Sunshine and Bullets
NEED TO KNOW
Sunshine and Bullets
JAMAICA
Three million tourists have visited the luscious Caribbean island of Jamaica this year, including 1 million people who arrived on cruises, according to Travel and Tour World. This success reflects not only the island’s attractions but also a lack of awareness of how dangerous and violent some sections of the island have become recently.
For example, Prime Minister Andrew Holness in September declared a state of emergency in the central-southern parish of Clarendon, after a spike in gun violence related to gang wars, the Jamaica Observer reported. The move followed a state of emergency that was declared after a mass shooting last month on Clarendon’s Cherry Tree Lane that resulted in eight deaths. Two suspects have been charged in the incident, as the Jamaica Gleaner explained.
“The national security situation in Clarendon has reached a point where further decisive and urgent action is necessary,” Holness said. “The initial August declaration was an operational success, however, new intelligence assessments have shown that an additional response is required. We will not allow criminals to dictate the terms of life and security in any parish.”
The state of emergency meant nightly curfews, long detentions without formal charges in court and empowering the police to conduct warrantless searches. Holness said he especially wanted to forestall reprisal killings and other retaliation attempts.
Jamaica is the second-most dangerous country in Latin America and the Caribbean after Saint Kitts and Nevis. The country has a rate of almost 61 homicides per 100,000 people, reported Reuters. In comparison, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the US has 7.5 homicides per 100,000. The US, incidentally, is the source of almost 90 percent of the guns in the Caribbean.
Holness might not be a model of probity, however. As the prime minister has vowed to crack down on crime, the government’s Integrity Commission has called him to account.
As Loop News reported, the commission has called for a probe into Holness’s net worth after examining the personal financial reports he is required to file. The prime minister’s wealth increased by $32 million through the five years that ended in 2021. Commission members have recommended that Jamaican financial regulators and tax authorities assess his and his family members’ shares in firms to determine whether he has conflicts of interest or other potentially corrupt arrangements between his business interests and the public sector.
As a result, crime might bring his career in office to an end.
Meanwhile, Holness is popular. That’s likely because he has presided over an uptick in Jamaica’s previously stagnant and unproductive economy, World Politics Review wrote. After years of economic stagnation, Jamaica’s economy has recently experienced rapid and potentially sustainable growth, it added, noting that some people had described the development as a miracle, even if some of the success came at a high cost, notably cuts to public services via austerity measures.
But the violence could cut that success story short because the tourist sector contributes as much as one-third to the country’s earnings. Already, the US and other countries have issued advisories to their citizens and personnel.
The US advisory lists 11 no-go parishes.
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Legislating Values
RUSSIA
Russia’s lower house of parliament on Wednesday approved the first reading of a bill that would ban the adoption of Russian children by citizens from countries that allow gender transition, the latest effort by the government to promote and protect “traditional family values,” Radio Free Europe reported.
Under the ban, parents from countries where gender transitioning is legal, including a number of Western nations, such as Canada, Austria, Spain and Switzerland, won’t be eligible to adopt Russian children.
The proposed law comes a year after Russia banned surgical operations “aimed at changing the sex of a person” and the changing of gender on documents. Separately, the country’s supreme court also ruled in favor of a ban of the non-existent “International Public LGBT Movement” in November 2023.
Meanwhile, the bill is the latest in a series of legislation targeting the LGBTQ community that has taken effect in the past year.
In July 2023, President Vladimir Putin – who portrays himself as a champion of what he describes as traditional values – signed into law a ban on gender-reassignment surgery and hormone therapy done as part of the gender transition process.
That same year, other legislation targeting “Western anti-family ideology” voided marriages if one partner had “changed gender”, and prohibited transgender individuals from adopting children.
Along with Wednesday’s ban, lawmakers are also discussing a proposal to criminalize individuals promoting a “child-free” lifestyle, Newsweek wrote. The draft law is aimed at “preserving and strengthening Russian spiritual and moral values.”
Some lawmakers warned of groups on social media promoting a “child-free” lifestyle that disrespect parenthood and undermine the family, which they consider as the “basis of a strong state.”
Penalties for violating the law include fines of up to $4,300 for individuals, more than $8,600 for state officials, and at least $53,700 for companies.
However, critics described the law as dystopian and expressed concern about further state control over personal choices, such as the government introducing a “tax on childlessness” or penalties for infertility.
Observers noted that the bills and initiatives by Russian authorities to uphold “traditional family values” are really an effort to encourage citizens to have more children.
Russia’s birth rate has dropped to its lowest level in 25 years, exacerbated by casualties from the war in Ukraine and emigration.
The Feud
ZAMBIA
Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema suspended three constitutional court judges this week over alleged judicial misconduct, a move that has drawn criticism from the opposition and accusations of political interference in the judiciary, the BBC reported.
On Monday, the president’s office announced the suspension of justices Annie Sitali, Mungeni Mulenga and Palan Mulonda following a two-year probe by the country’s Judicial Complaints Commission (JCC), which also recommended their suspension.
The judges will now undergo a disciplinary procedure which will determine if they will be removed from the bench.
Observers said the suspension is connected to a long-running feud between the president and the three justices going back to the 2016 presidential elections.
At the time, the constitutional court dismissed a petition by Hichilema – then a presidential contender – that challenged the election victory of former President Edgar Lungu.
Before the 2016 election, Lungu had appointed the three judges, Bloomberg wrote.
The three justices also participated in another ruling that allowed Lungu to run in the 2021 elections. That decision was controversial because Zambia’s constitution only allows the president to serve two terms in office.
Before his full five-year term (2016-2021), Lungu served as Zambia’s president for about a year, following the death of his predecessor Michael Sata, according to the Conversation.
While opponents noted that Lungu’s candidacy would mean he is running for a third term, the court disagreed. Regardless, Lungu lost the vote to Hichilema.
The three judges have faced previous petitions to dismiss them, but the JCC had rejected those motions until a private citizen filed a complaint against the trio.
The suspension comes at a politically sensitive time: Hichilema and Lungu are expected to run against each other again in the 2026 elections.
Meanwhile, analysts said the dismissals came just a few days before the judges were set to rule on whether Lungu could run in the 2026 elections.
The move sparked criticism from Lungu and his Patriotic Front party, which called the decision illegal and asked people to take to the streets in protest.
Civil rights advocates also condemned the move as political meddling.
Zambia’s constitution allows the president to appoint judges, including the chief justice, based on JCC recommendations and parliamentary approval. Critics have warned that this undermines judicial independence by giving the president too much control over the selection process.
‘Aiding and Abetting’
SWITZERLAND
A 64-year-old American woman from the US Midwest died Monday in Switzerland by assisted suicide, prompting authorities to launch criminal proceedings and arrest multiple individuals involved in the operation, NBC News reported.
The woman, whose name remains undisclosed, died in a private forest retreat in the Canton of Schaffhausen. She had suffered from a severely compromised immune system for years, according to The Last Resort, the company responsible for overseeing the procedure.
Authorities said the detained individuals were operating a capsule device that allowed users to die peacefully by inhaling nitrogen gas.
Prosecutors opened a criminal case for “incitement and aiding and abetting suicide,” as Swiss law allows for assisted suicide only if the person takes their own life “without selfish motives” or direct external assistance. Prosecutor Peter Sticher said those involved had been warned of potential legal consequences prior to the procedure, according to CBS News.
The capsule, known as Sarco, was developed by Exit International, a Netherlands-based assisted suicide group, in collaboration with Philip Nitschke, an Australian physician. The device cost more than $1 million to develop and uses 3D printing technology.
While Exit International claims the device offers a peaceful, non-drug-assisted death, Swiss authorities are investigating whether its use violates local laws on product safety and the use of chemicals.
Assisted suicide has been legal in Switzerland for years. However, the use of this particular device has sparked debate and scrutiny.
DISCOVERIES
Against All Odds
A new genetic study has shattered the long-standing belief that the people of Easter Island – or Rapa Nui – drove their society to collapse through environmental mismanagement.
The long-held narrative goes that the Rapa Nui’s inhabitants overexploited their resources, leading to a population crash, deforestation, and even cannibalism.
However, recent findings by an international team of geneticists tell a different story of remarkable cultural and societal resilience.
The research team analyzed the genomes of 15 ancient Rapa Nui individuals whose remains had been stored in European museums. These individuals – who lived on the island over the past 500 years – showed no signs of a dramatic population decline before European contact in the 18th century, according to Science Alert.
Instead, the Rapa Nui population was actually growing steadily until the 1860s, when Peruvian slave raids and diseases brought by European colonials reduced the island’s population to just 110 individuals.
“Our data does not support a major population collapse on Rapa Nui after its initial peopling and before the 1800s,” the researchers wrote in their paper published in Nature.
The genetic data also showed that Rapa Nui was not as isolated as previously thought.
Long before Europeans arrived, the island’s inhabitants had already intermixed with Polynesian and Indigenous American populations, suggesting that Polynesian navigators reached the Americas between 1250 and 1430.
“The sea was more a road to them rather than a barrier,” said lead authors J. Víctor Moreno-Mayar and Bárbara Sousa da Mota.
The findings also debunk the ecocide theory that blamed the Rapa Nui people for deforesting their island. While rats and overharvesting did contribute to the loss of palm forests, this did not lead to societal collapse.
Archeologist Carl Lipo, who was not involved in the research, said the study’s conclusions align with archeological evidence that the islanders lived sustainably until European disruptions.
“It’s terrific to see a completely independent line of evidence pointing to the same conclusions,” Lipo told New Scientist.