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Older Women in Cuba Take Steps to Improve Quality of Life
Paediatrician Grisel Navarro says she is “a different kind of retiree,” because she still practises her profession, goes out and about and refuses to be “at the beck and call of her family’s and everyone else’s needs,” something that diminishes quality of life for many Cuban women when they retire from work.
Navarro retired five months ago and now has a part-time job at the “Ángel Arturo Aballí” Hospital in Havana. “I’m still working at what I like, but at a gentler pace,” this 62-year-old member of a generation of women who have by far excelled the educational and employment attainments of their mothers told IPS.
Women in this Caribbean island nation who are now reaching retirement age, raised in 2008 by the authorities from 55 to 60 for women and from 60 to 65 for men, had mass access to education from infancy onward, and the majority took jobs.
They did so imbued by the so-called “revolution within the revolution,” as women’s emancipation was known as part of the process begun in 1959 in Cuba, which raised women’s participation and made strides such as wage equality with men.
However, activists today are advocating even greater changes in support of gender equity, and calling for public policies targeting the particular needs of women and girls in this country of 11.2 million people, where machismo is still strong.
Older women like Navarro aspire to “living a full life as older adults,” but their dream may be frustrated by factors like gender-related and age-related disadvantages, such as the low incomes of many older women.
The responsibilities of caring for the home, children and the sick remain firmly on their shoulders. Increasingly they are widowed and left alone, looking after grandchildren when young people leave the country, and many of them lack economic security because they have always been homemakers or receive only tiny state pensions.
“Women are living longer, but they tend to suffer from poor health, or from episodes of disability or disease, which result in lower quality of life,” demographer Sonia Catasus told IPS. “This phenomenon is to some extent due to factors linked to gender subordination.”
The life expectancy of Cuban women is 80.7 years, compared to 76.6 for men. The trend is for these figures to rise for both sexes, according to the Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI).
The span of years between retirement and death is increasingly lengthening for the population. This demonstrates the social and healthcare advances in the country, but at the same time constitutes a challenge to the economy, which is typical of developing nations.
Cuba is also still trying to emerge from the severe crisis it has suffered for more than 20 years.
For biological reasons, women live longer on average than men in all latitudes, Catasus said. That is why the process of “feminisation of ageing” is being discussed globally as a matter that requires special treatment on the part of governments.
A study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) based on 2010 data says women aged over 60 made up 10.7 percent of the female population in the region, while men over 60 made up nine percent of the total male population.
Furthermore, three out of 10 older Latin American women were aged over 75 in 2010.
In the same year, a World Health Organisation (WHO) study of 31 Latin American and Caribbean countries found that women could expect to endure 10 years of poor health over their lifespan, while men could expect to put up with only eight years of poor health.
This scenario will be more critical in the near future, as it will affect families, care systems, carer support systems, social assistance and health services, and the way the labour force is planned in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.
The report “Ageing in the Twenty-First Century: A Celebration and a Challenge” published in 2012 by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates that by 2050, 25 percent of Latin Americans will be over 60.
By then, Cuba will be among the 11 countries with the most elderly populations on the planet, with 38 percent of it population aged over 60.
While adequate pensions and health services are vital to improving quality of life for the elderly, Caridad Pegudo, a 67-year-old retired teacher, says it is essential to “be prepared and change your attitude.”
“We (older women) need to get outdoors and not stay at home all the time, as we tend to do. When we go out, we need to pay attention to our appearance, and always talk to other people,” Pegudo, a member of Tula, a group of women who sew patchwork handcrafts, told IPS.
“Keeping socially active helps us stay well and puts us in touch with new knowledge,” said this Havana resident, who in late March attended the Third Meeting on Meditation, a community initiative in Havana that attracted over 1,000 participants, especially older women.
“Women have been trained to look after their families and other people. But with the changes nowadays, many older women are worrying more about themselves. I think meditation helps them reconnect with themselves, and has benefits for their health,” said Juan Dávila, the president of the organising committee.
A number of other civil and state initiatives offer support to Cuba’s growing elderly population, including the more than 500 branches of the University for Older Adults offering courses on progress in modern science, and “Grandparents’ Circles” for carrying out physical exercises in groups.
Clampdown on CSOs Worldwide
As Zimbabwe is expected to head to the polls in a little less than two months, clampdowns on civil society in that southern African nation have increased, according to Godwin Phiri, western region chairperson of the National Association of Non-Governmental Organisations in Zimbabwe.
Phiri tells IPS that it was very difficult to disseminate information to rural communities about their rights as voters as they were not allowed to hold public gatherings.
“The battle is in the rural communities where, according to the Public Order and Security Act, we need to inform the police four days before if we want to have a meeting. But the police say that you need to seek their permission, and what we have seen over time is that they decide what meetings can be held,” Phiri says.
He adds that as the elections draw nearer, the police have begun prohibiting meetings by civil society organisations in rural areas.
“Ahead of the elections the main thing we are trying to activate is our local structures to use as points of disseminating voter information. But a lot of communities are living in a context where there is a lot of violence and their movements are curtailed by the fear that anything can happen and can be interpreted as anti-government. So they are afraid to talk about issues,” he says.
And Women of Zimbabwe Arise (WOZA), an all-female social justice pressure group, has been no exception in the crackdown on civil society organisations, including arrests, over the past year, strongly believed to be a measure by the coalition government to thwart dissent.
Jenni Williams, founder and national coordinator of the group, tells IPS that she and her co-founder Magodonga Mahlangu have been arrested more than 50 times during the past 10 years that their organisation has been in existence. In April, WOZA laid a complaint with the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) at the African Union body’s 53rd session.
However, media and democracy campaigner Pedzisai Ruhanya, who is the director of the Zimbabwe Democracy Institute, says nothing will come of it as President Robert Mugabe’s defiant government has ignored other rulings from the ACHPR.
“They have done that before and they will do it again. Actually there is a precedent; they have done it and what has happened to them? They are still there. What happened to them when they…defied other rulings that came from the Banjul court in the Gambia where the ACHPR is based.
“They will continue to do business as usual because that court (the ACHPR) has no teeth, it is a toothless bulldog and cannot enforce its decisions, hence it’s an appendage of the state parties, including Zimbabwe,” Ruhanya says.
But the experiences of civil society in Zimbabwe are not unique to that country. A new report released by CIVICUS, the global civil society alliance, states that despite the expectation that the Arab Spring, Spain’s “indignados “and the global Occupy movements could bring radical change, this has not happened.
The report titled “The State of Civil Society 2013”, released on Apr. 29, says the great people’s movements of 2012 were followed by “a range of negative events that make the work of civil society even harder.”
“The ever-growing diffusion of social media and mobile technology, and the mushrooming of digital platforms for self-expression, might suggest that never before has civil society had so many venues to voice its claims and visions,” Mario Lubetkin, director of Inter Press Service (IPS), says in a chapter of the report co-written with Citizen Lab fellow Stefania Milan.
Milan and Lubetkin state, however, that this is not truly the case and note that “the news agenda is today largely dominated by stories from the global North.
“The mediascape is still characterised by growing media concentration, the predominance of ‘infotainment’ and ‘sensationalism’ over information and analysis, and the prevalence of Western voices at the expense of a silenced global South.”
They recommend that “familiarisation with the journalism world, its needs and practices, is essential for CSOs (Civil Society Organisations), and even more so for those people whose task is to reach out to journalists.”
In his introduction to the report, Dhananjayan Sriskandarajah, secretary general and chief executive of CIVICUS, concurs with Milan and Lubetkin.
“New technologies are making it easier to access information, connect with other like-minded people, and mobilise large numbers of people. But restrictions on websites and social media are increasingly being used as tools to keep citizens in the dark and prevent them from scrutinising corruption.”
The report notes that a number of governments have recently introduced or plan to introduce laws that regulate the formation and operation of CSOs. “Laws in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, for example, give the state the power to declare a CSO unlawful or withdraw its registration.”
However, the report states that CSOs are finding innovating ways of tackling social problems. For example, in Kyrgyzstan, “Public Watch Councils have increased accountability and transparency of central governmental agencies. One of the ways in which they have done so is through several TV discussions and public hearings involving the participation of state officials, CSOs and private sector representatives.”
*Additional reporting by Misheck Rusere in Harare.
U.N. Recognises Wildlife Trafficking as “Serious Crime”
Environment groups are applauding a new United Nations decision to officially characterise international wildlife and timber trafficking as a serious organised crime, in a move that advocates say will finally give international law enforcement officials the tools necessary to counter spiking rates of poaching.
Crimes related to the trafficking of flora and fauna are today one of the most significant money-makers for criminal networks, amounting to some 17 billion dollars a year, according to some estimates. That would make this black market the fourth-largest transnational crime in the world, according to Global Financial Integrity, a Washington watchdog group."The most important element here is the potential deterrence of significant prison time.” -- WWF's Wendy Elliott
On Friday, a new resolution on the issue was adopted almost unanimously at the end of a summit of the U.N. Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ, often called the U.N. Crime Commission). The resolution, put forward by the United States and Peru, now urges member states to formally view the illicit trade in wild flora or fauna as a “serious crime”.
“It is commendable that the U.N. CCPCJ is now taking note of wildlife crime,” Peter Paul van Dijk, director of the tortoise and freshwater turtle conservation programme at Conservation International, an international network, told IPS.
“This demonstrates how wildlife crime is no longer perceived as a proportionally minor type of crime affecting specific species, but is now beginning to be understood as being symptomatic of underlying problems of natural resource security, governance and transparency, and ineffective international actions.”
He continues: “International wildlife crime can generate the funds to fuel insurgencies and instability, and warrants an equally coordinated and prioritised response from the international community, including the United Nations. “
Under U.N. rules, characterisation as a “serious crime” can require stiff sentences of four or more years in prison, and will also allow the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to broaden its role in combating the trade. For years, environment-related crimes have recorded one of the world’s lowest conviction rates.
“This is a breakthrough resolution in terms of recognising the serious nature of wildlife crimes, encouraging governments to view this not just as an environmental issue but as a crime akin to human or arms trafficking,” Wendy Elliott, the leader of the wildlife crime campaign at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a global conservation group, told IPS from Geneva.
“For so many years, poachers and wildlife traffickers have received fines and quickly been let back onto the streets. The most important element here is the potential deterrence of significant prison time.”
Development impact
Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in poaching, particularly in Africa. Many suggest this is being driven largely by the increasing force of consumer spending in Asia.
Over the past decade and a half, experts say, South Africa has seen a staggering 5,000 percent increase in the illegal hunting of rhinoceroses, while elephant poaching is also currently at record levels, at some 30,000 deaths each year. Meanwhile, nearly a third of all global timber today is thought to have been illegally logged.
While wildlife crime was first discussed by the U.N. General Assembly a dozen years ago, Elliott says the issue has never been as serious as it is today.
“Historically, poaching was a small-scale local activity, but the value of both the product and the demand is now seen at levels akin to other major illegal commodities,” she notes.
“In turn, that has attracted organised criminal syndicates, so the response needed is something completely different. That’s the shift we’re now starting to see, but we need to really ramp this up globally – wildlife crimes prey on a finite set of resources, after all, and the clock is ticking.”
Much of the new international interest in wildlife and timber trafficking can almost certainly be traced to the groups that have become involved, as well as the illicit funding they’ve been able to secure. According to a new brief put out by the WWF and other environment organisations ahead of the U.N. Crime Commission meetings, these groups include rebels in Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan and others.
“Illegal trade in wildlife alone amasses profits of about 10 billion dollars each year, [and] the illicit trade is intertwined with corruption, money laundering, and the trafficking of other commodities such as weapons and narcotics,” Brian A. Nichols, an assistant secretary in the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told the U.N. Crime Commission in introducing the resolution.
“It undermines security, stability and the rule of law. The criminals that illegally poach and trade in wildlife are part of integrated networks that span continents. They devastate local communities and have pushed more and more species toward extinction.”
Indeed, the impact of wildlife poaching on local economies and development efforts can be extremely significant.
“These crimes are not only putting the survival of endangered species in peril, but are also threatening security and sustainable economic development,” Elliott notes.
“In many African countries, wildlife continues to constitute a major source of family income and gross domestic product. So this is imperative from a development perspective, potentially endangering years of development advances.”
Supply, demand
Following the passage of the new U.N. resolution, much of the impetus will now fall to national governments to oversee a strengthening of their anti-poaching and customs systems. Next week, governments in Central Africa are slated to meet to discuss links between poachers and ongoing security concerns.
“The proof of commitment will be in not only how many governments ensure adequate penalties, but how many invest in initiatives to engage police and customs investigators in combating these crimes,” Debbie Banks, a senior campaigner with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a London-based watchdog, told IPS.
“Combating wildlife crime is not rocket science. The solutions and tools are widely available, but it’s a matter of how much governments are prepared to invest in them. We now have some great political commitments articulated in the new resolution, so it’s time for action.”
Importantly, the new resolution will apply equally to countries that have serious illicit export problems – for instance, in Central Africa – and to countries where demand tends to be highest, particularly in Asia.
“These increased penalties will need to affect not just those doing the supplying but also those creating the demand,” WWF’s Elliott says.
“To really reduce demand, it has become increasingly clear that we can’t just rely on awareness-raising campaigns – there has to be enforcement, as well. Unless the public feels real consequences for purchasing these items, demand reduction will be very hard to achieve.”
U.N. Recognises Wildlife Trafficking as “Serious Crime”
Environment groups are applauding a new United Nations decision to officially characterise international wildlife and timber trafficking as a serious organised crime, in a move that advocates say will finally give international law enforcement officials the tools necessary to counter spiking rates of poaching.
Crimes related to the trafficking of flora and fauna are today one of the most significant money-makers for criminal networks, amounting to some 17 billion dollars a year, according to some estimates. That would make this black market the fourth-largest transnational crime in the world, according to Global Financial Integrity, a Washington watchdog group."The most important element here is the potential deterrence of significant prison time.” -- WWF's Wendy Elliott
On Friday, a new resolution on the issue was adopted almost unanimously at the end of a summit of the U.N. Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice (CCPCJ, often called the U.N. Crime Commission). The resolution, put forward by the United States and Peru, now urges member states to formally view the illicit trade in wild flora or fauna as a “serious crime”.
“It is commendable that the U.N. CCPCJ is now taking note of wildlife crime,” Peter Paul van Dijk, director of the tortoise and freshwater turtle conservation programme at Conservation International, an international network, told IPS.
“This demonstrates how wildlife crime is no longer perceived as a proportionally minor type of crime affecting specific species, but is now beginning to be understood as being symptomatic of underlying problems of natural resource security, governance and transparency, and ineffective international actions.”
He continues: “International wildlife crime can generate the funds to fuel insurgencies and instability, and warrants an equally coordinated and prioritised response from the international community, including the United Nations. “
Under U.N. rules, characterisation as a “serious crime” can require stiff sentences of four or more years in prison, and will also allow the United Nations office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) to broaden its role in combating the trade. For years, environment-related crimes have recorded one of the world’s lowest conviction rates.
“This is a breakthrough resolution in terms of recognising the serious nature of wildlife crimes, encouraging governments to view this not just as an environmental issue but as a crime akin to human or arms trafficking,” Wendy Elliott, the leader of the wildlife crime campaign at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), a global conservation group, told IPS from Geneva.
“For so many years, poachers and wildlife traffickers have received fines and quickly been let back onto the streets. The most important element here is the potential deterrence of significant prison time.”
Development impact
Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in poaching, particularly in Africa. Many suggest this is being driven largely by the increasing force of consumer spending in Asia.
Over the past decade and a half, experts say, South Africa has seen a staggering 5,000 percent increase in the illegal hunting of rhinoceroses, while elephant poaching is also currently at record levels, at some 30,000 deaths each year. Meanwhile, nearly a third of all global timber today is thought to have been illegally logged.
While wildlife crime was first discussed by the U.N. General Assembly a dozen years ago, Elliott says the issue has never been as serious as it is today.
“Historically, poaching was a small-scale local activity, but the value of both the product and the demand is now seen at levels akin to other major illegal commodities,” she notes.
“In turn, that has attracted organised criminal syndicates, so the response needed is something completely different. That’s the shift we’re now starting to see, but we need to really ramp this up globally – wildlife crimes prey on a finite set of resources, after all, and the clock is ticking.”
Much of the new international interest in wildlife and timber trafficking can almost certainly be traced to the groups that have become involved, as well as the illicit funding they’ve been able to secure. According to a new brief put out by the WWF and other environment organisations ahead of the U.N. Crime Commission meetings, these groups include rebels in Somalia, Rwanda, Sudan and others.
“Illegal trade in wildlife alone amasses profits of about 10 billion dollars each year, [and] the illicit trade is intertwined with corruption, money laundering, and the trafficking of other commodities such as weapons and narcotics,” Brian A. Nichols, an assistant secretary in the U.S. Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, told the U.N. Crime Commission in introducing the resolution.
“It undermines security, stability and the rule of law. The criminals that illegally poach and trade in wildlife are part of integrated networks that span continents. They devastate local communities and have pushed more and more species toward extinction.”
Indeed, the impact of wildlife poaching on local economies and development efforts can be extremely significant.
“These crimes are not only putting the survival of endangered species in peril, but are also threatening security and sustainable economic development,” Elliott notes.
“In many African countries, wildlife continues to constitute a major source of family income and gross domestic product. So this is imperative from a development perspective, potentially endangering years of development advances.”
Supply, demand
Following the passage of the new U.N. resolution, much of the impetus will now fall to national governments to oversee a strengthening of their anti-poaching and customs systems. Next week, governments in Central Africa are slated to meet to discuss links between poachers and ongoing security concerns.
“The proof of commitment will be in not only how many governments ensure adequate penalties, but how many invest in initiatives to engage police and customs investigators in combating these crimes,” Debbie Banks, a senior campaigner with the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a London-based watchdog, told IPS.
“Combating wildlife crime is not rocket science. The solutions and tools are widely available, but it’s a matter of how much governments are prepared to invest in them. We now have some great political commitments articulated in the new resolution, so it’s time for action.”
Importantly, the new resolution will apply equally to countries that have serious illicit export problems – for instance, in Central Africa – and to countries where demand tends to be highest, particularly in Asia.
“These increased penalties will need to affect not just those doing the supplying but also those creating the demand,” WWF’s Elliott says.
“To really reduce demand, it has become increasingly clear that we can’t just rely on awareness-raising campaigns – there has to be enforcement, as well. Unless the public feels real consequences for purchasing these items, demand reduction will be very hard to achieve.”
Home Births - AAP Issues Guidelines
Syria Says PM Escapes Car Bomb Attack
Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi has survived a bomb attack that targeted his convoy in central Damascus, Syrian state media report.
“The terrorist explosion in al-Mazzeh was an attempt to target the convoy of the prime minister. Doctor Wael al-Halqi is well and not hurt at all,” state television said on Monday.
Casualties have been reported.
State television showed footage of heavily damaged cars and debris in the area of the blast as firefighters fought to extinguish a large blaze caused by the explosion.
Al Jazeera’s Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said the attack on the prime minister’s convoy was “a very strong strike and blow to the Syrian government”.
“In the past few weeks we’ve seen the government making gains on the ground, so this seems more of a defiant move to show the government the rebels are not giving up,” she said.
‘Bodyguard killed’
A Syrian government official told The Associated Press that an improvised explosive device was placed under a car that was parked in the area and was detonated as al-Halqi’s car drove by.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based group of activists with a network of sources in Syria, said one of al-Halqi’s bodyguards had been killed.
“A second bodyguard and the driver are in critical condition,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.
The government-run Al-Ikhbariya station said al-Halqi went into a meeting with an economic committee straight after the bombing.
A news bulletin quoted al-Halqi as saying “these types of attacks are nothing but proof of the discouragement and despair of the terrorist groups as a result of the actions of the Syrian army”.
Several government and military institutions are situated in the upper-scale neighbourhood of al-Mazzeh where many senior Syrian officials live.
Officials targeted
Al-Halqi was appointed to the position in August 2012 after his predecessor Riad Hijab defected to the opposition.
The attack was not the first targeting a high official in the Syrian capital over the past year.
On Jul. 18, a blast at the Syrian national security building in Damascus during a meeting of Cabinet ministers killed the defence minister and his deputy, who was President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law.
That attack also wounded the interior minister.
In December, a car bomb targeted the Interior Ministry in Damascus, killing several people and wounding more than 20, including Interior Minister Mohammed al-Shaar.
Initially, Syrian state media said al-Shaar was not hurt in the Dec. 12 blast.
News of his injuries emerged a week later, after he was brought to Lebanon for treatment of a serious back injury.
*Published under an agreement with Al Jazeera.
