The Reason Review—October 2017
I n its more positive moments, October seemed to be all about little guys taking on big guys and winning — whether it was the Kurds standing their ground while hostile Iraqi forces circled Kirkuk, European campaigners sticking a spanner in Monsanto’s pursuit of global domination, or the brave women who exposed the abusive behaviour of Harvey Weinstein and the Hollywood Establishment. In Malta, however, another underdog hero lost her life, while the latest tragedy in Somalia seemed to go virtually unheeded in the West.
The Kurds of Kirkuk
“The Kurdish population is standing in solidarity with the Peshmerga forces in Kirkuk. Kirkuk has become a spiritual and national cause for us.”
In September Iraqi Kurds staged a successful referendum and a vote for an independent Kurdish state (see last month’s Reason Review), but October saw their democratic victory threatened. Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi ruled the referendum “unconstitutional” and escalated a military standoff in the oil-rich city of Kirkuk, currently under Kurdish control. With Iran’s Revolutionary Guard now moving in to support Iraqi troops, tensions in the region have peaked, as Al Jazeera’s Farah Najjar explores.
A Uniquely US Problem
“Among developed nations, the US is far and away the most violent — in large part due to the easy access many Americans have to firearms.”
October began with news of yet another gun-related tragedy in the US: 64-year-old Stephen Paddock had opened fire on crowds of Las Vegas concertgoers, leaving 58 people dead and 546 injured. Subsequent investigations and reports interrogated his motive, method and means; this article serves to contextualise this uniquely US problem by presenting a series of maps, charts and infographics that unpack gun violence in America.
The Fall and Fall of Harvey Weinstein
“Hollywood has been rocked by allegations against film mogul Harvey Weinstein — which first came to light in a New York Times article. Since then, the story has developed continuously…”
In a story that has dominated headlines throughout the month, the once-lauded studio exec, Harvey Weinstein, has been accused en-masse of committing a string of sexual assaults during his 40+ year tenure in the entertainment industry. This timeline attempts to chart the scandal as it’s developed — from the first New York Times article, to the most recent harrowing account of Weinstein’s abuses, through a raft of industry resignations and revelations along the way.
The Murder of Daphne Caruana Galizia
“The crooks are everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.”
These were the last words written by Daphne Caruana Galizia, the celebrated Maltese investigative journalist who was murdered with a car bomb on October 16th. Galizia spent her career unearthing political corruption. Earlier this year her blog drew links between the wife of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, lucrative payments from the government of Azerbaijan, and an offshore Panama company tied to the sale of Maltese passports. These revelations prompted an early general election in June; while Muscat still emerged victorious, this impassioned profile piece shows that Galizia remained staunchly committed to her work, right up until the moment of her death.
Somalia Weeps, But Does the West Listen?
“The world is unfair; social media can attest to that. 276 died in Somalia and we aren’t doing the same thing we did when it was Las Vegas.”
Somalia suffered the worst terrorist attack in the country’s history in October, as a truck filled with explosives was detonated on a busy street in Mogadishu. While no-one officially claimed responsibility for the blast, which ultimately claimed the lives of more than 300 people, government officials blamed the attack on al-Shabaab, a jihadi fundamentalist group. As Somalia began a three-day mourning period for the victims, Al Jazeera was one of several media outlets to note the oddly muted reaction from Western observers.
Glyphosaturated
“Glyphosate is a weedkiller so pervasive that its residues were recently found in 45% of Europe’s topsoil — and in the urine of three quarters of Germans tested, at five times the legal limit for drinking water.”
As the merger of two of the world’s largest agrochemical giants — Bayer and Monsanto — continues to stall, one of the latter’s key chemical ingredients has been banned by the EU Parliament. In the run up to the landmark vote, The Guardian’s Arthur Neslen looked at the ramifications of such a ban among the international farming community, Monsanto’s history of covering up studies that demonstrate the health risks of its products, and some of the sustainable alternatives to using harmful pesticides on crops.
Insectageddon
“Insects, of course, are critical to the survival of the rest of the living world. Those flying insects… are the pollinators without which a vast tract of the plant kingdom, both wild and cultivated, cannot survive.”
It’s not just humans being affected by the overuse of pesticides. Here George Monbiot explores the catastrophic decline of insect life on our planet and what it means for humanity at large.
See Something
“By spending billions of dollars buying up smaller rivals, the tech giants have effectively snuffed out the competition — and all with barely a whisper from state regulators.
“But others would argue that it’s all too easy to make the tech giants a scapegoat for the upheavals caused by the digital revolution. The real winners of that revolution are not the tech companies; they are us, the users.”
Get stuck into this fascinating debate at an upcoming event hosted by Intelligence Squared in which Adam Cohen, Google’s head of economic policy, and Justus Haucap, former chair of the German Monopolies Commission, will confront Wendy Hall, co-founder of the Web Science Research initiative, and Luke Johnson, former Chairman of Channel 4. Which side are you on?
Read Something
“Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring alerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers of indiscriminate use of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes in the laws affecting our air, land, and water.”
Before there was Glyphosate there was DDT, an odourless, colourless and tasteless insecticide in widespread use on US farms in the first half of the 20th century. In Silent Spring, Carson explored the devastating effects of the chemical on human and all other organic life, which, despite fierce opposition from the chemical lobby, eventually lead to a total ban of DDT for agricultural use. It’s also superbly written.
Do Something
“Stop the Monsanto-Bayer Mega-Merger — If they succeed, we are facing a nightmare scenario: more bee-killing neonics in our fields, more toxic glyphosate on our plates, and more corporate control over our food supply.”
The merger between Bayer and Monsanto is already being closely scrutinised by the US Government and EU Parliament, but given the strength of corporate lobbying the merger may not be delayed for long. If it goes ahead, a single corporation will control almost a quarter of the world’s seeds and pesticides — a situation untenable for the natural world. Sign this Sum of Us petition to prevent the merger from going ahead.
