Afghanistan world's unhappiest country, Lebanon second saddest

Afghanistan is the unhappiest country in the world - even before the Taliban swept to power last August. That's according to a so-called World Happiness report released ahead of the U.N.-designated International Day of Happiness on Sunday.

The annual report ranked Afghanistan as last among 149 countries surveyed, with a happiness rate of just 2.5. 

Lebanon was the world’s second saddest country, with Botswana, Rwanda and Zimbabwe rounding out the bottom five. Finland ranked first for the fourth year running with a 7.8 score, followed by Denmark and Switzerland, with Iceland and the Netherlands also in the top five.

Researchers ranked the countries after analyzing data over three years. They looked at several categories, including gross domestic product per capita, social safety nets, life expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity of the population, and perceptions of internal and external corruption levels.

Afghanistan stacked up poorly in all six categories, a confounding result coming as it did before the Taliban arrival and despite 20 years of U.S. and international investment. The U.S. alone spent $145 billion on development in Afghanistan since 2002, according to reports by the U.S. special inspector general for Afghanistan.

Still, there were signs of increasing hopelessness.

Gallup did a polling in 2018 and found that few Afghans they surveyed had much hope for the future. In fact the majority said they had no hope for the future.

Years of runaway corruption, increased poverty, lack of jobs, a steady increase in people forced below the poverty line, and erratic development all combined into a crushing malaise, said analyst Nasratullah Haqpal. Most Afghans had high hopes after 2001, when the Taliban were ousted and the U.S.-led coalition declared victory,

"Unfortunately the only focus was on the war, the warlords and the corrupt politicians,” said Haqpal.

"People just became poorer and poorer and more disappointed and more unhappy... that is why these 20 years of investment in Afghanistan collapsed in just 11 days," he said referring to the Taliban's lightning blitz through the country before sweeping into Kabul in mid-August.

When Masoud Ahmadi, a carpenter, returned to Afghanistan from neighboring Pakistan after the 2001 collapse of the Taliban, his hopes for the future were bright. He dreamed of opening a small furniture-making shop, maybe employing as many as 10 people. Instead, sitting in his dusty 6-foot by 10-foot workshop on Saturday, he said he opens just twice a week for lack of work.

"When the money came to this country, the leadership of the government took the money and counted it as their personal money, and the people were not helped to change their life for the better,” said Ahmadi.

The report warns that Afghanistan's numbers might drop even further next year when it measures Afghans' happiness level after the arrival of the Taliban.

The economy is currently in free fall as the group struggles to transition from insurgency to governing.

(Source: The Peninsula)

Northern Nigeria's MeToo movement is blowing up, and it all started from a simple, tragic tweet

Sprung from the bravery of a pharmacist who spoke out about the horrific abuse she's suffered, the #ArewaMeToo movement is giving women in the region support authorities should have provided a while ago

Too often, the less powerful in society have been silenced by stringent laws, antiquated social traditions and, quite often, religious authoritarianism.

We’ve even seen leaders (or what some may call dictators) discount their own people's sufferings, ignore the screams and the chants of their citizens, and refuse to change laws or to seek justice for incomprehensible crimes.

Take the Zimbabwean government’s choice earlier this year to order an internet shutdown after citizens took to social media to show evidence of the violence occurring between soldiers and civilians, for example. Or, in 2014 when activist Loujain al- Hathloul, who campaigned “hard” for Saudi Arabian women to drive, was jailed for standing up against the law and voicing her frustrations.

Sokoto chapter of the #ArewaMeToo movement ( Fakhriyyah Hashim )

In short, we live in an unfair world. Which is why I've found it so interesting that we’ve been able to spearhead movements, forge genuine friendships and seek justice through the use of social media at all.

Social platforms such as Twitter have transformed the lives of many. Through hashtag activism, perpetrators of rape, bullying, and even racism have been exposed and, in many cases, as with the re-emergence of Tarana Burke’s #MeToo movement in 2017, duly reprimanded.

Clearly, What began as a small platform to share memories and pictures has become a hub for a social movement and activism.

When Khadijah Adamu, a 24-year-old pharmacist in Northern Nigeria city of Kano, told her Twitter followers about experiencing horrific abuse at the hands of her ex-boyfriend, who she maintains very nearly killed her, she was met with empathy by Fakhriyyah Hashim, an entrepreneur and development worker, who then created the hashtag #ArewaMetoo.

After a day, the tweet inspired others – some who were assaulted when they were as young as five but had kept quiet for decades.

I spoke to Hashim to understand in depth the situation in northern Nigeria and how the use of social media has impacted her and victims. She said:

“In the first few days alone, we saw over 100 survivors reaching us to tell their stories. It gave them a platform that felt like a safe space, and they knew they would get support because of growing condemnation from the social media community.

“70 per cent of the victims had been sexually assaulted from the ages of five to 10 years old with most of them currently in their 20s. I suppose it took that long because most mentioned never being able to speak about it because they felt ashamed.”

Hashim added that she didn’t expect the tweet to do so well and attract such harrowing stories but when things started unraveling she began to see how much impact could be made.

Borno State lead, Hassana Maina teaching a school
sex education class (Fakhriyyah Hashim)

The term “Arewa” is the general term used to refer to northern Nigeria, which has a majority Muslim population and a conservative society where issues surrounding sex and sexuality are rarely discussed in public.

Speaking to The Independent she said: “We have faced backlash which was expected because we’re dealing with an ultraconservative society that sees topics relating to sex as a taboo and unfortunately has condemned sexual violence in the same league as sex rather than a criminal offence.

“We also had one of our members Maryam Awaisu arrested by security officials where amnesty international and FIDA ensured her release.”

What started online has led to action being taken outside in the “real world”; Hashim and her team have managed to get victims legal aid by pairing them with organisations that provide pro bono legal aid, and NGOs that provide therapy.

The impact this campaign has made is clear. But the truth of the matter is we should not have to rely on hashtags or retweets in order to have suffering like this taken seriously. It’s unacceptable that we’ve had to take these battles on as individuals, rather than the leaders and those who’re meant to protect us.

“Without social media, this would not have been possible,” said Hashim, confirming those institutional failings.

“Social media brought people that had the same experiences together and they found a safe space in the company of other people’s stories, so they too shared theirs. That is how we were able to build a community and a powerful support base among young people.”

Hashim attributes the difficulty in changing attitudes in the region to a lack of training for police in northern Nigeria, who are not sensitive to victims of gender based violence. “They’re the last point you would want to report your case to”, she added.

“In our experience, during one of our sensitisation rounds, one of the cases escalated to the police and they asked the rape victim – [who was] still in secondary school – that if she’d been raped consistently by her guardian for two years then it must’ve been consensual.”

Hashim believes there needs to be a radical reform to turn the tide with the police, especially where comprehensive training is concerned.

Another major roadblock which Hashim says affects whether or not victims come out to tell their story is the justice system. The scales are tilted against victims and that is why many perpetrators walk away and more victims choose to remain silent, in some cases, rightfully so.

Whilst I understand people will be quick to point out the faults of social media, let me remind you that if it’s used properly, controlled frequently and managed selflessly, it always will do more good than bad.

As we’ve seen from the #ArewaMeToo hashtag, social media is an undeniable force in today's world, it has connected people in ways which some once considered unimaginable, and has proven there is still some good in the world.

But this connection has also made a distinct challenge for some authorities and leaders who must cope with a new reality: the internet has become the go-to place of people's shared trauma, frustrations, triumphs and storytelling, and they're struggling to keep up.

(Source: Independent)

The strange normality of life in a breakaway state

A postal address is the marker that identifies our home's place in the world. The last line designates our country, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

But for a few million people worldwide, that last line of the address is a problem. The international postal service does not recognise a letter marked Abkhazia, Trans-Dniester, or Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Letters find their way after being re-routed via other countries. Open up the drop-down box of countries on an internet form and they are unlikely to be listed.

This trio of European statelets are among the few territories in the world, mostly formed by war, which exist on maps but are not full nation states, or members of international organisations.

However, they are self-governing and fairly stable. Life goes on - taxes are collected and children go to school. But it is all a little more complicated than elsewhere in the world.

Soldiers travel by bus through Tiraspol, the capital of Trans-Dniester

Of the world's contested states, Taiwan is by far the biggest. Yet despite it being independent to all intents and purposes since 1949, China regards it as part of its own territory which "must and will be reunited". It is recognised by fewer than 20 countries and is not a UN member.

At the other end of the scale, the Islamic State group proclaimed a state straddling Syria and Iraq which existed for three years, but was never recognised by any countries.

Abkhazia, Trans-Dniester (also known as Transdniestria or Transnistria) and northern Cyprus are somewhere in the middle. All three emerged out of conflicts which remain unresolved.

The breakaway region of Abkhazia won a war of secession with Georgia in 1992-93 and declared independence in 1999. In 2008, it was recognised by Russia - which Georgia considers an occupying force - and a handful of other states.

Trans-Dniester also emerged as the Soviet Union fractured into smaller states, breaking away from Moldova after a brief war in 1992.

Turkish Cypriots declared a state even earlier, in 1983, nine years after the political crisis and conflict in which Turkey invaded the north of the island. The UN continues to patrol the dividing Green Line and reunification talks have never succeeded.

A woman and her dog sunbathe next to the Black Sea border between Russia and Abkhazia

Each has a government and, although they are far from receiving international recognition, there is no sign of them collapsing.

This qualifies them as "de facto states" - places that govern their own territory, but which are outside the international system.

Importantly, all three of these breakaway territories have a powerful patron - Russia in the case of Abkhazia and Trans-Dniester, and Turkey in the case of northern Cyprus.

The patron helps them to survive - providing financial and military backing and stationing troops there.

But even if Russia or Turkey were to reduce support, these breakaway territories would not just melt away.

A Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus flag painted on to a hillside in Nicosia, northern Cyprus

The international community does not think about these places very often - or the underlying problems that keep them in their strange state of limbo.

Interest in the de facto states is often from lovers of "places that don't exist", particularly in the cases of Abkhazia and Trans-Dniester.

Lack of formal recognition certainly leads to over-compensation in the production of state symbols.

They have developed quasi-state paraphernalia worthy of Freedonia - the Marx Brothers' fictitious state in Duck Soup - or the Republic of Zubrowka, from Wes Anderson's Grand Budapest Hotel.

Abkhazia prints exotic stamps with an eye on collectors around the world.

Trans-Dniester still has Soviet-era insignia on its symbols, such as the hammer and sickle. It prints its own currency, the Trans-Dniester rouble, which can only be used inside its borders.

Uniquely in the world it prints plastic coins in different shapes, which make them easily identifiable for blind people, and which fetch high prices on eBay.

Yet while they may be idiosyncratic, it is a stretch nowadays to call the trio "rogue states".

That is not to say they are without problems. Human trafficking, for example, is a big issue in both northern Cyprus and Trans-Dniester.

Yet the main impression a visitor to these places would have is of their ordinariness.

All have traffic lights, traffic police, hospitals and other trappings of more "normal" states.

Shoppers sit in cafes glancing at smartphones - even if the coffee they drink is not brewed by a global brand like Starbucks.

And despite their home state having almost zero prospect of wide international recognition, people have the same goals as those anywhere else.

Businesses want foreign trade, students want scholarships abroad.

The states follow many European norms voluntarily. None of them has the death penalty and all hold quite strongly competitive elections - even if the pool of candidates is quite limited.

A group of men play Okey in Nicosia, northern Cyprus

However, a place cannot live by postage stamps alone - it needs to collect those tax revenues and to make sure the police force and school system work.

That gives the outside world and would-be conflict mediators some leverage and influence - something that is only being used to a limited extent at present.

Offers of help with education and health could be accompanied by calls for co-operation on the extradition of fugitives, for example.

To a degree that is already happening with Trans-Dniester, which has quietly signed up to Moldova's free trade agreement with the European Union.

It has also made an agreement that means cars from Trans-Dniester can travel abroad with neutral-looking number plates registered in Moldova. And diplomas from Trans-Dniester's main university can be registered internationally.

Visually the place may still look like a Soviet theme park, with its statues of Lenin and hammers and sickles, but it is actually moving in another direction.

As one former official said to me: "My head is in Russia, but my legs are moving towards Europe."

Young women at an ice cream stall in Trans-Dniester

With full resolution of these disputes still far off, this model of incremental change and international engagement offers an alternative way forward.

If the three territories will not be reintegrated into their parent states of Cyprus, Georgia and Moldova in the near future, at least their residents - but not their governments - could become part of the global community.

Without giving them recognition, de facto states can be more predictable and better aligned with their neighbours.

Over the longer term, the deep-rooted conflicts that created these de facto states could be a little bit easier to overcome.

Just do not hold your breath. They promise to be around for a long time to come.

(Source: BBC)

Fall from Grace: Mugabe's wife was his weakness

President Robert Mugabe's downfall was caused by the ambitions of his combative wife Grace, whose emergence as his likely successor proved a step too far for Zimbabwe's military, analysts say.

Grace Mugabe -- 41 years younger than her husband -- was once dismissed as a lightweight shopping addict.

But she became increasingly active in public life in recent years and became the frontrunner to take the top job when Mugabe last week sacked her arch-rival, vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa.

The military -- determined to stop Grace, 52, being named as the new vice president -- moved in on Wednesday, taking control of the country and signalling the imminent end of Mugabe's rule.

"The crisis has been triggered by Grace because she wanted to grab power and to have Mugabe remove a lot of people," Shadrack Gutto, director of the Centre for African Renaissance Studies at the University of South Africa, told AFP.

"She overreached herself. She has done a lot to accelerate the removal of her husband from power.

"The military decided that enough is enough."

Grace's political plans were backed by the so-called G40, a group of young supporters that has earned a reputation for aggression.

The faction, which includes some ministers, has been the primary target of the military officers who announced on state TV in the early hours of Wednesday that they would bring "criminals" close to Mugabe to justice.

"The Zimbabwean army feels they have the right to have a president they approve of," Knox Chitiyo, of the Chatham House think-tank, told AFP.

"They had to act now before Grace was appointed as vice president at the ZANU-PF party congress next month. Grace's team got within weeks of success."

Grace, born in South Africa, was one of Mugabe's secretaries when their affair began in 1987, and they had two children in secret before the president's wife died in 1992.

The couple then married at a lavish ceremony in 1996 attended by Nelson Mandela, before having a third child.

Grace was awarded a doctorate by the University of Zimbabwe, where her husband is chancellor, reportedly just three months after enrolling, and in 2014 became the head of the ZANU-PF party's women's wing.

She has often been accused of extravagant spending on luxury clothes and international travel, and of involvement in corrupt land deals.

Dubbed "Gucci Grace", "The First Shopper" or even "DisGrace", she showed her political mettle in 2014 with her campaign against then-vice president Joice Mujuru, who was a contender to succeed her husband.

Grace launched sustained verbal attacks against Mujuru, accusing her of plotting to topple the president.

Soon afterwards, Mujuru was ousted and later expelled from the ruling ZANU-PF party.

But Grace's attempt to neutralise Mnangagwa ended very differently -- leaving her and her husband languishing under house arrest in Harare.

Grace Mugabe's confrontational approach and distant public image have brought her little popular affection in Zimbabwe.

Despite that, her supporters have sought to popularise nicknames like "Dr Amai (Doctor Mother)" and "queen of queens".

In speeches, she had railed against anyone accused of disloyalty to the president, and her short temper hit the headlines in August when she allegedly assaulted a model who was with two of her sons at a South African hotel.

Grace was granted diplomatic immunity and made a swift exit from the country.

She once told a South African television programme that she is no longer concerned about what people think of her.

"I have developed a thick skin, I don't even care," she said. "My husband says ignorance is bliss."

With President Mugabe in increasingly poor health, Grace may now seek exile or try to secure some level of protection for her and her family as Zimbabwe enters a new era.

(Source: DH)

Elephants mourn. Dogs love. Why do we deny the feelings of other species?

Scientists are discovering more and more about the internal lives of animals. But what does this mean for the way humans behave? 

Last week footage of five young elephants being captured in Zimbabwe to sell to zoos travelled round the world. Parks officials used helicopters to find the elephant families, shot sedatives into the young ones, then hazed away family members who came to the aid of the drugged young ones as they fell.

The film, shared exclusively with the Guardian, showed the young captives being trussed up and dragged on to trucks. In the final moments of footage, two men repeatedly kick a small dazed elephant in the head.

Removing young elephants from their parents and sending them into captivity is largely justified on the basis that they do not feel and suffer as we do. For decades we have been admonished against anthropomorphism – imbuing animals with human-type emotions such as sadness or love.

But, actually, humans have these emotions because other animals do as well. Brain science, evolutionary biology, and behavioural science now show that elephants, humans, and many other animals share a near-identical nervous system and likely experience near-identical basic emotions. Human and elephant brains are bathed in the same chemicals that create mood and motivation in us. We are all mammals, and under the skin we are kin.

Scientists have watched rats’ brains as they dream, and dogs’ brains showing love. In fact, sperm whales’ family structure is nearly identical to that of elephants. Animals living in stable social groups – apes and monkeys, wolves and wild dogs, hyenas and cats, various birds, some dolphins and others, know who they are and whom they are with.

Mammals and birds, likely all vertebrates, experience pleasure, pain, and fear that guide them within the boundaries of survival. Octopuses are molluscs but they recognise human faces and use tools as well as most apes. Pet dogs recognise photos of people they know. Orcas frequently live into their 50s (rarely to 100), but sons and daughters never leave their mothers. Similar revelations and new discoveries appear with increasing frequency. Ours are not the only hearts and minds on this planet. We are not alone. We have company.

Our favourite story is that humans are absolutely unique and special in every way.
I have spent decades amassing insights into animal cognition, emotion, and family lives. For that, elephants provide a perfect trifecta. Elephants actually have superhuman senses, so life for elephants is likely superhumanly vivid. Their hearing is far better than ours, and while we hear their pealing trumpeting, they communicate largely with sounds too low for humans to detect. Often when you are near elephants you can feel vibrations in your chest from their loud rumbling calls that you cannot hear. Using special sensory receptors in their feet – unlike anything we possess – they can detect these rumbles from many miles away. This is probably why elephants often seem to know when distant elephants are being killed, and why they have been spotted running uphill before humans when a tsunami is on its way.

Elephants are most touching with the care they devote to their young and siblings. Several years ago in Kenya’s Amboseli national park, Dr Vicki Fishlock and I watched elephant families on their daily commute. Some of the elephants bathed in a spring-fed pool, but when they emerged shiny and wet, one stay-behind adult had not yet entered the water. Her baby was hesitant. The mother was patient, tapping the water with her trunk as if to indicate her intention. We watched the patient mother enter the water with her baby. The baby got alongside, wrapping her trunk around her mother’s right tusk for support. Soon the water floated the baby, and the mother, with her own trunk, guided her child to the farther shore.

Mothers and aunties help newborns stand; babies spend their first several years within two paces of their mother; family members rush to help any baby who tangles in tall grass, or trips, or announces need of help. (Babies sometimes exploit their power for getting attention; in humans we call this being spoilt.) Elephant mothers and daughters stay together longer than any land animal – often 40 to 60 years. Elephants know and keep track of hundreds of individuals and dozens of families. Some families are particularly good friends and often visit and spend time together. If unfamiliar elephants show up, they immediately notice. They know who they are, whom they are with, who their enemies are, and where they are. They don’t just exist – they have lives.

Breaking these extraordinary care-bonds triggers intense emotional suffering for elephants, explains Cynthia Moss, who has studied elephants for more than 40 years. Dr Gay Bradshaw, in Elephants on the Edge, argues persuasively that elephants’ brain chemistry makes them experience post-traumatic stress identically to humans. Dame Daphne Sheldrick, who has half a century’s experience with traumatised orphans, told me matter of factly: “An elephant can die of grief.” She has seen it.

The fact is that elephants are acutely conscious. The neuroscientist Christof Koch defines consciousness simply as “the thing that feels like something”. When we are given total anaesthesia, or are “knocked unconscious”, we lose the experience of all sensory input. We cease to feel, hear, see. Regaining consciousness simply means we again experience our sensory input, quite as if our senses had been unplugged from our brain and then reconnected.

Why do we deny and ignore the feelings of other species against everything science and our own senses show us? Two reasons: our favourite story is that humans are absolutely unique and special in every way. Acknowledging that other animals have mental and emotional experiences spoils our conceit. The other reason: denying that other animals feel allows us to do to them whatever we want.

In 1789, Jeremy Bentham pointed out that only one question about what we do to animals really matters. “The question is not, can they reason?; nor, can they talk?; but, can they suffer?” Charles Darwin wryly noted: “Animals, whom we have made our slaves, we do not like to consider our equal.” He hated human slavery, too.

I have seen free-living elephants show most of the virtues and none of the avarice that we show to one another. Their major self-governing principle is not just live and let live, but live and help live. They live in better resonance with themselves and their world. I came away changed.

(Source: The Guardian)