‘Climate poisoned, rights violated’

‘Eating insects, rodents spread disease’

SPEAK with all objectivity and impartiality about China in these lines, based on reliable sources,” columnist and former Kuwaiti ambassador Ahmad AlDawas wrote for Al-Seyassah daily.

“Yes, I would like to say that China during the past seventy years has made a lot of accomplishments as well as significant economic changes to such an extent it has during the past thirty years managed to eradicate poverty among hundreds of millions of Chinese families.

“China during the same period built huge bridges and many cities. It decapitated the top of a mountain and built on it a civilian airport where Boeing aircraft landed.

“Not just that, China has built a military machine which currently matches the US. This happened in spite of the tremendous spending by the US Defense Department on the military sector to such an extent, China is currently attempting to dominate the seas of Southeast Asia and this has raised the concern of those countries.

“China has become the largest industrial power in the world, but at the expense of the health of the world. It is the largest pollutant of climate in the world, as its many factories are emitting toxins in the air, so pollution has spread in the atmosphere of its cities, and the wind carried these toxins throughout the globe.

“In other words, China has been harmful to the human and animal environment and I have to mention the sources in order to be honest in what I say.

“In this context, we elucidate that according to the British ‘The Independent Newspaper’ report published on Sept 30, 2016, China was buying donkeys from many countries to use their skin in the manufacture of medicines to such an extent the donkeys lineage in Brazil is currently facing extinction.

“Apart from the above, the Foreign Policy (Dec 11, 2019) published a report indicating China burned religious books although religion is alive in atheist China according to Global Post (May 2, 2017).

“The Muslims’ situation is very bad, as fasting is forbidden among Chinese Muslims (The Times, July 3, 2014); Muslims are forced to eat pork and drink wine (The Independent, February 8, 2019), and mosques and Islamic sites are destroyed (The Times, May 7, 2019) and send spies to live in homes of Muslims, to attend weddings and funerals (The Independent, Dec 1, 2018), mosques and cemeteries are demolished (The Guardian, November 23, 2019).

“Speaking of the violations of the rights of Muslims in eastern China and also Tibet, the Chinese authorities motivated by their madness of suspicion is persecuting the Muslims to such an extent it had nullified their customs, and forbids the Chinese women from wearing the veil and sporting beards for men.

“In the East Turkistan, also known as the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region of China according to the ‘The Independent (Sept 30, 2017) the Chinese authorities told the Muslims in this province ‘you have to abandon the Quran, otherwise, you will be exposed to a bitter punishment’. This happened because of China’s madness of suspicion against Islam; Muslims are forced to give up on their customs and traditions.

“And excuse me from what I say in the following lines, in the Chinese market, snakes, mice and bats are sold and because people eat these rarities the coronavirus deadly epidemic has spread among the Chinese during the past few days.

“There is a video clip showing a woman eating a bat, which is so disgusting. I am sorry to say this epidemic has now spread throughout the world and more than 100 people have died because of this disease and another 50 million people are in lockdown.

“The strange thing is that the affected areas are eastern and southern China, as maps and data reveal, not the western part where Muslims live. That makes us wonder, why?

“I was impressed by China’s stories of good morals, but unfortunately, its government has poisoned the climate and violated human rights.”

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Al-Dawas

“This is what we have witnessed over several days. The news of the coronavirus in China has distracted our attention away from the US Senate session or from the Berlin conference or the Davos Forum,” columnist Dr Hind Al-Shoumer wrote for Al-Anba daily.

“China’s sneeze was a great challenge for scientists, doctors and leaders to confront the virus. What is new about it are the different opinions between reassuring and others saying this disease is a limited issue, while some other opinions prefer to remain in a state of monitoring, because this virus is new and can spread fast.

“Many countries have put to rest the controversy early by taking preventive measures at the largest airports, including the United States of America, and then the International Health Regulations Emergency Committee met for two days to study and evaluate the data and then make a decision as the committee has not yet considered this as health emergency despite the media scenes in an important city, the Chinese city of Wuhan, which has become a ghost town.

“However, amid such firm actions that had been taken by many regions and states, the media has played the genuine role which is appreciated at all levels on the background of the Chinese scenario prior to the eruption of the epidemic disease in question as the Chinese were preparing to celebrate the advent of their new year.

“However, the celebrations have been cancelled, and the arrival of the Chinese in any country is no longer appreciated and are currently subject to medical tests in addition to exceptional procedures at many airports throughout the world, particularly since we know that both the physicians and the scientists are eagerly looking forward to know more details about the new virus to undertake necessary scientific researches and enable the pharmaceuticals firms to produce the required drugs, medicines and prevention supplies.

“However, people have learned that some limited viruses classified as new, were behind the infection in China and this has resulted in the entire world – East and West – are left trembling as a result of the spread of the virus in question.

“Given the above, we will learn later the economic losses caused by the epidemic in China, which has shaken the entire world, as this virus is still believed to be steadily spreading throughout the world.”

“Global statistics estimate that more than one billion tires are consumed annually, most of which are discarded in ways considered harmful to the environment,” Dr Mohammad Al-Sayegh wrote for Al-Rai daily.

“Local survey carried out by Kuwait Municipality and the Public Authority for Housing Welfare estimated an approximately 20 million tires in Irhiyah area where used tires are dumped. In general, failure to properly dispose off used tires will lead to serious environmental issue for several reasons; the most important of which is their components are difficult but almost impossible to dissolve in nature. Moreover, they are easily flammable, and in case of exposure to acidic compounds, they secrete dangerous chemical compounds that leak to the soil and groundwater, which is a national wealth and important resource for any country.

“Last October, the Environment Public Authority announced having officially received the location of used tires in (Irhiyah) from the Public Authority for Industry, in accordance with Cabinet Resolution No. (1049) regarding the transfer of responsibility to complete the disposal of used tires from the Public Authority for Industry to the Environment Public Authority. This is a right decision in the right place by giving the task to specialists represented by the Environment Public Authority.

“The challenge remains for the authority now on how to get rid of this environmental disaster and prepare the area in a record time for delivery to the Public Authority for Housing Welfare, which is the ultimate goal of the mission.

“On the other hand, China announced last March opening the largest ‘smart factory’ in China to strengthen its efforts of transforming it to an environmentally friendly country.

“The factory was established in partnership between the Chinese giant tire industry (Double Star) and 10 Chinese universities, with the aim of recycling tires for the first time in the world in a complete environmentally friendly way. The plant will use modern scientific technology associated with ‘pyrolysis’ and the renewal of black carbon extracted from used tires, which will lead to the production of air pollution less than the factory exhausts.

“Outputs of the recycling process will produce raw materials that can be used to make entirely new tires, i.e. not as it is now where the raw materials are separated for export or use in other industries, which in itself is a wonderful work that reduces the need to make new tires from scratch. It is expected that the annual intake of this factory will reach more than 15 million dinars annually when the currency is converted from the Chinese currency to Kuwaiti Dinar.

“This is a call on the Environment Public Authority to take advantage of the Chinese experience in tire recycling, which may contribute professionally and easily to the safe disposal of waste tires. It will also help to achieve financial returns through the establishment of a true national industry and transform the comfort of a landfill to a gold mine”.

“The chapter on the State’s huge budget deficit and the popular and parliamentary reactions to the issue were folded through an announcement made by Finance Minister Maryam Al-Aqeel who denied the government’s intention to touch the salary of citizens, let alone the parliamentary questions raised by Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim that ascertained the financial solidity of the State,” columnist Abdul-Muhsin Jumu’ah wrote for Al-Jaridah daily.

“Certainly, the government’s haste in absorbing public anger does not mean denying the existence of the problem related to salary inflation and its enormous growth, which will one day represent the entire budget. This is a serious issue that requires action by the State and its institutions.

“For decades, those involved in the labor force have been calling for reforms in education and for preparing young people for jobs required by the local market, but such calls went unheard. The State is required to go to schools and provide students with a list of required jobs. It should announce that after a certain period, it will not accept job applications for certain fields of specializations and whoever gets it will be responsible for finding a job.

“Also, all local and foreign scholarships in nonrequired specializations must be suspended and their departments frozen in governmental academic institutions, provided that this accompanies training of existing national manpower for new jobs needed by the State with financial concessions, as well as reviewing exaggerated salaries in some public institutions.

“The private sector is not exempted from the process of reform in the field of work and employment, as it is the heart and core of any labor program aimed at comprehensive national reform for the labor and employment sector. If half of the $4 billion that foreign manpower send annually is used to create jobs for Kuwaitis, this would be an important and remarkable achievement.

“Nonetheless, if things are left without taking serious measures to comprehensively remedy the issue concerning the salary clause, which includes a work program that addresses all the issues related to it, there will be negative consequences for the country, for thousands of our children entering the labor market and the current employees.

“It is worth mentioning that there are also demands to review the salaries with regard to inflation and high cost of living which requires additional revenues to support the budgetary payroll. This makes us wonder, when will the government address these crucial issues for our sake?”

“A few days ago, the Parliamentary Legislative Committee in the National Assembly did what might be called ‘pouring oil on the fire’ by merging three proposals for a comprehensive amnesty, which is a proposal to pardon those convicted in the case of storming the National Assembly, a proposal to pardon one of the MPs located outside Kuwait, and a proposal to pardon those convicted in ‘Abdali Cell’ case in the same proposal,” columnist Zayed Al-Zaid wrote for Al-Nahar daily.

“This merger or what might be called a ‘mixture’ of draft amnesty laws with each other is a ‘mixture’ that manifests poor performance of the National Assembly by being blind toward the risks of the action (merger) taken in this regard, which of course aims to sow discord and trash out the comprehensive amnesty law and usage of the sectarian card that has destroyed countries due to sectarian bills being passed in parliament.

“This poor political performance and dragging of sensitive files such as the comprehensive amnesty file into a sensitive and volatile region such as sectarianism will undoubtedly lead to a major political crisis when the National Assembly discusses report of the Parliamentary Legislative Committee and the MPs will leave both sides to flex the ‘sectarian’ muscles in front of their electoral colleges, and the battle will begin in any given public forum, and no one will pay the price for this blatant political sin except the Kuwaiti people and the parliamentary life in it.

“Recalling the state of sectarian debate at critical moments like this will only lead to the outbreak of sectarian strife in inflammatory regional conditions that may lead to the dissolution of the National Assembly but what hurts is the failure of members of the National Assembly to take the slightest consideration of the critical situation of the region in regard to the struggle of regional and international powers in the waters of the Arabian Gulf.”

— Compiled by Zaki Taleb