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Haitians grow impatient with aid trickle
Six months after a violent earthquake left a trail of destruction and misery in their country, Haitians are growing impatient at the slow trickle of aid and the crawling pace of reconstruction.
“There are no prospects, no means to rebuild. The international community promised us money, but will it ever come?” asked a baffled Franck Paul, a former mayor of Port-au-Prince.
In the capital’s streets and under tents that still house hundreds of thousands of Haitians left homeless by the disaster, frustration is building.
“When we were asked to come to this camp, we were promised houses. Where are they?” asked Jean-Auguste Petit-Frere as he pointed to a model of a home set up on the site by a Jamaican firm and set to be valued at $A17,100 a piece.
According to the United Nations office in Haiti, nearly 4000 homes of 18 square metres each have been built in a project that anticipates building some 10,000 houses.
The UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, Nigel Fischer, acknowledged there were “many challenges” in putting Haiti back on its feet and coordinating aid, including making sure the affected population has access to essential care.
He also warned that 130 tent cities have been identified as at risk from the hurricane season that could add more woes to a country that was already the poorest in the Western hemisphere even before the quake.
Construction only just starting
The French Red Cross, which has promised to build 30,000 transitional homes in collaboration with the US Red Cross, has just begun construction of 500 in a village east of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
But the figures pale in comparison to the 1.5 million people left homeless by the January 12 quake that killed 250,000 people.
Among those still living in squalid temporary plastic tents under sweltering temperatures are half a million children at risk of crime, exploitation and abuse.
They often lack decent sanitation and proper protection against an imminent risk of hurricanes.
“Children in Haiti are among those having the hardest time recovering from the earthquake,” Save the Children’s director of emergencies Gareth Owen said in a statement.
“Many are still trying to cope with the grief of losing loved ones, their homes, their toys – everything that gave them their sense of identity.
“It’s hard for an adult to cope, let alone a child.”
Some of the kids were so scarred, they fear stepping into any concrete building. Others left orphaned are hired by families in camps as workers in exchange for food, according to Save the Children.
Few ‘concrete proposals’
Novelist Gary Victor expressed disappointment the Haitian government has made few concrete proposals.
“It seems to me that the international community is taking us for a ride. There have been many promises, but nothing has been done,” he said.
The massive aid effort is moving from emergency assistance into the long-term recovery stage for the UN World Food Program (WFP), which has launched temporary job initiatives employing some 35,000 women and men.
The number of employed workers under the program, which typically pays them with a mixture of food and cash, is expected to reach 140,000 before the end of the year.
“We’re supporting huge numbers of people who would otherwise struggle to put food on their tables,” WFP country director Myrta Kaulard said in a statement.
WFP is also helping provide hot meals to 655,000 school-aged children each day, a figure expected to reach 800,000 by the end of the year.
And in another glimmer of hope, viewers of the hit reality television competition American Idol donated over $A285,200 to provide solar street lights for the camps and emergency health kits for pregnant women to deliver their babies safely.
But Haitians are angered their leaders seem overwhelmed by the scope of the catastrophe that shattered the tiny Caribbean country.
“The president and the government are absent, while foreigners and non-governmental groups have taken up the reins,” said a public transit driver caught in one of the many traffic jams now synonymous with Port-au-Prince, where huge piles of debris still litter the roadside.
Three months after an international conference in New York where world powers promised more than $A11.41 billion in aid over five years, the funds are only trickling in.
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New hominid species found in South Africa
Baptised Australopithecus sediba, the partially fossilized specimens — an adult female and a juvenile male — were found in 2008 in a cavern 40 kilometres from Johannesburg.
“They, ladies and gentlemen, are potentially a Rosetta stone into the past,” Lee Berger, a paleo-anthropologist at the University of Witwatersrand, told a press conference at the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site.
“They represent a completely new and unexpected species of human ancestor to science. Something we did not think was there.”
The 1.9-million-year-old hominids are in “extraordinary condition”, would have known each other, and were possibly related. The adult female was aged in her late 20s or early 30s and the boy between 11 and 13, he said.
“What we have found are arguably the most complete early hominid skeletons ever discovered. Each individual is far more complete than the famous Lucy fossil from Ethiopia.”
The hominids walked upright and share a number of traits with the first known species of homo sapiens, having long arms like apes but short and powerful hands, according to a paper to be published in the journal Science.
They have evolved pelvises, small teeth and long legs that would enable them to run like a human. It is also probable that they could climb trees.
“Australopithecus sediba appears to present a mosaic of features demonstrating an animal comfortable in both worlds,” said Berger, the principal author of the paper, in an earlier telephone press conference.
Both specimens were about 1.27 metres in height. The female weighed about 33 kilos (72.6 pounds) and the young male 27 kilos.
The species had small brains, measuring about a third of the volume of those of modern humans.
But Berger noted that the shape of their brains appears to have evolved from other species of australopithecus.
“Australopithecus sediba appears to present a mosaic of features demonstrating an animal comfortable in both worlds,” said Berger, the principal author of the paper.
The new species had many physical characteristics similar to those of early hominids that would help to explain what it means to be human, he said.
The skeletal structure of the two fossils is similar to those of the first Homo species, but the new examples appear to have employed it in the same way as “Lucy,” perhaps the world’s most famous fossil.
Found in 1974, Lucy dated back 3.2 million years and was considered the common ancestor of humanity until the discovery of the 4.4-million-year-old “Ardi”, which points to a common ancestor with the chimpanzee.
Berger said it was not possible to establish the “precise” position of the new species in relation to early man.
“We can conclude that this new species shares more derived features with early Homo than any other known australopith species, and thus represents a candidate ancestor for the genus,” he said.
The site of the discovery is rich in fossils and at least two other specimens of sediba have been excavated and are being analysed, Berger said.
The searchers have also identified the fossils of at least 25 other animal species, including a hyena, a wild dog, antelopes and a horse.
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China ‘hijacked’ climate summit: British minister
China vetoed attempts to give legal force to the accord reached at the United Nations climate summit in the Danish capital, Miliband wrote in The Guardian newspaper.
It also blocked an agreement on reductions in global emissions, he said.
“This was a chaotic process dogged by procedural games,” Miliband wrote.
“The procedural wrangling was, in fact, a cover for points of serious, substantive disagreement.
“The vast majority of countries, developed and developing, believe that we will only construct a lasting accord that protects the planet if all countries’ commitments or actions are legally binding.
“But some leading developing countries currently refuse to countenance this. That is why we did not secure an agreement that the political accord struck in Copenhagen should lead to a legally binding outcome.
“We did not get an agreement on 50 percent reductions in global emissions by 2050 or on 80 percent reductions by developed countries.
“Both were vetoed by China, despite the support of a coalition of developed and the vast majority of developing countries.”
He added: “The last two weeks at times have presented a farcical picture to the public. We cannot again allow negotiations on real points of substance to be hijacked in this way.”
The summit set a commitment to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), but did not spell out the important global emissions targets for 2020 or 2050 that are the key to holding down temperatures.
It also promised 100 billion dollars for poor nations that risk bearing the brunt of the global warming fallout, but has not given a fixed payout plan.
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Shorten asks for changes to fire relief
Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is pushing for urgent changes to the eligibility criteria for payments to help people affected by the NSW bushfires.
Federal government payments of $1000 per adult and $400 per child are now available to those who are injured or whose homes are destroyed or damaged.
They can be used to pay for emergency accommodation and food, clothing and personal effects.
But the eligibility criteria for the payments have been tightened since disasters such as the 2009 Victoria bushfires and the 2011 Queensland floods.
In a letter sent to Prime Minister Tony Abbott on Sunday, Mr Shorten noted many people would miss out.
They included people who haven’t been allowed into their home for 24 hours or more, who were trapped in their home for 24 hours or more, or whose homes were still standing but had essential utilities cut off for more than two days.
“I therefore write to request you urgently amend the (Australian government disaster recovery payment) eligibility criteria,” Mr Shorten wrote.
“This will ensure NSW families and communities in NSW have additional assistance to deal with the immediate and devastating aftermath of this bushfire disaster.”
Last week, Assistant Minister for Social Services Mitch Fifield said the eligibility changes were designed to ensure people most in need got assistance first and the government would continue to assess the situation.
Labor’s human services spokesman Doug Cameron, who lives in the Blue Mountains, says residents are being treated differently to other Australians who have suffered in natural disasters.
People who are missing out include those who couldn’t get to their homes for three or four days in Yellow Rock, or those from Springwood who couldn’t return home because of their asthma, he told ABC radio.
“People who have no water, no power, had to go out and buy their kids’ school uniforms and shoes to get them to school … they are not eligible.”
Tightening the criteria was an “act of political stupidity” on the part of the government.
“Many people are on their knees in the Blue Mountains – they need to get the federal government’s support,” he said.
Comment has been sought from Mr Abbott.
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Future Czech PM uncertain
The identity of the Czech Republic’s future prime minister is doubtful after Social Democrats called on their leader to resign over a worse-than-expected result.
Led by Bohuslav Sobotka, the Social Democrats (CSSD) scored 20.45 per cent – down from a forecast 30 per cent. They were the largest party but finished only 1.8 percentage points ahead of the breakout populist ANO party of billionaire Andrej Babis.
Sobotka 42, was tipped as the future premier until Sunday, when he lost his place on the party’s negotiating team for talks with potential coalition partners – ANO and the Christian Democrats who scored 6.8 per cent in the vote.
But he refused to step down as leader, insisting his party “took the wrong decision”.
“I won’t resign on the basis of today’s call (for my resignation) approved by a majority in the CSSD leadership,” Sobotka told reporters on Sunday.
Efforts to topple Sobotka are led by CSSD deputy chairman Michal Hasek, an ally of leftist President Milos Zeman who has been in office since March following the first-ever direct vote in the country.
Hasek and his CSSD allies secretly met with Zeman on Saturday evening without letting Sobotka know, Czech media said.
“Being optimistic, I’d say Sobotka’s chances (of becoming prime minister) are marginal, they’re very close to zero really,” political analyst Pavel Saradin told AFP late Sunday.
“We’ll see if he manages to raise significant support in the party. There may be an initiative to back him,” he added.
Sobotka can be sacked by the party’s central executive committee, which nominated him as party candidate for prime minister in August. The committee can meet within a week, Saradin said.
The CSSD sought a strong majority after the elections to form a minority government backed by the far-left Communists, but neither party scored enough votes to succeed.
Analysts insist any future coalition must have the support of Babis’s populists to be viable.
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Meteorologists spy clue to heatwaves
Meteorologists may have found a way to predict some killer heatwaves up to three weeks in advance.
Now, the best they can do is about 10 days.
An earlier warning would help cities prepare for the heatwave, arrange to open up cooling centres and check on the elderly, said Gerald Meehl, co-author of a study that describes the forecasting clue.
“It gives you a little bit of a heads up of what’s coming,” he said.
The key may be a certain pattern of high and low pressure spots across the globe high in the sky. When that pattern shows up, the chances double for a prolonged and intense heatwave in the eastern two-thirds of the United States, according to the study published on Sunday in the journal Nature Geoscience.
This could predict some types of heatwaves but not all, meteorologists said. The study’s authors said they think the pattern occurred before last year’s heatwave in much of the central United States, but they still need more work to confirm it.
The researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, looked at heatwaves that lasted at least a week and were about five to eight degrees Fahrenheit (about 3C to 5C) warmer than normal. In any given summer week, the odds of a heatwave like this happening are usually only about 1 in 67 in the US.
They did thousands of computer simulations and discovered that when high pressure and low pressure systems line up in a specific pattern, it foreshadows heat to come in about 15 to 20 days. Scientists call this six-kilometre-high pattern wave No. 5.
The weather on the ground at the time of the pattern really doesn’t matter; it can be rainy, dry, hot or cold, said study lead author Haiyan Teng, a scientist at the research centre.
The same pattern that signals a US heatwave also indicates different extreme weather in other parts of the globe, like heavy rains, she said.
This wave pattern was seen before the 1980 heatwave that was blamed for 1250 deaths and pushed temperatures over 38C in Dallas every day, said Randall Dole, a senior scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Triple-digit temperatures in Dallas persisted for a record 42 consecutive days that year. Dole, who wasn’t part of the study, said the science behind the study is sound, significant and may be practical after extensive testing.
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Atletico thrash Betis to tighten grip on second
Atletico’s thumping victory, their ninth in 10 outings this term, trimmed the gap to Barca back to one point after the champions had pulled four clear thanks to a 2-1 win at home to Real Madrid in Saturday’s ‘Clasico’.
It also stretched their lead over third-placed Real to five points and was the latest evidence Diego Simeone’s side may be genuine contenders for the title alongside vastly wealthier rivals Barca and Real come the end of the season.
Joseba Llorente set the record for the quickest La Liga goal in January 2008 when he scored for Real Valladolid after seven seconds and many of the spectators at the Calderon had yet to take their seats when Torres struck.
Playmaker Koke broke clear on the left of the penalty area and his low cross found its way to the 18-year-old midfielder, who calmly stroked the ball into the net with a mere 14 seconds on the clock.
Betis regrouped but struggled to create any chances for an equaliser before Villa, who joined Atletico from Barca in the close season, made it 2-0 with a superb glancing header eight minutes after halftime.
The Spain forward finished off a sweeping breakaway move with a thumping shot four minutes later and then set up La Liga top scorer Diego Costa to score his 11th of the campaign in the 65th minute.
Atletico captain Gabi capped a near-perfect night for the home side and brought another beaming smile to Simeone’s face when he drove home a loose ball in the second minute of added time to complete the rout.
“I am happy above all for the goals and helping the team is always important,” Villa said in an interview with Spanish television broadcaster Canal Plus.
The 31-year-old, Spain’s all-time record scorer, had warm words of praise for Torres, a Spain Under-21 international who was included in the Atletico starting lineup for the first time in his fledgling career.
“The lad has a fantastic future ahead of him and that’s why it’s important not to rush him,” Villa said.
“He put in a great performance today and people will have many, many years to enjoy this lad.
“We have to be patient as he has all he needs to be a special player.”
Unbeaten Barca have 28 points, with Atletico on 27 and Real on 22. Betis, who are competing in the Europa League after finishing seventh last term, are 18th on eight points.
EVENTFUL AFTERNOON
Fourth-placed Villarreal continued their impressive form since winning promotion back to the top flight and closed to within two points of Real when they thrashed regional rivals Valencia 4-1 at their Madrigal stadium.
It was an eventful afternoon for Villarreal’s Mexico forward Giovani Dos Santos, who scored a brilliant second goal after netting his first moments after fluffing a penalty.
Ikechukwu Uche and Hernan Perez also struck for the home side, while Ricardo Costa scored for Valencia as they slipped to a second straight defeat and are down in 11th position.
An Antoine Griezmann double set Real Sociedad on their way to a 3-0 win at home to Almeria that lifted the San Sebastian-based club, who have lost all three of their Champions League games this term, to ninth.
Sevilla won 2-1 at home to 10-man Osasuna and are 10th.
There is a midweek round of La Liga games this week, starting with Barca at Celta Vigo on Tuesday. Real host Sevilla on Wednesday and Atletico play at Granada on Thursday.
(Editing by Toby Davis)
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Singer, songwriter Lou Reed dead at 71
Lou Reed, the American music pioneer who fused folk’s lyricism with punk rock’s energy and darkness, has died of complications following liver surgery.
He was 71.
Reed’s literary agent Andrew Wylie said the singer-songwriter died at 11am on Sunday at Long Island, the sprawling New York area that includes the borough of Brooklyn where he was born.
“The reason was complications following the liver transplant,” Wylie told AFP, referring to an operation Reed underwent in May.
Viewed by many as the godfather of punk, Reed forged a new cultural universe with the Velvet Underground, the band he formed in New York with Welsh musician John Cale in 1965, a time of evolving youth identity.
“The world has lost a fine songwriter and poet …I’ve lost my ‘school-yard buddy”, Cale wrote on his website on Sunday.
The arthouse group was popular though not particularly successful in terms of sales during the 1960s.
But Reed’s association with the era’s pop art luminary Andy Warhol helped the band gain a hip and burgeoning following, with the colourful artist doing the instantly iconic banana cover art for the group’s self-titled debut album.
Warhol became the Velvets’ manager in 1965, and they provided music for his multimedia roadshow the Exploding Plastic Inevitable, and became the house band at his famed New York studio, The Factory.
“The Velvet Underground & Nico,” featured the pounding beat of “I’m Waiting for the Man”, and the much slower “Heroin”, which was regarded as a dark testament to the drug’s power over its users.
Reed became not only rock’s most famous chronicler of city life, but had an indelible influence on generations of rock bands such as REM, Nirvana and Sonic Youth, among many others.
One such artist, Lenny Kravitz, led the tributes on Twitter.
“Lou, rest in peace on the wild side,” he tweeted, while Hollywood stars also wrote messages of condolence.
The actress Susan Sarandon tweeted: “NY lost one of its originals with Lou Reed’s passing. So sad. RIP.”
Having left the Velvet Underground in 1970, many regard Reed’s solo works as his greater achievement.
Transformer, produced by David Bowie, in 1972, included Perfect Day, and Walk on the Wild Side, arguably his best-known song, an ode to the underground sex and drug-fuelled lifestyle of a cross-dresser, with brooding lyrics and a thumping drum-and-bass shuffle.
But for all the accolades, not everyone was a fan of Reed’s work.
He infuriated critics – as well as some of his dearest fans – when he released in 1975 his Metal Machine Music, a 65-minute noise opus drenched in guitar feedback deemed unlistenable by most.
In 1979, Rolling Stone magazine derided it as “ear-wrecking electronic sludge”.
Reed, however, remained cool as ever in the eyes of music aficionados, often seen decked out in leather, sipping chamomile tea, long after he had reined back the excess of his earlier years.
He enjoyed something of a renaissance in 1996 when Perfect Day, his 1972 hit was used in Trainspotting, the Edinburgh-based film about heroin addiction which spurred great success for its then little-known leading actor, Ewan McGregor.
A special version of the song, featuring Reed at the start but filled with the voices of Bono of U2, David Bowie, Elton John and other stars, went on sale as a charity single the following year in Britain and it topped the charts for three weeks.
“Lou Reed’s influence is one that there are really only a tiny handful of other figures who you can compare to him,” said Simon Vozick-Levinson, a senior editor at Rolling Stone, which first reported Reed’s death on Sunday.
“He spoke incredibly frankly about the realities of being an artist, being a person who lived life on one’s own terms. He didn’t prettify things. He didn’t sugarcoat things. He showed life as it really is, and that’s something that made him a true original, and one of our great all-time artists,” he said.
The Velvet Underground was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.
Reed had in recent years toured with Metal Machine Trio, a group he formed in 2008 with two other artists and whose stage performances were always improvised.
Reed underwent the liver transplant after his wife, the artist and musician Laurie Anderson, said he was dying of liver failure.
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US ace Ligety’s historic skiing hat-trick
American star Ted Ligety made history on Sunday with a record third straight win at Soelden in Austria in the World Cup season-opening men’s giant slalom.
The 29-year-old, who led after the first run, gave a blistering performance (1 minute, 59.50 seconds) to beat Frenchman Alexis Pinturault (2:00.29) and Austrian Marcel Hirscher at (2:00.52).
The triple world champion – who won by an astonishing 2.75sec last year – equalled Austrian legend Hermann Maier’s three wins at Soelden. Ligety, however, is the first person to win them in consecutive seasons.
“I feel like in some ways that first race anxiety kinda helps me a little bit.
“It’s nice to be able to consistently do well here, and this is a hill that suits me well.
“You don’t have to think too much about tactics … you just have to charge and trust your skiing.
“Coming into the race, I wasn’t super confident actually until a couple of days ago,” he said, citing limited opportunities to train over the summer.
“The first run felt super smooth … (but) the second run had a couple of tricky spots.
“So I was just happy to make it to the finish line and see the green light,” he added.
With the Winter Olympics in Sochi in February, he said he wanted to remain focused on the World Cup races.
“I think the best preparation for the Olympics is the World Cup season. It gives you confidence, it keeps you sharp and just that whole competitive atmosphere keeps you going and gives you the ability to really bring your best to the Olympics.”
Downhill world champion Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway, who had been one of the favourites, finished joint fourth with France’s Steve Missillier.
The World Cup next moves to Levi in Finland on November 16-17.
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Comment: Abbott needs to become less tribal
By Michelle Grattan, University of Canberra
Tony Abbott hasn’t lost his opposition mentality yet.
AAP/Matthew Newton
We used to wait 100 days to draw up an initial report card on a government but now we’re down to 50 days. Today is that milepost (since the election) and Tony Abbott made something of it at the weekend, telling the Tasmanian Liberal council on Saturday the government had made a “strong start” and listing what it has done.
The Coalition wants to appear to be operating in a more orderly fashion than Labor did, but also to give the impression of much activity.
It can point to producing draft legislation for the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes. Four weeks of parliament, starting mid November, have been scheduled.
The Audit Commission has been announced, with the task of recommending savings that would get the budget to a surplus of 1% of GDP before 2023-24. (A smaller surplus is being promised for earlier. Abbott said in an interview with Andrew Bolt last week: “We will get back to surplus at least as quickly as the former government claimed that it would get back”. That was 2016-17.)
The new government is seeking to re-energise the negotiations for a free trade agreement with China in particular. It has started to re-orient the NBN.
Abbott has been to Indonesia to discuss the boats issue (apparently the Indonesians were quite impressed with him, but less so with Immigration Minister Scott Morrison, who followed separately).
So, 50 days and a reasonable amount started of its pre-election undertakings. But some uglier features are appearing too.
Abbott just after the election declared: “I am very conscious of the fact that opposition leaders are tribal chiefs but prime ministers have to be national leaders.”
Despite this fine sentiment he and his government are being very tribal.
It is not just that ministers spend much of their time harking back to Labor’s record when they are answering questions about the economy and the like. That’s standard operating practice for new administrations.
More unjustifiable is the sort of spray Abbott gave the former government in an interview with the Washington Post, published last week. The convention – and surely Abbott, who prides himself on being a conservative, would like to see himself as a man who recognises convention – is that politicians show a certain restraint in talking to an overseas audience about their opponents.
But Abbott was entirely off the leash. Asked about Labor wanting under its NBN to extend fibre to every household, he said “Welcome to the wonderful wacko world of the former government”.
When pressed he went on: “I thought it was the most incompetent and untrustworthy government in modern Australian history.
“They made a whole lot of commitments, which they scandalously failed to honour. They did a lot of things that were scandalously wasteful and the actual conduct of government was a circus.
“They were untrustworthy in terms of the carbon tax. They were incompetent in terms of the national broadband network. They were a scandal when it came to their own internal disunity. They made a whole lot of grubby deals in order to try and perpetuate themselves in power. It was an embarrassing spectacle.”
Tell us what you really think, Tony!
It is reported today that the government is drawing up terms of reference for an inquiry into the Rudd government’s home insulation scheme, which saw several deaths.
Obviously still grieving families would like further investigation. But inquiries have already been held, and it is hard to avoid the conclusion that this is a very political operation.
Even more political is the proposal raised before the election to have an inquiry into the old AWU scandal involving Julia Gillard’s former boyfriend, in which she gave legal advice (she has always maintained she did nothing wrong).
The Coalition moved heaven and earth last term to use this affair against Gillard. If there is anything more to be done, that should be left to the relevant authorities.
A new prime minister does well to avoid trying to hunt down his predecessor, in this case predecessors. The people have made their judgement on them – it is unfortunate Abbott is not willing to be satisfied with that.
Listen to Nick Xenophon on the Politics with Michelle Grattan podcast, available below, by rss and on iTunes.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult to, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has no relevant affiliations.
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Wider plane seats help sleep
Relief could be on the way for passengers crammed into narrow seats on planes.
Aircraft manufacturer Airbus is calling on the aviation industry to set a minimum seat width of 18 inch (46cm) for long-haul aircraft.
The call comes after London-based research showed that sleep quality can improve substantially if seats are a little wider.
Airbus, whose planes’ wings are made in the UK, already has a 46cm minimum width in its long-haul economy cabins, with business and first-class passengers having wider seats.
“However, other manufacturers are eroding passenger comfort standards by going back to narrower seat widths from the 1950s in order to remain competitive,” the company says.”
Airbus released details of research conducted by Harley Street medical practice The London Sleep Centre.
Tests were done on a selection of passengers. These included monitoring brainwaves, eye, abdominal, chest, hip and leg movement.
The tests revealed that a minimum seat width of 46cm improved passenger sleep quality by 53 per cent when compared to the 1950s-style 17 inch (43cm) standard.
Dr Irshaad Ebrahim, of The London Sleep Centre, said: “The difference was significant. All passengers experienced a deeper, less disturbed and longer night’s sleep in the 18-inch seat.”
Kevin Keniston, Airbus’ head of passenger comfort, said: “If the aviation industry doesn’t take a stand right now then we risk jeopardising passenger comfort into 2045 and beyond – especially if you take into account aircraft delivery timetables combined with expected years in service. Which means another generation of passengers will be consigned to seats which are based on outdated standards.”
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Vettel wins historic 4th straight F1 title
P – Sebastian Vettel roared into the history books as Formula One’s youngest four-time champion after a superlative win on Sunday at the Indian Grand Prix.
Pole-sitter Vettel pitted early to change his soft tyres but then cut through the field to win by 30 seconds from Mercedes’ Nico Rosberg, with Lotus driver Romain Grosjean third.
The 26-year-old German becomes the youngest man to win four straight titles, joining Juan Manuel Fangio and Michael Schumacher as the only others to achieve the feat.
Despite teammate Mark Webber’s retirement with mechanical problems, Red Bull also sealed their fourth straight constructors’ title.
“Unbelievable day,” said Vettel over the team radio. “We did it! Yes! Yes!”
“You’ve done it in style,” Red Bull team principal Christian Horner said back. “Brilliant drive – you join the greats.”
With his fourth championship, achieved with 10 wins this season, Vettel levels French great Alain Prost on the all-time list with only Fangio (five) and Schumacher (seven) ahead of him.
He did doughnuts for a raucous grandstand, then leapt on top of his car and saluted fans before kneeling in front of the Red Bull in mock worship.
An emotional Vettel was hoisted onto the shoulders of Rosberg and Grosjean on the podium.
“First of all I want to thank the crowd for an unbelievable reception. I am speechless. I spent ages thinking what to say; there is so much you want to say at a time like that.
“It is a pleasure to jump in the car and go out and drive for the guys and give it all I have. The car was phenomenal today and has been phenomenal all season, to be honest.
“I want to say a big thank you to everyone who is behind the team. It has not been an easy season. From the outside, people will think it was easy but it wasn’t.”
Vettel said the enthusiastic applause from the Indian crowd was particularly sweet after he was unsportingly jeered after winning in Belgium, Italy and Singapore.
“It has been hard for me in particular. To be booed when I have not done anything wrong was hard, but I think I answered the things on the track which I am very pleased about.
“I am overwhelmed, I don’t know what to say but it is the best day of my life so far.”
Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, Vettel’s nearest challenger but 90 points adrift, managed only 11th place.
Vettel’s sixth win in a row, 10th in 16 races this season and 36th of his career left him poised to shatter more records in the remaining three races in Abu Dhabi, the United States and Brazil.
If he takes all three, Vettel will equal Schumacher’s record of 13 victories in 2004 and become the only driver to secure nine consecutive wins in a season.
Vettel, made a quick change to medium tyres after the second lap and dropped to the back of the field, but returned to second place by the 21st lap behind Webber.
He regained the lead in the 30th lap but then saw Webber drop out of the race in the 40th.
Red Bull ordered a stunned Webber to stop while in second place due to a problem with his car’s alternator.
“Disappointing, but there’s not much I can do,” Webber said. “There was something wrong with the car, so we had to stop straight away.”
Webber’s fellow Australian Daniel Ricciardo finished 10th in his Toro Rosso.
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Chinese gay apps surging but ‘acceptance’ still a rocky road
Chinese versions of the “hook-up app” Grindr are surging in popularity among gay men and women living outside the more liberal Beijing and Shanghai, serving up a dose of freedom for those who can’t come out to their families.
Gang Le, a former policeman, founded the Grindr-like app Blued,which allows gay men to use their mobile phone to search for potential partners nearby. Gang Le, who is gay and uses the app himself, says gay men and LGBT people in China’s so-called third and second tier cities make up 80% of the users.
But this statistic doesn’t surprise long-time followers of the gay scene here. Beijing-based gay activist and founder of NGO Queer Comrades, Xiao Gang is originally from Xinjiang, a sparsely-populated province – by Chinese standards – in the often restive northwest.
“Social media can help a lot in small cities. There are no gay bars, so you meet online,” he says.
Seeing the market grow has got gay dating site Xuanta founder Sense Lou planning the launch of a new location-based LGBT dating app before the end of this year.
Grinding with Chinese Characteristics
But sexually conservative attitudes permeate the online world too. On the homepages of gay-oriented dating sites Feizan and Xuanta (set up by a former engineer at Baidu, China’s search engine giant), users are politely urged to sign up for love, not sex: “We’re different to other dating sites, pornography, including pictures and videos, are not welcome!” Blued also instructs users to look for friends and love.
Regular Blued user, Harry Lui, a 31-year-old Beijing man who has studied in the UK, says men who contact him on the app “dance around the sex question.”
“In the US or in the UK, they will just go straight for it. [In] Beijing really they want the same thing, they’re just more coy,” he says.
Despite finding the instructions a bit puritan, and promoting the idea that “having a lot of sex is a bad thing”, activist Xiao Gang says social media has been good for the gay community. “Knowing that there are other people around you in the countryside going through the same thing helps people’s mental health,” he says.
Living in fear of being outed
With many LGBT people keeping their sexuality secret from their families, friends and colleagues, it’s no surprise that Blued’s tagline is “no longer lonely.” A 2013 study of Chinese gay men in Hunan province’s ‘second tier’ city of Changsha found one in ten were married to women. One in three experienced abuse in their relationships, mostly from male partners. This was five times more than their heterosexual peers in the control group.
Researchers Yu Yong, Shuiyuan Xiao and Kirin Qilin Liu from Sichuan’s University of Electronic Science and Technology interviewed 418 gay men. The research found that many of their male partners had threatened to out them when things got messy, while women who married gay men (or “gay wives”) used the threat to keep their partners from breaking up with them – an enormous loss of face.
Kirin Liu says many stay on in abusive relationships “because they think it’s very difficult to find someone else.” He added that the choice to stay in gay relationships put a lot of pressure on many interviewees.
The study found as many as one in ten gay men lived in fear of being outed by their partners – a threat particularly potent in China where Confucian traditions and the importance placed on having children keep many in the closet.
“Traditional Chinese culture is deeply rooted in the minds of many gay and lesbian people,” Liu says.
Private social media groups a low-key way to hook-up
Xiao Qu, 23 and from Chengdu in Sichuan province, hasn’t spoken to her father in 10 years. She is “lala” or lesbian. In a confrontation with her father she discovered that he didn’t just regard her sexuality as a bad thing – it was “truly horrible.”
After realising she was gay at 13, she first met another lesbian when she was 18.
“I thought I was so weird and couldn’t understand why I was made this way,” she says.
She now works in technology in Kunming, has many gay friends and meets other women online.
“There aren’t many gay bars here so we use private groups for single lesbians on (popular social media apps) Wechat and QQ to organize to hang out together,” she says.
“In small towns, it simply the most important thing for us.”
One step forward, another back
The rainbow is ever widening over the red nation. Chengdu in Sichuan is known as China’s gay capital (a “gay paradise!” Xiao Qu enthuses), Shanghai has an annual PRIDE festival and revelers keep gay clubs open every night of the week in capital cities.
But discrimination against LGBT people, while hard to measure, remains prevalent, and HIV. discrimination remains a serious concern in China. As recently as October, the Ministry Of Commerce drafted regulations to ban HIV-positive people from bathhouses.
Activists like Xiao Gang think sham nuptials signal that the country needs to have a bigger discussion about the pressures around marriage. In a recent interview, another gay activist and scriptwriter Cheng Qingsong called for the inclusion of gay people in popular television dating show “You Are the One”.
While Chinese society leaves some space for the expression of gay identities, Cheng said, the lack of legislation protecting gay rights combined with popular attitudes can put gay relationships out in the cold.
The Changsha study authors said the scarcity of sexual education programs fans popular notions that homosexuality is unhealthy. Kirin Liu warns many homosexuals in China were still under huge psychological pressure.
“No gay men we interviewed ever told anyone about the abuse they were experiencing,” he says.
“They had very limited sources of emotional support.”