newsweek - april 15, 2016 eu
TRANSCRIPT
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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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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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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
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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P AGE ONE GYPT
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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
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P AGE ONE BOSNI
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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
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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 .”
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P AGE ONE TH IL ND
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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
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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.”
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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
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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.
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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.
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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 .”
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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
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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
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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.
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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.”
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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.
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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