The Trump Generation /Elvis and Nixon Forever

04.29.2016

THERE
WILL BE
BLOOD Get Over It

PERIOD STIGMA IS HURTING THE ECONOMY,

SCHOOLS AND THE ENVIRONMENT.
BUT THE CRIMSON TIDE IS TURNING
Light. Powerful.
Brilliant. Beautiful.
Work. Play.
Unparalleled.

2-in-1 Tablet
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 04.29.201 VOL.166 NO.16

+
DOUBLE WHAMMY: As
the Greek economy
shows little sign of
improvement, over
50,000 refugees are
trapped in the coun-
try, creating what
Prime Minister Alexis
Tsipras has called a
warehouse of souls.

18 Politics
Generation
Trump

20 Intelligence
A Face Only
Big Brother
Could Love

NEW WORLD

46 Innovation
Shr!mp

48 Brain
25 Is the
New 18

52 Environment
Pulp Fiction
FEATURES DEPARTMENTS

DOWNTIME
24Periods With an BIG SHOTS
Exclamation Mark 56 Movies
I Am Not
Women around the world are changing laws, 4 Rio de Janeiro
a Nixon!
mores and even technology to make menstruation Tide of
Resentment
safer, cheaper and more a part of everyday life. 60 Photography
After centuries of silence and shaming, the period 6 Cairo Superfund
Island Giveaway
is nally having a moment. by Abigail Jones Superstar
8 Mashiki, Japan
Pacific Shakes 63 Television
34 Greeks Bearing Thrift 10 Lesbos, Greece
Two Questions
With David Tennant
Another economic crisis is looming, and Europes Drawing Attention
most downtrodden country is scrambling 64 Rewind
to cope with tens of thousands of refugees. 25 Years
How does it survive? by Naina Bajekal
A N G E LOS T ZO RT Z I N I S/A F P/G E T T Y

PAG E O N E

COVER CREDIT: PHOTOGRAPH BY YASU + JUNKO 12 Nepal

Tin City
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NEWSWEEK 1 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
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WRITERS

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS

Carolina Buia Sean Elder Kevin Maney

David Cay Johnston Elizabeth Isaacson Roberto Saviano
RICARDO MORAES/ REUTERS
BIG
SHOTS

BRAZIL

Tide of
Resentment
Rio de JaneiroA boat
bearing a banner that
translates to Dilma
Out passes by Brazils
Copacabana beach
on April 17. On public
screens across the
country, thousands of
Brazilians watched the
National Congresss
Chamber of Deputies
vote to begin impeach-
ment proceedings
against President
Dilma Rousseff; 367 of
the 513 deputies voted
in favor of ousting
Brazils first female
president over corrup-
tion charges, sending
the proceedings to the
Federal Senate. Rous-
seff has continued to
maintain her inno-
cence, but once the
Senate agrees to con-
sider impeachment,
her presidency will
be suspended for 180
days. Although her
political survival now
looks doubtful, several
likely successors are
also being investigated
for corruption.

RICARDO MORAES
BIG
SHOTS

EGYPT

Island
Giveaway
CairoProtesters call
for Egyptian Presi-
dent Abdel-Fattah
el-Sissis resignation
on April 15, following
his decision to hand
over to Saudi Arabia a
pair of Red Sea islands
Egypt had held since
1950. Thousands here
and in Alexandria
expressed frustration
about the coun-
trys political state,
chanting slogans from
the 2011 Arab Spring
and likening el-Sissi
to ousted President
Hosni Mubarak.
The protests were
some of the largest
public demonstra-
tions in Egypt since
el-Sissi criminalized
unapproved protests
in 2013.

IBRAHIM EZZAT
IBRAHIM EZZAT
KO SASA K I / T H E N EW YO R K T I M ES/ R E DUX
 BIG
SHOTS

JAPAN

Pacific
Shakes
Mashiki, Japan
Homes lie in ruin
on April 17, one day
after a powerful
magnitude-7.3 earth-
quake and three days
after a magnitude-6.2
quake struck the same
region, according to
the U.S. Geological
Survey. Dozens of the
areas mostly wooden
homes crumbled; at
least 42 people were
killed, and nearly
250,000 were advised
to leave their homes
for fear of more
earthquakes. It was an
extremely active few
days in the quake-
prone Pacific Ring of
Fire: Ecuador was hit
by a magnitude-7.8
temblor that killed at
least 350 people and
injured 2,000.

KO SASAKI
BIG
SHOTS

GREECE

Drawing
Attention
Lesbos, GreecePope
Francis discusses a
childs drawing during
his tour of the Moria
refugee camp on April
16. The pontiff and
local religious leaders
met with refugees in
various campsites on
this island, putting a
spotlight on Europes
controversial deal
with Turkey to end
the refugee crisis.
Francis offered
prayers for refugees
who have died trying
to cross the Mediter-
ranean from Syria,
Afghanistan and war-
torn regions of Africa
in hopes of reaching
Europe. The pope
invited 12 Syrian ref-
ugees to accompany
him on his return
flight to Rome, where
they will be cared for
by the SantEgidio
religious community.

FILIPPO MONTEFORTE
F I L I P P O M O N T E FO RT E / R EU T E RS
 P A G E
WILDLIFE NEPAL POLITICS
TIN CITY
One year later, survivors of Nepals
devastating earthquake are living in
barely adequate temporary shelters that
seem likely to become permanent
IT WAS A MIRACLE, the Nepalis say, that the
2015 Gorkha earthquake, which registered a
magnitude of 7.8 and shook their Kathmandu
Valley onto the world stage, happened on a Sat-
urday morning. Throughout rural Nepal, chil-
dren were in their home villages instead of away
in the schoolhouses, and most everyone was out
in the fields planting, picking, cooking and play-
ing. When the ground rumbled on April 25, the
people swayed, fell to their knees in the dirt and
felt their hearts race as they looked out across
the valleys and saw homes topple. When the
shaking stopped, they ran through the switch-
backs carved into the terraced hills to their
stone-and-mud homes, most constructed at
great cost and with their own hands over many
years, to assess the damage.
Over 600,000 houses crumbled that day,
according to the Ministry of Home Affairs (some
300,000 more were partially damaged)but
NEWSWEEK 12
O N E
RUSSIA INTELLIGENCE ISIS
only around 9,000 people died; consider that
the death toll of Haitis 2010 quake is thought
to be well above 100,000. The people of Nepal
counted their blessings and resigned them-
selves to making a new life.
A year later, roads have been cleared and busi-
nesses have reopened; the traffic in Kathmandu
is again making rush hour unbearable, and the
city air unbreathable. But most of the rubble
remains, and state-of-the-art, earthquake-
resistant structures have not risen from the dust.
In fact, among the dozen or so villages I visited
in the first week of April 2016, not a single ruined
home had been rebuilt. Instead, the majority of
Nepali families who lost their houses now reside
in precarious temporary dwellings made of cor-
rugated metal, plastic tarpaulin and whatever
other materials they could salvage. BY
This was not the plan, of course. But in the ELIJAH WOLFSON
months following the earthquake, the cost of @elijahwolfson
0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 +
HOMECOMING:
Prapti Parajuli,
10, walks through
the ruins of the
three-story home
where she lived
with her family
MIGUE L SAM PER

before the quake.

NEWSWEEK 13 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

PAGE ONE /NEPAL
building materials skyrocketed thanks to mas-
sive demand, and while people sought shelter
under tarps, they were scrambling for necessi-
ties like food and clothingmost lost not only
their homes but also all their possessions. The
government of Nepal tried to help, assess-
ing the damage as quickly as it could and pro-
viding families that lost their homes 15,000
Nepali rupees (about $140) to tide them over.
Six months later, when government officials
realized survivors were still living day to day
and with winter on the way, another 10,000
rupees ($94) per family was distributed for
blankets and warm clothing.
The government has promised an additional
200,000 rupees ($1,881) to help rebuild but has
yet to deliver. People come and go but never do
anything. Weve yet to receive anything, says
Tejkumati Nagarkoti, a 52-year-old woman liv-
ing in a temporary shelter in Bajrabarahi. There
were about 120 houses in this hillside commu-
nity before the earthquake; just three or four are
still standing. Nagarkoti says that for a while her
neighbors would regularly visit the local govern-
ment office to ask for financial help. The last time
they went was two months ago, though. Peo-
ple give up, my translator tells me, because the
answer is always the same: Later. (Even if that
money comes through, model designs the gov-
ernment has circulated estimate that the cheap-
est house meeting the newly instituted building
code standards will cost 500,000 rupees, more
than double the government pledge.)
The old houses in this region tended to be
two stories and comfortable; the metal walls
of the new homes turn them into ovens in the
summer and offer no insulation in the winter.
One woman tells me she wraps herself in three
blankets when she goes to bed and still shivers
through the night. In Kharelthok, Ganga Mainali
struggles to take care of her 10-month-old baby
boy. Her husband suffers from a severe mental
disability; if he doesnt take his medication, he
becomes violent, but the medication makes him
sleep all day, which means that neither Mainali
nor her husband can work. Soon after the earth-
quake, she says, the police came to their village
and told them they had to clear the rubble that
NEWSWEEK
remained from their fallen two-story stone-
and-mud home. But the polic didnt help them
rebuild or provide any shelter. They were given
15,000 rupees, but, says Mainali, that went
immediately to buy medicine for her newborn.
I miss my old home, she says. Both Mainali
and her husband seem to be in a post-traumatic
state: Im afraid of the aftershocks, she says.
I sleep by the door so I can run.
Nighttime is particularly frightening for women
and children. At night, Im scared someone
drunkardswill get in the house, says Prapti
Tamang, a 24-year-old living in a one-room shack
in Nagarkot. She is alone with her 5-year-old son
in a house with no locks and walls made of tin.
The doors are weak, and anyone can break in.
The fear, she adds quietly, is of rape. Since before
the quake hit, Tamangs husband has been living
and working in Qatar, sending money home. This
is common in Nepal; more than 2 million Nepali
nationals are currently working abroad. There
are 12 households here in Ward 11 of Nagarkot,
and in six the father is thousands of miles away.
In other parts of Nepal, new communities
have been formed. Laxman and Hariyama
Gonga used to live with their children and
grandchildren in a five-story home in the city of
IM AFRAID OF
THE AFTERSHOCKS.
I SLEEP BY THE
DOOR SO I CAN RUN.
Bhaktapur; the family ran a shop on the ground
floor. Now the elderly couple lives with about
60 other families in the Libali Internally Dis-
placed Persons Camp, where 100-square-foot,
one-room tin sheds are packed wall to wall like
freight containers on a cargo ship. Each houses
up to six people; some members of the Gonga
family live here, while others are dispersed
through the district. In the center is a courtyard
where children play, and one of the sheds acts
as a shared kitchen. Residents help one another
gather water, sew blankets and track down food.
The hardest part of living in the Libali IDP
camp, residents say, is the lack of water and san-
itation. For the first three months, the munic-
MIGUE L SAM PER
ipality provided drinking water, but then they
stopped supplying because of fuel shortages,
says Narayan Prasad Khaitu, president of the
14 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 +
MAKING DO: Sabita
Parajuli now lives
in a temporary camp management committee. Now, to get
structure that she drinking water, residents leave the camp and
and her husband
have done their either use the tap of a friend or family member
best to make nearby, or walk 15 to 20 minutes to the nearest
comfortable, but it
has little insulation public tapwhich runs just once a week and for
and is vulnerable one hour at a time, Khaitu says. Estimates are that
to another quake.
117,000 IDPs live in this sort of camp in Nepal.
Throughout Nepal, water has become a press-
ing concern. The earthquake destroyed nearly
5,200 water supply systems and 220,000 per-
sonal toilets, says Ram Chandra Devotchka,
director general of the Department of Water Sup-
ply and Sewage. In some cases, tanks cracked or
pipes broke. In others, the shifting earth changed
groundwater levels or stream flow, causing water
sources to suddenly disappear. Around 1.14 mil-
lion people are now in need of a consistently safe
supply of drinking water, and 1.04 million do not
have access to usable toilets. At first, says Pyati
NEWSWEEK
Nagarkoti, a 32-year-old resident of Bajrabarahi,
we lived in tents. Food was more pressing than
rebuilding. Now, after a year, its water. We cant
grow vegetables. We cant bathe, and we cant
properly clean the children.
The financial requirements to fix these prob-
lems nationwide might be insurmountable.
According to a Post-Disaster Needs Assess-
ment prepared by Nepals National Planning
Commission, the total amount required to fully
recover and rebuild is estimated to be $6.6 bil-
lionabout one-third the annual gross domes-
tic product of Nepal. The World Bank predicts
Nepals annual GDP growth rate will plummet
from around 4.5 percent in the early 2010s to
just 1.7 percent in 2016, and UNICEFs Nepal
representative, Tomoo Hozumi, says an esti-
mated 700,000 to 982,000 people have been
pushed into poverty after the quake.
15 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

PAGE ONE /NEPAL
Meanwhile, inflation is rampant. When the
April 2015 earthquake hit, Nepal was still gov-
erned by an interim constitution; in September
2015, a final constitution went into effect and
was immediately met with controversycer-
tain ethnic minorities felt it did not address the
needs of their communities. Protests began,
and a blockade was put into place along check-
points at the Nepal-India border, leading to a
fuel shortage across Nepal, which triggered fur-
ther price increases. While food prices are now
returning to normal across the country, markets
and market access in earthquake-affected areas
have not returned to normal in many areas, says
Pippa Bradford, the World Food Program coun-
try director for Nepal. In the hill
villages of Bajrabarahi, for exam-
ple, a sack of rice that cost 500
rupees before the quake costs
1,800 as of April 2016.
OVER 1 MILLION PEOPLE
The experience of other NEED A CONSISTENTLY
countries devastated by natu- SAFE SUPPLY OF DRINKING
ral disasters is not encouraging.
Recovery from the 2005 Kash-
WATER AND DO NOT HAVE
mir earthquake in Pakistan, for ACCESS TO USABLE TOILETS.
example, has been exceedingly
slow, to the point that many
gave up hope and migrated, says
Emily So, director of Cambridge Universitys
Centre for Risk in the Built Environment. After
the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, an unprecedented
amount of aidat least $13.5 billionwas
pledged and donated. Nevertheless, six years
later, real rebuilding still has not begun in ear-
nest. Even in the U.S., it wasnt until July 2012,
nearly seven years after Hurricane Katrina, that
the Federal Emergency Management Agencys
temporary housing was cleared.
In Nepal, the rebuilding process is largely in
the hands of the National Recovery Authority,
the agency formed to supervise and distribute the
$4.1 billion in international aid and donor funds
that have flooded into the country. The NRA has
been widely criticized for the glacial speed at
which it has been working. Government inter-
vention has been slow, admits Devotchka of the
Department of Water Supply and Sewage. But its
difficult to put the blame squarely on the NRA. It
NEWSWEEK
took over six months to establish the authority,
and then we had to finalize the legal framework
and the human resources needed, says Sushil
Gyawali, the NRAs chief executive officer, who
was appointed in December 2015. Finally, after
the government announced the monetary relief
schemes, the number of those claiming home-
lessness suddenly shot up from about 570,000
households to about 770,000, and the NRA was
called upon to do a complete reverification, fur-
ther setting back the recovery timeline.
Meanwhile, the people had no choice but to
begin constructing something better than tarps.
The effort that some families have put into their
temporary homes suggests that they understand
it could be yearseven decadesbefore they
save enough to rebuild properly. Everywhere I
went, I saw families working together to improve
their tin shedspouring better foundations, add-
ing reinforced studs, building covered porches,
second rooms and even second floors. Before
the 2015 earthquake, 31-year-old Prakash Para-
juli and his family lived in a three-story stone
house built by his father. I grew up there, he
says. When I saw the damage, I cried. Only the
clothes I had on remained. I cried for a week. But
life couldnt be spent under a tent. So he laid a
raised clay foundation that sets their new home
apart from the surrounding properties and engi-
neered a patio with built-in flowerpots and crop
gardens, set off by a trim of angled bricks; its
covered by a rooftop held up by wooden beams
painted periwinkle and is Pinterest-ready.
But despite the pleasing aesthetics, the home
has weak bones, and it does not keep out the
cold in the winter or the heat in the summer.
We are afraid every time there is a storm,
says 31-year-old Sabita Parajuli. Her 10-year-
old daughter, Prapti, sometimes wakes up from
nightmares, crying, and there have been over
400 aftershocks, an ongoing terror to Sabita,
who knows their temporary home is just that.
If another earthquake happens, she asks,
what are we going to do?
16 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 Estimated
total
TWO Estimated
total
population population
of wild tigers, of wild tigers,
2010 2016
NUMBERS
UMBER

A Country Can Change Its Stripes

ASIAN GOVERNMENTS ARE FINALLY HELPING TIGER POPULATIONS REBOUND

For the past century, the
number of tigers roaming
the Earth has declined
precipitously. In 1900, for
example, an estimated
100,000 tigers prowled
the wilds of Asia, a num-
ber that had declined 97
percent by 2010. The big
cats are killed primarily
by poachers, who seek the
animals for their skins,
as well as body parts they
can sell for use in tradi-
tional Chinese medicine,
despite zero evidence of
medicinal value. Habitat
ILLUSTRATION BY VIDHYA NAGARA JAN
Their population has ris-
en slightly. In 2010, there
were an estimated 3,200
tigers in the wild. New es-
timates suggest that there
are now just under 3,900.
The increase has primar-
ily been seen in India,
Russia, Nepal and Bhutan,
says Ginette Hemley,
a senior vice president
with the World Wildlife
Fund, which collated and
released the popula-
tion estimates in April.
The improvement has
been driven by political
countries with tigers.
In Nepal, for exam-
ple, tiger numbers have
increased by 63 percent in
the past five years. Today,
India has by far the most
tigers, with an estimated
total population of 2,226,
followed by Russia (433),
Indonesia (371), Malaysia
(250), Nepal (198), Thai-
land (189), Bangladesh
(106) and Bhutan (103).
But we cant be imals still roam freeset
complacent, says Barney
Long, with the environ-
mental group Global
like China, he adds. Much
still needs to be done in
Southeast Asian coun-
tries, including Malaysia
and Indonesia, where
comprehensive estimates
havent been undertaken,
and not all tiger countries
have made major com-
mitments to protect the
animals, says Hemley.
In 2010, the tiger-range
countrieswhere the an-
a goal of doubling popula-
tions to more than 6,000
by 2022, the second year

loss also takes a toll, commitmentsincluding Wildlife Conservation. of the tiger in the Chinese
as does conflict with increased enforcement Poaching remains an calendar. We have a long
encroaching humans. against poachers and ever-present threat, and ways to go to reach that
Theres finally some better protections of tiger it will exist as long as the target, Hemley says.
good news for these habitatespecially by demand for tiger prod-
endangered animals: Central and South Asian ucts remains in countries BY
DOUG MAIN
SOURCES: WWF, NATIONWIDE SURVEYS OF TIGER-RANGE COUNTRIES @Douglas_Main

NEWSWEEK 17 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 PA G E O N E/ P O L I T ICS

GENERATION TRUMP
These beer-guzzling fratsters say theyre
fueled by the tears of liberals and want
to make America...well, you know

IF YOURE LISTENING right now, youre one of

the lucky ones that survived the Chalkening.
Thats how the fraternity-and-Southern-
college-culture brand Old Row, which runs a
website for shopping and discussion, opened
its weekly podcast on April 6. The line, fit for
an apocalypse movie, referred to a campaign
by Donald Trumps young supporters on college
campuses. Their weapon of choice: chalk.
In late March, after pro-Trump messages
written in sidewalk chalk at Emory Univer-
sity in Atlanta triggered anti-Trump protests,
the national organization Students for Trump
instructed its members to carry out more chalk-
ings. The idea apparently came from Dan Scav-
ino, Trumps social media director, who on
April 1 posted on Twitter about what he called
#TheChalkening. Students for Trump picked up
on the effort, as did Old Row, which spread word
to its more than 400,000 social media followers.
Even the candidate voiced support for the
movement, writing on Facebook about an ear-
lier version of this Newsweek article, I am very
grateful for the support of college students
across America. Togetherwe are going to
MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
The response was overwhelming. Students such as Make America great again, and depic-
from more than 100 colleges submitted verified tions of the man himself. At the University of
photos of chalkings in which the school name Tennessee at Chattanooga, students wrote, We BY
was clearly identifiable, according to Old Row. want the wall, a reference to the wall Trump has MAX KUTNER
They consisted mostly of the moguls slogans, promised on the Mexican border. At Alfred Uni- @maxkutner

NEWSWEEK 18 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 versity in New York, they wrote, Trump 2016
build that wall. Additional messages appeared
at Oklahoma State University, Ohio State Uni-
versity, North Carolina State University, Ari-
zona State University, University of Alabama
and elsewhere. Students at the University of
North Carolina at Greensboro even appeared to
have used paint. We should take the Chalken-
ing international and try to get it done on like the
Taj Mahal, an Old Row podcaster said.
Experts on youth voters say Trumps support-
ers on campuses belong to a new breed of col-
lege Republicans, even if some of them seem
more interested in taking photos for Snapchat in
Make America great again hats or showing off
Trump-branded beer pong tables than trying to
educate classmates who disagree.
Trump is the first politician in a long time
to not care about political correctness, an Old
Row representative says via email. (The brand
C H I P SO M O D EV I L L A /G E T T Y
WE DONT NEED
NO EDUCATION: operates anonymously.) But its not just about
Liberty University Trump. Political correctness on
students attend
a Trump rally on college campuses has started
campus in Lynch- turning into actual political tar-
burg, Virginia,
in January.
+
geting, which we felt needed to
be highlighted, and that is what
WE SHOULD TAKE THE
#TheChalkening is all about. CHALKENING INTERNATION-
Students for Trump claims thou-
sands of members and hundreds of
AL AND TRY TO GET IT DONE
chapters in dozens of states. Ryan ON LIKE THE TAJ MAHAL.
Fournier, its national chairman and
a freshman at Campbell University
in Buies Creek, North Carolina, says
he started it as a Twitter account in September.
Within a month, it had 15,000 followers, Fournier
says, and so he brought on help and began
recruiting state directors. We decided with our
large following we should really turn this into
something big, says Andrew Nixon, Students for
Trumps national field director and a freshman at
Brunswick Community College in North Caro-
lina. Now the student-run effort has directors in
each of the states where it has chapters, plus more
than 55,000 social media followers.
While Students for Trump is not affiliated
with the Trump campaign, Fournier says the
campaign encouraged the group to expand.
Members do groundwork to support the candi-
date, such as finding volunteers for campaign
offices and rallies, making phone calls to poten-
tial supporters and tabling at campus events.
Despite the heightened visibility of Trump
chalkers, Katy Harriger, a professor at Wake For-
est University and an expert on youth voters, says
todays college students skew liberal because
they came of age during the Obama presi-
dency. You can think of them as the Obama
NEWSWEEK
Generation, she says. Theyre also the most
diverse generation, and so there are more people
in the age group who represent traditional Dem-
ocratic constituencies.... This generation is also
frequently called the most tolerant generation.
The pro-Trump movement on campuses, Har-
riger says, is likely a response to those factors,
especially for members of Greek life who are fac-
ing a crackdown on college campuses on frater-
nity culture because researchers have claimed it
promotes binge drinking and sexual assault. One
might call this minority Generation Trump.
Harriger also says the rhetoric from both
parties during this election cycle has never been
so aggressive, and the pro-Trump student move-
ment seems to be more intense than previous col-
lege Republican movements. (#TheChalkening:
Fueled by the Tears of Liberals, says an image on
Students for Trumps Instagram feed.)
On both the left and the right, theres this
really strong feeling out therethat the system is
broken, she says. The students for Trump are
coming at that from the right, and the students for
Bernie are coming at that from the left.
Despite the pro-Trump momentum, some
conservative students at liberal schools say
they feel afraid to voice their political views.
The outcry at Emory over its Trump chalkings
made national headlines, and the New York Post
recently reported that Trump supporters at New
York University are afraid to show their faces.
Ive been labeled as a white supremacist, a
racist, a KKK person, all of this, says Nixon.
Fournier says members have faced verbal attacks
and threats. This presidential election will be
the first in which many of Students for Trumps
leaders can vote, including Fournier and Nixon.
Right now, the systems broken, Fournier says.
Mr. Trump has laid out a foundation for how we
are going to go forth and fix these problems. I
understand hes not perfect. Hes not going to be
able to do it overnight. Theres no perfect candi-
date. Also, he adds, the wall isnt a bad thing.
Ive idolized him, Nixon says, and he will
make this country, you know, great again.
19 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
PAGE ONE/INTELLIGENCE
A FACE ONLY BIG
BROTHER COULD LOVE
Is the FBIs new facial recognition
technology a crucial crime-ghting
tool or an Orwellian intrusion?
DAYS BEFORE a Pennsylvania court planned
to sentence him in 1996 to years in prison for
molesting three children, Lynn Cozarta mid-
dle-aged security guardvanished. For years,
investigators searched for him, but the case
went coldthat is until 2015, when Pennsyl-
vania state police sent Cozarts mug shot to a
newly established unit of the FBI called Next
Generation Identification (NGI).
Fueled by fears of another 9/11-style attack, the
bureau signed a $1 billion contract with military
contractor Lockheed Martin to develop NGI in
2008. Three years later, the program began a trial
period, and it officially began in late 2014. Today,
the FBIs digital catalog of searchable face pho-
tos has ballooned to some 548 million pictures,
the largest database of faces in history. It includes
criminal mug shots; photos of suspected violent
extremists overseas; and, thanks to an agreement
with a number of state governments, drivers
licenses and ID photos of Americans who have
never committed a crime.
In his decade-plus on the run, Cozart had aged
and changed his name. But his face couldnt lie.
When the FBI ran its search, it matched a drivers
license of a man named David Stone who lived
in Muskogee, Oklahoma, and worked at a local
Wal-Mart. Pennsylvania investigators alerted the
FBI Violent Crimes Task Force. Within hours, the
bureau arrested the notorious fugitive. The case,
NEWSWEEK
says FBI program analyst Doug Sprouse, is an
example of how law enforcement is integrating
facial recognition technology and other biomet-
ric methods to make the country safer. After 19
years, he says, [Cozart] was brought to justice.
Federal officials and law enforcement hail the
NGI program as a futuristic way to track violent
extremists and criminals. But others have been
less enthusiastic. For all the brouhaha over the
bureaus recent battle with Apple and encryption
technology, many surveillance watchdogs and
privacy advocates say biometric collection pro-
grams like the NGI are far more concerning when
it comes to violating civil liberties. These critics
say the FBIs biometric program is an extension of
other sophisticated, modern-day military surveil-
lance technologiesfrom drones used for aerial
surveillance to StingRays, which intercept cell-
phone conversations.
What were seeing is how counterterrorism
and counterinsurgency tactics are being codified
into everyday policing, says Hamid Khan, a pri-
vacy advocate in Los Angeles and the founder of
a grass-roots group called Stop LAPD Spying. In
essence, were all suspects.
While facial recognition technology con-
jures images of a Minority Report-like control BY
ERIC MARKOWITZ
room, the reality is a bit more prosaic. No two @EricMarkowitz
people have the same fingerprints, and no two International
people have the same visage either. The FBIs Business Times
20 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 SAY CHEESE:
The FBI has a dig-
ital catalog of 548
million face pho-
tos, and some po-
lice departments
are already using
mobile devices to
access it.
+
SA N DY H U F FA K E R / T H E N EW YO R K T I M ES/ R E DUX

NEWSWEEK 21 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

technology measures minute distances in a per-
sons face and logs the information. And while
the bureaus biometric methods are still in their
infancy, FBI officials say the program could help
law enforcement locate and identify a suspect
using surveillance videos, mug shots or even
photos taken from Facebook and Twitter.
About a year after NGIs official launch, the unit
was growing so fast that it needed more space. So
just after Christmas, the NGI moved to a larger
facility, a 360,000-square-foot gleaming glass
building located on 1,000 acres of highly secured
land in the low mountains of Clarksburg, West
Virginia. Security is tight. To enter, visitors must
pass a federal background check. The campus
even has its own police force, the third largest in
the state. When the bureau granted me a rare look
inside in February, Stephen Fischer, a 30-year FBI
veteran, served as my escort. As we pulled up to
the new building, he explained how its intention-
ally housed on a secured property set back nearly
NEWSWEEK
+
FINGERED: At the
Biometric Tech-
1 mile from the nearest highway, so your average nology Center in
citizen has no idea what goes on here. Clarksburg, West
Virginia, the FBI
The FBI isnt the only agency that stores its is expanding its
biometric data in this facility. The Department long-established
fingerprint pro-
of Defense, for instance, stores about 6 million gram to include
photos of combatants overseas in rows upon facial recognition
technology.
rows of hard drives, which are stacked on indi-
vidually marked tiles. If youve ever had a mug
shot taken, your face exists on a hard drive in a
room about the size of a professional soccer field.
The bureaus ultimate goal is to expand its
long-established fingerprint system to include
peoples faces. So just as a detective would dust
for prints at the scene of a crime, the FBI wants
to offer police the ability to scan someones face
from a surveillance video and search that against
a database. To do this, the bureau checks against
ERIC MARKOWITZ
its own database, but it also sends photos to par-
ticipating state departments of motor vehicles.
Depending on where you live, when you signed up
to get your drivers license, the fine print may have
22 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
authorized officials in your state to use your face
to search against suspects in active investigations.
The FBI launched its biometric program in
two statesMichigan and Arkansasbut 16
more have joined since. Sprouse, the FBI ana-
lyst, expects another half-dozen states to sign
up by the end of 2016, adding millions more
photos to the already massive repository.
The bureau maintains that it searches only
against criminal databases, but its use of DMV
photos is especially concerning for critics.
Two of them, the Electronic Frontier Founda-
tion and Electronic Privacy Information Cen-
tertwo of the U.S.s most prominent privacy
watchdogshave filed lawsuits against the
NGI to obtain records about the program. Im
pretty sure when you went to get your drivers
license, says Jeramie Scott, national security
counsel for EPIC, you werent thinking that
this picture...was now going to be used for large-
scale facial recognition searches.
Scott fears biometric collection can quickly
lead to the widespread invasion of privacy. In San
Diego, for instance, some police carry around a
mobile device that allows them to scan your face
during an encounter, regardless of whether or not
you are under arrest, he says. San Diego police,
however, say the technology isnt used for data
collection. It matches against existing Sheriff s
Department booking photos only, Lieutenant
Scott Wahl, a San Diego police spokesman, told
The San Diego Union-Tribune. There is no DMV
nexus, no FBI secret database. If youve never
been arrested before, never been booked into
county jail, your picture would never show up.
Scotts main concern, however, is what hap-
pens if facial recognition software gets it wrong.
He says hes unaware of anyone who has been
sent to jail because the NGI made a mistake, but
in 2013 he filed a lawsuit to obtain internal doc-
uments about the program. He won, and what
he discovered is that NGI is willing to accept a
margin of error as high as 20 percent.
The FBI says its program is getting better, but
facial recognition technology can, and has, made
mistakeswith disturbing results. Consider the
case of John Gass, a 46-year-old Boston truck
driver who sued the city in 2011 after he received
a letter saying the Massachusetts Registry of
Motor Vehicles had revoked his license. His attor-
ney, William Spallina, says the state DMV used
anti-terrorism facial recognition technology.
When it scanned Gasss face, the system came up
with two names. Because the algorithm was con-
figured to trigger a fraud alert when it returned
two identical faces with separate names, the state
said that, in itself, was evidence of fraud.
NEWSWEEK
PAGE ONE/INTELLIGENCE
The result: The DMV revoked Gasss license,
pending a hearing. Gass was out of work for two
weeks and sued the city. Gass lost the case, but
Spallina says its scary that a glitch could cause
so many problems. It was absurd, he says. You
cant just do this without even a hearing.
The bureau says it takes privacy concerns seri-
ously and contends that its facial recognition pro-
gram has not (and will not) lead to false arrests.
It says police officers or FBI agents would never
throw someone in jail purely on information pro-
vided from this software. No ones going to go
out and knock on a door and make an arrest based
on the information we provide, says Sprouse.
There has to be supported information.
Stephen Morris, an FBI veteran who oversees
the NGI unit, agrees. Everything we do here,
we do it with privacy in mind, he says. And
EVERYTHING WE DO
HERE, WE DO IT WITH
PRIVACY IN MIND.
when the bureau uses biometrics, he adds, the
level of certainty that we have the right person
goes up exponentially.
Thats what happened in the Cozart case, but
when I asked the FBI to provide me with other
examples of using facial recognition to locate
a violent extremist or criminal, the bureau
couldnt provide one. Which is perhaps why
watchdogs like Khan say the FBIs NGI program
is another example of the federal government
investing in technology thatwhile intended to
help law enforcementwinds up becoming an
expensive and questionably effective form of
Orwellian surveillance.
With all these tools, theres an information
overload, Khan says. Our money is going
towards these thingsthe surveillance indus-
trial complex. And the budget for such pro-
grams, he adds, is infinitybecause theres no
end to the war on terror.
23 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
PERIODS
WITH
AN
EXCLAMATION
MARK WOMEN AROUND THE WORLD ARE
CHANGING LAWS, MORES AND EVEN TECHNOLOGY
TO MAKE MENSTRUATION SAFER, CHEAPER
AND MORE A PART OF EVERYDAY LIFE. AFTER CENTURIES
OF SILENCE AND SHAMING, THE PERIOD
IS FINALLY HAVING A MOMENT
BY ABIGAIL JONES

NEWSWEEK 24 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 LETS BEGIN WITH THE
OBVIOUS: EVERY WOMAN
IN THE HISTORY OF
HUMANITY HAS OR HAD A
PERIOD. EACH MONTH, HER
UTERUS SHEDS ITS
LINING, SENDING BLOOD
FLOWING OUT THROUGH HER
VAGINA (UNLESS SHES
PREGNANT, IN WHICH CASE SHE
GETS A LENGTHY REPRIEVE).
This process is as natural as eating, drinking and sleeping, and
its beautiful too: Theres no human race without it. Yet most
of us loathe talking about it.
When girls start their periods, they embark on a decades-long
journey of silence and dread. Periods hurt. They cause backaches
and cramps, not to mention a cloud of emotional ickinessand
this goes on every month for 30 to 40 years. In public, people dis-
cuss periods as often as they discuss diarrhea. Women shove pads
or tampons up their sleeves on their way to the bathroom so no
one knows its their time of the month. They get bloodstains on
their clothes. They stick wads of toilet paper in their underwear
when theyre caught without supplies. Meanwhile, ad campaigns
sanitize this bloody mess with scenes of light blue liquids gently
cascading onto fluffy white pads while women frolic in form-fit-
ting white jeans.
In a 1978 satire for Ms. magazine, feminist pioneer Gloria Stei-
nem answered the question that so many women have asked:
What would happen, for instance, if suddenly, magically, men
could menstruate and women could not? The answer is clear
menstruation would become an enviable, boast-worthy, mas-
culine event: Men would brag about how long and how much,
she wrote. Steinem envisioned a world where men-struation
justifies mens place pretty much everywhere: in combat, polit-
ical office, religious leadership positions and medical schools.
Wed have Paul Newman Tampons and Muhammad Alis
Rope-a-Dope Pads and a new model for compliments:
Man, you lookin good!
Yeah, man, Im on the rag!
Nearly 40 years later, Steinems essay still stings because
menstrual equity has gone almost nowhere. Today, tam-
pons and pads are taxed in most states while adult diapers,
Viagra, Rogaine and potato chips are not. Men can walk into
any bathroom and access all of the supplies they need to care
for themselves: toilet paper, soap, paper towels, even seat cov-
ers. Women, however, cannot. In most schools, girls have to
trek to the nurses office to ask for a pad or tampon, as if men-
struating is an illness rather than a natural function. In most
public and private places, women are lucky if theres a cranky
machine on the wall charging a few quarters for a pad thats
NEWSWEEK 26
so uncomfortable you might prefer to use a wad
of rough toilet paper instead. No change? You
can pay for a parking spot with a credit card, but
have you ever seen such technology on a tam-
pon machine in a womens bathroom? The sit-
uation for prison inmates and homeless women
is far direr.
Even if you do have access to tampons, the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) does not require
companies to list the ingredientsyet the average
woman has a tampon inside her vagina for more
than 100,000 hours over her lifetime. Tampons
may contain residue from chemical herbicides,
says Sharra Vostral, a historian at Purdue Univer-
sity who wrote Under Wraps: A History of Menstrual
Hygiene Technology. We do not really understand
the health consequences, because we are not test-
ing for them in relation to tampons.
If all this sounds unfair, try getting your period
in the developing world. Taboos, poverty, inade-
quate sanitary facilities, meager health education
and an enduring culture of silence create an envi-
ronment in which girls and women are denied
what should be a basic right: clean, affordable
menstrual materials and safe, private spaces to
care for themselves. At least 500 million girls and
women globally lack adequate facilities for man-
aging their periods, according to a 2015 report
from UNICEF and the World Health Organization
(WHO). In rural India, one in five girls drops out of
school after they start menstruations, according
to research by Nielsen and Plan India, and of the
355 million menstruating girls and women in the
country, just 12 percent use sanitary napkins.
In todays world, if theres nobody dying its
not on anyones agenda, says Venkatraman
Chandra-Mouli, a WHO scientist whos worked
in adolescent health for the past 20 years.
Menstrual problems dont kill anyone, but for
me, they are still an extremely important issue
because they affect how girls view themselves,
and they affect confidence, and confidence is
the key to everything.
For something that has over 5,000 slang terms
(shark week, Bloody Mary, red wedding), the
period is one of the most ignored human rights
issues around the globeaffecting everything
TAMPONS AND PADS
ARE TAXED WHILE ADULT
DIAPERS, VIAGRA,
ROGAINE AND POTATO
CHIPS ARE NOT.
0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 +
THE PATRIARCHY IS LEAKING: Rupi Kaur
uploaded this image to Instagram last year to
challenge the menstruation taboo; it was taken
down twice. Instagram eventually apologized,
and claimed it had been removed accidentally.
from education and economics to the environ-
ment and public healthbut thats finally start-
ing to change. In the past year, there have been
so many pop culture moments around men-
struation that NPR called 2015 the year of the
RU P I K AU R A N D P RA B H K AU R ; P R EV I OUS S P R E A D : J V P H OTO/AL A M Y
period, and Cosmopolitan said it was the year
the period went public. Well never have gen-
der equality if we dont talk about periods, but
2016 signaled the beginning of something bet-
ter than talk: Its becoming the year of menstrual
change. Theres a movementpropelled by
activists, inventors, politicians, startup founders
and everyday peopleto strip menstruation of
its stigma and ensure that public policy keeps up.
For the first time, Americans are talking about
gender equality, feminism and social change
through womens periods, which, as Steinem
puts it to Newsweek, is evidence of women tak-
ing their place as half the human race.
NEWSWEEK
#HAPPYTOBLEED
MENSTRUATION WASNT always so taboo. In ancient and matri-
lineal cultures, it was a mark of honor and power, a sacred time
for women to rest and revive their bodies. Today, no one is going
to the spa or taking a few days off of work to celebrate her period.
Menstruation has been cloaked in shame for centuries, but that
silence was broken for a brief moment in 1970 after Dr. Edgar
Berman, a member of the Democratic Partys Committee on
National Priorities, suggested that women could not hold office
because of their raging hormonal imbalances. His comments
were directed at U.S. Representative Patsy Mink of Hawaii, who
had implored her party to focus on womens issues. Berman
asked people to imagine a menopausal woman president who
had to make the decision of the Bay of Pigs, or the president
of a bank making a loan under these raging hormonal influ-
ences. Mink ridiculed his disgusting performance, forced his
resignationand, for a very brief time, womens periods had the
floor. Then 46 years went by without any change.
In January, President Barack Obama may have become
the first president to discuss menstruation when 27-year-old
YouTube sensation Ingrid Nilsen asked him why tampons
and pads are taxed as luxury items in 40 states. Obama was
stunned. I have to tell you, I have no idea why states would
27 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

tax these as luxury items, he said. I suspect its because men
were making the laws when those taxes were passed.
Nilsens interview went viral, as has her frank approach to
one of the most whispered-about issues in American culture
and politics: menstruation. Something that affects people
every single day the president didnt know about! And its
because its one of those things that just gets buried, she says.
Thats a reflection of how womens bodies are viewed even
today by our government and society.
If pop culture is your barometer, periods broke into late-
night TV in February when Samantha Bee went on The Late
Show With Stephen Colbert and riffed on all the ways a female
comedian can refer to her bathing suit area, as Colbert put it.
Bee was just days away from becoming the only woman in late
night TV with her show, Full Frontal With Samantha Bee. After
reminding Colbert just how much he enjoys talking about the
male anatomy (caucus, huevos rancheros, Penissippi),
she offered her own list of euphemisms for lady parts, includ-
ing Department of the Interior, the place where I keep my
keys and the velour bouncy castle.
Bees bit about hoo-hos and ha-has didnt come out
of nowhere. Over the last year, a steady stream of pop cul-
ture moments propelled menstrual equityaka period femi-
nism, bathroom equality or simply life, as Steinem quips to
Newsweekinto the mainstream. Musician Kiran Gandhi ran
the 2015 London Marathon without a pad or tampon, crossing
the finish line with a large red stain between her legs. When
artist Rupi Kaur posted a photo of herself on Instagram, fully
clothed and with a stain on her pants and sheets, the image
NEWSWEEK 28
+
TRAFFICKING BREAK: Mon, a child sex worker in
Cambodia, is forced to service customers every
day; she only gets time off during her period.
was accidentally taken down. Twice. Comedy
Central pair Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan
Peele schooled men on periods: What if we told
yall that once a month, half the human race is
in pain? And the other half dont wanna hear
shit about it? Donald Trump must have missed
that skit, because he spawned the hashtag
#PeriodsAreNotAnInsult when he complained
about tough questions from GOP debate moder-
ator Megyn Kelly, saying she had blood coming
out of her wherever. From awareness-raising
hashtag campaigns (#TheHomelessPeriod,
#HappyToBleed, #FreeTheTampons) to a
Change.org petition to lift the tampon tax to
20-year-old Arushi Dua asking Mark Zuckerberg
to launch an On my period button on Facebook
to help fight menstrual stigmas in India, periods
F RO M L E F T: Q. SAK A M A K I / R E DUX; T H I N X
are having a moment.
This movement has been so widespread that
Whoopi Goldberg is now launching a line of
medical marijuana products to ease menstrual
cramps. Women are using their periods to pro-
test Indiana Governor Mike Pences extreme
anti-abortion legislation, calling, emailing and
tweeting him with detailed updates on their
daily flow. Jennifer Lawrence answered the
0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
ubiquitous Who are you wearing? question professor of womens and gender studies at the University of
with a story about menstruation, telling Harp- Massachusetts Boston. It was only in fringe, arty circles that
ers Bazaar that she chose her red cutout Dior people were pushing boundaries on tampon etiquette; femi-
gown for the 2016 Golden Globes because the nist artist Judy Chicagos 1971 Red Flag captured a grainy,
show coincided with her period and she wanted close-up shot of Chicago pulling a bloody tampon out of her
something that was loose at the front. The vagina. (Many assumed they were looking at a bloody penis,
other dress was really tight, and Im not going proving her point about period taboos.)
to suck in my uterus. In 1975, Procter & Gamble began test-marketing a tea bag-
shaped, super-absorbent tampon called Rely (tagline: It even
IT ABSORBS THE WORRYTHEN KILLS YOU absorbs the worry). They were made of synthetic materials,
U.S. CONSUMERS spent $3.1 billion on tampons, and the key ingredient was carboxymethylcellulose (CMC), a
pads and sanitary panty liners last year, according compound that boosted absorption so much that the tampon
to Euromonitor, and the global sanitary protec-
tion products market reached $30 billion. Yet in
the last century, there have only been three sig-
nificant innovations in the field: disposable sani- HOW COULD SOMETHING THIS
IMPORTANT NOT CHANGE OVER
tary pads, first marketed in the late 19th century
and updated with adhesive in 1969; commer-
cial tampons in the 1930s; and menstrual cups,
which became popular in the 1980s. If this isnt
40 TO 50 YEARS?
a reflection of how womens bodies are viewed,
I dont know what is! says Nilsen. How could
something this important not change over 40 to could theoretically last for an entire period. Ive talked to
50 years? many people anecdotally who said, I loved those tampons!
Before pads and tampons, women folded soft It was a fabulous new design, Vostral says. But others found
gauze or flannels and pinned them to their under- Rely tampons painful to remove: They absorbed so much
garments when they had their periods (on the fluid that they ripped the internal vaginal skin when you pulled
rag). All that changed in the 1920s with Kotex them out. Another problem: The teeth at the tip of the plastic
sanitary pads, although they were only a cos- applicator sometimes cut women.
metic improvement. Theyd move, shift, chafe. They were also potentially lethal: CMC and polyester in
People talked about getting their skin rubbed tampons dried out womens vaginas, creating the ideal breed-
raw, says Vostral. There were big tabs, and you ing ground for the toxin-producing bacteria Staphylococcus
needed an elastic belt. You had to do gymnastics aureus. In 1980, 890 cases of toxic shock syndrome (TSS)
to get them on. were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Pre-
In 1931, a Denver physician named Earle vention (CDC), and 91 percent of them were related to men-
Cleveland Haas invented the modern tampon struation. Thirty-eight women died. At the time, around 70
and cardboard applicator. (He also invented the percent of American women were using tampons, and while
diaphragm.) As women pursued more physically
demanding jobs during World War II, their need
for comfortable, discreet, reliable products grew.
Between 1937 and 1943, tampon sales increased
five-fold, and 25 percent of women regularly
used tampons in the early 1940s.
Mainstream American culture gradually
embraced fem-care products. Women started
using tampons more than pads, and feminists
heralded the tampon as a liberator. No one was
thinking about safety hazards. They were just
grateful to have a product that plugs it up, liter-
ally, says Chris Bobel, president of the Society
for Menstrual Cycle Research and an associate

+
STRANGE FRUIT: The original THINX ads were
rejected as offensive, and the company cant get
on morning TV because people dont want to
hear the word period over the airwaves.

NEWSWEEK 29 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

Rely had one-quarter of the market, it was responsible for
75 percent of TSS cases, prompting widespread panic. Other
super-absorbent tampon brands were implicated, including
Playtex and Tampax, but Rely was the only one recalled in
September 1980. All tampon manufacturers faced lawsuits
over TSS, but over 1,100 were leveled against P&G. In 1982,
the FDA required tampon manufacturers to warn consumers
about the link between tampon use and TSS. By June 1983, the
CDC had learned about 2,204 cases of TSS. It wasnt until 1989
that the FDA required manufacturers to standardize tampon
absorbency levels and include warnings on tampon boxes.
In the 1980s and 90s, the safety profile of tampons
improved and the incidence of TSS plummeted, but there were
still 636 cases of menstrual-related TSS between 1987 and
1996, according to the CDC, 36 of them fatal. While CMC was
no longer used in tampons, an explosive 1995 Village Voice arti-
cle revealed a new threat: Dioxin, a carcinogen thats toxic
to the immune system and linked to birth defects, had been
found in some commercial tampons. The article slammed the
FDA for sitting on memos revealing this link and for not test-
ing tampons.
In a small victory for activists, the tampon industry reformed
some bleaching practices to reduce the dioxin risk to trace lev-
els, but problems remain. The FDA does not require companies
to disclose the ingredients in tampons and pads, which means
we know more about where our clothes are made than we do
NO ONE WAS THINKING ABOUT
SAFETY HAZARDS. THEY WERE JUST
GRATEFUL TO HAVE A PRODUCT
THAT PLUGS IT UP, LITERALLY.
about what women put inside their vaginas. The average woman
uses about 12,000 tampons in her lifetime, and thats a conser-
vative estimate, says Philip Tierno, a professor of microbiology
at New York University School of Medicine who was among the
first to link TSS with the synthetic materials in tampons. The
FDA says dioxin is a trace, but it adds up when youre talking
about decades of use. Viscose rayon, which is made from saw-
dust, is still used in tampons. As Tierno puts it, it turns out to
be one of the best of the bad ingredients.
We dont have good, reliable data that tells us the things
were putting inside our body, in the most absorbent part of
our body, for days at a time, for 40 years, are safe or not, says
Bobel. Its symptomatic of the silence around menstruation.
In 1997, U.S. Representative Carolyn Maloney of New
York introduced the Tampon Safety and Research Act (now
the Robin Danielson Feminine Hygiene Product Safety Act,
named for a woman who died of TSS in 1998) to require the
National Institutes of Health to research the health risks
associated with menstrual hygiene products, as well as urge
the FDA to disclose the list of ingredients in tampons, pads
NEWSWEEK 30
+
FEELING HER PAIN: Rupi Kaurs self-portraits
went viral last year, and prompted many dis-
cussions and arguments about periods and the
officials and unofficial censorship on the issue.
and other period supplies. Since then, she has
reintroduced the bill eight times; its currently
sitting with the Energy and Commerce Sub-
committee on Health. It is very difficult to get
a bill passed, especially when it concerns wom-
ens health. The safety of tampons is not some-
thing that is on the minds of many members of
Congress, says Maloney, speaking through a
spokesperson. I believe one day well get this
legislation passed.
Until then, startups like Lola and Conscious
Period offer women what Big Business doesnt:
transparency. Commercial tampons are made
of some combination of cotton, rayon and syn-
thetic fibers, but Lola tampons are made from
100 percent natural cotton. In the absence of
real hard, current data, wed rather put some-
thing that we understand in our bodies, says
Jordana Kier, who co-founded the company
with Alex Friedman. Since launching last year,
Lola has raised $4.2 million and attracted
tens of thousands of customers. One box of 18
tampons costs $10 (or two for $18) and can be
customized by how many light-, regular- and
super-absorbency tampons a customer wants.
Conscious Period sells nontoxic, 100 percent
organic, hypoallergenic, biodegradable cotton
tampons. Cotton is the third-most sprayed crop
in the world, co-founder Margo Lang explains,
but the organic cotton in Conscious Periods
tampons is free of chemicals, dyes and synthet-
ics. They cost $8.50 for a box of 20, and for each
box sold, they give a box of organic pads to a
homeless woman. (No, pads arent the cheap
way out. Homeless women say pads are easier
for them to change, can be used longer and pose
fewer health risks.)
Not all women are susceptible to TSS, but they
have to be aware that its a possibility with any
tampon. Id put my money on 100 percent cotton,
no synthetics, says Tierno. All cotton provides
the lowest risk, whether organic or nonorganic,
but manufacturers refuse to go to all cotton
because theyd have to adjust all their machines.
If youd rather keep things on the outside,
Vancouver, British Columbiabased Lunapads
sells menstrual pads, panty liners and under-
wear for periods, pregnancy and light bladder
leakage, as well as the Diva Cup. Lots of brands
are now making products that are organic and
all cotton, says Nilsen. If they can do it, every-
one else can do it too.
0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 FREE FOR ALL, ALL THE TIME
ACROSS THE U.S., you can buy food, doodads
and necessities without being taxed: Pop-Tarts
in California, BBQ sunflower seeds in Indiana,
Mardi Gras beads in Louisiana, Bibles in Maine
and coffins in Mississippi. But in these and 35
other states, menstrual products are taxed any-
where from 4 to 10 percent. The tampon tax
is part of an overall economic system in which
the dry cleaner charges more for a blouse than
a shirtin which men are assumed to be buying
necessities and women are assumed to be buy-
ing luxuries, Steinem says.
Of the 10 states that dont tax tampons, five
RU P I K AU R A N D P RA B H K AU R
have no sales tax (Alaska, Delaware, Montana,
New Hampshire and Oregon) and five have spe-
cifically exempted menstrual products (Mary-
land, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey
and Pennsylvania). This year, Chicago removed
the citys sales tax on these products. Earlier
NEWSWEEK
this month in New York state, the Senate joined the Assembly
in unanimously passing legislation to eliminate the tampon
tax; once the minor differences in those bills are aligned, the
legislation will go to the governor for his signature. In New Jer-
sey, a bill was recently introduced that would add menstrual
cramps to the list of qualifying conditions for medical mari-
juana. Last summer, Canada axed its national goods and ser-
vices tax on period products, and the U.K. and France, among
other countries, are working to reduce or end the tampon tax.
Guardian columnist and Feministing founder Jessica Valenti
wrote one of the first high-profile critiques of the tax in her
2014 piece The Case for Free Tampons, where she charged
that womens feminine hygiene products should be free for
all, all the time.
Horrified conservatives fired back: If women had access to
free tampons, what would come nextcars and food? Dont you
want the government out of your uterus? Some have professed
concerns about theft (girls will steal all the tampons!), vandalism
(girls will stick pads everywhere!) and recouping lost revenues.
These are excuses, says New York City Councilwoman
31 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, who introduced a New York City
bill aiming to put free tampons and pads in all public school
bathrooms, homeless shelters and prisons. Youll never walk
into a bathroom in a public office without toilet paper. Youd be
like, What the hell? I have yet to hear someone say, Well,
whats the budget on all these [free] condoms?
California Assembly members Cristina Garcia and Ling Ling
Chang introduced a bill in January to exempt womens men-
strual products from sales tax. If it passes, women in that state
will have $20 million back in their walletsthe equivalent of
just one-hundredth of 1 percent of Californias state budget,
says Garcia, who has gone from being mocked as Miss Flow
and Miss Maxi to adding 30 co-authors to the bill, includ-
ing men and women from both parties. California is a pretty
blue state. When I first introduced the bill, my progressive col-
leagues shut me down, she says. Were talking about blood,
but I cant even say that out loud because it makes them so
uncomfortable and squeamish. The closest I get to the word
blood is reminding them its not a blue liquid. Its taken a lot
of work and hand-holding.
This year, U.S. Representative Grace Meng of New York per-
suaded the Federal Emergency Management Agency to allow
homeless shelters to buy feminine hygiene products with fed-
eral grant funds. Shes also working to ensure women can buy
menstrual products with their flexible spending accounts. In
Columbus, Ohio, Councilwoman Elizabeth Brown wants to put
menstrual products in pools and recreational centers. Michi-
NEWSWEEK 32
+
SHUNNED DAY: The shaming and isolation of
women and girls having their periods are still
common practice in many parts of the world,
from India to Indiana.
gan, Virginia and Wisconsin are among the other
states that have introduced legislation to elimi-
nate the tampon tax. In Utah, an all-male panel
voted 8-3 against the proposed Hygiene Tax Act.
In Tennessee, a similar bill was rejected.
Anyone who doesnt think the tampon tax is
a problem either isnt a woman or hasnt been
poor, says Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a vice presi-
dent of the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU
School of Law and leading writer and advocate
for menstrual equity. Shes been an architect of
the U.S. policy campaign to squash the tampon
tax. As she wrote in the 2015 book Legal Change:
Lessons From Americas Social Movements, real,
lasting social change requires more than just
viral videos: It is necessary to win in the court
of public opinion and to win in a court of law.
The tampon tax is well on its way out. Since the
start of 2016, 14 states have introduced tampon
tax legislation, and those efforts are still alive
in 12 states. Thats 14 of 40 statesa third!
Thats also really fast, Weiss-Wolf says. Name
another issue in this country that has bipartisan
support in such a bold, open way.
0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 THE NIKE OF MENSES
IM WEARING the boy shorts! Miki Agrawal says,
standing up and pulling down her form-fitting
houndstooth pants to reveal sleek black under-
wear. Were sitting in Agrawals tiny office at the
Center for Social Innovation in downtown Man-
hattan. Photos of grapefruits hang from the walls
and colorful underpants hang from a rack dan-
gling above our heads. They look like they could
be the latest style of Calvins, but theyre Thinx,
the high-tech, period-proof underwear Agrawal
invented with her twin sister, Radha, and their
friend Antonia Saint Dunbar.
Thinx underwear absorb the blood from a
womans period so she doesnt have to wear a pad
or tampon (except on her heaviest days, when
an extra layer of protection is recommended).
Agrawal explains that her patented underwear
are anti-microbial, moisture-wicking and leak-
proof, keeping women feeling dry, and can absorb
up to two tampons worth of blood. That means
more comfort, fewer tampons and less pollution:
There are over 20 million combined tampon
applicators, pads and menstrual products that
end up in a landfill every year, she says. THINX
come in six styles and cost $24 to $38 a pair.
Theyre washable, reusable and, according to the
many journalists whove tried them, they work.
Thinx donates a portion of every sale to the Ugan-
da-based AfriPads, which teaches women to make
and sell reusable pads. Agrawal is also launching
Thinx Global Girls Clubs, which will give out sub-
sidized menstrual products and teach health edu-
cation, self-defense and entrepreneurship.
Agrawal came up with the idea in 2010, when
she met a 12-year-old girl in South Africa. I
asked her why she wasnt in school, and what
she said to me completely changed my life.
She said, Its my week of shame, Agrawal
recalls. The girl explained that when she gets
her period, she stays home from school. I tried
N AV ES H C H I T RA K A R / R EU T E RS ( 2 )
NEWSWEEK
using leaves and mud and plastic bags and old bits of mat-
tresses and old rags, Agrawal remembers her saying. None
of it worked, and eventually I just stopped going.
Agrawal leans back in her chair and sticks her hand in a bag
of popcorn. Theres a period problem in the first world and a
period problem in the developing world. Why no innovation?
Why is no one talking about it?
While Thinx and other like-minded startups, like Dear Kate,
are giving menstrual products their first real makeover in
half a century, prudish mindsets are making it hard to prog-
ress past all the blue liquid. When Thinx submitted an ad
campaign to New Yorks subwaysfeaturing modestly posed
models in underwear and tank tops alongside artful images of
juicy grapefruits and falling egg yolksthe reviewing agency,
Outfront Media, called the images inappropriate. Thinx
WOMEN CANNOT COOK, TOUCH
THE WATER SUPPLY OR SPEND
TIME IN MANY PUBLIC SPACES IN
INDIA WHEN THEY MENSTRUATE.
eventually made it to subway walls, yet Agrawal says the com-
pany has been rejected by New York City Taxi TV and eleva-
tor bank TVs. We cant be on morning talk shows, she adds.
They dont want to say period. Its nuts!
Colombian-born Diana Sierra is waging her own fight for
menstrual progress by designing underwear that directly
responds to the needs of girls and women in developing coun-
tries. A couple of years ago, Sierra left her industrial design job
at Panasonic when, surrounded by facial steams and massage
machines, she realized she was designing for the 10 percent
of people who can pay for this stuff. Ninety percent of the pop-
ulation are worthy of good products, but they dont have this
income, so theyre not seen as a good market, she says.
In 2014, she launched Be Girl, a design company that creates
high-performance menstrual pads and underwear. She got the
idea during a United Nations internship in rural Uganda, where
she taught locals how to turn arts and crafts into businesses. I
had 11- and 12-year-old girls knocking on the door saying they
wanted to be part of the workshop. A teacher explained why
they werent in schoolthey were menstruating. Stunned,
Sierra hacked sanitary pads using material from an umbrella
and mosquito net. I come from a developing country, so were
super-resourceful, she says. Sierras parents were farmers (her
father now works in construction, her mother in elder care), but
thanks to a scholarship for students from tough economic back-
grounds, she went to college and got an internship in New York
City. She then spent 12 years working as a consultant for leading
global companies like Smart Design, Nike and LG.
Sierra knew girls in Uganda used pieces of cloth to absorb their
period blood, so she built underwear with a leak-proof mesh
pocket that can be filled with cloth or other clean materials. Since
33 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

last year, Be Girl has distributed over 15,000 pairs of reusable
underwear in Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi and 10 other
countries. Be Girl underwear are as bright and cheerful as Victo-
rias Secret intimates, and for each sale, the company donates a
pair to a girl in need. You cannot assume just because someone
has low income, someone has low expectations or low aspira-
tions, she says. I want to be the Nike of menstrual health. Its
not just giving a girl a panty or pad. Its giving knowledge, so she
can own her body and make informed decisions.
While sifting through survey results from product pilot
tests, Sierra found a dusty page from a girl in Mbola, Tanzania.
Answering the question, What do you like most about the men-
strual pads? the girl wrote that she was so happy because she
knew someone somewhere loved her, Sierra recalls, because
that person made something so beautiful that she was so proud
to be girl. And so the name of Sierras company was born.
Here you have a girl continents away telling you that some-
thing as simple as a sanitary pad is giving her...a sense of dignity
and pride, she says. Being able to run, walk with confidence,
be comfortable and clean. Thats all you want as a designer,
that assurance that what youre doing matters.
THE MENSTRUATING MAN
ORGANIC AND all-natural cotton tampons shouldnt be a first-
world privilege, but they are, and the fight against tampon taxes,
while worthy, doesnt matter if tampons arent available where
you live and your culture shuns menstruation. In many countries,
periods are like curses. Girls and women cannot cook, touch the
water supply or spend time in places of worship or public areas
when theyre menstruating. In Africa, one in 10 girls misses
school during her period every month. Seventy percent of girls
in India have not heard about menstruation before getting their
I TRIED USING LEAVES AND
MUD AND PLASTIC BAGS AND
OLD BITS OF MATTRESSES
AND OLD RAGS.
periods, and four in five girls in East Africa lack access to sanitary
pads and related health education. In Nepal, some rural families
still follow an ancient tradition called chaupadi, banishing girls
and women to sheds when they have their period.
Most girls learn about their periods the day their periods
start, says Chandra-Mouli of the WHO. He recounts a story he
hears time after time: I started having periods at school. Spot-
ting on my clothes. Giggling in class. I didnt know what was hap-
pening. My panties felt wet. My teacher made me wait in the staff
room. I thought my insides were rotting. My mother came and
wrapped me in a towel, took me home, put me in a bath and said,
Youre a woman now. Dont go out and play with the boys.
These systemic issues wont be solved with a pair of high-
tech underwear. I spent time in Uganda, Kenya and India
NEWSWEEK 34
+
SHOW TIME: Education about menstruation is
sorely lacking all over the world, depriving many
women of the vital information they need to
properly take control of their bodies.
shadowing organizations working to address
these issues, says Bobel of the Society for Men-
strual Cycle Research. They understand there
is no silver bullet, but its a material solution
that funders love, and its concrete and scalable.
Whats not getting challenged is the actual cul-
ture of menstrual secrecy and shame.
If product is the sexy solution, the practical
path ahead is also the harder one: Figure out
low-cost, sustainable infrastructure solutions,
says Marni Sommer, an associate professor of
sociomedical sciences at the Columbia Uni-
versity Mailman School of Public Health whos
been studying global menstruation for a decade.
If you can break taboos and start getting info
to girls and transform some infrastructure so
there are safe, private places to manage without
worry about being attacked, embarrassed or
dirty, that will make a big difference.
A man known as Indias Menstrual Man is chip-
ping away at this problem. Arunachalam Muruga-
nantham grew up in south India, the son of poor
handloom weavers. In 1998, soon after marrying
his wife, he realized she was using soiled cloths to
manage her period. When she explained that she
couldnt afford to buy sanitary pads as well as milk
for their family, he decided to do something.
For years, he experimented with materials and
prototypes. He tried to convince his wife to test
his products, then he asked local medical stu-
dents, but they all refused, so Muruganantham
tested the sanitary pads himself. He filled a rub-
ber bladder with animal blood, attached a tube
that led into his underwear, and spent five days
wearing a pad. The messy days, the lousy days,
that wetness. My God, its unbelievable, he said
in his 2012 TEDx Bangalore talk.
After six years of research, he built a machine
that makes sterilized sanitary napkinsbut
not before his neighbors thought hed lost his
mind and his wife left him (theyre now back
together). Today, he has 2,500 machines in
India and a few hundred across 17 other coun-
tries. His pads retail for 3 cents a packet, and the
machines cost $2,500 each, both below market
rates. In 2014, Muruganantham was named
one of Times 100 most influential people in the
world, and his machines have enabled women
to launch their own businesses. As he puts it,
by the women, for the women, to the women.
Swati Bedekar, a scientist from Gujarat, India,
bought one of Murugananthams machines in
0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 2010 after visiting desert communities and wit-
nessing girls sitting on stones or pots filled with
sand to catch the blood from their periods. She
wanted to help them, but the women who used
her machine complained that the foot pedal led
to back pain. So Bedekar tweaked the machine,
simplifying the process, altering the design
of the pads and adding wings for comfort. Yet
there was another barrier: In most Indian cit-
ies and villages, there are no regulations for
waste disposal, and used sanitary products are
often wrapped in paper or some kind of plastic
and thrown out with the trash. Stray dogs often
rummage through the waste, and some men
worry that women might use the pads for black
RU T H F R E M SO N / T H E N EW YO R K T I M ES/ R E DUX
magic. Bedekars husband, Shyam, invented a
terra-cotta incinerator that looked like a garden
pot and could burn used pads discreetly, quickly
and without electricity.
Today, Bedekar has 40 groups of women using
her revamped machine to make and sell 50,000
pads a month under the name Sakhi (it means
friend in Hindi). Inspired by the Ice Bucket
Challenge, a fundraising campaign for Lou Geh-
rigs disease that went viral in 2014, Bedekar
NEWSWEEK
launched the Hygiene Bucket Challenge, where she asked peo-
ple to buy a buckets worth of Sakhi supplies. With the help of her
nonprofit Vatsalya Foundation, she gave 6,000 girls a years sup-
ply of menstrual products in 2015.
While much of the innovation in India focuses on small
businesses, ZanaAfrica Foundation provides sanitary pads and
reproductive health education to 10,000 girls across Kenya
each year. In 2004, Kenya became the first country in the
world to eliminate sales tax on menstrual products, but there is
still much work to be done. Menstruation contributes to 1 mil-
lion adolescent girls in Kenya missing up to six weeks of school
each year, says Gina Reiss-Wilchins, CEO of ZanaAfrica
Foundation. Theyre dropping out of school at two times the
rate of boys starting at puberty. In March, the foundations
social enterprise arm, ZanaAfrica Group, which manufac-
tures menstrual products for girls and women in East Africa,
received a four-year $2.6 million grant from the Bill & Melinda
Gates Foundation to fund a groundbreaking study examining
the impact of providing pads along with girl- centered repro-
ductive health information.
If every girl in Kenya finished secondary school, there would
be a 46 percent increase in the countrys GDP across her lifetime.
There are so many barriers: poverty, abuse, child marriage, preg-
nancy. Getting your period should not be a barrier, says Reiss-
Wilchins. We are a quiet little revolution.
35 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 GREEKS
BEARING
THRIFT

Another economic crisis is looming,

and Europes most downtrodden
country is scrambling to cope
with tens of thousands of refugees.
How does it survive?
BY NAINA BAJEKAL

NEWSWEEK 36 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

As
you approach the northern Greek
city of Kozani, which stands on a
plateau surrounded by mountains,
you start to see smokethick white
clouds floating above the knotty
shrubs and sun-dappled hills of
Western Macedonia. This is the heart
of Greeces coal industry; the plumes
come from the chimneys of power
stations dotted around the region.
When most Greeks think of Kozani, they think of coal. In
the 1950s, the Public Power Corp. (PPC), now Greeces big-
gest electric company, took over the mines here and brought
prosperity to this poor, largely agricultural corner of north-
ern Greece. Locals soon abandoned their traditional ways
of making a living: saffron cultivation, marble production
and fur-making. Mining was not easy, but the workers were
well-compensated. The citys businesses flourished.
Those days are long over. Kozani, a small city of 75,000,
has gone from providing 70 percent of Greeces electricity to
NEWSWEEK 38
less than 40 percent. Fifteen years ago, the PPC
employed about 9,000 people. Now that num-
ber has dropped by a third. Unlike the slow and
FROM LEFT: GERASIMOS KOILAKOS/PACIFIC PRESS/LIGHTROCKET/GETTY;
steady decline of other coal towns in Europe,
Kozanis slump has been rapid, accelerated
MICHALIS KARAGIANNIS/REUTERS; BULENT KILIC/AFP/GETTY
by the Greek debt crisis that began in 2010. In
Western Macedonia, the region where Kozani
lies, roughly one in three citizens is unem-
ployed, twice the rate of 2001. Among 15- to
24-year-olds, that number soars to more than 70
percent, the highest of any region in Europe. All
of Greece has suffered through the financial cri-
siswithin the past decade, it has experienced
the biggest drop in happiness of any country in
the worldbut in rural areas like Kozani, Greeks
say they have been hit especially hard.
We built our lives around the coal mines, says
Ioannis Kostarellas, 35, who grew up in Kozani.
The energy from here powered the whole coun-
try, but now we are being left to deal with our
problems alone. Those problems kept mounting:
unemployment, environmental damage left by
the mines, an exodus of young people. Residents
felt things could barely get worse in Kozani. And
then, in February, the refugees arrived.
Europe has been beset by so many woes
0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 recently that its leaders and citizens almost seem to have forgot-
ten about the country that demanded so much attention over the
PREVIOUS SPREAD: GERASIMOS KOILAKOS/PACIFIC PRESS/LIGHTROCKET/GETTY
past few years (other than Greeces role as a way station for ref-
ugees). In the past six months, homegrown extremists have car-
ried out attacks in Paris and Brussels that claimed 162 lives. Over
the same period, the largest migration of people since the end of
World War II prompted Hungary, Slovenia, Austria and others
to suspend the open internal borders of the Schengen zone and
build new fences, calling into question one of the founding val-
ues of the European Unionfreedom of movement.
Brussels is also facing growing Euroskepticism from many
of its partners, including the U.K., which may well vote to leave
the union in June. Europe has had a lot to worry about beyond
the economy of the little country to the south whose debts
seemed to threaten the EUs existence.
But while Europeans are worrying about suicide bombers and
+
HERE TO STAY: In March, Macedonia sealed its border with
Greece, leaving tens of thousands of refugees trapped in
Greece, which had previously been mainly a transit route for
people heading farther north. Soon after, the EU and Turkey
agreed to send back migrants to Turkey, sparking protests,
left. Volunteers have been handing out food, center, but some
14,000 are stranded in Idomeni, on the border, right.
hundreds of thousands of refugees crossing the continent, a new
two-pronged crisis has been building in Greece. In early March,
the Republic of Macedonia sealed its border with Greece, leav-
ing tens of thousands of refugees trapped in Greece, which until
then had mainly been a passageway for asylum seekers leaving
Turkey for new lives in Northern Europe.
NEWSWEEK 39
And heres the other bad news few people have
been talking about: The Greek economy is show-
ing little sign of improvement. In June and July,
the country faces more than 10 billion euros ($11.3
billion) of debt repayments, money it will not have
unless Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras can negotiate
with creditors to access more money from its third
bailout package. The four other eurozone countries
that were bailed out by their European partners a
few years ago are now recovering relatively well.
Greece is not. Its tempting to pose the same
binary question that has been asked for several
years now: Can Greece survive? Of course it will;
countries generally dont just go away. Greeks,
though, have another, more pressing question:
Will this ever end?
A Broad Sense of Defiance
GREECE IS not a dominant player in the EU,
which it joined in 1981, but its place in the proj-
ect was never in question. In a nod to the roots
of European civilization, inspiration for the euro
symbol () even came from the Greek epsilon;
the two parallel lines were intended to represent
the euros stability.
But in late 2009, Greece very much became the
focal point of the EUfor all the wrong reasons.
0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
It emerged that year that Greek governments had long been mis- lowest in Greece since the fall of its dictatorship in
reporting debt levels and spending carelessly. National debt had 1974. An April 13 report from the Foundation for
risen to 299 billion euros ($338 billion), 130 percent of its gross Economic and Industrial Research, an influential
domestic product, and Greece had no apparent way to pay it Athens-based think tank, predicted that the reces-
back. A 2011 European Commission report revealed that Greece sion will deepen this year, with Greeces economy
had also failed to collect 60 billion euros ($68 billion) in taxes. shrinking a further 1 percent, despite an expecta-
Under the laws that govern Europes monetary union, Greece tion of some growth in the years second half.
could no longer simply print its own money and stimulate People dont know if they are going to get
growth. In May 2010, the European Commission, the European paid next month, if there will be a new tax,
Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)col- another cut in salaries, an extra cut in pensions,
lectively known as the troikaoffered Greece a 110 billion euro says Stefanos Loukopoulos, 32, a Greek German
($124 billion) bailout, with strict austerity conditions: The Greek who moved back to Athens two years ago after
government would have to hike taxes, implement huge spending studying in England. If you were a young cou-
cuts and dramatically shrink its bloated public sector. ple thinking about starting a family, would you
Bad quickly became worse. In the summer of 2011, Greece have a baby right now?
veered to the brink of default, and creditors agreed to a second Since the crisis, Greeces birthrate has fallen by
bailout worth 130 billion euros ($147 billion). Since 2007, the more than 10 percent to 1.1 to 1.3 live births per
Greek economy has contracted by 25 percent; a quarter of all woman, one of the eurozones lowest. Analysts
companies have gone out of business, and wages are
down 38 percent since 2009. The average monthly
pension payment is 833 euros ($941), down from
1,350 euros ($1,526) in 2009, and nearly half of all
pensioners receive pensions below the poverty line
of 665 euros ($751).
Between 2008 and 2011, reported depression rates
increased from 3.3 to 8.2 percent. One in four work-
ing-age Greeks1.17 million peopleis unemployed,
most of them for more than 12 months.
And then, last year, for a heady, slightly surreal six-
month period, the people of Greece dared to believe
things were getting better. In January 2015, the coun-
try elected Tsipras, the young leader of the radical
left-wing Syriza party, on promises to overturn aus-
terity, force Greeces creditors to renegotiate bailout
terms and crack down on corruption and tax evasion.
He ignited hope, an emotion in this country all too
rare after so many years of crisis.
Tsiprass patriotism-infused rhetoric created a
broad sense of defiance that united elements at both
ends of the political spectrum. In a referendum held
in July, 61 percent of Greeks voted no on a bailout
deal that would have imposed more austerity mea-
sures; crowds gathered jubilantly in Syntagma Square, waving attribute the trend to rising poverty and women
flags and setting off firecrackers. You made a very brave choice. fearing that they will lose their jobs if they get
The mandate you gave me is not the mandate of a rupture with pregnant. Greeces native-born population has
Europe but a mandate to strengthen our negotiating position to begun to rapidly decrease. Most people cannot
seek a viable solution, Tsipras said in a televised address. make dreams, Loukopoulos says. Forget about
The following month, after bumping up against political real- dreams, actually. They cannot even plan ahead.
ity, the man who led the no campaign said yes to the strict
conditions attached to Greeces third bailout. The 85 billion euro A Warehouse of Souls
($96 billion) deal Tsipras had agreed to came with more of the
same: spending limits, tax increases and the sale of state assets. FOR OVER a year, Greece was at the front line of
Young people were particularly disillusioned by Tsiprass the refugee crisis without really feeling its impact.
concessions to the troika. Septembers snap legislative elec- The 1.2 million Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and others
tionsthe third time Greeks had been called to the polls in who arrived in 2015, fleeing conflict, persecution
2015made it clear that the Greeks had grown disenchanted and poverty beyond Europes borders, put pres-
with any promise of change; turnout dropped to 56 percent, the sure on Greeces southern islands, particularly

NEWSWEEK 40 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 +
NATIONALIST BLOWBACK: While most Greeks have shown great
solidarity with refugees such as those at Idomeni, left, there
has been some resentment about the pressure of dealing with
so many people at a time of economic crisis, and that fueled
support for the extreme-right party Golden Dawn, above.
Lesbos, where around half of all boats leaving Turkey land. But
once the refugees made it to the mainland, they headed north,
hoping to reach Germany or other Northern European countries.
Outside the islands or the Greek-Macedonian border, it was
difficult for most Greeks to grasp the scale of the crisis. A January
survey conducted by Greek polling company Public Issue showed
that only one in five Greeks was aware that more than a million
migrants had passed through the country. This is perhaps why, as
the Public Issue poll showed, two-thirds of
F RO M L E F T: DA N K I T WO O D/G E T T Y; G E RAS I M OS KO I L A KOS/ LUZ / R E DUX
14,000 in just a few weeks. More than 53,000
people are now trapped in the country, creating
what Tsipras has called a warehouse of souls.
The effects of the border closure were felt
immediately, as a bottleneck of buses began to
build up along the 340-mile highway that runs
from Athens to the Republic of Macedonia. In
the early evening of February 22, Lefteris Ioan-
nidis, Kozanis mayor, was at home with his fam-
ily when he received a phone call from the police.
They told him that five buses, carrying 380 mostly
Syrian refugeeshalf of them childrenhad been
diverted to a gas station 20 miles from Kozani.
Ioannidis, 39, who is

them had positive feelings toward the ref- tall with graying hair and
ugees and did not want Greece to close its glasses, was unruffled. He
borders. Greece was just a transit country, quickly decided to house
receiving only 0.9 percent of the EUs total
share of asylum applications in 2015.
Within the the refugees overnight in
an unused sports stadium
In late February, that began to change.
past decade, on the edge of town, and his
On February 22, Macedonian officials Greece has office put out a statement
at Greeces northern border in Idomeni experienced on social media asking cit-
stopped Afghans (the second-largest group the biggest drop izens for their help. Within
of refugees) from crossing and began a few hours of their arrival,
imposing stricter controls on Syrians and
in happiness people had arrived to lay
Iraqis. On March 9, refugees found that of any country down mats in the gym and
the border was now closed to them all. The in the world. clean the bathrooms; they
number of people stranded in the fields of brought food, water, baby
Idomeni soared from a few hundred up to food, clothes and shoes for

NEWSWEEK 41 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
+
GROUND ZERO: The island of Lesbos has been the epicenter of
the refugee crisis, with around half of all boats leaving Turkey
landing there. Some 1.2 million Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and oth-
ers arrived in Greece last year. At least 375 have died so far this
year making the crossing from Turkey on smugglers boats.

the refugees. Initially, the mayor expected them to stay only one
or two nights. Nearly two months later, more than 2,000 refu-
gees have been sheltered in Kozani before moving on, either to
Idomeni or to government-run centers in the region.
While a growing number of refugees found themselves stuck
in Greece, the EU, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel,
was trying to stem the flow of refugees into Europe entirely.
On March 18, the EU signed a controversial new deal in Brus-
sels with Turkey. Under the terms of that deal, migrants who
arrive in Greece after March 20 would be sent back to Turkey;
in return for every one sent back, EU member states would
eventually accept one Syrian refugee from Turkey. But there
are more than 2.7 million Syrian refugees in Turkey, most of
whom would like to come to Europe, and the resettlement
scheme is capped at a mere 72,000. of international law, which prohibits states from
In the past few weeks, Turkey has cracked down on the smug- returning people to places where they would be
glers boats leaving its shores, leading to a dramatic drop in the exposed to the threat of persecution and vio-
number of migrants and refugees reaching Greece. On aver- lence. But the EU-Turkey agreement stipulates
age, just 94 people arrived in Greece per day from April 4 to 10, that each new arrival has the right to seek asy-
down from an average of 1,213 in mid-March. Critics of the deal lum and will be held in a detention center while
argue that blanket returns violate the non-refoulement principle waiting for his or her claim to be processed; if

NEWSWEEK 42 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 rejected, only then can the migrant be deported. The number of
people applying for asylum in Greece has consequently surged,
well beyond the capacity of Greeces Asylum Service, says its
director, Maria Stavropoulou.
The bulk of Stavropoulous funding comes from the EU. Peo-
ple think that if money is given, we should be able to handle the
situation, but it doesnt work like that, she says. In a structure
with 260 staff, you can maybe double it, but you cant increase
tenfold or twentyfold. At a time when the public sector was
shrinking, we needed to grow. If there had been no austerity, it
would have been much, much easier to build the service.
The Love of Strangers
ON THE FACE of it, Greeces two crises seem unconnected: One
FROM LEFT: ANDREA DICENZO/NUR; YANNIS BE H RAKIS/R EUT ERS
was decades in the making, the product of fiscal recklessness,
the other an accident of geography. It initially seemed that
Greece might be able to use its pivotal role in the refugee crisis
to win concessions on budgetary targets from the troika, but
the migrant situation deteriorated so rapidly that the two crises
look more likely to exacerbate each other. If Germany, Europes
economic powerhouse, has been stretched to its limit by the ref-
ugee influx, theres little chance Greece can host tens of thou-
sands of refugees in humane conditions, thus increasing the risk
of clashes between migrant communities and the authorities.
And if Greeks see their local authorities spending much-needed
resources on newcomers, there may well be a rise in xenophobia.
In the Greeks view, the two crises are becoming
increasingly intertwined, reinforcing a popular nar-
rative that, for the second time in eight months, the
EU is turning its back on Greece and neglecting its
principles. Analysts say that perception could make
Greece less likely to cooperate
with the EU when it comes to
implementing the EU-Turkey
deal. If Greece feels betrayed
once more by its EU brethren,
it will be less likely to work
Heres the other
with the EU and the refugees bad news no one
and migrants. Nobody wins, has been talking
says Demetrios Papademe- about: The
triou, president emeritus of
the Migration Policy Institute,
Greek economy
based in Washington, D.C. is showing
For now, though, most little sign of
Greeks continue to demon- improvement.
strate remarkable solidarity
with the refugees. The first time
I visited the Kozani stadium, on
March 9, 440 Syrians and Iraqis
were being sheltered there. Outside, T-shirts and
trousers hung over the rails to dry in the sunshine; a black plas-
tic banner strung between trees fluttered in the breeze (Open
the borders, stop the war, it read in English and Arabic). Every
day, some 30 or 40 volunteers from Kozani and surrounding
villages came to the stadium to help out: providing five meals
a day and offering first aid care and dental checks. Inside,
NEWSWEEK 43 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
drawings of doves covered the walls; half of the
refugees in Kozani are children, so a group of
volunteers come every day to do activities with
them, including painting and putting on plays.
Scenes like these are taking place all around
Greece. A nationwide poll conducted by Public Issue
in January found that 58 percent of respondents had
actively shown solidarity with the refugeesmore
than a third had provided food, 31 percent had given
clothing, and 10 percent gave financial aid. Those
numbers would suggest that more than 5 million
Greeks have actively helped refugees.
The tradition of welcoming strangers has
ancient roots; Greeks believe in the principle of
philoxenia, which literally means the love of
strangers. In Homers Odyssey, Odysseus returns
home disguised as a beggar to test the hospital-
ity of his swineherd. In ancient mythology, Zeus
was, among other things, the god of travelers. He
wore rags and disguised himself as a poor man to
see how his people treated strangers. We are not
uniquely good, but we are certainly better than
how we have often been portrayed in the global
media in recent years, says Ioannidis, Kozanis
mayor. This has been an instance for our citizens
to show our good side, our kindness.
Greeces history makes its people acutely empa-
thetic to the feeling of not being in control of your
futuresomething nearly all refugees feel. Four
centuries of Ottoman rule ended in the 1820s, fol-
lowed in 1912-13 by the Balkan Wars, then World
War I and a mass population exchange with Tur-
key that involved 400,000
Muslims in Greece and 1.3
million Anatolian Greeks
living on the shores of the
Black Sea being expelled
from their ancestral home-
lands. (Many Greeks cite
their refugee origins as
a reason for their soli-
darity with the Syrians.)
Then came a brutal Nazi
occupation in the 1940s
that claimed the lives of
about 10 percent of the
population and ruined the
countrys economy and
infrastructure. After the
Germans left, there was
civil war until 1949. In 1967, a right-wing military
junta seized power, dissolving political parties.
Greece emerged from the military dictatorship
only in 1974.
Greeks also know what its like to be on the
sharp end of cultural stereotypinganother
daily reality many of the predominantly Muslim
refugees will face in Europe. During the financial crisis, many grenades, rubber bullets and tear gas to push back
Northern Europeans saw the Greeks and other people living refugees trying to scale the border fence.
around the Mediterranean as being too distracted by sunshine Everywhere I met refugees on two recent vis-
and wine to do the hard work necessary to maintain an efficient itsin Idomeni, Kozani and Athensthere was
society. (The numbers do not align with such explanations: an almost universal awareness that Greece was
According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation not the promised land. Greece has a big enough
and Development, the average Greek has, for the past 15 years, burden already, says one young Palestinian man
always worked more than 2,000 hours annually. By comparison, in the Port of Piraeus, near Athens, where 5,000
the average German clocked in 1,371 hours in 2014, the average refugees are camped out.
Brit 1,677 and the average American 1,789.)
For months, the left-wing Syriza government has encouraged Chancellor Mercy?
Greeks to feel solidarity with the downtrodden. Many elderly
Greeks say the sight of people squatting in Athenss squares, hun- IN A TURN no one would have predicted last sum-
gry and fleeing violence, reminds them of the Nazi occupation, mer, Merkel may well be Greeces best hope now.
a memory that inspires them to feel sympathy for the refugees. Greece and Germany have found themselves
But will those feelings last? Greece is a remarkably homoge- with an accidental commonality of interests. Both
neous country, with more than 95 percent of the population iden- governments have broadly taken pro-refugee
tifying as Greek Orthodox. The country also has little experience stances. Do you seriously believe that all the
integrating newcomers. Although experts point out that Greek euro states that last year fought all the way to keep
culture is much closer to the Middle East than most European Greece in the eurozoneand we were the strict-
countries, the basic measures needed for integrationlanguage estcan one year later allow Greece to, in a way,
lessons, jobs, schoolingare all more difficult to implement in plunge into chaos? Merkel asked in an interview
the austerity-ravaged Greece of today. The question is what with public broadcaster ARD in late February. She
happens when people realize that this is going to be permanent, warned that Athens could find itself paralyzed by
that we are going to have to host tens or hundreds of thousands the huge number of arrivals.
of people, says Angelos Chryssogelos, a researcher at the Hel- Greeks are hoping Germanys sympathy
lenic Observatory of the London School of Economics. extends to further debt relief. The countrys repay-
ment deadlines are fast approach-
ing: In June and July, Athens must
repay 10 billion euros ($11.3 bil-
lion), money it doesnt have. On
If Greece feels April 1, whistleblowing website
betrayed once WikiLeaks published transcripts of
an illegally recorded internal IMF
more by its EU phone conversation from March
brethren, it that showed officials seemingly
will be less likely to predicting another emergency in
work with the EU a discussion about what it would
and the refugees take to get Greeces European
creditors to agree to debt relief.
and migrants. The IMF has declined to com-
ment on the leaked transcript,
but the conversation hinted at
a political deadlock that could
jeopardize Greeces 86 billion
Most of those people dont want to stay. We just sit here euro ($97 billion) bailout agreed to last year. So
waiting all day. Its like a big jail, says Lamia Khalil, a 35-year- far, the IMF and the EU have failed to agree on
old Syrian Kurd from Aleppo, in near-perfect English, the a joint position. The IMF wants the EU to offer
product of 10 years working at Aleppo International Airport. Greece considerable debt relief; the EU, in par-
She is living at the stadium in Kozani. We are all losing time ticular Germany, is reluctant, worried that it
here. I just want to live my life again. might encourage other eurozone countries to
If the European dream of prosperity seems out of reach for push for similar concessions.
most Greeks, Syrians know its unlikely to come true for them. As The leak sparked anger in Tsiprass office, which
frustrations build, hundreds of migrants and refugees in Idomeni blames the IMF for delaying a review of the prog-
have tried increasingly dangerous means of crossing the border. ress Greece has made in carrying out the tough
Three Afghans, one of whom was pregnant, drowned in a river by austerity terms, a review needed for Athens to
Idomeni; in April, Macedonian police have repeatedly used stun receive financial aid. Tsipras accused the IMF of

NEWSWEEK 44 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 trying to politically destabilize Europe. The IMFs managing get access to the resources they need to launch
director, Christine Lagarde, reacted furiously, saying, Greece their ideas. In January 2009, Georgios Kasselakis
cannot just continuously tag along and expect that things will be and George Tziralis co-founded a small invest-
sorted out. On April 14, she added that if Europe does not give ment fund in Athens, the second of its kind in
Greece some kind of debt relief, the IMF would have to reconsider Europe after London-based Seedcamp opened
its participation in the bailout fund. Berlin says if the IMF stops two years earlier. More than 200 people are now
contributing, Germany would too. Given the current impasse, a employed in startups that Openfund has backed.
rerun of last years emergencywith Greece risking default on its Kasselakis, 30, says the world he lives in is a small
debtslooks increasingly likely. tech bubble, barely affected by the crisis of the
For all the new feelings of fraternity that Berlin might have past five years. Despite the overall situation, we
toward Athens, Greece faces a painful reality: Its hard to rebuild are outperforming most companies in Silicon Val-
the economy when the people best suited to the task have left. ley, he says over lunch at Philos, a caf in an ele-
Of the Greek university graduates who worked abroad in the past gant neoclassical building in Kolonaki, an affluent
three years, only 15.9 percent returned to Greece, according to a neighborhood of Athens whose streets are clus-
2015 Council of Europe international review. tered with high-end boutiques. Things have been
Greece has no choice
but to make do with what
it has. And financial melt-
downs can sometimes be
a catalyst for new begin-
nings. Many Greeks
say the economic crisis
has boosted solidarity
among Greeks, while the
refugee crisis has helped
give them perspective on
just how bad things are at
home. There is maybe
economic warfare, but
its not actual warfare,
says George Ilias, 33,
chief technology officer
of Athens-based startup
ZuluTrade.
People like Ilias
young, educated pro-
fessionals who have
chosen to build their
future in Greece rather
than abroadmay rep-
resent the countrys best
chances for economic
recovery. Many Greeks +
say the debt crisis has DIVISIONS: Graffiti by street artist Goin depicts
encouraged businesses the death of the euro, left. Above, a new transit
camp sparked protests against migrants.
to become more innovative and efficient in order to survive.
And between 2014 and 2015, Greece made significant gains in
its GEDI score, an index by the U.S.-based Global Entrepre- going splendidly, so much so that I sometimes feel
neurship and Development Institute that evaluates a countrys awkward sharing that with other Greeks.
LOU I SA G OU L I A M A K I /A F P/G E T T Y ( 2 )

entrepreneurship ecosystem. Entrepreneurs, business leaders and investors

Greeks who do stay, or return home from other countries, are
often extremely successful, creating islands of innovation that
defy the countrys broader economic turmoil. According to a Bay
Area Economic Institute report, technology does not only drive
the global economy; it also creates 1.7 times more jobs in local
goods and services than manufacturing does.
Venture capital companies are also trying to make sure Greeks
like Kasselakis represent the green shoots Greece
so desperately needs. And with help from Brus-
sels and Germany, its also possible the country
could fix its broken economyand in the process
cope better with the refugee crisis. But for now,
success in Greece may be something best men-
tioned only in private.

NEWSWEEK 45 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 NEW WORLD
STARTUPS INNOVATION SPACE ENVIRONMENT
GOOD SCIENCE
SHR!MP
A company hoping to disrupt
seafood may have accidentally created
the worlds rst kosher crustacean
WHATEVER IN THE water does not have fins and
scales is abhorrent to you, the Hebrew book
+
of Leviticus reads. For devout Jews, that means
SHELL GAME: The
faux shrimp is shrimp and other shellfish are forbidden. But the
vegan, vegetarian Old Testament could never have imagined tech-
and kosher, and
vastly more sus- nology summoning a food that looks like shrimp
tainable than its and tastes like shrimp, but isnt shrimp.
crustacean model. Helping observant Jews enjoy seafood wasnt
what Dominique Barnes, the CEO of New Wave
Foods, set out to do. Shrimp is the No. 1 con-
sumed seafood in the U.S., says Barnes, and
its also the king of all the problems. Pound for
pound, shrimp has a carbon footprint 10 times
that of beef. And farming the stuff is linked to the
destruction of mangrovesa key ecosystem, fish
nursery and vital defense against ocean flooding
from monsoons and tsunamis. Add to that the
NEW WAVE FO ODS
industrys persistent problem with human slav-
BY
ery, and shrimp might be our biggest dietary sin.
GRANT
BURNINGHAM New Waves solution is a lab-made shrimp com-
@granteb posed primarily of the red algae shrimp consume,
NEWSWEEK
BRAIN CLIMATE CHANGE
giving them their distinctive pink tint, as well as
some of their flavor. Algae, unlike shrimp, are
sustainableeasy to grow and easy on the envi-
ronment. It took several iterations in the lab to get
the texture, taste and nutrition profile right, but
Shr!mp is already good enough that Google San
Francisco ordered some for its cafeteria in March.
The lab-created shrimp is vegetarian, vegan and
also, to our surprise, kosher, Barnes says.
In order to get the kosher seal for her shrimp
substitute, Barnes traveled to the kitchen of
kosher caterer LChaims, and made a batch in
front of a group of rabbis, who certified the end
result as kosher. As New Wave scales up, itll work
to keep the certification, according to Barnes.
Barnes got to see her faux shrimp in action at a
recent party. The appetizer was popcorn Shr!mp,
and for many of the diners, who keep kosher, it
was the first time they had tasted something like
shrimp. Said one 10-year-old girl: This is oddly
strange but oddly delicious.
47 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 N E W W O R L D/ BRAIN
25 IS THE NEW 18
Neuroscience is changing how
and when the criminal justice
system punishes young adults
ON A RAINY MORNING in the fall of 1993,
Antonio House made a choice he would come
to regret. House, who had turned 19 just two
months earlier, was a member of the Unknown
Vice Lords gang on the South Side of Chicago;
his job was to sell drugs for the Lords. When he
showed up at his corner that day, a fellow gang
member relayed a message from the boss to drive
down to some nearby railroad tracks instead.
Once House arrived, he realized he was being
asked to be a lookout. In a decision that would
alter the course of his life, he stuck around. A
few moments later, he heard eight gunshots. His
boss had just shot two rival gang members.
House quickly drove offlater, he claimed
he was unaware there were going to be mur-
ders, but it didnt matter. He was convicted of
two counts of first-degree murder. Illinois law
mandated that he be sentenced to life with-
out parolethe same sentence that applied to
his boss, who orchestrated the murders and
pulled the trigger.
The crime, despite its brutality, was fairly
unremarkablegang-related homicides account
for 13 percent of all homicides in the U.S., despite
gang members making up way less than 1 per-
cent of the population. But what is remarkable is
that this past December, over 20 years later, an
appeals court made a highly unusual ruling: It
vacated Houses life sentence and ordered a new
hearing based, in part, on a growing body of evi-
NEWSWEEK
dence from neuroscience that brains continue to
develop well into a persons 20s. The question
wasnt whether or not House acted as a look-
out. He did. But, the reasoning went, because
his brain was still immature at 19, Houses age
should be a factor to reduce his sentence.
The Supreme Court has increasingly called
upon new findings in neuroscience and psychol-
ogy in a series of rulings over the past decade
(Roper v. Simmons, Graham v. Florida, Miller v.
Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana) that pro-
hibited harsh punishmentssuch as the death
penalty and mandatory life without parolefor
offenders under 18. Due to their immaturity, the
argument goes, they are less culpable and so
deserve less punishment than those 18 or older.
In addition, because their wrongdoing is often
the product of immaturity, younger criminals
may have a greater potential for reform. Now
people are questioning whether the age of 18
has any scientific meaning.
People are not magically different on their
18th birthday, says Elizabeth Scott, a professor
of law at Columbia University whose work was
cited in the seminal Roper case. Their brains are
still maturing, and the criminal justice system
should find a way to take that into account.
Houses case is the first to successfully apply
the Supreme Courts reasoning about juveniles BY
to someone who committed a crime after age TIM REQUARTH
18and the decision could mark a turning point @timrequarth
48 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 in American law. The 18-to-24 demographic
makes up only 10 percent of the population but
accounts for 27 percent of all criminal arrests.
Leniency in this high-crime population, oppo-
nents argue, could compromise public safety.
Yet its also clear that the current system does
not work. Recidivism rates for offenders aged
18 to 24 are breathtakingly high: 78 percent of
18- to 24-year-olds released from prison are
rearrested, and half return to prison again.
Few would argue that a 13-year-old is develop-
mentally the same as a 25-year-old, but theres
a gray zone in between, says B.J. Casey, direc-
tor of the Sackler Institute for Developmental
Psychobiology at Cornells Weill Medical Col-
lege. For the criminal justice system, she says,
its basically a question of, When is an adoles-
cent an adult?
Casey is leading an unlikely consortium of
SUFFER THE scientists and legal scholars, including Scott,
J OS E P H RO D R I GU E Z / R E DUX
CHILDREN: A law
professor who to home in on the young adult mind. In a set of
works on youth experiments published last month in the journal
crime points out
that people are Psychological Science, Casey and her collaborators
not magically dif- asked: At what age do people gain the ability to
ferent on their
18th birthday.
+ themselves from pushing the button when there
NEWSWEEK
control themselves in emotionally charged situa-
tions? To try to answer this question, they placed
13- to 25-year-olds into a brain scanner while ask-
ing them to do a task that required restraint. The
instructions were simple: Press a button if you
see a bored or scared face, but dont press it if you
see a happy face. The twist was that the subjects
performed the task under three conditions: pos-
itive arousal, negative arousal and no arousal. In
the first condition, they were told ahead of time
that at any moment they could be awarded up to
$100, while in the second condition they were
told there could be a loud noise. In the third con-
dition, the subjects were told nothing.
The idea was that the first two conditions
would create a sustained period of heightened
emotion. It was inspired by the circumstances
of criminal behavior: Many crimes by the young
are in emotionally or socially charged situa-
tions. The question, says Casey, is, Why, in the
heat of the moment, under threat, do they pull
the trigger, even when they know better?
The results of her experiment involving neg-
ative stimulus were striking: 18- to 21-year-olds
were less able than 22- to 25-year-olds to restrain
was the threat of a loud sound. (This diminished
cognitive control was not observed under positive
or neutral conditions.) In fact, under the threat-
ening condition, says Casey, the 18- to 21-year-
olds werent much better than teenagers. The
THE 18-TO-24 DEMO-
GRAPHIC MAKES UP
ONLY 10 PERCENT OF
THE POPULATION
BUT ACCOUNTS FOR
27 PERCENT OF ALL
CRIMINAL ARRESTS.
brain scanners revealed a telltale pattern: Areas
in the prefrontal cortex that regulate emotion
showed reduced activity, while areas linked to
emotional centers were in high gear.
These results support previous brain-imaging
studies and postmortem examinations. Brain
areas involved in reasoning and self-control, such
as the prefrontal cortex, are not fully developed
until the mid-20sa far later age than previously
thought. Brain areas involved in emotions such as
49 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

NEW WORLD /BRAIN
desire and fear, however, seem to be fully devel-
oped by 17. This pattern of brain development
creates a perfect storm for crime: Around the ages
of 18 to 21, people have the capacity for adult emo-
tions yet a teenagers ability to control them.
Fueled in part by studies such as Caseys,
legal experts and policymakers are beginning
to reconsider how the criminal justice system
treats this age range. Vincent Schiraldi, a for-
mer commissioner of probation for New York
City and now a senior research fellow at the
Harvard Kennedy Schools Program in Crim-
inal Justice Policy and Management, argues
that offenders should not enter the adult system
until 21, with gradually diminishing protections
until 25. Anyone who has a 22-year-old living in
his childhood bedroom, Schiraldi says, knows
they arent the same as older adults.
In many countries, 18 as the threshold for
adulthood is already a thing of the past. In Ger-
many, it has been age 21 since 1953, and in Swit-
zerland its 25. Here in the U.S., a bill was filed
last month to raise the age in Illinois to 21. Gov-
ernor Dannel Malloy of Connecticutinspired
by a recent trip to Germanyhas been outspo-
ken about making similar changes in his state.
Last fall, he proposed raising the juvenile age to
20 and instituting alternative ways to deal with
people up to age 25, such as keeping convictions
for less serious crimes confidential and estab-
lishing a special young-offender prison whose
sole focus is reform and reintegration.
There are already a few places in the U.S.
experimenting with some of those alternatives.
This April, the Brooklyn District Attorneys
Office, in partnership with the Center for Court
Innovation, is piloting a separate court system
for ages 16 to 24 (offenders 16 and older are cur-
rently treated as adults in New York). The court
which is beginning with low-level offenseshas
a dedicated judge, defense staff, prosecutors and
social workers. The San Francisco DA launched
a similar program last summer but focused on
felonies, including violent crimes. Both pro-
grams are working on an approach that takes
developmental factors into account, and all par-
ties receive training from an in-house expert in
the field. Neuroscience, says Katy Weinstein
NEWSWEEK
Miller, chief of alternative programs and initia-
tives at the San Francisco DAs office, has really
informed everything we do in court.
Whatever the approach may be, it is sure to be
controversial. Take the case of Boston Marathon
bomber Dzokhar Tsarnaev, who was 19 at the
time of his crimes. Tsarnaevs attorneys argued
that his age should shield him from the death
penalty; they drew on the science of adolescent
and young adult developmentespecially with
regard to his susceptibility to the influence of his
older brother. The period between ages 17 and
20, science shows, is exactly when people tend
to develop mature abilities to resist coercion.
Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at
Temple University and author of Age of Opportu-
nity: Lessons From the New Science of Adolescence,
wrote in The Boston Globe that Tsarnaevs trial was
a referendum on how we view and define adoles-
cence, asking how best to judge the behavior of
ANYONE WHO HAS A 22-
YEAR-OLD LIVING IN HIS
CHILDHOOD BEDROOM
KNOWS THEY ARENT THE
SAME AS OLDER ADULTS.
those who are legal adults, but in many respects
neurobiological adolescents. Last May, a federal
jury gave its opinion on that referendum, sen-
tencing Tsarnaev to death.
But Steinberg is very clear in pointing out that
neuroscience would not be the basis to excuse
criminal behavior. Its not about guilt or inno-
cence, he says. The question is, How culpable
are they, and how do we punish them? Its easy
to forget that the legal definition of an adult is a
cultural construct pieced together over 100 years
ago, around the time when juvenile courts were
first established; this cutoff has no real empirical
basis. Brain science, in a sense, merely confirms
what is already apparent: Modern adolescence
seems to be prolonged, with people completing
school, establishing financial independence and
starting families at a much later age.
Whether the legal age of adulthood should
be shifted or special criminal justice programs
designed is becoming an urgent matter for
debate. We have still not figured out what to
do with people this age, says Steinberg. But its
probably worth trying something new.
50 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
Lester Holt
Cuba

We go to the story
so you get the story.
 NE W W O R L D / E N V IRONMENT
PULP FICTION
The Georgia-Pacic paper plant
is the town of Crossetts lifeblood,
but it could also be slowly killing it
LET ME GIVE you a sketch of the neighborhood,
Leroy Patton said as he put his car in park on the
side of Lawson Road. He took a toothpick out of
his mouth and used it to point to an empty house,
an abandoned doll facedown in the weeds out
front. The Lawson couple used to live here, Pat-
ton says; the street was named for them. Theyre
dead from cancer and stroke.
He pointed to another property. Down here
is Pat. Her parents died from cancer back there,
and now her husbands sick too. He turned to
a long driveway lined with trees and junk cars.
And this here is my place. Aint nobody but
me and my old lady left. Everybody dead in my
family but me. All of em from cancer.
The Patton family has lived on Lawson Road
in Crossett, Arkansas, for three generations.
Like most of the town, the Pattons earned their
living from the nearby lumber and paper mill.
In 1962, when Patton was 20, Georgia-Pacific, a
fast-growing lumber and paper products com-
pany, bought the mill and turned it into a paper,
chemical and plywood plant. Production soared.
Patton watched the mill prosper and bring pros-
perity to his town1,200 jobs, $6.7 million in
annual tax revenue, a zoo, a 3-D printer for the
library. But he also watched, one by one, his par-
ents, neighbors and high school friends die.
Less than a mile away, Penn Road tells a sim-
ilar story. In 15 homes, 11 people have died from
cancer. Look there, Patton said, pointing to
NEWSWEEK
the permanent cloud that hangs above the Geor-
gia-Pacific plant. Look how close to the plant
you are here. The plant runs 24 hours a day,
365 days a year, and emits upwards of 1.5 million
pounds of toxic chemicals annually, according
to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys
(EPA) Toxic Release Inventory, which is based
on self-reported calculations. Emissions include
known carcinogens such as formaldehyde, dio-
xin, acetaldehyde and chloroform.
The plant also emits a steady stream of hydro-
gen sulfide, both in the air and in the streams of
its water treatment system. One of these streams,
which residents call Stink Creek, runs through
the back of Pattons land. When the wind is blow-
ing the wrong way, it brings a harsh, metallic smell
into the homes of nearby residents. A strong whiff
stings the nose and burns the throat and lungs.
Residents began complaining in the 1990s.
In addition to the worrisome odors, there were
the chemicals eating through air-condition-
ing units and copper wiring. Georgia-Pacific
responded by going door to door, doling out
checks in exchange for signed release forms
absolving it of any responsibility for damages to
the residents propertyor their health. There
was this man who was coming around, Patton
said. He came out with a checkbook, said he
was gonna write a check. I ran him off. BY
Others signed: Marion and Lila Thurman from EMILY CRANE LINN
Thurman Road received $158,000. David and @emilycrane4
52 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 +
PICK YOUR
POISON: An aera-
tion pond for the Barbara Bouie from Penn Road re-
Georgia-Pacific
plant, which runs
24/7, 365 days
ceived $34,000. In exchange, they
agreed to absolve Georgia-Pacific
GEORGIA-PACIFIC WENT
a year, emitting
formaldehyde, di-
of any and all past, present, or DOOR TO DOOR, DOLING OUT
oxin, acetaldehyde
and chloroform.
future, known and unknown, fore-
seen and unforeseen bodily and
CHECKS IN EXCHANGE FOR
personal injuries or death. SIGNED RELEASE FORMS.
Asked about the release forms,
Georgia-Pacific says the wording
about personal injuries and death
was nothing more than standard legal practice because its the only color theyve ever seen, says
and did not reflect the possibility that the plant Cheryl Slavant. But it is. I can remember when
might be responsible for residents illnesses. our river was blue and beautiful.
N I CO L AUS CZA R N EC K I / ZU M A /AL A M Y

Slavant can also remember sitting on the levee

THE SMELLY RIVER
The Ouachita River begins at Lake Ouachita in
central Arkansas, where it is a vibrant blue. By the
time it reaches Monroe, Louisiana, 50 miles after it
passes by the Georgia-Pacific plant, its a dark cof-
fee color. Most of the people in Monroe and West
Monroe do not know the river is the wrong color,
as a child and watching the water-ski shows. Her
husband recalls fishing there and frying up his
catch for supper. But in the late 1950s, the river
began to change. Its not just that the water turned
brown. The local department of health warned
residents to limit the quantities of fish they were
eating because of high levels of mercury. There

NEWSWEEK 53 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
are no more water-skiing contests because res-
idents are afraid to swim in that water. On some
days, residents say, the river puts off a foul stench.
In 2007, Slavant launched Ouachita River-
keeper, a group working to clean and protect the
Ouachita River. Slavant and her volunteer patrol
had just begun investigating the cause of the pol-
lution in 2009 when she received a call from Cros-
sett. Residents there had heard about her work
and said they knew what was turning the river
brown and believed it was making them all sick.
So Slavant met with residents and helped them
form an organization, the Crossett Concerned
Citizens for Environmental Justice, which grew
rapidly. At one point, Slavant counted over 700
membersover 10 percent of the towns popu-
lation. At their meetings, she heard stories about
communities using Coffee Creek and Mossy
Lake, other wildlife live in or frequently contact
the effluent. Muskrat, beaver, nutria, turtles and
ducks are known to use Coffee Creek and Mossy
Lake, sometimes in very large numbers. It con-
cluded the waters of Coffee Creek and Mossy
Lake have the potential to support aquatic life
indicative of streams in the ecoregion.
Those findings might have seriously affected
the parameters of Georgia-Pacifics permithad
ADEQ been required to consider them. But the
company sent a letter to the EPA (ccing several
Arkansas and Louisiana congressmen and sen-
ators) in which it accused the regulatory agency
of acting without its knowledge and demanding
the opportunity to redo the study using a con-
TOXIN TOWN:
tractor of its choosing. The EPA agreed, the 2007

N I CO L AUS CZA R N EC K I / ZU M A /AL A M Y

A map showing
Stink Creek and how it carried discharge from the UAA was set aside, and Georgia-Pacifics effluent the concentra-
plant, through the town, to the treatment basins flowed on. Meanwhile, Georgia-Pacific hired the tion levels of
hydrogen sulfide
and, eventually, into the Ouachita River. environmental engineering company Aquaeter to in Crossett
Georgia-Pacific says its water treatment sys- conduct a study. It completed a draft UAA in 2013 neighborhoods
spurred residents
tem is thorough, carefully monitored and in full but has not yet finalized or published any findings. to demand an
compliance with the law according to param- Slavant says it all comes down to politics. The investigation
of the Georgia-
eters laid out in the permit given to it by the Pacific plant.
Arkansas Department for Environmental Qual- +
ity (ADEQ). The company also says Stink Creek
is a lawful, necessary part of that process. Barry
Sulkin, an environmental scientist with the Pub-
lic Employees for Environmental Responsibil-
ity, or PEER, disagrees. Stink Creek, he says, is
not supposed to be a water treatment canal. Its
actually a stream called Coffee Creek, a naturally
occurring body of water that predates the plant
and is protected by the federal Clean Water Act.
The United States Geological Survey has been
mapping the region since 1934, three years before
the plant started producing paper and decades
before Georgia-Pacific acquired the mill. The ear-
liest maps show Coffee Creek beginning inside
where the Georgia-Pacific complex would even-
tually stand and running into Mossy Lake before
continuing on into the Ouachita River; later maps
show the creek beginning inside the complex. The
Clean Water Act, passed in 1972, requires that any
pollutants discharged into bodies of water be
clean enough so as to not disrupt the activities in
those waters, such as fishing, drinking and sup-
porting animal life. The law gives state regulators,
such as ADEQ, the power to determine what those
activities are and what the limits on pollutants
should be. In this case, ADEQ determined that
Coffee Creek and the lake through which it flows,
Mossy Lake, do not have any fishable/swimma-
ble or domestic water supply uses.
But in a 2007 Use Attainability Analysis (UAA)
published by the EPA, the agency found that,
aside from the fish and macroinvertebrate

NEWSWEEK 54 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
EPA gets its funding from Congress, and mem-
bers of Congress get their funding from busi-
nesses. Members of Congress also answer to their
constituents, and those constituents want jobs.
Georgia-Pacific provides southern Arkansas with
1,200 of them, and no onenot the state of Arkan-
sas, nor its representatives, nor the residents of
Crossettcan afford to put those jobs in jeopardy.
For Tim Toler, president of the Crossett Cham-
ber of Commerce, those jobs are more than just
jobs; theyre Crossetts lifeblood. Those jobs pro-
vide an excellent standard of living in our town,
they provide retirement for people...and they pro-
vide health care for employees, he says. And, of
course, those jobs provide an income that allows
people to shop in our town, eat in our restau-
rants and purchase services and goods. Our town
would not exist [without the mill]. Which is why,
while many citizens are deeply concerned that
the plants emissions might be making them sick,
the townsfolk are far from sharpening their pitch-
forks. On the contrary, most residents are fiercely
protective of the plant and quick to shoot down
the possibility that it could be harming them.
Ben Walsh, a Crossett family practitioner,
rejects claims Crossett suffers from any abnor-
mal health problems. We have to look at the sci-
ence, and the science says theres no increased
rate of cancer in Ashley County, Walsh says.
Hes right. The Arkansas Department of Health
cancer registry shows the rate of cancer deaths
in the county to be slightly below
the state average. So what does
Walsh make of places like Penn
or Lawson Road? You would
want to look at all the variables,
MOST OF THE PEOPLE DO
such as whether these people NOT KNOW THAT THE RIVER
smoked or were obese, he says. IS THE WRONG COLOR,
Or you might look at how
close they are to the wastewater
BECAUSE ITS THE ONLY
stream, Slavant says. The num- COLOR THEYVE EVER SEEN.
bers of affected people clustered
in the area are too improbable for
her to consider any other cause.
And its hard for her to forget Georgia-Pacifics
release forms, with the wording past, present,
or future...personal injuries or death.
Chemist and environmental consultant Wilma
Subra is certain emissions are to blame for the
towns respiratory illnesses. In 2012, the Louisiana
Environmental Action Network commissioned
Subra to set up air-monitoring stations around
town to sample levels of hydrogen sulfide, and she
asked residents to fill out symptom reports record-
ing instances of dizziness, headaches, coughing
or eye irritation. She found that hydrogen sulfide
levels were highest nearest the stream and that
NEWSWEEK
NEW WORLD /ENVIRON M E N T
higher levels corresponded with greater and more
severe symptoms among residents.
In addition to the chemicals Georgia-Pacific
reports, there could be any number of unreported
chemicals leaching into the atmosphere off
the books. On an inspection last year, the EPA
observed several defective pieces of equipment
that were allowing unidentified gases to escape
into the atmosphere. It also observed filtrate tanks
and storage tanks that were knowingly being
vented into the atmosphere rather than through
a controlled system, as required by the Clean Air
Act. Altogether, the EPA found 33 areas where
Georgia-Pacific was noncompliant with federal
laws and dozens of other areas of concern.
Georgia-Pacific is working to address EPA con-
cerns, says Jennifer King, a public affairs manager
with the company. In the meantime, however, the
plant continues to operate around the clock.
Georgia-Pacifics permit is up for renewal, and
if enough concerned citizens submit comments to
ADEQ, it could be pressured to modify the permit
this time around. The state has to open the draft
permit up for public comment, says Corinne Van
Dalen, Ouachita Riverkeepers lead attorney.
And if there are enough public comments, they
will have to hold a hearing to discuss the permit.
After that, even if the permit is approved, anyone
can appeal a permit decision to the permit appeals
board and from there to the state court.
Slavant isnt looking for Georgia-Pacific to
close; she only wants to see regulatory agencies
hold the plant to the law. There needs to be a GP
plant here, but it needs to be updated. It needs to
be fixed, she says. And it can be done.
55 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 STEV E D I E T L /A M A ZO N ST U D I OS & B L E EC K E R ST R E E T

+
POTUS AGAIN:
Spacey screen-
tested for the
2008 film version
of Frost/Nixon
before landing
the role in
Elvis & Nixon.

NEWSWEEK 56 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

PHOTOGRAPHY MOVIES TRAVEL TELEVISION
I AM NOT A NIXON!
Many actors have portrayed the
former president, and many more have
imitated Elvis, but few understood
what truly makes a lasting impression
THE HAIR IS IMMEDIATELY recognizable, the
outfit unmistakable: Its Elvisexcept hes taller,
skinnier and looks nothing like the King.
When Michael Shannon signed on to star in
Elvis & Nixon, he was not a huge Elvis Presley
aficionado. The actor, known for his creepily
intense portrayals in theater (Bug), television
(Boardwalk Empire) and movies (Revolutionary
Road), admits he isnt great at mimicry, and, to
be honest, even with a wig and an outfit made
by Elviss original suit-maker, he doesnt resem-
ble Presley very much.
Yet Jerry Schilling, who was one of Presleys
closest friendsand who accompanied him on
the surreal 1970 journey to meet President Rich-
ard Nixon recounted in this moviesays Shan-
non was able to transform himself into Presley.
BY Theyve never cast anyone who looks less like
STUART MILLER Elvis than Michael, says Schilling. Yet he really
NEWSWEEK
DOWNTIME
STYLE DINING
captures the inner Elvis. He did my friend jus-
tice. He may be the best Elvis of all time.
Elvis & Nixon, which opens April 22, begins
in the Oval Office. Kevin Spaceys grimaces,
inflections and body language nail what he calls
Nixons grumpy persona without slipping
into caricature. Then the story shifts focus to a
bored and lonely Elvis, who goes on a quest for
an agent-at-large badge from the federal gov-
ernment; he pulls in Schilling (played by Alex
Pettyfer) for this secret mission.
Nixon and Presley have long proved irresist-
ible to TV and filmmakers. Over 90 Nixons are
listed on the Internet Movie Database, or IMDb,
while Presley and his impersonators show up
more than 250 times. In fact, in 1997 Show-
time aired a variation of this same story in Elvis
Meets Nixon, but Schilling made them change
his characters name because the script was a
57 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

DOWNTIME /MOVIES
joke, and the whole movie was atrocious.
Depicting famous people from real life is
tricky for serious actors. Obligation No. 1 is to
convince people you are Nixon, who is highly
imitable for any actor worth his salt, says Stacy
Keach, who played Nixon in the national theat-
rical tour of Frost/Nixon. But then you have to
draw in all the colors of his characterthe inse-
curity, the inability to be socially connected.
In sketches, you do broad, quick strokes
that cannot sustain itself throughout a movie,
says Spacey, who, unlike Shannon, is a gifted
impressionist, covering everyone from Christo-
pher Walken to Katharine Hepburn to Bill Clin-
ton. I could give you a Nixon like that, but it
would run out of steam.
Mark Feeney, author of Nixon at the Movies,
says few actors have truly gotten Nixon down
and that the bigger the role, the heavier the bur-
den of verisimilitude. [Saturday Night Lives Dan]
Aykroyd really got the voice and body language,
he says, and Rip Torn was solid in the 1979 mini-
series Blind Ambition. But Feeney says most per-
formers, like Beau Bridges (1995s Kissinger and
Nixon) and Peter Riegert (1984s Concealed Ene-
mies), were uninspired or worse, like the campy
Bob Gunton in Elvis Meets Nixon. Perhaps the
most famous film portrayal is Anthony Hopkinss
paranoid president in Oliver Stones 1995 Nixon,
but Feeney says the Welsh-born star ended up
with an accent hovering somewhere over the
Atlantic between San Clemente and Cardiff.
The approach to bringing famous people to
life has changed over time, Keach says, with
actors relying less on prosthetics (he ditched a
Nixonian nose made for him) than they used to.
That feels old-fashioned, and actors focus now
on capturing the persons essence, not being a
literal look-alike. Shannon agrees, noting that
makeup can be a distraction. If you really want
to spend time with Elvis, you can watch one of
his 50 movies.
Feeneys favorite film depiction of Nixon is
Dan Hedayas in Dick, an absurdist Watergate
satire from 1999. Everything was made up,
so maybe that liberated Hedaya, Feeney says.
But hes a good actor and brought a real human
quality to Nixon.
NEWSWEEK
Hedaya, best known for playing Nick Tortelli
on Cheers and his roles in Blood Simple and The
Usual Suspects, recalls that when Dick director
Andrew Fleming offered him the role, he felt
hed never be able to accurately capture the ex-
president. I said, Listen to my voice. Im a Jew
from Brooklyn. This is impossible.
Fleming hired a coach, who brought Hedaya
books that had every diphthong in the world,
the veteran character actor recalls. I still dont
know what a diphthong is. And I was wary of
becoming a caricature. I watched only the I am
not a crook speech, but after 15 minutes some-
thing happened, and it was like I was channel-
ing Nixon.
Spacey, who screen-tested for the 2008 film
version of Frost/Nixon, says he was drawn to
this movie for the chance to play the presi-
dent without being saddled with Watergate.
Spacey studied photos and news footage to
understand that Nixon was physically uncom-
fortable in his own body and listened to phone
calls and tapes to understand the rhythms of
Nixons private speaking voice. After all that
preparation, Spacey says, his first day on the
set left him worried about another challenge:
Could I be in the Oval Office and not have peo-
ple think about [his House of Cards character]
Frank Underwood, not even for a second?
The Presley impersonators have also produced
a mixed track record. Nobody looks like Elvis,
says Liza Johnson, director of Elvis and Nixon.
Its harder to look like Elvis in 1955, when he
had the most beautiful face, but at any point the
AFTER 15 MINUTES,
SOMETHING HAPPENED,
AND IT WAS LIKE I WAS
CHANNELING NIXON.
gap in likeness is not something you can win.
While Dale Midkiff in Elvis and Me and David
Keith in Heartbreak Hotel were too bland, Schil-
ling says that Kurt Russell, in Elvis, projected the
necessary charm and was wonderful. During
his decade at Elvis Presley Enterprises over-
seeing all record and film projects, Schilling
insisted on cast approval for ABCs TV series
about Presley in 1990; he forced a last-minute
change from a stiff who should have played Bill
Haley to Michael St. Gerard from Hairspray,
58 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 +
HOUND DOGS:
The original
meeting be- who was Schillings favorite Presley (along with
tween President Jonathan Rhys Meyers in a 2005 CBS minise-
Nixon and Elvis
took place on ries) until Shannon came along.
December 21, Schilling had to push the Elvis & Nixon screen-
1970, at the
White House. writers to capture Presleys human side. The
movie shows how Presley revels in fames indul-
gencesno rules apply, and no one ever says no
to him, not even the presidentyet hes acutely
aware of his isolation and is being consumed by
it. One scene the writers added has Elvis com-
menting to Schilling about the hairspray, black
dye and facial cream required to create his public
persona. I become a thing. I become an object,
says Shannon of his Elvis wardrobe. They bur-
N AT I O N A L A RC H I V E / N EWS M A K E RS/G E T T Y
ied him so deep under gold, jewelry and money,
flashbulbs, stage makeup, screaming fans.
Shannon got Presleys laugh and his jittery
energy, Johnson says, and had the requisite
charisma to magnetize his world. Pettyfer
surprised Schilling with one crucial 70s detail.
The actor showed up at Schillings house one
day with a beard and asked for a razor. After he
shaved, Schilling says, he came back with huge
NEWSWEEK
sideburns. They looked way too big, so I went to
get pictures to show him...but mine really were
that huge [back then].
Shannon could not have played Presley with-
out Schilling, who gave him a private tour of
Graceland and his and Elviss childhood neigh-
borhood. When I met Jerry, the movie began
making sense to me, Shannon says. I was very
moved by his devotion to and love for his friend.
Shannons Rosetta stone was an unpublished
tape of Elvis talking, given to him by Schilling.
When I wasnt shooting a scene, I had my head-
phones on listening to that tape, Shannon says.
Some people say, You didnt try very hard on the
voice, but the voice on the tape seemed appropri-
ate for this. I didnt want the public voice. (Shan-
non did sing an a cappella Battle Hymn of the
Republic as Presley, but it was cut from the film.)
Once Shannon started studying the part, he
couldnt help falling in love with Presley. He
was a deep guy who was always searching for
something. One of his favorite books was Sid-
dhartha, which I never would have guessed.
59 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 DO W N T I M E/ P H O T OGRAPHY
SUPERFUND SUPERSTAR
David Hanson takes beautiful
photographs of hideous places
IN SUMMER OF 1982, photographer David Han-
son was in the midst of an artistic crisis. He
knew he could no longer take the kind of nat-
uralistic landscape images Ansel Adams had
made iconic: The American West that Hanson
had come of age in during the 1960s was not the
unspoiled wilderness Adams had captured but,
rather, a landscape where nature was increas-
ingly hemmed in by industry. I was really call-
ing into question the kind of work Id done,
Hanson says, speaking from his home in Fair-
field, Iowa. To make those pictures in the 1980s
seemed very out of touch with the landscape we
were living in and we were creating.
Confused, he decided to drive back from
Providence, where he was on break from the
graduate program at the Rhode Island School
of Design, to his parents house in Billings,
Montana. On the way, he stumbled across
Colstrip, a mining town in the plains of eastern
Montana where industry, nature and human
life coexist like three warring nations in a ten-
uous cease-fire. Taking wide-angle and aerial
photographs, he captured a landscape ruined
by humanity for humanitys sake: a silver trailer
standing sadly in the middle of a barren field,
smokestacks whose expulsions look like cotton
candy against the chrome-colored sky, a neat
suburban strip behind which churns the relent-
less machinery of American industry.
Hanson had found his subject, what the poet
Wendell Berry calls the monstrous ugliness of
the irreparable landscapes we have sacrificed
NEWSWEEK
in the name of eternal progress. Twenty-two
prints from Hansons Colstrip series were
exhibited in 1986 at Manhattans Museum of
Modern Art, while a Guggenheim Fellowship
allowed him to photograph about 70 Superfund
sites around the nation. These, he says, are the
most enduring monuments America will have,
nuclear and toxic grotesques that will linger
long after our piddling and preening species has
shuffled off this overheated stage.
This month brings Wilderness to Wasteland,
a career retrospective of previously unpub-
lished photographs that covers three decades
of Hansons work. The book is especially timely
because while green thinking is on the ascent,
green policies remain a liberal fantasy. Con-
gress allowed the Superfund tax on energy and
chemical companies to expire in 1995, thus viti-
ating the trust fund that paid for the cleanup
of hundreds of polluted orphan sites on the
National Priorities List (the official name for
Superfund). These days, Ted Cruz, the Repub-
lican candidate for president, struts around the
country railing against the Environmental Pro-
tection Agency, presumably because it is a left-
ist plague on average Americans. More credible
people, too, have placed the National Priorities
List low on the list of national priorities.
Wilderness to Wasteland is a testament to what
we have done, and to what we must cease doing
BY
if all that talk of doing right by future genera-
ALEXANDER
tions is more than just political grandstanding. NAZARYAN
The photographs are beautiful but not pretty, @alexnazaryan
60 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 SITE SPECIFIC:
Hanson has photo-
graphed 70 of the
Superfund sites
the U.S.s most
enduring monu-
ments to pollution
and nuclear waste.
+
DAV ID T. HANSON (2)

NEWSWEEK 61 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016

D O WNTIME /PHOTOGRAPHY
evoking a landscape that is like a body riddled
with ill-advised tattoos: car tracks across the des-
ert floor in San Bernardino County, California;
Atomic City, Idaho, where dreams of a nuclear
energy utopia devolved into haunting desolation;
the white silos of a Texaco compound in Rhode
Island, the moon rising above them in a faint but
indelible reminder of the tension between the
world we inherited and the world we have made.
The book has Hanson traveling to some of the
most infamous wastelands in America, includ-
ing Times Beach, a Missouri town abandoned
because of dioxin contamination, and the Rocky
Mountain Arsenal outside of Denver, where
the military manufactured and stored chemical
weapons. The site was once deemed the most
polluted place in the nation. Today, it is a park.
NEWSWEEK
Hanson has always been comfortable with
activism. In 1998, with the help of the Natural
Resources Defense Council and the Mineral
Policy Center, he gave a copy of his Waste Land:
Meditations on a Ravaged Landscape to every
member of Congress, holding meetings with
many of them to discuss environmental legis-
lation. He also worked with activists and politi-
cians in Montana to pass a ban on a type of gold
extraction that uses cyanide.
The most damning evidence cannot be hid-
den from the intrepid aerial photographer,
New York University sociologist Andrew Ross
has written of Hansons work, calling it a stun-
ning documentary of a century of organized
state terrorism against the North American
land, its species and its people.
Wilderness to Wasteland is being published as
the nation grapples with the water contamina-
tion crisis in Flint, Michigan. There are many
Flints in the United States. Though lead is the
culprit in Michigan, there are plenty of other
culprits too, a guerrilla army of chemical killers
we have unleashed upon ourselves. Sometimes
the victims are the people, and sometimes the
victim is the land. Too often, it is both.
+
LOST HIGHWAYS:
Hanson photo-
graphs some of the
most blighted and
polluted places in
America, like this
club, adjacent to a
nuclear weapons
plant, in Carson
County, Texas.
62 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
 TWO QUESTIONS
WITH DAVID TENNANT
After some memorable TV roles,
the Scottish actor returns to the stage
with Shakespeares Richard II
THOUGH DAVID
TENNANT is warm and
unusually well-adjusted
for an actor, hes strangely
good at playing deeply
disturbed. Even in his
most beloved role, as the
10th and best-coiffed
incarnation of the Doctor
on the long-running BBC
series Doctor Who, his
character could be harsh
and unpredictable. And
the Scottish actor has
only gone darker since
hanging up his sneakers,
recently as the sociopath-
ic supervillain Kilgrave on
Netflixs Jessica Jones and
as the tortured Detective
Inspector Alec Hardy in
both the U.K. and U.S.
versions of the mystery
procedural Broadchurch
(though the ill-advised
Northern California
accent he sports in the
latter version softens the
creepiness just a little).
And hes even better
going dark onstage, hav-
ing once called the theater
his default way of being. belongs to Boling-
A veteran of the renowned
Royal Shakespeare
BY Company, Tennant this
R E X /A P
IVA DIXIT month revisits the titular
@ivadixit monarch in the Bard of
Avons King Richard the
Second at the Brooklyn
Academy of Music. Rich-
ard is one of the weakest
and least loved of the
kings Shakespeare wrote
about in his Henriad,
but as Tennant explains,
thats what makes him so
fun to play.
Ive wondered why
Shakespeare gave
Richard a whole play,
because he doesnt
serve much of a pur-
pose other than as a
prologue to the later
Henriad plays. Richard
doesnt even seem to
be the hero of his own
narrativethat honor
brokeso what about
this play convinced
you to take it on?
Ive always loved this play.
The unexpectedness of
NEWSWEEK
it! The extraordinary jour-
ney of Richard, who starts
out being so unlikable
and so difficult to engage
with, and yet Shakespeare
confounds you. Just when
you believe that Boling-
brokes done the right
thinghe allows Richard You mentioned that
to discover humanity and
discover perspective and
objectivityRichard then
uses that, literally at one
point, to shine the mirror
back on his usurpers, to
show them that they are
being just as capricious,
as autocratic as they
believed he was being. Its
a fantastic study of poli-
tics, of human nature, of
fallibility. Ive also never
been particularly drawn
to straightforward heroes.
Even when I played what
you might call heroic
characters, theyve been then we must be doing
slightly off-center, slightly
63 0 4 / 2 9 / 2016
left field, you know? Ill
never play Superman, you
know what I mean? For
many, many reasons, but
that kind of one-dimen-
sional directness? It just
doesnt connect with me.
you remain very true
to the text, but you
deviate a couple of
times, most notably
when Richard and the
Duke of Aumerle kiss
in a very sexual, very
tender moment. There
was this sudden low
murmur going across
the room, with a few
people shifting uncom-
fortably in their seats.
Good! Oh, good. If a
400-year-old play can
make you shift uncom-
fortably in your seat,
something right.
 REWIND25 APRIL 29,1991
YEARS
QUOTING SHIRLEY HORN IN
THE BALLADS OF SHIRLEY
HORN BY JOHN LELAND

'In my early
years,' she
says, 'I
listened to a
pianist who
played a lot
of notes,
but it just left me cold. Then
I heard Miles Davis play one
note, and it made all the
difference in the world.'