By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Jun 26 2024 – “If this legislation passes, LGBT+ people simply aren’t going to be able to live here.” The warning from Tamar Jakeli, an LGBT+ activist and Director of Tbilisi Pride in Tbilisi, Georgia, is stark, but others in the country’s LGBT+ community agree, accurate.

Jakeli is talking to IPS in early June, soon after the ruling government party, Georgian Dream, proposed a bill in parliament that would, among others, outlaw any LGBT+ gatherings, ban same-sex marriages, gender transition and the adoption of children by same-sex couples. 

It will also prohibit LGBT+ ‘propaganda’ in schools and broadcasters and advertisers will also have to remove any content featuring same-sex relationships before broadcast, regardless of the age of the intended audience.

Strikingly similar to various legislation passed over the last decade in Russia, where the regime has looked to crack down on any open LGBT+ expression, critics say it could, if passed, have a devastating effect on Georgia’s queer community.

They fear it will lead to violent attacks on LGBT+ people and an increase in stigmatization, marginalization, and repression of the community.

“This legislation will give the green light to anyone who already has very conservative opinions to unleash violence on the LGBT community,” says Jakeli.

Experience from other countries where similar legislation has been introduced suggests this is a very likely outcome.

“The experiences of Russia and other countries that have passed such legislation show a clear pattern: state-sanctioned discrimination tends to foster an environment of hostility and violence against LGBTI communities,” Katrin Hugendubel, Advocacy Director at LGBT+ rights group ILGA-Europe, told IPS.

“This legislative move in Georgia could embolden extremist groups and individuals, leading to an increase in hate crimes and violence. The societal message that LGBTI people are less deserving of rights and protections can have severe and dangerous consequences,” she added.

Rights groups say that while the law would have an immediate negative effect on many aspects of LGBT+ people’s lives, it is also likely to reverse what has been a growing acceptance of the community in the country, albeit a slow one.

Although recent research suggests prejudice against LGBT+ people runs deep among what is a traditionally conservative population, activists say attitudes have become more tolerant towards the community in the last few years.

“There is still a conservative society here, and transphobia, homophobia and prejudice exist, [but] in recent years, surveys have shown people being less homophobic, especially in big cities and among the young. The dynamic has been positive,” Beka Gabadadze, an LGBT+ activist and Chairperson of the Board at Queer Association Temida in Tbilisi, told IPS.

But this could now all be under threat.

“The introduction of this legislation has the potential to undo much of the progress that has been made in recent years,” Hugendubel warned.

“Improvements in the situation for LGBTI individuals in Georgia have been fragile and often driven by the efforts of activists and supportive segments of society. This law, by contrast, represents a significant setback that could negate the positive changes achieved. It could lead to increased fear, discourage public expressions of identity, and drive LGBTI people and their allies back into hiding,” she said.

The bill must pass three readings in parliament before it becomes law, and the last of those is expected for September, a few weeks before planned parliamentary elections.

Activists say they expect it to be passed, pointing to the government’s willingness to push through legislation regardless of how unpopular it might be. a law requiring civil society groups that receive a certain amount of funding from abroad to register as “pursuing the interests of a foreign power” was passed earlier this year, despite massive street protests and overwhelming public opposition to it.

Over the next few months as the Bill is debated, Jakeli says she is expecting rising repression against the community.

She says her organization’s offices have already been attacked—she believes by people connected to the government. A Georgian Dream MP appeared to claim responsibility for a series of attacks against the offices of civil society organizations in May this year.

She also expects many LGBT+ people to start, if they have not already, planning a new life abroad.

While Georgian Dream has said the bill has been introduced as a necessary measure to stop the spread of “pseudo-liberal” values that undermine traditional family relationships, critics see it as the latest cynical attempt by a government turning away from the West to increase stigmatisation of certain groups, particularly the LGBT+ community, for political gain ahead of elections.

Georgian Dream also linked its foreign influence legislation to protecting the country from NGOs promoting LGBT+ rights, among others.

“The timing and nature of these legislative moves suggest that they are part of a broader strategy to appeal to homophobic and anti-minority sentiments among certain voter bases,” said Hugendubel. “This tactic has been used in other countries to consolidate power by stoking fears and prejudices,” she added.

Following the implementation of the foreign agent law, the US slapped sanctions on Georgian officials and the EU is currently considering similar action. There have been calls for similar moves to deter the government from pursuing its anti-LGBT+ legislation.

“International pressure, such as sanctions or diplomatic measures, can be effective in signalling to the Georgian government that these actions have severe repercussions. Additionally, domestic protests and sustained public opposition can also play a crucial role in pushing back against these laws,” said Hugendubel.

But Jakeli said the government might try to use any mass protests to further push their own repressive political narrative.

“What Georgian Dream wants is for LGBT+ activists to go out on the streets now and protest and then they can turn around to voters and say, ‘Look, these are radicals trying to overthrow the government who want to spread their decadent western morals through Georgian society’,” she says.

Activists say they are holding out hope that the elections in October will bring about a change of government. Although Jakeli admits the “odds of that happening are not great” with opposition parties, she points out, “facing almost as much repression from the government as the LGBT+ community does.”

But even if Georgian Dream do remain in power after the October vote, Jakeli believes its efforts to further stigmatize the LGBT+ community may actually have already backfired.

“The protests against the ‘foreign agent’ law united different sections of society and more and more people see anti-LGBT+ laws as another ‘Russian’ method of polarizing and dividing society.

“When I was on the front lines of the foreign agent law protests, for the first time I felt as if I was part of the majority, not minority, in Georgia. I think that people have realized that everyone should have human rights, including LGBT+ people,” she says.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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By Tomohiko Aishima
TOKYO, Japan, Jun 26 2024 (IPS-Partners)

The crisis that began with the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 shows no signs of ending, and the threat of nuclear war is no longer in the realm of the unimaginable. With conflicts intensifying in the Middle East, Africa and elsewhere producing appalling humanitarian crises, humanity stands on a dangerous precipice. There has been no time since the end of the Cold War when the risk of nuclear weapons use has been as high and prolonged as it is now. Even as there is renewed focus on the catastrophic consequences of any use of nuclear weapons, the discourse remains divided—whether to further escalate military confrontation or to return to multilateral negotiation and dialogue. Humanity confronts stark choices. JAPANESE

As SGI members actively engaged in civil society, we believe the following to be crucial and represent forms of action that can transform the direction of history in this crucial moment: To inform people of the inhumane realities of nuclear bombings; to inherit the vow from those who came before us to prevent such tragedies from recurring; and to inspire people deeply towards a more hopeful future.

History demonstrates that when people stand their ground and resist the overwhelming impulse to pessimism and resignation previously unthought-of developments and advances become possible. That is, the times that seem darkest and most desperate can hold opportunities to fundamentally reform human society.

Focusing on the role and leadership of youth, we will continue advocating the legacy of countless aspirations for peace on every level—toward a world free from nuclear weapons, a world without war. It is vital to amplify and spread these voices and here quality media has a critical role to play.

Drawing from our experiences of engagement at UN and grassroots levels for nuclear disarmament, we would like to highlight three points:

First, in order to inform, the devastating consequences of nuclear weapons need to be brought home to even more people. This is crucial if we are to stave off catastrophe.

The weakening and erosion of norms against the use, proliferation and testing of nuclear weapons is a matter of deep concern; no successor framework to the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (New START), which expires in February 2026, is in sight. A shared recognition of the inhumane nature of nuclear weapons can serve as the basis for the kind of dialogue that is needed build trust and confidence.

There is much we can learn from the response to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis, the time when humanity came closest to the brink of nuclear war. The determination never to repeat that experience and to advance nuclear disarmament was a key motivation for the adoption of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) in 1968. It It is worth noting that US and the USSR announced their intention to hold the Strategic Arms Limitation Talks on the day of the signing ceremony for the NPT, negotiations that represented the first steps taken the two countries to slow the nuclear arms race and fulfill their commitment to nuclear disarmament made Article VI of the NPT.

Reflecting on that history, in January 2023 SGI President Daisaku Ikeda issued a proposal in which stressed the following:

Dr. Daisaku Ikeda. Credit: Seikyo Shimbun

Having experienced first-hand the terror of teetering on the brink of nuclear war, the people of that time brought forth historic powers of imagination and creativity. Now is the time for all countries and peoples to come together to once again unleash those creative powers and bring into being a new chapter in human history.

The spirit and sense of purpose that prevailed at the time of the birth of the NPT is resonant with and complementary to the ideals that motivated the drafting and adoption of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW). I strongly call for all parties to explore and expand ways to link the efforts made on the basis of these two treaties, drawing forth their synergistic effects toward a world free from nuclear weapons.

Carrying forward the vision of President Ikeda, who passed away last November, members of the SGI are determined to generate momentum for a global course shift away from nuclear buildup premised on deterrence, toward nuclear disarmament that will avert catastrophe.

Second, in order to inherit, we feel the need to listen closely to the voices of global hibakusha.The average age of surviving hibakusha of Hiroshima and Nagasaki has exceeded 85. Additionally, there are many global hibakusha, people around the world who have been impacted by uranium mining, nuclear testing, and nuclear weapons production processes. The realities of their have not been widely told. Their voices must be heard as they contain lessons we cannot afford to forget.

To this end, the SGI has produced a video of Hiroshima hibakusha Keiko Ogura’s in-person testimony to leaders at the G7 Hiroshima Summit (link1). This video was also screened at an NPT Preparatory Committee side event held on August 7, 2023, leaving a deep impression on participants, including many young people in attendance.

Algerim Yelgeldy, a third-generation survivor of the Semipalatinsk Nuclear Test Site, giving a testimony at a side event during the 2nd meeting of the States Parties to the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. By Katsuhiro Asagiri, President of INPS Japan.

SGI also cooperated in the development of a documentary film “I Want To Live On: The Untold Stories of the Polygon” (link2) produced by the NGO Center for International Security and Policy (CISP) in Kazakhstan that records the testimonies of nuclear test victims and was screened at a side event for the Second Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW.

The spirit animating hibakusha in Japan and throughout the world to confront and recount their horrific experiences is the determination that no one else should endure what they have suffered. This open-hearted concern for others stands in stark contrast with the underlying logic of nuclear weapons—the readiness to annihilate others in pursuit of one’s own interests and objectives. It is this readiness that marks nuclear weapons as an absolute evil.

Finally, we seek to inspire action by promoting awareness of the interlinkages between nuclear disarmament with global issues like climate change.

Even if the global armageddon of full-scale nuclear war is avoided, scientists have reported that a limited nuclear war could cause “nuclear winter,” resulting in food shortages and famine that could potentially kill 2 billion people. Nuclear testing has inflicted immense damage on formerly colonized peoples and indigenous communities. Nuclear abolition is an intersectional issue spanning discrimination, human rights, climate justice, environment, gender, inclusion, humanitarianism and ethics, among others.

Aiming toward the UN Summit of the Future this September, this past March Japanese youth jointly organized the Future Action Festival that sought to raise awareness of these interconnections at a gathering of nearly 70,000 young participants.

Future Action Festival convened at Tokyo’s National Stadium on March 24, drawing approximately 66,000 attedees. Credit: Yukie Asagiri, INPS Japan

As part of the second People’s Decade for Nuclear Abolition campaign [link3], the SGI is striving to build renewed momentum for nuclear abolition toward 2027, focusing on peace and disarmament education.

It is increasingly crucial that people reach across their respective fields of action and policy positions to unite their voices for nuclear abolition and, to this end, we also seek to strengthen interfaith dialogue and cooperation.

Anna Ikeda of SGI delivered a joint statement endorsed by 115 inter-faith and civil society organizations (CSOs) on 29 November. Credit: SGI

At the Second Meeting of States Parties to the TPNW, as one of 115 faith-based organizations expressing concern over nuclear weapons, an SGI representative read a Joint Interfaith Statement, a part of which I would like to quote in concluding this essay:

We recognize the urgency of this moment and what is at stake for all of us – the beloved natural world and the beloved community of humanity. Our fates are intertwined and we cannot ignore the resounding threats that confront us. . . . This fear is not unique to this moment in time. Let us draw courage from the audacity and vision of past struggles for justice, taking comfort in the wisdom that immense challenges always feel impossible until they are done.

 
Tomohiko Aishima is Executive Director of Peace and Global Issues, Soka Gakkai International (SGI)

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By James E. Jennings
ATLANTA, Georgia, Jun 26 2024 – There have been many genocides throughout history, but the first to be displayed on TV in all its sickening horror before the entire world is the Israeli genocide against the civilians of Gaza.

Truth is the first casualty of war, so it’s no surprise that the slick Israeli propaganda machine has managed to make Israel’s slaughter of 37,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including more than 15,000 children, acceptable to multitudes of Americans.

With the exception of the widespread campus protestors, most Americans are by now convinced that Gaza’s 2.3 million inhabitants are all fanatical Islamists who deserve to be killed like vermin. That’s not only a lie—it is a damnable lie.

There is an even bigger atrocity in this war, and a more unbearable one than killing children, if that is possible—and that’s when the truth is killed. When your good is labeled evil, it’s maddening.

Today the decency and moral outrage of millions of US youth is being slandered by ranting propagandists like MS-NBC’s Joe Scarborough, and of course the entire FOX News crew, labeling the campus protest movement anti-Semitic. The claim is false and must be exposed as another damnable lie.

It’s more than illogical, it’s silly, to say that anti-Zionism equals anti-Semitism. The vast majority of campus protesters are not anti-Semites and have no trouble separating the actions of extreme Zionist ideology as played out in Gaza from their classmates and friends who happen to be Jews.

“The naming of things is the rectification of things,” Confucius taught. Antisemitism is Antisemitism. Zionism is Zionism. The two are not the same. Otherwise, how could Senator Bernie Sanders, a Jew, attack the Netanyahu’s extreme Zionist government so strenuously, and how could so many of the student demonstrators who are against Zionist Israel’s Gaza campaign themselves be Jewish?

When Republican Congresswoman Elise Stephanic, a Jew, attacked George Soros, a celebrated progressive Jewish philanthropist on CNN recently for supporting the protesters, wasn’t she herself being an Anti-Semite?

Neither George W. Bush nor Joe Biden are Jews. They are Christians—but are certainly bigtime Zionists. Bush by leading America into the morass of the Iraq War primarily designed to protect Israel, and Biden in Gaza, by giving Israel all the money and bombs it needs to kill so many thousands of civilians.

“Don’t kill children, but here’s money and ammunition to do it with.” Nobody is fooled by that, still less university students who have had to display their critical thinking skills before they could even get into college.

Increasing numbers of Jewish organizations are rejecting Israel’s descent into doctrinaire Anti-Arab racial policies that echo Nazism’s extreme philosophy. They know that race-hatred is racism, but that doctrinaire racial superiority vs. inferiority is racial-ism, which is far worse.

The situation in Gaza is unbearable for a civilized world to witness. Painting an entire generation of idealistic American college youth with the slander that they are racists is unbearable. If anything is worse than Genocide, it is claiming that those who oppose it are the greater cause of evil.

James E. Jennings, PhD, is President of Conscience International and Executive Director of US Academics for Peace. He has delivered aid to Gaza hospitals over more than three decades, including during Israel’s bombing campaigns in 2009 and 2014.

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia, Jun 26 2024 – Comparative research on healthcare financing options shows revenue-financed healthcare to be the most cost-effective, efficient, and equitable, while all health insurance imposes avoidable additional costs.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Private health insurance
Rejecting the private health insurance option is easy due to well-known US problems. Risk pooling is limited as private insurance only covers those who can afford it.

The resulting ‘moral hazard’ and ‘cherry-picking’ problems reflect the public’s weak bargaining power vis-à-vis healthcare providers and insurance companies.

US health spending per capita is the highest, partly due to additional private health insurance costs. The share of US national income spent on healthcare has risen to 18%!

Such avoidable insurance management costs are quite high, averaging almost 4% more. Consequently, upward cost pressures remain intense.

Yet, despite spending so much, it only ranks 40th in average life expectancy worldwide. Its other health indicators also leave much to be desired.

Hence, greater spending does not necessarily improve health outcomes, and spending more on insurance does not improve health either.

Revenue financing
Hence, the main healthcare financing choices are social health insurance (SHI) and revenue financing, which enables risk pooling for entire national populations.

After reviewing extensive evidence, the World Bank’s Adam Wagstaff found revenue financing much more cost-effective, efficient, and less expensive than insurance options.

Germany, the only major OECD country heavily reliant on SHI, is second only to the US in health spending per capita, largely due to insurance administration costs.

With insurance premium revenue increasingly inadequate, the government finances the ever-growing funding gap. Rather than being a healthcare financing option for the future, it should be recognised as an atavism, even for highly unionised Germany.

Social health insurance
SHI advocates insist it is needed owing to inadequate fiscal means. But budget shortfalls imply a lack of political will. SHI’s claims to raise more money are grossly exaggerated.

SHI premiums are effectively flat or pro rata taxes, making overall tax incidence more regressive. SHI financing is inadequate everywhere and under growing stress due to ageing societies.

Most governments claim to be committed to inclusion and equitable access, but SHI would undermine declared national commitments to the WHO’s ‘healthcare for all’ and the UN SDGs’ ‘universal healthcare’.

Besides betraying these commitments, SHI cannot ensure the needed funding or financial sustainability. Any realistic government should recognise SHI will be politically unpopular.

SHI’s costs and dangers, including the perverse incentives involved, are rarely acknowledged. Employers have minimised their SHI liabilities by casualising labour contracts. Rather than employ workers directly, they hire indirectly, using various contract labour arrangements.

Priorities?
The typical emphasis on curative health services has also worsened health outcomes by neglecting vital public health programmes. By emphasising curative services, many causes of ill health do not get sufficient attention.

Many preventive and public health problems remain neglected and underfunded. Most governments must spend more on prevention, especially to address largely preventable non-communicable diseases (NCDs).

The world needs far better healthcare financing. Various complementary reforms are also required. Instead, poorly sequenced, ill-considered reforms have been the norm in recent decades.

The resulting ‘non-system’ offers poor, weak and ineffective incentives for public and preventive health provision. Meanwhile, potentially lucrative segments have been privatised or contracted out, often to incompetent political cronies.

The UK NHS capitation system successfully transformed doctors’ incentives. Instead of prioritising patient payments, UK doctors are incentivised to ensure the well-being of those under their care.

Recognise market failure
Former UK Conservative Party adviser and “non-interventionist market economist” Professor Geoffrey Williams rejects “any [government] intervention … in almost every area of economic activity, but not in health, because health is quintessentially the place where markets fail.

“That is why we use health more often than any other example when we teach about market failure, particularly insurance market failure. We know the health market fails and that we cannot find market solutions to those market failures as we might in other forms of market failure.

“We know that government tax funding is the only real way of providing universal healthcare.” Neither universal healthcare nor health for all can be achieved without adequate revenue financing, even if termed insurance.

Improving healthcare
Malaysia has low infant and maternal mortality rates and improved life expectancy thanks to simple, low-cost reforms introduced from the 1960s, especially training village midwives to help mothers and babies.

Lowering such mortality is responsible for over four-fifths of increased Malaysian life expectancy over the decades. Now, much more should be done to improve babies’ and mothers’ nutrition for the ‘first thousand days’ from conception to age two.

A ‘hybrid system’ would not work, as it would only provide some public financing to address egregious ‘market failures’. Targeting would be worse, both costly and involving both inclusion and exclusion errors.

With political will, revenue financing is sustainable despite rising costs. We should renew our commitment to public healthcare, not as it has become, but as it should be.

IPS UN Bureau

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