Der Standard - 02.03.2020

WORLDTRENDS

2 THE NEWYORK TIMESINTERNATIONAL WEEKLY MONDAY,MARCH2, 2020

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INTERNATIONALWEEKLY

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By ABDI LATIFDAHIR

WAMBA, Kenya —Whenthe

dense smudge startedblockingout

thedaytimesky,manyinapasto-

ralist hamlet in northernKenya

imagined it wasrainapproaching.

Butthehopeturnedtoterror

whenthe giantblotrevealeditself

as aswarm of f ast-moving desert

locusts, whichhavebeencutting a

pathofdevastation throughKenya

sincelateDecember. “Itwas like

an umbrella hadcoveredthe sky,”

said Joseph Katone Leparole.

Residents triedtoscare them off,

using onearmto beatthemwith

sticks or bang on metalpots, and

theother to covertheir faces and

eyes as thebrightyellowinsects

teemedaroundthem. Thechildren

shouted with fear,and theanimals

that thehamletdependsonwere

panicked.“Thecowsand camels

couldn’t seewherethey were go-

ing,”Mr. Leparolesaid.

Asthevillagersstruggled to

repeltheinvasion,Mr. Leparole,

68,was remindedofthe storieshe

heardasachildofthe ravenous

swarmsthatoncemoved through

this land.“What wasonceasto ry

hasbecome real,” he said.

Kenya is battling itsworst desert

locustoutbreak in 70 years, and

theinfestati on hasspreadthrough

theeasternpartofthe continent

andthe Horn of Africa,razingpas-

ture andcroplands in Somaliaand

Ethiopia andsweepinginto South

Sudan,Djibouti, Uganda andTan-

zania. Theinsects cantravelmore

than130kilometersaday.Swarms,

whichcan containasmany as 80

million l ocustadultsineachsquare

kilometer,eat thesameamountof

food dailyasabout 35,000 people.

Theinfestat ionposesariskto

foodsecurity,undermineseco-

nomicgrowthand, ifnot controlled

soon, willexacerbate communal

conflict over grazingland. In addi-

tion to the12million peoplealready

experiencing acutefoodshortages

in Ethiopia, Kenyaand Somalia,

thelocust crisisnowposesapo-

tential threat to thefoodsecurity

ofover 20 million others,accord-

ingtotheFoodand Agriculture

Organization,aU.N.agency. Cyril

Ferrand,head oftheagency’sresil-

ienceteamfor easternAfrica,said,

“The locusts areamoving target

andweare racing against time.”

WhileKenya startedaerial

sprayinginJanuary,the govern-

menthasstopped sprayinginthe

Wambaarea becauseofadwin-

dling pesticidesupply.

The currentinfestation in the

Horn of Africa wasexacerbated

by theheavy rainfalls that pound-

ed theregionin late 2019,caused

by warmingwatersinthe Indian

Ocean. Thewet weatheris condu-

cive to thegrowthand breeding

of desertlocusts.Risingtempera-

turesalso mean locusts canma-

ture more quicklyand spread to

higherelevations.

TheWorld Food Program’sexec-

utivedirector,David Beasley,re-

cently warnedthat theregioncould

facea“catastrophe” requiring

morethan $1 billion in assist ance.

Onfarm inMaseki,ineastern

Kenya,Mwikali Nzokastood help-

less whilelocusts devoured her

field s. “Theyareupand down,they

areeverywhere,”she said.“It was

so greenhere.Itmight become a

desert soon.”

KHADIJAFARAHFORTHE NEWYORKTIMES

Locustswarmscaneatthe

sameamountof foodinaday

as35,000peoplecan.

Swarms of Locusts

ImperilKenyans’Food

Seeking

To Rule

AllofLibya

By DAVIDD.KIRKPATRICK
BENGHAZI, Libya—Thefield
marshal stares frombillboards into
thewrec kageofBenghazi, even as
thecivil warheiswaginghas stalled
into abloodystalemate.Hehashand-
ed control ofthemosques to extrem-
ists.And he hasshoweredpatronage
onatribaldeathsquad, theAvengers
of Blood.“Wearelivinginaprison,”
said AhmedSharkasi, aliberalactiv-
istwho fled to Tunis.
KhalifaHifter,the76-year-old
knownas“themarshal,”isthe mil-
itaryruler of easternLibya.Hehas
beenfightingfor nearly sixyears to
take controlofthecountry,waging
an assaultonthe capital, Tripoli, for
10 months.The United Arab Emir-
ates, Egyptand others have lined
up behind him,and Russiahas sent
mercenaries. Thelargelypowerless
United Nations-sponsoredgovern-
mentinTripoli is defendedbyre-
gionalmilitiasand, recently,Turkey,
which hasflown in hundreds of paid
Syrian fighters.Mr. Hifter hascut
offLibya’s oilproductionfor overa
month to deprive theTripoli govern-
ment of revenue. Inlate February,he
beganshelling itscivilianport.
Mr.Hifter haspromised to builda
stable,democratic andsecular Lib-

ya,but he haslargely shutWestern

journalistsout of histerritory.Arare

visitrevealedanunwieldy authori-

tarianismthatin many ways is both

more puritanicaland morelawless

than Libyawas underits last dicta-

tor, ColonelMuammar el-Qaddafi.

In Benghazi,residents complain of

corruption.Islamistextremists may

be infiltratingthe police force. “Ev-

eryone is afraid,evenafraidoftheir

fello wcitizens,”one resident said.

JonathanWiner,anenvoy to Lib-

ya underPresident BarackObama,

said:“If youare with Hifter then you

areunder hisumbrella andyou can

do whatever youwant. If youaren’t,

youare an enemyand youmay be

jailed, killed or exiled.”

Benghazi is little differenttoday

than it wasin2017, whenMr.Hifter

seizedit.Libyahasbeeninturmoil

sinceanArabSpringrevoltandNA-

TO’s intervention toppled Colonel

el-Qaddafinineyears ago. Itsdeserts

sheltermilitants,and itscoast teems

with migrants.Mr. Hifter hadbeen

an officerinColonel el-Qaddafi’s ar-

my,but laterfledtothe United States

where helivedfor decadesbefore

returningduringthe 2011uprising.

In 2014,whenIslamistmilitiaswere

terrorizingBenghazi,hevowedto

ridthe countryofthem. He recruited

fighters from localtribesand former

Qaddafi officials. Then he wonthe

supportofthe Salafists, Saudi-style

Islamist fighters whosaw acommon

enemyinthe rivals he wasbattling.

LastJuly, aBritish-educatedpol-

itic ian, SehamSergiwa,57, publicly

questionedMr. Hifter’s assaulton

Tripoli.Armed menabductedher

that night.They spray-painteda

warningagainst critic izingthe army

on her house.Her relatives said the

powerwas cutbefore theattackand

thepolicehad ignoredcalls forhelp.

Most believeshe is dead.Aspokes-

manfor Mr.Hifter said that hismili-

tary hadnothingtodowithit.

Membersofthe Awaqir tribe, abig

source of Mr.Hifter’s fighters,boast

of theirimpunity.They formedthe

AvengersofBlood in 2013.During

Ms.Sergiwa’s abduction,her attack-

ersscrawledthe name oftheAveng-

ers of Blood on thewall.

“Allthe evidence points to Hifter,”

said herbrother,AdamSergiwa, a

doctor living in Indiana. “Weknow

that.Everybodyknowsthat.He

wanted to teachalesson.”

IVOR PRICKETTFORTHENEWYORKTIMES

Khalifa Hifter, therulerof easternLibya,which includesBenghazi,

hasbeentryingtotakeovertherestof thecountryforsix years.

INTELLIGENCE/ YI-ZHENGLIAN

An Outbreak’s Cultural Roots

Thenew coronavirusdise asehas
anamenow:COVID-19. That took
awhile.The virus’sgenome was
sequenced withintwoweeks or so of
itsappearance, butfor many weeks
more,wedid notknowwhattocallit
or thedisease it causes.
Foratime, in some quarters,the
diseasewentby“Wuhanpneumo-
nia,”after thecityincentralChina
where thefirst humaninfections
were detected.But guidelines from
theWorld Health Organization,
whichchristenedCOVID-19recent-
ly,disc ourage namingdiseases
afterlocations or peopletoavoid
“unintendednegative impacts by
stigmatizingcertain communitie s.”
Indeed.OnJanuary 29,anAustra-
liantabloidowned by Rupert Mur-
dochfeatured on itsfrontpageared
face mask stampedwith “Chinese
Virus Panda monium”:The empha-
sison“panda” wasthe paper’s do-
ing, so themisspellingithighlighted
presumably wasdeli berate,too.A
Chinese studentinMelbournepro-
testedinanessay in another paper,
“Thisvirus is not ‘Chinese.’ ”
Of course,the virusisnot Chinese,
even if itsorigineventuallyistraced
back to acavein China; noris the
diseasethatitcauses.
Epidemics, on theother hand,are
oftensocietalor political.
Twoculturalfactorshelp explain
howthe naturaloccurrenceofasin-
glevirus infecting asinglemammal
couldhave cascaded into aglobal
health crisis.And nowfor thecon-

troversialaspec tofthisargument:

Both of thosefactorsare quintessen-

tially,thoughnot uniquely,Chinese.

The firstisChina’s long,longhis-

toryofpunishingthe messenger.

Adoctor who hadflaggedonso-

cialmediathe risk ofapossibleviral

outbreakwasamongseveralpeople

summonedbythe police in Wuhan

in earlyJanuary andwarnednot to

spreadrumors. He died recently af-

terbeinginfectedwith COVID-19.

Similarly,the epidemic of SARS

—which is causedbyanother coro-

navirus—thatbrokeout in southern

Chinainlate2002was coveredup

by localauthoritie sfor morethan

amonth,and thesurgeon whofirst

soundedthe alarmwas heldin mili-

tary detentionfor 45 days.

In 2008, ascandaleruptedover

taintedbabyformula,after major

Chineseproducers were found

to have addedmelaminetomilk

powder.(Sixinfants died;54,000

hadtobehospitalized). Four years

later, thewhistle-blowercredited

with firstexposingthe problem was

stabbedto deathunder mysterious

circumstances.

Thepracticeofpunishingwho-

ever brings embarrassingtruths

hasbeenthe order oftheday since

at leastthe timeofConfucius,inthe

sixthcentury B.C.

Thesagetookapagefromaneven

moreancienttract,“TheClassic of

Poetry”(also knownas“TheBook

of Songs”),acollectionofsongs and

poems dating to the10thcentury

B.C. or before,and adoptedarule

from it:“To Manifestthe Way, First

KeepYour Body Safe.” That may

soundinnocuous enough, until

youconsiderthe fate of one ofCon-

fucius’sbelovedstudents,ZiLu,also

known as ZhongYou, after he ran

afoulofthe precept:For trying to re-

buke ausurper in apowerstruggle

betweenfeudallords, he was killed.

In thethirdcentury,the maxim

took onacynicaldidactictwist in an

essay on fateby thephilosopherLi

Kang:“Thetreethatgrowstaller

thantheforest will be truncatedby

gales.”Thisgaverisetothe more fa-

miliarmodernadage,“Theshothits

the bird that pokesits head out.”

Admittedly,China’s rulersocca-

sionally solicithonestviews from

theirsubjects—butonlyofacertain

kind or usually foralimitedtime.

Punishingpeople who speakthe

truthisnot an inventionofmodern

Chinaunder theCommunists—al-

thoughthe party, truetoform, has

perfectedthe practice.And now,

muzzling themessenger hashelped

spreadthedeadlyCOVID-19.

Asecondculturalfactorbe-

hindthe epidemicaretraditi onal

Chinesebeliefs about thepowers

of certainfoods, whichhaveen-

couraged some hazardoushabits.

Thereis, in particular,the aspect

of Chineseeatingculture knownas

“jinbu,” meaning, roughly, to fillthe

void.Someofitspracticesare folk-

lorishoresoteric,but evenamong

Chinesepeople who do not follow

them,the conceptis pervasive.

It is better to cureadisease with

food than medicine,sostartsthe ho-

listictheory.Illnessesresultwhen

thebodyisdepletedofblood anden-

ergy—thoughnot thekindofblood

and energystudied in biologyand

physics, butamysticversion.

Formen,itismostimportant to

fillthe energyvoid, whichisrelated

to virility andsexualprowess;for

women,the stressisonreplacing

blood,which improvesbeautyand

fertility.Rareplantsand animals

from thewildare thoughttobring

thebestreplenishment,especially

wheneaten freshorraw.Winteris

said to be theseasonwhenthe body

needsmore“jinbu”foods. (Could

that help explainwhy both SARS

andthe currentepidemicbroke out

duringthattimeofyear?)

Hard-corebelieversin“jinbu”

seem to buyinto thisnotion,too:

“Like-shapeseatenstrengthen like-

shapes,” with t he word “shapes”

sometimes referringtohumanor-

gans andtheir f unctions. Adherents

count as favoritesalonglistofexotic

foods—whose methodsof procure-

mentorpreparation canbeoutright

cruel,withsome simplytoorevolt-

ingtodescribehere.

Ihaveseensnakesand thepenis-

es of bullsorhorses—greatformen,

the theory goes—onoffer atrestau-

rantsinmanycitiesinsouthernChi-

na.Bats, whichare thought to be the

originalsourceofboththe current

coronavirusand theSARSvirus,

aresaidtobegoodforrestoring

eyesight —especiallythe animals’

granular feces,called “sands of noc-

turnalshine.”Gallbladdersand bile

harvestedfromlive bears aregood

fortreatingjaundice; tigerboneis

forerections.

More mundaneyet noless popular

isthe palm civet, asmall,wildquad-

rupedsuspectedof having passed

on theSARSvirus tohumans.When

stewed with snakemeat, it is said to

cure insomnia.

Less wealthypeoplemight turn

to dog meat—preferablyadog that

hasbeenchasedaroundbefore

beingslaughtered, because some

peoplebelieve that more“jinbu”

benefitsare reaped from eatingan

animalwhoseblood andenergyran

high.Similarly, it is thoughtthatan-

imalskilledjustbeforeserving are

more“ji nbu”potent,which is one

reason themoreexoticofferings in

wetmarkets tendtobesoldalive —

also making them morepotentvec-

torsforany virustheymight carry.

Eatingexoticwildlifehas long

beenendorsedbyscholars. Beliefs

surroundingthe health benefits of

certainwildlif efoodspermeate the

culture.

Many peoples in many othercoun-

trieseat exotic foods, too. Butwhat

is notable about Chinaisthatthese

beliefsare embedded in theChinese

collectiveconsciousness.

Thecurrent outbreakof COVID-19

hasbeenaided by twofundamental-

ly Chinese culturalpractices. This

maybediscomfiting to hear;the no-

tion mightevenstrikesomepeople

asoffensive.But itis necessarytoin-

vestigateallthe causesbehindthis

deadlyepidemic,what ever theirna-

ture —because if we do not,wewill

onlybeinvitingthe nextone.

Yi-ZhengLian,acommentator
onHongKongandAsianaffairs,
is aprofessor of economicsat
YamanashiGakuinUniversityin
Japan.Sendcommentsto
[email protected].