Monday, December 03, 2012

Climate Change -- Doha's Dodos


THE ABSURD TIMES


It is interesting that we have a discussion going on this very topic on Google+. Frankly, I think the time to have acted was in the late 80s, but that was Ronnie Ray-Gun's time.

The next step is the removal of the permafrost and the subsequent release of enormous of carbon dioxide and the temperature increase will become exponential, not linear.

However, here is some of the discussion.



Climate Cliff: As Global Emissions Peak, Hopes for U.N. Climate Deal in Doha at All-Time Low

We broadcast from the United Nations climate change talks in Doha, Qatar, where expectations for a binding agreement on limiting greenhouse gases are low despite global emissions at a record high. The two-week conference comes at the end of the last year that the binding emissions cuts agreed to under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol are in effect. Despite the Kyoto Protocol, a new scientific report out Sunday found global emissions of carbon dioxide reached a record high in 2011 and are likely to take a similar jump in 2012. We’re joined by two guests: Wael Hmaidan, director of Climate Action Network International and founder of IndyAct; and Asad Rehman, climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth England. On Saturday, Fahad bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, chair of the Organizing Sub-Committee of the 18th U.N. Climate Change Conference (COP 18), spoke briefly to participants of a march led by the Arab Youth Climate Movement. Moments later, he took questions from members of the media including, Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke. [includes rush transcript]
Correction: During the broadcast, Democracy Now! misidentified Fahad bin Mohammed al-Attiyah as Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah. We regret the error.
GUESTS:
Wael Hmaidan, director of Climate Action Network International and founder of IndyAct.
Asad Rehman, climate campaigner for Friends of the Earth England.
Fahad bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, Chair of the Organizing Sub-Committee of the 18th U.N. Climate Change Conference and chairman of the Qatar National Food Security Programme.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
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Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from the U.N. climate change summit here in Doha. Yes, this isDemocracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. This U.N. conference, the two-week conference, is here in Doha, Qatar, the talks taking place at a critical time. The two-week conference comes at the end of the last year that the binding emissions cuts agreed to under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol are in effect. Despite the Kyoto Protocol, a new scientific report out Sunday found global emissions of carbon dioxide reached a record high in 2011 and are likely to take a similar jump in 2012. Last month was the 333rd consecutive month that global temperatures were above the 20th century average.
Here at the summit, there seems to be little hope that the world’s nations will agree to new binding limits on greenhouse gas emissions. So far, no large nation has announced new measures to slow rising temperatures and help avert projected floods, droughts, heatwaves and rising seas.
The summit is being held in Qatar. The oil-rich nation has the highest per capita emissions in the world and the highest per capita GDP in the world. Qatar is also the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas.
On Saturday, the newly formed Arab Youth Climate Movement organized the first-ever climate march in the country. Later in the show, we’ll bring you voices from that march, but we’re going to begin today with two guests here in Doha. Wael Hmaidan is the director of the Climate Action Network International, also founder of IndyAct, an organization that started in Lebanon in 2007. Asad Rehman is a campaigner with Friends of the Earth England.
And we welcome you both to Democracy Now!
ASAD REHMAN: Thank you.
WAEL HMAIDAN: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: Asad Rehman, I want to begin with you. Tell us—this is the 18th COP, as they call it, COP18, the climate change summit, yet people feel more frustrated this year than we have ever seen coming to these conferences. Democracy Now! was in Copenhagen. We were in Cancun. We were in Durban last year. What do you expect will happen? What do you want to see happen?
ASAD REHMAN: Well, what we expect to happen, unfortunately, is a lack of an action by rich, developed countries. You’re right, this Qatar COP is a critical COP, because what it will do will decide the level of climate action that we will see over the next decade. And we are seeing, with our own eyes, with the reports, countless reports every single day, it seems, showing that the planet is in a planetary emergency, and we need deep emissions reductions. Unfortunately, what we’ve seen here is that the main developed countries, such as the European Union, have come here with emissions targets of 20 percent, which sounds like a lot, except for when you realize that they’ve already reached that target. So on the two critical issues of both emissions reductions and climate finance, rich, developed countries are offering nothing. And that really is a critical issue that we hope to resolve, but unfortunately the voices in these negotiating rooms are telling us it’s not going to happen.
AMY GOODMAN: Wael Hmaidan, this is the first time the U.N. conference has taken place in the Arab world, and it’s here in Qatar, which has the largest greenhouse gas emissions of any place on earth—also happens to be the wealthiest nation. But lay out for us, for people who don’t believe that climate change exists, what exactly is at stake.
WAEL HMAIDAN: Well, as you mentioned, at the end of the century, we are—might face a 6-degree warming world. There is a wide scientific view that a 4-degree world will mean the collapse of human civilization. So, facing a 6-degree world is even—it’s not any hope for having a safe climate. If we don’t do rapid action in the coming five to seven years, we are not going to meet our 2-degree target and come closer to a 4-degree world.
AMY GOODMAN: And this is 2 degrees Celsius.
WAEL HMAIDAN: Two degrees Celsius, exactly—and come closer to the 4 degree, which is the collapse of human civilization. So, it’s—obviously, every year theCOP is going to be more urgent. Why? Because of the scientific fact that we’re coming closer to the dangerous levels that can mean catastrophic impacts on global economy and global communities.
Being here in Qatar, we think it is very valuable, because we cannot rely on the developed countries. They are the primary reason that we have this crisis, but we cannot put all our eggs in one basket. Unfortunately, we are starting to feel failure from reliance on the U.S. and other countries. That’s why all countries have to pitch in, including the countries of the region. They have a lot of wealth. They have high emissions. It doesn’t matter where they are. What is important, where they are planning to be. That’s why the Arab civil society are demanding leadership from this region. We want them to put pledges to commit to reducing their emissions, and hopefully they will do it this week here in Qatar.
AMY GOODMAN: What has been the role of the United States, Asad, clearly the most powerful country when it comes to these negotiations and the past ones?
ASAD REHMAN: Well, unfortunately, the United States has played a very, very destructive role here in the climate talks. Not only has it been a block on seeing any progress from itself, in terms of its domestic emissions reductions, but what it’s actually managed to do here is drag other countries, like New Zealand, Japan and Russia, to join it in a race to the bottom. And that has not only taken away the urgency of action from the rich, developed countries, who, after all, have contributed 75 percent of the greenhouse gases that we see in the atmosphere and are primarily responsible, both legally and morally, for tackling the climate crisis and providing the climate finance for poorer countries to be able to transition away from using dirty fossil fuels, but also deal with the impacts of climate change. Unfortunately, the United States hopes that inaction, deregulation, of tackling climate crisis is the way forward. But as we saw—seen from Hurricane Sandy in the United States, whilst politicians may hope that they can ignore the climate, the climate isn’t ignoring us, and it isn’t ignoring humanity.
So, what we’ve seen here in terms of the United States is not only just a lack of leadership, but actually the wrong kind of leadership, a very destructive kind of leadership. Only now, minutes ago, we’ve heard from New Zealand, one of the allies of the United States here in these negotiations, blocking any progress on a target for 2050. So, not only are they intent on blocking any action and progress here in this coming decade, but it unfortunately looks like they’re intent on blocking action for the coming decades. And that’s primarily because they’re looking after their own short-term economic interests, the interests of the oil-rich, of fossil fuel companies. And until we here, in these corridors, have got the voices of human beings, of humanity and ordinary people being affected, and we’ve got governments listening to those and not the polluting corporations, unfortunately, these climate talks are never going to deliver the kind of action that we need to see.
AMY GOODMAN: I wanted to turn to Fahad bin Mohammed al-Attiyah, the chair of the Organizing Sub-Committee of the 18th U.N. Climate Change Conference. On Saturday, he briefly spoke to participants of the march led by the Arab Youth Climate Movement. Moments later, he took questions from members of the media, includingDemocracy Now!’s Mike Burke. [Editor’s Note: During the broadcast, Democracy Now! misidentified Fahad bin Mohammed al-Attiyah as Abdullah bin Hamad Al-Attiyah. We regret the error.
REPORTER: You think this will—this will be a movement in Qatar, there will be more people? Because—
FAHAD BIN MOHAMMED AL-ATTIYAH: I mean, first of all, it’s organized by local NGOs, and that’s the—that’s the—that’s the major difference. It is a catalyst for change. And so—
REPORTER: How much is changing in Qatar, has been changing?
FAHAD BIN MOHAMMED AL-ATTIYAH: A lot. I mean, there are a lot of government policies that are in the pipeline, and some are already in implementation. Over the next few days, you will get to—you will get to see some announcements that will happen. We—the conference comes to mark an important milestep—milestone into—into how this country wants to plan its growth in the future.
REPORTER: So, Qatar is one of the biggest polluters per capita, right?
FAHAD BIN MOHAMMED AL-ATTIYAH: Still—
REPORTER: Do you think this will change in the—
FAHAD BIN MOHAMMED AL-ATTIYAH: Of course. It has to change. There is no other option.
MIKE BURKE: How is the country cutting its emissions?
FAHAD BIN MOHAMMED AL-ATTIYAH:Through a series of programs. Carbon sequestration is one of them, capping these emissions through technologies, filtrations. There’s a whole range of systems that are going to be implemented over the next couple of years. And this is not just because the conference is in Doha. It’s just because we have—we are committed—we do have our social pressures, too, to address these issues. And so, if you look at the Qatar National Vision, it clearly says we have to—we have to do our environmental obligations. And it is enshrined in our constitution.
MIKE BURKE: Now, why—the country now has the highest emissions per capita of any country in the entire world.
FAHAD BIN MOHAMMED AL-ATTIYAH: That is because it’s a small population compared to the level of industry. I mean, it’s not because we consume that. A lot of that goes to the export markets. The population of this country is about two million people. Its industry—this is disproportionate to the number of people that live within it, hence the numbers that come up as the highest emissions per capita. Having said that, that is not a call for complacency, but it’s a call for more action.
MIKE BURKE: Now, I understand that you have free electricity in this country, which is unheard of—at least, you know, I’m from the United States, and it does not encourage consumers just to use an unlimited amount of power.
FAHAD BIN MOHAMMED AL-ATTIYAH: There isn’t free electricity. I think the part that you’re referring to is the electricity that goes to about 10 percent of the population, whom are the indigenous people, or the locals, as we will put them. These tariffs and electricity—if you look at how they lived before, they lived without water and electricity. So this is a transitional phase. One day or the other, they will be facing the prospect of putting a price to that service. And by all means, they, by their nature, by their desert culture, their—their value system supports them to protect that precious resource.
We have launched, six months ago, an initiative called Conserve, which is targeting a reduction of water and electrical consumption by 30 percent. There are measures that are being taken, not only that this is an initiative and a campaign, but it will be followed by regulations. It will be followed by a standardization of certain appliances. And hopefully, within the next five years, we should be cutting down on our consumption patterns.
MIKE BURKE: Do you have a record yet of actually cutting consumption?
FAHAD BIN MOHAMMED AL-ATTIYAH: We have a record of cutting consumption in different industry—in the industry, but not at the household level, simply because we’re in the process of developing these standards. We have developed now what is called the—something compared to the LEED standards, which are local to this region. It’s called the GSAS. This is going to be going mainstream by 2012—not—June 2013, which means that every building that will be constructed from now on will have to apply these standards—water efficiency, electrical efficiency, construction material, where it should be sourced. So, there are measures that are being addressed by our policymakers.
REPORTER: Still, the economy is highly dependent on fossil fuels. Do you think this will change?
FAHAD BIN MOHAMMED AL-ATTIYAH: It’s a single-sector economy. It means that we all depend on one type of economic activity. There is a goal to diversify from that by 2030. You probably should go and visit our research facilities, our educational facilities, which gives you an indication of where are we heading from now until 2030.
AMY GOODMAN: That’s the chair of the Organizing Sub-Committee of the 18th U.N. Climate Change Conference, the COP conference here, Fahad bin Mohammed al-Attiyah of Qatar, speaking to reporters, includingDemocracy Now!’s Mike Burke.
Wael Hmaidan, we are here in the wealthiest country in the world. And the significance of this taking place here? We’re in the second week. What you want to see happen this week, since it looks like we’re looking at, at this point, deregulation overall? The country is moving away from serious regulation, as the Kyoto Protocol—well, tell us what happens to it.
WAEL HMAIDAN: Well, first, Kyoto Protocol does not affect what developing countries do, for countries like Qatar. It’s mainly asked developed countries, who have the primary responsibility and historic responsibility for climate change, to take action. But we still believe that developing countries need to take the lead. We think leaders—leadership from developing countries, like Qatar, would actually increase the pressure and show what we want—what kind of leadership we want from developed countries. We hope this would be an example—the developing countries’ leadership would be an example for countries like the U.S. The region’s countries need to prove that they take climate change seriously and prove that they’re going to be leading, especially when they have the intention to host the U.N. climate change negotiations, COP18, here in Qatar. There is still a lot of room for them to do it this week. We hope that they would step action and provide this leadership, an example of leadership that we want to see from developed countries who are primarily responsible for this problem we are in.
AMY GOODMAN: On the issue of finance, in the United States, the country that is clearly the engine that drives much of what happens here, the discussions are not about this climate change summit, Asad; they are about the so-called fiscal cliff, a country that is hugely in debt, so it’s cutting basic services to Americans. How do you talk to those in Congress to say what finances mean and how ultimately it could save Americans money?
ASAD REHMAN: Well, first of all, we only need to look at the economic cost of inaction. Nicholas Stern, in his report, said that the cost of inaction was five times the amount of if we spent taking action now. So, we know that we are inevitably going to have to spend the finance. We’ve seen that from the experience in the U.S. with Hurricane Sandy, but also the experiences of developing countries all around the world, of having to spend large amounts of money tackling the impacts and effects of climate change. It’s far better to be able to put that money now and take meaningful action, but also to actually say the amounts of money that we’re talking about are still actually quite tiny compared to the amounts of money that we’re spending on, for example, military expenditure, on subsidizing fossil fuels, on bailing out the banks. So, we’re still talking. I mean, today—
AMY GOODMAN: And people see, certainly on the East Coast with Superstorm Sandy, they see the massive amount of money they have to pay—
ASAD REHMAN: Absolutely.
AMY GOODMAN: —as a result of climate change.
ASAD REHMAN: And we’re seeing here, for example, developing countries are asking for only $200 million in the Adaptation Fund, which is—the United States spends $350 million purely on its military bands. And what we’ve seen is developed countries blocking progress on that. So, what we’re seeing here in terms of—is not about the fact that the United States and other countries actually aren’t—don’t want to spend their money in terms of tackling climate change, because this is not about them doing some—the developing countries a favor; it’s not—it’s both a legal and a moral obligation, not only for the developing countries, but also for the whole planet as a whole.
As we’ve heard from all of the reports, we’re heading towards a warming of the planet of 6 degrees. That, whilst it might impact on developing countries more immediately, it is going to impact on every single person. So it is up to the United States, like the European Union, as well, to actually come here with real commitments of climate finance and to be able to spend them, so that we can’t have this transition, because we have—do have real solutions. You know, Friends of the Earth groups, global campaigns all around the world are trying to force their governments to shift away from their addiction to dirty fossil fuels, invest in renewable energies, which gives us new jobs, clean growth, and can actually take us out of this financial cliff, because whilst there may be some ways out of the fiscal cliff, there is absolutely no way out of the climate cliff. And that’s why the urgency and action is required.
AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both very much for being with us. I know you both are racing off to meetings. Asad Rehman of Friends of the Earth International, based in Britain now, from Pakistan, and Wael Hmaidan, thank you so much for being with us, director of Climate Action Network International. He’s also the founder of IndyAct, an organization that started in Lebanon in 2007. Thank you both.
ASAD REHMAN: Thank you, Amy.
WAEL HMAIDAN: Thank you.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org, The War and Peace Report. When we come back, you’ll hear from people in the streets marching here in Qatar, demanding urgent action on climate change. Stay with us.
Creative Commons LicenseThe original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.


MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

At U.N. Climate Summit in Doha, Arab Youth Activists Stage Qatar’s First-Ever Climate March

On Saturday, the newly formed Arab Youth Climate Movement organized the first-ever climate march in Qatar, host of the U.N. climate change summit. Hundreds of people took part in the permitted march in downtown Doha calling on negotiators to take action at this year’s climate summit. The protest was organized by a coalition of young environmentalists. Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke spoke to some of the marchers. [includes rush transcript]

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting from Doha, Qatar, from the U.N. Climate Change Conference. On Saturday, hundreds of people took part in a permitted march in downtown Doha, calling on negotiators to take action at this year’s climate summit. The protest was organized by the Arab Youth Climate Movement, a newly formed coalition of young environmentalists. Democracy Now!producer Michael Burke spoke to some of the marchers.
MARIAM ALLAM: My name is Mariam Allam. I’m from Egypt. I’m the coordinator of the Arab Youth Climate Movement in Egypt. We are here today to march for climate action. We want to push the Arab leadership in the COP. We want them to start pledging feasible, ambitious pledges to combat climate change. I’m with the Arab Youth Climate Movement, which was actually formed to create a grassroots movement to create awareness on climate change and start to find the solutions, and also to take part in the negotiations so we will be aware of the positions of our countries and respond to whatever pledges or whatever position they take to be part of the solution. So, the march is actually a part—it’s annually. It happens annually in each and every COP. And this year it’s happening in Qatar. It’s for the first time in the GCC to have a climate march. So, we helped and we assisted to support this march, since we are—since we are Arab youth.
SARAH RIFAAT: My name is Sarah Rifaat. I am from Egypt. I’m the Arab world 350.org coordinator, and I’m also part of the Arab Youth Climate Movement. We need to continue pushing on building a global movement, basically, to make sure that we tackle this, like, huge problem facing humanity, because we’re running out of time. And every year we say that. Every year, it’s even—it’s more urgent, more serious. And so, we—like, some people are saying we have three years; some people are saying five. And, to me, that’s—I mean, we are running out of time, but I think there is will, and there’s a lot that’s been—that’s happened in a few months. Like, what I’ve seen with the Arab Youth Climate Movement gives me hope. So I’m hoping that everyone else sees how they can play a really strong role in building this movement wherever they are.
MIKE BURKE: What is your message to the United States? I mean, inside the talks, they’re one of the most important players.
SARAH RIFAAT: Well, the United States, they’re—I mean, so far, we haven’t seen any promising steps from the United States. And it’s surprising, considering what’s been happening in the U.S. in terms of Hurricane Sandy. So, we want to see more—more emissions reductions, and we want to see more progress in terms of like the United States role. But we haven’t really seen any like—any like significant changes from the U.S.'s position in negotiations from last year's.
KHALID AL-MUHANADI: My name is Khalid Al-Muhanadi. We are from Doha Oasis. It’s a grassroots organization in Qatar. And we are the ones with more than 50 NGOs around the world. We are—we organized this march in Qatar.
MIKE BURKE: And what is your message to negotiators inside?
KHALID AL-MUHANADI: My message: more action. More action. That’s it. That’s our message. It’s actually, we are one earth, one environment and one people. So we have to unite to take action—not only the leaders, us, as well, because we are—we are part of this pollution.
KATE CATLIN: My name is Kate Catlin. I’m from Seattle, Washington. And I’m marching today to convey to our leaders that we need action now, and it’s time for them to build their climate legacy.
MIKE BURKE: And what is your message to negotiators, especially from the United States?
KATE CATLIN: I think over the last year we’ve seen a number of incidents in the United States that really brings the impacts of climate change back to us at home. This is no longer an issue that we can ignore, because it is literally killing Americans today. And I think that the message that we can bring to our leaders is that it’s time for them to step up, not only out of equity to the whole world, but out of justice and protection for their own citizens. Youth are generally the ones who are most impacted by this issue, and I think that we are the ones who need to show our leaders that we’re ready for them to build their climate legacy, because it’s a matter of intergenerational justice.
MIKE BURKE: And when you say "climate legacy," what do you mean? I’m not—that’s a phrase I think a lot of people might not be familiar with.
KATE CATLIN: Sure. Climate legacy is this idea that the leaders of today, who are my parents’ generation, are leaving behind a legacy of ruining the earth and of ruining our climate and of ruining our atmosphere. And they are leaving behind a legacy to their children of irresponsibility and of mass weather disasters that will be impacting my generation and my children. And I think that what we hope is that President Obama now turns it around.
QUEEN EHIRIM: My full name is Queen Ehirim. I’m from Nigeria. Climate justice is when you’re talking about policymaking, you’re talking about the inclusion of the youth for decision making, you’re talking about women and gender equality. You are talking about so many things that has to do with making our environment good for us. We are the youth. We are going to carry the responsibility and the consequences of what is going to happen in future, and that is what we don’t want. We want climate justice. We don’t want—we want the world to [inaudible]. They should act fast. They should act quickly, because environmental disaster is real. Climate change has a great impact on women, because we are looking at climate change—number one impact on women is that they’ll lose their farmlands. They lose their farmlands. They lose their rivers. They lose water. And, you know, the women, especially in developing countries, these are the people that have great—these are the people that—
MARCHER: Excuse me. Can you go forward, please?
QUEEN EHIRIM: Sorry. And you know—and you know the women in—the women in the developing countries are the people that have a great impact on climate change, because they tend to lose fruits to feed for the children, they tend to lose good water to cook. You know, all this has to do with climate change, and it’s affecting women.
MASAKI IMANAKA: My name is Masaki, and we came from Japan, Tokyo. And we collected the message from the people of Fukushima. And in Japan, even now, over 160,000 people cannot—they cannot go to their home because of the radioactive materials. So we want to tell the nuclear power plant’s accident’s impacts. So—and we want to—we want not to use the nuclear power plants anymore, because of not to repeat that tragedy. So we want to appear a change from nuclear power plants to the renewable energy sources.
TASNEEM ESSOP: I’m Tasneem Essop. I’m with WWF. And we’re marching here in support of the local civil society organizations, who are calling on their governments to have more action against climate change.
MIKE BURKE: What does more action look like?
TASNEEM ESSOP: More action means that we’re needing to come out of these talks with real cuts in emissions, so they have to cut carbon, and they have to put money in the bank.
MIKE BURKE: And can you tell me where you’re from and how climate change has affected your region?
TASNEEM ESSOP: I’m from South Africa. And, of course, we’re a big emitter in South Africa, so we are both contributing towards—not as massively as the rich, industrialized countries, but we do contribute towards global emissions. But we are also going to feel huge impacts. We are feeling impacts in terms of droughts. We have extreme weather events like floods, and we have long, dry summers and fires. And so, in our informal settlements, we have, you know, huge fires, and people lose their homes. Food security is being impacted on. Livelihoods are being impacted on. So we’re already feeling the impacts in our country.
TARIQ AL-OLAIMY: My name is Tariq Al-Olaimy. I’m from Bahrain. I’m part of the Adopt a Negotiator Project, which is tracking sort of decisions and mechanisms at the COP18 conference. And I’m part of the Arab Youth Climate Movement. We’re here to take part in the first climate march ever to be held in Qatar and ever to be held in the Gulf. It’s really exciting.
MIKE BURKE: And what is your message to negotiators inside, especially the ones from the Gulf region?
TARIQ AL-OLAIMY: We need to start taking the lead on climate change. Traditionally, we’ve been very passive, at times, in these negotiations. We are developing countries, but also countries that are very vulnerable to climate extremes. Places like Bahrain and Qatar are very vulnerable to sea-level rises. And we talk about sustainable development. We need a very good, strong basis to go forward to develop a society, environment and the economy. And it is important for Arabs really to get very much engaged and increasing ambition, both within the region but also developed countries, as well.
MIKE BURKE: And what is your message to governments that depend so much on oil for revenue as to, you know, how they should go forward?
TARIQ AL-OLAIMY: Well, it isn’t sustainable. We know, whether it’s Bahrain, Qatar or Saudi, eventually those fossil fuels will subside. And we need to start making that transition, especially from a fossil-fuel-based subsidies economy, and shifting the subsidies to renewable energies. We’re not talking about something that will happen overnight, but eventual shift from a—to a new development model. That isn’t just focused on the next 20 years, but actually for developing society for the next thousands of years.
AMY GOODMAN: Just some of the voices of people who took part in the Arab Youth Climate Movement, hundreds of people who protested on Saturday.
Creative Commons LicenseThe original content of this program is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. Please attribute legal copies of this work to democracynow.org. Some of the work(s) that this program incorporates, however, may be separately licensed. For further information or additional permissions, contact us.


MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

U.N. Climate Summit in Qatar Brings Rare Attention to Plight of Country’s Neglected Migrant Workers

Migrant workers account for a staggering 94 percent of the workforce and 80 percent of the population in Qatar, making it the country with the highest ratio of migrants to citizens in the world. Qatar’s migrants come largely from poorer countries in South Asia to labor in the country’s oil and construction sectors or in its restaurants, hotels and homes. Their plight has come to the fore as Qatar hosts the U.N. climate summit and anticipates a burst of construction ahead of the 2022 World Cup. Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke speaks with Devendra Dhungana, a Nepalese journalist who has worked with the International Trade Union Confederation to interview and translate meetings with Nepalese workers living in Qatar. [includes rush transcript]
GUEST:
Devendra Dhungana, Nepalese journalist who has worked with the International Trade Union Confederation to interview and translate meetings with Nepalese workers living in Qatar.
RUSH TRANSCRIPT
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AMY GOODMAN: The march also called for greater protections for migrant workers here in Qatar. Migrant workers account for a staggering 94 percent of the workforce and 80 percent of the population, making Qatar the country with the highest ratio of migrants to citizens in the world. Qatar’s migrants come largely from poorer countries in South Asia to labor in Qatar’s oil and construction sectors or in its restaurants, hotels and homes. Their plight has come to the fore as Qatar anticipates a burst of construction ahead of the 2022 World Cup, which is scheduled to take place here.
Before Saturday’s march, Democracy Now! producer Mike Burke spoke with Devendra Dhungana, a Nepalese journalist who works with the International Trade Union Confederation to interview and translate meetings with Nepalese workers living here in Qatar.
DEVENDRA DHUNGANA: My name is Devendra Dhungana, and I’m with International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC. And ITUC is here as part of the COP18 summit to echo the voice in favor, you know, for the migrant workers, because ITUC is working around the world to protect and promote the rights of the migrant workers. More than 1.2 million workers here are migrant workers. But the problem is, they don’t have the right to organize here. And we are here to make our presence felt and tell the world that the world should not entertain aFIFA World Cup 2022 without the migrant workers’ rights being attested here as part of the global campaign.
What we expect to see is, more people will die of working in the stadiums than the number of players playing in the Qatari stadiums. And can the Qatari government accept to live by that precedent, that more workers will die of the unsafe working conditions here than the number of players playing in the field? It cannot be accepted. And if it was a poor country, there could be any reasons, but Qatar is one of the most richest countries in the world. And it’s the migrant workers who are building the Qatari economy, and the Qatari authority has to accept this and treat the migrant workers with respect and allow them to get organized, because we visited the labor camps, and what we saw was just unbelievable.
MIKE BURKE: Could you describe the living conditions and the working conditions for the migrant workers here?
DEVENDRA DHUNGANA: We went to several labor camps in the Sanaiya area, and we were appalled by the kind of condition we saw. Now, more than 50 migrant workers are living in the 12 to 14 rooms with very little facilities—no running water, no AC in several places. And, you know, as they told us, instead of coming to Qatar to come, they said the living conditions in Qatar are hell. And one of the workers said that they are now—they are the worst-paid workers here. They are worse treated. They don’t get the overtime. They do not have the right to put their views to the management. And most importantly, they do not have any room to put up their issue or complaints to any authority here. And they are just packed up. Their passports are seized by the company, and they cannot allow to return back home. So the workers we talked to were so frustrated, so unhappy, that if the company would not allow their exit visa, then they could die here, dying up like the sardines.
MIKE BURKE: And what can you—what countries are most of these migrant workers from? And what type of work are they doing here?
DEVENDRA DHUNGANA: Most of the migrant workers, especially in the construction sector, are from South Asia, with a high participation from Nepal, India and Pakistan. But mostly, the Nepali migrant workers are facing the worst time, because they are getting the lowest pay. And they are living in very squalid conditions, you couldn’t just believe—17 people living in one room, 50 people sharing one small kitchen, and there’s no fire extinguisher service there, no running water, and 50 people have to queue up in the morning to use one toilet. And it’s just unbelievable how pathetic condition there is in the labor camps. And we saw it with our own eyes. Even the ITUC secretary general, Sharan Burrow, was also there, and she said, "If Qatar is going to hold the World Cup, it should not be without the workers’ rights." She made it very clear. And, you know, while talking to the migrant workers, they were very much concerned that they felt they were under captivity and a kind of modern slavery was there in Qatar, because their passports were seized by the company, and they will not have the right to return home even in emergency situations, because they are not easily issued the exit papers. And we talked to them, and they said they’ve been here for five years, some of them for seven years, and they said they would like to return home when they wanted to.
AMY GOODMAN: Devendra Dhungana is a Nepalese journalist. He was speaking with Democracy Now!'s Mike Burke in the streets of Doha, Qatar. Qatar, 80 percent of the population here are foreign workers; 94 percent of the workforce are workers from other countries. This isDemocracy Now! When we come back, we'll go to Egypt. Stay with us.
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And it's nice to hear from Sharif again:

MONDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2012

Egyptian Judges Join Upheaval over Morsi’s Decrees Ahead of Key Vote on New Constitution

Egypt’s judiciary has joined mounting protests in the country against President Mohamed Morsi’s decree last month seizing wide-ranging powers and immunity from the courts. The country’s judges have refused to oversee the referendum on a draft constitution scheduled in two weeks. Opposition groups had called for protests against the referendum last week. The decision by the Judges Club follows a confrontation between Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court and Islamist supporters of President Morsi. On Sunday, the country’s highest court suspended its sessions indefinitely after Islamist protesters surrounded the building. We go to Cairo to speak with Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous. [includes rush transcript]

Transcript

AMY GOODMAN: We’re broadcasting for the week from Doha, Qatar, but we’re turning right now to Egypt. Egypt’s judiciary has joined mounting protests in the country against President Mohamed Morsi’s decree last month seizing wide-ranging powers and immunity from the courts. Egypt’s judges have refused to oversee the referendum on a draft constitution scheduled for two weeks from now. Opposition groups had called for protests against the referendum last week. This is the head of the Judges Club, Ahmed El-Zend.
AHMED EL-ZEND: [translated] Egypt’s judges refuse to supervise the referendum of the constitution that has been scheduled for December 15th, 2012. This decision comes in response to the so-called constitutional decree, until this decree has been canceled or frozen, along with all its articles.
AMY GOODMAN: The decision by the Judges Club follows a confrontation between Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court and Islamist supporters of President Morsi. On Sunday, the country’s highest court suspended its sessions indefinitely after Islamist protesters surrounded the building. The protests came as the judges were set to rule on the validity of the panel that drafted the Egypt’s constitution. The judges said they were unable to enter the premises, calling it, quote, "the blackest day in the history of Egyptian judiciary."
Well, to talk more about the protests in Egypt and the judges’ decision, we go to Cairo to talk to Democracy Now! correspondent Sharif Abdel Kouddous.
Sharif, welcome back to Democracy Now! We last spoke Friday. Tell us—update us on what has taken place, the significance of the judges’ decision, of President Morsi’s decision to hold the referendum, and what the Egyptian constitution that has just been written is all about.
SHARIF ABDEL KOUDDOUS: Well, Amy, as you mentioned, I mean, the country has been reeling from a series of political developments over the past 10 days, some of the biggest protests since Mubarak’s ouster—as you can see behind me, an ongoing sit-in in Tahrir Square—the Muslim Brotherhood holding a massive protest on Saturday outside Cairo University in support of Morsi’s decision. This was all set off by the declaration Morsi made, a constitutional declaration on November 22nd whereby he declared himself—gave himself far-reaching powers and put himself above any kind of judicial oversight. And Morsi himself has made very clear that the reason he made this constitutional declaration was to protect the transition going forward. They feared that the Supreme Constitutional Court, as you mentioned, was going to dissolve the constituent assembly and throw the transition process, as the president and the Muslim Brotherhood see it, into chaos. So, this was a decree he made that has really starkly polarized the Egyptian body politic. And as we’re seeing right now, there’s a big confrontation between the judiciary and Mohamed Morsi. Of course, the courts have already dissolved a first constituent assembly in Egypt and had dissolved the parliament that was elected after Mubarak’s ouster.
So, with respect to what you said about the judges not supervising the referendum, Morsi has called for referendum on this constitution on December 15th. By Egyptian law, judges must be at the polling stations to oversee the vote. The Judges Club represents many judges in Egypt, thousands of judges. Its leaders—and we just heard El-Zend speak in that little clip—have been very vocally anti-Islamist, very vocal against the rise of Islamist leaders, and very politicized. Having said that, their decision not to supervise the referendum is not binding. So, we’re still unclear what exactly is going to happen. This is a very tight position Morsi is in. If there are not enough judges to oversee this vote, his only other option presumably is to issue another constitutional declaration and change the law, and there’s been talk of university professors or other people from institutions to oversee the vote, which could further throw into question the legitimacy and the credibility of this document.
Now, as you mentioned, the constituent assembly really sent a shock wave through the body politic of Egypt when it announced it was going to hold a final vote on Thursday on the draft of the constitution that they had so far. Let’s remember, in Morsi’s decree, he had a—he had issued a two-month extension for the constituent assembly to complete its work. This was in the face of a walkout by nearly all of the non-Islamist members of the constituent assembly. There was no Christian—no representative of the churches of Egypt’s Christian minority in the constitution assembly. There were only four women. All of them were affiliated with Islamist parties. So, this was the body that went to a vote very hastily on Thursday. They held a 17-hour session. It was—that ended around 7:00 a.m. There was a very self-congratulatory tone about—about the vote itself. It was clear that they weren’t ready. There was grammatical errors and words missing. And so, they were really forcing through this vote. And that has passed since being put to—being put to, of course, a referendum on December 15th.
To go through some of the actual content of the constitution, the document does provide for basic protections on certain issues like arbitrary detention. It does provide for—it gives a ban on torture. It does provide for freedom of assembly, freedom of association, for some economic rights. However, it does restrict other rights, and it is, in general, the tone, a more conservative document than the previous constitution, Egypt’s 1971 constitution. There are drawbacks on things like freedom of expression. The text says that freedom of expression—it allows for freedom of expression, but then there’s contradictory articles which say that—prohibit the insult to the human, which is very vague language, and prohibits insults to prophets and messengers of God, so things like blasphemy and so forth.
On the issue of freedom of religion, it limits—it says there is freedom of religion, freedom of belief, but it limits the right to practice and to build places of worship to the three so-called Abrahamic religions—Christianity, Islam and Judaism. So, you know, things like Egypt’s Baha’i minority, which have experienced heavy discrimination in the past, are not—are not protected against.
Things like freedom of the press, it does ban on censorship of the press; however, it gives a caveat: except in times of war or national mobilization. And, of course, we know in times of war this is exactly when freedom of the press is most crucial. And Egypt, of course, is coming out of 30 years of a emergency state, so we’ve seen the abuse of this kind of language before.
In term of a women’s rights, there’s an absence of an article specifically equating—or banning discrimination of women. The only time women are mentioned specifically is in Article 10, that—and it says the state—it refers to them in the context of the family. It says the state is tasked with enabling reconciliation between the duties of a woman toward her family and toward her work. Now, this kind of language was in the previous constitution, but we’re really looking at this in a different political context right now in Egypt, a context in which, parliamentary elections coming up, the Muslim Brotherhood is expected to gain a larger number of votes, as it did last time, so are members of the ultra-conservative groups, the Salafi groups, and so laws that could severely restrict things like women’s rights are very possible under this constitution.
And perhaps most egregiously, of course, is the role of the military and of military trials. More than 12,000 civilians were put on military trial after Mubarak’s ouster. It was one of the key issues in the transitional period. There had been a line that had put a ban on any civilian standing before a military court. After an objection by the military, that text was removed. So now there is a provision that does allow for civilians to stand before military trials. There is no parliamentary oversight of the military budget, which was a key concern for many groups. It instead has a National Defense Council that includes many members of the military that will oversee the budget.
So, this is the document that is now going to go up for a referendum on December 15th. Egypt is very, very starkly polarized right now. As we said, we saw massive protests in support and against. There’s protests planned tomorrow to march to the presidential palace. There’s a number of—we’re also seeing a stark polarization in the media, with newspapers today, several private newspapers, issuing the same cover that had like a drawing of a person chained in a cell, and it said, "No to dictatorship." Tomorrow, many of these same newspapers are withholding publication in protest. Some state, some private media channels are also going to go black in protest of all of this.
And, you know, this is—this is all happening right now in Egypt, and it’s unclear what, going forward, it’s going to be. It’s been such a turbulent and chaotic time. And the Muslim Brotherhood, where of course the president, Mohamed Morsi, hails from, looks like they want to force the transition through. And by many accounts, many people—if you had to ask me, I hate to give predictions, but I would think that the referendum will probably pass, because there is no alternative. The "no" vote for people—people are unclear what will happen if this referendum is voted down. There’s no clear process of what exactly would take place then. And we saw this before in the first referendum on March 19th, right after Mubarak’s ouster. So it remains to be seen what’s going to happen in the coming days. It’s a very chaotic period. It’s a very tumultuous period. And we’ll have to see what happens in Egypt in this—in the next few days and weeks.
AMY GOODMAN: Well, Sharif, I want to thank you very much for that update. Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Democracy Now! correspondent in Cairo, Egypt.
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