discourage authorities from filing charges of human trafficking or workplace abuses. They focus instead on drug-related offenses by the owners.

The clash between state and federal laws combined with weak regulation make workers in Oklahoma especially vulnerable.

Oklahoma leaves regulation of workplace safety to OSHA, but the agency does not proactively monitor marijuana worksites in Oklahoma, and it only investigates in extreme cases such as job-related injuries or deaths, officials said. Because marijuana remains illegal at the federal level, OSHA has not developed specific workplace safety regulations for the cannabis industry, and relies mostly on the agency’s general duty clause, which covers all employers, for enforcement.

By contrast, in California, which has its own state-level workplace safety agency, a state task force requires owners of marijuana operations to take a training course and create a written injury and illness program. Even owners of illegal growing sites are subject to such rules, a spokesperson for the California Department of Industrial Relations said.

Oklahoma leaders say they are trying hard to overcome a bureaucratic limbo. The state labor commissioner, Leslie Osborn, said in an interview that the heads of agencies met last year “to really knock out who is responsible for what. And there is not a lot of clarity.”

“We let this flourish like a black market,” Osborn said, “and now we’re kind of behind the eight ball.”

This content originally appeared on ProPublica and was authored by .

Blessed to be part of the University of Fiji (UniFiji) faculty to continue to teach and mentor those who want to join our noble profession, and to stand for truth and justice for the people of the country.

I was privileged to lecture a few units a week for some time and also wrote the Broadcast Journalism module for the Fiji National University when the Media and Journalism Programme started back in 2005.

Excited to do more to build our media industry for now and for many years to come. As I enter the 27th year with Communications Fiji Limited, I look forward to many great things happening in our business which is always evolving based on audience, content and technology.

It starts with the people and ends with the people.

Republished from FijiVillage Facebook.

• UniFiji spreads journalism, media studies courses to Samabula

New FijiVillage promo video.

This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by APR editor.

Andrija Mandic, the pro-Russian head of the New Serbian Democracy party, will continue to serve as the speaker of the Montenegrin parliament after surviving a no-confidence vote.

In a secret ballot, 44 lawmakers voted for Mandic to remain at the helm of parliament, while 27 voted for his dismissal. There are 81 legislators in the Montenegrin parliament.

Mandic's dismissal was sought by the Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), which accused him of abusing the assembly for "party, nationalist, and anti-European interests."

DPS, the biggest opposition party, was outraged after Mandic received Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russian president of the Bosnian Serb entity on February 27.

Dodik visited Montenegro immediately after meetings with the authoritarian presidents of Russia and Belarus, Vladimir Putin, and Alyaksandr Lukashenka. The visit triggered violent protests in Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina, prompting the latter to send a note of protest to the Montenegrin authorities.

The note highlighted that only the flag of the Bosnian Serb entity, Republika Srpska, was displayed behind Dodik at the press conference and not Bosnia's. Dodik has called for the seccession of the Serb-dominated Republika Srpska from Bosnia. A quarter of Montenegro's population is ethnic Serb.

"Mandic is a representative of those who implement national-chauvinist politics, a promoter of Greater Serbian nationalism. For him, (Radovan) Karadzic and (Ratko) Mladic are his heroes," DPS deputy Ivan Vukovic said in explaining the request for Mandic's dismissal.

Karadzic and Mladic are Bosnian Serbs who were convicted of war crimes, including genocide, during the Yugoslav wars.

The DPS criticized Mandic for visiting the election headquarters of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic's party on the day of the parliamentary elections in Serbia. They also criticized him for placing a tricolor flag identical to the official national flag of Serbia in his cabinet. Montenegro declared its independence from Serbia in 2006.

The DPS called Mandic a "weight on the neck" of European Montenegro and claimed that Western ambassadors bypass the Montenegrin parliament because of his leadership role.

Mandic did not directly respond to the accusations and criticism, emphasizing instead that te public is primarily interested in the results delivered by the parliamentary majority.

"In response to claims by political opponents that I am a hindrance to European integration, I defer to [EU Enlargement Commissioner] Oliver Varhelyi and others in Brussels with whom I have engaged. They appreciate the efforts of the parliament and me," Mandic said.

Mandic received support from his own party as well as members of the ruling coalition, which includes the Europe Now Movement (PES) led by Prime Minister Milojko Spajic, the Democrats led by Deputy Prime Minister Aleksa Becic, and the Socialist People's Party.

However, during the parliamentary session, no member of the Europe Now Movement voiced support for Mandic, despite not voting for his dismissal.

Mandic was the leader of the former pro-Russian Democratic Front, which until 2020 was the main opposition to the DPS, which subsequently lost power.

The program guidelines of the Democratic Front included the withdrawal of recognition of Kosovo's independence, the lifting of sanctions against Russia introduced in 2014 after the annexation of Crimea, and the withdrawal of Montenegro from NATO.

This content originally appeared on News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty and was authored by News - Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty.

Yeah, obviously like, with the name change comes a kind of re-brand, and it’s causing work on the front end, like the algorithm. I know it’s tough to get all the Neon Indian fans to understand that the name has changed but it’s the same guy! That being said, yes, this is definitely the double-breasted suit, saxophone era!

The way World of Hassle came about is so interesting because you’ve said you were 70 percent done with a long-awaited fourth Neon Indian album—a cumbia music project infused with politics—when you decided to chuck that and start over with this very different record.

The idea of making some kind of sophisti-pop album existed in my head. I had thought, “Okay, we’ll make the psychedelic cumbia record, then we’ll move on to that project.” But I think that my head was already on the next project and as I was trying to make this cumbia record, just, things weren’t sticking. I only really got a couple of ideas from that album that I liked. But then this album—the synth I used was the Casio CZ-5000? I got it for like 500 bucks and it just sat against the wall for a few years. I was like, “When I am ready to make this sophisti-pop thing? That’s the palette I want to play around with.” Sure enough, the process of trying to finish this cumbia record was also kind of ill-fated, with a tour that had been booked before the album was even done, under the assumption that it would be done by then. It comes to tour time, and they were like, “We need at least a single,” something we could tour off of. We ended up making up “Toyota Man” [2019] and the video, a six-week thing, then we were on the road a couple months, and by the time I came back, I was like, “What was I making again?” I had totally lost the thread. Suddenly, COVID starts. And there’s no deadline anymore. So I decided to start from scratch. There was that Casio sitting there against the wall. I thought, “Okay, it’s time to turn it on and see what it can do.”

Doing something like this and setting aside one project to say, “I’m all in on this new thing”—is that the first time you’ve ever done that? And is that experience as an artist exciting, intimidating, scary a little bit?

You never want to accept failure. For me, I pride myself on how if I tell myself I’m gonna do something, I do it. If you’re somebody that has follow-through, in the process of making a record, there is a moment where you’re like, “Is the juice worth the squeeze on this one?” How passionate are you about the finished product? Giving yourself a specific lane to work within, I’ve learned is probably not the best way to work. You can think you’re making one type of record and you land somewhere else! It’s a beautiful misfire because you end up with something completely unexpected. This time around, starting from scratch, the influences were definitely there, but I also wanted to give myself the chance to be free. Don’t write about anything in particular. Just write about where your head is at, at the moment. What you’re listening to, what you’re feeling. Starting from scratch can feel like a momentary failure. But it really does motivate you to come back swinging with something strong.

You’ve referred to the sophisti-pop move coming as a result of thinking, “Well, I’m 35—what would my 50-year-old self think of what I am doing now?” Do you think there is such a thing as “age-appropriate” music? Do you give much thought to how what you create will be received?

I really try not to let critical reception and the perception around it, influence the work. Obviously, that comes with the side note that occasionally, influence is inevitable if you’re trying to make a living from it. The way I quantify success is, “Do I have the resources to make the thing that I want to make next?” The brain is always kind of a backlog. I imagine it as papers piling up of unrealized projects, whether it be in film or music. I look at the lifelong narrative, like the post-modern, self-aware artist that creates some arbitrary number of how many records they want to make, or they treat their life like, “At this age I’ll do this, and at that age I’ll do that.” I think that comes from having a certain level of self-awareness. Then your records start playing into that or you want to make that part of the experience, for the fans and for the haters. You want to lean into these things.

I went to a British design museum some years back and they were having an exhibit on Kubrick. They structured it really well, starting from personal things like his pocket computer from 1992 and he was starting to work on Eyes Wide Shut, or his typewriter, and all of these artifacts. You realize that this guy really imagined the libretto of his own life and really played his moves like a chess player. Which he was! It was admirable. I’m not operating at the same level but I at least aspire to create goals that feel age-appropriate. The next thing I really want to get into is filmmaking and it’s something I’ve slowly been doing, it’s a gradually-building process.

So filmmaking is next. You’ve been directing your own videos for a while now, including, this year, the Giallo-ish “Meutrière” and you and Mac DeMarco in animated form in “Nudista Mundial ’89.”

Unfortunately having a music career doesn’t allow you to abandon what you’ve built, in pursuit of something else, or pursuit of a medium you’re not proven in at all. But I decided in 2015, if I don’t have time to build a directorial reel while doing Neon Indian, then at the very least I can build and direct all the videos. This time around, the intention was to continue working through these concepts and just get more experience on set. That’s the next move, I want to make a feature film. The things that fans don’t know about—it might seem to them I’ve been up to nothing, but I’ve been slowly building this whole thing out. I really want to do that, after music.

Why not go for it?

I am so much happier with what I am writing now, as opposed to what I was writing when I was 27! Having all this anxiety about, “Paul Thomas Anderson made Boogie Nights when he was that age!” But you know, he’s a freak of nature in that regard, the man’s a genius. I would say I feel so much more comfortable now in what I am writing, my sense of story structure, all of that. And World of Hassle to some extent continues to be this guy who wants to make movies, but since he can’t do that, he’s trying to incorporate these cinematic elements into his records. That’s the Alan Palomo I want to be at 50. The guy who just goes by his name, and you know him as a director, you know him as a musician, who knows what else. It might be a book today, it might be a photo book, it might be a movie, it might be poetry, it might be an art exhibit, it might be a record.

Do you think there are people who want to keep you in one place? My corollary to that is there are plenty of people who seem to think I should only write about music from when I was starting out like 30 years ago.

In this moment I am literally doing what you’re describing, in the sense that people who want to see another Neon Indian record, who want to see a Psychic Chasms part four, there are certain desires to not want to be musically redundant, to not tread the same path. I am happy to perform the songs live. It’s like you have this window where you’re still kind of plugged in. I will say that putting out a record in 2023 is a completely different animal even from 2018.</a> We don’t know, even the label doesn’t know, what “the big single” will be. Everything is out of our hands. That element of if feels scary. The financial aspect. I will say it felt like I could pivot musically without it feeling like a move that is a reaction to age or wanting to be age-appropriate. It’s almost like I did it prematurely, like, “Okay, let’s just start with the suits and the sax now!”

Are you the type who’s inclined to over-think things, whether that is a melody, an arrangement, a lyric, maybe a visual like the little sayings on the album cover?

I definitely am an over-thinker. In particular about the production elements of it, I just have to sit there with my eyes squinting, focusing very intently on what’s working and what isn’t working. That’s a part of why the records take so much time to make. Sometimes there is this “first idea, best idea” approach. A vocal melody comes to me and I’ll be like, “That’s great.” Forming them into lyrics is a whole different thing. Sometimes you get great lyrics and they don’t fit any melody you can come up with. Sometimes you get a melody and you just can’t put words to it. There’s a constant back-and-forth. Even if you look at the record cover and the gatefold, I mean, Robert [art director Robert Beatty] and I worked on that for like four months! We just kept going over every little idea. I would send him copy and he would come up with this idea, and we would put that in like the AI program and it would spit one out back at us, and we only took the funniest ones. AI was much better at spouting like, nonsense. Mine were too cute, they had a very obvious punch line.

So how do you know when something is done? Even like as you say during the pandemic it felt like there were no real timetables, but at some point with anything don’t you have to say, “I’ve got to wrap this up?”

Honestly, I know when something is done if nothing bothers me about it.</a> By the time you’re done with the idea I might not be in love with the song the same way I was when it was first coming together, but if I can listen to all of it, and not cringe at anything, or have any notes about it, it’s done.</a> Paul Thomas Anderson talks about writing a screenplay and he says it’s like ironing a shirt, every time you iron the shirt, you go a little further out, and further out, and further out. That’s kind of how it is for me with music—and even just with the artwork stuff. You know there would be so many things—Robert just kind of knows to just keep sending it, at every phase of the process. I will have notes, and ideas and at the end we both just kind of look at it and we’re like, “This is done, right? We can’t fit anything else on this. This feels correct.”

I know you improved as a musician through working on this record, right?

My pet project during the pandemic was just to become better at creating, better at music. There’s an attitude when you’re starting out—there’s an interview with River Phoenix, from Berlin when they had given him an award for My Own Private Idaho, and he’s like “I don’t really want to talk about the process.” He’s drinking a beer, just being very hedonistic, but he talked about how he sees his gift with acting as this thing that remains a mystery to him, and that he doesn’t want to learn more about it because he doesn’t want to taint it. That may be true. I would say for actors that may certainly be the case. With music, the more records you make, you will hit this thing where, the more you treat it like, “I don’t know what I’m doing! I don’t want to know what I’m doing!” as things evolve, there’s certain doors that will remain closed if you don’t sit with your instrument and really learn it.

You’ve said that there comes point where you realize what you’re doing is a profession or vocation. So does that mean it’s a job?

It is, but not in the sense that along with it comes an inevitable drudgery. This comes more from watching my father [musician Jorge Palomo, a ‘70s/’80s Mexican pop star] layer his vocation throughout my life. When I first started Neon Indian, he was like, “This is the hiring phase. Just wait, you’re having fun with your friends on the road, but just wait. This is going to turn into a profession like any other.” It’s just the idea of taking it serious and to really feel qualified for the title. It’s not something I run away from anymore. My one criticism of younger Millennials or Gen Z is there’s a sort of habit of giving yourself a title before anyone’s paid you to do it. In my eyes, until someone hands you a check, and somebody compensates you for it, that is not a job. That is not a title. You can’t just call yourself that. I want to be worthy of the title and do something that is honorable, in the way that a jewelry maker labors at his vocation, like a guy who trims trees. Whatever it is you’re doing, just be great at doing that. That’s why I say it is a profession.

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by John Norris.

Whereas a merely domestic dictatorship is no danger to other nations, an international dictatorship — or “empire” — is a danger to other nations, because every empire (i.e., each of the individuals who actually control it) craves to increase or expand its (their) control, and because this imperialistic craving is or ought to be part of the very definition of “empire” because every empire is built in that way (insatiable desire for growth), and also because any empire is heading for extinction to the extent that it quits this aspiration and abandons any area that it formerly did control. The difference between the regime of Franco in Spain, and the regime of Hitler in Germany, that necessitated a World War (specifically WWII) in order for other nations to protect themselves from Hitler’s fascism but not from Franco’s fascism, was precisely that Hitler’s was imperialistic and Franco’s was not. If Hitler and Hirohito and Mussolini had not been imperialistic, then there would have been no WWII. (The public in every nation were opposed to entering war against the imperialistic fascists but ultimately only the most rigid fools could any longer deny that the only alternative to war against the imperialistic fascists would be surrender to them — and so there was WWII. Isolationism and preaching ‘peace’ in the face of imperialists is short-sighted foolishness. That foolishness ends by being invaded: by means of subversion, sanctions, coup, and/or military action.) There can be no peace with an empire, unless it’s an expired one. Empires are the very engines of war, and of nearly constant war.

Starting from 25 July 1945, America became imperialistic — adopted, in fact, the goal of taking control over the entire world — when its new President, Harry S. Truman, decided to accept the advice from his hero, General Dwight Eisenhower (supported by the British imperialist Winston Churchill) for the United States to become not only an empire but the ONLY empire (which Churchill’s nation U.K., would, Churchill hoped, secretly control behind-the-scenes) and take over the entire world, but especially win the Soviet Union — and so the “Cold War” that was to be (so the fool Truman was led to believe) ‘between communism=dictatorship versus capitalism=democracy’ started and then became permanently installed by Truman’s immediate successor, President Eisenhower. Those two Presidents actually created the military-industrial complex (MIC) or the U.S. Government that would become controlled by the largest corporations (such as Lockheed) whose main or entire market would be the U.S. Government and its vassal-nations or ‘allies’ (such as Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the entirety of the former British Empire), which would be the customer-Governments for those U.S.-and-allied, or imperial, weapons-manufacturers. And, when the biggest weapons-manufacturers control the Government, rather than the Government controlling the biggest weapons-manufacturers, that isn’t merely capitalism, but it is dictatorial capitalism: it is “fascism.” In fact: it is imperialistic fascism — the most dangerous type of Government that exists in the modern era.

What Churchill in 1946 dubbed “the Special Relationship” (the umbilical cord connecting the U.S. to the U.K.) had actually been invented by the British magnate Cecil Rhodes, privately, in 1877, before it was institutionalized by Rhodes in his will upon his death in 1902. One of his friends and followers was the then-young Winston Churchill. The 1911 book Cecil Rhodes: His Private Life, says of Rhodes (p. 256), “He was very much entertained by Mr. Churchill’s ready wit and clever conversation, and he listened intently to his views on the political questions of the day. He admired his intellectual powers, which, in conjunction with his dash and ‘go,’ he said must inevitably bring him to front.” Whatever else might be said of Rhodes, he was both extraordinarily prophetic and extraordinarily effective. (Likewise so, is Rhodes’s follower in the present day, George Soros, who cites the philosopher Karl Popper but acts like, and channels, instead, Cecil Rhodes.) However, now, after Rhodes’s operation’s enormous success, starting on 25 July 1945, it is taking desperate gambles to continue in control, which gambles are effective only in a short-term sense because the sheer corruption within it is rotting it out so much as to be bringing it down. And that is what is happening.

The U.K.-U.S. operation is now in its decline-phase and is responding the more desperately and destructively as that decline becomes evermore clear. Its arrogance is placing such pressure upon their vassal-nations as to be increasingly forcing a breaking-up of “The Western Alliance” — the (U.K.)-U.S.-and-allied countries. Yet, at the same time, the U.K.-U.S. alliance is doing all it can to bring some of its vassal-nations, such as Japan, South Korea, Finland, and Sweden, even more tightly into the fold. However, any success in that regard will come at a higher cost to the U.K.-U.S. empire than has been the case in the past. To most observers, the decline and fall of “The West” is now at least as apparent as what had been the case during the Roman embodiment; and if the U.K.-U.S. will persist now, the result will be even more catastrophic than what happened to the empires of Germany, Italy, and Japan from WWII. It will be even uglier than WWII.

On February 3, I headlined “RT: NATO Nations Start to Go Public About U.S. Government’s International Dictatorship” and remarked upon how amazing it was that on that date, both Türkiye and Hungary were publicly insulting the U.S. Government. Such boldness and independence from two of the current era’s lone remaining empire’s vassal-nations (or at least they had been, up till that point in time) is historically unprecedented. How the U.S. dictatorship will be able to continue to call itself a “democracy” after having been declared simultaneously by two of its vassal-nations to be instead an arrogantly bullying dictatorship, seems hard to fathom. Maybe it will even cause some other of the dictatorship’s vassal-nations, such as Japan, South Korea, Finland, and Sweden, to have second thoughts about drawing themselves even closer than they already are.

America’s Government is on the war-path and has been since 1945, in the name of ‘freedom, democracy, and human rights’ but lying all the way and now getting too close to the precipice of WW III. How many of its ‘allies’ will stay with it to that end?

There is sound reason why global polls show that America is the #1 country that is cited as posing the world’s biggest threat to peace. Global polls didn’t exist during World War II, but if they had, then America certainly wouldn’t have been viewed that way then; probably Nazi Germany would have been. And America has risen to take its place.

The U.S. Congressional Research Service’s list of U.S. invasions (including increases in existing invasions) lists and briefly describes 297 such invasions after WW II (i.e., during 1945-2022, a 77-year period), and is titled “Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2022.” That 297 U.S. invasions in the past 77 years is more than all of the instances put together during 1798-1945 — a 147-year period. And none of those 297 invasions was defensive. All were unConstitutional. Most of them were purely aggressions (some in order to help a foreign tyrant suppress his own population). America’s Founders had insisted there be no “standing army” in this nation. Until Truman established the ‘Defense’ Department and CIA in 1947, there wasn’t any. That created America’s military-industrial complex.

Anyway, Ukraine’s and Russia’s Defense Ministers agree (but NATO disagrees) that the war in Ukraine is between NATO and Russia, not between Ukraine and Russia; this is already WWIII, and the only significant question about it now is whether it’s going to reach a final nuclear stage. This will depend upon how far Washington is willing to go in order to persist in the objective that Hitler had, to control ultimately the entire world. And the likelihood of its going all the way to global annihilation will considerably reduce if the U.S. empire soon starts to break up. Which could happen, starting soon.

This content originally appeared on Dissident Voice and was authored by Eric Zuesse.

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One year ago this week, the remnants of Hurricane Ida swept through the Northeast, causing flash floods and laying bare one of the dangers of stormwater drainage systems. In New Jersey alone, at least five people were sucked into open pipes and culverts. Four of them died.

After ProPublica’s story about the long-neglected problem of dangerous storm drains and their toll of at least three dozen deaths since 2015, federal and local officials were moved to action.

This April, the Department of Housing and Urban Development added an “important consideration” to its guidance for HUD housing developments: Those doing environmental assessments should consider whether nearby stormwater infrastructure includes “measures like grates or fencing to prevent drownings during floods.”

HUD officials said they made the change after reading the ProPublica article and speaking with featured officials from Denver’s Mile High Flood District. The Denver district has for years preached the importance of installing grates on some inlets to prevent people from getting sucked in when the area floods and stormwater rushes toward an open drainage pipe, which is often out of sight below the waterline. The Mile High district has developed criteria that cities and towns can use to determine which openings might be dangerous enough to warrant a covering.

Holly Piza, research and development director with the Mile High Flood District, said the HUD move could save lives. “It’s fantastic that the [grate] research has gotten this intense attention on a national level,” she said. “This research can save lives if we have the attention of those that can help increase awareness and make a difference.”

Her organization, along with Colorado’s Larimer County Dive Rescue Team, Colorado State University’s Hydraulics Lab and the engineering company AECOM, are now researching detailed metrics that municipal engineers could use to decide exactly how to position a grate and which type of grate would best fit a given drain. Once the research is complete, HUD officials said they will consider whether to incorporate it into their trainings on environmental assessments or floodplain management.

Piza also said that officials from several municipalities reached out to the Denver district in the past year to ask about how to secure their drains.

The number of storm drain deaths continued to rise in 2022. In June, a 10-year-old boy, his father and another man were killed in Milwaukee when they were pulled into a large drainage culvert after heavy rains. The boy fell into the ditch while chasing a soccer ball. His father and the other man jumped in to save him.

And in Germantown, Tennessee, a youth football coach died in early August when he went into a storm drain to help save one of his players. The boy and his father, who also jumped into the drain, survived.

One community featured in ProPublica’s story has apparently not taken any action. ProPublica revisited South Plainfield, New Jersey, where two men were pulled through an underground pipe during Ida, and saw no apparent safety improvements. Middlesex County officials, who are responsible for the maintenance of the pipes, refused to answer questions; they also declined last year.

Communities that push back against grates often say the cost of putting them in and maintaining them is prohibitive. They also frequently cite the grates’ potential to exacerbate flooding if they get clogged with debris.

But two other New Jersey communities featured in the story have taken steps to prevent future tragedies.

In Maplewood during Ida, a father of two was pulled into a drainage system as he tried to clear debris from the inlet. He and his neighbors had complained for years about the pipe’s danger. Maplewood had to receive permission from New Jersey’s environmental department, which regulates tributaries and waterways, before it could grate the opening. The state was initially against the measure, but changed course after the death. The pipe is now covered with a grate.

And in Passaic, a large culvert has twice generated national news by pulling people in during flooding. In July 2020, DoorDash driver Nathalia Bruno was swept through the culvert after she fled her car during a flash flood, but she survived. Bruno recounted her harrowing story in news accounts, and city officials talked about installing grates and warning signs. But local engineers pushed back, saying grates would get clogged and lead to more flooding.

Then, during Ida a year later, best friends Nidhi Rana, 18, and Ayush Rana (no relation), 21, abandoned their flooded-out car and were sucked into the same drain that had pulled Bruno in. They died.

Like Maplewood, Passaic had to get approval from the state’s environmental department before it could move forward with any remedies. The city proposed grates similar to those suggested by the Denver flood district, along with fencing; both measures were rejected due to concerns about clogging and flooding, said Mayor Hector Lora.

According to Lora, the state now appears to be open to a grate system that would completely cover the culvert and could actually be walked on.

Lora said finding a remedy is a must.

“I don’t know how I stand in front of the community and tell them after having three individuals go through there that we still can’t do anything about it,” he said.

This content originally appeared on Articles and Investigations - ProPublica and was authored by by Topher Sanders.

Oklahoma plans to execute a person a month for the next two years, starting today. We get an update from Connie Johnson, former state senator and murder victim family member with the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, and speak with world-renowned anti-death-penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean. “Our death penalty is broken. It always was from the beginning,” Prejean tells Democracy Now! “I recognize that this is torture and an abuse of human rights. In time, with our help, as we continue to get the word out, the American people are going to see that, too. And we are going to end this thing.” Oklahoma has a history of botched executions, wrongful convictions and prosecution misconduct. “We get it wrong here often,” says Johnson. “We don’t want anyone executed.”

This content originally appeared on Democracy Now! and was authored by Democracy Now!.

The Lao National Labor Committee announced the raise on July 8, which boosts the minimum wage by 100,000 kip (about U.S. $6.70) per month. 

Business owners told RFA that they are still recovering from the coronavirus pandemic, which sharply reduced their revenue.

“I was not informed of this, and I have not made any increase for my workers,” the owner of a water and ice business in the capital Vientiane told RFA’s Lao Service. “I see that the Lao economy is not going well, and business operators will have a hard time if they have to increase minimum wage at this time.”

A garment worker in Vientiane agreed that businesses need more time.

“Some companies are seeing losses or they are not earning any profits right now,” the garment worker said. “For example, the company I am working for is facing losses and the company owner is still keeping the business running, but has to cut costs here and there to survive. … I only survive month-to-month with this wage.”

The wage increase is designed to help Laotians cope with rampant inflation in the country. But it isn’t clear how extensively the new pay minimum will be applied.

The government cannot force business owners to increase wages if they have reached an agreement with their workers on pay and other benefits, an official from the Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare’s Department of Labor Management told RFA.

“If they mutually agreed that the business operators provide food and accommodation to the workers, the business operators and workers can keep wages the same,” the official said. 

“We cannot force the business operators to increase the minimum wage because companies or business operators have their own conditions and policies with their hired workers. If there is any case of taking advantage of the workers, we, as a government body, can go to workplaces and investigate problems,” the official said.

An official from the Lao Federation of Trade Unions told RFA that the union will encourage workers to add clauses to their employment contracts that would force businesses to adhere to minimum wages as set by the government.

“The government has suggested to all business operators to increase the minimum wage.

However, it depends on each company or business’s decision to increase to this suggested minimum wage. Each company and business operator has its own policy and conditions,” the trade union official said.

Even with the increase, the minimum wage is not enough to keep up with the cost of living, several Lao workers told RFA. A worker from Vientiane told RFA that the government should mandate an even higher increase and also do more to moderate food prices.

Fuel shortages and an overreliance on imports have sharply raised the cost of living in Laos. Foreign currency reserves have grown scarcer, leading to a devaluation of the kip, which in turn adds pressure on prices. 

“They will add around $6.50 to the current minimum wage per month to about $79 per month,”  the worker said. “This will not help very much. Even though I earn over 1.3 million kip, or about $85 per month, I still find it very hard to survive.”

After the Aug. 1 increase to 1.2 million kip, the minimum wage should increase to 1.3 million kip by May 1, 2023 according to the National Labor Committee.

The increases are targeted at workers in the manufacturing and service sectors working a minimum of 26 eight-hour days per month, or six days per week.

The minimum wage does not apply to overtime pay. Business owners have to pay an extra 15 percent of minimum wage to workers performing duties that are hazardous.

The move to 1.2 million kip minimum wage comes after Phonesane Vilaymeng, vice president of the Lao Federation of Trade Unions, told state media on May 1 that the current wage of 1.1 million was no longer viable considering the higher cost of living.

An official of the organization also told state media that the country would lose more workers to neighboring Thailand if it kept the minimum wage so low. The Lao Federation of Trade Unions in March proposed that the minimum wage be raised to at least 1.5 million kip, or about $99 per month, by May 1,  International Labor Day.

Translated by Phouvong. Written in English by Eugene Whong.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By RFA Lao.

A video featuring former President Donald Trump is played during the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on June 23, 2022.

Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

This content originally appeared on The Intercept and was authored by James Risen.

Humanity’s future existence hinges on cooperation on a global scale. The greatest existential threats we face are worldwide problems that stem from the man-made climate disaster—and the massive decline in biodiversity, pollution, worsening storms, fires and sea level rise that come with it. Even the COVID-19 pandemic potentially resulted from deforestation and dwindling biodiversity on the planet, and the lack of action to slow down such destruction will only increase the likelihood of pandemics in the future.

The inevitable worldwide impacts of the climate crisis make the idea of war—for instance, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggressions in Ukraine—feel particularly irrational and anachronistic. At a time when scientists around the globe agree that the future of life for our species will require immediate worldwide actions to restore the planet, an aggressive invasion of a smaller nation by a large world power like Russia (and whispers of the unthinkable, like a third world war or nuclear violence) is recklessly out of context with the realistic priorities of our times. Large-scale war stands in stark contrast with the one thing the world should be giving critical consideration to presently: cooperation.

Research by peace and conflict studies professors at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, anthropologists Geneviève Souillac and Douglas P. Fry (who are married), has the potential to support the sort of large-scale cooperation and peace our world so desperately needs. The two coauthored a study published in the journal Nature in 2021 that theorizes how humanity can realistically stop war: develop peace systems. Peace systems, defined as existing clusters of neighboring societies that do not make war with each other, already exist around the world, on both small and large scales.

The study, “Societies Within Peace Systems Avoid War and Build Positive Intergroup Relationships,” assessed real-world examples of how war is stopped and future war is prevented when societies shift their cultures and values and adopt intentional systems of peace. Fry spoke with the Independent Media Institute in detail about the study in a 2021 article, “How Humanity Can Realistically Prevent New Wars From Ever Happening Again.”

Thus far, the researchers have found approximately 16 examples of peace systems and are further working to determine whether or not other societies in the world can be classified as peace systems.

“Our overall definition of a peace system is clusters of neighboring societies that don’t make war with each other, and sometimes these societies don’t make war at all, but sometimes they do make war outside the system,” Fry says. “They [the neighboring societies] have a history of not warring with each other.”

The peace systems that already exist today are found both in smaller Indigenous groups like Brazil’s Upper Xingu River Basin tribes and the Aboriginal Australians of the Great Western Desert, as well as in larger societies—the most obvious modern example being the European Union (EU). The EU is an example of a peace system that would have seemed impossible, even ridiculous, just decades prior to its adoption (since Europeans had historically warred with each other for hundreds of years), and it faces a critical moment of reckoning given the current events in Ukraine.

Researchers Souillac and Fry recently collaborated on the eight-minute short film “A Path Away From War,” which explains how peace systems work around the world—from how and why they are created to how they are upheld. They teamed up with Chris and Dawn Agnos of the storytelling nonprofit Sustainable Human to create the film, which was released in February 2022.

The film discusses the shared characteristics that are found across peace systems, which include:

+ An overarching common social identity

+ Positive social interconnectedness

+ Interdependence

+ Non-warring values and norms

+ Non-warring myths, rituals and symbols

+ Peace leadership

“Most citizens of the European Union, which was created to prevent wars, now hold an overarching identity as Europeans in addition to local and national identities,” the film’s narration states. Another example woven throughout the film is that of a historic peace system created by the Indigenous peoples of North America, in which the long-warring cultures of the Cayuga, Mohawk, Seneca, Oneida and Onondaga all came together “into a union of cooperating neighbors” known as the Haudenosaunee. They intentionally formed a cooperative and peaceful society, which lasted for 300 years, until it was disrupted by the arrival of European colonial settlers.

“Many people think there has always been war and there always will be war,” the film’s narration, done by Fry, states, before pointing out that this is not the case. The film suggests that alternatives to war are necessary to tackle the existential threats all people face. It discusses the potential of peace systems to “help usher in an era of unsurpassed global cooperation” and explores the ways in which “our destinies are intertwined” around the world due to the global realities of climate change, the potential for continued outbreaks of global pandemics and nuclear proliferation.

Souillac and Fry spoke with April M. Short of the Independent Media Institute about the film and the imperative of peace systems, especially given the rising global tensions due to Russia’s war in Ukraine.

April M. Short: Though it was created prior to the Russian Federation invading Ukraine, this video, “A Path Away From War,” is especially relevant now, as the new reality of war in Europe highlights preexisting conflicts around the world, in Yemen, Ethiopia, Mali, Syria, Palestine and elsewhere. What are your thoughts on Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, and how peace systems could play into what’s happening in Europe now?

Geneviève Souillac: Peace systems are based on equality between each of the states within the peace system, and they support democratic growth—because democracy is never static, but is, rather, an evolving system.

A couple of days before the invasion occurred, a group of Ukrainian protesters held up signs in front of the Russian Embassy in Kyiv that said, “We choose Europe not Russia.” The sign expressed a choice, on the part of those Ukrainians, of a peace system over a nation behaving, to their eyes, like an empire capable of waging a war of expansion against its neighbor for its own gains.

It was a statement that was counter-empire, and it was also pro-democracy in a values-based sense. We know that another small neighboring country, Georgia, was invaded by Russia in 2008. Its current government has expressed a wish for Georgia to join the European Union. A significant proportion of Ukrainians have had aspirations to be integrated into the EU, and the Ukrainian parliament has approved an agreement with the EU [regarding this].

AMS: You’ve both been studying peace and peace systems for years, and the Nature article containing your research about peace systems received widespread global attention after it came out in 2021. A year later, you’ve created this short film about peace systems—what inspired you?

Douglas P. Fry: We think the concept of peace systems is, on the one hand, an innovative way of looking at how to create peace and how to maintain peace. On the other hand, it has such important real-world applications that we wanted to try to get the message out there about peace systems existing, and their potential to create additional peace systems and to create peace more generally.

It happened that through a colleague we came across a filmmaking company, Sustainable Human, which focuses on peace and sustainability and addressing the human potential for enhanced well-being. Our orientation aligned nicely with this so we made contact and they were eager to make this film with us. It’s really been a joint project between Geneviève [Souillac] and myself as the academics and content leaders, with Chris and Dawn Agnos at Sustainable Human, who are very skilled at making videos.

AMS: The video makes it clear that our destinies are intertwined on a global scale. I think many people today see peace and worldwide cooperation as necessary. The video spoke to that point, and for many this current revving up toward war feels like a distraction, when we’re already faced with the larger global predicaments of the climate crisis, the pandemic and so on.

DPF: I’m sure I’m not the only one who, while watching the leader of a large and very powerful nation invade a smaller neighboring nation, sees history repeating itself. The vital difference is that now, with Russia being a nuclear nation, the potential exists for absolute catastrophe. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has put the possibility of collective nuclear annihilation back on the table. It’s insane.

You can listen to the mainstream media and hear all sorts of points of view about this, but one way or another the idea that nuclear war could break out due to an accident or the intentions of an authoritarian leader is very scary. I think this situation puts nuclear awareness back on the table, and I glean some positivity from that. Those of us who would like a more peaceful world empathize, and we’re terribly distressed with the tragedies we’re both seeing and not seeing—but maybe we can take solace in the idea that this particular event could actually help to crystallize a peace movement, or a peace systems movement to provide true security for everyone on the planet. There is no place for nuclear weapons if humanity is going to have a future. Sooner or later, something will go horribly wrong.

GS: It seemed anachronistic when we started seeing this invasion, and when it quickly escalated. This level of aggression, violence and destruction by one superpowerful state against a smaller nation seems so out of context, given the advances made by the international legal, economic and security system overall after World War II. This system has been developing and affirming a new kind of world where we are interdependent in various ways, with intensive trade, migration and information flow. In this system, a norm exists that wars of aggression between sovereign states are out of the picture because they are both illegal and immoral.

It’s like seeing something from another era erupt in a contemporary setting. The contrast and the inappropriate nature of what we’re seeing, which is of course enhanced by the spectacle of intense media coverage of the war, put us all on edge. It is surreal, like a time warp.

However, there could be an opportunity in the crisis, and it could potentially create a shift in global awareness, similar to powerful social consciousness shifts we have seen in the last few years, for example, around attitudes on sexual assault, or with the ongoing and necessary reckoning with systemic racism. Again, awareness around the effects of human-driven economies that destroy the conditions of life on this planet has been growing. Changes are required on multiple levels that are all interrelated. In fact, the war in Ukraine is leading many countries to rethink their energy policies.

AMS: With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the way the rest of Europe has responded so far, are we witnessing what happens when a peace system comes up against another society or societies that do not adhere to such a system?

GS: This is a turning point for the EU, as I’m sure you’ve heard commentators say. The governments of Europe—from the Scandinavian governments, through Germany, France, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and other Central and Eastern European countries, as well as the Baltic states—have rallied around and emphasized the importance of democracy in a collective voice. Though tensions remain with the recently reelected authoritarian leader of Hungary, the EU states have cohered around the interconnected ideals of freedom, democracy and peace.

This performative affirmation of democratic ideals and their structural connection to peace has vividly highlighted how the democratic values of freedom and equity contrast with autocracy, hierarchy and domination. In other words, it has highlighted the essential and even dramatic role played by values in both peace and conflict.

Recently, the head of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, visited Kyiv. In her speech to the Verkhovna Rada, the parliament of Ukraine, she emphasized that “the European Union was created to interlink the destinies of the nation states of Europe,” that it is “a project for peace and… freedom.” She expressed her appreciation to the Ukrainian people for fighting for freedom, democracy and the rule of law, emphasizing that these are not “buzzwords” but are “being fought for” because “without them, there is nothing else.”

The war may be taking place on the edge of the EU, but it is in Europe. As Metsola said in the same speech on April 1, “Ukraine is Europe.” This entails the return of the pathos of a shared European history, with all the layers of collective memory regarding harms committed both within and outside Europe.

Of course, this moment also raises the fact that a prosperous Europe has somewhat taken peace for granted in recent years, and it is now having to think about how to defend that value of peace. The question of a European defense force is being raised. These are complex and hard choices in the global security system as it exists today. But certainly today, the ideal of peace is suddenly appearing like a flashing light. Peace—and I would argue, an expanded, normative and social understanding of the term—now appears both extremely precious and of utmost existential importance.

DPF: The EU is an important peace system. It’s a rather young one, being in existence for about 75 years (I say about 75 since we count the years beginning after World War II, a period of time with no war). Of course, the EU as we know it today, as a political and economic union of 27 countries, came about through a series of steps leading to a progressively fuller economic, monetary and value-based integration of nations. In that sense, the EU can be looked at as an evolving peace system.

The EU is also very important because we have the written history as to the motivations behind its development. The main motivation behind it was to eliminate war on the continent of Europe and to prevent future wars in Europe. A secondary, also very important motivation for integration and cooperation within Europe was economic prosperity. With those two goals, it’s been extremely successful.

Coming back to your question about current events with Russia invading Ukraine, to my thinking, we ultimately need a global peace system. We need this so that you don’t still have the possibility of war occurring outside the system, at the periphery, or war among countries that are not part of a peace system. That is not where we need to go globally. We face so many serious global challenges.

To contextualize the situation in Ukraine, for me that crisis is just highlighting the need to basically give up war on this crowded, interdependent planet. As the video says, war is horribly destructive, it’s costly and it’s inhumane.

AMS: How would the wider adoption of peace systems and peace in general support a healthier planet and the future of humanity?

DPF: There is an intrinsic connection between solving the many existential threats and challenges that humanity is facing, and peace systems are a great way to get there because peace provides the conditions for cooperation.… I think the whole idea of peace systems resonates with so many people because there’s an answer to the age-old problem of war… We have militaristic cultures and societies that, frankly, can brainwash people. What I’ve determined as an anthropologist reading broadly across different cultures and trying to understand what makes people tick is that what people really want or value is safety and security. They don’t value militarism, they don’t value going to war, but they can be convinced that if their safety and security are at stake, then they should go to war. With peace systems, we’re really trying to change the whole paradigm.

In the case of some peace systems, the impetus to come together and form a peace system was due to perceived external threats to safety and security.… At this point in the 21st century the external threat is climate change and the destruction of the natural environment, which are things that require cooperation to tackle.

We can’t solve global threats individually as countries. And if people really value safety and security and the future of their kids and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, we really have to address issues such as the nuclear threat and the catastrophic consequences of unchecked, human-driven climate change. These are the types of challenges that really require all of us to cooperate and work together.

Warfare is antithetical to cooperating and working together, so peace systems provide a solution to this. Within peace systems people do cooperate, they do work together and they have achieved non-warring social environments. They’ve achieved this high degree of peace.

One thing we see as anthropologists is that there’s so much flexibility in human social organization and human structures. There are many forms of human potential that we could be turning into lived realities. Peace systems fall right into this model. They have been realized, so that’s great, but they’ve not been applied more generally. They’ve not been applied across the board. For me, there’s really an exciting potential. We’ve got quite a bit of feedback, almost all of it positive, honestly, about this peace system concept. It excites people because it provides a model of where we could go, of how we could end war and how we could cooperate and work together to address these very serious challenges that we as humanity are facing.

GS: The peace systems model is not only a model for peace or for the elimination of war but is also a model for many forms of cooperation.

There’s no turning back now, with all these issues we currently face as a species. We hope the intense global media exposure of this war against Ukraine and of its horrors will encourage the development of a more viable human security system that clearly exposes the connection between exploitative behaviors toward the planet, other species and of course humans.

There is an intrinsic connection between war, which is so destructive of both the human and natural environments, and extractive economic models that lead to the disastrous consequences of climate breakdown that we know. Climate justice and social justice are connected, as is often pointed out, but so is violent conflict, in so many ways. We are at a historical point of convergence.

This model addresses a wide range of concerns related to human security and ultimately allows for a wide range of sustainable solutions to them to emerge—from the shift to a low-carbon economy, to deeper forms of democracy that address exclusion and mega wealth inequalities, to conflict resolution techniques to manage the disagreements and rising violence in increasingly polarized societies. This is because the model is grounded in an anthropological approach that takes human needs and adaptive cultural and social behaviors seriously.

Hopefully this time in history will provide a way for us to understand our limitations and mobilize the collective aspiration for true structural change beyond superficial and fleeting expressions of outrage. In order to deal with climate change and other enormous planetary challenges, we need to acknowledge that despite our ambitions, we are now faced with our limitations as modern humans and our smallness in the universe.

We find that these are collectively relevant issues, and that we need to cooperate through practices of solidarity on all matters of human survival, thriving and flourishing, to begin to repair the damage. Peace systems is one model to help promote and implement that shift in awareness.

AMS: What are some things individuals might do to encourage peace systems, or peaceful values, in their communities?

DPF: Very important is to actually have a vision that peace is possible. If you start with a pessimistic assumption like there’s always been war, there always will be war, there’s nothing we can do about war, etc., you’re not really motivated as an individual to even try to do anything, however small it might seem. That’s the very first value I see in this type of cross-cultural work of studying peace systems. You find peaceful societies have different value systems that are based on nonviolence. And these societies are doing just fine—in fact, you could argue, doing better than more violent societies in terms of human well-being and happiness.

So what an individual can do is become aware—and this is a big part of why we created this type of video about peace systems—that there is a realistic possibility of peace.

I like to quote Kenneth Boulding, who was a peace studies fellow and an economist, that “anything that exists is possible.” It’s very important to understand that there are peace systems already.

Let’s jump to the five Nordic nations for a second as an example. They’ve not warred with each other for over 200 years. That’s pretty impressive for five neighbors that previously did have wars with each other. Now, they just gave it up and evolved in this way. Today, the idea that Sweden would attack Norway, which was a possibility 100 years ago and didn’t happen, is just unthinkable.

There are so many different things to do to promote peace and to not promote war. In the United States, for instance, vote for non-war candidates; write to your senator and your members of Congress about this huge military budget that is put forth every year. There’s also local activism. Talk to your friends and neighbors. I know that’s a challenge sometimes, unfortunately, in this day and age, but I think you’ll find if you take this on as I’ve done—and I’ve been surprised myself—people really favor peace over war. People are very worried about issues such as nuclear weapons, but it’s not talked about nearly enough, and if it’s not talked about nothing is done about it.

GS: I would say, start having conversations about peace itself and about how valuable and precious historically constructed but enduring institutions and values such as democracy and the rule of law, equality and freedom, human rights—their wide spectrum, from civil and voting rights to humanitarian law—are, but also about how they are connected to peace. These are such important, interconnected goals that are magnetic to so many. We should be discussing them as we go about our everyday lives. They are also grounded in ecological concern and action.

I remember a Ukrainian refugee who was interviewed and who said something like, “Until a couple of weeks ago, I was dreaming about upgrading my mobile phone or my next vacation. Now, all I dream of is peace.”

People can be having conversations about what peace means to them, and how it’s connected to these profound existential desires we have for respecting our planet and each other, or for the healing of those who have been historically harmed. This awareness can animate our everyday lives, rather than being somehow extraneous to us.

Our everyday lives are in fact intertwined with multiple layers of harm and suffering. As we tune in to the pathos of this world, we can hopefully feel the urgency of healing the suffering that ails our planet. All of this is part of the meaning of peace on a universal scale. Peace, in the end, comes with healing.

This article was produced by Local Peace Economy, a project of the Independent Media Institute.

This content originally appeared on CounterPunch.org and was authored by April M. Short.

“This year is the eve of the diamond anniversary of our Independence Day. Therefore, we must all strive hard to fully enjoy the fruits of independence and the essence of democracy,” the coup leader said in an address in the capital Naypyidaw at the close of the April 13-16 New Year Water Festival.

“That’s why we are doing our best to make this year a ‘year of peace’ and bring stability to the whole country.”

Min Aung Hlaing did not elaborate on how the military regime, which rights groups say has killed at least 1,769 civilians since its Feb. 1, 2021, coup, intends to carry out his vision.

Thingyan — normally a bustling and jubilant holiday — was eerily silent in Myanmar’s main cities of Yangon and Mandalay, as residents chose to boycott junta-led festivities and heed warnings by armed opposition forces that the areas could become the target of attacks.

An RFA investigation found that authorities arrested nearly 100 people in the two cities, as well as Myawaddy township in Kayin state, in the first 10 days of April as part of a pre-Thingyan crackdown. Some of those detained had joined anti-coup protests, while others were accused of being members of Yangon-based anti-junta paramilitary groups, including the People’s Defense Force (PDF).

Meanwhile, armed clashes between the military and joint anti-junta forces were in full swing through the New Year in Kayin, Kachin, Kayah, Chin and Rakhine states, as well as in Sagaing, Magway, Bago and Yangon regions, according to Karenni National Progressive Party.

Khoo Daniel, first secretary of the ethnic Karenni National Progressive Party, predicted that the fighting will get even worse in the new year with an expansion of war zones.

“The military situation is going to get worse as each and every group is preparing in their own way,” he said. “The [shadow National Unity Government (NUG)] itself has openly said it will launch military operations everywhere. So, it’s likely to be very tense.”

In 2021, the clashes were relatively minimal, he said, because there was “a lack of unity among the armed groups to fight the military junta.”

But Khoo Daniel said that the nation’s politicians and public now have a better understanding of why ethnic groups have taken up arms against the military and are more likely to throw their support behind them.

One group that has benefitted from such an alliance is the Karen National People’s Party in Kayin state, which has linked up with the Karen National Defense Force (KNDF) paramilitaries and other PDF units in neighboring Kayah and Southern Shan states to fight the military.

A member of the KNDF, who spoke to RFA on condition of anonymity, said the group hopes to open new fronts in the new year.

“As resistance fighters, our focus this New Year is to fight the junta together,” she said. “We hope to open several fronts across the whole country.”

The Free Tiger Rangers, a group loyal to the NUG’s Ministry of Defense that is attacking junta targets in Yangon, also said in a recent statement that its New Year resolution is to “defeat the military.”

Observers told RFA they expect the military to heavily crack down on the armed resistance this year if it hopes to find a solution to the country’s political crisis and hold a general election in 2023.

“What is special about this New Year is that we are seeing a lot of intense fighting between the military forces and the PDFs, as well as the ethnic armed groups. The clashes have intensified,” said Myanmar-based military analyst Than Soe Naing.

“I think both sides are hoping for a decisive situation and the armed conflict will likely intensify in the mountains, in the plains, and in the cities — in both rural and urban areas.”

Even if the military achieves its objectives, it is unlikely the country will be in any sort of state to hold a general election next year, he added.

Hein Thiha, a former high school teacher who has worked as a farmer since joining the anti-junta Civil Disobedience Movement, told RFA that the people of Myanmar showed how much they want a return to democracy by abstaining from celebrations for Thingyan, which he called the nation’s “most cherished festival.”

“The world can now see how our people are willing to sacrifice in the hope that democracy will one day flourish again,” he said.

NUG acting President Duwa Lashi La, meanwhile, vowed in a New Year’s address on Saturday to reclaim territory under military control and said he would do everything in his power to free the people from junta rule.

“The NUG has redoubled its efforts to build a peaceful federal democratic union and to provide people with the services they need with help from international organizations,” he said. “I can see a ray of light at the end of the tunnel, and we will make the people’s dream come true.”

The NUG said in a statement over the weekend that it is affiliated with 354 PDF units fighting the military and that more than 100 of them are working under its control. It said PDF and armed ethnic groups are now in control of “nearly 50 percent of the country.”

The end of Thingyan also saw the junta release more than 1,600 inmates from jail in a general amnesty on Monday, none of whom were political prisoners or journalists, according to observers and family members.

The junta pardoned 1,619 people, most of whom were said to be jailed for drug and immigration offenses, despite calls from rights groups and the international community to free the nation’s many prisoners of conscience detained for opposing military rule.

Junta chief Min Aung Hlaing said late last month that the amnesty was aimed at promoting “peaceful co-operation during the transition period” and the sentences of those convicted of “acts of terrorism” would not be commuted.

Htay Htay Win, the mother of Yan Paing Tun, who is serving a life sentence for violating the country’s anti-terrorism law, told RFA she had hoped her son would be among those released in the amnesty.

“If you asked me if I’d rather have a pound of gold or my son right now, I’d say straight away that I don't need the money, only my son,” she said.

The family member of another prisoner, who declined to be named because of security concerns, said she had hoped for the release of her brother, who is serving a life sentence at Yangon’s Insein Prison, also for violating the Anti-Terrorism Act.

“It’s so sad that a lot of young, educated people, including my brother, have been arrested. This is very unfortunate,” she said.

“We heard that no political prisoners were among those released on New Year’s Day … I think [the junta is] making the country’s situation worse by releasing them. Security is already bad and with these people out on the streets, I think it’ll be worse than ever.”

Her brother is still facing charges in Insein Prison under the Anti-Terrorism Act after already given a life sentence by the junta for an alleged murder.

According to Thailand’s Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, the junta has arrested 13,282 people between Feb. 1, 2021, and April 15, 2022. Among them were 135 media personnel and 55 journalists, the Bangkok-based group said.

Ei Mon Phyo, wife of Ye Yint Tun, said that she had little hope that her husband would be freed after the junta failed to release him in two prior amnesties.

The reporter for The Herald Daily based in Irrawaddy region’s Pathein township was arrested on Feb. iou28 while photographing an anti-junta protest in Pathein and is serving a two-year jail sentence.

Repeated calls by RFA to junta Deputy Information Minister Maj. Gen. Zaw Min Tun seeking comment on the amnesty went unanswered Monday.

Analyst Than Soe Naing slammed the junta for “releasing the bad guys and arresting the good ones.”

“They continue to imprison politicians and let thieves, robbers, addicts and rapists roam the streets,” he said.

“They will be able to do what they want only when there are bad elements in society. I would say this is a policy that promotes a system of terrorists like them.”

The junta released more than 23,000 inmates on New Year's Day 2021, another 2,200 in June that year, 5,600 in October 2021 and 800 in February, but only a handful of political prisoners were them. 

Translated by Khin Maung Nyane. Written in English by Joshua Lipes.

This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Myanmar Service.

I was in Mali in 2011. It’s very possible that I heard his first record Anar, which is an auto tune record. I’m 75% sure I heard that on a cell phone over there. Later in 2012, I was sent a live recording—it might have been his cover of “Chet Boghassa,” the Tinariwen track. The energy Mdou gave it struck me. It felt similar to my roots in the DIY punk world.

Was it apparent you shared those roots right away?

We both knew it was there from the beginning, but didn’t put it together until I went to Niger for the first time in 2017. That’s when I realized the Agadez scene is no different than the DC punk scene. People bringing in their own PA, generators, and setting up either outside of a house or in the middle of a desert or on the street. Playing for a bunch of people and kids going crazy.

There was a comfort in that.

Yes. I’ve been playing West African music since 2013 starting with Bambara music from Mali and then studying Sabar music from Senegal. I played with Janka Nabay and the Bubu Gang from Sierra Leone. His music was Bubu music, which is old witchcraft, super-hyper dance music, very fast. Those experiences were prepping for Mdou. I love Malian music, it’s more traditionally like court music in that it’s very mellow, it’s beautiful.

Going through different styles I realized Mdou’s music is not much different from what I grew up with. A big parallel for me was going to jazz school for two years. At some point I realized this music doesn’t do it for me. I love listening to it, but I can’t play this music, especially when someone’s forcing it down your throat. I went back and listened to more heavy and aggressive music. When Mdou and I connected it was the perfect fit.

You’ve spoken previously about his curiosity. Is that a core value you look for in other musicians?

Absolutely. Another big part of my childhood was experimental and improvised music. It was hard to find while playing with some of these older Malian musicians. It’s really like, “This is the way it goes.” I love their music so much, and I’ve tried many times to see if they would be open to trying something different. The answer is always no. When I met Mdou, that was a big spark because he’s down to experiment. Ahmoudou Madassane, his rhythm guitarist, is really into sound and textures. That’s my bread and butter.

Honoring and acknowledging tradition while also wanting to make forward progress can come with challenges.

100%. It’s an interesting, ongoing conversation that we have. Tradition and Tuareg culture is very important, but how far they push it is scary for them. I want to push it too but most importantly, I want to be respectful. At what point is it going too far? When they’re like, “Well, actually this is not going to work over here. Let’s not do that.” Or they’re very into clean sounds and I love that dirty stuff recorded just on a cell phone. Finding a balance between all that is hard.

You were thrown into many roles (tour manager, driver, etc.) at the same time. How did you navigate all of that?

It was terrifying, especially the manager part. Mdou approached me and sat me down in a room at our first New York show together and he said, “You’re going to be my manager. You’re coming to Niger with me right now, after this tour.” And I was like, “Sure, yeah. I’m going to do it.” I contacted as many people as I could and tried to do my best. It was tough at the beginning. I realized that Mdou never really had a good manager at the start. Introducing him to my world of people…I had a lot of connections with booking agents and different music industry people. It became easier to navigate that stuff when I realized that I do know what I’m doing and I’ve done this with my own bands, I just didn’t know at the time.

There was confidence being built.

Totally. The biggest thing for me is going back and forth between New York and Niger and spending a lot of time with that culture. Their family is really important to them. This band operates so much differently than any other band I’ve been in. Going through visas and even just sending them money. It’s a whole different thing. There’s different challenges, but I was up for it and I feel very fortunate to have done it.

Having someone in your corner really matters.

Yes, exactly. Ed Parson became our new manager. He was the person I would go to when a Louis Vuitton thing would come in and I had no idea how to navigate that. At some point I knew the whole CWA visa stuff, but I didn’t know the actual managing part. He was that guy for me.

Mdou has said that you’ve helped translate the bass sound in his mind. What was some early feedback you were given? How did your role differ from the Malian music you had been playing?

The Malian music I played was further south of the Tuareg region. I love that music and listen to it often. There was some connection to Tinariwen so I would transcribe those lines. With Malian music, it’s a very different feel. Tuareg Music has a lot of triplets—sloppy isn’t the right word, but it’s like a specific type of triplet. Gnawa music from Morocco has a similar feel.

I had the Bubu music pace—repetitive, very fast moves with Malian embellishments. That’s how I approached it at first. Then I would cop one of Mdou’s lines. I would hear something, really study it and be like, “Okay, he’s doing this here. That’s a baseline.” So I would just play that. Then I would hear Ahmoudou’s chords and I would move along with him. It was scary at first, because Ahmoudou is such a harmonically rich player. It’s so different from other Tuareg music where you just hang out on one or two chords. It brought me back to ear training in music school.

You had to figure out where your part sat.

Interestingly, Mdou’s music; that type of Niger and Tuareg music, traditionally doesn’t have bass. It’s usually two guitars and drums. I could also feel where that low end was missing. Being a fan of that music for so long, I wanted to add some body to it, but also wanted to treat it with so much respect.

Was there a shift in your understanding of not only the music, but their culture at large once you were living there and participating on a deeper level?

What really did it for me was the first time I went over, I was there for about a month and a half. Mdou and I would play three weddings a day. He kept pulling out new music and then would throw me with another band and just leave. I had to just figure it out—it was the best training for what was to come.

Is Mdou direct in his communication style? Does this impact group dynamics?

I wish there was more directness, but that’s why Mdou and I work so well. At this point I understand where he’s trying to go. We never talk about the music. We’ve never written a set list ever. There’s been times where every night Mdou will play a line that’s on a record that happens twice, but he’s only doing it once. So everybody is confused about what’s going on. I have to be that person that says, “Hey Mdou. So you’re just doing it once. Souleymane, he’s just doing it once. Ahmoudou, he’s just doing it once.” He has such a great band because we can all listen and respond to that. He can do whatever the fuck he wants on stage and we’re there.

There’s trust and vulnerability there.

A lot of it is improvised. This whole band is very improvisational. It’s these structures, these cells that we’re playing off of, but it’s different every night. Mdou could hit a different chord and we’re like, “Okay, we’re going there.”

It’s part of the Mdou Moctar experience.

Exactly. There’s a Tuareg song structure and Mdou’s breaking that. I don’t think he’s conscious of that, but what he’s doing is really setting himself apart. It’s all emotional. Whatever song he wants to play, it’s, “Okay. I feel like this is the right song for the moment.”

He’s not huge on traditional studio experiences. How did you track both LPs?

I love being in studios, but I grew up doing that and they haven’t. The most important thing I can do as a producer is figure out how I can make them comfortable. On this last record, we did some stuff in studios, but then it was, “Okay, I know that he doesn’t want to be here.” We’ll do the vocals backstage or in a hotel, or we’ll record in my apartment (including the room I’m in right now) and it’ll feel more comfortable. Like we’re just sitting around playing. I learned a lot making Ilana The Creator. We spent a week in a studio and it was difficult. This record there was less of that.

So we said “Let’s try going into multiple studios. Let’s see if that makes it better.” There were some advantages there. I think the next thing that we’re going to do is rent a house and convert it into a studio. It’ll just be the four of us. I think a lot of bands should do that if possible. If you’re comfortable in a studio, do it. If you’re not, you can make anything work. There’s this idea that it has to be done in a studio or it has to be done in an expensive studio. I think that’s complete bullshit. You can make anything sound good.

How do you organize files across different studios, engineers, etc.?

Well, it’s all pretty messy. I like to do a mix down after the session, even just a rough mix and then add stuff on top to bring into to a master session later. When I go to Niger I’m not bringing the whole session with me, I’m bringing a stereo track. I like to bring it as close to a mixed sound as possible. We have such limited time together. Sending music to them to listen to, to check mixes, it’s just them on their cell phones and it’s not the best or the most accurate representation of it. I try to do as much as I can when I’m over there, put some headphones on them, and get it close. If anything sounds weird, I’ll adjust it later.

That feels improvisational, too.

That’s also another part of my job—we record twenty minute tracks and I’m responsible for cutting them down.

What’s your process for that?

The most important thing, now that Mdou and I have a language together, is that I understand what he wants to do. Maybe he missed something, but he trusts that I can edit it down to, “Okay, this happened five times the first time, but this time it happened six times.” Is it cool to leave at six? Or would he want it just five? Would he want it more symmetric?” I like blending the two because I think that’s how original Mdou is. He brings that side, whether he knows it or not. These odd things that he does are what makes him Mdou Moctar. And it’s what makes us the band Mdou Moctar.

What about translating Mdou’s lyrics? How can sonic choices impact this?

We’ll talk about the meanings of each song. It’s important for me to know. With a song like “Afrique Victime,” Mdou was doing this noise solo in another song we had. I said, “Why don’t you put that in this song? With the message that you’re talking about, this makes sense.” He agreed, The other thing with that song was getting an up front, aggressive mix. A super powerful sound. It depends on the song. On “Tahoultine” it’s a little more airy. We wanted it to breathe a bit more. We thought, “should we add strings? We realized it sounded great as is.

How do people listen to music in West Africa versus in America?

People listen to music in West Africa on WhatsApp and it’s song-by-song. People here listen to records from beginning to end, or I hope they do. It’s hard because that’s not how people listen over there. As much as we talk about how it works, it’s hard to break what’s already a thing. We’re talking more in depth about that for this next record of, “Let’s create a story, pretend it’s a movie.” Using that analogy.

It must be tough to perform songs with powerful lyrical content to a crowd for whom the message might get lost. How has the band worked through this?

We are very conscious of where we play. We had a big conversation with the booking agent we first brought on. We told him, “We don’t want to play world music events, we don’t want to play hippie festivals. This is a rock band.” It’s funny because occasionally we do these world music things because maybe they pay or it makes sense on the routing. It’s a big difference when we’re playing a seated show to older white people versus a show where people are moshing and crowd surfing. The first time people were going off I almost shed a tear because it was like, people get it, this is a rock band.

It was beautiful. I looked over to Mdou and he was smiling at me. It was moment where we broke free of this world music thing. We’re pushing this world music term that’s so racist and not doing anyone justice, it’s not working for bands. There’s so many amazing bands that come over from outside of Europe and the US and North America. They get put in this box and it’s the worst. They have no future, it’s like they get stuck there, they print CDs and they play to older, white crowds and it’s a shame.

You’ve also been in charge of procuring Visas for the band. Has that gotten any easier over time?

Most people in West Africa need visas for everything – the US, Canada, Europe, wherever. It’s definitely an added stress when we tour. We have to think, “Well, can they get home in time to get their visas? Because they can’t do it here.” Or routing wise, if they apply for their visa and they don’t get it, what does that mean? Can we cancel these shows and still make a tour? Luckily we haven’t had to do that. We’ve been very fortunate. There’s been a lot of headaches around last minute changes. We’ve been denied visas, but luckily, because this is a culturally unique band, we can apply for cultural visas as opposed to artist visas. So there’s all these workarounds that we just keep trying for.

It’s tough, it’s never guaranteed, but it’s worth the fight. Getting their visa is like climbing this mountain and then it’s the stress of whether or not they are going to make it through customs. Once we see each other, everyone knows we did it. It just feels like we’re doing something that seems impossible - that people don’t want these guys coming in, but we’re doing it.

This content originally appeared on The Creative Independent and was authored by Jefferey Silverstein.

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• President Joe Biden forms committee to push $2 trillion infrastructure plan, White House hits back at criticism.
• New report finds more than 300 bills in state houses across the U.S. to restrict voting rights. 
• 5 dead including 1 boy from a mass shooting in Orange County, Ca.
• Day 4 of Derek Chauvin’s murder trial: prosecution disputes defense that victim died of other causes.
• Indigenous activists protest Dakota Access and Line 3 oil pipeline projects.
• California Governor Gavin Newsom receives COVID-19 vaccine, announces people over 50 can too.
• 1,000 farm workers in Santa Clara County receive COVID-19 vaccine on Cesar Chavez Day.
• California headed for another drought year; 2020 was third driest year on record.

Photo of Dr. Mark Ghaly giving Governor Gavin Newsom COVID-19 vaccine.

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