U.S. Sanctions On Iran Are So Bad, Women Have Run Out of Birth Control

Iran has never been touted as a bastion of human rights, economic equality, or political freedom. But although many of Iran’s problems can be blamed on the regime itself, the U.S. is increasingly playing a major hand in hurting the innocent bystanders of an international chess game between itself and its Persian adversary.

Iran is facing a growing health crisis due to international sanctions levied against the regime. Many essential medicines including birth control, cancer treatment drugs, and equipment needed to maintain vital hospital functions are becoming increasingly scarce.

Iran’s leadership is not free from blame. Former President Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei did little to alleviate the problem, but when digging a little deeper, it becomes apparent that there may not be much they can do short of completely revamping Iran’s political, economic, and military architecture.

The U.S.-led push to sanction Iran into space has made it extraordinarily difficult to ship anything to the country, not just medicine, which is supposed to be protected from the grip of such action. But given that banks and shipping companies face stiff fines for breaking any type of sanctions law, it has become excruciatingly difficult to find anyone willing or able to send medicine to Iran with speed and in necessary bulk. As a result, Iranians are forced to rely on expensive and sketchy black market medicines.

Further, even if Iran were to slowly moderate their tone in exchange for certain concessions from the West, it may not be fast enough given the extreme level of difficulty in removing sanctions against the country. Not only have such sanctions become law, necessitating an act of Congress to overturn, but powerful lobbying organizations like the America Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) will make it nearly impossible to do so.

U.S. lawmakers recently announced a bill for another painful round of sanctions against the country, in essence giving the middle finger to the new Iranian president, who actually ran on a platform of easing sanctions against his country.

Even Iran’s wily Chief of General Staff Hassan Firouzabadi recently said that the military is ready to remove itself from economic activity, a vital step toward easing sanctions against his country. But given that the U.S. is playing power politics with this new round of economic jabs, Iran may be helpless, regardless of the concessions the regime is willing to make.

As is all too common, cold wars, no matter the size, tend to hurt the citizens of involved countries while pushing the leadership to double down on faulty doctrine. Unless more moderate, creative, and brighter minds prevail on both sides, the beleaguered majorities will continue to endure the fallout.

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National Zoo Tiger Cubs Are a Reminder Of How Much We Need Zoos

Earlier this week, two Sumatran tigers were born at Washington's National Zoo. Kids and big cat enthusiasts will be delighted — there are only about 500 of these tigers left in the wild. With 65 of these tigers now in captivity in the U.S. alone, and breeding programs like these a key objective, what should the role of zoos be in preserving species? Ideally, they should maintain close linkages with conservation programs in preserved habitats and raise awareness about wider environmental issues through the use of charismatic animals.

Roughly about 15% of threatened bird, reptile, mammal and amphibian species are currently in zoos. No zoo's breeding program is intended for a species to persist entirely in captivity. There have been great successes over the years — Przewalski's horse, the black-footed ferret, and the California Condor for example — have all been successfully bred in captivity and reintroduced into habitats. They were all on the brink of extinction and have made it back successfully.

Of course, some disagree with the use of zoos. PETA declares, "Despite their professed concern for animals, zoos can more accurately be described as 'collections' of interesting animals than as actual havens or homes." The standard of care in zoos varies wildly and there is indeed in terrible abuse. Moreover, increased stress levels from captivity inhibit the fecundity of some species. That hampers the objective of keeping these species in captivity in the first place.

Overall, those like PETA get it wrong. Zoos are indeed collections of animals, not homes. But they exist because of habitat destruction and species exploitation and are a stopgap measure against complete extinction. Those that are not for-profit operations are major components in a network of scientific institutions looking to implement what is known about the state of different species and improve the situation.

While zoos work on those issues, they also use it to raise awareness with the wider public. A lot of our modern concern with the loss of species has to do with the proliferation of zoos, nature films, and other cultural products that allow us to have experiences with nature.

But at the same time, that representational function only goes so far. When it comes to the crisis of biodiversity, the threat to the sum of all life, charismatic megafauna are only part of the story. It's biodiversity as a whole that matters. It is a potent source of innovation for medicine as a well of genetic diversity, direct use as natural resources, and as critical actors in the biogeochemical cycles that govern planetary functioning.

No matter how you spin it, the crucial nitrogen-fixing fungus or the photosynthetic phytoplankton is not going to catch the public's eye like a magnificent Sumatran tiger. We need zoos to preserve them, both for their potential role in their natural habitats, and to inspire us, as kids and grown-ups, to realize just how important biodiversity is.

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Why Are Chinese Workers At Apple Suppliers Foxconn and Pegatron Trying to Commit Suicide?

Tian Yu, a 17-year old Chinese employee of Foxconn, Apple’s chief supplier and manufacturer of tablet and smart phone devices, was in a coma for 12 days after her suicide attempt.

At Foxconn, her managers made her work over 12 hours a day, often without a day off for up to two weeks, and attend unpaid work meetings on top of that. Tian Yu’s demanding work schedule in Foxconn’s sweatshop-like conditions forced her to skip meals and accept the manufacturer’s restricted toilet break policy. Her resolve eventually cracked when the company didn’t pay her the meager month’s wages of approximately $215 due to an alleged administrative error, prompting her to jump out of her dormitory window.

In 2010 alone, 18 workers, all of whom were 25 and younger, attempted to jump to their deaths. This is no doubt why Foxconn placed a net below its employee’s dormitories. Foxconn’s blatant worker rights abuses and sweat shop-like conditions on their assembly line is indicative of a wider problem in the consumer electronics industry: The general unwillingness of both companies and their vendors to truly regulate and improve workers’ conditions.

Manufacturers like Foxconn predatorily target young, poor migrants from the countryside to work at their abysmal factories due to their economic and social vulnerability. Once there, Foxconn crowds them into dorms and assembly lines to begin work with absolutely no training. The shift begins with managers asking the employees “how are you?” The staff must reply “good, very good, very very good.” After that, the overseers enforce silence throughout the remainder of the shift.

Despite Foxconn’s draconian worker conditions and policies, they make razor-thin profit margins on the tablets and smart phones that they sell to Apple. To ensure a slim profit, Foxconn likely feels it must employ ethically and productively dubious management policies, enforcing inhumanely long hours and low pay.

To give further incentive to Foxconn’s behavior, the manufacturer is now competing with Pegatron for Apple’s business as CEO Tim Cook seeks to diversify the company’s supply chain. Although Apple and Pegatron both refuse to comment on the terms of their arrangement, the Wall Street Journal reports that Pegatron will accept even lower profit margins.

As expected in conjunction with lower profits, Pegatron tries to recuperate its losses, shifting the burden onto its employees to produce more and more as quickly as possible, unsurprisingly leading to more horror stories. China Labor Watch documents Pegatron’s abuse towards its 70,000 employees as it takes business from Foxconn. The labor rights organization found that conditions at Pegatron were even worse than at Foxconn, with 86 labor rights violations, including child labor, withholding employee pay, excessive hours, and taking employee identity cards so that they cannot leave. To add insult to injury, Pegatron factories also pollute the local water supply.

In 2012 Apple had to introduce labor reform regulations for its manufacturers due to public pressure over conditions in its Foxconn factories stemming from a comprehensive report from the Fair Labor Association. Nonetheless, Apple largely enables Foxconn and Pegatron to ignore its own labor policies, rendering the 2013 Apple Supplier Responsibility Progress Report little more than a PR smokescreen.

In the report, Apple stipulates a cap of 60 hours per week for employees, except in unusual circumstances wherein the employer can exceed that cap. In contrast, unenforced Chinese labor laws cap hours at 49 per week, meaning that the Chinese government has more rigorous labor rights standards than Apple. In violation of both Apple regulations and Chinese labor laws, most Pegatron employees work 66 to 69 hours per week while Tian Yu likely worked over 84 hours per week at Foxconn.

Despite Apple CEO Tim Cook’s token calls on his suppliers to improve working conditions, Apple has not provided any assistance, financial or otherwise, to implement more rigorous employee protections. It has not even considered renegotiating its contracts with Foxconn and Pegatron more favorably, which would allow the manufacturers more flexibility in implementing basic human rights standards as the managers wouldn’t need to resort to such extreme, inhumane measures just to turn a narrow profit. When the Guardian tried to reach Apple’s press office for comment, it told the news outlet that “it did not discuss such matters,” instead referring it to the toothless supplier responsibility report.

Although Apple, the industry giant, is naturally taking the most heat for its ethically dubious worker’s rights practices, China Labor Watch also found that Samsung’s suppliers practiced the same human rights violations in its factories. This is clearly an industry-wide problem and if electronics companies continue to shift all the blame onto the suppliers it chooses, rather than step up and take concrete action, suppliers will continue to abuse their workers.

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What One Year At PolicyMic Has Taught Me About Growth

Editor's Note: Every Thursday, I'll be rounding up my favorite pieces from the past week so that PolicyMic Pundits can more easily read and comment on the great content being written about sex, sexuality, gender, and race in politics and culture, in addition to updates from our community and GIFs galore! You can subscribe to get updates delivered straight to your inbox.

On Monday, PolicyMic moved into our new office space. Our move has been a long time in the making. The space which comfortably housed 8-12 people when I began at PolicyMic (one year ago next week!) can no longer contain our operation.

While we tend to think of our growth in terms of numbers, tools, and systems, growth can also be defined as a process toward fulfillment. PolicyMic is a young operation with a young staff working for young people. As our numbers multiply, our attention must turn from expansion to maturation. We must consider what our contributions to our community mean. As more and more people gain access to new ways to tell their stories, at PolicyMic and beyond, it can be harder and harder to actually hear the stories we're constantly being bombarded with. Instead, we are more and more focused on telling our own story in response ... as we should be, since certain stories are still lost, certain stories are still not told, certain stories are still devalued, and certain stories are still suppressed.

So how to distinguish? As Professor Matthew Kaiser argues, "We have convinced ourselves that creation is intrinsically meaningful. We create for the sake of creating, as though the act of making something — money, ideas, babies, art, technology, love — were an end in itself, a self-evidently good thing. As any true artist will tell you, however, it is the grinding work of taking care of those created things, nurturing and cultivating them, that gives them value. To appreciate means to hold onto something."

What is often lost in all the excitement over platforms like PolicyMic is what they are actually used to create. An explosion of user-generated content — a proliferation of stories — is all well and good in the age of the online curator, but what of the work of the web editor?

For me, editing is the work of appreciating, recognizing the quality, significance or magnitude of, being fully aware of, being thankful for. It's been the utmost of pleasures to have grown as your editor in the past year, and to watch you grow.

I'm on vacation next week, so here's an extra GIF to tide you over:

Updates From Our Pundits:

Join our community for a two-day discussion of the 'b-word' and LGBTQ rights in Russia organized by Liz Plank and Jake Horowitz, featuring contributions from Olympic athletes, LGBT activists, elected officials, and PolicyMic Pundits. Not sure what's happening? Be sure to read Jared Milrad's excellent piece from last week, "This Dutch Activist Was Arrested For Even Talking About Gay Rights in Russia."

Pundit Jaclyn Munson profiles editor Liz Plank at Onward and F-Word. (Speaking of Liz Plank, can you spot her appearance in this article by Syreeta McFadden at Feministing?)

Check out Wagatwe Wanjuki on The Daily Show!

Congratulations to PolicyMic's Suzanna Bobadilla, Wagatwe Wanjuki, and the other folks involved in launching the new Know Your IX website this week!

What did you do last week? I'll share any outstanding writing achievements in our community, and highlight the great work that all of our Pundits do offline as well. If you have anything you'd like for me to include about yourself or a fellow PM writer, please send it along!

Must Reads From Last Week:

Why I’m Proud to Be a Part Of Know Your IX (Suzanna Bobadilla, @suzbobadilla) — Everyone should take notice of the anti-sexual-violence movement's newest digital resource
[4 Mics, 1 Comments, 4 Shares]

Women Buy Designer Products to Keep Their Men (Easha Acharya, @eashakiren) — The University of Minnesota has published a new study that claims that female consumers buy designer items to shield their significant other from female rivals
[11 Mics, 18 Comments, 1 Shares]

Manhattan: The New Suburban Sprawl (Chloe Stillwell, @chloekillwell) — Gentrifiers have to take responsibility for gentrifying, and until they can acknowledge that truth and harness its power for good, big business will keep replacing your bars with Starbucks.
[10 Mics, 5 Comments, 3 Shares]

Here's How to Grow New Farmers (Meredith Slater, @merslater) — Monterey, California-based cooperative ALBA Organics is teaching migratory workers how to start, develop, and operate their own organic farms.
[7 Mics, 12 Comments, 8 Shares]

This Ohio Town Will Discriminate Against Minority Commuters Even If It Costs Them Millions (Pierce Willans) — The Beavercreek City Council in Ohio is fighting a federal order that it approve bus stops into its community that carry minority riders, or face a loss of federal funds.
[4 Mics, 26 Comments, 26 Shares]

Why Did the Media Ignore Yesterday’s Immigration Reform Rallies? (Matthew Rozsa, @MatthewRozsa) —The media gave the Tea Party ample demonstration during its various protests. Why aren't liberal grassroots movements being treated similarly?
[7 Mics, 12 Comments, 21 Shares]

3 Women’s Issue Stories I’m Tired Of Reading (Natalie Smith, @Nsmith10) — The stories about women that we need to stop writing.
[21 Mics, 55 Comments, 76 Shares]

Here’s How You Know We’re Not Living in a Post-Racial Society (Luke Waggoner, @lukewaggon) — In quick succession, a case about affirmative action at the University of Texas and a verdict in the Trayvon Martin case remind us we've got a long way to go.
[5 Mics, 15 Comments, 13 Shares]

Can This Superhero Save Pakistan? (Sania Salman) — The first animated series produced in Pakistan, Burka Avenger, proves to be a promising way to address social injustices in the country. So why is the superhero's costume such a hot topic?
[21 Mics, 21 Comments, 217 Shares]

The GOP Backlash to Climate Change Deniers Begins Now (Christopher Round, What One Year At PolicyMic Has Taught Me About Growth@CRoundJudoBio) — The heads of the EPA under Reagan, Nixon, and both Bush administrations call for action on climate change, and they're not alone.
[7 Mics, 53 Comments, 51 Shares]

Thanks for reading! Please encourage friends to subscribe here. Send me your feedback, give me a tip for what I should be reading, and tell me how I can do better: sam@policymic.com.

Subscribe to Sam Meier's Feminist Weekly

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10 Memes to Help You Celebrate Eid

Eid is here! After one tough month of hunger and thirst, you're done with Ramadan. That means its time to indulge in all the things you've been avoiding all month. Think of all the food you can eat now, all the water you can drink, and all the awkward Eid hugs you're going to have to give. No more mandatory praying with the family. No more watching television all day because there is nothing else to do. It's Eid! Dig in; you're hungry. Until next year, Ramadan. Until next year.

1. Bye, Ramadan. Hello, Eid!

Via: Diylol.com

2. Back To Chain Smoking

Via: Ramadan Memes

3. Early Eid. Haram?

Via: Ramadan Memes

4. Break That Fast, Pack on Those Lost Pounds

Via: Ramadan Memes

5. Bring It In ... So Many Unwanted Eid Hugs

Via: S Photos

6. You're Never Too Old For An Eid Gift

Via: Angry Pakistan Blogger

7. Skinny Never Felt So Hungry

Via: SomeECards

8. We Can All Look Up Now

Via: Ramadan.sg

9. It's Eid! No More Rules

Via: troll.me

10. Apology Accepted?

Via: SomeECards

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How Many Terror Threats Does the U.S. Get Every Day?

On Sunday, the U.S. closed 21 embassies across North Africa and the Middle East and plans to keep 19 of them closed through Saturday. The State Department said that the closings were made out of “an overabundance of caution,” as the intelligence community has reported high risk of a major attack in the works by Al-Qaeda’s cell in Yemen, known as Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). Some have said that the current threat is the most serious since 9/11. Some European nations have also closed their Yemen embassies as a result.

The closings come as the Obama administration also struggles to defend controversial NSA surveillance programs. But just how unusual is the threat behind the current embassy closings?

Twelve years after the start of the “Global War on Terror,” administration officials have been keen to say that Al-Qaeda and similar terrorist organizations have been severely weakened. This is especially true after the death of Osama bin Laden. But a State Department report has also stated that as terrorist organizations become more fragmented, the threat they pose becomes more diffuse. Affiliates in other parts of the world have become more independent.

Those diffuse threats translate into literally thousands of tips about terrorism threats every day. In 2010, the FBI’s online tip line alone received an average of 700 messages a day. Then there are the tips from people calling in to local authorities, walking into embassies to make a report, and, of course, the “chatter” we’ve been hearing about in announcements about the weekend’s embassy closings. All told, the National Counterterrorism Center gets about 8,000-10,000 potential threats a day.

The intelligence community learned about this latest threat after intercepting communications between Ayman al-Zawahri, Al-Qaeda’s new leader, and Nasser al Wuhayshi, the leader of AQAP. Officials said it was unusual for such high-level operatives to communicate directly about an attack, which is why the intercepted communication led to such a major response from the U.S.

AQAP has become the most powerful and operationally active Al-Qaeda affiliate, despite the administration’s ongoing drone campaign in Yemen. This has led some experts to question the efficacy of the drone campaign.

In a New York Times interview, Princeton Yemen scholar and author Gregory Johnsen asked, “If the Obama administration is confident that its strategy in Yemen is correct, then why is Al-Qaeda growing in Yemen and why is the group still capable of forcing the U.S. to shut down embassies in more than a dozen countries?”

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Mic Check: This Photo Perfectly Sums Up Obama’s Relationship With Putin

1. Obama Cancels High-Profile Meeting With Putin

President Obama on Wednesday canceled a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin scheduled for September; it was the first time since the Cold War the U.S. has canceled plans with Russia. The White House cited a range of issues, including Edward Snowden’s asylum and human rights issues, as reasons for canceling the meeting. The canceled meeting could jeopardize a nuclear arms reduction Obama has been trying to hammer out with Putin and hamper efforts to end the conflict in Syria: The U.S. needs Russia to pressure Bashar al-Assad to step down.

More from around the web:
• This photo perfectly sums up Obama’s relationship with Putin (WaPo).

• Russia wants Edward Snowden’s advice on cybersecurity (CS Monitor).

More from PolicyMic:
• The Cold War Between Obama and Putin Just Heated Up Big Time (Rachel George)


2. Women Accuse San Diego Mayor Of Preying On Vets

Two women veterans accused San Diego Mayor Bob Filner of sexual harassment on Wednesday, bringing the total number of claims against Filner to 13. Eldonna Fernandez and Gerri Tindley say Filner used his connections with a veterans group to take advantage of vulnerable women. Tara Jones, the president of the National Women’s Veterans Association of America, says 7 or 8 of her members have received unwanted sexual attention from Filner; most of them are survivors of sexual assault. Filner entered a two-week therapy program on Monday but says he will not resign.

More from around the web:
• Here are the stories of the 13 women who have come forward against Filner (Atlantic).

• The NY Times has a video of vets describing Filner’s unwanted advances.

More from PolicyMic:
• We Don’t Care About Politician’s Sex Lives, We Care About Their Lies (John Giokaris)


3. Study Finds Military Suicides Not Linked to Combat

A study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association this week says the recent spike in military suicides may not be linked to deployment or exposure to combat. Researchers looked at data from 2001-2008 and found the risk factors for suicide in the military were the same as for civilians. However, the study says war increases hardship on soldiers and may heighten other risk factors. “Perhaps it’s not being deployed so much as being in a war during a high-stress time period,” said the principal investigator for the center that provided the study’s data.

More from around the web:
• This soldier’s tragic suicide note illustrates the toll war takes on veterans (Gawker).

More from PolicyMic:

• How Many Soldiers’ Suicides Will It Take For Us to Change Our Foreign Policy? (Robert Taylor)


4. Japanese Nuclear Plant Leaking Waste Into Pacific

A Japanese official revealed on Wednesday that the Fukushima nuclear plant is leaking 300 tons of water contaminated with nuclear waste into the Pacific Ocean every day. The plant was damaged by the tsunami that struck Japan in 2011, and it’s possible contaminated water has been leaking ever since. The Independent says experts believe the leak will require the most complex nuclear clean up the world has ever seen. It could take over 40 years and $11 billion to reverse the damage from the contaminated water.

More from around the web:
• National Geographic has incredible footage of the tsunami that ravaged Japan.

More from PolicyMic:
• The Fukushima Nuclear Plant is Still Leaking 300 Tons Of Waste a Day (Nick Demas)

5. Researchers Announce Groundbreaking Privacy Agreement

Health officials announced an unprecedented agreement on Wednesday that looks to balance scientific advancement with the need for privacy. The agreement concerns the cells of Henrietta Lacks, a poor black woman who died in 1951 from cervical cancer. The cells from Lacks’ tumor have been used in more than 74,000 studies since her death. The National Institutes of Health and Lacks’ family agreed to store Henrietta’s genome in a private database in response to two studies that would have made her genetic info available to the public. Scientists will have to balance research and privacy for years to come: Researcher Eric Lander says “tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands” of patients will have to share their genetic info for scientists to cure cancer.

More from around the web:
• How scientists are teaming up to end cancer (TIME).

More from PolicyMic:
• Would You Sell Your DNA For Better Facebook Ads? (Andrea Ayres-Deets)


DESSERT
• Inside McDonald’s efforts to win over millennials with the McWrap (Bloomberg).

• This is what happens when a porn star finds God (BuzzFeed).

• What's making the monkeys at this Dutch zoo act so strangely? (NPR)

• Find out how exercise affects how you learn (Well).

• Guess which continent is home to 14 of the 15 most optimistic countries? (PolicyMic)


Thanks for reading!
Nick

Want do you think about the topics in today’s Mic Check? What’s more important, patients’ privacy or scientific research? Share your thoughts with me on Twitter @nicholascbaker.

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