The Weekly Lift - December 19, 2022
Saad Bounjoua MS
Writer, former corporate executive, geopolitics specialist, and Ph.D in International Relations candidate. Passionate about global affairs, understanding the world's problems and ways to solve them.
The Editor's Page
Dear Readers
As we prepare to bid farewell to 2022, The Weekly Lift is also taking a break until the New Year and will resume publishing on January 25th, 2023.
It is impossible to summarize this year in a few paragraphs but let's reflect on a few notable events of the last twelve months:
Let us also be reminded that 2022 was the first year of relative post-COVID freedom worldwide (except perhaps in China). We have begun to reclaim the lives we had before the pandemic. Beyond social contact, entertainment and travel, this has meant access to livelihood and addressing basic needs for billions of people.
It isn't easy to make predictions for 2023. Still, we can share a wish list that includes the end of the war in Ukraine, the easing of tensions between the United States and China, a quick recovery in the event of a global economic recession, increased action on climate change. We also hope for a global effort to continue reducing extreme poverty as the world's population reaches eight (8) billion.
Over the last 12 months, The Weekly Lift has worked hard to bring positivity to our readers, amid gloomy headlines. We have looked back at all those stories and selected five articles published during the year, covering human rights, diversity, global development, humanitarian assistance, international relations, and climate. Each of these articles tells a story of hope, courage, optimism, and solidarity, which are the core values defining the mission and purpose of this newsletter.
We hope you agree with our selection. If you think we missed your favorite article(s), please share your thoughts and recommendations by DM or in the comment section of today's post.
To all our loyal subscribers, thank you for your continued support. The Weekly Lift wishes you happy holidays and a healthy, prosperous 2023.
With warm regards,
Saad
Select curated articles published in 2022, in chronological order*
International Relations: How A Novelty Plane Restaurant In Palestine Is Keeping Dreams Of An Independent State Alive
The Telegraph (UK) reported in January, that "it took two decades, cost a hundred thousand dollars and was nearly scuppered by the outbreak of war. But the dream of two Palestinian brothers is finally ready for take-off, as they open a patriotic restaurant in a converted Boeing jet atop a mountain.
Ata and Khamis al-Sairafi, both 60, bought the decommissioned plane in 1998 and will fully open the venue in the Spring 2022, with a grand ceremony featuring costumed flight attendants.
It is not the first time a plane has been converted into a restaurant, with similar themed restaurants opening in Costa Rica, Colorado and even Bolton in the UK. But this remote venue has a political twist: it is a poignant symbol of the Palestinians' enduring hopes of becoming an independent state.
The West Bank, which the Palestinians claim as their own land, currently has no airport, while their freedom of movement is controlled by the Israeli military. For many visiting the restaurant, it will be their only opportunity to step on board a commercial aircraft.
One of the last remaining Palestinian airports, Yasser Arafat International in the Gaza Strip, closed in 2000 during the Second Intifada, the Palestinian uprising against Israel. Israel bombed its radar station and bulldozed the runway over the following two years.
The restaurant has already been decked out with posters of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president and King Abdullah of Jordan, whom the brothers regard as national heroes. Arrivals and departures signs are also being set up in the courtyard where the plane sits, on the outskirts of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.
"It took us 20 years to make this dream happen," Ara al-Sairafi told the Daily Telegraph as he smoked a shisha pipe on the tarmac next to his so-called plane to nowhere. "People love the idea, it's an entertaining spot for a day out."
Israel controls entry and exit points in the West Bank, which according to the Israeli human rights group B'Tselem "forces Palestinians to live in constant uncertainty, making it difficult to perform simple tasks and make plans." Israel says the restrictions are essential for national security, and that Palestinians can fly from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv or from neighbouring Jordan if they have a permit.
Even so, it means that for some Palestinians, eating a meal on a disused plane in the middle of nowhere could be the closest they get to a holiday abroad.
The Oslo Accords which were signed roughly around the time the brothers were purchasing the plane, are far from delivering the two-state solution that at the time had filled Palestinian leaders with optimism. More recently, the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2020, which saw Israel normalize with Gulf neighbors Bahrain and the UAE, has left the Palestinians diplomatically isolated.
During a preview of the restaurant during the summer, "people brought their kids to show them how travel works, because as Palestinians we are deprived of such things,” Mr Sairafi said. "As we don't have an airport in Palestine, people felt it was important to have a plane, even if it's not in an airport," he said. "It gives people enthusiasm and excitement about flying."
Mr. Sairafi said it took so long to open the restaurant due to disruption caused by the second intifada, some financial difficulties and more recently the coronavirus pandemic. And it was no easy task getting the plane, which was purchased in the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona, up to their home in Nablus. It had to be disassembled and then moved on trucks for a hundred miles up the mountainous terrain.
Some hurdles still remain, even as the opening day approaches. The brothers are still working on the menu, which will likely offer up a mix of hummus, falafel, coffee and shisha pipes. They are also undecided on allowing visitors to smoke shisha inside the plane, which has novelty value but risks turning the venue into a smokebox.
"That was the idea," Mr Sairafi says as he inspects the plane's interior. "But I think it might be too much."
Humanitarian Assistance: A Viral Photo Helps Bring Syrian Refugee Family To Italy
The New York Times (US) reported in January, that "the award-winning photograph — of a man who had lost a leg in a bomb attack in Syria, hoisting into the air his son, born without limbs, another casualty of the country’s civil war — went viral last year in Italy.
On Friday, Munzir El Nezzel, the man in the picture, and his son Mustafa arrived in Italy after a remarkable effort by the organizers of the Siena International Photo Awards (link provided below), to bring them and their family from Turkey, where they had fled after Syria.
“We are coming, thank you,” the 6-year-old Mustafa said, smiling broadly, in a video message recorded before he and his family — father, mother and his two sisters ages 1 and 4 — boarded a plane in Ankara on Thursday to fly to Italy. “We love Italia,” he added.
The picture of Mustafa and his father, both with loving smiles, which was taken in January 2021 by the Turkish photographer Mehmet Aslan, and called “Hardship of Life,” was declared photo of the year at the Siena awards last year.
The emotional and shocking picture made headlines in Italy, and spread internationally on social media, spurring the festival’s organizers to take action and start a fund-raising drive to get treatment for father and son.
The festival’s organizers contacted diplomats, hospitals, rehabilitation centers and the Catholic diocese in Siena to host the Syrian family, so that Mustafa and his father could get treatment and prosthetics.
“The picture was beyond all imagination,” said Luca Venturi, an engineer who founded the Siena photography festival, which bestowed the award, about six years ago. “We thought we could also go beyond our fear of not being able to do anything for this family.”
Like all countries, Italy can issue visas for humanitarian reasons, but refugees need to be sponsored by a local organization that handles paperwork and provides financial support.
Motivated by the success of the crowdfunding effort, the nonprofit that organizes the photography festival decided to sponsor the Syrian family.
As Mr. Venturi worked his connections in Italy, trying to get permission to bring the family from Turkey, he kept regular contact with Mr. El Nezzel via WhatsApp, using Google translate to communicate in Arabic with the 33-year-old father of three.
Mr. Venturi also sent aerial shots of Siena’s walled medieval city center to explain to the family, who had lived without a television for a decade, where they were going to move.
Mr. El Nezzel responded with exclamation points.
When the family was told this month that their visas had come through, “they were in disbelief,” Mr. Venturi said, adding that in a video, Mustafa did somersaults and laughed, shouting “I love you” to him.
Mustafa was born with a congenital disorder that resulted from medications that his mother had to take while pregnant with him, after she was sickened by nerve gas released during the war in Syria. He will need long-term treatment to be able to walk or live more independently. His parents currently carry him around and one of his two sisters also helps him around the house.
Prosthetics experts in Italy will meet with Mustafa and his father in coming weeks to design new artificial limbs. Mr. El Nezzel’s treatment is likely to be easier because he is an adult. Working with a 6-year-old will be more challenging, according to the doctors and engineers of Italy’s leading rehabilitation and prosthetics center.
Gregorio Teti, the director of the facility, the Centro Protesi Inail, in Vigorso di Budrio in northern Italy, said that the father could recover most of his mobility in a few weeks.
For Mustafa, the process could be longer, starting with simple prosthetics on his upper limbs that are usually easier to accept and get accustomed to. Later, engineers will design artificial limbs around Mustafa’s hips.
As Mustafa grows, his prosthetics will have to be adjusted to his changing body. “As a child, he has time on his side,” Mr. Teti said. “Research will probably allow him to drive a car and get to work autonomously when he is older.”
But he will also be facing the challenges of migrating to a foreign country, learning a different language and creating a new life.
“Leaving your home country is always an enormous jump, but we hope to help them find a new home here,” said Anna Ferretti, who is in charge of the city’s branch of Caritas, a Catholic aid association that is offering the El Nezzels an apartment on the outskirts of Siena and will cover their daily financial needs for a year.
“This is a small city and the solidarity network is strong,” she said. “Together, we are going to make it.”
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Heroes of Ukraine: The Ordinary People Fighting For Their Lives In Face Of Russian Aggression
The Telegraph (UK) reported in February, that "across Ukraine, ordinary people are taking up arms and demonstrating striking bravery in the face of Russian aggression.
As the invasion continues, with civilians in the capital being urged by Ukrainian officials to prepare Molotov cocktails, we are seeing the emergence of everyday heroism – from the soldiers refusing to back down on Snake Island to the man who gave up his own life blowing up a bridge to prevent a Russian crossing.
Here, we pay tribute to the Ukrainians fighting for their lives and freedoms amid the conflict.
A Ukrainian woman telling a Russian soldier to put sunflower seeds in his pocket so that flowers will grow when he dies on Ukraine’s soil has emerged as one of the extraordinary scenes of defiance from the front lines of the Russian invasion.
The unnamed woman was filmed voicing her outrage at a soldier blocking a street in a residential area of the port city of Henichesk in southern Ukraine, which, according to local media reports, has been occupied by the Russian army who have erected roadblocks.
The video released on Twitter by the Ukraine World account shows the woman standing about a metre from the armed soldier and angrily demanding why he is there. “You’re occupants, you’re fascists!” she says as he tries to claim he is part of a military exercise. She adds: “Take these seeds and put them in your pockets so at least sunflowers will grow when you all lie down here."
“Put the sunflower seeds in your pockets, please. You will lie down here with the seeds. You came to my land. Do you understand? You are occupiers. You are enemies.” Sunflowers are Ukraine’s national flower.
The tweet of the video went viral, with 88,000 likes and more than 27,000 retweets within a few hours, and many chimed in to praise the woman's courage. “Ukrainians are bad ass,” commented one Twitter user. “This woman is my hero,” said another.
A more chilling video emerged from Snake Island in the Black Sea, where an entire garrison of 13 Ukrainian border guards were killed after refusing to surrender to the Russian Navy.
One Ukrainian solder livestreamed the attack in a short clip of a few seconds where the boom of heavy weaponry can be heard in the background before he drops to the ground.
Tiny Snake Island, also known as Zmiinyi Island, is about 30 miles off the coast of Ukraine and marks the edge of its territorial waters.
The garrison’s final act of resistance has become a rallying cry for the public after Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, said they had “died heroically” while trying to protect the island.
"All border guards died heroically but did not give up. They will be awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine posthumously," Mr Zelensky said.
A separate audio clip, posted to Facebook by Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian interior minister, appears to relay an exchange between a Russian naval officer and the soldiers, in which they are told to surrender to “avoid bloodshed” as the warship approaches.
In the audio exchange, which could not be independently verified, the Russian officer says: "This is a military warship. This is a Russian military warship. I suggest you lay down your weapons and surrender to avoid bloodshed and needless casualties. Otherwise, you will be bombed." A Ukrainian soldier allegedly responds: "Russian warship, go f*** yourself.
On the second day of the fighting, another unnamed hero emerged when a Ukrainian citizen attempted to block the passage of a Russian convoy. He was filmed standing in front of tanks as they made their way through the country.
Vitaly Skakun sacrificed his life to blow up the Henichesky Bridge near Kyiv, in an attempt to block the passage of Russian soldiers. Faced with a column of Russian tanks advancing towards the bridge, a decision was made to destroy it using mines. However, Skakun didn't have enough time to leave the area and detonate the mines remotely, so he contacted his battalion to let them know that he would do it from where he was.
Shortly afterwards, an explosion was heard - successfully destroying the bridge but also killing Skakun.
A social media post from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said: "His heroic deed significantly slowed the advance of the enemy, which allowed the unit to redeploy and organize the defense" and that he would be nominated for a national award."
Philanthropy: Patagonia Made Him A Billionaire. Now He’s Giving It Away To Save The Climate
The Los Angeles Times (US) reported in September, that "Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is giving his company away — to planet Earth, he announced Wednesday.
“I never wanted to be a businessman,” Chouinard wrote in an open letter announcing the transfer of his roughly $3-billion controlling stake in the company to a trust and a nonprofit.
It’s a sentiment he’s expressed time and time again, telling the Los Angeles Times in 1994: “I can sit down one on one with the president of any company, any time, anywhere, and convince them that growth is evil.”
Chouinard and his family transferred their voting stock to the newly established Patagonia Purpose Trust, which will ensure that Patagonia maintains its commitment to corporate responsibility and donating its profits. The rest of the company, about 98% of its shares, was donated to the Holdfast Collective, a nonprofit organization that will receive all of the company’s profits, roughly $100 million a year, and use them to fight climate change.
“This is one of those heart-stopping moments when the apparently impossible becomes suddenly possible — and then ultimately, through a dazzling display of leadership, inevitable,” said John Elkington, a pioneering authority on corporate responsibility and sustainable development who is credited with coining the terms “green growth” and “triple bottom line.”
The Ventura-based outdoor apparel company was founded on Chouinard’s love of the great outdoors. He grew up in Burbank and took to climbing the Tehachapi Mountains in his teens, surfed along Highway 1, and eventually became a skilled rock climber who lived out of his car in the Yosemite Valley.
In 1957, he started by creating his own line of reusable climbing spikes that were hammered into the rock. When he discovered his hardware was severely damaging the rock, he phased out of that business and introduced an alternative in 1972 — and it quickly became a hit with climbers. In an early catalog, he espoused the importance of enjoying the wilderness while preserving it, leaving no trace behind.
“We have always considered Patagonia an experiment in doing business in unconventional ways,” Chouinard wrote in his book “Let My People Go Surfing.” “None of us were certain it was going to be successful, but we did know that we were not interested in ‘doing business as usual.’”
Over the decades, Patagonia has displayed a unique brand of corporate activism backed by its commitment to sustainability. In 2018, the company changed its mission statement to something plain and direct: “Patagonia is in business to save our home planet.” In more recent years, its environmental activism has extended directly into the political sphere as well. Elkington said the announcement was “totally in character, yet still blew my socks off.”
Chouinard’s move puts Patagonia “light-years” ahead of other corporations aspiring to balance business interests and social responsibility, Elkington said. “For me, Yvon has always represented true north,” Elkington said. “And hundreds of CEOs and other business leaders will now be forced to reconsider their own takes on the climate challenge.”
Politics: Holocaust Survivor Opens Senate Session With Far-Right To Govern Italy
The Los Angeles Times (US) also reported in October, that "Italy’s fascist past and its future — which will be governed by a party with neo-fascist roots — came to an emotional head Thursday when a Holocaust survivor presided over the first seating of Parliament since last month’s general election.
Liliana Segre, a 92-year-old senator-for-life, opened the session in the upper chamber, subbing in for a more senior life senator who couldn’t attend. Her speech formally launched the sequence of events that is expected to bring the far-right Brothers of Italy party, which won the most votes in the Sept. 25 election and has its origins in a neo-fascist movement, to head Italy’s first far-right-led government since the end of World War II.
Speaking to the Senate, Segre marveled at the “symbolic value” of the fact that she was presiding over the proceedings as Italy soon marks the 100th anniversary of the March on Rome, which brought fascist dictator Benito Mussolini to power, and as war rages once again in Europe with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Today, I am particularly moved by the role that fate holds for me,” Segre told the hushed chamber. “In this month of October, which marks the centenary of the March on Rome that began the fascist dictatorship, it falls to me to temporarily assume the presidency of this temple of democracy.”
Segre was of the few Italian children who survived deportation to a Nazi death camp, and she has spent recent decades teaching Italian schoolchildren about the Holocaust. Her advocacy led President Sergio Mattarella to name her a senator-for-life in 2018.
In her speech, Segre choked up as she recalled the Italian laws that once forbade Jewish children like her from attending school. “It is impossible for me not to feel a kind of vertigo, remembering that that same little girl who on a day like this in 1938, disconsolate and lost, was forced by the racist laws to leave her elementary school bench empty. And that, by some strange fate, that same girl today finds herself on the most prestigious bench, in the Senate.”
Her emotional remarks brought the 200 senators to their feet in applause, including the Brothers of Italy delegation headed by Ignazio La Russa. La Russa, who once proudly showed off his collection of Mussolini memorabilia, was elected Senate speaker later Tuesday.
Taking up his post, La Russa presented Segre with a bouquet of white roses and praised her “moral” leadership. “There is not a word that she said that didn’t deserve my applause,” he said, promising also to serve all political forces in the chamber.
The Brothers of Italy, headed by Giorgia Meloni, has its origins in the Italian Social Movements or MSI, which was founded in 1946 by former Mussolini officials and drew fascist sympathizers into its ranks. It remained a small far-right party until the 1990s, when it became the National Alliance and worked to distance itself from its neo-fascist past.
Meloni was a member of the youth branches of MSI and the National Alliance and founded Brothers of Italy with La Russa in 2012, keeping the tricolor flame symbol of the MSI in her party logo. During the campaign, amid warnings that she represented a danger to democracy, Meloni insisted that the Italian right had “ handed fascism over to history for decades now", and had condemned racial laws and the suppression of democracy.
Segre didn’t refer to the party by name in her speech, but she said Italian voters had expressed their will at the ballot box. “The people have decided. It is the essence of democracy,” Segre said. “The majority emerging from the ballot has the right to govern, and the minority has the similarly fundamental obligation to be in the opposition.”
Looking ahead to the upcoming legislature, she called for a civilized debate that does not degenerate into hateful speech and respects and implements the Italian Constitution, which was drafted in 1947 by a constituent assembly of anti-fascist forces.
Segre recalled the Constitution was not some “piece of paper, but the testament of 100,000 dead who fell during the long fight for freedom,” a reference to the Italians who fought Nazi-fascism.
She cited in particular the Constitution’s Article 3, which states that all Italian citizens are equal under the law “without distinction of sex, race, language, religion, political opinion or personal or social condition.”
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*Please note that certain headlines and articles may have been modified or summarized to fit the format of the newsletter.
If you have come across a positive headline or article in the last two weeks or are interested in contributing to future original content, please contact me directly on LinkedIn.