Paradise, Enraged
NEED TO KNOW
Paradise, Enraged
CARIBBEAN
The tourism industry – hotels, restaurants, and other amenities – has long replaced the extractive colonial economies that once dominated the Caribbean. But many Caribbean residents still resent the foreigners who come to their region to plunder the palms and sands.
These visitors don’t contribute much to the countries, they say, they harm them instead.
In the Dutch territory of Aruba, for example, protesters with the No More Hotels movement, recently took to the streets of the capital Oranjestad on King’s Day, a holiday honoring the Dutch monarch. They held signs that read “Decolonize Aruba,” “Defending What’s Sacred,” and “Mother Nature is Screaming,” reported Global Voices.
The protesters say there is too much hotel construction on the island. In addition to leveling trees and destroying open space, Aruba’s sewage and waste management systems can’t handle the hotels’ waste, they added. As a result, this waste often winds up in the sea, fouling the water, harming reefs, and killing flora and fauna.
Prime Minister Evelyn Wever-Croes is listening. She took office in 2017 with a pledge to expand the hotel industry on the island to increase tax revenues and job opportunities. Now, however, according to the Aruba Papers, she has curtailed most – but not all – new construction.
That’s surprising, say observers, pointing to how Caribbean governments recognize that tourism is essential to their economies, making up almost one-third of the region’s GDP and up to 90 percent of some countries’ economies, according to the International Monetary Fund.
Still, this local anger shouldn’t be a surprise, argued Caribbean analyst Kenneth Mohammed in the Guardian. Local governments in Caribbean nations often give tax breaks and other incentives to hotel developers and operators to entice them to come to their beautiful islands. In return, the hotels ban locals from enjoying their beaches, while offering low-wage service jobs in a new twist on colonialism, critics say.
That’s the case in Barbuda, say locals, who have been fighting the government for years because of its “landgrabs,” to prevent the country from becoming a “billionaires’ club” like Antigua, wrote Marketplace.
Opponents say the development is hurting the fragile ecosystem, and shutting locals out of the benefits. The government denies those charges, saying the island needs jobs and investment, and especially the tax revenue on high-end real estate, to pay for services such as education and healthcare.
“This, in fact, is the tourism of the future for the Caribbean,” said Ronald Sanders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the United States. “A Caribbean country can make more money from five luxury properties than from five hotels.”
Meanwhile, this fight over access, land rights, jobs and the environment is playing out across the Caribbean, say analysts.
In Jamaica, Ziggy Marley, the son of Bob Marley, is heading a campaign to petition the government for equal access to beaches for locals. In Grenada, activists are fighting a Six Senses resort at La Sagesse, saying the mangroves and other vegetation need to be protected.
Climate Tracker, meanwhile, wondered whether the hotels were actually helping the residents of the Cayman Islands – a British overseas possession and notorious tax haven – when tourists’ trash is a major problem and locals receive meager wages serving the global elite.
Meanwhile, two years ago, a judge ordered a developer to stop building a new hotel in Saint Barts and refill a massive hole near an environmentally fragile beach at a cost of $57 million.
And in St. Lucia, activists are seeking to stop all commercial activities around the Pitons, two volcanic mountains that are considered national treasures, added Caribbean Life.
Some observers say that at the end of the day, it’s a matter of respect.
“A wall goes up, a private jet lands, and a famous billionaire is there for two to six weeks out of the year,” Raymond Pryce, a former Jamaican parliamentarian who follows the issue, told the Americas Quarterly. “We have these zones of exclusion, and a native population that is underemployed and under-resourced – you see the stark differences between the haves and the have-nots.”
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Laying Plans
ISRAEL/ IRAN
Israel is planning targeted strikes on Iran’s military facilities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the Biden administration this week, a move officials say is aimed at preventing further regional escalation, minimizing the conflict’s impact on global markets and the upcoming presidential elections in the United States, the Washington Post reported.
According to officials familiar with the matter, Netanyahu said that Israel’s response would focus specifically on military infrastructure while avoiding oil or nuclear sites. The decision marks a shift from Israel’s past strategy, with Netanyahu seeking to balance his country’s security interests and the United States’ preference for a calibrated approach.
Israeli officials hinted that the strike on Iran will occur before the Nov. 5 US elections.
The planned strike is seen as a retaliatory measure by Israel two weeks after Iran launched nearly 200 missiles at the Middle East state, hitting two Israeli military installations and killing one Palestinian man in the West Bank.
That attack – the second in six months – came after Israel conducted successful operations against Tehran and its proxies, including the assassination of Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah in Lebanon.
Israel is preparing for the strike on Iran even as it wages war along its northern border with Lebanon.
In southern Lebanon, the United Nations announced that its peacekeeping force, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), will remain in place despite repeated calls from Israel for its withdrawal, NBC News wrote.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Peace Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix confirmed Monday that UNIFIL would continue its presence along the Israel-Lebanon border, where clashes between Israeli troops and the Iran-backed Hezbollah have intensified since Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw more than 250 taken hostage.
UNIFIL has been caught in the crossfire in recent weeks, with four peacekeepers injured after Israeli forces fired on their positions. Relations between Israel and the UN have also soured in recent months, with Jerusalem accusing UN agencies, including the agency helping Palestinian refugees, of aiding Hamas. It has deemed UN Secretary-General António Guterres persona non grata and banned him from Israel.
Even so, the UN Security Council and contributing member states have reaffirmed support for UNIFIL’s presence, condemning the recent attacks and urging Israel to ensure the safety of peacekeeping forces.
Meanwhile, Israel is also continuing its offensive against Hamas.
On Tuesday, airstrikes killed at least 50 Palestinians across the territory, with reports from Palestinian health authorities indicating that dozens more were injured or missing as troops closed in on the Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza, Reuters added.
Israel has called for residents in the northern region to evacuate, even though the United Nations estimates that around 400,000 people remain in the area with no safe place to go.
Health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza say more than 42,000 people in the enclave have been killed in the war since it began last fall.
Toys and Tantrums
NORTH KOREA
North Korea on Tuesday blew up sections of roads and railway lines that once linked it with South Korea, a move observers described as a symbolic display of anger as tensions and threats between the neighbors continue to escalate, the Associated Press reported.
South Korean officials reported explosions and heavy equipment being used along the Gyeongui and Donghae routes, which were key transit links between the two countries.
Seoul condemned the act as a “highly abnormal” and “regressive” violation of previous inter-Korean agreements aimed at fostering reconciliation and collaboration.
Pyongyang countered that the move was part of a broader strategy to “completely separate” the territories of the two Koreas, citing an “imminent danger of war” with the South.
Tuesday’s demolitions follow the deterioration of relations between the two countries, often underscored by threats and insults.
In recent months, Pyongyang has sent thousands of balloons filled with trash to South Korea, accusing Seoul of allowing activists to send similar inflatables containing anti-North Korean propaganda over the border.
The South Korean military has threatened to respond militarily if the “trash balloons” cause any casualties in the country. Meanwhile, North Korea accused its neighbor this month of sending drones carrying propaganda leaflets and threatened to respond with force.
Seoul did not confirm the allegations, but warned that any attack would result in the “end of the North Korean regime.”
While it is not the first time Pyongyang has staged demolitions in a fit of pique, observers suggested that Tuesday’s actions mark a departure from the inter-Korean detente in the 2000s and its accompanying hopes of reunification.
Earlier this year, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un officially designated South Korea as North Korea’s “principal enemy,” symbolizing a definitive break from his predecessors’ focus on peaceful unification.
Both Koreas have intensified their military presence along the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), with North Korea reinforcing defenses by adding anti-tank barriers and laying mines along the border.
Meanwhile, Pyongyang has deepened its own diplomatic ties with Russia and some North Korean troops have been fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine, Newsweek reported.
The escalations have heightened security concerns in the region: Both South Korea and Japan have called for additional security support from the United States.
Out of Sight, Out of Mind
ALBANIA
Italy sent its first boat transporting migrants to Albania on Monday, part of the country’s five-year agreement to process asylum seekers in detention centers in the state that is outside the European Union, and an agreement that has sparked outrage from human rights groups, France24 reported.
Sixteen migrants from Egypt and Bangladesh had been rescued in international waters by the Italian Coast Guard after departing Libya for Italy, reported ABC News.
Instead of their asylum claims being processed in Italy, though, an Italian ship named the Libra with the migrants on board left the Italian island of Lampedusa in the Mediterranean and headed for the Albanian port of Shengjin.
Last November, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni and Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama signed the deal which specified up to 3,000 migrants picked up by the Italian Coast Guard would be sent to Albania each month. The Libra was the first of these voyages.
Rama said despite high demand from multiple countries in Europe, only Italy is allowed to operate detention centers in Albania. An exception was made for Italy due to the country’s close ties with the country across the Adriatic Sea, ABC News wrote.
The migrants will be initially screened on board the Italian ships and their cases will be more closely examined at the detention center in Shengjin. Those migrants who are accepted will return to Italy. Those rejected will be deported from Albania.
Meanwhile, the Italian government has said that “vulnerable” migrants, such as children, pregnant women, and the ill and the disabled, would be processed in Italy. Only “non-vulnerable” men coming from “safe countries” would be sent to the centers in Albania.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has endorsed the agreement, citing it as an example of “out-of-box thinking,” according to the New York Times.
While being applauded by the Italian government and some European leaders hoping to deter migration to the EU, the plan has also been criticized by human rights groups who fear that such a plan puts migrants at risk and exposes them to human rights violations.
Susanna Zanfrini of the International Rescue Committee’s office in Italy criticized the detention centers for being “costly, cruel and counterproductive,” ABC reported.
This is not the first time the EU has tried to “externalize” its migration processing to non-EU states: It made a deal with Turkey in 2016 to slow migration into the bloc and accept deported asylum seekers back into that country in exchange for about 9 billion euros ($10 billion).
Meanwhile, the United Kingdom tried to implement a similar deal with Rwanda, but it was halted by British courts.
DISCOVERIES
Spooking the Depths
Scientists from New Zealand’s National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) recently identified a new species of “ghost shark” swimming at depths of more than 8,500 feet in the Pacific Ocean.
Known for their haunting black eyes and scale-free, light brown skin, these elusive animals – also called chimeras or spookfish – are part of a group of cartilaginous fish related to sharks and rays.
Researchers came across the Australasian Narrow-nosed Spookfish during a survey in the Chatham Rise, a deep-sea area that stretches around 620 miles east of New Zealand’s South Island.
NIWA researcher Brit Finnuci said this creature had some distinctive features, including an unusually elongated nose that can make up half of its body length, large milky-colored eyes, and a whip-like tail.
It also packs a serrated dorsal fin for protection against predators.
But it’s harmless to humans: The species can grow up to three feet long and primarily feeds on crustaceans such as shrimps and mollusks.
Finnuci explained that the discovery sheds some new light on chimeras, a group of marine creatures that are extremely under-studied.
“Their habitat makes them hard to study and monitor, meaning we don’t know a lot about their biology or threat status, but it makes discoveries like this even more exciting,” she said in a statement.
Around 55 ghost shark species have been identified globally, of which around a dozen were found around New Zealand and elsewhere in the South Pacific.
This new species was initially thought to be a part of a globally distributed group of ghost sharks but was later confirmed to be genetically and morphologically distinct.
“It’s really neat to be able to contribute to science,” she told the Guardian. “Understanding the animal itself can feed into further research and whether they need conservation management.”