Newsweek - April 15, 2016 EU

8/18/2019 Newsweek - April 15, 2016 EU

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ANE

TALK?NORTH KOREA MAYBE ANGLING FOR ANUCLEAR DEAL

5.04.201


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RUNAWAY TOXICITY:A train heads towardthe Marathon Refinery,left, and the DetroitSalt Company.According to statedata, the asthma ratein the city is 29 per-cent higher than inthe rest of Michigan.

26 Down and Outed in IndiaThe mysterious suicide of a gay Indian

professor fired after he was caught on film with another man. by Jason Overdorf

32 Sucking on a TailpipeIn Detroit’s industrial suburbs, toxic air

is destroying generations of black residents while local and federal officials twiddle

their thumbs. by Zoë Schlanger

B I G S H O T S

4 MoscowRich in Friends

6 Palmyra, SyriaRuinsofW ar

8 Idomeni, GreeceLetM eIn

10

Kolkata, IndiaUnderbuiltOverpass

P A G E O N E

12 North Korea‘Kim JongUn

IsNotCrazy’

17 HealthHard Choices

18 EgyptM axim um

ScreenTim e

22

BosniaJustice forthe Butcher?

24 ThailandKarm a Police

N E W W O R L D

42 InnovationTheW orld’s

BiggestIceCube

44 3-D PrintingLetaThousand

FactoriesBloom

46 Brain WavesA Fitbitfor

YourBrain

50 RecyclingFlint, California

D O W N T I M E

54 GamingVery,VR Cool

58 DiningW hereFeast

M eetsW est

62 StyleBootCham p

64 Rewind20 Years

COVER CREDIT: PHOTOGRAPH BY KCNA/REUTERS

APRIL 15, 2016 VOL.166 NO.14


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BIG

SHOTS

RUSS

MAXIMSHEMETOV

ich in

riends

M oscow — President

V ladim irP utin,seen

before a m eeting on

M arch 31,w asam ong

the biggestnam es

caughtup in a m assive

leakofdocum ents

know n asthe Pan-

am a Papers,w hich

com prise m ore than

11m illion lesfrom

Panam a-based law

rm M ossack Fonseca.

A lthough Putin w as

notm entioned by

nam e,TheGuardian

reported the les

reveala netw ork of

off shoredealsand

loansw orth $2billion

leading to the R ussian

presidentvia som e

ofhisclosestfriends.

M ore than 100 new s

outletscollaborated

on investigating others

caughtup in the leak,

including U krainian

PresidentPetro Po-

roshenko and Prim e

M inisterSigm undur

D avio G unnlaugsson

of Iceland.


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BIG

SHOTS

SYR

M I K H I L V O S K R E S E N S K I Y

uinsofW r

Palm yra Syria—

A m em berofSyrian

pro governm entforc

escarriesa flagoftheIslamic State militant

group(ISIS)onMarch27 after troopsrecap-

tured thestrategiccity.TheUNESCO

WorldHeritagesiteishometoextensive

ruinsdatingfromtheRoman Empire. Syrian

forcesfoundPalmyralargely desertedwithneighborhoodsbadly

damaged. Syria’sstatenewsagencySANA saidamass

gravewasfoundcontaining around

40 people, includingmany women and

children. MaamounAbdulkarim, thegov-ernment’santiquities

director, said thatdespitedamagetotheruins, “thepanoramic view ofPalmyra— the

colonnades, thebaths,

the archesand mostofthetemples—[is]surprisingly

stillintact.”


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BIG

SHOTS

GR

M R K O D J U R I C

et M e n

Idom eni G reece—

Stranded refugees at

the G reek borderw ith

M acedonia gather

to listen to N adia

M urad BaseeTaha

an Iraqiw om an ofthe

Yazidifaith w ho w as

abducted and held by

ISIS forthreem onths

on A pril3.The next

day G reecedeport

ed m ore than 200

refugees to Turkey

the firstwaveofmassdeportationsunderanagreementbetween

TurkeyandtheEuropeanUnion. In

returnfortakingbackrefugees,Turkeywillreceiveeconomicaid,andTurkishnationalswill haveaccesstothepassport-freeSchen- genzoneby June.But

humanrightsgroupssaythedeportationsareagainstinterna-

tionallaw.


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12/68

BIG

SHOTS

IN I

SAMI RJANA

n d e r b u i l t

v e r p a s s

Kolkata India—

A rescuew orker

photographs a truck

crushed beneath

an overpassunder

construction w hen it

collapsed M arch 31

killing atleast26 and

injuring atleast70

others.A 330 footslab

ofm etaland cem ent

snapped o and cam e

crashing dow n in a

bustling com m ercial

districtduring m idday

traffi c.T he overpass

w asoriginally due

to be com pleted

w ithin 18 m onthsbut

isunfinished after

seven years.D uring

construction,w orkers

w ould ram p up e orts

before election s,only

to stop once polls

closed.A uthorities

arrested fouroffi cials

from the building con-

tractoron the project

am id allegationsof

possible corruption.


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14/68

HEALTH NORTHKOREA EGYPT BOSNI A CHI NA TAXES

P G E O N E

W S W 4 1 5 2 16

ged northeastern m ountains That nuclear test

the country’sfourth leftU S offi cialsscrambling

for new waysto deal with the threat from one of

theworld’slastCommunistregimes.

After the Berlin meeting, the former U.S. offi -

cials promptly returned to Washington to report

to the WhiteHouse. Sittingata conferencetable

in the Situation Room, they told the president’s

top national security advisers that Pyongyang

was prepared to stop testing nuclear weapons

for a year. In exchange, the U.S. andSouthKorea

wouldhavetosuspend their annual jointmilitaryexercisesthatthe DPRK found provocative.

The offer was similar to one North Korea had

made a year earlier and the White House had

rejected, largely out of anger over Pyongyang’s

alleged hacking of SonyPictures. This time, how-

ever, North Korea wanted to talk about offi cially

ending the Korean War (it technically stopped

with anarmisticein 1953). AndKimwasnow will-

ingto wrap thenuclear issueinto talks. Thepresi-

dent’sadviserslistenedclosely withoutcomment.

O N A C O L D A F T E R N OO N in February, several

former American offi cials hurried to the Hilton

hotel in Berlin, a city long known for its Cold

Warspies and intrigue. They had traveled there

fora private meeting with senior representa-

tivesfrom North Korea, the most reclusive gov-

ernment in the world. Over the next two days,

theAmericans gathered in one of the hotel’s

modern conference roomsand listened toa sur-

prisingnewproposal. SupremeL eaderKim Jong

Un,the North Koreans said, wanted to resume

negotiationsin hopesof endingdecades of hos-tility between the twocountries.

The timing was significant. A month earlier,

theU.S. had agreed to talks to formally end the

KoreanWar, butthateffortcollapsed whenWash-

ington demanded that theNorth’snuclearweap-

onsprogram be part of the discussions. A few

dayslater, the Hermit Kingdom, offi cially known

asthe Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

(DPRK), set off what it claimed was a hydrogen

bomb atan underground sitein thecountry’srug-

K IM JO N G U N IS N O T C R Z Y ’

W hy the U S m ay be dangerouslyw rong about the N orth K oreanleader and his nukes

B Y

ONATHAN BRODER

@ BroderJonathan


15/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 1 6

E Y ES FR O N T K im

Jong U n’s m ilitary

has conducted four

nu clear tests as

parto f his strate

gy to prove N orth

K orea is a nuclear

state not to be

trifledwith.


16/68

am id m utualaccusationsofcheating.ButObam a

quickly reached outto North Korea in hopes of

resum ing talks.Pyongyang’s response:a second

nuclear test. Obam a then adopted a hard-line

approach that essentially echoes the stringent

policies of P resident George W.Bush. Obam a

refused to engage in directtalks w ith P yongyang

untilthe regim e dem onstrated beforehand that

itw as w illing to give up its nukes.In the m ean-tim e,the U.S.tightened sanctions againstNorth

Korea,believing the poor,isolated countryw ould

eventually collapse oragree to de-nuclearize.

Tw o yearslater,fam ine forced Pyongyang back

to the negotiating table. In early 2012, Obam a

and Kim reached an agreem entthatrequired the

North to freeze its nuclear and ballistic m issile

program s in return for 240,000 tons ofU.S.food

aid.Butsoon afterw ard,thatdealfellapartw hen

Pyongyang redam issileto launch asatellite.In

2013,NorthKoreaconducteditsthirdnucleartest.

In 2015,afterthe U.S.and Iran agreed to a

nuclear deal, Obam a appeared to soften his

approach to Pyongyang in hopes of m aking

a sim ilardeal.H e dropped his condition that

North Korea curtailitsnuclearprogram before

direct talks aboutits nukes could com m ence.

ButPyongyang wanted to talk only aboutoffi -

cially ending the Korean War,and that eff ortdis-

W S W 4 1 5 2 16

Ending the Korean War has long been a pri-

ority for North Korea’s young dictator.Analysts

say he regards itas a w ay to rem ove the threatof

tens of thousands of U.S.forces based in Japan

and South Korea.His nuclear arsenal, experts

believe, is both his leverage and his deterrent

against an Am erican-led attack. “The H-bom b

test w as a self-defense m easure to protect the

sovereigntyofthenation from thenuclearthreatsand blackm ailofthe hostile forcesthatare grow -

ing daily,” Pyongyang’s offi cial Korean Central

New s Agency announced in January.The new s

agency w ent on to say that North Korea w ould

abandon its nuclear program only if “the U.S.

rolls back its outrageous hostile policy tow ard

the DPRK and the forces of im perialistaggres-

sion stop infringing upon oursovereignty.”

Once you cutthrough the old-styleCom m unist

rhetoric,som e analysts say the Obam a adm inis-

tration m issed an im portant signal there:Kim

m ay be ready to cuta dealw ith the U.S.

The White House declined to com m enton the

new North Korean proposal, w hich has never

been m ade public before.Buta grow ing num ber

of analysts and form er offi cials say the Obam a

adm inistration’s North Korea policy could prove

to be a dangerous failure,largely due to m isin-

form ed assum ptions aboutPyongyang’s fragility,

China’soutsized politicaland econom ic

influence w ith the North and a percep-

tion ofKim aslittle m orethan a cartoon

villain.They’re urging the adm inistra-

tion to acceptNorth Korea’slatestoffer

and restart negotiations. At the very

least, they say, Pyongyang’s proposal

could slow the country’s nuclear pro-

gram and begin talks to defuse m ore

than 60 years oftension on the Korean

Peninsula. At best, it could produce

another legacy agreem entlike the one

PresidentBarack Obam a reached w ith

Iran and his diplom atic openings to

Cuba and Myanm ar.

But if the White House sticks to its

currentpolicy,critics w arn,the DPRK

could have as m any as 100 bom bs

by the end of this decade. As Jam esChurch,the nom de plum e ofa form er

CIA operative and expert on North

Korea, puts it,“Every tim e they test,

they learn so m uch m ore.”

‘WATCH YOUR TOES’

By the tim e Obam a took offi ce in 200 9,

the North Koreans had conducted

their rstnucleartest,and twonuclear

agreem ents had already collapsed

OLD ALLIES: Apicture of U.S.President BarackObama and SouthKorean PresidentPark Geun-hyeis displayed asanti-war protestersin Seoul demandan end to jointU.S.-South Koreanmilitaryexercises.+


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P AGE ONE NORTH KOREA

W S W 4 1 5 2 16

satellite launches w ere exem pt A nd W it the

form er State D epartm ent offi cial, says Pyong-

yang was right. “North Korea,” he says, “never

agreed nottoconduct thespace launch tests.”

Another major misconception is the adminis-

tration’s conviction that China will use its clout

to make North Korea give up itsnuclear arsenal.

China opposes the DPRK’s nukes and supports

the latest round of U.N. sanctions, but Beijing

shielded its fuel shipments to North Korea and

Pyongyang’s coal and iron exports from the res-

olution. The reason: China viewsNorth Korea as

a buff er against democratic South Korea, whichhosts 29,00 0 American troops. Beijing worries

that stronger sanctions would destabilize Kim’s

regime, send millions of North Korean refugees

streamingintoChinaandperhapsevenbringU.S.

andSouth Korean soldiersrightup toitsb order.

“For China, the sanctions are meant to get

the North Koreans back to the negotiating

table,” says James Person, a Korea expert at

the Woodrow Wilson International Center for

Scholars. “The lastthing China wantsisforthe

North Korean state tocollapse.”

‘TH E NO OS E IS TIG H TE NING ’

Some analysts, including former administration

offi cials, still believeChinaremainsthekeytoget-

tingNorth Korea to giveupits nukes. So far, Chi-

nese authoritieshave stopped several banks near

the DPRK border from handling any more trans-

actions with Pyongyang, according to China’s

state-controlled media. The reports say Beijing

has also inspected the cargoes of ships passing

throughitsterritorytoand from North Korea.

Over time, as the Chinese increasingly apply

tougher sanctions, “the NorthKoreansaregoing

to have fewer and fewer options,” says MichaelFuchs, until recently the administration’s dep-

uty assistant secretary of state forEast Asian and

Pacific affairs. “The noose is tightening.” David

Straub, former directoroftheStateDepartment’s

Korea desk, agrees. “We’ve really reached the

pointofnoreturn,” hesays. “Either our gradually

ratcheted-up pressures will eventually persuade

the North Korean leadersthat thisis notworking

the way they had expected, or the tensions will

becomesogreatinNorthKoreathattherewillbe

“TH E L ST TH IN G

CH IN W N TS IS FO R

TH E N O R TH K O R E N

ST TE TO CO LL PSE .”

somechangewithinthe regime itself.”

Skepticsmaintain thatpeace talkswith Pyong-

yangare theonlyway to resolvethenuclear issue.

But it won’t be easy. Any comprehensive peace

negotiationswith the DPRK would makethetalks

thatproduced the Iran deal looksimple. For start-

ers, the two sides remain far aparton the nuclear

issue, withNorth Koreanow demandingrecogni-

tion asa nuclear powerandthe United Statesstillinsisting on de-nuclearization. Any negotiations

would obviously have to take into account the

securityconcernsof South KoreaandJapan, both

of which have defense treaties with the United

States. Obama discussed the North Korean

nuclear threat with South Korean President Park

Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo

Abeduringthetwo-daynuclearsecuritysummit

that began March 31 in Washington. He also met

separately withChinesePresidentXi Jinping.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle to any peace talks:

U.S. insistence on human rightsreforms. Experts

say Kim almost certainly would resist, declaring

the issue an internal matter. Human rights advo-

cateswould slam anytalksthatsidesteptheissue.

Experts also caution a deal could take years,

leaving responsibility for a final accord to

Obama’s successor. In the meantime, U.S. nego-

tiators could expect plenty of misunderstand-

ings, tantrums and setbacks. And there would

be no guarantee thateven the savviest diplomats

could convince North Korea to cash in itsnuclear

insurance policy. But as Kim’s latest bomb test

demonstrates, the alternative to diplomacy will

be a regime with no incentive to halt its nuclear

buildup. There’s also a danger that North Koreawould sell itsnuclear technologytoterroristsand

other outlaw regimes. In 200 7, Israeli warplanes

destroyed a nuclear reactor in eastern Syria that

had beenbuilt with help from theNorth Koreans.

Ata timewhenObamaisstressingtheimportance

of nuclear security, the latest overtures from the

DPRK may offer the last best opportunity to

achieve peace, or atleast greater stability, on the

hair-trigger Korean Peninsula. As Wit puts it,

“Theadministrationhasninemonthsleft.”


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NEWSWEEK

0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 1 6

T W O

N U M R S

WE NEED A LOT MOR E R ESEA R CH ONWH Y WOMENSA Y,“NOT TONIG H T,H ONEY”

Ever sinceAlfredKinseyfirstobserved copulat-ingcouplesin hisattic,researchershaveb eenon aquesttounderstandwhatmakesus tick inthebedroom— and whattodo when thetickingstops. However, whiletheindustrycontinuestoaggressivelytreatmalesexual dysfunction, itputsvery littlethoughtintowhatshe wants.

Womenhavejustonedrugfor lowlib ido: Addyi(flibanserin), approvedin Augustfor hypoactivesexual desiredisorder.ButthelittlepinkpillisnoV iagra;itsperfor-mancehasdisappointedclinicians, women and

ValeantPharmaceuticalsshareholders.Thedailymedicationissaidto havequestionableeffi cacyandpotentially dangeroussideeff ectsandcosts$8 0 0 amonth. Men,b ycontrast, haveseveral op-tionstokeepthingslook-ingup: four erectionpills,injections andurethralsuppositories— nottomention thatold standby,thepenispump.

“Mostoftheresearch-ersaremen,andit’smucheasiertotestresponseformen,especially forerectile dysfunction,” saysBeverly Whipple, profes-soremeritaatRutgersUniversityand co-authorofT he G Spotand O ther

RecentD iscoveriesAbout

H um an Sexuality.Somemightexplain

thedisparitybypointingoutthatscienceseesmen’schallengesinthebedroomasmostlyphysical, whilewomen’saretypically attributedtoapsychologicalorneurochemical imbal-ance.In 2013, themedicalcommunityupdatedtheDiagnostic Statis-ticalManualofMentalDisorders,combiningfemalehypoactivedesiredysfunction (definedasalack ofinterestordesireforsex, tothepoint whereit causesdistress)andfe-malearousaldysfunctionintoasinglesyndrome

knownassexualinterest/arousaldisorder.Ofthemedicalstudiesregis-teredon ClinicalTrials.gov, 341areonerectiledysfunction, whereasonly46 areon femalesexual interest/arousaldisorder.Thisoversimpli-fication ofthefemalelibi-do alsoreflectsscience’sassumptionsaboutwhatwomenwant.“Youhavetolistento womenanddocumentwhatwomensayispleasurabletothem,nottrytofitthem intoonepatternof howto respondsexually,”shesays.It’snotonlyabouttheBigO. Orthatlittlepinkpill.

SO U RC E: C LINIC A LTR IA LS G O V

H ard hoices

B Y

JESS I A FIRGER

@ jess rg r

Num berof

registered

m edical

studies onERE TILE

DYS FU N TION

Num berof

registered m edica

studies on

FEMALE S EX UALINTEREST

AROU SAL

DISORDER


20/68

P AGE ONE GYPT

W S W 4 1 5 2 16

SE IF L D IN M U S T F ’S five-hour takeover of

an EgyptAir jet on March 29 could have ended

in tragedy. Instead, it ended in farce. The suicide

vest with which the59-year-old Egyptian hijacker

had threatened to blow up the plane turned out

to be a crude fake. British passenger Ben Innes,

a health and safety auditor from L eeds, England,

even posed grinning alongside the bomber for

theweek’smost infamousselfie (although, asthe

Internet quickly reminded us, the portrait of the

twomenwasn’ttechnically a selfie).

Butforco-pilotHamadel-Kaddah, the hijack-

ing was no laughing matter. Just minutes after

takeoff from Alexandria for a45-minutefl ightto

Cairo, two membersof the cabin crew knocked

onthedoorofthefl ightdeck. Theyhadaterrify-

ing message from one of the passengers: “Cap-

tain, the plane is hijacked. Go now to Cyprus,

Turkey orAthens,” recallsel-Kaddah, 32, speak-

ing exclusively to N ewsweek in Cairo. “If you

land in any of the Egyptian land airports, it willbe only one press on the button, everythingwill

go, everyone will die. It’syour decision.”

Captain Amr al-Gammal diverted the plane to

Larnaca International Airport in Cyprus, where

the hijacker allowed women and children off the

plane. Then he released all the Egyptians, finally

keeping just five foreigners and some of the crew

ashostages. “The point is not if you are going to

die or not,” says Kaddah, who volunteered to

remainasthelasthostagebeforemakingadra-

matic escape through the cockpit window. “The

pointis thatyouhavea lotofpeoplewhoaregoing

todiewithyou, so thisiswhatyoucareabout.The

passengerswerethemainconcernforus.”

Mustafa’s motives were personal. A con-

victed fraudster, he demanded to see his Cypriot

ex-wifeuponlandingon theisland. But for all the

semi-comical elements to the hijacking, the inci-

dent came at a time of heightened threats from

Islamistextremists,threeofwhomattackedBrus-

sels’sZ aventemairportonMarch 22, andit raised

further concernsaboutairline security. And after

a Russian Metrojet aircraft was b lown up last

October over Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula following

takeoff from Sharm el-Sheikh International Air-

port, killingall 224 people onboard, Egyptisonce

again the focal pointofthedebate.

On the defensive, Egypt’s Ministry of the

Interior q uickly shared pictures of the scans of

Mustafa’sbagandfootageof him going through

airport security. Nothing in his luggage trig- gered suspicion.

“We should keep what happened in Alexan-

dria separate from the Metrojet incident,” says

SajjanGohel, international securitydirectoratthe

Asia-Pacific Foundation, a London-based think

tank. “The Metrojet [bombing] showed a clear

security failure. Therewascollusion between the

Sinai branchoftheIslamicStatewithideologically

sympathetic members of the security services

thatallowedthemtosmuggleabombonboard.

M X IM U M S R EEN TIM E

A s m ilitants continue to targetplanesand airports should authorities do m ore

profiling and background checks?

B Y

OWEN MATTHEWS

@ owenmatth

AND

JA K MOORE

@ JFXM

W ith reportingby

Ru th M ichaelson


21/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 1 6

But [M ustafa] put together his

m ock explosivedeviceaftergoing

through security not before. In

fairness to the Egyptians this

could be replicated anyw here.”

T he issue aviation security

experts say is w hether today’s

airport security procedures are

adequate and w hethersecurity o cialsoughtto

spend m ore tim e analyzing ind ividuals’behav-

ior. M ost current airport security m easures

focus on physicalscreening ofluggage— a m ea-

sure thathas

significantly reduced the number

of hijackings involving metal weaponry such

as guns and grenades, once commonplace inhijackings in the 1970 sand’80 s.

“Our current security architecture identifies

substances and weapons, not negative intent,”

saysPhilipBaum, author ofthenewly published

book V iolence in the Skies: a H istory of Aircraft

H ijacking an d B om bing. “Until we get more

intelligent about security, we can certainly

apply common sense to our screening rather

than a tick box approach.” Baum believes the

goldstandardispsychologicalscreening.In

otherwords, securityo cialsshould be looking

forperpetrators notjusttheirw eapons.

A ccording to the Aviation Safety N etw ork an

industry w atchdog alm ostall50 aircrafthijack-

ings since the Septem ber 11 200 1 attackshave

been the w ork oflone hijackers w ho pretended

to be arm ed— som ething conventionalsecurity

screening has no w ay ofdetecting.

“There is a big debate over profiling of race

and nationality” in screening, says security

expert Je P rice ofthe D epartm entofAviation

and A erospace Science atD enver’s M etropoli-

tan State U niversity.“Butthe behavioralside of

profiling has a strong basis. There should be a

layer of security questioning in all areas of avi-

ation security. Customs agents and police have

beendoingitforyears.Theymighthavestopped

“TH E PO IN T IS TH T YO U H V

L O T O F PE O P LE W H O R E

G O IN G TO DIE W ITH YO U .”

+

D E S E R T E D :The rec e nt hijac king and the e xplos ion of a

M e troje t aircraft

he ading fo r Ru ss iahas s c ared tou ris ts

away fro m Eg ypt.


22/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 1 6

M E TT LE D E T EC T O R :

S ince M ustafa

u sed a fa ke b om b

there w as little

con vention al

security m easures

could have done to

prevent his hijack-

ing.O nly psycho-

logicalscree ning

could have picked

him out.


23/68

P AGE ONE GYPT

W S W 4 1 5 2 16

thisguy ifhe displayed som e odd behavior ”

“Passengers’behavioratsecurity checkpoints

are w hat w e alw ays record ” says Baum “but

people are attheir m ost nervous then because

w e give them a series ofspecific things to do,

like taking off shoes and removing laptops. It’s

more revealing what they do before and after

the checkpoint. Air crew should be trained in

psychological techniques.”The best in the profiling business is, b y many

accounts, Israeli state airline El Al. In 1986 ,

Anne-Marie Murphy, ayoungIrish woman who

waspregnant, wasprevented from boarding an

Israel-bound El Al flight from London b ecause

security offi cials fl agged the unusual profile of

a pregnant woman traveling alone. Her bags,

which had passed through airport screening,

werefound tocontainabomb. (Murphyclaimed

ignorance and wasacquitted, but her Jordanian

fiancé, Nezar Hindawi, was jailed for 45 years

by a British court.)

Sowhydon’tall airportsusesuchprovenmeth-ods as passenger profiling and behavior anal-

ysis? “Regulators don’t like subjective security

processes,” says Baum. “They worry about the

political fallout of extra screening basedonrace,

religionandgender. And it’shard

to q uantify; you can test X-ray

screeners, but it’s much harder

totest psychological screeners.”

After the Metrojet attack,

anothercategoryofpersonoper-

ating within an airport’sperime-

ter was shown to be a threat: the

airport insider who smuggles

arms or explosives on a fl ight.

“We need better, more effective

background checks” on airport

staff, says Price. “Tracking social media use,

assigning a riskscore. It’snota perfect solution.

But thatway, we know who to watch.”

Following the Metrojet tragedy, Russia, Ger-

many and Britain sent experts to ensure that

airports in Egypt implemented security improve-

ments. “If all these changes are put in place on

a continuous basis, this would make Egyptian

airports among the safest in the world,” saysAngus Blair, president of the Signet Institute, a

Cairo-based think tank. And EgyptAir co-pilot

el-Kaddah confirmed thatEgyptianaviation secu-

rityhastightened upsince the Sinai crash.

“Even the high ranks get searched, even

friends get searched, even captains get

searched,” says el-Kaddah. “Thingsare getting

tougher, and security is working properly. It’s

more searchesthan in history.”

Whenhefirstheardthatabomb-wielding

maniac wason b oard his plane, el-Kaddah was

furious atairport security. “I was angry about it

at first and frustrated, and I thought, What are

they doing? Theyarejustgivingusa headache,”

he says. “Then I found that it was a fake. [So]

you can’t blame them because he pretended. It

lookslike a real bomb, but it isnot.”

Even if the Alexandria security screeners

weren’t at fault, the hijacking dealt another

blow to Egypt’s reputation among tourists.

Before the Metrojet attack, tourism accounted

for 11.3percent of the country’s gross domestic

product. And although Rasha Azazy, director ofthe Egyptian Tourist Board in L ondon, insists

thatthe latest hijackingwould have “no effect”

on tourism, once-teeming resort hotels in the

EgyptiancityofSharm-el-Sheikhhavereported

a shortfall of over 1 million tourists from last

year’s numbers. L ast month, a major tourism

convention, Internationale Tourismus Börse in

Berlin, left Egyptoff itslistof “Top50 countries

to visit”— even though Egypt was the conven-

tion’sJubilee Cultural Sponsor.

Unfair it may be, b ut Egypt’s economy stands

to be decimated by collapsing confidence in the

country’s ability to keep visitors and its citizenssafe. “They’re doing their best,” says Amgad

el-Gabbas, a political researcher, as he waited to

meethissister-in-lawDaliaSaad atCairo’sgleam-

ing airport. Saad had been on the hijacked flight.

“It could happenin any airportin theworld.”

The chilling lesson of the Cyprus hijackingis

that el-Gabb asis right. As longassecurity pro-

cedures screen objects and not people, all air-

craft are vulnerable totheactionsofthemad

andthedesperate.

R E G U LAT O R S “W O R RY A B O UT H E PO LITICAL FA LL O U T O FE X TR A SCR E E N IN G B A SE D O

R ACE ,R E L IG IO N AN D G E N D E


24/68

P AGE ONE BOSNI

W S W 4 1 5 2 16

T H E V O I E T T H E other end of the radio was

small and desperate. “In the name of God, do

something,” the Bosnian Muslim commander

insidetheembattled enclaveof Srebrenica said,

hisvoice crackingashe held backtears. “We are

dyinghere.”

That was the bitter winter of 1993, and I was

sitting inside the freezing Bosnian presidency

building in Sarajevo, speaking to him on a ham

radio. There had b een no electricity, no heat,

no water and no humanitarian aid for weeks in

Sarajevo, which was being pummeled by mor-

tarsand rockets. The wild dogs running through

the streetsand the people dodgingsniperbullets

madeit seem like anapocalypticcity. Everyone I

knew wasstarving, andmany were dying.

Srebrenica, aformer miningtownand aUnited

Nations“safehaven,” appearedtob eontheverge

of fallingto forcesled by General Ratko Mladic,

under a plan masterminded by Bosnian Serb

leaderRadovanKaradzic. A poetand formerpsy-

chiatrist, Karadzic attended Columbia and Sara-

jevouniversities, anintellectwho becameknownas the Butcher of Bosnia. He had once lived in

Sarajevo, but hewas now intenton razing it. The

terrified population huddled inside their hom es,

sustaining shelling and bom bardm entthatw ou ld

drive anyon e to the pointofm adn ess.

N o one w ho w itnessed the w ar in B osnia cam e

out of itun touched ,and itw ould b e hard to find

som eone there today w hose life w as notaff ected

by the m asterplan ofK aradzic and h ishenchm en.

In M arch, a U .N . tribunal in The H ague foun d

Karadzicguiltyon 10 outof11cou ntsofw arcrim es,

including genocide,crim es againsthu m anity and

other atrocities.O ne of the counts of genocide

w as related to the Srebrenica m assacre,the m ost

notorious of the w ar.T he triallasted nearly five

years,and Karadzic w as sentenced to 40 yearsfor

hisbrutality.H e w illm ostlikely appeal.

Survivors cam e forw ard at the trial to give

accounts of w hatthey saw and endured.If I had

not been there d uring the w ar,I w ould not have

believed som e ofthe stories.A M uslim -Serb cou-

ple w ho snuck aw ay to getm arried w ere killed as

they ran han d in han d over a bridge separating

fron tlines.Th ey w ere laterrenam ed “the Rom eo

and Juliet o f Sarajevo.” T he city parks w ere

stripped bare ofw ood so that people could m ake

fires to survive the cold.A soccer field becam e a

crow ded cem etery,w ith m ostof the head stones

show ing datesofbirth in the 1990 s.In the tow n of

Fo ca,the Serbian arm y established “rape cam ps.”

B osnian M uslim w om en w ere violated dozens

of tim es a day w ith the purpose of im pregnating

them w ith Serbian babies.O ther M uslim tow ns,like G orazde and Z epa,w ere slow ly strangled an d

slaughtered.V illagesin centralB osnia w ereethni-

cally cleansed,then bu rntto the ground.Serbian

forces setup concentration cam ps,w here people

w ere starved,raped and beaten.

All of this w as plann ed. In O ctober 199 1,

Karadzic gloated over hisintention sin com m ents

caught on a w iretap later played at T he H ague.

“Sarajevo w ill be a black cauldron w here M us-

lim s w illd ie,” h e said.“They w illd isappear.T hat

JU S TIC E FO R TH E U TC H ER

R em em bering the horrors osniansendured at the hands of R adovan K aradzic

B Y

ANINE DI GIO ANNI

@ jan inedigi


25/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 1 6

people w illdisappearfrom the faceofthe Earth.”

Iw asa young reporterthen docum enting w ar

crim es in Bosnia only three hours by airplane

from m y hom e in Paris.Som e ofthe crim esw ere

unthinkable:A group of children w ere killed by

a m ortar as they built a snow m an;a

young boy w ho w ent outside to play

soccer w as blinded by an incom ing

shell.D ay afterday we learned ofnew

tragedies butitm ade little di erence.

Bosnia w asabandoned.

The w ardragged on.Tw o yearsafter

thatdesperate phone call,in July 1995,

Srebrenica fell.In those days,M uslim

m en and boys w ere separated from

their m others,sisters and w ives,driven into the

w oodsand hunted like anim als,then slaughtered

and tossed into m ass graves.A few survived by

pretending to be dead,hiding underbodies.

A fter the w ar, under the conditions of the

D ayton Peace A ccords,the tow n becam e partof

Serbia,and to this day itis hard to find M uslim

fam ilies w ho feel safe there. The w om en w ho

w ere raped tried to return to theircom m unities,

butthey often had to face theirrapists on a daily

basis— in the street,atthe m arket,in theirvillages

in eastern and centralBosnia.Shockingly,few of

those responsible w ere everprosecuted for their

crim es.U ltim ately,m ore than 100,000 Bosnians

died,and thousands m ore w ere left hom eless,

destitute and traum atized by a civilw arthatthe

internationalcom m unity did nothing to stop.

The siege of Sarajevo lasted another tw o

years too. In A pril 2012, w hen I returned to

com m em orate the 20 th anniversary ofthe start

of the w ar,I stood in front of thatsam e presi-

dency building. M ore than 11,0 00 red chairs

w ere lined up— one forthe soulofevery Saraje-

van w ho had been killed during the siege.T here

w ere even tiny chairsforchildren.

From 1996 to 2008,Karadzic lived in hiding in

Serbia,posing asan “energy healer.” H e w aspro-

tected by acolytesforyearsbefore a tip from Brit-

ish and A m erican intelligenceled to hiscapturein

Belgrade.In Bosnia,the reaction to hissentencing

w asm ixed.Therew asoutrageam ong hissupport-

ers,w ho considerhim a w arhero.H isvictim sfelt

only despairand a senseofm oralfailurethatsuch

a m onsterw asgiven such a lightsentence.Forty

yearsforthe livesofsom any?Forgenocide?

A nd w hathashappened to Bosnia since 1995,

w hen the D ayton Peace A ccords w ere signed?

M uch has been m ade ofB osnia’s ethnic diver-

sity before the w ar.Atthe opening ofK aradzic’s

trial, prosecutor A lan T ieger said he w ould

prove he had “harnessed the forces of nation-

alism , hatred and fear to pursue his vision of

an ethn ically segregated Bosnia,” and directed

them “in a cam paign to carveoutam ono-ethnic

state w ithin hism ultiethnic country.”

Bosnia is now a polarized, sectarian coun-

try, riven by corruption and resentm ent. T he

children w ho w ere born in the rape cam ps

are now in their early 20s.T he fighters have

returned to m undane jobs.M any ofthem ,oddly

enough,are taxidrivers w ho talk bitterly about

the w ar years.T he trialof K aradzic has been

hailed asa trium ph ofinternationallaw ,butfor

the victim s, his sentencing does not feel like

justice. O r at least, it is only partial justice.

+

COLD MEMORIES:

A man looks over gravestones at acemetery in Sara-

jevo in Feb ruary1994 , when thecity was under

siege, bombardedby Serb forces,

and its peoplewerestarving.

“SA R A JE V O W IL L B E AB LACK CAU LD R ON W H E REM U SLIM S W ILL D IE .”


26/68

P AGE ONE TH IL ND

W S W 4 1 5 2 16

P H R P IC H R T P U N N J N T O the 30 -year-

old head preacher at Bangkok’s popular Marble

Temple, tries to suppress a smile as he explains

how veryangry he is. The baby-facedmonk pulls

outdocuments, one after theother, and spreads

themacrossthetable.Nexttohim,afriendwhom

he has deputized to memorialize this interview

snapsaway on an expensivesmartphone.

This, says Apichart, tapping on the paper, is a

list of 20 monks killed and 24 injured since 20 0 7

in Thailand’s deep south. An insurgency in the

mainly Malay-Muslim region has been raging

since 20 0 4, and more than 6,50 0 people have

been killed. Most of them were Muslim civilians,

thoughthestatisticaldisparitydoesn’tbotherhim.

Thedeath ofa single monk, saysApichart, iscon-

sidered a religious attack. “I wasstressed before,

when monks got killed and injured,” he says.

“Now it’s pastthat point— no stress, just revenge.

Thisis why I said those things about burningthe

mosques: because I wantrevenge.”

Late last year, Apichart called on his social

media followers to burn one mosque for everyBuddhistmonk killed in thedeepsouth. TheThai

governmentswiftlyshutdownhisFacebook page,

but the controversy hasonly increased his popu-

larity. In the months since, thousands more have

flocked to follow him on social media. The atten-

tion thrills Punnajanto, whocalls hissocial media

forayanexercise in “journalism writtenwithhate

speech.” His Facebook page is lled with grue-

some photographs that purportto show Buddhists

hacked in the head with machetes, immolated

and shot by southern insurgents. M any are from

years-old incidents, widely reported by local and

international news— though A pichart says he is

the only one printing such information. H e insists

there is a conspiracy among Thailand’s news-

papers to bury the “truth” and says his photos

come from an intelligence offi ce r (though a quickreverse -im age search show s they have long been

circulating on anti-M uslim W eb pages).

“W hatI w antto do is to m ake B uddhists w hoare still sleeping and think things are beautifu l,I w antto m ake them aw are of w hat’s going on.

M uslim s aren’t trying to invade just the three

[southe rn] province s; the y are trying to o cc upythe w hole country,” A pichartsays.

H is idol is M yanm ar’s firebrand m onk U

W irathu, w hose anti-M uslim rhetoric helped stoke riots in 2012 and 20 13.U nlike W irathu and

his extrem istB uddhistgroup,M a Ba T ha,A pich-

arthas no go vernm entbacking.Butitis c lear theT hai m onk has tappe d into a vein of Buddhist

ultranationalism exace rbated by a ailing eco n-

om y and soc ial discontentin the tw o years sincethe 20 14 coup that brought in the latest m ilitaryjunta.“T he re is a grow ing strain o f anti-M uslim

se ntim entw ithin the Buddhistsangha [m onastic

com m unity] in T hailand,” says A nthony D avis,a Bangkok-base d se curity analyst at IH SJane’s.

“T his thing isn’t som e nasty little inse ct hidde n

aw ay under a rock,it’s be com ing m ainstream .”Incre asingly,m onks in T hailand are loo king to

their counterparts in Sri Lanka and M yanm ar—

tw o place s w here Buddhist ultranationalism has

ARMA POLI E

A Thaim onk isusing socialm ediato preach violence against M uslim s

B Y

A B B Y S EI

@ instupor

AND

R IN JIR E N U W A T


27/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 1 6

P R O P A G A N D A

W A R S : A B u d d h i s t

i n M a n d a l a y

M y a n m a r l o o k s a t

a p a n e l s h o w i n g

a t r o c i t i e s a l l e g e d l y

c o m m i t t e d b y M u s

l i m s a g a i n s t B u d

d h i s t s i n s o u t h e r n

T h a i l a n d .

+

spilled into anti-M uslim violence. In February,

ThaiB uddhists hosted a conference on “C risis in

the BuddhistWorld.” A SriLankan m onk talked

aboutfuturethreatsto the religion,w hile the pres-

identofM a Ba Tha led a session on law sto protect

Buddhism before receiving a leadership aw ard.

“We w orry aboutthe M uslim invasion in Thai-

land,” says Banjob Bannaruji,a professoratthe

BuddhistM ahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya U ni-versity and head of the C om m ittee to Prom ote

Buddhism asthe State R eligion.Lastyear,asthe

governm entprepared T hailand’s new estconsti-

tution,Banjob resurrected a decades-old push to

have the religion enshrined in the constitution.

Buddhism , he insists, m ust be protected. “We

are very threatened by M uslim sbecause Islam is

a dangerous religion in m y view ,” he says.

A bout 94 percent of the Thai population is

Buddhist and 4 percentM uslim ,but like m any

ofhis ilk,B anjob believes there is a conspiracy to

spread Islam — w hich he claim s entails sm uggling

R ohingyas and Bangladeshis into the country.

“Why? Because they w antto increase the num -

bers of M uslim s here,” he explains.(While tens

of thousands of M uslim s eeing M yanm ar and

Bangladesh have found theirw ay onto Thaisoil,

it is generally because they w ere diverted and

detained in cam psbyhum an traffi ckersseeking to

extortm oney before eitherselling them into slav-

ery orallow ing them to continue on to M alaysia.)

In the deep south,Im etstudentsw ho said theyw ere w orried about A pichart. “We’re all afraid

religious con ictw illhappen and Buddhists and

M uslim s w illkilleach other,” says a 25-year-old

religion studentin Pattaniprovince.There iscon-

cern am ong Buddhiststoo.“A lotofpeople claim

to be Buddhists,but they’re aw fulpeople,” says

Sulak Sivaraksa,a Buddhistscholar.A pichart,he

advises,“should give up being a m onk.G ive up

being a Buddhist.The m essage ofthe Buddha is

nonviolence,loving kindness and com passion....

O nce you m ake [Buddhism ]into a cultand bring

ittonationalism ,to ethnicity,that’sthe danger.”

Thatthe governm entand som e Buddhistshave

condem ned A pichart’s com m ents is heartening,

butsuch vitriolisclearly spreading.O n Facebook,

Tw itter and Pantip— Thailand’s m ost popular

forum — BuddhistT haisare gathering in drovesto

discuss the “M uslim problem .” A Facebook page

w hose nam e translates loosely as “unm ask the

unpropitiousscoundrelsand guard virtues” posts

a range of anti-M uslim propaganda and dire w arn-

ingson the fateofT haiBuddhists— allofitseen by

nearly 18,000 follow ers.Som e 4,000 people have

liked the Facebook page “antiextrem istM uslim s

in three southern provinces.”

A pichart says Buddhists are lapping up hisevery w ord.When Iask him w hathis nextstep

w illbe,he repliescoolly,butm y translatorstam -

m ersslightly asshe conveysthe m eaning to m e.

“The nextplan is preparing the fuelto put in

the bottle to m ake a burning bom b,” he says.

“Notonly m y ow n,butBuddhistsfrom the w hole

nation aregoing to do itasw ell.It’sto throw som e-

w here;nobody know s w here.I’m justw aiting for

the tim e w hen a m onk dies.R ightnow ,Ijustkeep

distributing m y ideology on social m edia.”

T

HE CALLSHISSOCIALMEDIA FORAY“JOUR-NALISM WRITTENWITHHATESPEECH.”


28/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16


29/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16

B Y J S O N O V E R D O R F

The m ysterious

suicide ofa gay

Indian professor

red afterhew as

caughton lm

w ith another m an

R A IN B O W IN D IA :

G ay righ ts activists

are hoping a lm

based on the story

of a closeted pro-

fessor w ho killed

him self after be ing

ou ted w illfurthe r

un derstand ing and

rights for India’s

LGB T com m unity.

+

D O W N

N D

O U T E D

I N

I N D I


30/68


31/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16

a c t i v i s t S a l e e m K i d w a i d u r i n g a “ w o n d e r f u l l i t

t l e i n t e r r e g n u m ” w h e n h o m o s e x u a l i t y w a s l e g a l

i n I n d i a . I n J u l y 2 0 0 9 t h e D e l h i H i g h C o u r t h a d

s t r u c k d o w n a s u n c o n s t i t u t i o n a l a c o l o n i a l e r a

a n t i s o d o m y l a w t h o u g h r e l i g i o u s g r o u p s q u i c k l y

led appeals.Know n asSection 377,the law m ade

gay sex a crim e punishable w ith up to 10 years in

prison, and in 20 13 India’s norm ally progressiveSuprem e C ourtreinstated it.

C onsensualgay sex thattakes place in private in

India is rarely prosecuted, but gay people are fre-

quently persecuted.With landlords liable to evict

gay tenants and fam ilies quick to disow n gay rela-

tives,blackm ailiscom m on.C ops routinely dem and

bribes or sexualfavors from m en caught cruising,

and atseveraluniversities gay students face expul-

sion from dorm itoriesand even from school.

U ntilSiras w as outed,he w as practically invisi-

ble.Like m any closeted gay m en in India,he w as

m arried, but separated, w ith divorce proceedings

und erw ay.Itappearshe had few close friends.The

subjecthe taughtw asunpopular,so he had few stu-

dents.T hough he’d w on a nationalaw ard for his

poetry,none of his colleagues could read the lan-

guage in w hich he’d w ritten it.

A ligarh M uslim U niversityspokesm an R ahatAbrar

show ed m e the video thatm ade Sirasthe focus ofa

nationalscandalon his desktop PC .From the rst

blurry fram e,w atching the video feels w rong. The

cam era w obbles as the screen show s a brightpeep-

hole in the centerof a black screen,the cam eram an

apparently tilting a handheld rig from left to right.

H e’s angling the lens to geta betterview through a

hole in the door— the kind ofpeephole m any people

have in theirfrontdoorto letthem see a visitorw ith-

outopening it.A m uted conversation is justaudible

from the otherside,a m urm ur.Sirasliessupine on a

sofa in hisliving room w hile anotherm an,seated in a

chair,appearsto stroke hisforehead.

A m om entlater,the scene cutsto inside the room —

it’snotclearhow the m en gained accessto the room .

The handheld rig steadieson Sirasashe brisklystands

up,naked.“What’s happening?Who are you?” Siras

asksthe cam era crew in H indi.“H e invited m e here,”

says the otherm an,identi ed in m edia reportsas“a

rickshaw puller,” in a defensive tone.Siras is a pathetic gure.H e looks lost,guilty,too

desperate to be angry.“M y nam e is D r.S.R .Siras,”

he tells the cam era crew ,as ifhe has to explain his

presence in hisow n apartm ent.“Iam the chairm an

of the m odern languages departm ent.” T he cam -

era zoom s in on his university identity card,w hich

som eone has propped on a table,then on a sim i-

larly displayed unopened Nirodh-brand condom .In

accented English,asententiousvoiceintones,“Sting

operation .” There is another cut. Now Siras is seated

on the couch.The cam eram an holds a cellphone in

the fram e as he calls another university professor.

“We found yourcolleague naked,engaged in hom o-

sex,” a voice says.“Whatdo you have to say about

him ?” O therw ise speaking in H indi,he says“hom o-

sex” in English,asa single w ord.

“A ren’t you asham ed of yourself?” the sam e

voice asks Siras. There is no answ er. “A ren’t youasham ed?” the unseen m an saysagain.

“Yes,Iam asham ed,” Sirassaysnum bly.

H ow the m en w ith the cam era knew to go to

Siras’s hom e at that particular tim e, or that the

one-w ay lensofthe peephole in his doorhad been

rem oved so they could lm through it,rem ains a

m ystery. T he m ore chilling m ystery is w hat hap-

pened aftertheircam era w assw itched off.

A brarm aintains thatSirasphoned anotherfaculty

m em berto ask forhelp w hile the cam era crew w as

still in his apartm ent, w hereupon A brar and sev-

eral other university o cials rushed to the scene,

pleaded w ith the

lm crew not to release the foot-

age and called a doctor to exam ine Siras,because

he seem ed extrem ely agitated.T he follow ing day,

the university vice chancellor suspended him from

teaching,replaced him asdepartm entchairm an and

kicked him outoffaculty housing for“im m oralsex-

ualactivity.” But on the evening in question,A brar

insists,“We w entthere only to help D r.Siras.”

Siras w as initially reluctant to take any action

against the cam era crew, w ho he said had barged

into his hom e, or the university. H ow ever, once

he w as persuaded by friends a w eek or so later to

ghtback,he told a very

different version of that

“sting,” according to

allies w ho discussed the

m atter w ith him at the

tim e,asw ellascourtpeti-

tions and police papers

led by him or on his

behalf.In a petition led

against his suspension

w ith the A llahabad H igh

C ourt,for exam ple,Siras

says he w as “extrem ely

shocked and surprised”to see Abrar and tw o other o cials join the cam -

era team in his apartm entbecause he had neither

“called any ofthem forany help nor had he invited

any ofthem to hishouse.”

“Sirasdid hintthat[the cam era crew ]m ighthave

been w orking on the behestof the adm inistration,”

says philosophy professor Tariq Islam , w ho w as

instrum entalin convincing Siras to ghtback and

contacted gay rightsorganizationson hisbehalf.

A brar denies that any university o cial knew about

Thugsvandalizedtheatersandbeatupacinemamanager in 1998toprotestafilmthatdepictedalesbianromance.


32/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16

t h e s t i n g o p e r t i o n n d s y s p o l i c e e x o n e r t e d h i m

n d t h e o t h e r o cialsnam ed in the professor’scom -

plaint.H e also saysthe rickshaw driveradm itted to

receiving m oney from Siras so his suspension for

“im m oralsexualactivity” w asjusti ed.

T w o m onths afterthe incident,on A pril1,2010,

the A llahabad H igh C ourt issued a stay on Siras’s

suspension. T he judges ordered the university to

allow Siras back into his apartm entand barred the

m edia from posting the “sting” video.T hey also

noted in a w ritten ruling thatSiras’s law yerhad “a

point in subm itting that sexualpreference of an

adult m ay not am ount to m isconduct,” especially

w hen that preference had only been discovered

through a violation ofhisprivacy.

Siras apparently never read the ruling.W hen his

frien d, Indian Express reporter D eepu Edm ond,

spoke to him A pril5,Siras w as back on cam pus,

w aiting for a w ritten copy of the judgm entso that

he could reclaim his postasdepartm entchairm an.

Buton the evening ofA pril7,he w asfound dead in

an apartm enthe had rented afterbeing kicked out

ofun iversity housing.

T here w as no suicide note or bottle of pills or

poison beside his body, w hich w as “covered in

m aggots” by the tim e he w as discovered,m edical

exam iners told reporters.The T V rem ote w asright

beside him , as if he’d been channel sur ng. H is

m obile phone w asm issing,and som eone had w ith-

draw n $300 w ith his ATM card around the tim e

he is estim ated to have died.A prelim inary m edi-

calreportindicated traces of poison in his body—

enough for the local superintendent of police to

say categorically,“H isdeath w asnotdue to natural

causes....T here w ere blue spots on the body; his

nailsw ere blue.” A laterreport,how ever,indicated

doubts aboutthe presence of poison,so the cause

of death rem ains uncertain. A nd then there w as

the detailw orthy of A gatha C hristie— the door of

the room locked from the inside,and the frontdoor

padlocked from the outside.Later,itw assuggested

thatSiras had com e outfrom a rear entrance and

padlocked the frontdoorto avoid unw anted m edia

attention ,according to a colleagu e.

N one ofthatam ounts to m uch m ore than masala

(or“spice”),asthe Indianssay,and K idw ai,the activ-

ist,says the investigation into his death zzled out

because his estranged w ife and other relatives w ere

not interested in pursuing the m atter.“After he w as

dead,you had to be nextofkin to pursue the case.”

Siras’s friends still question w hy he w ould have

killed him self. Long isolated by his secret, he had

confronted the w orst—

being outed— and begun

to nd acceptance from

sym pathetic colleagues

and the LG BT activist

com m unity,they say.H e

seem ed happy,even tri-

um phant,says business

adm inistration profes-

sor N aved Khan: “The

lasttim e w e m ethim ,he

w asvery upbeat.”

E dm ond, the last

person known to have

spoken w ith him ,insiststhatSirasw astalking opti-

m istically about becom ing a gay rights activist or

m oving to A m erica to teach M arathi— a language

spoken in w estern India.Even so,Edm ond saysthe

m ostlikely explanation issuicide.

A fterthe professor’sdeath,tw o ofthe three peo-

ple Siras accused ofm aking the lm w ere arrested

on charges of crim inalintim idation,breach of pri-

vacy,trespassing and blackm ail,though there w as

no indication in the court docum ents Siras led that

W ith lan dlordsliable to evictgay tenantsandfam iliesquick todisow n gay rela-tives,blackm ailis com m on.

+

P R IDE A N D A FA L L :Just a few days after the R ain bow P ride W a lk in K olkata in Dec e mb e r, Ind ia ’s

Par liament voted down a bi l l drafted by former U .N .o c ial S hashiT haroo r to legalize gay se x.

+

LE T D OW N : In late 2 0 13 ,th e S u p re m e C o u rt u p h e ld S e c tio n 3 77 o f India’s p e nal c o de ,re ve rs ing a 20 0 9

D e lhiH igh C ourt ruling thatthe colonial-e ra lawc rim inalizing g ay se x w as u nc o ns titutio nal.


33/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16

SPEAKING O UT:G ay stud ents face discrim ination

and harassm ent Not long before Siras w as outed

ve stud ents at a C hristian college in K erala w ere

expelled for m aking a lm ab ou t ho m osexu ality.

B R IG H T E R FU T U R E :Friend s and colleagues of

professor S iras say he w as excited about nding

accep tance and joining the rank s of LG B T activists

ghting for cha nge in India.

t h e y h a d d e m a n d e d m o n e y . H o w e v e r , t h e y w e r e

s o o n r e l e a s e d , a n d t h e c a s e h a s g o n e n o w h e r e . T h e

s a m e c o u r t t h a t s t a y e d t h e p r o f e s s o r ’ s s u s p e n s i o n

o r d e r e d l o c a l p o l i c e n o t t o a r r e s t A b r a r a n d t h e

o t h e r u n i v e r s i t y o

ffi cials named in Siras’sprivacy

complaintwithoutadditionalevidence.

‘H O M O S E X U A L IT Y IS A D IS E A S E ’

Progress on gay rights in India has been slow,

but there has been some movement recently:

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley spoke out against

the Supreme Court’s handling of the anti-sodomy

law, and in December opposition member of Par-

liament Shashi Tharoor introduced an amendment

to decriminalize sexual intercourse between con-

sentingadults, regardlessof gender. L ike mostbills

introduced by the opposition, it was defeated, b ut

Tharoor, a former U.N. offi cial, has vowed to rein-

troduce it in the next session.

Still, opinion polls such as a 20 14 survey by the

Pew Research Center show thataround two-thirds

of Indians view homosexuality as immoral (the

same percentage thinks premarital sex is wrong).

As recently as 20 0 9, almost as many believed

homosexuality to b e a disease, according to one

poll. While India’s National Crime RecordsBureaudoesn’t track homophobic crimes, sexuality rights

activist Gautam Bhan says there is a lot of anec-

dotal evidence of familial violence to enforce gen-

der normsor force gays and lesbians into arranged

marriages, as well as school bullying and reports

of police beatings and harassment. Suicide is

common in suchcases.

Bajpai, who plays the character in ligarh based

on Siras, is best known for his turns asmacho psy-

chopathsinoperaticBollywoodgangstersagas.

“H is de athw as notdue tonatural causes…T here w ere bluespots on thebody;his nailsw ere blue ”

At the Busan International F ilm Festival this past

October, where ligarh premiered, his perfor-

mance received a standingovation.The Adult rating for ligarh was to be expected;

India’s censors recently ordered the kissingscenes

betweenDaniel Craigandhisfemaleco-starsin the

latest James Bond lm , pectre, snipped because

they w ere deem ed too long fordelicate Indian eyes.

Butitserved only to generate additionalinterestin

the lm and stir up a w ider discussion of India’s

attitud e tow ard hom osexuality.

In the end,Aligarh Muslim U niversity didn’ttry

to block it on legal grounds either, though Abrar

says he condem ned the m ovie before he had seen

itbecause the lm m akers

never contacted the uni-

versity for their side of

the story.But an obscure

conservative group called

the Millat BedariMuhim

C om m ittee (MBMC )

com pelled theater ow n-

ers in Aligarh notto show

the lm .

Bajpai, the star w ho

risked his career to play

the lead role in the m ovie,

has nots u e r e d p r o f e s -

s i o n a l l y a s a r e s u l t o f p l a y i n g S i r a s . “ O n e t h i n g

I ’ m v e r y s u r e o f i s t h a t w h o e v e r i s g o i n g t o s e e t h e

lm w ill be touched,” he says.“This is the force

thatthischaracterleaves behind.”

ligarh director Mehta says his lm does not

seek to solve the m ystery of the professor’s death,

butrather to explain the m ystery of his life.“It’s a

lm aboutlonelinessand old age and a society that

does not let you exercise the choices that a

dem ocracy is supposed to give you .”


34/68


35/68

NEWSWEEK 4 1 5 2 1 6

on

tailpipe

In D etroit’s

industrialsuburbs,toxicair

isdestroyinggenerations

ofblack residentsw hilelocal

and federalo cialstw iddle

their thum bs

sucking

a

y Z oëSchlan ger

Pho tograph s by Sean P roctor


36/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16

t o b e c r a w l i n g d o w n t h e s t a i r s o f h e r o w n d a m n

h o u s e a t 3 8 y e a r s o l d B a c k i n M i s s i s s i p p i h e r

a s t h m a w a s a n n o y i n g b u t m a n a g e a b l e — a pu

from an inhalernow and again.T hen,justover

a yearago,she m oved into a little m odularhom e

on a quiet street in R iver R ouge,M ichigan, a

tiny city of 7,000 that kisses the southern edge

ofD etroit.Now she’s aw akened in the m orning,

three daysa w eek,atleast,som etim esseven,by

an asthm a attack.She gasps,desperately sipping

the airbutinhaling little or none.“It’slike being

a fish outofw ater,” she says.

When ithits her,C ason’s lungsfillw ith m ucus

w hile her esophagus w alls sw ell nearly shut.

H er diaphragm responds by contracting faster,

pressing on her lungs,desperate to catch som e

air,m aking hergasp rapidly,violently.H erchest

feels like som eone is sitting on it,collapsing her

sternum tow ard herspine.M inutesbecom e ene-

m ies,and letting tw o or three pass is too m any.

So w hen she forgets to leave her rescue inhaler

by herbed,she gropesand craw lsdow n the stairs

to find it.It’sthe sortofthing thatno

one w ould considerordinary— unless

you’ve been living in the industrial

suburbssouth ofdow ntow n D etroita

long tim e.Then itpassesforroutine.C ason’s son is 10, and he doesn’t

have asthm a.“Notyet,” C ason says.

She’s w orried that staying in R iver

R ouge too long w illchange that.In these parts,

it’s easy to feellike everyone has asthm a,since

so m anydo.The lasttim e C ason w entto the doc-

tor,he told her to m ove.She’lltry to eventually,

she says,butthe rentis low here,and the neigh-

borsare nice.“It’s a com m unity,like back in the

day.” D uring the last snow s, she says, the w hole

block w asoutside,digging one anotherout.

IfC ason had know n aboutthe pollution,she

m ighthave picked a di erentcity.Butshe’shere

now .H ergrandm otherlivesdow n the block,her

son issettling into hisnew school,and herniece

justm oved up to join them .Butherniece also has

asthm a,and itgotdram atically w orse w hen she

arrived:She hasattacksalm ostasoften asC ason.

The tw o ofthem are in and outofurgentcare sooften that C ason has a standing prescription at

the pharm acyforthe strong type ofsteroids they

give you in the em ergency room .Itisn’tany w ay

to live.“Ilike m y neighbors,butIlike m y health

m uch m ore,” she tells m e w hile sitting on the

veloursofa in herpristine living room .Ithasto be

pristine;letting dustsettle isasking fortrouble.

It’s dirty in R iverR ouge,and everybody here

know s it. The w ay the air sm ells, and the gas

flares,coalpiles and sm okestacks around every

corner don’tletyou forget.T here are 52 sites of

heavy industry w ithin a 3-m ile radius;22ofthese

either produce over 25,000 pounds or handle

m ore than 10,000 pounds of toxic chem ical

w aste,putting them on the Environm entalPro-

tection A gency’s Toxics R elease Inventory Pro-

gram .For years,the area has also been “outof

com pliance” for sulfur dioxide,m eaning there’s

m ore SO2— a know n contributor to asthm a— in

the air than federalrules allow .The state says

it’s w orking on it.Lynn Fiedler,of the M ichigan

D epartm entofEnvironm entalQ uality (M D E ,

the sam e departm entblam ed forthe disasterin

Flint,w here lead w as allow ed to rem ain in the

drinking w ater atlevels high enough to poison

children),saysthey’ve been “w orking w ith com -

paniesto getthem to reduce theirem issions,”but

she stum blesw hen trying to explain the holdup:

“It’s been a diffi cult negotiation,” she says.“It

involves changes in operation,” m eaning pollut-

ers w illlikely need to installnew equipm ent,a

prospectcostly enough to m akethem balk.

Som e ofthe biggest SO

2

em itters in the area

are tw o postw ar-era, coal-fired

power plantsownedby DTE Energy,

located a few miles apart. One sitsin River Rouge;

in 20 11, it was ranked the ninth-worst plant in the

countryforhealthoutcomesin communitiesofcolorby the NAACP. Combined, the two plants pump

out 34,0 0 0 tons of sulfur dioxide each year, or the

weight, in pollution, of a modestly sizedcruise ship.

Getting DTE Energy to reduce emissions has been a struggle.

“They are reluctant,” F iedler says. “We are continuing discus-

sionswith them.” In the meantime, MDEQ granted the plantsa

permitlastyeartocarry onbusinessasusual.

As I drove east from the Detroit airportinto River Rouge, the

acrid stench of rotten eggs filled my rental car— despitethe win-

dowsbeingrolledupagainstthecold.Ikeptdriving,andthe

expect

“Ilike m yn eigh bo rs,bu t

Ilike m y healthm u ch m ore.”

d id n’t

Cason

Ja cqu elin e


37/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16

s m e l l a c q u i r e d n o t e s o f b u r n t p l a s t i c a n d g a s o l i n e .

I f I h a d b e e n a n y w h e r e e l s e I ’ d h a v e w o r r i e d t h a tm y c a r w a s a b o u t t o b u r s t i n t o fl a m e s . B u t I w a s i n

R i v e r R o u g e s o I k n e w b e t t e r .

T h e l a n d s c a p e o f h e a v y i n d u s t r y r o s e u p

a r o u n d m e b i l l o w i n g s m o k e s t a c k s a n d c i s t e r n s

a n d g a s fl a r e s . N e a r b y o n a s l i v e r o f l a n d c a l l e d

Z u g I s l a n d t h e b l a c k t w i s t i n g i n f r a s t r u c t u r e

o f U . S . S t e e l ’ s b l a s t f u r n a c e s g i v e s t h e i s l a n d

t h e f e e l o f a n i n d u s t r i a l M o r d o r . A f e w t i m e s

a m o n t h I ’ m t o l d t h e w h o l e s k y t u r n s a d u s t y

o r a n g e f r o m t h e s t e e l m a k i n g . Z u g I s la n d i s ju s t

p a s t D e t r o i t ’ s w a s t e w a t e r t r e a t m e n t p l a n t w h i c h e m i t s v o l a t i l e

o r g a n i c c a r b o n s a c l a s s o f h i g h l y v o l a t i l e c h e m i c a l s t h a t i n c l u d ec a r c i n o g e n s l i k e b e n z e n e a n d f o r m a l d e h y d e a s w e l l a s C a r -

m e u s e L i m e a c e m e n t m a n u f a c t u r i n g p l a n t w h i c h e m i t s s u l f u r

d i o x i d e a l o n g w i t h t h e u l t r a ne particulate m attercalled PM2.5

,

nitrogen oxides,hydrochloric acid,m ercuryand lead.

Ipulled into a gasstation.A s soon asIopened m y cardoor,I

could feelthe airin the back ofm ythroatlikea ne sprayofgravel.

Iasked the attendantifitalw ayssm ellslike this.“I’ve been here

35years.I don’tsm ellitanym ore,” he said,laughing.“But you

know w e have a lotofindustry around here,right?” H e gestured

tow ard the M arathon O il re nery a quarter-m ile dow n the road.

+

M O N E Y T R AP :

C ason ’s do ctor told

h er to m ove aw a y

from RiverRouge be

cause ofher w orsen

ing asthm a bu t rents

are low and she

can’t rea lly afford topullupstakes.


38/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16

T h e M Q i s i n t h e nalstagesofgranting the

spraw ling M arathon re nery a brand-new per-

m it,w hich w illletitem itan additional22 tons

of sulfur dioxide a year in an area thatalready

exceeds federalstandards for that gas.The 22

tons of SO2, the M D EQ insists, aren’t m uch.

That’s true,to an extent;alone,that am ountof

SO2is not catastrophic.B ut the perm it doesn’t

take into consideration how these new air tox-

ins w illm ix w ith allthe other pollutants being

dum ped on the people of R iver R ouge. That’s

because the C lean A ir A ct, the nation’s only

om nibusairpollution bill,doesn’thave anythingthatconsiderstoxic cocktails— and so putslim its

on only individualtoxins,and neverthe m ix.

The actbecam e law in 1970,w ith the prim ary

purposeofidentifying and lim iting m ajorpollut-

antsfora country thathad neverregulated even

the m ostobviousofthem ,likecarbon m onoxide.

Since then, the m ost recent m ajor revision to

that fairly rudim entary set of objectives w as in

1990,w hen a seriesofchangesled to m ore com -

prehensive perm itting procedures and better

pollution m onitoring.That’s m ore or less w hatw e’re leftw ith

now ,26 yearslater.Science haslearned a lotaboutw hatm akes

people sick in those 26 years— particularly,thatthere are com -

bined effects from the plum es ofgas and particles,visible and

otherw ise,that billow from every factory,pow er plant,m anu-

facturing out tand tailpipe.We now have proofthat,forexam -

ple,breathing in nitrogen oxides n sulfur dioxide do greater

dam agecom bined than eitherw ould alone.Butthatknow ledge

isnotreflected in how the governm entregulatesthem .

“Atthistim e,ourunderstanding ofthe science doesnotallow

us to sethealth-based standards thataddress potentialcum u-

lative or additive im pacts of exposure to m ultiple pollutants,”

the EPA w rote in an em ailw hen Iasked w hy not.Bob Sills,a

toxicologistforthe M D E , sayshe’sbeen askingtheEPA aboutitsprogressonthisissue for “about20 years.” The agency tried,

several yearsago,tocomeupwith a way totakeinto accountthe

combinedcontribution ofnitrogendioxideandsulfurdioxide to

acid rain. “Theirscienti cadviserstold them itw asnotscientif-

ically valid enough to proceed w ith it,” Sillssays.

O ne problem ,explains StuartB atterm an,a professorofenvi-

ronm entalhealth sciencesatthe U niversity ofM ichigan,isthat

there are too m any data gaps in toxicology to m eet the high

threshold ofcertainty required by the regulatory agencies.Still,

Batterm an sent a lengthy letter to the state earlier this year,

+

H EAV Y AIR: A n d e r-

s o n , w h o h a s w o r k e d

for decad es to get

o fficials to deal with the po llut io n,

says she fears sheneeds to make s igns

dec laring, “ sthma is not normal.”


39/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16

u r g i n g i t t o d e n y M a r a t h o n O i l t h e n e w

p e r m i t t o e m i t m o r e S O

2

t h a n t h e o l d p e r -

m i t a l l o w e d . T h e p e r m i t h e w r o t e “ d o e s

n o t c o n s i d e r c u m u l a t i v e e x p o s u r e s ” i n a n

a r e a w h e r e p e o p l e a r e a l r e a d y s u b j e c t e d t o

a m o n g t h e “ h i g h e s t c u m u l a t i v e a i r p o l l u -

t i o n e x p o s u r e s ” i n t h e s t a t e .

A c c o r d i n g t o t h e l a t e s t s t a t e d a t a m o r e

t h a n 1 5 p e r c e n t o f D e t r o i t ’ s a d u l t s h a v e

a s t h m a a 2 9 p e r c e n t h i g h e r r a t e t h a n t h e r e s t

o f M i c h i g a n . D e t r o i t e r s a r e h o s p i t a l i z e d f o r

t h e i r a s t h m a t h r e e t i m e s m o r e

f r e q u e n t l y t h a n o t h e r M i c h i -

g a n d e r s . B e i n g b l a c k u p s t h e

r a t e signi cantly: Black D etroi-

ters are hospitalized for asthm a

ata rate m ore than 150 percent

that of their w hite neighbors—

and D etroitis 83 percent black.

M ost of the m ini-cities ringed

around the heavy industry south

of D etroit are m ajority-black too. Poverty

com pounds the problem — it’snoteasy m an-

aging a chronic illness w hen you’re m ak-

ing $24,000 a year,the average household

incom e for black D etroit households.

So m any people around R iver Rouge have

asthm a that there’s a bootleg m arketfor inhal-ers(streetvalue:$15to $20 a pop)and the blister

packs ofalbuterol,the caffeine-based m edicine

thatfuelsnebulizers($10 a dose).Buying on the

block iseasierthan going to a doctor,especially

since the nearestasthm a clinic isatleasta tow n

aw ay or m ore,depending w here you live.T he

closest em ergency room ,also atleast 20 m in-

utes aw ay, is alw ays full.T he city has notori-

ously shodd y public transportation,and if you

don’t ow n a car, a trip to the doctor can take

m ostofyour day.Ifyou have kids,you’llalso need child care

and a day off w ork.M eanw hile,you’re struggling to breathe,

and that$15inhalerstartsto look pretty good.

oisoning Your enes

IN AM ERICA, race is the biggestfactor in determ ining w hether

you live neara toxic w aste site.In m ostly w hite states,it’llbe the

black or Latino neighborhoods thatgetthe oilre neries or gar-

bage incinerators.In and around D etroit,that’strue to an alm ostridiculous degree. In 2011, Paul M ohai, a professor and the

founder ofthe environm entaljusticeprogram atthe U niversity of

M ichigan,m apped D etroit’s public schools overair

pollution data.H e found 82percentofblackstudents

w entto schoolsin the m ostpolluted partsofthe city,

w hile 44 percentofw hite studentsdid.What’sm ore,

children in those pollution-exposed schools scored

low eron standardized tests.A irpollution hasalready

been show n to cause cognitive delays in children

and an array ofadverse pregnancy outcom es,such

as early birth and low birth w eight,w hich can also

im pair a child’s brain developm entdow n the road.

O fcourse,having severe chronicasthm a and the sleep apnea that

often com esw ith itprobably doesn’thelp studentscoreseither.

M ichigan tried to do som ething about environm entalracism

a few years ago:An expertpanelw asassem bled in 2008,and it

w as disbanded in 2010 afterissuing suggestions to the state on

how to directly address the problem ofpoor black people being

poisoned and ignored.T he state setup a grievance line,butout-

side ofthat,“I’m notaw are thatthere w asany follow -up action

w ith thatplan,” saysM ohai.H e and the tw o otheracadem icson

the panelsuggested the city’shealth departm enttalk to itsenvi-

ronm ental departm ent about environm ental justice issues on

a regularbasis.T hatneverhappened.The only positions in the

M ichigan H ealth and H um an Servicesagency thatdealatallw ith

the intersection of pollution and health w ere elim inated w hen

statebudgetsw eregutted afew yearsago.The health departm ent

hasan asthm a program ,and the environm entdepartm enthasan

airtoxicsprogram ,butthey don’ttalk to each other.And w hether

you’re a person ofcolorliving in D etroit,orFlint,orVernon,C al-

ifornia,w here the Exide battery factory is ruining com m unities

m ade up prim arily ofLatino fam ilies,you w on’tgetm uch help

from the federalgovernm ent:The EPA denies95 percentofcivil

rightsclaim sagainstpollutersm ade by com m unitiesofcolor.

“H ow can you ask to increase som ething like that,w hen peo-

ple are already living here,as ifitisn’tenough?When issom e-

body going to say,‘No,hello,there’s people living right in the

vicinity?’” A sks C ason,w ho lives less than a m ile from M ara-thon.The generalsentim entisthatthe state isputting industry

pro tsahead ofthe people,especially black people.

T here’s a com parison I hear over and over again in R iver

R ouge:Flint,M ichigan,an hour’s drive up the road,is also a

blackcity,and Flintw asignored by a negligentgovernm entthat

w ouldn’thearitscom plaintsfortw o years.Now Flint’schildren

are poisoned,and m ostblam e M D EQ .

Flint had lead; southw est D etroit has sulfur dioxide, nitro-

gen dioxide and carbon dioxide— benzene,toluene,cadm ium

and m ercury. A litany of carcinogens and respiratory irritant ll

So m an ypeople h a ve

a sth m a arou n dh ere th a tth ere’sa

bootleg m a rketfor in h a lers.


40/68

W SW 0 4 / 1 5 / 2 0 16

R I V R

R O U

e

tro

i

t

R

i

v

e

r

Industrialfacilities

Schools

Jacqueline C ason’sh ou se

Sh iloh O too’s house

J

J

S

S

the air residents have no choice but to breathe.

Cancer and asthma. A population sucking on a

tailpipe. “If you were going to put something in

a population tokeepthem down for generations

to come, it would be lead,” a doctor said about

Flinttothe heNew ork im es. Or youcouldgive

themtoxic air pollution everyday until theydie.

Air pollution, it turns out, can change your

genes, so the pollution you breathe can dam-

age your children and grandchildren too. In

20 0 8, Kari Nadeau was fin ishing her p ed iatricresiden cy at Stan ford U niversity in C alifornia,

studying the connection betw een un deractive

regu latory T cells— a h ereditary trait— an d child-

hood asthm a.O ne day,she caughta PB S Nova

episode on the explod ing field of epigenetics,

the w ays our specific environm ent can m od ify

our genes,and how those changescan b e passed

to our off spring,their off spring and so on , and

she w as struck w ith an idea. She w ent back to

her research data, and this tim e organ ized her

subjectsb y Z IP cod e.A pattern becam e exceedingly obvious:Allthe children w ith underactive regulatory T cells lived in Fresno.

Fresno, in C alifornia’s C en tral Valley, is the m ost polluted

city in the state,d ue to a d ead ly com bination of dieselexhaust

an d agriculturalpesticides.M ost residen ts are im m igrantfarm

w orkers an d people of color, m any living below the poverty

line.A nd lots of them have asthm a.“T he babies are born w ith

it,” says N adeau,tod ay a physician and professor at Stanford.

T he bab ies’lun gs never have a chance to d evelop norm ally in

the w om b because their m others live in a h igh-pollution area.

W hen a pregnan tw om an takes a breath,the tiny m olecules of

air pollution pass through h er lun gs and into her bloodstream ,

slipping into the b lood cells— w h ich flow to h er fetus,delaying

and d am aging its lun g developm ent.T he fetus’s lun gs,Nad eau

explains, m ay grow few er alveoli, the grape-like clusters in

w hich air is taken and oxygen is separated and diff used to the

bloo d.In other w ords,the babies are bo rn w ith dim inished lung

capacity.(Plus,she ad ds,evidence suggests thatlun gs con tinue

to d evelop un tilw e’re abou t25yearsold;she suspects airpollu-

tion w illbe stunting alveolidevelopm en tthe w hole tim e.)

Perhaps m ore alarm ing, those sam e pollution m o lecules

slip into the b lood that feeds ovaries an d testicles.Ifthose are

altered,so are the off spring created by the eggs and sperm those

organ s prod uce.In fact,Nadeau w asable to inferthatthe genes

of her Fresno patients w ere fundam entally altered so thatthey

w ou ld be m ore likely to develop asthm a and allergies.A nd of

course,those genes could b e passed d ow n to theirchildren,and

their children’s children , even if those later generations have

m oved aw ay and are no longerexposed to the pollution .

In addition to scarring gen etic m aterial for gen eration s to

com e,pollution exposure changes how a baby develops in the

w om b. Som e pollution m olecules,like the polycyclic arom atic

hyd rocarbon s in d ieselexhaust,are know n to cause cancer,per-

haps especially w hen a person w as exposed as a fetus.O thers

aff ect the heart;still others are neurotoxins.Air pollution also

im pairsim m un e developm entin utero,m aking itharderforthose

exposed to fight infection .If you can’t fight infection w ell,you

w on’trespon d properly to vaccines,because m any vaccinesw ork

by prom pting yourb od y to m ake antibodies— a task thatrequiresa robust im m un e system .“And if you get m ore viralinfection s,

thatalso predisposesyou to asthm a,” saysNadeau .It’s a on e-tw o

pu nch thath itsa child even before birth.

aspingat irth SO M O T H hom es in River Rouge have backyards that butt

up againstthe edge ofthe cam pus ofthe D T E R iverR ouge coal

plant,w hich is flan ked by a m ountain of coal;you can see the

coal

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Newsweek - April 15, 2016 EU

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