Monthly Archives: July 2021

The concept of reparations is not particularlycontroversial until, well, theconversation turns toBlack people.

Think about it, Native Americans have received reparations. Japanese, who were in internment camps received reparations. Jewish people have received reparations, and 9/11 victims received reparations, said Dr. Andre Perry, an author and a senior fellow with the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program.

Perry, author of the book Know Your Price: Valuing Black Lives and Property in Americas Black Cities,"was the keynote speaker at a recentGreater Milwaukee Foundation program A Milwaukee for All,which is aimed at getting Milwaukeeans to focus on economic inclusion. More than 200 participated in the discussion.

Perrycovered a number of issues including early childhood education,housing equity,neighborhood and community development,social activism,and the role of the philanthropic community. But near the end of his talk, Perry was asked by Ellen Gilligan, the foundation's presidentand CEO,about reparations.

Reparations, very plainly put, is redress for injury caused largely by government and private stakeholders that had a demonstrable effect on those individuals and their families, he said.

With the 10 to 1 wealth gap between Black peopleand white peoplein this country, it's clear there is a direct relation to slavery, Jim Crow racism and segregation. Black people have been damaged, Perry said.

But even with the documented pain of slavery and racism, and laws instituted and approved by the federal government to harm descendants of slaves, African Americans have yet to be made whole.

Talk of reparationshas been going on for decades, but the Black Lives Matter movement gave that discussion a push in the past year,Perry said.

Several cities are looking for ways to atone for slavery and discrimination:

All of these people are trying to create a reparative system because we need a reparative culture, Perry said.

An online campaign started by Groundswell calls for individual payments to descendants of formerly enslaved Black Americans that correlates with the racial wealth gap that currently exists between whiteand Black citizens; free college tuition to any four-or two-year college or university; erasure of Black student loan debt; and strategic investments in Black communities and businesses.

The state should also provide free mental health services and health care to all descendants of formerly enslaved Black Americans along with grants for down payments and housing revitalization for homes.

The campaign also asks that all formerly incarcerated people have their voting rights restored and mandatory minimum sentencing laws be abolished.

While there may be disagreements on what to do and how much to give to assuage the effects of slavery and unrelenting racism, reparations shouldbe a part of Americas atonement for the injuries caused to an entire race of people.

At the foundation's event, small groups discussions were ledby Fred Royal, past president of the NAACP Milwaukee branch, and Martha Barry, chief racial justice officer for the YWCA of Southeast Wisconsin.

Barry said local leaders need to figure out what areparations package would look like and African Americans must be listened to.

As a white woman, I just need to listen and support," she said. "I need to know your stories and how your family was impacted by racism and how you continue to be impacted.

One of the first steps: createa dedicated funding stream like Evanston did, Royal said. Evanstondraws on a 3% tax on recreational marijuana.

If Milwaukee can use taxpayer dollars tobuild a baseball stadium and basketball arena, it should not be a heavy lift to do the same to benefit Black residents who have sufferedracism for generations.

Dr. Tito Izard, president andchief executive officer ofMilwaukee Health Services,said the racial wealth gap can widen as Black educational attainment rises because of student debt.

Im 51 years old, and my wife and I graduated from medical college. I graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School,and we still have almost $100,000 in student loan debt, he said.

Because of college debt, his children never benefited from their parents being doctors. For most of their childhood, he and his wife were worth more dead than alive.

My children didnt get the same advantage as a white physicians children would get. We had high income but negative wealth, he said.

Whats needed is something like the GI Bill(which helped soldiers returning from war) for the descendants of slavery, Royal said.

The timing is right for a reparations push in Milwaukee.

In 2019, Milwaukee County was among the first in the nation to declare racism a public health crisis. In 2020, County Executive David Crowley shared his vision of addressing racial wage and education gaps, unequal access to health care and housing insecurity for Black people.

At Milwaukee's 50th Juneteenth Day celebration last month,city and state leaders were urged to support reparations during anopening ceremonythat featured Gov. Tony Evers, Mayor Tom Barrett and the Wisconsin Legislative Black Caucus.

"If you don't support reparations, we're not going to support you," said community leader Janette Herrera, who then led the crowd in a chant of "Reparations Now."

No doubt, itwill be a hard argument to win.

AUMass Amherst/WCVB Poll shows that 62% of Americansoppose cash payments to the descendants of slaves. Among those who oppose reparations, 38% said descendants of slaves dont deserve money and 25% said it's impossible to place a value on the impact of slavery.

But while you may not be able to quantify the damage slavery and Jim Crow segregation caused, it doesnt negate the need for compensation.

We are still in a mode where the economy is boomingbut working-class people are suffering, but we can change all of that by changing the policy environment to one that is reparative in nature, Perry said.

Milwaukee needs to do something drastic; the conditions for Black people here are among the worst in the country for segregation, home ownership, and wealth and educational gaps.

We need less conversation and more compensation.

Email him at jcausey@jrn.com and follow him on Twitter: @jecausey.

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The idea of reparations is not controversial until the conversation turns to Black people - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

The number of children working as child labourerscame downby 100 million in last two decades; but COVID-19 pandemic has undone a lot of gains

Child labour robs children of their childhood, potential and dignity. As many as 152 million (1 in 10) children work as labourers across the world, according to the International Labour Organization.

Among these, 64 million are girls. Almost half of the 72 million children are engaged in hazardous work; 6.3 million are pushed into forced work and human slavery.

Children are driven into this work for multiple reasons: When families fall into poverty, experience income insecurity, emergencies, or are affected by unemployment, human trafficking, conflict and extreme weather events.

Child labour is prevalent not only in the agriculture sector, but today other sectors such as export-oriented agriculture, mining, manufacturing, industries, tourism and construction.

It is a global phenomenon and exists in different forms and intensities in almost every part of the globe. Yet, half the worlds child labourers (72.1 million) are in Africa; 62.1 million are in Asia and the Pacific.

Over the last two decades, the number of children working as child labourers came downby a 100 million. But the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has dealt a heavy blow on human lives and endangered the economic activities of the poor and disadvantage people.

According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the COVID-19 pandemic will cause more than a quarter of billion people suffering from acute hunger by the end of 2021.

The pandemic has hit the mental, physical and nutritional health of children. Schools have been shut for the longest time due to the crisis, denying children access to healthy school meals.

According to UNICEF, more than 1.5 billion children missed out their schooling due to COVID-19 restrictions. This has compelled children to work to support their families.

Aide et Actions study in India on the impact of COVID-19 on migrant children revealed a two-fold increase in the number of children who accompanied their working parents to the brick-making industry after the first wave COVID-19 pandemic.

Those who work at brick kilns have been compelled to drag their children along. In South Asia, tens and thousands of brick kilns provide seasonal wage employment to the poor and debt-ridden rural families.

Migrant families are recruited by labour contractors and ferried to the urban location to work in brick kilns. The traditional brick kiln industries that operate on manual labourers often utilise child labour for work.

Aide et Action has been working with children living in brick kilns in India to provide education and care to them. It has assisted thousands of migrant workers and their families to travel safely to their native villages and reintegrated them up with a government health support and social protection schemes.

The pandemic-induced lockdowns shattered the labour market across the world. During the first COVID-19 wave, the lockdown forced millions of migrant labourers to move back to their villages in India.

The soaring demand for food, health supplies, basic services need a huge workforce to wheel and support the national and global supply chain.

A recent global report indicated that the link between child labour and the global supply chain was often indirect and happened in the lower tier of supply chain like raw material extraction and agriculture operations. The unprecedented economic crisis has, however, pulled children into the national and global supply chain and other informal sectors.

The United Nations declared 2021 as the international year for the elimination of child labour. The Sustainable Development Goals 8 & 7 challenge the world to eradicate forced labour, modern slavery by 2025.

It can be a herculean task for policy makers and planners to devise effective strategy to contain the child labour. Elimination of child labour needs several approaches.

The one-size-fits-all approach will fail to address the issues of poor and excluded communities. Every government and non-government action for the elimination of child labour should be effectively reinforced with national child rights policies, stricter law enforcement, quality social protection and strengthening of school ecosystem.

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COVID-19 and the changing face of child labour - Down To Earth Magazine

Using nooses as an intimidation tactic would be banned and third-party sales of appointments at Secretary of State offices would be banned under bills recently introduced in the Michigan Legislature.

Those are just two of the bills members of the House and Senate introduced before going on summer vacation on topics ranging from workers rights to college costs to Juneteenth.

Republicans control both chambers of the Legislature. In the House, the GOP has a six-seat margin. In the Senate, it has a four-seat margin. Two additional Senate seats that were previously held by Republicans are currently vacant.

Here are some of the most noteworthy pieces of legislation.

Bills you may have missed, from vaccine incentives to regulating meat substitutes

Employees in the retail, hospitality and food service industries would have more clarity about their schedules under House Bill 5136, sponsored by Rep. Kara Hope (D-Holt). Workers and unions have said that managers scheduling employees for different days and hours, often with little advance notice, makes it difficult for them to secure transportation and attend to family responsibilities.

Under the bill, employers would be required to provide a written work schedule at least 14 days before the first day of the work schedule. Changes to the schedule could not be made unless the employer has provided the employee with timely notice of the change, and employees would be allowed to decline to work any shifts not included in the written schedule.

Additionally, employers would be prohibited from scheduling an employee to work within 10 hours of the end of their previous work shift.

If an employer reduced the length of an employees shift, they would be required to pay the employee the greater of either the minimum wage or 50% of their regular rate of pay per hour for each hour their shift was shortened.

Employers would also be allowed to keep a voluntary standby list of employees who they can request to work additional hours if needed to address unanticipated customer needs or employee absences. An employee would be allowed to decline to be added to the list, and if they chose to join could still decline an offer of additional hours.

The employer would be required to provide new hires with a good-faith estimate of the employees work schedule upon being hired, including the media number of hours the employee can expect to work in a typical one month period.

House Bill 5138, sponsored by Rep. Terry Sabo (D-Muskegon), would require employers to provide at least a 30 minute lunch break to each employee whose shift exceeds 5 consecutive hours. The lunch break could be paid or unpaid.

Whitmer recognizes state essential workers

Selling appointments for secretary of state branch offices online would be prohibited under HB 5162, sponsored by Rep. Ranjeev Puri (D-Canton Twp.).

Secretary of State Jocelyn Bensons office supports the legislation and says they already monitor and attempt to prevent the resale of branch office appointments through online marketplaces, like Craigslist and Facebook Marketplace.

House Bill 5164, sponsored by Rep. Steven Johnson (R-Wayland), would incentivize Michigan residents to conduct Secretary of State business online, through the mail, at a kiosk or during a scheduled appointment by reducing the fee for services by 10% when conducted by one of those methods.

Senate Bill 566, sponsored by Sen. Stephanie Chang (D-Detroit), would allow college students to claim a tax credit equal to the amount of the sales tax they paid on any textbooks required for their courses.

Bills introduced in both chambers would signal that it is the intent of the Legislature for noncitizen students to be charged the in-state tuition rate at public universities as long as they are either not an alien or have deferred status, attended high school in the state for three years or longer, graduated from high school in Michigan, and has filed an affidavit with the university stating that they have filed an application for lawful permanent residence or will do so as soon as they are eligible.

The bill is mirrored in the Senate as SB 558, sponsored by Sen. Jeff Irwin (D-Ann Arbor), and in the House as HB 5087, sponsored by Rep. Yousef Rabhi (D-Ann Arbor).

Whitmer announces plan to expand tuition-free college for 22K more Michiganders

Fireworks would be allowed on June 18 and June 19 under HB 5063, sponsored by Rep. Helena Scott (D-Detroit).

After the federal government voted to make Juneteenth a federal holiday, HB 5064, sponsored by Rep. Tenisha Yancey (D-Harper Woods), would do the same in Michigan.

The bill would encourage each individual in this state to pause on Juneteenth and reflect upon the strong survival instinct of the African-American slaves and the excitement and great joy with which African-Americans first celebrated the abolition of slavery.

House Bill 5091, sponsored by Rep. Steve Carra (R-Three Rivers), would create a state election audit board that would be required to conduct an audit of the 2020 general election, following GOP efforts in Arizona.

The board would consist of seven members, including: one member appointed by each the Senate majority and minority leaders, one member appointed by each the House speaker and House minority leader, the auditor general, and one member who was a poll challenger in the 2020 election on behalf of both major parties.

The audit of the 2020 election would be required to inspect things like proper ink marking and depressions on each ballot to confirm that the ballot was completed by an individual and not by a machine and folded crease marks on absentee ballots.

They would also be required to determine the 2,000 youngest voters who voted absentee in 2020 and investigate whether the individuals actually voted at the election, whether they voted absentee, and how they applied for their ballot.

The same would be done for the 2,000 oldest voters under the age of 80 who voted for the first time in the 2020 general election.

$2.5 million would be allocated to the board to complete the audit.

Carra announced earlier this year that he will challenge U.S. Rep. Fred Upton (R-St. Joseph), who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump a second time after the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol, in the Republican congressional primary.

Previous investigations and audits have returned no evidence of fraud.

House Bill 5114, sponsored by Rep. Jeff Yaroch (R-Richmond), would spin the states budget office off from the Department of Technology and Management, creating a new, separate Department of Budget.

Biden signs law making Juneteenth a new federal holiday

Several amendments to the state constitution have been proposed. Each amendment would require a two-thirds vote in each chamber to pass, and would then have to face voters.

House Joint Resolution H, sponsored by Rep. Shri Thanedar (D-Detroit), would allow universities to admit students using affirmative action guidelines.

Marriage statutes would be updated to use gender neutral pronouns under HJR J, sponsored by Rabhi, bringing the state constitution in line with federal law allowing gay marriage.

House Joint Resolution I, sponsored by Rep. Matt Koleszar (D-Plymouth), would allow 17-year-olds to vote in a primary election if they will be 18 years old by the November general election.

Republican introduces bill for so-called forensic audit of 2020 general election results

Lynchings would be banned under HB 5085, sponsored by Rep. Kyra Bolden (D-Southfield). They would be a felony punishable by imprisonment for life without the possibility for parole.

Aiding or abetting or being an accessory to a lynching would also be a felony punishably by imprisonment for life without the possibility for parole.

Hanging a noose on private property for the purpose of terrorizing the owner or occupant of the private property, or hanging a noose on the property of a school, college campus, public park or place of employment for the purpose of terrorizing any person who attends those places, would be a misdemeanor.

A first offense would be punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or by a fine of not more than $5,000, or both.

Second or subsequent convictions would be punishable by imprisonment for not more than one year, or a fine of not more than $15,000, or both.

There has previously been a noose outside the Michigan Capitol as armed militia members descended upon the building in April 2020 to protest Gov. Gretchen Whitmers emergency orders during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Pharmaceuticals could be imported from Canada if importing them would lead to a major reduction in the cost of the drugs under SB 583, sponsored by Sen. Ruth Johnson (R-Holly).

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Bills you may have missed, from retail worker schedules to banning nooses as an intimidation tactic Michigan Advance - Michigan Advance

Italian crime writer Carlo Lucarelli, 2006 |Creative Commons

LYON, FranceAs the world begins to wake up and we enter the period of post-confinement, in France the first major festival return, just prior to the re-opening of the Cannes Film Festival, was the just concluded Quais du Polar. Its the global festival of crime writing, the largest of its kind, if not in the world, then definitely in Europe. There was an air of hesitancy, of dipping a toe in the water, with everyone inside except the speakers kept at a distance from the audience wearing masks. The crime novel book fair moved to tents outside the main hall.

There was also an air of hesitancy because this was the first crime writing festival, one branch of which in France is called the policier, which celebrates the deductive skill and thirst for justice of the police, post the global questioning of the tactics and ends of the police in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests.

The health restrictions generally did guarantee an air of safety about the festival, as one security guard checked bags (the result of the largely overblown and previous terrorist pandemic) while a second one made sure everyone used the hand lotion before entering the building (the result of the latest pandemic). Travel between countries is still a question as R.J. Ellory from England and Europes most popular crime writer, Icelands Arnaldur Indriason, whose novel begat the Hollywood film Jar City, were both unable to come because of the quarantine restrictions active upon their return to their home countries.

This was balanced out by remote appearances by the American raconteur of drug traffic Don Winslow and Edyr Augusto, the Brazilian author of a series of books on the Amazon city of Belm, a site not only of exploitation of natural resources but also of drug traffic. France has now started vaccinating at a rapid rate hoping to reach 70 percent by the end of the summer, with the cases falling every day but, as with the rest of the world, with the threat of ever more contagious variants (Delta or worse yet, Delta+?) hovering over this attempt to restart this branch of French soft power.

The country, though behind the U.S. and Britain, leads Europe in the number and global range of its publications and translations of this most popular of all genres of fiction. Through festivals like the Quais du Polar, France strengthens its hold on the genre not only because French authors pour out a seemingly endless supply of crime novels but also because its translators bring novels in from all over Europe and the rest of the world. In that way the country becomes the mediator and meeting place for global crime fiction which, because of its place in the market, functions almost like a branch of the world-leading French luxury industry which makes high-end clothes, perfumes and accessories.

Which brings us to the twin poles of the crime novel. In France for every policier, whose tradition goes back to Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie, and which fits the entertainment/luxury industry mold, there is also a more hardboiled element of crime fiction, in the Dashiell Hammett/Raymond Chandler tradition, with a much more socially situated milieu and a critical message, called the roman noir. The difference was readily apparent at the festival.

Le Monde, the newspaper of the center left, fired the first salvo in its pre-festival article where it questioned the very idea of fiction from the point of view of the police in light of the George Floyd and other killings and the demands for justice from a police force whose budget for domestic control in the U.S. makes it the sixth-largest military budget in the world. Le Monde quoted the American contemporary noir novelist Benjamin Whitmer, who criticized his own genre in which the daily violence of the police is totally ignored. Whitmer, the author of Cry Father and Pike, then elaborated on his refusal to romanticize this now much criticized institution: I do not write about good cops for the same reason I do not write about unicorns. Neither exists, he said, and added that If the police do their work correctly that work is violence against the poor and working class for the protection of the upper class. This view was echoed by some speakers in the festival.

The conservative weekly digest Le Point countered with its view of the crime novel in an elaborate feature on the cozy mystery. Here writers, often in a nostalgic aristocratic vein like S.J. Bennetts The Windsor Knot on the royal family, return to the locked room mysteries which, though they exhibit a good deal of humorone of cozy author M.C. Beatons books is titled The Quiche of Death and her Absolutely Fabulous-type character is named Agatha Raisin, in homage to her predecessordisdain any social implications of crime and see it as a puzzle to be solved rather than as an opening onto a deeper examination of society.

The hard-boiled novelists often echoed Whitmers sentiments on the police. In his non-fiction The Business Secrets of Drug Dealing, journalist Matt Taibbi transcribes the account of an anonymous marijuana dealer who claims that the police, far from being the expert sleuths of crime fiction and crime TV series such as C.S.I., in fact operate mainly by grabbing informers off the street and beating on them until they give up namesthe testimony often inaccurate because it is obtained under duress. The Greek author Minos Efstathiadis, whose The Diver is about the relation between Germany and Greece with the latter subservient to the former during the 2008 government debt crisis, suggested that the police, far from battling crime, are part of a worldwide network that supports the worst elements of criminal activity exploiting the weakest members of society through underage trafficking, drug dealers, child pornography and female slavery. Without that support, he claimed, these activities would never be allowed to flourish.

Arpd Soltsz, from Slovakia, in his latest novel Swine, writes about how organized crime, in the form of the Calabrian mafia the Ndrangheta, has insinuated itself into the highest levels of that society in both government and law enforcement. The novel, which begins and ends with the assassination of a journalist, recounts 25 years in the history of the country where one regime, claiming it was battling corruption, succeeded another and then became corrupt itself. Hard not to think of Joe Bidens equally Trump-like but suppressed Ukraine antics or his promise and then refusal to back the $15 minimum wage and his generosity in saying hell forgive two-tenths of one percent of student debt after promising 50%, etc.

Carlo Lucarelli, whose Commissioner De Luca began as an inspector in the Mussolini fascist period, in An Italian Affair, follows De Luca into the 50s as, with the U.S.-backed Christian Democrats in power, in order to pursue justice, he must join a secret service so secret it was never given a name where he finds his former fascist police colleagues restored to power. We are reminded of the continual interplay in the U.S. between the Klan and other right-wing groups and the police, much in evidence in the way right-wing violence was tolerated and condoned while any street violence was brutally repressed. In Germany, also, the recent connection between the far-right Alternative fr Deutschland (AfD) and the police was also widely reported.

Another use of the noir novel to illuminate social ills was Jurica Pavicics Red Water, named the best Euro Crime Novel of the Year. Pavicic from the also ex-Yugoslav country of Croatia, uses the 30-year investigation of the disappearance of a 17-year-old girl to recount three different eras in his native town of Split, on the new most desired tourist site in Europe, the Dalmatian Coast. Pavicic explained that he did not travel, but staying put in his native town was like watching three different cities. During the socialist era in the 1980s, Split was a mining town, which he compared to the North of England, which boasted a well-known soccer team, sponsored by the mine. With the fall of socialism, as in Russia and many of the countries in the East, the go-go 1990s where everything collapsed saw the deindustrialization of the town as industry moved farther East or to Asia and as corruption ruled and fortunes were quickly seized. In the 2000s, Split has remade itself again, this time as part of the global tourist boom in which the Dalmatian Coast has thrived with The Guardian calling the nearby city of Zadar the hippest place in the world. Red Water charts these changes with the jaundiced eye of a world-weary observer.

On the cozy mystery side there was Lionel Froissard, a former race car journalist, who has just written a novel about the death of the much-loved Princess Diana. Froissard though refuses to entertain the many theories around Dianas death perhaps involving the royal family and instead blames the death on a poor Black woman from the banlieu, or urban slums, focusing not on the potential assassination but on the car that caused the crackup. Elsewhere Niklas Natt och Dag, from a Swedish aristocrat family which he said had a good run from the 13th to 16th centuries and the author of two historical crime novels, 1793 and 1794, claimed that he focused on the aristocracy who commit crimes not because they are more untrustworthy than the poor but because they are more imaginative.

At the heart of the roman noirs ability to shed light on forgotten periods of history was Thomas Cantaloubes Frakas, set in France and Cameroon in 1962 where Cantaloube, an ex-journalist for the investigative website Mediapart, related that France, after losing Indochina and Algeria, had settled on as its new colony of choice. The French government went so far as to commission a study by a team of geologists to determine what raw materials were available to be looted underneath Cameroonian soil. Cantaloubes book details how the French, in the period after Cameroon achieved independence and while it was attempting to then achieve financial sovereignty, acted with the government to punish and eliminate those freedom fighters who wanted to continue the struggle.

Cantaloubes work, both in Frakas and his previous Requiem for a Republic, which detailed the merger of gangsters and government in the Marseille of 1936, illustrates how the noir novel can illuminate social problems instead of concealing them as practiced in its opposite, the cozy mystery. Carlo Lucarelli exemplified this in his three-day plan for how he hoped readers would react to his fiction. The first night they would be up all night reading. The second night they would be so troubled by what they read theyd be up all night disturbed. The third night, he hoped, they would be up all night trying to figure out how things could be different.

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The crime novel post-confinement and post-BLM: The three-day plan - People's World