Day: October 22, 2023

News Review – 5:43 AM 10/22/2023

As World’s Eyes Shift, Ukraine and Russia Look to Sway Opinions

“Ordain women priests!” Not far from the Vatican, where hundreds of Catholics have gathered to debate the future of the Church, purple-clad activists make their voices heard against the “patriarchy”.

The place of women in the Catholic Church — led for 2,000 years by a man, which outlaws abortion and female priests and does not recognize divorce — is one of the hot topics at the general assembly of the Synod of Bishops taking place over four weeks.

Women campaigning for change have come to Rome to make their case, from Europe and the United States but also South Africa, Australia, Colombia and India.

They have different backgrounds and diverse goals — not all want female priests, with some aiming first for women to become deacons, who can celebrate baptisms, marriages and funerals, although not masses.

But they are united in their frustration at seeing women excluded from key roles in what many view as a “patriarchal and macho” Church.

“The majority of people who support parish life and transmit the faith in families are women, mothers,” said Carmen Chaumet from French campaign group “Comite de la Jupe”, or the Committee of the Skirt.

“It is paradoxical and unfair not to give them their legitimate place.”

“If you go to the Vatican, to a mass, you see hundreds of men priests dressed the same way, and no women,” added Teresa Casillas, a member of Spanish association “Revuelta de Mujeres en la Iglesia”, “The Women’s Revolt in the Church”.

“I feel that men are the owners of God.”

‘Voting rights’

The Synod assembly, which runs until October 29, nevertheless marks a historic turning point in the Church, with nuns and laywomen allowed to take part for the first time.

Some 54 women — around 15 percent of the total of 365 assembly members — will be able to vote on proposals that will be sent to Pope Francis.

Vatican observers have called it a revolution. “A first step,” say campaigners.

Adeline Fermanian, co-president of the Committee of Skirt, said the pope had given “openings” on the question of ordaining women.

“He recognized that the questions has not been examined sufficiently on a theological level,” she said.

Since his election in 2013, Francis has sought to forge a more open Church, more welcoming to LGBTQ faithful and divorcees, and encouraging inter-faith dialogue.

He has increased the number of women appointed to the Curia, the central government of the Holy See, with some in senior positions.

But some campaigners see the changes as “cosmetic” reforms which hide a biased perception of women.

Cathy Corbitt, an Australian member of the executive board of umbrella group Catholic Women’s Council (CWC), said the inclusion of female voting members in the Synod was a sign of progress.

But she said the wider view of women in the Church was “very frustrating”, much of it taking inspiration from the Virgin Mary, the mother of Jesus.

“The pope still seems to have this blind spot towards women… He seems to regard women in terms of a role, and it’s usually in terms of a mother,” she said.

Resistance

The Synod process is slow — the current meeting in Rome followed a two-year global consultation, and a second general assembly is planned for next year.

Regina Franken-Wendelsorf, a German member of CWC executive board, said women were hoping for concrete action.

“All arguments and requests are on the table. It’s now the Vatican and the Church who have to act!” she said.

While the Church debates, “there are collateral victims, frustration, Catholics who leave because they no longer feel welcomed”, added French campaigner Chaumet.

But just as Pope Francis faces resistance in his reform agenda, there is significant resistance to the women’s push for change.

“Some American bishops are afraid to follow the path of the Anglican Church,” which authorized the ordination of women in 1992, notes one Synod participant, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Another senior Church member, who also asked not to be named, noted that pressure for reform was not equal from all regions of the Church.

“We must not forget that the Church is global,” he recalled. “There are expectations (among women) in Europe, but in Asia and Africa, much less.”

On a bank of Villa Victoria reservoir, where in other years boats might have used them to anchor, 10 concrete blocks lie exposed to the sun. They should be under water, but that was before severe drought dropped the reservoir to the lowest level that Gabriel Bejarano has seen since he moved back to his grandfather’s farm a decade ago.

“The water is supposed to come up to here,” Bejarano, a veterinarian, said as he pointed toward a fence a hundred yards back from the reservoir’s edge on a recent morning.

The dipping level on the north shore of this lake near Toluca is a major problem for Mexico City, about 125 kilometers to the west. Villa Victoria — about one-third its usual level this time of year — and two other drought-depleted reservoirs make up most of the Cutzamala system, which serves more than 20 million people and is at a historical low for this time of year.

Even more worrisome: Mexico’s rainy season is just about over, and its departure will end any realistic hope of refilling the reservoirs before next year. The Mexican National Water Commission on Tuesday announced water restrictions equivalent to about 8% of the Cutzamala system’s flow, and millions of users in Mexico City and Toluca fear even greater restrictions over the winter.

Mexico City gets more than a quarter of its water from those reservoirs. Most of the rest is drawn from the Valley of Mexico’s increasingly depleted aquifer. Neighborhoods without as many wells — thus more reliant on the reservoirs — will feel the shortages first and most acutely.

The drought hasn’t been limited to the valley. Seventy-five percent of Mexico is currently in drought, according to the most recent data from the country’s National Meteorological Service, including “extreme” drought across much of Central and North Mexico and some “exceptional” drought in the states of Durango and San Luis Potosí. The government has distributed emergency water by truck in Durango throughout the summer, plus almost 40 million liters of water across eight other drought-stricken states.

Meanwhile, navigation and tourism on Lake Pátzcuaro, known for iconic Day of the Dead celebrations in the western state of Michoacán, risk drying up with increasingly low water levels.

In Mexico City, it’s not unusual in recent years to see some water shortages just before the rainy season. In spring 2021, Villa Victoria was at one-third its normal capacity in what then-Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum described as the city’s worst drought in 30 years. But summer rains largely alleviated that drought, part of a weather pattern where warmer months typically usher in low-pressure weather systems that bring rain.

But that pattern was disrupted this year as El Niño conditions created a wind shear over the Gulf of Mexico, Tereza Cavazos, an oceanography professor with the Ensenada Center for Scientific Research in Baja California, told The Associated Press.

It is not possible to attribute the drier summer to climate change alone, said David K. Adams, an atmospheric scientist with Mexico’s National Autonomous University, but it is “entirely consistent” with global patterns from a warming planet.

“The idea is that drying climates tend to get drier and wet climates get wetter,” said Adams.

Studies have shown climate change is making stronger El Niños, too.

The window for rain to replenish the system is quickly closing, according to Manuel Perló Cohen, an urban planner and urbanism professor at the National Autonomous University’s Institute of Social Research. The best of the rainy season is already over; Mexico’s November and December rainfall is typically less than a tenth of what falls in summer months.

“I’m sure we’re going to have a shortage problem and I’m sure the city will get less water and many inhabitants will suffer from that,” Perló said.

Fixing Mexico City’s notoriously leaky water system would help in times of drought. Academics at the National Autonomous University in 2018 calculated the system leaks 21,500 liters per second. Sheinbaum, now a leading presidential candidate, tried to address the leakage while mayor but progress has been slow.

Perló said fixing what he called the world’s “largest and most complicated, sophisticated infrastructure for access to water” will be expensive, and there hasn’t been funding to do so.

“We shouldn’t be facing these kinds of situations,” he said. “We have enough water and we’re not using it efficiently.”

Some advocates have suggested restoring Mexico City’s last remaining natural watercourse, the Magdalena River, but that would have to contend with pollution along the river’s entire length from its source west of the capital. 

Much of the city relies on wells that tap into the valley’s groundwater. In response to the cuts on Tuesday, the government said it would drill new wells. But it may be hard to find enough water that way, especially as less water is returned to the valley’s overexploited aquifer.

“Mexico City is a monster; it’s a beast,” said Adams. “All the asphalt, all the plastic in the gutters means that water disappears. It never enters the system” by reaching the aquifer, he said.

The government is also working on a new water treatment plant at the Madín reservoir, just northwest of Mexico City, which will add 500 liters per second to the Cutzamala system.

“That’s not a medium- and long-term solution,” said Perló. “We cannot be living on the edge all the time.”

Another solution could be local-level water capture.

Working with Mexico’s Environment Department, Isla Urbana, a group working to improve water access in the city, has installed 10,000 rain collection systems house-by-house across the traditionally underserved southern boroughs of Tlalpan and Xochimilco. The systems gather, filter and treat rain falling on a building before storing it in a personal tank.

Emilio Becerril, Isla Urbana project manager, said such rainwater harvesting could “permanently change the water access situation” in the face of climate change, aging infrastructure and government inertia.

But a lasting solution needs institutional changes, he said.

“Even if you build thousands of systems, there are thousands of houses being built — more and more extractive,” said Becerril.

Perló’s department at the university built a four-hectare rain capture system into a playground in the southeast borough of Iztapalapa in 2018. Last month Mayor Martí Batres proposed to build thousands of rainwater harvesting systems into schools across the capital, a program Perló hopes doesn’t succumb to the same money issues as previous government water plans.

Becerril also wants to see wastewater reuse, and new infrastructure to separate stormwater from waste: an idea even he admits straddles the line between “hopeful” and “delusional.”

“Rain patterns are changing. It’s the first year I personally have seen that clearly,” said Becerril. “We’ve gotten to the urgency point.”

Bejarano, the veterinarian living on the edge of the Villa Victoria reservoir, said he worries less about water for his grandfather’s farm and more about younger generations like his son, who wore a Sonic the Hedgehog hoodie as his father carried him around the property in one arm.

“We all have children,” he said. “We’re all affected, especially when it comes to water.”

The house on Villegas Street, in the heart of Old Havana, looks nothing like the stately two-story home it used to be a century ago, with its high ceilings, wrought iron railings, semicircular arches and stairs covered in white marble. Its former elegance is such that local lore says it used to belong to a marquise.

Today, everything inside the six-family unit is chaos.

The roots of a tree protrude through the wall of a makeshift toilet where birds have made their nests. The roofs of the first and second floors are propped up. There is rubble and fresh sand scattered everywhere. The walls seem to tilt and the façade has completely disappeared, exposing a patio where one can see freshly washed clothes hanging.

The structure is one of many once luxurious houses in the island nation that in recent years have partially collapsed — or suffer visible damage. Barely 100 meters away, also on Villegas Street, a similar building fell in earlier this month, causing three deaths.

Residents say they have repeatedly asked authorities for help to no avail. Years of neglect, inclement weather and a deepening economic crisis only aggravate the fear that their home will eventually collapse.

“How can we not live in fear? Every time it rains I feel like small pebbles come falling down on me,” said Maricelys Colás, a retired 64-year-old who has lived in the house with her 85-year-old mother for 59 years. “And a collapse doesn’t warn you.”

The Cuban government has in the past acknowledged the problem of housing deterioration, but says the lack of material resources prevents it from tackling it. Yet, many Cubans wonder why the pace of investment in tourism megaprojects such as hotels — a vital business sector that has failed to take off in at least the last two years — is not slowing down to address the dire housing crisis.

The house on Villegas Street was built at the end of the 18th century or the beginning of the 19th on a plot measuring about 15 meters wide by 60 meters deep. Three families live on the ground floor, where there used to be a main patio and rooms for the domestic staff. Three other families live on the more deteriorated top floor, where cracks abound and the staircase creaks as you climb it.

All of the residents say the building once belonged to the Marquise of Pinar del Río, a title granted by the Spanish crown when the island was part of its domains. The Associated Press could not verify that, but its elegant design is visible.

Nowadays, everything smells of mold.

AP interviewed all the residents in the unit, except for an elderly man who was temporarily staying in a relative’s house. They unanimously reported having made efforts before the government, requesting to live elsewhere or to have access to materials for repairs. They said they never received a response.

The Cuban government did not respond to an emailed request for comment.

Mario Luis Poll, a 57-year-old art restorer who has lived in the building for 19 years, walks around his unit showing a reporter all the repairs he has done to try to hold the ceiling together after the floor of the room above collapsed.

Right above him, 47-year-old musician Marcos Villa faces a different problem: Foliage from a tree is growing out of his improvised bathroom.

“The struts (the wooden posts that support the roof of the entire construction) are almost just for decoration,” Poll said, shrugging in a sign of resignation.

Cuba’s housing crisis is one of the most pressing challenges facing the island, where a humid climate, the passage of hurricanes and other storms, poor maintenance and a low completion rate of new ones are usually among the top complaints of Cubans.

Cuba’s director of housing, Vivian Rodríguez, said earlier this month that the island has a housing deficit of 800,000 homes, especially in the provinces of Havana, Holguín, Santiago de Cuba and Camagüey.

Government figures from 2020 say Cuba had 3.9 million homes, out of which nearly 40% were deemed to be in only fair or poor condition.

“The situation is critical,” said Abel Tablada, professor at the Faculty of Architecture of the Technological University of Havana, adding that rebuilding and restoring partially collapsed buildings “requires many resources that the Cuban state does not have in these moments of acute crisis.”

The residents of the house in Villegas Street, tired of asking authorities for help, can only sigh about the fate of the former mansion they inhabit. 

“If those marquises came back to life and saw this house, they would surely die again,” joked Elayne Clavel, 26, wife of musician Villa.

Sweden will help Ukraine achieve climate neutrality through a green transition and recovery plan.

Overnight Sunday, Oct. 22, Russian invaders hit Ukraine again with guided and anti-aircraft missiles.