Time asia 25 april 2016 vk com stopthepress

TheBrief HEALTH TRENDING EXECUTIONS The number of people put to death worldwide rose by 54% in 2015, according to Amnesty International. The total of at least 1,634 executions, the highest since 1989, was driven by Iran, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia. In the U.S., however, executions were at a 24-year low. Money May not buy happi­ ness (or love), but it might just buy more time to find it. In the most comprehensive look so far at longevity and income, researchers report in JAMA that people with higher incomes tend to live longer—though there were some interesting nuances that the researchers teased out. Contrary to what some experts predicted, there was no leveling­ off point where making more didn’t provide any added years. Overall, people with the top 1% in income lived 10 to 15 years longer than those at the bottom 1%. At the same time, having a lower income didn’t necessarily lead to the shortest lives—that varied greatly based on where SALT LAKE CITY Highest-income people live 88 years, on average people lived. People making the least but residing in cities like New York and San Francisco, for instance, lived longer than people in cities like Detroit and Tulsa, Okla. Experts suspect that’s be­ cause of public­health efforts, such as smoking bans and the re­ moval of unhealthy ingredients like trans fats. Research shows that people with lower incomes in cities with such policies tend to be less obese, smoke less and have better health behaviors than people in cities that didn’t ad­ vocate such health­promoting behaviors. The researchers say this data supports the idea that public­health policies can partly offset the effects of inequality. —alice park OKLAHOMA CITY Life expectancy for lowest-income group is 78 years LAS VEGAS Top earners live four years less than those in Salt Lake City NEW YORK CITY The lowest-income group lives to an average age of 82 GARY, IND. Here the lowest earners live to 77, on average Milestones WON The Masters tournament, by Danny Willett, who beat defending champion Jordan Spieth in one of the biggest upsets in the history of golf. It was Willett’s first major title and the first Masters win for an Englishman in 20 years. DIED Howard Marks, 70, legendary Oxfordeducated drug smuggler jailed for running an international hashish and marijuana ring in the 1970s and ’80s. After his release he wrote the best-selling autobiography Mr Nice. ▷ Will Smith, 34, former star defensive end for the New Orleans Saints. Police say Smith was fatally shot in New Orleans by a man who rear-ended his car in an apparent case of road rage. ▷ Ed Snider, 83, founder of the Philadelphia Flyers, the first expansion team in hockey to win the Stanley Cup. He also formerly owned the Philadelphia 76ers and a stake in the Philadelphia Eagles. DESIGN Rise of the ‘plyscrapers’ Wood is making a comeback as a building material with the development of engineered timber, an eco-friendly alternative used in “plyscrapers” around the world. —Tara John BUSINESS Five major U.S. banks, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase, are still “too big to fail,” federal regulators said April 13. The banks have until Oct. 1 to readjust their “living wills” to ensure they could go bankrupt without bringing down the economy. CANADA The 96-ft.-high Wood Innovation and Design Centre in British Columbia (right), built in 2014, has locally made engineered wood, like laminated veneer lumber, in its structure. AUSTRALIA Forte in Melbourne is a 105-ft. timber apartment building that uses crosslaminated timber (CLT), which is said to have the same structural strength as concrete and steel. BRITAIN The “Toothpick” is what Londoners are calling plans for a 984-ft. tower unveiled on April 8. The skyscraper’s architects say using timber will reduce the weight of the building. E X E C U T I O N S , B U S I N E S S : G E T T Y I M A G E S; S O C I E T Y: R E U T E R S; D E S I G N : E M A P E T E R — M I C H A E L G R E E N A R C H I T E C T U R E SOCIETY A remote aboriginal Canadian community declared a state of emergency after 11 members attempted suicide on a single day, on April 11. Mentalhealth experts visited the Attawapiskat First Nation tribe, which saw more than 100 suicide attempts over the winter. How income affects U.S. life spans TheBrief After a most violent year, an ailing city looks for signs of hope DEVIN ALLEN By Josh Sanburn/Baltimore ▶ For photos of West Baltimore, visit time.com/sandtown relationship dubbed the “Gray effect.” In his office with views of the east and west sides, Davis says the department has PTSD from the unrest and subsequent indictments of cops, something he believes led to the arrest slowdown. “The city was traumatized by what happened,” he says. After Davis took command, arrests increased by 20%. He’s emphasized a targeted approach to crime, including an effort with five federal agencies to focus on 600 of the city’s most dangerous criminals. And Davis says he’s tried to improve the department’s ties with the communities it serves. “I think that our relationships, particularly in West Baltimore, are stronger than they were last year,” he says. “But it’s not what it needs to be.” A change, however, isn’t apparent to everyone. “The people who didn’t trust the police before feel the same way now,” says Bamba Kane, 43, a West Baltimore resident. As the pews filled At New shiloh tor Catherine Pugh, who is campaigning Baptist Church on Easter Sunday, the on improving schools and creating theme of the Rev. Harold Carter Jr.’s jobs, at the front of the pack with Sheila sermon—Is Jesus Here Now?—seemed Dixon, a popular former mayor who refitting. Here in West Baltimore, where signed in 2010 as part of a plea deal on abandoned homes outnumber busiembezzlement charges. To Dixon’s supnesses and murders are often the only porters, however, that taint counts for thing that makes news, the past 12 less than the relatively low crime rate months have felt more like the devil’s during her tenure. work than that of a higher power. “If He Nationally, the most prominent is not here,” said Carter from the pulname in the race is Black Lives Matpit, “it certainly would explain a lot of ter activist and social-media star things.” New Shiloh sits at the spiritual nexus of a city awaiting resurrection. It was less than a mile away, on April 12, 2015, that Freddie Gray was thrown into a police van before dying of a spinal injury under stillmurky circumstances. It was here, in the sanctuary, that Before The ciTy erupTeD, Gray’s death was mourned Baltimore seemed poised for a as the latest evidence that comeback. The city had halted black lives don’t matter. And a decades-long population deit was four blocks away, at the cline. Murders were creeping Mondawmin Mall, that a condownward. And downtown’s frontation between teenagers Inner Harbor was starting to and police sparked more than evolve from a tourist showa week of peaceful protests piece into a real neighborhood. and sometimes violent riots. New projects like Port CovingThe year since has been eston, a multibillion dollar efpecially trying. Baltimore had fort led by Under Armour CEO 344 murders in 2015, the most Kevin Plank that would serve West Baltimore remains plagued by abandoned homes per capita in its history, and as the company’s headquaris on pace for more than 200 ters while housing a distillery, this year. The criminal trials of manufacturing space and a the six police officers charged in Gray’s DeRay Mckesson, 30. In the city, howpublicly accessible waterfront area, aim death have stalled. The police commisever, he’s polling under 1%. “Baltimore to revive that faded momentum. sioner was fired and the once popular is extremely parochial,” says Matthew The question is whether any of the mayor chose not to run for re-election Crenson, a Johns Hopkins University benefits will reach neighborhoods like after the unrest, setting off a crowded political science professor. those near New Shiloh, which few paid succession derby that will come to a Which means the election will turn any attention to until the city started head in the Democratic primary on on local concerns, not national deburning. Toward the end of the Easter April 26—which, in this overwhelmbates. And few things here matter more service, Carter offered an answer to his ingly Democratic city, might as well be than jobs and crime. Responsibility opening remark: “You don’t always have to see Jesus to know He’s here.” The same the general election. for the latter falls to Kevin Davis, who could be said of any of the tensions hangwas named police commissioner in ing over Baltimore these days, from the ThirTeen DemocraTs are running July. He took over at a time when viopending trials in Gray’s death to the fragto replace Mayor Stephanie Rawlingslent crime was soaring and arrests had ile peace. They’re all here, even if you Blake, all selling their own form of delivplummeted—a combination that Johns don’t always see them. □ erance for this city. Polls show state sena- Hopkins researchers who studied the 13 The Brief Dispatch Venezuela’s economic crash has led to a vast smuggling industry By Ezra Kaplan/Cúcuta, Colombia 00 Time April 25, 2016 △ A sign in a Cúcuta market advertises the exchange rate for Venezuelan bolivares Early Each morning Gabriela and Camila hitch a ride along a road that runs north from Cúcuta and traces the river that makes up the border between Colombia and Venezuela. They head past the small city of San Faustino and across the river into Venezuela. Once there, they meet a local who has purchased about 60 kg of beef at the Mercal, the state-subsidized supermarket, for the equivalent of just $54. By the end of the day, that same quantity of meat will be on a market shelf in Cúcuta, where it will sell for over $200. On one recent morning, the sisters hitched a ride back to Cúcuta from Venezuela. Along the way they had to pass back through San Faustino, where a police checkpoint was established to crack down on just this kind of smuggling. Their car was stopped, and as police officers began to inspect the plastic bags of meat in the trunk, Camila slipped a 10,000-peso bill— worth just over $3—to the police officer. After initially expressing concern over the goods, he decides everything is fine A L E J A N D R A PA R R A — B L O O M B E R G /G E T T Y I M A G E S Smuggling iS a way of life in The Colombian border town of Cúcuta—and for decades, that’s meant drugs. But in recent years it’s ordinary goods like gasoline or oranges or diapers that make their way from Venezuela to Colombia. The road into Cúcuta is dotted with illegal gasoline vendors, while the shelves of the local stores are stocked with products labeled ProduCed for The Venezuelan markeT. That’s because the combination of the extremely low valuation of the Venezuelan bolivar—it takes 800 bolivares to buy a U.S. dollar, compared to 200 one year ago—and the strong price controls that the Venezuelan government has applied to many basic goods has made it extremely profitable to buy just about anything cheaply in Venezuela and smuggle it into neighboring Colombia, where no such price controls exist and the local currency, the peso, is significantly stronger. Venezuela is hurting—for the second year in a row, Bloomberg ranked Venezuela as “the most miserable economy” in the world, and the IMF predicts that the country’s inflation rate will hit 720% this year, up from 141.5% near the end of last year. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has repeatedly blamed his country’s economic woes on both smuggling and the migration of people into Venezuela to take advantage of highly subsidized health ‘The few times that care and education. local police make But the truth is that big busts, it is often Venezuela’s economic problems have been building a punishment for since before the time of a certain group of smugglers failing to Maduro’s predecessor, President Hugo Chávez. pay off the proper Ninety-seven percent of authorities.’ Venezuela’s export revenue “EL JEFE,” comes from oil, which leaves Cúcuta-based smuggler the country high and dry when oil prices crash—as they have recently. With oil prices around $30 per barrel for much of this year, Venezuela is making only $30 billion per year off of exports to support a country of over 30 million people. “It’s amazing they have managed to stay afloat this long,” says Adam Isacson, a Colombian security expert at the Washington Office on Latin America. Though Maduro announced a crackdown on smuggling last year and closed the major border crossings, the financial incentive to keep goods flowing is high. Jeremy McDermott, co-director and co-founder of the NGO InSight Crime, estimates that the smuggling trade is back up to previous levels. And Colombian smugglers like Gabriela and Camila—two sisters in their 30s, each divorced, who work to support their mother and multiple children—are part of the reasons why. and allows the car to continue on. The sisters explain that the bribe is a daily cost of business. Since they are small-time, their rate is low, but for those engaged in larger operations, the bribes can be as high as $25 per shipment. Though San Faustino is nowhere near an official border crossing, fully loaded semitrucks rumble through the night along the patchy and sometimes dirt road, headed for Cúcuta, a town of 650,000 that’s more than an hour away. The neighborhood of Escobal in Cúcuta was once a busy and free-flowing crossing point between Venezuela and Colombia. Now, under orders from Maduro, the bridge has been blockaded to prevent any vehicles from passing, while police and customs agents check the papers of those who cross by foot. Even here, a location actively monitored by law enforcement, the smuggling is obvious. Those crossing east into the Venezuelan town of Ureña are usually empty-handed or just carrying a backpack. Those on the return path lug huge bags, often working in pairs just to carry the weight. Inside is everything from baby diapers to cooking oil to cigarettes—all illegal imports, all much cheaper in Venezuela than in Colombia. These commuters are mostly Colombian citizens who lived in Venezuela for years before Maduro announced a crackdown on both smuggling and migration following the murder of three Venezuelan soldiers who were looking for smugglers late last year. The government expelled over a thousand Colombians, while another 20,000 fled back over the border out of fear for their lives. Maduro accused many of the banished Colombians of being involved in the long-running Colombian civil conflict between the government and various paramilitary forces. However, many of these same Colombians had originally fled into Venezuela to escape that violence in Colombia and were now being forced to return. After months of negotiations, the two governments agreed to allow some Colombians to return to Venezuela for schooling or health care. But the border remains officially closed at night. In a land with rule of law that is vague at best, however, simply closing bridges at night isn’t anywhere near enough to stop the flow of contraband across the border, though it has pushed much of the activity to more rural areas. A few minutes’ walk downstream from the official crossing point in Escobal, smugglers gather under the shade of tropical trees on the riverbank waiting for work. They spend the day and night ferrying people across the border who don’t have the papers to cross the nearby bridge, or they pick up contraband brought back over the river by hikers or people on bicycles and deliver it to the market at the center of Cúcuta. They might appear harmless and disorganized—but they’re not. A ruthless paramilitary group controls this territory, like each of the areas along the border. Within Cúcuta there are about a dozen such groups, and they have a reputation for violence. Paramilitaryrelated murders are common in this part of Colombia. For many years Cúcuta was a stronghold of an armed criminal group called the Rastrojos, but they have weakened recently, and since 2011 the Urabeños, one of the most powerful criminal organizations in Colombia, has taken control of the contraband hub, according to InSight Crime. Less than 300 meters away from the riverbank is a police station. The motorcycles travel right past with their freshly smuggled contraband. Those police officers, like the majority of the police officers charged with cracking down on smuggling in Cúcuta, are paid off, explained “El Jefe,” a smuggler who has been in the business for decades. He got out of the drug business but still runs a profitable commodity depot where smugglers drop off and repackage goods coming from Venezuela. “The few times that local police make big busts, it is often a punishment for a certain group of smugglers failing to pay off the proper authorities,” says El Jefe. The majority of contraband moves over the border at night and arrives at the Cúcuta market in the early hours of the morning. At 1 a.m. wood-paneled trucks start pulling into large parking lots outside sprawling warehouses. They are filled with rice, citrus, onions, potatoes, plantains and any other kind of produce or commodity subsidized by the Venezuelan government. It’s the citrus that signals smuggling. Citrus isn’t produced in Cúcuta or any of the surrounding areas, which means it must have come from Venezuela. But much of the cargo is set for distribution elsewhere. Some of the fully loaded trucks back up to empty trucks with Colombian license plates. With both ends opened to each other, young men transfer the cargo and in the process increase the cost by more than tenfold. In other areas, they mix the illegal Venezuelan produce with legitimate Colombian produce so that the authorities have a harder time figuring out where the contraband is. As the sun begins to rise, the trucks head out for the rest of Colombia. Meanwhile, Gabriela and Camila head back to Venezuela to pick up a new haul of meat. At the end of the day, the two sisters will make a combined $20 for their day’s work, money that will have to support their household of nine people. “There is no other work,” says Gabriela. “If we don’t do this, we don’t have money.” • 00 LightBox Light the night Demonstrators light smoke during a rally in support of President Dilma Rousseff in Rio de Janeiro on April 11, after a congressional panel voted to recommend impeachment proceedings. A vote by the full lower house to decide whether she will face trial is set for April 17. Photograph by Mario Tama— Getty Images ▶ For more of our best photography, visit lightbox.time.com