Author: Awareness News

Several sanctions have been imposed upon Russia due to the unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine a year ago, on the 24^th of February 2022, which initiated the ongoing war that is estimated to have killed so far over 7,100 civilians and 200,000 soldiers. As a consequence, Russia has been the target of sanctions aimed at weakening its economy, such as the European Union’s ban on imports of oil and coal, on the export of ammunition and military vehicles, and on the SWIFT ban for 10 Russian banks, among others.  

With little over a year before the Paris Summer Olympics, a political question looms over the event: will Russian athletes be able to compete? At the beginning of the war, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) encouraged their ban from international competitions. However, more recently, this decision appeared to be partially reversed.  The IOC did in fact impose sporting sanctions on both Russia and Belarus, which included the prohibition of athletes of both nations to represent their countries – a decision deemed to be “non-negotiable” – but they would still be allowed to participate in the diverse competitions and events as “neutral athletes” – as justified through the following phrase: “No athlete should be prevented from competing just because of their passport”. As a response, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky stated that the terrorism could not be “covered up with some pretended neutrality or white flag”. 

On the one hand, 40 countries, including Ukraine, Poland and the United States, have adhered to the boycott of the Games if Russian athletes are allowed to participate. On the other hand, the IOC states that this action would be a violation of the Olympic charter, as it mandates the countries to send athletes and that “As history has shown, previous boycotts did not achieve their political ends and served only to punish the athletes of the boycotting countries”. A fact to remember is that the 2024 Olympics, under normal circumstances, would see the return of Russian athletes competing under the Russian flag, after their 2-year ban due to doping. 

The Olympic Games go all the way back to Ancient Greece, with the first written evidence being from 776 BC, showing the measurement of time in Olympiads – equivalent to the duration between each edition of the Games. Back then, they were held every 4 years to honour the god Zeus through various activities ranging from music and singing to the discus throw. However, they were eventually banned by Roman Emperor Theodosius I and were not revived until the 19^th century. After several attempts due to the lack of coordination between countries, the first Olympic Games of the modern era, in 1896, would revisit its originating country, having been held in Athens. Through the link of sport and culture, the Olympic Games have as principle the construction of a better world through sport without discrimination, leading to the development of physical and mental qualities. 

Going back in time 

Since then, the Games have developed throughout the years with women starting to compete in the 1900’s Paris Games. Yet, only in the London 2012 Games would women be able to compete in all sports of the programme. The 1904’s St. Louis Games saw the first known disabled person to compete, with the 1912 Games being the first to have competitors from all 5 continents. 1936 saw the Games being broadcasted for the first time, but, as a result of being held in Berlin at such a turning point in history, they ended up serving as a way to disseminate propaganda of the Nazi regime. Having been cancelled in the meantime due to two World Wars and postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the upcoming Games are expected to take the stage in Paris next year. 

Politics & The Olympics 

Although the Olympic Games have been widely viewed as a success, uniting people from diverse nations to celebrate various sporting events, they have not been immune to controversies. Some critics have accused the Olympics of allowing politics to infiltrate what was intended to be a neutral environment, with territories such as China, Brazil and Russia leveraging the event’s favourable image to boost their own international image whilst often engaging in questionable human rights and environmental practices. More crucially, however, the Games have also had a long history of politically charged boycotts. 

Following the World Wars, the 1956 Melbourne Summer Olympics marked the first great challenge to the modern Olympics, as the first attempts to boycott began to rise, with states from Europe, Africa and Asia choosing not to send their athletes to the event. Protesting the Soviet Union’s quash of Hungarian attempts of independence, Spain, The Netherlands, and Switzerland skipped the event, eventually joined by Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon. At the same time, Cambodia was protesting the Israeli invasion of the Sinai Peninsula and the People’s Republic of China the participation of Taiwan in the global event as an independent country.  

Tensions remained high in the lead up to the 1964 Tokyo edition, as Indonesia mounted a competing sports competition for the emerging economies, GANEFO, calling the Olympics and the International Olympic Committee “an imperialist tool”. In response, Indonesia was temporarily banned from the IOC and GANEFO participants were barred from attending the Olympics. The Tokyo edition also marked the start of South Africa’s 28-year ban, following the country’s segregation policies and refusal to send multiracial teams to the event. The Cold War incited yet another wave of boycotts, as the opposing superpowers avoided each other’s Games, with a record 65 nations refusing to participate in the 1980 Moscow Summer Olympics, leaving it with the lowest number of participating federations in almost 30 years.  

Despite the numerous attempts, many still question the point of political challenges to Olympic participation as there has rarely, if ever, been a significant political shift as a result. Hungary only gained independence more than 30 years after the first boycott in their support, the Suez Canal crisis still happened, emerging nations eventually all embraced the “imperialist” Games and South Africa´s Apartheid still lasted for almost 3 decades in spite of their ban.  

Conclusion 

While many can agree that a protest in one of the biggest stages in the world can certainly bring awareness to these issues, most had already been widely covered by the media by the time the issue reached the sporting world. The efforts’ lasting impact, sadly, has only been leaving national athletes to wait for 4 more years to follow their dreams, and a permanent dent on the Olympic legacy. With the Russian-Ukrainian conflict on its first-year anniversary, and with the Paris 2024 Olympic preparations well underway, calls for boycotts have been rising once again. The question now raised is whether in an effort to show solidarity for the Ukrainian people we are letting history repeat itself by penalizing Russian athletes for the ongoing war their president has started.  

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Sources: Statista, BBC News, Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, International Olympic Committee, RTP, BBC Sport, NPR, Paris 2024, HISTORY, The New York Times, Britannica 

In 2017, satellite images captured strange looking buildings in Xingjian, China, quite unlike any other typical infrastructure in the region. At first glance, they resemble schools or hospitals, but once we zoom in these images, high walls and watch towers are visible as well, exposing a much darker truth. Deemed by the Chinese government “re-education camps”, – after multiple attempts of trying to deny their existence – these more than 380 detention camps in Xingjian are estimated to be holding prisoner more than 1 million people.

Who are the 1 million people detained?     

The Xingjian region has been under China´s control since 1949, after being independent twice for a short time. For centuries, it was known for its strong agricultural activities and trade, having been part of the silk road. Today, this region is responsible for the largest natural gas production in the country. 

In Xingjian live more than 11 million Uyghurs, a minority ethnic group of Muslims that have their own language and tradition and that culturally identify themselves with the surrounding countries of central Asia. 

China views the religious beliefs of Uyghurs as extremist and separatist, using as an argument the terrorist attacks that occurred in 2013 and 2014, planed by extremist Uyghurs. For this reason, and rooted on a fear of losing the Xingjian territory to separatist Uyghurs, the Chinese authorities defend that the camps are a necessary tool to stop the terrorism and the separatist movements in the area. These assumptions are considered by the rest of the world as an unfair generalization that revolves on the denomination of all the Uyghur people as extremists. 

NYTimes reveled, in 2019, documents that exposed military orders coming from the Chinese government that incentivize Xingjian´s troops to act without mercy: “We must be as harsh as them”, “and show absolutely no mercy”, “Freedom is only possible when this “virus” in their thinking is eradicated, and they are in good health”. 

What is happening to the Uyghur community?

From Xingjian come all sort of accounts from the community, disclosing religious-motivated detentions, assaults, interrogations, and torture. Those who are sent to the camps are admitted and not just re-educated as claimed.

In social media, requests to find missing family members are multiplying and sometimes, when clamors become too loud to be silenced, the answer arrives in the form of a phone call from said missing family members, nervously asking to never being contacted again, fearing the repercussions.

Even outside the camps, the Uyghurs that are still free are yet being constantly monitored by security cameras in the streets with facial recognition and with QR codes in the entry of buildings and police stops being put in place applying to just this minority. 

In 2017, men were forbidden from using long beards and women from using the hijab, being also prohibited to teach their religion to children or give them names of Islamic origin. 

In 2021, Uyghur women revealed that they are forced to use birth control as an attempt to decrease the numbers of the Uyghur population. Indeed, according to Association Press, the government subjects hundreds of thousands of Uyghur women to pregnancy tests, sterilizations and abortions. 

Restrictions on this minority´s freedom also include trips inside and out of Xingjian. Moreover, reports from civil servants and university students claim that they are forbidden from conducting many religious practices, such as fasting during Ramadan or going to mosques – which are being gradually destroyed in the region.

Having come across reports of ex-detainees, western social media channels have been exposing the practices used in the re-education camps, especially BBC. This in turn has gathered the attention of the Chinese government, which promptly accused the news channel of spreading fake news, blocking their broadcasts in the country, with the justification that they need to stop with their occidental propaganda.

Images of these camps that are shared inside the country are strictly controlled by the government. In the official government records the Uyghur minority appear happy, followed by the statement that the Uyghurs come to the camps by free choice, because they want to learn and work to achieve better economic status – a very different story from the one that reaches us from international media of the likes of BBC…

What is really happening inside these camps?

Firstly, Uyghurs are forced to learn mandarin – which is the least of their concerns. Among some witnesses that BBC gathered, one of them said: “After almost five months in the Karamay police cells, between interrogations and random acts of cruelty – at one stage I was chained to my bed for 20 days as punishment, though I never knew what for – I was told I would be going to “school””. 

Between these statements of ex-detainees, some of them reported having been victims or having witnessed systematic episodes of rape, sexual abuse, and torture. According to BBC, “An ex-detainee, Tursunay Ziyawudun, said she received injections until she stopped menstruating and was repeatedly beaten on her lower stomach during interrogations”. 

            Furthermore, an investigation of NYtimes revealed the existence of Uyghur workers being exposed to forced labor practices in some factories, such as in solar companies and in the production of face masks (“Chinese solar companies tied to use of forced labor”, “China is using Uyghur labor to produce face masks”).  

            All in all, the majority of ex-detainees is unanimous in their assessment and retelling of China´s approach to the Uyghur minority: “their goal is to destroy everyone”. 

Ripples in the rest of the world

According to a coalition of organizations for Uyghurs rights, one in each 5 items of clothing that we wear has its origin in forced Uyghur work. Besides, 20% of the cotton produced in the world comes from Xingjian, and 17 brands – amongst which we have Nike, Apple, Adidas, Coca Cola and Amazon – were accused of using this cotton on their products. 

 On the other hand, H&M showed some displeasure about the treatment that the Uyghurs are receiving, and the possibility of forced work being used in the cotton fields did not please the brand. China reacted to H&M immediately: a lot of Chinese websites have stopped showing the brand´s products, resulting in a loss of around 135 million euros for the company, just in the first semester of 2021.

China is not without allies, however, as 37 other countries postulated in a written letter their support in favor of China, vouching for the important role China plays in the international cause of human rights. On the other hand, a different position in regards to China´s treatment of human rights is expressed by the UK and Europe, that together with other 27 ONU member states, including the US and Canada, have taken a stand accusing China of genocide and promising not to stop fighting for this minority´s freedom. 

This conflict has resulted in sanctions from both sides. From China´s side, five European MPs were forbidden from entering Chinese territory. In response, Canada, the US and the UK have joined forces with the EU to apply sanctions against China and its allies.

The story of the youngest person arrested

Rahile Omer was only 15 years old when she was arrested by the Chinese authorities. The accusation process began when she was just 14, in Xingjian. Having been identified and classified by the security cameras in the streets as a “type 12 person” – someone connected to an existing police case – a target was set on the girl. According to police records, they found out that Rahile´s mother was serving six years in prison for disturbing the “social order”, after being accused of following extremist religion practices. By attachment, her father was deemed a “type 12 person” too, leading to his detention and subsequent admittance in one of the re-education camps in 2017. Assuming Rahile to be a dangerous person due to her connection to her parents, she was sent to a detention camp as well, at the mere age of 15. 

Conclusion

Last century, during World War II, the world watched as numerous atrocities were committed against a community because of their religious beliefs, different customs and appearance, and how they were imprisoned in camps where the majority would meet their end. Now, albeit in a different context, a similar pattern of discrimination against a minority is happening again in concealment, with mistakes from history being repeated. 

Unfortunately, this is far from the only case of discrimination of minorities and violation of human rights that is happening right now all over the world. In a way, globalization has brought about new challenges and setbacks, where global powerful brands and consumers are willing to close their eyes to various violations of human rights if it benefits them.

Can we call this evolution if there are still people being harmed because of their religious beliefs, way of living and exaggerated generalizations of the actions of a few to a whole community?

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Sources: Observador, BBC, New York Times

Introduction

From Paris to Rome, Alexandria to Benghazi, and Tokyo to Beijing, cities tend to be perceived as old creations, with hundreds if not thousands of years of age, that grew naturally throughout the course of history. Usually built with military purposes in mind, or taking advantage of natural geographical conditions, a significant number of today’s major metropolises have followed this pattern, showing their evolution through their centuries-old buildings, monuments, and traditions. 

Nevertheless, a not so insignificant number of recent populational centers have been built following detailed masterplans with years of planning and significant financial commitment.  While some have arguably successfully transitioned into well-established cities, others may have been left abandoned as a reminder that a successful urban center is much more than just a cluster of buildings. These initiatives can broadly be categorized depending on the issue they intended to address – Politics, Environment and Economic development – and the motive for their success or failure most often results from how relevant this issue was and how well it was tackled.

Politics

One of the most common reasonings for planning a new city has to do with the need for the creation of a neutral capital city that has a more central position to the country’s population distribution. 

Washington DC, established in 1790 by the Residence Act, had its location defined as a compromise between the opposing forces of the expanding United States at the time. In what came to be known as the Compromise of 1790, Alexander Hamilton, aligned with the northerner states, agreed to move the capital to the states of Maryland and Virginia in an exchange with Thomas Jefferson, aligned with the southerner states. The deal paved the way for the establishment of the 100 square mile (256 square kilometers) new capital. While having its size diminished (following the decision of the area formerly belonging to Virginia to rejoin the state), with a population greater than 700 thousand, a strong economy, and continuing to serve its original purpose of capital of the United States, Washington DC is certainly a success story. 

Washington’s original design

Other planned capital cities that stood the test of times include Canberra – created in the middle of the two largest and rivaling Australian cities of Sydney and Melbourne – and Brasilia – in a push to develop Brazil’s interior region.

However, Egypt’s successive failed attempts to move its capital away from Cairo – to Nasr city, New Cairo, and even the 10^th of Ramadan, a city shaped and sized similarly to the original DC – show that there is room to fail. The country is now planning yet another capital move, to the still-in-construction “New Administrative Capital”. Situated roughly 45km east of Cairo, this new multi-billion-dollar project has officially been initiated to alleviate congestion in the current capital, currently boasting a population of 22 million people. Nevertheless, some have pointed out that the significant potential financial gains by the military and construction industries may be the true motive behind the move. By planning to increase the distance between government buildings and the masses at Cairo, the move has also given rise to allegations that, in truth, this is an attempt by President Al-Sisi to hold on to power, attempting to prevent a repetition of the events of the Arab Spring. 

Environment 

A protection from environmental issues in an existing important city, or simply a need to experiment with innovative sustainable ideas, have also fueled the creation of new urban areas across the globe.

Jakarta, Southeast Asia´s most populous city, is currently facing severe flooding problems, with the coastal city sinking as much as 25cm per year in some districts. This is far from a recent issue, however, going way back and beginning with the arrival of the Dutch in the XVII century. As an attempt to emulate the urban planning found in the Netherlands at the time, the existing settlements were torn down and a new one was built with a heavy use of canals. These canals, however, due to lack of upkeep, eventually clogged up and turned out to be a channel of disease-spreading, forcing the Europeans to relocate further south, where a system of pipes to distribute clean water was introduced. These pipes, nevertheless, took decades to reach the canal region, and even today don’t reach more than half of the city’s population. This particular circumstance left many with no option but to pump water directly from subterranean aquifers, ultimately sinking the city in the process. 

Furthermore, the city has consistently ranked among the worst polluted areas worldwide. Heavy traffic due to high population density and low public transport use, as well as the existence of several coal fired plants in the city outskirts, have all contributed for the city to register “unhealthy air” days for more than half of the 2019 calendar year. A move to the brand-new Nusantara, more than 1000km away from Jakarta, powered by renewable energies, plans to fix most of these issues.

Map of Batavia (current Jakarta)

Across the continent, in the Middle East, the EAU have been building the city of Masdar, aimed to be the first zero emissions city, in an effort to test the limits of urban sustainability. The green efforts started right in the construction phase, through the reuse and recycling of waste material. The city is also striving to be completely powered by renewable energy. The urban space was designed with buildings close together, providing protection from the desert heath. Additionally, The Masdar City wind tower, a modern spin on the traditional Arabic “barjeet”, is expected to reduce electricity needs throughout the whole city.  

While effectively an experiment in urban sustainability, having Siemens and the International Renewable Energy Agency relocating their Middle East headquarters to the city are certainly important anchors for Masdar to achieve its goals of housing 50 thousand people and succeed as not just a test-trial, but as an overall functioning city. 

Economics 

Oftentimes, the urban landscape is shaped purely by economic efforts to develop a region and guarantee better living standards. 

One such case is Malaysia’s Cyberjaya, aiming to emulate Silicon Valley’s success. Launched in 1997, the city was envisioned as “a space for startups to create and innovate; for students to pursue dreams of changing lives with technology; for tech giants to make new discoveries; for small businesses to conquer the world one market at a time”. Flexible repayment schemes and competitive rental rates were among the vast number of incentives offered to attract talent. More than 20 years onwards, having attracted the likes of Shell, DHL, Dell and HP, and with a population of 85 thousand people, some have called the initiative a success. Critics, however, point out the dominance of low-level employment, with the city’s residents mostly employed in call centers for global firms as opposed to the promised innovative and highly specialized tech outlook.

On another spectrum, pure financial motives can lead to vanity projects, as exemplified by Azerbaijan’s Khazar Islands. As the brainchild of billionaire Ibrahim Ibrahimov, it was projected to include luxury apartments and villas, a yacht club, a Formula One track, and even what was to be the tallest building in the world – the Azerbaijan Tower. In a country where GDP per capita is barely above the 5000 US$ mark, with a project such as this one accounting for a price tag of 100 billion US$, many have criticized the endeavor due to its lack of meaningful contribution for the development of the country. The lavish undertaking ultimately failed due to lack of funding, with construction coming to a stop in 2015 just four years after work had begun, a striking reminder that an ambitious plan and piles of cash may not be enough to support the creation of a brand-new metropolis.

Conclusion 

Moving away from the historical trends of organic development, there has been a growing trend of planning cities from scratch, with politics, the environment and economics coming up as the top motivators for such blueprints. These fresh creations, with varying degrees of success, come to show that planned projects of huge scale are in fact possible. Nevertheless, in many occasions, pure financial availability or political power are not sufficient to sustain them. Besides needing to address a real issue, these projects, like any urban area, need to create the right set of conditions to attract people and businesses, in order to successfully make the transition from just an idealized setting into an actual living space.  

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Sources: Washington DC, Britannica, Ellis, Joseph J. (2000). “Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation”, Statista, Davison, G. (2001). “Canberra” From “The Oxford Companion to Australian History”. In Oxford University Press., Cairo Observer, Aljazeera, Channel News Asia, Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air, Arab News, Masdar, Diário de Notícias, World Bank, IDEAS (Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs), Wired, Plaza London, Harris-Brandts, Suzanne; Gogishvili, David. (2018). “Architectural rumors: unrealized megaprojects in Baku, Azerbaijan and their politico-economic uses. In Eurasian Geography and Economics, Armenian Weekly, Azer News.