Web's Dumbest Dares /Republican Hara-Kiri

Web’s Dumbest Dares / Republican Hara-Kiri

05.27.2016

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CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Carolina Buia Sean Elder Kevin Maney David Cay Johnston Elizabeth Isaacson Roberto Saviano 05.27.2016 VOL.166 NO.20

+ TEENAGE WASTELAND: A 17-year-old wears a Donald Trump– themed shirt at a campaign rally in Har- risburg, Pennsylvania. Some GOP politicians are still wondering what Trump actually stands for.

20 Iran The Great Nuclear Deal Meltdown

23 Pests Father Knows Pest

FEATURES DEPARTMENTS TEENS TODAY

BIG SHOTS 54 Diversity Color Coded 32 The Teenagers Ask a bedraggled parent “What do teens think?” 4 Maaret al-Numan, 56 Online and you just might get, “They think?” But what they Syria #NoDareTooStupid know and feel and do is vitally important. After all, Incoming! they are the future. Just maybe not yours. 6 Tokyo 60 Education Sorry Display Harvard Can Wait 34 Color Bind What do teens want? Less racism. 8 Baghdad Triple Slaughter 44 Then & Now They were the faces of a generation... 62 Books 10 Fort McMurray, Peggy Sue and are again, as they look back 50 years later. Alberta Got Sexted Burned Out 64 Advice We Were Teens Once PAGE ONE

COVER CREDIT: PHOTOGRAPH BY GANDEE VASAN/GETTY 12 Politics Newsweek (ISSN0028-9604) is published weekly except one week in January, July, August and Trumping the Shark October. Newsweek is published by Newsweek LLC, 7 Hanover Square, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10004. Periodical postage is paid at New York, NY and additional mailing offices. POSTMASTER: Send change of address to Newsweek, 7 Hanover Square, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10004. 16 Brazil For Article Reprints, Permissions and Licensing www.IBTreprints.com/Newsweek The Decline FOR MORE HEADLINES, NEWSWEEK.COM DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES/REDUX YORK WINTER/THE NEW DAMON PARS International (212) 221-9595 x210 [email protected] and Fall of Dilma GO TO

NEWSWEEKƎ & 05/27/2016

BIG SHOTS

SYRIA Incoming! Maaret al-Numan, Syria—Children duck under desks during a war safety awareness class conducted by civil defense members in a rebel-held area on May 14. In addition to attacks by the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and air bombings by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and Russia, Syrians may soon have to contend with Al-Qaeda, according to U.S. and European intelligence and counterterrorism officials quoted by The New York Times. It reported that a dozen of Al-Qaeda’s most seasoned fighters have been dispatched to Syria in an effort to challenge ISIS for dominance in the region.

KHALIL ASHAWI KHALIL ASHAWI/REUTERS KHALIL BIG SHOTS

JAPAN Sorry Display Tokyo—Mitsubishi Motors Chairman and CEO Osamu Masuko, center, and company President Tetsuro Aikawa, left, bow during a press conference on May 11 while apologizing for falsifying emissions data and announcing that the problem involved more cars than previously announced. Mit- subishi’s stock price has plunged and its reputation has taken a hit since it confessed in April to altering the fuel efficiency data of over 600,000 of its Japanese vehicles. In a potential lifeline to Mitsubishi, Nissan agreed to buy a 34 percent stake in its rival for $2.2 billion.

EUGENE HOSHIKO EUGENE HOSHIKO/AP EUGENE

BIG SHOTS

IRAQ Triple Slaughter Baghdad—People gather at the scene of a car bomb attack in Sadr City, a mainly Shiite district, on May 11. Three car bombings claimed by the Islamic State group (ISIS) killed at least 93 people in the deadliest single day of attacks on Iraq’s capital this year. There is a security vacuum in Iraq as the government appears to be unraveling—the country’s parliament has been unable to hold meetings, and Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi is struggling to uproot extremists as well as to address economic and political problems left over from years of war.

WISSM AL-OKILI WISSM AL-OKILI/REUTERS WISSM

JASON FRANSON/REUTERS BIG SHOTS

CANADA Burned Out Fort McMurray, Alberta—Prime Min- ister Justin Trudeau looks into a burned car while visiting neighborhoods dev- astated by more than a week of wildfires, on May 13. The visit was Trudeau’s first to Fort McMurray since 88,000 people were forced to evacuate on May 4, when the blaze swept into the city, the hub of Canada’s oil sands industry. Low humidity, unseasonably warm weather and high winds caused by El Niño put the region at a high fire risk and raised concerns about climate change. The blaze destroyed 2,400 buildings, but officials said nearly 90 percent of the city is intact.

JASON FRANSON PAGE ONE

BRAZIL POLITICS IRAN HEALTH MILITARY PESTS

TRUMPING THE SHARK The GOP can survive this hostile takeover, but it’s going to take a major reboot

MIKE TELLS DON his house is on fire. He adds Agency. Texas Senator Ted Cruz even played that he will extinguish the blaze if Don pays him. footsy with the theory that Obama wanted to Don forks over the money, but Mike does noth- declare martial law in Texas and was planning ing. There are two possible explanations for this to turn over vast swaths of American territory shocking betrayal: Mike was lying about the fire to the United Nations, which would then outlaw or he never planned to help Don. paved roads, grazing pastures and golf courses. In that story, Mike is the Republican Party, In other words, Republicans have been telling and Don represents all the members of the Tea Tea Partyers that the American house is on fire Party and their conservative think-alikes. And and that the GOP could douse the flames only in this analogy lies the explanation for both the if they send more conservatives to Washington. rise of Donald Trump and why the GOP elite is The tactic worked, bringing out the Tea Party and condemning him viciously. other conservative voters in 2010 and 2014, and For years, Republican leaders have engaged Republicans won big gains in Congress. But then, in what might be called boogeyman politics. where were the impeachment hearings? Why is No claim was too crazy to justify their storyline Obamacare still a thing? Why aren’t Democrats that the Constitution had been set ablaze by being arrested for treason? Tea Party members Democrats: Barack Obama isn’t a real Amer- still believe the lies they have been told about ican, so he’s not legally the president; Obama conspiracies and high crimes, and they have been committed crimes that demanded impeach- seething that their representatives were doing ment; Obama has secret plans to take away nothing about the horrors they had promised to Americans’ guns; Obama wanted to murder end. So these voters reached the conclusion that the elderly and disabled through Obamacare; the Republicans had sold them out. The grousing BY Obama maintained concentration camps oper- conservative electorate was primed to revolt. KURT EICHENWALD ated by the Federal Emergency Management A prominent GOP political consultant saw this @kurteichenwald

NEWSWEEK 12 05/27/2016 + THE PARTY’S OVER: GOP leaders fear that a Trump presidential campaign will take many other candidates down with it. MARK PETERSON/REDUX MARK

NEWSWEEK 13 05/27/2016 + BROCK THE VOTE: Reagan pulled conflagration coming back in 2012. The party’s (R-Ariz.), Dean Heller (R-Nev.) and Ben Sasse the GOP out of an abyss in 1980 by politicians “have to end their addiction to the (R-Neb.). Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has presenting new crack cocaine of the Tea Party vote,’’ he told me been among the most vocal critics. “Lucifer is ideas and a new then. Fueling the Tea Partyers’ suspicions and the only person Trump could beat in a general identity for the party pushed by its anger with conspiracy theories and terrifying election,’’ he said on Face the Nation. “I believe chair, Bill Brock. falsehoods might drive them to the voting booth Donald Trump’s foreign policy, his isolation- in droves, this consultant told me, but eventu- ism, will lead to another 9/11.” ally they would turn on the party elite. After all, And then there is the most vexing question for despite all the fearmongering, little changed Republican politicians: What does Trump, their after the elections. Fantasies can’t be fixed. presumptive nominee for president, stand for? Like any addict, the Republicans remained in Plenty of GOP members of Congress say they denial about how bad things were getting with have never spoken to the man, and if they know their Tea Party base. And now GOP politicians him at all, it’s as the host of his reality-TV show have hit bottom, waking up in the gutter to find The Apprentice or as a businessman who has worn that their party’s standard-bearer is a coarse, a path from his penthouse to bankruptcy court. divisive businessman with no political experience Senator James Lankford (R-Okla.) told reporters who is celebrated by Tea Partyers. Meanwhile, the one thing he wanted to hear from Trump was Republican leaders are convinced he will create his policy positions. Asked which ones in particu- a tidal wave of losses for the GOP in November. lar, Lankford replied, “Everything.” The coolness to—and outright rejection Then there are the old reliable wedge issues: of—Trump is widespread within the party. abortion, homosexuality, school prayer and the Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, has not rest of the arrows in the Republicans’ culture endorsed him. Representatives Barbara Com- quiver. Cruz, the conspicuously pious candidate stock (R-Va.) and Ann Wagner (R-Mo.), both in the presidential primaries who portrayed him- facing re-election, have said Trump has to self as a steadfast soldier in the culture war, lost earn their vote. Then there are those who have much of the Bible Belt to a man with multiple said they will not endorse Trump under any divorces who backs Planned Parenthood and has

circumstances, including Senators Jeff Flake spent endless hours with shock jock Howard Stern TASNADI/AP CHARLES

NEWSWEEK 14 05/27/2016 bragging about his sexual escapades with models. It’s hard to feel much sympathy for the Repub- lican elite now aligned with a man they despise, PAGE ONE/POLITICS given that they created the monster. You reap what you sow; you made your bed, now lie in it; you pays your money and you takes your chances—our language is loaded with the clichés that point to why this should be a moment of schadenfreude rather than one of pity. There is a path to recovery for the Republicans. for Republicans, and increasing numbers of One of the greatest members of the GOP, the party members reject evolution.) Polls, such as person who saved the party when it last lost its one conducted recently by the Pew Research way, is a man whose name probably few Republi- Center, show that younger voters, even Repub- cans will recognize: Bill Brock. A former senator licans, disagree with this agenda. Only 38 per- from Tennessee, Brock was a darling of the con- cent support smaller government with fewer servative movement during his single term, from services, according to another Pew poll. 1971 to 1977. After that, he took the reins of the Now that they’ve been slapped upside the Republican National Committee while the GOP head by Trump, Republicans need another Bill was still reeling from the Watergate scandals. Brock. They need to focus on new ideas, on what The party had just lost the White House; Dem- they have to offer to the next generation of vot- ocrats had control of the House of Representa- ers. They need to stand for something other than tives and had won a supermajority in the Senate, culture wars, tax cuts and “We’re not Hillary!” meaning no Republican filibuster could succeed. It’s possible to broaden the Republican base by Faced with these dismal facts, Brock set about finding new conservative ideas that appeal to rebuilding the party. The Republicans had more than just the Tea Partyers, the angry and become bereft of an identity; voters had little con- Bible Belt Christians. cept of what the GOP brought to the table. Brock On the other hand, if they don’t think they decided the party had to become one of ideas, need a Brock, perhaps they need a Tuchman. In not just an intransigent body that stood for little her spectacular 1984 book, The March of Folly, more than saying no. He heard that two members historian Barbara Tuchman examines four times of Congress, Representative Jack Kemp (R-N.Y.) and Senator William Roth (R-Del.), were kick- ing around a plan for huge tax cuts, which they argued would spur massive economic growth “DONALD TRUMP’S that would boost revenue and avoid deficits. This idea, the foundation of supply-side eco- FOREIGN POLICY, HIS nomics, was embraced by Brock and became the ISOLATIONISM, WILL subject of research reports and talking points sent to conservatives in Congress and statehouses. LEAD TO ANOTHER 9/11.” Eventually, it was adopted by Ronald Reagan as the centerpiece of his presidential campaign and then his administration, and it is often cited by Republicans as the greatest accomplishment governments pursued policies against their of his presidency. Now, 36 years later, it remains own interests and set loose the yowling furies the mantra of Republicans, even though the idea of chaos. By appealing to their bases’ basest that tax cuts pay for themselves has been roundly instincts, the Republicans have done just that, debunked and is the biggest factor in America’s and the evidence is one orange-haired, bombas- massive deficits and debt. Unfortunately, while tic man who seems to be on cable news 24/7. most economists understand that sometimes Republicans need to self-assess and recog- interest rates need to be high and other times nize that they created Trumpism by refusing low, Republicans still seem to believe that tax to compromise and govern, by engaging in his- rates should only go down. toric obstruction (such as the current blockade So what does the Republican Party stand for on hearings for Obama’s Supreme Court nomi- today? “No” is still the answer. Whatever the nee) and, in every way, by continuing to act like Democrats propose, the Republicans oppose— petulant teenagers. They have indulged their anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage and often own march of folly for eight years; the cliff they anti-science. (Climate change denial is a meme are heading toward is not far away.

NEWSWEEK 15 05/27/2016 THE DECLINE AND FALL OF DILMA Brazil’s ousted president deserves some credit for backing corruption probes— even when they threatened her

BACK IN MARCH 2014, when the scandal over by some of the country’s biggest construction Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras that companies for lucrative Petrobras contracts. would eventually topple the government was just For Rousseff, the stakes were huge: The pres- getting started, some of President Dilma Rous- idential election was just six months away, and seff’s top aides saw a golden opportunity to kill she was facing a tight race. But some ministers the investigation—or at least badly wound it. were convinced the TV interview was a blessing Márcio Anselmo, the Federal Police deputy in in disguise. They believed Anselmo had broken charge of the probe, had given an interview to a dictatorship-era statute that, they argued, pro- Jornal Nacional, Brazil’s most-watched news prohibited Federal Police officials from discussing gram. On-camera, Anselmo and others laid out cases in progress with the media. Fire him, they the main points of the case, which would soon urged Rousseff. Fire him now and attack the become notorious: a former Petrobras board investigators for using the media to selectively member who had accepted a Land Rover as a leak information damaging to the government. BY bribe, the money launderer whose plea-bargain To their astonishment, Rousseff refused. “I’ll BRIAN WINTER

testimony would prove key and the bribes paid never do that,” she replied dismissively, accord- @BrazilBrian ADRIANO MACHADO/REUTERS

NEWSWEEK 16 05/27/2016 ing to someone who was in the room at the time. “I’m not afraid of this investigation. It has nothing to do with me!” PAGE ONE/BRAZIL I covered Rousseff closely for five years as a reporter, and if there’s a more “Dilma” anecdote out there, I don’t know it. This one has it all: her blustery arrogance, her refusal to listen to even her closest aides and her apparent inability to understand just how much trouble she was in, right to the very end. But it also reveals a side to Rousseff Jato (Operation Car Wash) probe. She not only that should improve her standing in the annals of retained Janot but also publicly reaffirmed his Brazilian history: her refusal, for the most part, to autonomy—a mandate he would soon seize upon + stand in the way of corruption investigations at by requesting charges against Lula and an inves- UNDER SIEGE: Rousseff and her Petrobras and elsewhere, even when it became tigation of Rousseff. Rousseff also could have put chief of staff, clear they would contribute to her demise. someone less apt to cooperate with prosecutors Jaques Wagner, peer from the Brazil’s Congress has now voted to remove in charge of the Federal Police or actively pressed window of the Rousseff from office, almost certainly for good, her allies on the Supreme Court to remove the presidential palace so she can stand trial for breaking budget laws in Petrobras case from Judge Sérgio Moro, who is the day before the Senate voted to a way that masked Brazil’s economic woes. She based in the city of Curitiba, on the argument suspend her. departs with a near-single-digit approval rating, that judges in Rio de Janeiro, where the company primary responsibility for Brazil’s worst reces- is based, were better-suited to handle it. Finally, sion in at least 80 years and very few friends at she could have started attacking Moro as biased home or abroad. And yet, Rousseff also deserves much earlier and more aggressively than she some credit for the main achievement of this ultimately did. otherwise horrid decade in Brazil: the consolida- All along, Rousseff had senior figures within tion of rule of law under its young democracy, as the Workers’ Party urging her to do all of these well as the notion that the corrupt will be investi- things. But instead, as recently as January of this gated, convicted and jailed, no matter how pow- year, she was publicly celebrating Lava Jato as a erful they may be. necessary purge of practices that had existed in Acknowledging Rousseff’s role in this achieve- Brazil for decades. “I have to emphasize the fact ment is controversial, in part because her behav- that Brazil needs this investigation,” she told the ior was also not impeccable here. Indeed, she newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, limiting her criti- may soon face charges for obstruction of justice for appointing her mentor and predecessor, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, as a minister in her final days “I’M NOT AFRAID OF THIS in government at a time when prosecutors were seeking his arrest on INVESTIGATION. IT HAS corruption charges. Rousseff’s move NOTHING TO DO WITH ME!” was widely seen as designed to make Lula less susceptible to imprison- ment, since ministers enjoy special legal protections. But it may have been less an cism to procedural issues. Rousseff didn’t begin attempt to hinder the investigation itself and to vilify the investigation in earnest until a few more an act of personal loyalty and realpolitik, weeks ago, when Moro released wiretapped con- based on the belief that only Lula had the nego- versations between her and Lula. And there… tiating prowess to save her government. Well, let’s say she may have had a point. Starting in early 2014, Rousseff had numer- There are those who will never give Rousseff ous opportunities to hinder, or at least delay, the any credit for letting Brazil’s judiciary do its job. investigation of Petrobras and other high- profile What choice did she have? they ask. OK. But corruption cases targeting powerful people. The ask yourself the following: Would leaders else- argument against Anselmo, the Federal Police where in Latin America have done the same? deputy, seems in retrospect to be flimsy—but in What about recent governments in Argentina? any case Rousseff let the opportunity pass. She Or Mexico? Not to mention China or Russia. could have declined in 2015 to reappoint the For that matter, what can we expect from the attorney general, Rodrigo Janot, who had already incoming Michel Temer government in Brazil? shown he would go along with the so-called Lava Temer, who was Rousseff’s vice president, is a

NEWSWEEK 17 05/27/2016 during her first year in office. This was a radical departure from the Lula years, and it contrib- PAGE ONE/BRAZIL uted to a new culture that ultimately resulted in Lava Jato. Of course, there are other, much less flatter- ing explanations. It’s clear that Rousseff, iso- lated and politically tone-deaf, failed until it was too late to fully grasp the threat to her survival. The Rousseff-as-earnest-technocrat theory also 75-year-old constitutional lawyer who will try to has a major hole in it: If she was so focused on lead Brazil in a more business-friendly direction. numbers, how did she miss the sheer scale of But he comes from a different political party, the robbery at Petrobras, especially during the several of whose leaders are also implicated years she was energy minister and the chair of in the Lava Jato probe. One irony of Rousseff’s the company’s board? impeachment is that it may lead to more politi- The answer probably lies in the simplest, cal interference in the Petrobras investigation. most damning criticism of Rousseff: She just Temer has said there’s nothing to fear, but prose- wasn’t that good. Mediocre to the end and over- cutors in Curitiba and Brasília privately say they whelmed by a position she was never qualified are preparing for setbacks. They may end up to hold, she consistently failed to ask the right missing Rousseff most of all. questions of her aides or her party. She also So the final question: Why did she do it? Why harbored antiquated economic philosophies, did Rousseff stand by as her government fell believed she could dictate the day-to-day busi- apart? ness of the country (including parts of the pri- Some of the explanation probably lies in her vate sector) by personal fiat and alienated most origin story. Not the one we’ve all heard about— people she worked with. Her presidency will go the Dilma Rousseff of her early 20s, the guerrilla down as a case study in why leadership matters— who endured jail and torture. No, I’m talking about Dilma Rous- seff the adult, after her release from prison in 1973, the one who ONE IRONY OF ROUSSEFF’S undertook a much less glamorous life as an economist and public IMPEACHMENT IS THAT IT servant. This is the bespectacled MAY LEAD TO MORE POLITICAL energy policy wonk who just 20 years ago was editing an obscure INTERFERENCE IN THE magazine called Economic Indi- PETROBRAS INVESTIGATION. cators and never showed any interest in politics or higher office. This Rousseff’s only passion was for numbers—performance targets, spreadsheets, why a democracy as big and complex as Brazil’s the arcane day-to-day business of government. cannot simply be handed over to anyone and put Even after Lula plucked her from nowhere to on “automatic pilot.” be his chief of staff and ultimately his successor, But Rousseff had virtues too. Even her ene- even after the plastic surgery and makeover that mies concede she was honest and stole noth- preceded Rousseff’s run orf president, she still ing for herself. In a region where many leaders had no time for anything but numbers. Unfor- spend their waking hours scheming about how to tunately for Rousseff, this precluded her from make themselves or their friends richer or exact making any friends, in Congress or elsewhere, revenge on their enemies, Rousseff seemed gen- who might have protected her toward the end. uinely focused on tackling Brazil’s still-legendary But it also made her intolerant of corruption— poverty and inequality. And in the end, any desire not for moral reasons, perhaps, but because it she had to stay in office or protect her party seems might keep the numbers in the G column on to have been outweighed by a long-term concern Excel from lining up correctly. From the very for Brazil and the need to build functioning insti- beginning of Rousseff’s government, when a tutions. That should count for something. minister or other aide was accused of fraud, she made it clear that person was expected to resign. This article was first published byAmericas Quarterly, Six ministers left under such circumstances where BRIAN WINTER is the editor-in-chief.

NEWSWEEK 18 05/27/2016 Light. Powerful. Brilliant. Beautiful. Work. Play. Unparalleled.

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THE GREAT NUCLEAR DEAL MELTDOWN Why the Iranian accord could be unraveling

USED CLOTHING, toiletries and gifts worth Iran wants the U.S. to relax these sanctions, no more than $100—for a decade, these were but that would require Congress to act, some- among the few Iranian products allowed into thing unlikely to happen in an election year, the U.S., thanks to crippling international sanc- especially since even some Democrats are in no tions. But when the Iran nuclear deal went into mood to revisit a deal many considered flawed. If effect in January, Iran was suddenly allowed to anything, lawmakers are pushing for more sanc- resume exports of its famous Persian carpets tions, this time as punishment for Iran’s ballistic and pistachios. Iranians also looked forward to missile program. In Tehran, hard-liners, who reviving the country’s oil industry and gaining never liked the nuclear deal, are urging moder- access to tens of billions of dollars in previously ate President Hassan Rouhani to scrap it. “The frozen petroleum revenues, which would pro- political space is closing,” says Tyler Cullis, a vide a much-needed boost to the economy. Per- legal expert on the Iran nuclear deal and U.S. haps most important, American officials assured sanctions at the National Iranian American Tehran that foreign investment would return to Council, a group that advocates for closer rela- the country, finally ending Iran’s pariah status. tions between the two countries. “The danger ”As soon as we suspend our major sanctions,” now is that [President Barack] Obama is going to Wendy Sherman, the lead U.S. negotiator, had leave office in six months with his signature for- said in 2014, “the world will flood into Iran.” eign policy achievement on very shaky ground.” Today, nearly six months after the deal was Both Tehran and Washington insist they’re implemented, Iran is still waiting for those ben- committed to the accord. But Iran’s concerns efits. The country can’t get access to most of the and the prospect of the deal collapsing were evi- estimated $100 billion it holds in foreign banks. dent in April, when Valiollah Seif, Iran’s central The reason: U.S. laws, which weren’t included in bank governor, made a rare visit to Washington, the nuclear deal, are still highly restrictive. The ostensibly to attend the spring meetings of the foreign business hasn’t materialized because World Bank and International Monetary Fund. big European and Asian commercial banks are At a sit-down with Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew, afraid they might inadvertently violate those Seif demanded more sanction relief. “They need non-nuclear U.S. sanctions and end up facing to do whatever is needed to honor their commit- hefty penalties. Tehran is angry and says Wash- ments,” the Iranian banker told an audience at the BY ington is preventing the country from rejoining Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a JONATHAN BRODER the world economy. Washington-based think tank. “Otherwise, the @BroderJonathan

NEWSWEEK 20 05/27/2016 + STILL WAITING: Iranians were hoping for an [nuclear deal] breaks up under its own terms.” economic boost, Probably the biggest source of friction is but so far foreign “AS SOON AS WE companies have a U.S. law that bars Iran from using the U.S. been slow to financial system and the American dollar, even SUSPEND OUR commit, fearful of violating U.S. laws indirectly. The law, enacted in 2012, was aimed MAJOR SANCTIONS, that restrict Iran at punishing Iran for a variety of alleged sins: from using the U.S. THE WORLD WILL banking system. the country’s ballistic missile program, human rights abuses and state-sponsored terrorism. FLOOD INTO IRAN.” Because these issues haven’t been resolved, there is virtually no chance Congress would repeal the law in the foreseeable future, experts say. As long as that statute remains in place, for- arrangement under which several European eign banks holding Iran’s funds in dollars will banks will process the transfer of roughly $6.4 be wary of doing business with the country. billion worth of Indian oil payments to Tehran. In April, Secretary of State John Kerry met According to Cullis, the Iran sanctions expert, with his Iranian counterpart, Mohammad the deal also will cover the transfer of Iran’s oil Javad Zarif, in New York to try to resolve some revenues locked up in Asian banks. It’s not clear,

EBRAHIM NOROOZI/AP EBRAHIM of these issues. They reportedly agreed on an however, whether Iran will receive the money in

NEWSWEEK 21 05/27/2016 end up violating the remaining sanctions. On Capitol Hill, in addition to the push for further PAGE ONE/IRAN measures—a move experts say could torpedo the accord—some lawmakers are pressuring Boe- ing to pull out of a reported deal to provide Iran with passenger jets and other services. “We urge you not to be complicit in the likely conversion of Boeing aircraft to IRGC warplanes,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Boeing CEO Dennis dollars or some other currency. Muilenburg in May. And in one more blow to The Obama administration insists U.S. law Iran, American pistachio growers convinced the isn’t standing in the way of foreign banks doing administration to slap a 200 percent tariff on business with Iran in other currencies—provided Iranian pistachios, effectively eliminating them they aren’t dealing with sanctioned Iranian from the U.S. market. groups, such as companies linked to the Islamic Earlier this month, as controversy surround- Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Over the ing the nuclear deal continued to swirl, Kerry past few weeks, Kerry and other U.S. officials rejected any suggestion that the next president have spread out across the globe to help foreign bankers understand the maze of Iran sanctions and clarify potential penalties. “It’s just not as complicated as some people make it,” Kerry told IRAN HAS STILL BEEN reporters in London on May 10. But so far, major European and Asian banks UNABLE TO ACCESS MOST haven’t been mollified. Many have asked for OF THE ESTIMATED clear guidelines from Washington so they don’t find themselves facing penalties like the nearly $100 BILLION IT HOLDS $9 billion fine that the French bank BNP Paribas IN FOREIGN BANKS. paid in 2014 for violating U.S. sanctions against Iran, Sudan and Cuba. U.S. officials won’t provide specific guidelines, saying instead that if banks have a question, they should direct it to the might scrap it. Perhaps. But on this issue, Iran U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, gets a vote too. And if the promises of the accord the federal agency that oversees sanctions. remain unfulfilled, it’s not clear how long that IN THE MARKET: Experts say foreign banks are reluctant to country’s embattled moderates can keep the Iran has com- plained that Wash- engage with Iran for other reasons too. They cite deal—and Obama’s legacy—alive. ington is prevent- Tehran’s outdated laws governing money laun- California pistachios, anyone? ing the country from rejoining the dering, as well as its lack of prohibitions against world economy. terrorist financing and corruption. “Because of + a lack of transparency, it would be hard to have certainty that you’re not dealing with someone subject to sanctions or engaged in illicit activity,” says Katherine Bauer, a former Iran specialist at the Treasury Department. As Tehran waits to see if the administration can ease the banks’ concerns, opponents of the nuclear deal have been as voluble as ever. Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, calls the agreement “disgusting” and the negotiators who crafted it “incompetent.” Hillary Clinton, the Democratic front-runner, has put more emphasis on the tough measures she’d take to counter Iran’s anti-U.S. policies rather than expressing support for the deal. Meanwhile, an influential lobby, United Against Nuclear Iran, is leading a major campaign to discourage European companies from VAHID SALEMI/AP VAHID doing business with Tehran, warning they could

NEWSWEEK 22 05/27/2016 TWO NEW ANNUAL INVASIVE COST PESTS to taxpayers introduced for damage to the U.S. NUMBERS caused by these every decade organisms

Father Knows Pest INVASIVE ORGANISMS ARE EATING U.S. TREES LIKE THEY’RE POTATO CHIPS

In the 20th century, Removal and replanting Ecological Applications. phase out natural wood chestnut blight and Dutch are expensive, and loss of The problem is packing materials, says elm disease decimated trees from streets, yards growing; the study forest ecologist and study billions of U.S. trees. The and parks hurts property calculates that 25 new lead author Gary Lovett, tree diseases, caused by values and robs commu- pests enter the country and use alternatives like invasive pests—a fungus nities of the benefits, such every decade. The trend paper-based products. spore from Japan and a as improved air quality. is due to escalating trade The stakes are already beetle from the Nether- Those costs are not and increased reliance higher than most realize. lands—changed the face evenly distributed: on shipping containers. Forest pests are the only of one U.S. city landscape Homeowners who have Almost all wood-boring threat that can decimate after another and cost to remove dead trees insects that have recently an entire tree species local governments and from their properties are invaded the U.S. entered in decades. We’ve been homeowners a fortune. stuck with $1 billion of on wood packaging ma- lucky, Lovett says, not to Today, 63 percent of the costs compared with terials within these con- have yet encountered an U.S. forestland is at risk of the federal government’s tainers. While the federal imported pest threat to increased damage from $216 million and the government requires that the Southeast’s loblolly established pests like the timber industry’s $150 wood packaging material pine or the Northwest’s emerald ash borer, hem- million burdens. In total, be treated to prevent Douglas fir, two of the lock wooly adelgid and established tree pests are pest importation, there country’s most commer- others, according to the costing Americans over are too many shipments cially important trees. U.S. Forest Service. Urban $2 billion a year, accord- coming in each day to and suburban trees are ing to a paper published inspect everything. BY the costliest casualties. May 10 in the journal The solution is to CHRISTINA PROCOPIOU SOURCE: ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS @chrisprocopiou ILLUSTRATION BY JOHN S. DYKES JOHN S. BY ILLUSTRATION

NEWSWEEKƎ %& 05/27/2016

K UWAIT One of the world’s highest per-capita donors for humanitarian aid Ahead of the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul, Kuwaitis break all records as humanitarian donors

when Saddam Hussein’s army oc- HH the Amir has also worked cupied their country in 1990. It is to encourage other donor na- perhaps the memory of this tragic tions to provide more support incident, and seeing similar imag- during this time of humanitarian es in a neighboring country, that crisis. As recently as February on top of a tradition of kindness he co-hosted a donor conference has led the government of Kuwait in London aimed at increasing to provide billions needed to feed, global contributions to support- clothe, shelter and support the ing the victims of humanitarian endless stream of refugees that disasters. have n ed the battlem elds of Syria. Leading by example is clearly Even the Kuwait Red Crescent an effective tactic, as UN Resi- Society (KRCS), which celebrated dent Coordinator in Kuwait, Zineb its 50th anniversary earlier this Touimi-Benjelloun, notes, “Kuwait year, marked the event by launch- is an example of a humanitarian ing a donation appeal to provide leader that we hope will inspire aid to the besieged Syrian town of other countries to contribute so Madaya. Approximately 42,000 generously. This commitment people are suffering there, cut off to the UN agenda is far beyond from even basic food supplies. expectations and recommenda- Ren ecting on the willingness tions and we are thankful for HH the Amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al of Kuwaitis to help strangers, their ongoing commitment and Dr. Hilal Al-Sayer, Chairman of participation at the m rst World Sabah, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon the KRCS remarked, “Giving and Humanitarian Summit.” Kuwaitis are well-known for sup- date since expanded to cover the generosity are in our genes. From Given the decline in oil price porting people all over the world world, aimed primarily at con- New Orleans to Syria, we are and diminishing state budgets for who are suffering from humani- struction, health and education. committed to being there and oil exporting economies such as tarian disaster. In fact it was in Today, the amount of mon- helping in times of need. We un- Kuwait’s, some experts have pre- 1953 that the Kuwaiti tradition ey dispersed by Kuwait spe- derstand how fortunate we are.” dicted that contributions will be of generosity was transferred to cim cally for humanitarian aid In fact United Nations (UN) curtailed. To this, Sheikh Salman government policy and elevated is staggering. Secretary General, Ban Ki Moon Sabah Al-Salem Al-Homoud Al to cabinet level. This was the year “We have contributed over ofm cially acknowledged the gen- Sabah, Kuwait’s Minister of Infor- that The Public Authority for $4.1 billion to humanitarian ef- erosity of the Kuwaiti spirit. In mation and Minister of State for the South and Gulf was estab- forts recently and it has been September of 2014 he convened Youth Affairs begs to differ, “Of lished. This government entity, acknowledged by Ban Ki Moon a special ceremony of the UN course with low oil prices we are far ahead of its time worked on and John Kerry, that per capita, headquarters in New York to contemplating our future, but on South-South cooperation specim - Kuwait is by far the most gen- recognize the role of Kuwait’s humanitarian matters Kuwait will cally needed to mitigate the hu- erous contributor in the world”, head of state, HH the Amir as a not hesitate to support any needs manitarian disasters and conn ict explains Dr. Sheikh Mohammad humanitarian leader. During this from the international communi- that sprung up during this period Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s for- ceremony he stated, “It gives me ty, especially in the humanitarian of decolonization. mer Minister of Foreign Affairs. great pleasure and honor to be efforts of the UN.” The establishment of the Ku- Most recently, this aid was here today to recognize the lead- wait Fund for Arab Economic largely focused on alleviating the ership of His Highness Sheikh Sa- PRODUCED BY Development (KFAED) soon fol- suffering of the Syrian people, bah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, GLOBUS VISION lowed as a mechanism to dis- whose civil war shows no sign Amir of Kuwait… We are sitting Geoffrey Flugge, Aylin Parla, perse grants to people in need all of abating. Within living memory together with a great humanitar- Fatima Ruiz-Moreno and over the Middle East. This man- Kuwaitis suffered full-scale war ian leader of our world” Marko Rankovic Proudly Sponsored By: Development Fund expands support to 105th country At the heart of its humanitarian and development program, the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) has shared the nation’s wealth for over 54 years with a focus on South-South cooperation. The Fund has pioneered development projects across the world, from constructing infrastructure, to health and education, and continues to expand its support network to help people in need

“I am sure that we will continue our good work and participate fully and actively at the World Humanitarian Summit” Abdulwahab A. Al-Bader, Director General, KFAED

The Kuwait Fund has supported the m nancing of more than 900 projects in 105 countries

Although Kuwait had been pro- post-colonial countries in the as a premier example of South- things grow on you. I think viding development assistance Middle East by constructing South cooperation – that is, that helping others and giving prior to declaring independence vital infrastructure, providing collaboration directly between is something that has become in 1961, it was in that year that health services and improv- developing countries. a part of us, of our DNA. If we The Kuwait Fund was formally ing access to, and the quality Unlike most assistance of went without it, it would be like established. The country itself of education. This approach this kind, the issuing of grants we were missing something”. had just entered the oil era and rapidly expanded beyond the are not contingent on religion, The historical generosity of was slowly improving its own Arab World during more than ethnicity or political belief, The Kuwait Fund was instru- dire economic situation at the half a century of operations. but instead is based strictly mental in turning worldwide time. Despite this, it immediate- Today, the fund has supported on the depth of need. The opinion in favor of Kuwait ly began to devote vast sums of the financing of more than list of recipients continues to when it was occupied by Iraq money to assisting neighbor- 900 projects in 105 develop- grow with the rise and fall of in 1990. Amazingly KFAED ing countries in the region. ing countries, providing about economies and the emergence continued to operate even dur- As Robert McNamara, for- $19 billion for their imple- of new nations. ing this period, and its activi- mer US Secretary of Defense mentation across the Middle According to Mr. Al-Bader, ties were expanded following and President of the World East, Africa, Asia, Europe and “We signed an agreement with the US-led liberation in 1991 Bank recalled, “When first es- Latin America, as the coun- our 105th country last year - and ramped up significantly tablished in 1961, the Kuwait try’s appetite to help people in with South Sudan. Sometimes over the last 25 years. Fund was without precedent. need grew with its economy. Global recognition for Ku- Here was Kuwait, a tiny coun- “We are blessed here in Ku- wait’s role in humanitarian aid try, until recently among the wait, we found a place where “We signed an agree- and development is a point of poorest places on earth, estab- we were good traders and ment with our 105th pride for the nation and per- lishing a development fund in very open minded. We cre- country last year... I sonally for Mr. Al-Bader, who the year of its political inde- ated a very close community points out that, “The world pendence. While welcoming and I believe that is how it think that helping others has recognized the efforts of its new-found prosperity it started, we were helping each and giving is something H.H. the Amir and indeed the was declaring a willingness to other, sharing our wealth,” that has become a part whole country, and I am sure share its future wealth with its says Abdulwahab A. Al-Bader, of us, of our DNA” that we will continue our good Arab neighbors.” Director General of KFAED. work and participate fully and KFAED’s original mandate Throughout its history, the Abdulwahab A. Al-Bader, actively at the World Humani- was to assist the transition of Kuwait Fund has been held up Director General, KFAED tarian Summit.”

Private sector and institutions engage community, pioneer development Across the country the private sector, together with academic and research institutions, is working to support community development and promote prosperity

Although the telecommunica- national celebrations. Hala caring for the environment, in- tions sector is best known for Febrayer, as it is known in Ku- vesting in healthcare, encour- innovation and technology, Ku- wait, is a month-long festival aging entrepreneurial thinking wait’s major players are heav- revolving around Liberation and strengthening our bond ily involved in supporting the Day. The festival extends far with society. The progress community in terms of events beyond marking the date that achieved by VIVA in keeping and initiatives. This extends to the US-led military coalition to these aims has resulted in the youth demographic now at freed Kuwait from Iraqi oc- it being seen as more than just the heart of national economic cupation in 1991. Today it is a telecom leader”, says VIVA’s development policy. a celebration of Kuwaiti cul- CEO, Salman Bin Abdulaziz Ooredoo Kuwait, the coun- ture, with concerts and events Al-Badran. try’s premier mobile operator involving tens of thousands VIVA’s contribution to Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdullah is no exception. As its General of participants. healthcare, including support- Al Thani, General Manager and Manager and Chief Executive “We have sought and will ing blood banks, and youth CEO, Ooredoo Ofm cer (CEO), Sheikh Moham- continue to seek taking a key sport initiatives, touches on med bin Abdullah Al Thani role in Kuwait’s national cel- one of the core lifestyle is- explains, “We have been very ebrations. As partners, it was sues afflicting the Arabian actively focusing on the youth our pleasure to see people of Gulf: diabetes. The prevalence here, as 41% of the population is Kuwait actively participating of this disease across the Gulf under 25. They are very outspo- in this year’s Hala Febrayer has led Kuwait to focus its ef- ken, motivated, and entrepre- carnival,” says Sheikh Al Thani. forts on developing both medi- neurial, they want to try and do Considering that Ooredoo cal and lifestyle solutions. This things, so we have been engag- Kuwait is a part of one of the includes the establishment of ing with them to support them.” world’s largest mobile opera- world-class research institu- Ooredoo also sponsors and tors, their high-profile com- tions, including Kuwait’s Das- supports the country’s major munity involvement serves as man Diabetes Institute. a reminder of ease of doing New Director General of the Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Badran, business in Kuwait. The coun- Institute, Dr. 2ais S. Al Du- CEO, VIVA “(The youth) are very try has increasingly improved wairi, says community engage- outspoken, motivated, its ratings in this area accord- ment is a key factor in preven- and entrepreneurial, ing to monitoring indexes. tion and treatment. they want to try Like Ooredoo, the Kuwait “We encourage community- and do things, so we Telecommunications Company, based research in order to ac- better known as VIVA, has also tively involve the community have been engaging become heavily involved in sup- and directly benefit the people with them to porting Kuwait’s development. enrolled in the study. Seminars support them” “The principal focus of are steered to continuously VIVA’s CSR (corporate social keep the public up-to-date with Sheikh Mohammed bin responsibility) strategy has the latest discoveries of the Abdullah Al Thani, General always been based around management and treatment of Dr. 2ais S. Al Duwairi, Director Gen- Manager and CEO, Ooredoo education and development, diabetes. Furthermore, we of- eral, Dasman Diabetes Institute fer complimentary healthcare “The principal focus “In Kuwait, and in advisory solutions for clients and medical services to the of VIVA’s CSR the Arab region in to enter highly developed and public, including the distribu- sophisticated markets, in par- tion of medicine and insulin strategy has always general, women have ticular the U.K. and U.S. This pumps to those in need. I be- been based around great potential to is in line with our efforts to lieve this is all reflective on the education and help in the growth form a bridge between the Kuwaiti culture entirely, as the development, caring and development of vast capital available in the country may be small in size, for the environment, their societies” GCC and South East Asia, and but its contributions are ones western international mar- that potentially save lives.” investing in healthcare kets,” says Fahed Boodai, the and encouraging Prof. Moudi Al-Humoud, Rector, Arab Open University Group’s Chairman. Promoting gender equality entrepreneurial To ensure a sustainable Cooperation across the region thinking” future for Kuwait in the face in education is also having a cess for our clients to regional of low oil prices, the nation’s transformational effect on Salman Bin Abdulaziz and international markets. The banking and finance sector will lifestyle and culture, which is Al-Badran, CEO, VIVA bank’s majority-owned subsid- have to launch new products perhaps best exemplified by iaries operate directly in five and services to new markets the work of Kuwait’s Arab countries with arms extending to maintain strong balance Open University. Increasingly women can be as efficient as far beyond. Such a network en- sheets. Mr. Boodai is confident the university is working to men. In this context, what ables the Group to provide so- this can be done, stating that, change perception of gender matters is the individual per- phisticated financial solutions “I believe that there are many stereotypes and increase the son’s qualifications rather than for both individual and cor- places for further innovation presence of women in leader- their gender.” porate clients,” says Eduardo and creating new markets and ship roles in the Arab world. Eguren, CEO of Burgan Bank. the Gulf has really been a pio- Describing the situation, Sustainable development Like so many other busi- neer in much of this.” Professor Moudi Al-Humoud, through diversification nesses, Burgan’s chief execu- Rector of The Arab Open Underpinning the involvement tive sees a strong role for the University (herself a former of Kuwait’s private sector private sector in supporting minister) is outspoken on the and civil society is of course, Kuwaiti society. This extends topic. As she told our corre- its economic prosperity. The far beyond dollars and dinars, spondents, “The question of discovery and development of in terms of employment and women’s empowerment is top hydrocarbons since the 1960s financial returns, but touches on our agenda. In Kuwait, and was instrumental in catalyzing on the responsibility local busi- in the Arab region in general, national development. Howev- nesses feel towards supporting women have great potential to er the decline in oil prices has the community. help in the growth and devel- necessitated a vast reorienta- As Mr. Eguren explains, opment of their societies. But, tion of the economy, whereby “The banking and private in general, governments are wise investment of natural re- sectors in Kuwait are highly Prof. Moudi Al-Humoud, not taking women’s empower- source income into other sec- involved in making their oper- Rector, Arab Open University ment seriously. Females form tors, both domestic and inter- ating communities better. For the majority of the student national, is the only means of Burgan Bank, we have long population in universities: such providing long-term, sustain- been known to play a vital resources need to be utilized able dividends. part in enhancing education more effectively. One example of this is Bur- and knowledge, empowering “Therefore, there is no ex- gan Bank, a subsidiary of the youth, talents, and persons of cuse, and the empowerment of country’s private-sector flag- special needs, and in philan- women is irreversible. Empow- ship the Kuwait Projects Com- thropic initiatives.” ering here means that women pany (KIPCO). Established Another institution that have to be more involved in almost 40 years ago, Burgan has been committed to taking the decision-making process Bank has grown from a small advantage of strong opportu- at the government ministerial local bank to a young financial nities in Kuwait and abroad level, the undersecretary level, leader, becoming one of the is Gatehouse Financial Group. Eduardo Eguren, and consultation bodies in the country’s major players. Cur- The Group is the Jersey-based CEO, Burgan Bank country… We are trying to pro- rently it is ranked third largest parent company of Gatehouse vide a role model; that is, Arab in Kuwait by assets. In recent Bank, an investment bank years it has actively expanded based in the City of London, across the Middle East, North and Gatehouse Capital, an in- “The banking Africa and Turkey (MENAT) vestment advisory firm based and private sectors region by acquiring new busi- in Kuwait City. The Group is in Kuwait are highly ness in these countries. These best known as a pioneer in real regional interlinkages allow estate investment and finance, involved in making the bank to effectively manage which it has taken as far afield their operating com- domestic and international op- as the United Kingdom and munities better” erations out of Kuwait. South East Asia. “Burgan Bank Group fo- “Gatehouse Financial Eduardo Eguren, cuses highly on intergroup Group has a strategy of creat- Fahed Boodai, Chairman, CEO, Burgan Bank synergies providing direct ac- ing bespoke investments and Gatehouse Financial Group HH the Amir of Kuwait catalyzes country’s approach to youth empowerment In 2012, HH the Amir, Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, created the Ministry of State for Youth Affairs, which is charged with designing and implementing youth-oriented strategies to empower the majority stakeholders in Kuwait’s future. This approach has catalyzed action across sectors, including all stakeholders from the public and private sector to prioritize youth on every level Despite its ancient and rich history, consequently incorporated into Ku- Kuwait is in fact a young country. wait’s development strategy. According to a recent census ap- Perhaps most signimcantly, con- proximately 74% of its citizens crete wide-ranging policy measures are under the age of 34, and this aimed at supporting the majority un- statistic has not escaped the at- der-30 cohort began with the com- tention of decision-makers. As a mencement of the National Youth result, over the last mve years, the Project (NYP) in 2012. The NYP pressing need to provide a sustain- was initiated by no less a mgure than able future for this growing youth Kuwait’s head of state, His Highness, demographic has increasingly been Amir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al raised in national dialogues and Jaber Al Sabah, who directed the government to undertake a number of country-wide measures to ensure that the state implemented a well- organized, far-sighted strategy for its youth majority. This initiative began by calling A female student addresses well-wishers during a graduation ceremony stakeholders to action from across the country. The National Youth plains Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Sa- and a detailed National Youth Sur- Convention, known as ‘Kuwait lem Al-Homoud Al Sabah, Minister vey have all been steps in the crea- Listens’, was implemented, which of Information and Minister of State tion of a specialized National Youth in effect became a national town for Youth Affairs. Policy, which Minister Al-Sabah hall to gauge youth sentiment on This outreach was followed by notes, “…will be enforceable and “Youth empowerment themes ranging across the socio- a public forum, the Youth Council people will be held accountable if economic sphere. of 2012, which was followed by they fail to carry out these policies.” is a long-term solution “What has really made us unique, the establishment of The Ministry The importance of the youth to to some of the most effective and successful in our youth of State for Youth Affairs. Raising the country’s future is well-under- important global issues” empowerment initiatives is that it is the youth issue to cabinet level stood by its leadership for very good a completely unimed whole of coun- demonstrated to citizens that Ku- reason. As The Ministry of State Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem try approach. Everyone has been in- wait’s top political leadership had for Youth Affairs’ Undersecretary, Al-Homoud Al Sabah, Minister volved; government, private sector, prioritized the matter. Sheikha Al-Zain Al-Sabah points of Information and Minister of NGOs, individuals, universities and The NYP, Youth Council, crea- out, “They are not just the new gen- State for Youth Affairs anyone else you might think of,” ex- tion of a youth-focused ministry eration; they are the new Kuwait.”

Kuwaitis embrace the digital future through stronger social media engagement Kuwait is steadily making tion across sectors, and includes youth. So far, it has been heavily platforms,” says Sheikh Salman stakeholders from the govern- subscribed to and expanded to the Sabah Al-Salem Al-Homoud Al the switch from analog to ment, private sector, as well as most popularly used social media Sabah, Minister of Information and digital governance, keeping civic society, with a focus on prior- sites and apps in the country. Minister of State for Youth Affairs. pace with social media itizing youth on every level. “We are looking toward a bigger “We are looking toward usage – a far stronger Within the framework of this role for youth, especially those who a bigger role for youth, model for direct feedback mandate, Kuwait is steadily mak- are active on the social media sites, ing the switch from analog to digi- to immunize their peers and to par- especially those who that is much needed for tal governance. The government is take in state building. The Hashtag are active on the social better engagement of youth determined to keep pace with so- Kuwait Conference is a clear mes- media sites, to immunize cial media usage as a far stronger sage and demonstration that we The Ministry of State for Youth Af- means for direct feedback and are heightening our engagement their peers and to par- fairs, created in 2012, is charged youth engagement. across digital and social media take in state building” with designing and implementing At the core of this approach is platforms. We recognize that this is youth-oriented strategies to em- the Hashtag Kuwait Conference how the youth really communicate Sheikh Salman Sabah Al-Salem power young people - the majority (#Kuwait), a country-wide infor- and it is our job to facilitate that Al-Homoud Al Sabah, Minister stakeholders of the nation’s future. mation and dialogue initiative de- and ensure that we can also oper- of Information and Minister of This approach has catalyzed ac- signed to reach out to the nation’s ate and offer services across those State for Youth Affairs

THE TEEN

ASK A BEDRAGGLED PARENT “WHAT DO TEENS THINK?” AND YOU MIGHT GET, “THEY THINK?” SURE, THEIR BRAINS ARE STILL DEVELOPING, AND THEIR THUMBS MAY BE STIFF FROM TEXTING, BUT WHAT THEY KNOW AND FEEL AND DO IS VITALLY IMPORTANT. AFTER ALL, THEY ARE THE FUTURE. JUST MAYBE NOT YOURS

IN 1966, Newsweek published a landmark cover story, “The education, the world and Teen-Agers: A Newsweek Sur- their future. The article was vey of What They’re Really based on an extensive survey Harris and Associates, and Like.” The 18-page article politics, sexual proclivities of nearly 800 girls and boys it also profiled six teens in examined the teen world and shopping habits, as well across the country, conducted depth, including a black teen

in fine detail: their heroes, as what they thought about by famous pollster Louis growing up in Chicago, a TENG SACHIN BY ILLUSTRATION

NEWSWEEKNEWSWEEK 3232 05/27/201605/27/2016 AGERS

wary of their futures. Newsweek set out to discover what’s also tracked down all six teens changed for American teen- profiled in 1966 to find out agers and what’s stayed the president and witnessing the how their lives have unfolded California girl and an Iowa same. For a generation that’s rise of Donald Trump’s divi- over the past 50 years. This farm boy. growing up online, coming of sive politics, the teenagers of is the story of teens and race Fifty years later, Newsweek age with the first black U.S. today are optimistic about yet in America today.

NEWSWEEK 33 05/27/2016 THE

TEENAGERS COLOR WHAT DO TEENS WANT? BIND LESS RACISM BY ABIGAIL JONES GROWING UP IN THE PROJECTS OF CHICAGO’S SOUTH SIDE IN THE 1960S, TOMMY BREWER USED TO WATCH ABC’S THE FBI ON SUNDAY NIGHTS WITH HIS FATHER.

“I said one day, out of excitement, ‘I wanna be an FBI agent!’” recalls Brewer. “And my father said, ‘You’re not allowed in the FBI. They don’t allow blacks to be FBI agents.’” Brewer’s father was a steelworker with a sixth- grade education, and his mother didn’t make it past the fifth grade. But Brewer, urroundeds by gang violence, was convinced an education would get him wherever he wanted to go. So each morning, he took two buses and an L train to Lindblom Technical High School, where he got A’s (and one B) and took honors courses. He dreamed of going to college and studying architectural engineering. “If teenagers have the right education, they won’t have any problems,” he told Newsweek in 1966, when he was 15. “The gang members were taught this, but it just didn’t sink in.… When they get to be 18 and it’s time to get a job, then they find out that they need a good high school education to land one. So crime is the easiest way out. There’s no pressure like there is in school.” Brewer’s story was part of a landmark 1966 cover story, cent. Twice as many teens today feel their parents have “The Teen-Agers: A Newsweek Survey of What They’re tried to run their lives too much (24 percent, up from 12 Really Like,” that investigated the teen world in fine detail: percent in 1966). Fifty years ago, the five most admired their heroes, politics, spending habits and sexual procliv- famous people were John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lin- ities, as well as what they thought about the world, their coln, George Washington, Lyndon B. Johnson and Helen parents and their future. The article was old-school jour- Keller, in that order. Today, pop culture rules, as President nalism at its best: Correspondents in Newsweek bureaus Barack Obama, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé top the list, with fanned out across the country, interviewing hundreds Selena Gomez tying Lincoln for fourth place. of teens as well as parents, psychologists, principals and More than half support gun control (55 percent), the other experts, while pollster Louis Harris and Associates death penalty (52 percent), abortion rights (50 percent) conducted an extensive survey of 775 teens. Newsweek and gay marriage (62 percent). (On gay marriage, Allison also profiled six teens in epth:d a farm boy from Iowa, a Moseley, 16, of Cudahy, Wisconsin, says, “Love is love.”) California girl, a Manhattan prepster, a free spirit from The most compelling findings show that race is the cru- Berkeley, a middle-school girl in Houston and Brewer. cial issue for teens today. In 1966, 44 percent of American This past fall, in anticipation of the 50th anniversary teens thought racial discrimination would be a problem of “The Teen-Agers,” Newsweek enlisted Harris Poll to for their generation. Now nearly twice as many—82 per- conduct an online survey replicating key questions in the cent—feel the same way. The outlook is more alarming original work and to expand on it. We asked 2,057 teens, among black teens: Ninety-one percent think discrimina- ages 13 to 17, from diverse backgrounds and geographic tion is here to stay, up from 33 percent in 1966. areas, about everything from politics and education to Recent headlines—police-involved shootings of parents, sex, mental health and pop culture. The result, unarmed black men, the Black Lives Matter movement, “The State of the American Teenager,” offers fascinating Donald Trump’s xenophobic politics—reveal a country and sometimes disturbing insights into a generation of deeply divided on race, with seemingly little hope for teens who are plugged in, politically aware and optimistic reconciliation. For many black Americans, the entire about their futures yet anxious about their country. casino is stacked against them: They’re disproportion- Two-thirds of teens (68 percent), for example, believe ately affected by unemployment, poverty and a lack of the United States is on the wrong track, and 59 percent educational opportunities. The U.S. has the highest incar- think pop culture keeps the country from talking about ceration rate in the world, and while blacks and Latinos the news that really matters. Faith in God or some other make up 30 percent of the population, they account for 58 divine being dropped from 96 percent in 1966 to 83 per- percent of the prison population. In 2013, the wealth gap

NEWSWEEK 36 05/27/2016 TEENS ON RACIAL DISCRIMINATION

1966 2015

33 91 PERCENT PERCENT In 1966, 33% of black As of 2015, 91% of teens thought racial black teens think racial discrimination would discrimination will be be a problem for a problem for their their generation. generation.

+ BLINDED: Rahman, left, says a friend assumed her family was in ISIS because they are from Bangladesh; Eboigbe has been mocked for her hair and her accent. 44 82 between whites and blacks reached its highest point since PERCENT PERCENT 1989, according to the Pew Research Center: The wealth In 1966, 44% of As of 2015, 82% of of white households was 13 times that of black house- teens thought racial teens think racial holds, and 10 times that of Hispanic households. discrimination would discrimination will Newsweek found that black teens today are more likely be a problem for their be a problem for than white or Hispanic teens to be aware of gun violence generation. their generation. and of police accused of killing innocent people. They’re also more likely to worry that they’ll be the victims of shootings—at school, by police or in places of worship. TEENS’ PERSPECTIVES And many teens, regardless of race or ethnicity, perceive ON SEX IN 2015 that black Americans are discriminated against, including the way they’re treated by police (62 percent) and their ability to access decent jobs (39 percent). And what’s happened to Brewer’s seemingly indomita- ble optimism over the past 50 years, his unwavering faith in education? “I wouldn’t want to be growin’ up now,” he says. “It was simpler back then. The choices you had were limited, but they were good and positive. You had to work for what you wanted, and if you were black, you had to work doubly hard…. To wake up every day knowing for 20 86 the rest of your life you’re gonna be broke, what’s a person to do? You’re not vested in America. We were vested.” PERCENT PERCENT The supportive environment Brewer came of age in 20% of teens ages 86% of teens was marked by family, community and the belief that 16-17 say they’ve think teen girls are hard work would pay off. For many today, those pillars had sex. judged worse for have been toppled. “Back in the ’60s, we had black pov- having sex than

SHAMINDER DULAI FOR NEWSWEEK (2); PREVIOUS SPREAD: RICKY CARIOTI/THE WASHINGTON POST/GETTY POST/GETTY WASHINGTON CARIOTI/THE SPREAD: RICKY (2); PREVIOUS NEWSWEEK FOR SHAMINDER DULAI erty, but we also had black jobs,” says Kirkland Vaughans, teen guys.

NEWSWEEK 37 05/27/2016 TEENS’ PERSPECTIVES ON a psychologist who teaches at Adelphi University and MARRIAGE IN 2015 co-authored The Psychology of Black Boys and Adolescents with Warren Spielberg. “You can be poor, but as long as you have someplace to go, you have hope. Joblessness has grown, and the criminal-industrial complex has grown.” At the same time, the U.S. population is on track to be a minority majority by 2060: Minorities will make up 56 percent of the country, and in just four years, more than half of all children in the U.S. will be part of a minority group. What does the future look like for a country that’s still wracked by racism, where four of five teens believe 57 47 discrimination will be a fixture in their lives? PERCENT PERCENT 1966: THE ILLUSION OF CAREFREE About three in A little less than NEWSWEEK’S “The Teen-Agers” issue in 1966 hit news- five teens (57%) half of teens (47%) stands with a young blonde on its cover—a California agree that agree that the term girl in white Wranglers and a yellow sweater, sitting on people should be marriage should the back of a motorcycle, clutching a guy and flashing married before apply only when it’s having sex. between a man a spectacular smile. The scene encapsulated the ste- and a woman. reotypical 1960s teenage experience: fast-paced, forward-thinking, titillating, seemingly carefree. That original survey found teens were generally happy, liked school and felt extraordinary pressure to attend TEENS AND GOD college. They owned records, transistor radios and ency- clopedias (today, smartphones, laptops and tablets dom- 1966 2015 inate). It isn’t until the article’s fifth page—after sections labeled “They’re Spoiled,” “The Place of Sex” and “Free- dom on Wheels”—that it admits, “There are also the Negroes,” before delving into a section called “Hopeful Outsiders.” We learned about the aspirations of black teens: Forty-one percent were “certain” they’d go to college; their mood: 22 percent said they were less happy than at 8 or 9, compared with 8 percent of the survey sample; their family dynamics: 38 percent said parents exerted “a 96 83 lot of pressure” on them, compared with 18 percent of the entire group. And we heard about their fears: 31 percent PERCENT PERCENT thought life would be worse when they reached 21, compared with 25 percent of all teens. Believe in God Believe in God or other divine being We also met a 16-year-old black teen from Los Ange- les’s Watts (“Yeah, I was in [the riot]. I didn’t do none of MY SPIRITUAL BELIEFS ARE A POSITIVE the burnin’, but I was lootin’.”) who attended an almost entirely black high school, wasn’t sure he could get into GUIDING FORCE TO ME *( EQUALS 100%) college and felt “scared” of the future. Yet his optimism prevailed: “He still believes white employers will treat 12% him fairly if he is ‘qualified.’ He is not bitter. ‘I’m not gonna drop out. If I can’t get into college, I’ll probably go 17% out and get a job.” One of the most positive notes on race came from Brewer, who even had some sly thoughts on desegre- 38% gation. “Most of the reason for prejudice is because we know very little about each other,” he told Newsweek in 33% 1966. “Our neighborhoods are different, and so we have little contact. Every time some of us move into an area, they move out. Eventually we have to communicate Strongly Disagree Somewhat Agree because they are running out of places to move to.” “The Teen-Agers” presented a generation optimis- Somewhat Disagree Strongly Agree

tic about the future (even as its members sometimes AP

NEWSWEEK 38 05/27/2016 + SIGN OF THE TIMES: In the midst of the civil rights movement and school desegregation, most teens in the ’60s feared it). And that’s not so surprising, since the civil were optimistic about their future, and race relations. rights movement was celebrating some major triumphs then. Segregation in public schools had been declared unconstitutional in 1954 with the Supreme Court’s deci- young, there was a sense that you had a good chance of sion in Brown v. Board of Education. By the early 1960s, being gainfully employed. Minimum wage took you a lot black Americans were staging sit-ins and freedom rides further then than it does today.” in the South, challenging whites-only lunch counters and As a teen, Brewer had a clear vision of his future: a segregated transportation. In 1963, more than 200,000 career, not just a job; a family, but not until he could sup- Americans attended the March on Washington, which port one. He earned a scholarship to Williams College, concluded with the Reverend Martin Luther King’s tran- got his law degree at Northwestern and, a couple of years scendent “I Have a Dream” speech. (He did not, how- later, joined the FBI. “At the time, there were 118 black ever, make the list of 13 famous people teens admired agents out of almost 9,000. Me and another guy were most in ’66.) The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed into one of the few from the North, both from public housing, law by President Johnson, banning discrimination based and that was unheard of in the bureau,” he says. He got on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. married at 30 (then married two more times; he has two School integration lurched forward, yet segregation daughters, 32 and 26, and a 3-year-old son). He’s a judge persisted. In 1965, Alabama state troopers and local police of the Cook County Circuit Court in Chicago, where he assaulted civil rights demonstrators as they marched from estimates that of the 480 people he has sentenced, only Selma to Montgomery. Officers charged into the crowd, 5 percent graduated from high school, and 99 percent of some on horseback, wielding nightsticks and firing tear the men were unemployed or underemployed. gas, leaving more than 50 people injured on what became Brewer credits his success to his parents, his commu- known as Bloody Sunday. Soon after, Johnson signed the nity and something impossible to replicate: the ’60s. Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited discrimina- “There was a big buzz about the possibilities for blacks at tory voting laws. “There was a sense of hopefulness—not the time. We knew changes were coming: Opportunities just with African-Americans but with all people—that the that weren’t available before would be. The FBI would be country was generally on the right track,” says Arun Venu- available. We didn’t know how or when, but it was like, Be gopal, host of Micropolis, WNYC’s semi-regular show on prepared! Education was a key,” he says. “It was almost race and identity. “Economically, the country was doing like a big candy factory was gonna open up for us. Today, really well. A lot of jobs were being created. If you were the factory is open, but there’s not much candy.”

NEWSWEEK 39 05/27/2016 2016: CIVIL RIGHTS AND WRONGS country’s first black president is finishing his second MOST CHILDREN growing up in America have access term, Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee in to life-changing opportunities—like earning a college the upcoming presidential election, energizing a base scholarship or watching a brother marry his boyfriend— The Atlantic describes as middle-aged white men with- and minor privileges, like Googling the answer to any out college degrees who don’t think they have a voice and question in recorded human history on a smartphone fear outsiders. In September, Governor Paul R. LePage and streaming Game of Thrones during a math quiz. (R-Maine) blamed local drug use on “guys with the name They can also watch video of 12-year-old Tamir Rice D-Money, Smoothie, Shifty” who bring heroin to Maine playing with a pellet gun outside a recreation center— and “impregnate a young white girl before they leave.” then getting shot dead a moment later by a police offi- Discrimination has roiled pop culture too. When not a cer. They can hear Eric Garner gasp “I can’t breathe” as single person of color was nominated for best actor, best he’s placed in an apparent chokehold during an arrest, actress, best supporting actor or best supporting actress and they know that he’ll be dead in less than an hour. at the 2016 Academy Awards, prominent black celebri- And they can witness massive protests erupt in Fergu- ties boycotted the show, and host Chris Rock said in his son, Missouri, after the death of 18-year-old Michael opening, “You’re damn right Hollywood’s racist.” At this Brown, an unarmed black teenager shot at least six year’s Super Bowl halftime show, Beyoncé turned her times, including twice in the head, by former police offi- performance of a new song into a political statement on cer Darren Wilson, who’s white. police brutality and racism. Conservatives were outraged: A Guardian study found that, last year, young black She and her backup dancers were dressed like the Black men were nine times more likely than other Americans Panthers! “You’re talking to middle America when you to be killed by police. The Washington Post reported that have the Super Bowl,” former New York City Mayor Rudy unarmed black men were seven times more likely than Giuliani said. “Let’s have, you know, decent, wholesome whites to die from police shootings last year. According entertainment and not use it as a platform to attack the to a ProPublica analysis, between 2010 and 2012, black people who, you know, put their lives at risk to save us.” teens were 21 times more likely to be shot dead than “Teenagers are growing up under this black president, white teens. Racism has long been an American battleground, but SHOW OF HANDS: The flurry of police shootings involv- it is seeping into everyday life in new ways. While the ing unarmed black men has spurred teens to be more engaged in racial issues and join groups like Black

Lives Matter and the NAACP. EASTWOOD/REDUX BRANDEN +

NEWSWEEK 40 05/27/2016 yet at the end of his presidency we are seeing a constant TEEN GADGET OWNERSHIP, stream of police killings,” says Nikole Hannah-Jones, who 1966 VS. 2015 covers civil rights and racial injustice for The New York Boys Girls Times. “I don’t know our kids are getting the tools to deal 1966 with that. Research shows millennials are no better at 75% race than our generation because these kids still are not Records 90% being educated together. Even when they are in the same Transistor 75% school buildings they are not educated together. White Radio 72% and Asian kids are tracked into higher-level classes, and Record 50% black and Latino kids are tracked lower.… Someone has Player 72% to give up something so someone else can get equality.” 64% But that’s not happening. “A black male with a col- Encyclopedia 60% lege degree looking for a job will not do as well as a 18% white male with a high school diploma looking for a Car job,” says Vaughans. “A black male without a criminal 8% 34% record will not do as well as a white male with a crimi- Weights nal record if they get to an interview. If you are a black 0% 27% male with a name like Jujuan, or if you are a black male Guitar and went to Howard, hang it up.” 0% 20% Brewer’s success was exceptional—a product of his Motorbike staunch optimism and determination but also his commu- 0% nity. Despite the tangle of violence and adversity in public 0% Perfume housing in the 1960s, “there were mothers and fathers— 96% whole families,” he says. He grew up eating dinner every Patterned 0% night with his parents and five siblings. No TV. No fast Stockings 67% food. Just home-cooked meals, family and conversation. 0% “I didn’t know anyone who was chronically unemployed. Hair Dryer 65% And most fathers, if the son became 17 or 18, they could 0% take them to their job and put ’em on. ‘You’re hired.’ They High Boots 56% raised families on the money they made. But all those jobs changed,” he adds. “Now you have families disinte- 2015 grated…. We all looked at public housing as being upward- bound, not as a decline. It’s a different world today.” 73% Smartphone 78% Osariemen, 15, from Brooklyn, New York: “The most challenging thing in my life is hearing bigots in my Laptop 55% school voice their opinion like no one will be offended, Computer 62% like they shouldn’t be held accountable....” 61% Bike Andrew, 17, from Ridgewood, New Jersey: “Blacks and 49% whites are too confrontational about everything. I regard 48% myself as being liberal and progressive, but there’s no Tablet 51% need for confrontation. Black people now, so many of them, they’ve got this idea that everybody is attacking Journal or 34% them. We’ve gotta love each other. It’s not ‘them’ against Notebook 58% ‘us.’ It’s all ‘us.’ Black Lives Matter. Well, all lives matter.” Musical 29% Jorge, 13, from Las Vegas: “Race is a problem in my Instruments 36% life. In my school, I hear a lot of racist words. The black 35% teenagers say the N-word. They call Mexicans and Desktop Computer 29% Asians in a negative way. It feels bad.” 11% Shylee, 16, Tampa, Florida: “Black people try to separate Car themselves. They even have their own TV network. If 12% you’re trying to all be equal, why are you separating your- Non-Smart- 12% self from everyone? I’m not racist. I think there’s definitely phone 10% bad white people who don’t like black people, but there’s 2% also bad black people who don’t like white people.” Motorcycle 1% Sophie, 16, Greensboro, North Carolina: “My dad makes an extraordinary amount of money, and we live in a very None of 2% nice part of town.… I try to think about my privilege as These 2%

NEWSWEEK 41 05/27/2016 much as I can, because I know a lot of people don’t have more diverse environment. “I thought people wouldn’t the race and class privilege that I do. It’s definitely not judge me based on how I looked. But people made fun of something I deserve or another person doesn’t deserve.” my hair and accent. If people are constantly throwing rac- Rissa, 16, Indianapolis: “Everybody has to realize that ist comments at you, especially at a young age, there’s no skin color is nothing more than someone having more pig- way to stand tall and be proud of who you are.” ment than someone else. Until people realize that, we’ll Rahman nods. “During the Paris attack, a friend still have those people who are extremely racist.… We’re said, ‘Can you tell your family not to kill my family?’” programmed to findflaws in others and extort them.” She looks up with big, quizzical eyes. “Why would you just assume my family is a part of ISIS?” THE GREAT TRANSFORMATION “I was always hoping that once I got to college it would TEENS KNOW racism is the issue of their generation, stop, and I’d find people like me. But now I’m transition- and many are working hard to understand it, confront ing into a world that might be the same,” says Eboigbe, it, change it. For some, this is a quiet, personal battle. who’s going to Brown this fall. “To see racism happening “One time, I was sitting in my room wearing a T-shirt, on college campuses, people being victimized, it’s scary.” and my grandma came in and she thought the reason It’s a grim outlook: Nearly twice as many teens—and my skin is the way it is is because I don’t take enough nearly three times as many black teens—think racial dis- showers. Or I’m dirty. She thought if I cleanse myself crimination is here to stay, compared with 50 years ago. harder, I’ll have lighter skin,” says Leuna Rahman, 17, The internet has given them a front-row seat to some of of Queens, New York, who identifies as South Asian the most important civil rights moments of their young (her parents are from Bangladesh). “That’s not how lives. They’ve witnessed injustice (Ferguson), outright it is. I was born this way. But I don’t let it get to me, racism against their president (61 percent of Trump sup- because I learned to love myself.” porters don’t believe Obama was born in the U.S.) and too She’s sitting in the basement of a brick church that little change coming too late (the Oscars). “Young people moonlights as the headquarters for South Asian Youth who otherwise couldn’t participate in robust conversa- Action, a youth organization for 2,000 elementary, mid- tions like this all of a sudden now can participate as fully dle and high school students in New York City, focusing as anyone else,” says DeRay Mckesson, the Black Lives on academics, college prep and leadership skills. Matter activist running for mayor of Baltimore. “That is a “I did not want to be black,” says her friend, Loretta powerful thing. We can’t fix what we don’t address.” Eboigbe, 18. “There’s this notion that if you’re light-skin, Racism may not look as it did 50 years ago—“It’s not it’s the right skin, or you’re prettier.… At one point I went formally entrenched,” Venugopal says—but it’s endemic, to the bathroom and tried to get rid of my skin color and changing one person’s mind is difficult enough, much because I wanted to be white. I was around 7 or 8. I took less overhauling society. Hannah-Jones lets out a long a sponge and tried to scrub off my skin.” sigh when asked what advice she’d give teens. “Oh man! Eboigbe was born in Italy and moved to the U.S. in 2008 That’s hard. Be better than your parents. Every genera- because her parents, both Nigerian, wanted to live in a tion, we think that as the old generation dies out, things

TEENS’ PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR PARENTS RUNNING THEIR LIFE

1966

2% 86% 12%

2016

16% 60% 24%

Not Sure Haven’t Run Life Too Much/No Have Run Life Too Much/Yes + RISE UP: Social media and the internet have given today’s youth a front-row seat to the current civil rights battles and put them on the front lines. Teens today admire Selena Gomez, but they idolize Beyoncé, in part because she injected police brutality and civil rights into one of the largest, most American cultural will be better. But the new generation becomes the old events of the year. NAACP President Cornell Williams generation, so if teens really want to see a day where there Brooks points out that in the past two years we’ve all wit- is real equality, they’re gonna have to do a lot better job nessed more racial conflict and challenges “than we’ve than we’ve done, our parents have done and our grand- seen in nearly a generation,” and he has had 28 percent parents did. It’s not inevitable but pretty damn close to more young people join the NAACP online. “At a moment inevitable that this generation will repeat our mistakes.” of conflict, crisis and hallenge,c rather than sliding into But what’s the point of being a teenager if you can’t a civic and depressive funk, what do teens do? They join make mistakes, and you can’t change? organizations. They do something about it,” he says. Moseley, the 16-year-old from Wisconsin, is candid Asked about the acute awareness teens today have about her transformation on racism. “You have to be in a about racism, Brewer sees cause for hope. “Race certain environment to change and learn that things are was and always will be a constant black teens have to wrong.” She says a popular blogging platform changed address, and to overcome that, you need to be equipped. her. “I was very racist and discriminatory, and after The primary thing you need is education. We’ve got a I went on Tumblr, I saw how people were struggling black president now. Back then, we didn’t have black and how the things I was doing were wrong. Before, I mayors! But we had hope and belief, and we knew that wouldn’t want to be around anyone of color. I’d be like, all we needed was opportunity. Now you have more Oh my gosh, they’re gonna mug me.… Now I’m just like, opportunity, but the preparation for it is gone. It’s hard He’s a person. I’ve learned that you cannot judge a per- to confront racism if you don’t have education…. There’s son. You cannot stereotype. It’s incredibly wrong to do.” so much freedom today. What do you do with it?” In 1966, the 15-year-old Tommy Brewer wasn’t par- President Obama, who knows something about ris- ticularly concerned with racism. “Most young people ing above racism and raising teenagers, said in his com- don’t feel racial prejudice,” he told Newsweek then. “We mencement address at Howard University earlier this don’t see the importance of civil rights yet. We believe month, “If you had to choose a time to be, in the words of in what Martin Luther King does, but we don’t idolize Lorraine Hansberry, ‘young, gifted and black,’ in Amer-

ANDREW BURTON/GETTY ANDREW him the way we do a baseball player.” ica, you would choose right now.”

NEWSWEEK 43 05/27/2016 THE

TEENAGERSTHENT &NOW THEY WERE THE FACES AND VOICES OF A GENERATION...AND ARE AGAIN, AS THEY LOOK BACK 50 YEARS LATER AT THEIR LIVES, THEIR TRIUMPHS AND THEIR FEARS.

She attended Taft High School, and JAN one day a guy she knew asked her to go surfing with him. “I thought, No, I SMITHERS couldn’t! I can’t play hooky!” But he talked her into it. The beach was empty, IT TOOK THE ASSISTANCE of half a dozen and Smithers remembers sitting on the people and months of dead ends to sand watching him surf, wondering track down Jan Smithers, by far the most what her mother would say when she got famous of the six teenagers Newsweek home. Suddenly, she spotted two men profiled in 1966. After appearing on the dressed in black walking toward her. cover of Newsweek’s teen issue—blond, “They looked like little pencils walking sun-kissed, seated on a motorcycle down the beach. One had long hair and and flashing a killer smile—Smithers cameras around his neck. They walked received calls from “many, many” Hol- right up to me and said, ‘We’re doing an lywood agents hoping to represent her. article on teens across the country, and Today, she’s most known for playing we’re looking for a girl from California. Bailey Quarters on WKRP in Cincinnati, We’re wondering if you’d be interested in which aired from 1978 to 1982. She was also married doing the article.’” to actor James Brolin for nine years. Smithers said yes. After the article came out, her Today, however, she lives in Southern California mother took her to meet agents in Hollywood. “I and avoids the spotlight. (Her most recent IMDb remember driving in the car with her. My mom was entry, for Mr. Nice Guy, is from 1987.) “People don’t looking for a real person to represent me.” Smithers even know I’m an actor! If I ever let them know, did commercials while finishing her last two years they’re so surprised,” she says. “I’m very private of high school. about my personal life.” Asked if her life unfolded She was accepted to Chouinard Art Institute, now how she imagined it would, she bursts out laugh- the California Institute of the Arts, but quit after a ing. “No! Because of Newsweek magazine, I didn’t couple of years to pursue acting full time. It paid off. have a chance to imagine how it would come out!” In her early 20s, she landed a role in the 1974 film Before Newsweek came into her life, Smithers was Where the Lilies Bloom, about a family of children liv- just a 16-year-old Valley girl. She grew up in a mod- ing in the Appalachian Mountains. Four years later, est middle-class family in Los Angeles. Her father she got her big break on the Friday night sitcom was a lawyer, her mother a homemaker, and she had WKRP in Cincinnati. She calls her success “destiny” three sisters, though the eldest died in a car accident but also sees it as dumb luck: “Honest to God, I don’t at 21. Smithers was shy, liked art and was lukewarm know how it happened!” on school. “Sometimes, when I’m sitting in my Smithers met her former husband, Brolin, on the room, I just feel like screaming and pounding my set of Hotel, an ’80s prime-time drama from Aaron pillow,” she told Newsweek. “I’m so confused about Spelling. “I had been in WKRP, a situation comedy, this whole world and everything that’s happening.” which is a fast-paced dialogue between people,”

NEWSWEEK 44 05/27/2016 + LEADING LADY: Her picture on the cover of Newsweek led to a story- book success, but Smithers says she only found true happiness after giving her life to her child, her causes and her swami. CLOCKWISE FROM LEFT: JULIAN WASSER FOR NEWSWEEK; NEWSWEEK; FOR WASSER JULIAN LEFT: FROM CLOCKWISE NEWSWEEK FOR MIRZAEI SYLVIA ELISSA FACTORY; TELEVISION/SHOUT! PICTURES SONY

Smithers says. “When I did Hotel, we were about to After nine years of marriage, Smithers and Brolin do our scene, and James asked me if I was scared. I divorced. “It was good—really good—but some- was sure of my lines, and I said no, I wasn’t. I real- how, somewhere, we started to wander,” she says. ized that he might be scared! And I realized he was “He traveled a lot for work. We grew apart. He was a very sincere person. I don’t know if he remembers gone months at a time.” Smithers also yearned for a that or not, but our relationship devel- life outside Hollywood. “I had Molly and oped on sincerity.” wanted to be in the country and get away They married in 1986 and have one from that world. I just wanted a different daughter, Molly, who’s 28. When Smith- life, and we ended up getting divorced.” ers first learned she was pregnant, she When Molly reached high school, planned to take six months off before Smithers traveled to India with a char- returning to work. “I loved having a itable group. She was astonished at career, but when I met Molly, I just the hardships she witnessed there and looked at her and told her, ‘You need moved by the people she met. For the me.’ And she looked at me so innocently. first time, it dawned on her: “I could I thought, I have to stay! She changed my make a difference.” She spent the next life. I really longed to be her mom.” 16 years going to India. “I learned to

NEWSWEEK 45 05/27/2016 meditate there, and I changed a great deal. I got out her family. And she believes that helping people— of myself.” neighbors and enemies—can heal anyone and any These days, Smithers’s life largely revolves situation, from fights among friends to wars between around meditation, healing, spirituality and the nations. As she puts it, “The answer to peace in the environment. She talks about yoga guru Swami universe is love.” Asked what advice she’d give young Muktananda, Indian spiritual guru Mata Amritanan- damayi (known as Amma the Hugging Saint) and Indian environmentalist Vandana Shiva as if they’re THE GOOD EARTH: Nobody kept Curtis down on the farm; he returned there happily after working in big cities like Chicago and New York City. + FROM LEFT: CHARLIE WITTMACK FOR NEWSWEEK; CHARLES HARBUTT FOR NEWSWEEK FOR HARBUTT CHARLES NEWSWEEK; FOR WITTMACK CHARLIE LEFT: FROM

NEWSWEEK 46 05/27/2016 people, she exclaims, “Read Autobiography of a Yogi! Get a hug from Amma! Make use of your time here! In my life, I found these things because I looked for them. I’m always in a place to receive the next thing. This is the real march, the quiet people’s change.” Over the years, Smithers has used her fame to support causes she cares about. “I stood for no nukes. I spoke for solar energy. I was invited to Washington and spoke in a subcommittee. I did a terrible job—it was way over my head—but I did it,” she says. “My 12 rabbits, eight cats and one dog. After school, he spiritual teachers always say, Stay out of politics. But plowed, hauled hay, fed the animals and put them do you know what the byproduct of nuclear energy to bed. His father was the plant process engineer for is?” she asks, then launches into a 10-minute spiel Maytag, and his mother died of ovarian cancer when on plutonium. “I am so anti–nuclear energy.” Curtis was 10. “My father was very important in my Smithers is surprised to learn that 82 percent of life. He wanted me to be exposed to as many things teens today believe racial discrimination will be a as possible,” he says, speaking with a slight twang. “I problem for their generation. “People are people; had a sense of wanting to learn about things beyond we’re all the same,” she says. The key to solving just the scope of being a farm boy.” discrimination and violence, she thinks, is “peace Curtis’s father had gone to Iowa State Univer- in your inner world. There’s such a commotion sity, where he worked with professor John Vincent about the world, but we can find peace at any given Atanasoff and graduate student Clifford Berry, who moment. Conflicts are not etched in stone.” Yet she created the first electronic digital computer. He worries about how the economy will affect young was also involved in the Manhattan Project at Iowa people. “If this whole generation can’t buy a home State, which developed and built the first atomic because they have to pay off their college educa- bomb. “He did a lot of things under the radar. It was tion, what have we done?” very fortunate for me to see that.” Recently, I called Smithers to ask her a few In 1966, Newsweek called Curtis’s childhood “the follow-up questions. We spoke for nearly an hour, vanishing rustic life—hunting, fishing, camping out and later that day, she called back and and raising his own livestock,” and he left a message. “I just thought of that remembers his youth fondly, without whole conversation we had about dis- regrets. He was involved in the Newton crimination,” she says with her soft Rotary Club, played the trumpet in the voice on the recording. “I don’t really school orchestra, joined the debate team know the answer, but God does. You and chorus, and became class president could write that down.” his senior year. He met his wife, Bev- erly, in high school; she worked at the local ice cream shop, the Kone Korner, which Curtis’s uncle owned. “It will be BRUCE CURTIS 43 years this August,” he says of their marriage. “That doesn’t happen very WITH PINK CHEEKS and a tired, distant often, does it?” stare, 13-year-old Bruce Curtis stands After high school, Curtis went to Iowa in front of the barn on his father’s 116- State, where he studied animal science acre farm, a green Army cap pulled and agriculture business. He’d wanted down to his brow. It’s daybreak, and he’s to become a veterinarian, but he says bundled up in blue coveralls and a teal there were around 900 applicants the sweatshirt, his hands covered by soiled year he applied to Iowa State’s College yellow working gloves. “If you’re look- of Veterinary Medicine, and only 89 ing at my picture in coveralls, you’re were accepted. He was not one of them. thinking, That kid was never in New York!” Curtis, Instead, he’s spent the past 42 years in the meat- now 63, says of the photo Newsweek published in packing industry, working for companies involved 1966. “But I used to live in Sparta, New Jersey, and in slaughter and production all the way to the man- ride the train to Penn Station and work in 11 Penn ufacturing and sales of fresh and processed meats. Plaza. I’ve come a long way from small-town Iowa.” His wife and two sons followed Curtis in his many Curtis grew up in Newton, Iowa, population jobs to 11 cities, from Chicago and Cincinnati to 15,381 (today, it’s 15,150). Every morning, he woke Oklahoma City and New York. “I’m pleased with at 6 o’clock to feed his family’s 30 cattle, 24 sheep, where my career has gone. It’s tied to an industry

NEWSWEEK 47 05/27/2016 don’t have that opportunity.” He’s also worried about drugs. When Curtis was in high school, he remembers some people drinking. “Today is scarier. You have scary things with meth and some of those things that really are ruining a lot of families and wrecking a lot of lives. It’s a state problem. We’re located along Interstate 35 and 80, and that drug traffic moves up [from the South],” he says. “Unfortunately, it is available. To be honest, I’m not sure I’d want to go through that’s part of my background. It’s a very demand- [being a teen] again.” ing business environment, and I’ve been successful from plant level to corporate to ownership of a company,” he says. “I’ve experienced downsizing a couple times in that career, which gives you some CHRISTOPHER humility and also gives you some strength.” In 1998, Curtis moved back to Newton, rebuilt the REED family farmhouse and now is a co-owner of Shelby Foods, which turns meat products into the raw CHRISTOPHER REED was never one for labels. “I’ve materials for the meat, pet food and pharmaceutical always disdained the word teenager,” he told News- industries across the U.S. and the world. week in 1966, when he was 17. He believed the word In the 1960s, Newton was the manufacturing had “hostile connotations,” and he referred to muscle for Maytag. The company’s headquarters, teens as they rather than we. “People think anyone located in the tiny rural town, helped it flourish and who’s a teenager is automatically a delinquent,” he employed thousands. All that changed in 2006, said. “I don’t feel I’m a member of the vast portion when the Whirlpool Corp. bought Maytag. The com- of kids my age.” pany closed a year later, taking with it many of the Growing up in a townhouse on the Upper East Side jobs that sustained the community. of Manhattan, Reed was a model of good behavior Upper management—and the kinds of families and an honors student at the elite Browning School that came along with it—disappeared from Newton, near Park Avenue (graduates include John D. Rocke- Curtis recalls. “It’s a little more diverse [now],” he feller, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., Jamie Dimon and says. “It’s a little more of a labor type of environment Howard Dean). He rarely smoked. He avoided bars. here. The school is smaller by population, so that has He did his homework, practiced piano two hours a changed sports and academics.” One pos- day. In his free time, he played hockey itive addition has been the Des Moines on the roof of his school and wandered Area Community College’s Newton cam- through museums and galleries, and pus. “It’s done a great job working with hoped for a girlfriend. His parents were the school system to get high school stu- divorced; he had two younger brothers. dents some of their further college cred- Every Saturday, he spent five hours at its. That is something we didn’t have years a rundown community center on the ago,” Curtis says. Lower East Side teaching children to Still, he worries about teenagers and read. Even at that age, he was sophisti- the world they’re inheriting. “I’m con- cated enough to understand life beyond cerned about what college students will his privileged bubble: “Everyone is have for jobs. Terrorism for me is for always talking about the big problems sure a concern. We seem to have a world of today’s teenagers. But do they really that’s intent on destroying itself, and for have any? They have the same problems me that’s very unsettling,” he says. Teen- as older people—the world’s problems.” agers’ greatest challenges, he thinks, will After high school, Reed attended be self-confidence, employment and suc- Harvard. “I went from one privileged cess. “You need to make things happen,” boys school in Manhattan to an elite he says. “It’s not a given that there will be institution. I guess I’ve been living it jobs for you. You have to go search it out.” down ever since,” he says. When we Asked what advice he’d give young imagine the futures of dutiful, privi- people today, he says, “That’s a good question. Boy...” leged youngsters like Reed, we often think: lawyer, Then he goes silent. After a long pause, he says, “I banker, hedge funder. But Reed wanted to make was fortunate with the environment I grew up in and the world a better place. the family background, and some teenagers probably His professional life has revolved around local

NEWSWEEK 48 05/27/2016 farming, the environment, activ- ism and education. “I’ve always been open to the idea that the most interesting changes happen on a small scale—grassroots. Institu- tions can do something that isn’t top-down and that has real impact. So it’s not a surprise that I would have landed in a small community that would easily be overlooked yet has its own contribution to make to changing the world.” Reed, 67, lives in Philmont, New York, a village about two hours north of New York City. His long- time partner is an herbalist who founded High Falls Gardens, a small farm turned nonprofit dedicated to Chinese medicinal herbs. Reed is a community and environmental activist—he spent a lot of time protesting in Zuccotti Park during Occupy Wall Street, and in the early 2000s he helped wage a winning battle against a proposed cement plant in Philmont. Recently, he joined a local steering committee tasked with figuring out how to use the area’s post-industrial infrastructure and history of water power to enhance the community. Reed jokes that he started working in the local food world “before it was fashion- able” and, for the last 15 years, he’s collaborated with small farms as a consultant and educator. He also worked as a woodworker and a con- tractor, and has taught piano for over 40 years. “Because I rejected certain paths of success, I sometimes wondered if I was a failure,” he says. “It’s taken me a long time to know that there was a positive. That the things I chose to do did have meaning.” Reed looked up to his parents for their social intelligence (his mother was an artist, and his father worked

DEVIN YALKIN FOR NEWSWEEK(2) FOR YALKIN DEVIN in insurance), and he admired his uncle, Henry Hope Reed, an + esteemed historian and architec- OCCUPIED WALL STREET: A life of privilege growing up in Manhattan didn’t keep Reed from social activ- ture critic, for his principles. “He ism, which included joining the protests against the said his elite education was worthless. Everything country’s financial powers in 2011. he learned, he learned on his own,” Reed says. “He had advice for me when I was a teenager that I still remember: ‘See things as they are.’ I think it takes courage to do that. Maybe it doesn’t take as much

NEWSWEEK 49 05/27/2016 courage if you’re already under the gun economically. It’s easier to see through the halo of illusions if you are suffering from tap water that’s polluted or have no way of surviving if you have a major illness because it’s too expensive.” Reed doesn’t have children, but he’s taught many young people over the years, and their fearless- ness is what impresses him most, especially in the face of a future marked by student debt, fewer well-paying entry-level jobs, public health crises and wealth inequality. Asked what advice he’d give teens today, he says he’d tell them that “even the ugly truth is an important thing to pursue. Behind the ugly truth there are also beautiful truths about the resilience of people.” When reminded of his early aversion to the word teenager, he bursts out laughing. “I remember saying that, and I remember the flack I would get about that too. Seeing people in aggregates and typing them is a very bad idea,” he says. “I instinctively bristle now at these broad-stroke judgments, whether at Muslims or another embattled group. There’s something going on to render those groups defenseless or vulnerable. Then they’re condemned on top of that. That seems grossly unfair.… “Life over a half-century is humbling. I hope that I’m culti- vating more ability to empathize with different kinds of people. I’m still struggling to be more human. That’s a lifelong challenge.” LAURA

JO DEGAN NEWSWEEK FOR HERSHORN SHEL NEWSWEEK; FOR ERIC KAYNE LEFT: FROM (Formerly Davis)

“I HAVE BEEN VERY NERVOUS about + DEEP ROOTS: Behind the radiant smile Degan this,” Laura Jo Degan, 64, says at flashed in the original teen issue were some the outset of our phone interview. “I have to tell you extraordinary tragedies in her young life, including the truth: I wasn’t sure what ya’ll wanted. I’m noth- a deadly bombing in her elementary school. ing.… I’m not.… My life is pretty ho-hum.” Fifty years ago, when Degan (who at the time went by her maiden name, Laura Jo Davis), spoke

NEWSWEEK 50 05/27/2016 to Newsweek, she was a content 14-year-old. Grow- ing up in Houston, she played volleyball, cheered, water-skied and rode horses. Once a week, she volunteered as a candy striper at a local hospital. Degan loved riding Honda motorbikes and worked hard in school (she cried when she didn’t get an A or a B). Smoking, to her, was “repulsive,” politics uninter- esting and the Bomb not worth worrying about: “It’s a stupid thought. I guess I feel it will never happen to me.” She firmly believed her future would “fall into color of her dress was just so embedded in my brain. place.” Her greatest concern in life? Boys. It was the most vivid purple.” Degan’s seemingly unshakeable optimism—not Degan didn’t talk about the bombing for many to mention the cheerful photos Newsweek published years, and then it was only with her family and best of her gleefully riding a Honda motorbike and smil- friend. “I was shattered,” she says. “I couldn’t sleep ing brightly in a close-up—masked the hardships without the light on or somebody in my room. For she’d endured. a long time. We all got past it. They didn’t send The year before Newsweek’s cover story, Degan’s counselors into the schools in those days. You just father, a photographer for Shell Oil, died of a heart sucked it up, and you went on to school.” attack on Mother’s Day. “There were real traumatic When Degan graduated from high school, her things—I guess you can tell from my voice,” she says, mother “scraped up all the nickels and dollars we trembling. “Financially, that put a big strain on the could find” and sent her on a trip to Europe. It was family.” Degan started working at a local florist, and the summer of 1969. That fall, Degan started her her mother got a job running an OB-GYN freshman year at Louisiana State Univer- medical center. Degan’s brother and sis- sity. “I was convinced I could do anything ter were older, so “it was just my mother with plants—cure diseases and stuff like and I, really, for a long time at the house.” that. I was going to be the mad scientist. And there was the bombing. That all went down the tubes because On September 15, 1959, Paul Orgeron, I realized you had to know a lot about an ex-convict and tile-setter, walked chemistry.” She studied landscape archi- into Poe Elementary School with his tecture instead. 7-year-old son, Dusty, and a briefcase Sophomore year, she was thrown from jammed with dynamite. He wanted to a horse and crushed her spine against a enroll Dusty, but the principal told him telephone pole. She didn’t think she they needed the boy’s address and birth would ever walk again or finish college, certificate. Orgeron vowed to return but she eventually did both, graduating with the paperwork the next day. But from LSU seven years after she started. instead of leaving, he took Dusty out She was the first person in her family to to the playground and started blath- earn a degree. ering about God and power in front of Degan, who came from five genera- about 50 students. Then he detonated tions of Texans, moved back to Houston the bomb hidden in his briefcase. Body and worked as a landscape architect for parts flew everywhere. The blast killed 15 years. She and her husband married six people: Orgeron, Dusty, the janitor, in 1980, when she was 30, and they have another teacher and two children. Seventeen more two children. She now works for his contracting students were injured, including two who lost a leg, business, but over the past 20 years she’s spent most and the principal suffered a broken leg. of her time taking care of three relatives with Alzhei- Degan was 8 years old, in her third-grade class- mer’s disease. “When people ask me why I haven’t room when the bomb exploded. At first she thought been involved in my career—I’m a caregiver.” it was the Russians. Her teacher led everyone out- Degan’s life has hardly been “ho-hum,” but when side, but as an appointed school monitor, Degan had she reflects back, her memories are tinged with a to run into the bathrooms and the teacher’s lounge wistful hint of regret. “I guess I’m where I’m sup- and shout “get out!” While her classmates exited the posed to be. But with that in mind, I think I should building with their teacher, who instructed them to have—how can I say?—I could have done more with look away from the carnage, Degan left by herself. my life. I think you always feel [that way] when “I came out, and because I wasn’t told not to look, I you’re reaching the end of life,” she says. “I’m look- looked,” she says, sniffling. “Everything was in black ing at retirement now, and that’s pretty scary with and white, except for [the principal’s] dress…. That the economy. So I shoulda made a lot of money. That

NEWSWEEK 51 05/27/2016 shake my head and stay awake,” she said. Her views on the world haven’t budged in the past 50 years. “I’m as radical as I’ve ever been,” says Richardson, 67, who now lives in San Leandro, Cal- ifornia. “I still think society is basically gonna col- lapse due to bad economics, because we’re spending money constantly that we don’t have. Like a pyramid scheme. I think it’s going to be that and the environment that’s gonna kill us,” she says. “[This country] shoulda been my goal, but I never had those goals. is run by the rich. If you’re poor, you stay poor. It’s I think my biggest goal was I wanted to be happy. not a democracy. It never was.” I saw people who did not have a lot of joy. So I just When I ask Richardson what she did after high want to be happy.” school, she replies, “I definitely took some time “Teenagers all have these really bizarre expec- off. I didn’t start college—drugs were rampant in tations that they’re going to be Mark Zuckerberg,” those days, and I certainly had mine.” She drove she says. “And then, don’t even get me started cross-country playing folk music and the blues on Hollywood…. I choose not to look at that sort with someone she says is Woody Guthrie’s nephew. of thing. I’m sorry. I want to live the life of Mrs. They landed gigs in clubs—she sang and played Cleaver. Why can’t it be like that?” guitar—and after a few years she returned to Cal- ifornia and enrolled at California State University, San Bernardino. She couldn’t afford to graduate, so she dropped out after a couple of years. She spent LAURA her 20s and 30s in a haze of music gigs, parties and “average jobs” and has spent the past 10 years RICHARDSON working as a vehicle registration clerk. She met (Formerly Hausman) her husband when she was 36, and they have no children. WHEN LAURA RICHARDSON moved from Richardson’s father was a dentist, Boston to Berkeley, California, halfway her mother a housewife, but after her through high school, she left behind her parents divorced, her mother got a job old friends and didn’t look back. “They as a secretary. She eventually went were a bunch of perfect, first-class... back to school and earned a degree in finks,” she toldNewsweek in 1966, when anthropology. “She didn’t know it, but she was 17. At Berkeley High School, she had a rare cancer of the small intes- Richardson’s new friends were into dis- tine, and just as she was going for her cussing five topics: Vietnam, the Bomb, first job, it killed her. I was 34. She was civil rights, marijuana and sex. “I really 54 when she died,” Richardson says. fit in here,” she said. Her older brother died of heart disease Newsweek’s original profile of Rich- at 54. “There’s nobody left. I’m it. My ardson (who went by Laura Hausman at father lived until his 70s. His heart got the time) showed her in a paisley knee- him too, but he got to do everything he length skirt, an orange turtleneck and wanted to do.” black cardigan, strumming a guitar in Richardson talks with a hoarse, raspy front of a peace sign with the words Peace voice that sounds as if it’s about to give and Freedom written around it. She was out any moment. When she was 44, she against the Bomb (“It’s so completely was diagnosed with throat cancer. She stupid...to just be able to push a button beat it, and while she may not be able to and destroy the world”), against the Vietnam War sing anymore, she still plays the guitar, keyboard, dul- (“My solution is simply to get out”), for the legaliza- cimer and ukulele. Clearing her throat, she says that tion of marijuana (“It’s sort of like taking whiskey, she has regrets—“everybody does”—but she wouldn’t only it doesn’t cause cirrhosis”) and “vociferously” change a single opinion when it comes to her politics. for legalizing homosexuality. “The gay marriage thing is great! We’ve done In high school, Richardson volunteered at a program something right. I know marijuana will do some for black children in San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury very interesting and positive things; it isn’t just neighborhood, participated in a “women-for-peace” about getting high,” she says. Yet she has harsh march and joined the high school arm of the Vietnam words for America’s “so-called election,” its health Day Committee. “School is just a place where I go to care system, overcrowded prisons and the legal sys-

NEWSWEEK 52 05/27/2016 FROM LEFT: EUGENE ANTHONY FOR NEWSWEEK; JEFF ENLOW FOR NEWSWEEK FOR ENLOW JEFF NEWSWEEK; FOR ANTHONY EUGENE LEFT: FROM

+ FREE RADICAL: Richardson embraced the counter- culture in the ’60s (she even sang and toured with a band) and says she hasn’t softened her stance on her regrets: “Educate yourselves. Oh yes. In any social issues over the past 50 years, way possible.” The greatest challenge facing teenagers today, she thinks, is the environment: “Everything else is tem, which she says is “run by very rich and usually kinda superfluous if you don’t have a planet that can white guys.” As for racism, “I don’t see a cure…. I be lived on. I don’t think teenagers will have it as think economic equality would make things a lot good as we did…. It’s a pessimistic view, but, man, better, but that isn’t happening in this country.” have they got their work cut out for them. If I was Her one piece of advice for young people reflects growing up today, I’d be damn angry about it.”

NEWSWEEK 53 05/27/2016 TEENS TODAY/DIVERSITY

GOOD SCIENCE COLOR CODED Computer engineering is mostly white and male. Changing that means reaching teen black girls

“TODAY, I MADE a self-driving car,” NyEla, 10, Valley sponsors such as Salesforce and Google, says to a room of parents and girls ranging from which are struggling with diversity, and by sim- elementary to high school. “It was pretty easy.” ilar nonprofits around the country, like Girls Just hours ago, NyEla had never programmed, Who Code and Level the Playing Field. and now she is showing off her creation, a game BGC introduces young women of color to com- she created where a car, of its own accord, nav- puter programming by hosting weekend coding igates a roughly rendered track. NyEla dove sessions and pairing them with mentors. The into computer programming with the help of an girls learn to code with Scratch, a computer lan- organization called Black Girls Code (BGC). guage developed at MIT that lets users manip- When Amber Morse, BGC’s events coordinator, ulate visual tools to create algorithms, the logic shouts to the crowd, “What do we do?” the girls systems behind programs. It’s simple enough shout back, “We change the face of technology!” that children can learn but powerful enough to Black Americans make up just 7 percent of the be used in introductory computer science classes country’s technology engineers. Just 3 percent at some universities. The girls drag and drop col- are black women. These race and gender gaps ored puzzle pieces to create simple instructions can’t be explained by lack of access; the days like “if the ball hits a wall, stop.” when you had to be wealthy to use a computer Most of the BCG volunteers work in tech and as a kid have vanished. According to Barbara are acutely aware of the industry’s massive diver- Ericson, at Georgia Institute of Technology, the sity problem. “Tech is mostly white and Asian,” biggest challenge now is getting early opportuni- says Robert Hui, a programmer with Netflix who ties to take computer science classes. Of all those volunteered his day to teach the girls to code. who took the Advanced Placement test in com- “That’s been the demographic since college.” puter science in 2015, 78 percent were male, and He says his intro-level undergraduate computer only 4 percent were black. “The students with science classes was about 25 percent female, but prior experience in those fields are the ones who that number dwindled as he moved into more are going to succeed in college,” Ericson says. advanced classes. But Hui also thinks change The mission of BGC, which started in 2011, is coming. After one grueling day of working is to get girls tinkering with programming while through computer bugs, a girl ran up to one volun- they’re young, making them feel like they can teer and said, “I’m going to work at Google when BY compete in computer science classes in college I grow up and I’m going to ride a bike at lunch,” GRANT BURNINGHAM and beyond. It’s a goal shared by BGC’s Silicon proving she’s already got the soul of a techie. @granteb

NEWSWEEK 54 05/27/2016 TEENAGERS

THE

+ BETTER SCREEN TIME: Almost all kids today have computer access. The key is getting them to think about what goes on behind the screen. BLACK GIRLS CODE GIRLS BLACK

NEWSWEEK 55 05/27/2016 #NODARETOOSTUPID The teenage brain is primed to take any social media challenge, no matter how half-baked or dangerous

WHAT WOULD HAPPEN if you took a can of blowtorch-size dragon-breath puffs of fire by put- aerosol hairspray or air freshener and sprayed it ting flame into contact with flammable liquid directly at a cigarette lighter’s flame? Any rational (usually while indoors). It began when one teen adult is likely to say, Nothing good. But if you’re a Instagram user gave the stunt a try and tagged the teen, you might think, Great snap! video post #FireSprayChallenge. BY Since mid-March, social media outlets have The online dare spread rapidly, and now there JESSICA FIRGER

been flooded with videos of young people creating are over 4,000 posts on Instagram with the @jessfirger JIM YOUNG/REUTERS

NEWSWEEK 56 05/27/2016 #FireSprayChallenge hashtag. The daring feat is an offshoot of the #FireChallenge, another popular and even more dangerous social media TEENS TODAY/ONLINE craze that involves dousing oneself with a flammable liquid like rubbing alcohol, then lighting your torso or limbs on fire before jumping into + a shower or pool. That challenge has resulted in SELFIE-OBSESSED: a seemingly endless stream of reports of teens From posing in with third- or fourth-degree burns. Last year, dangerous places, like this railing an 11-year-old boy in the U.K. underwent a skin helped pinpoint critical neurochemical and cel- over Lake Mich- graft after the challenge went terribly wrong. A lular changes in the brain as it matures that may igan, to setting 15-year-old in Buffalo, New York, died from inju- promote novelty- and sensation-seeking behav- themselves on fire and jumping into a ries he suffered after taking the dare. Fire safety iors. Then, in the 1980s, magnetic resonance pool, teens are go- divisions in several states have issued emer- imaging became widely available. Because MRIs ing to extremes for internet adulation. gency warnings about the challenge. are safe to use (they don’t expose a person to radi- Other popular and life-threatening social ation), researchers were able to use them to scan media challenges have prompted warnings from the brains of healthy kids repeatedly, over a long public health officials. The #CinnamonChal- period of time. Though the resulting data didn’t lenge, which involves swallowing a tablespoon of confirm what parents often claim—that their teen the spice without any water, can lead to vomiting, has half a brain—it did show that critical neurolog- choking and a trip to the ER. That dare became ical development does occur during teen years. so popular that within the first three months of 2012, poison centers nationwide received 139 calls that involved cinnamon overdoses. A THE LIST OF THE MANY person who accepts the #Eraser- Challenge is required to take a pink CHALLENGES TEENS TAKE ON eraser and rub it on his or her arm FOR SOCIAL MEDIA READS while saying a word for each letter of the alphabet. By the end, some have LIKE A DISTURBING REPORT burns or deep cuts. FROM A TORTURE CHAMBER. The list of the many and var- ied challenges teens take on from social media reads like a disturbing report from a torture chamber: have a friend The brain is made up of two types of tissue: douse you with boiling water, eat a Carolina gray matter and white matter. White matter is Reaper (the world’s hottest chili pepper), pour composed mostly of nerve fibers responsible a bottle of vodka into your open eye, chew and for transmitting the electric signals that ensure swallow an entire cactus plant. communication from one area of the brain to Attempting to grasp the motives behind the another. Gray matter is made mostly of neuro- reckless stupidity of teenagers has been a frus- nal cell bodies and dendrites—the thread-like trating endeavor for parents since the beginning segments of neurons that receive and send of time, and many experts believe the internet signals from other neurons—and is involved in has made it even worse. In the good old days, thought processing and memory. By the age of parents typically felt they could maintain con- 6, a person’s brain is approximately 95 percent trol over their misbehaving teen simply by lim- of its eventual adult size, but brain scans have iting the time spent with peers who were a “bad indicated that in the following years, gray mat- influence.” But thanks to social media, persua- ter continues to grow in volume, with the most sive people with dumb ideas are now omnipres- growth occurring during early adolescence. ent and a mere click, tap or swipe away. Add As gray matter grows, so do the number of in the appeal of 30 seconds of fame, and some brain cells and connections between these cells, teens are willing to try just about anything. In which shoot like rapid fire. This constant firing many cases, the more dangerous it is, the better. of synapses—the electric impulses that jump Over the years, scientists have tried to better from neuron to neuron—is critical to learning understand the biology behind risk-taking behav- and development. In the first few years of life, ior in teens by studying young animals. Early the brain acquires an abundance of these con- experiments on rodents and nonhuman primates nections—more than it needs. Then, through

NEWSWEEK 57 05/27/2016 in order for the brain to commit something to memory, dopamine must be present, which TEENS TODAY/ONLINE essentially means it is needed for the brain to process important information such as don’t light yourself on fire or you might get burned. Because it’s flooded with dopamine, the teen brain is driven to seek out constant stimuli and reward, says Laurence Steinberg, a professor of psychology at Temple University. “Things that learning, it begins to eliminate the weaker con- feel good feel even better when you’re a teen- nections, a process known as synaptic pruning. ager,” he says. So although a tablespoon of cinna- Puberty marks the start of “specialization,” says mon in a teen’s esophagus might be a miserable Dr. Jay Giedd, chairman of child and adolescent experience, the page views, likes and favorites psychiatry at the University of California, San that trigger a rush of dopamine after the teen Diego. This is the point when the brain turns to posts the video mean the person may not care weeding out its weakest remaining connections. about the physical pain. “This combination of At the same time, good and useful connections an easily aroused reward center and still slow to are strengthened. This process continues well mature self-regulation system is what contributes beyond the college years. to a lot of this risky behavior,” Steinberg says. Synaptic pruning is the reason young people Worse, social media use peaks just when have a much easier time learning new things, such sensation-seeking behavior starts. According to as languages and driving. The problem, though, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent is that all of this is happening in the prefrontal Psychiatry, over 60 percent of 13- to 17-year-olds cortex, the part of the brain sometimes referred have at least one social media network profile. to as the brain’s CEO because it is responsible for In 2015, the Pew Research Center found that 92 big decisions, impulse control and the ability to reason (like a rational adult). “The part of the brain that wants to think things through, think of the con- THANKS TO SOCIAL MEDIA, sequences and think long term is still under construction well until their PERSUASIVE PEOPLE WITH 20s,” Giedd says. DUMB IDEAS ARE NOW The teen brain is compelled to seek out new experiences that help the OMNIPRESENT AND A MERE brain learn, but teens don’t yet have CLICK, TAP OR SWIPE AWAY. the tools to make rational choices. That’s why accidents, drug use, unpro- tected sex and other risky behaviors are much more common in young people, some percent of teens go online daily and that 24 per- experts say. According to the National Institutes cent are on “almost constantly.” Teens reach of Health, accidental deaths increase dramati- “social maturity” by age 14 to 16, which is aca- cally during early and late adolescence. Death demic-speak for “this kid is on every single social by injury occurs at rates six times higher among media network”—including ones grown-ups teens 15 to 19 when compared with those 10 to 14. probably don’t even know about. Meanwhile, something else is also occurring This greatly expands the opportunity for influ- around this time that makes young people more ence—Steinberg’s research shows that when it likely to get into trouble: puberty. As the body comes to sensation-seeking behavior, teens are gears up for the changes that come with sexual equally swayed by unknown peers (such as Insta- maturity, it ramps up production of hormones— gram influencers) and IRL friends. In one study, including dopamine, the “feel good” neurotrans- published in Developmental Science in 2014, Stein- mitter that increases when the brain’s reward berg and a research team divided 64 teens into system is triggered. Whether the reward is food, two groups. The researchers asked all 64 the same sex, money, drugs, retweets, followers or Insta- questions regarding money rewards, such as, gram likes, dopamine functions pretty much the “Would you rather have $500 today or $1,000 six same way. The biological need to feel good com- months from now?” pels a person to behave in a way that will provide Half of the participants also were tricked into stimulus and reward. Research has shown that thinking a peer of the same gender and similar

NEWSWEEK 58 05/27/2016 background was watching them on a closed-cir- media that will get lots of likes and comments. cuit computer system. Steinberg’s team found But Lenhart also argues that teenage bad behav- that people in the fake peer-observed group were ior isn’t unique to the digital age. consistently willing to accept 15 percent less “In my high school, one of the Spirit Week YOUTUBE TEENS money than those who were alone. “But we don’t challenges was called the Chubby Bunny chal- “The part of the see that pattern for adults,” Steinberg says. lenge, where you were supposed to see how brain that wants Amanda Lenhart, a 16-year veteran at Pew, many marshmallows you could stick in your to think things through, think of has found one-upmanship is a central part of mouth,” she says. Everyone did it, even though the consequences online behavior for teens. In a 2014 survey that it was clearly unwise. “And I went to high school and think long term is still under Lenhart helped run, 40 percent of teens said before the internet, before social media was construction well they feel pressure to post content on social widely available.” until their 20s,” says Giedd. + THE LOYAL DUTCHMAN/YOUTUBE; ASHY PINEAPPLEZ/YOUTUBE; MATT 51/YOUTUBE; MURANATU SESAY/YOUTUBE SESAY/YOUTUBE MURANATU 51/YOUTUBE; MATT PINEAPPLEZ/YOUTUBE; ASHY DUTCHMAN/YOUTUBE; THE LOYAL CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: LEVI JOHNSON/YOUTUBE; CEMEH KOCOROPOB/YOUTUBE; CEMEH KOCOROPOB/YOUTUBE; JOHNSON/YOUTUBE; LEVI LEFT: TOP FROM CLOCKWISE

NEWSWEEK 59 05/27/2016 TEENS TODAY/EDUCATION

HARVARD CAN WAIT Malia Obama is putting college on hold and joining the growing number of Americans taking a gap year

THERE WAS A surge of energy at the annual says she has already heard from one student she Gap Year Conference in Boston in May. Attend- counseled who “was right on the fence about it. ees, eager to hear the latest from the world of And when she heard Malia was going to take a gap gap years—the time some young people take year, she said, ‘OK, I’m going to take one too.’” off between high school and college in order to The American Gap Association, an accreditor travel or work—had learned that the movement of organizations that offer gap year programs, would be getting a famous new participant: Malia estimates that 30,000 to 40,000 students in the Obama, the president’s eldest daughter. U.S. take such time off annually. Gap year enroll- Malia will attend Harvard University, the White ment grew about 23 percent between the 2013 House recently announced—but she won’t be and 2014 school years, the AGA says, and has starting this fall as originally expected. Instead, increased every school year since 2006 or earlier. the older first daughter will take a gap year, a Attendance at U.S. gap year fairs has apparently practice that has been gaining momentum in the spiked 294 percent since 2010. United States over the past decade. The uptick is likely related to an increasingly Gap year programs (though not always last- stressful college admissions process, education ing a year and sometimes taken during or after experts say. “You’re looking at a growing rate of college) were once more common abroad. Holly student burnouts,” says Jane Sarouhan, an AGA Bull, president of the Center for Interim Pro- board member and a vice president of the Center grams, which counsels students and mid- or for Interim Programs. Overburdened high school- post-career adults on choosing gap programs, ers feel they need recovery time before hitting the says that when her father founded the center books again, she says. Today’s young people are in 1980, “nobody was talking gap years in the often talented in many ways, she adds, “but don’t U.S.” Now, she says, “there’s far more aware- have some basic soft skills,” such as “how to take ness and support for the idea.” care of themselves, how to make good choices, It is Britain’s Prince William and Prince Harry, how to get themselves out of bed, accountability,” both of whom took time off after their studies and they may seek time off to acquire them. in the early 2000s, who deserve credit for the In a 2014–2015 AGA survey of gap year alumni, growing interest in gap years, according to Bull. 92 percent said they took time off for reasons “That was when the term gap year started to really related to personal growth, 85 percent said they BY appear in the United States,” she says. Bull expects had wanted to travel and experience other cul- MAX KUTNER to see a similar spike following Malia’s news and tures, and 81 percent said they had done so in @maxkutner

NEWSWEEK 60 05/27/2016 it, because just about everybody realizes that it ends up resulting in more mature, more focused student bodies,” says Bob Clagett, director of college counseling at St. Stephen’s Episcopal School in Austin, Texas, and the former dean of admissions at Middlebury College in Vermont, who has studied the gap year trend. Despite the momentum, many families worry about how expensive some of these programs may be. “There’s a very common misperception,” Clagett says, “that the gap year phenomenon is primarily the domain of the wealthy, or at least the affluent, and I think it’s really important for people to understand that anyone can do a gap year.” He worries that Malia’s decision will deepen that misperception. Some students choose to work during such a year, he adds. Still, the most expensive programs could run as high as $40,000, says Sarouhan. Clagett notes that deferring a + year might also result in having to pay a FALL INTO THE GAP: By taking a higher tuition fee as rates increase. gap year, Malia will order to take a break from academics. (The figures Malia will join Harvard’s class of 2021 after she not have to be the child of a sitting add to more than 100 percent because many stu- graduates this spring from Sidwell Friends School president on cam- dents cited multiple reasons.) in Washington, D.C. Harvard says that typically pus, which might Inevitably, the uptick in interest in gap years 80 to 110 of its incoming students defer each year, mean fewer secret service agents has been followed closely by an industry eager up from the 50 to 70 reported in 2009. This spring, hanging around to capitalize on it: Thousands of programs offer Harvard admitted 2,037 students. the dorm. experiences involving subjects like environmental For the child of a U.S. president, delaying until conservation, wilderness education and cultural her dad leaves office has added bonuses. Start- immersion; fairs promote programs, and con- ing Harvard next fall means Malia will not be the sultants help people decide between them. “You need to put some work into a gap year, because you don’t want to be twiddling your thumbs at home YOUNG PEOPLE ARE without enough to do and your friends are off at college,” says Bull. OFTEN TALENTED IN MANY But taking some time away from WAYS “BUT DON’T HAVE school seems to pay off. Research shows that the grades of students who SOME BASIC SOFT SKILLS.” took gap years improved, and that gap year students were more likely to have higher grade point averages upon graduation than similar students who didn’t take gap daughter of a sitting president. As The Washington years. More than half of gap year students sur- Post noted, she may have less security with her as veyed said their experiences set them on a career a result. “I think it makes a lot of sense for her,” path or solidified their choice of academic major. says Bull. During Malia’s year off, she’s “probably Given such findings, schools are becoming going to be somewhat in the public eye but not more receptive to students who defer. Harvard quite in the same way, and then she’ll start at col- encourages students to take time off, and Princ- lege when there’s not so much spotlight on her.” eton and Tufts offer gap programs. Florida State Meanwhile, Harvard awaits her arrival. Writing University and the University of North Carolina about Malia and her year-off announcement, a at Chapel Hill offer financial assistance toward student quipped on a campus blog, “I guess that

NICK UT/AP NICK gap year programs. “Just about everybody allows means one less year of our friendship.”

NEWSWEEK 61 05/27/2016 TEENS TODAY/BOOKS

PEGGY SUE GOT SEXTED For her new book, Nancy Jo Sales spoke to 200 teen girls. The takeaway: Many of them feel constantly harassed about sex

NANCY JO SALES has a special gift: the ability to talk—really talk—to teenagers. From New York City rap hipsters to the notorious, fame-obsessed teen burglars that Sales dubbed “the Bling Ring,” the author and veteran journalist can get teenagers to open up about almost anything. For her new book, American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers, Sales spent two years on the road listening to over 200 teenage girls talk about what plagues them today. Sales, the mother of a high school freshman, has delivered a harrowing compendium of anecdotes about coming of age in an era of mainstream sexualization, slut shaming, online porn and cyberbullying. She spoke to Newsweek about why she wrote the book and what she learned about preparing teen girls— including her own—to grow up female online. Q Where did you grow up, and what kind of a teenage life did you have? A I grew up in Miami in the 1970s. I loved my parents; my parents loved me. I went to a good public high school. I grew up in this unusually diverse atmosphere, all sexual orientations and all colors—people who followed gurus, hippies. It was good, but what I remember was that my mother always had this very strong sense of what was age-appropriate for children. I really BY was schooled in that concept from her: Certain NINA BURLEIGH things are OK at certain times. @ninaburleigh

NEWSWEEK 62 05/27/2016 What is the biggest difference between female aesthetic, and there are sexual comments. It’s all American teenage-hood in the 1970s and now? about likes; it’s all about the validation. The one A thing that’s different from when we were kids is Nobody is saying kids haven’t always been inter- there’s a number on your popularity and every- ested in sex—we all were—but I think what’s dif- one knows it. What gets a lot of likes is you in a ferent is that access to pornography has changed bikini. And then so-called “slutpages” are in every how kids view sex in a big way. If you had asked school I went to [during reporting], and there’s a me two years ago, “What do you think of porn?” sexting ring in every school. These are amateur I would have said, “Whatever, live and let live.” porn sites. There’s a whole minimizing thing that I really have a different view now that I have goes on, like, “It’s just a prank.” But it leads to ter- looked at it. Gonzo porn is the most popular ver- rible cyberbullying and sometimes suicide. The sion, and it’s very degrading to women. pictures are like Pokémon cards to the boys, who We know from studies that porn influences use them to jerk off or as a trophy. girls’ views of themselves and their bodies. This This is a cultural phenomenon. I began to is a huge, huge change. The way this relates to see how deeply entrenched this is in the lives of social media is that online culture is influenced by teenage girls. I was not aware of it, and I felt so this porn aesthetic—Tumblr is almost like a porn bad for them, that they were trying to deal with site. Also, iPhones. My book is about porn-plus- this. And the boys too, because “bro” culture is iPhone. It is changing childhood and teenage life. boy culture, and boys are overwhelmed. It’s also Q really homophobic. It’s not just sexist. Are you sure you don’t just feel the same gen- Q erational difference that parents in the 1960s So what’s the takeaway? felt about their kids and free love, or their A grandparents felt about making out in cars? More than 200 girls in my book agree that there is A a lot of harassment. They are pressured into sex- KNOPF DOUBLEDAY KNOPF I hear that all the time. “Oh, it’s always been that ualizing themselves; they are more vulnerable to way, it’s just moral panic.” I am sorry, but there should be a word for the opposite impulse of moral panic—maybe there’s a German word for + it. It’s denial. Sure, the car was once considered a “PORN-PLUS-IPHONES IS PARENT TRAP: dangerous thing because kids could drive off and Sales says many neck. Well, now you can be doing an approxima- CHANGING CHILDHOOD parents want to be their child’s friend, tion of that in math class. You can be sexting at AND TEENAGE LIFE.” so they don’t dis- school, [watching] porn at school. It used to be that cipline them. “The girls say, ‘Why do Saturday night, you might have an experience. our parents let us Now it can happen all the time. It happens when do all these adult you open your eyes in the morning and get sexted. cyberbullying. People need to know that these things?’” The constancy of it—we can ask, Is it healthy? girls are concerned. More than half of the book is Q in their voices—it’s one thing to hear an adult say You have a daughter. Do you monitor it; it’s another thing to hear a kid say it. her social media life and phone? We have to change this culture. We cannot have A a generation of girls growing up like this. We have I feel really lucky because when I started doing to have a conversation about porn—parents can’t the first story on this forVanity Fair, she was be afraid to say, “Nope, you are not doing that.” only 12 and didn’t have a phone yet. I was able to Schools can institute sessions where kids can talk learn about all these things and start having this to each other about this, so it’s not like an adult ongoing conversation with her. We talk about this telling you what to think. It might be useful for ses- every day. She tells me about things that are going sions to be single-sex and then join them together. on in her peer group. It’s something you have to Some of the best conversations I had were when talk to them about. Like, what happened in school the girls started talking to each other. They said, today? What happened on social media today? “We never talk about this.” The law hasn’t caught Q up to the technology. Girls are so vulnerable to Will you talk about how social media having these pictures passed around. They know affects consent and body image? this is out there, and they have this incredible feel- A ing of threat that has got to be addressed. Only a A lot of social media is posting provocative pic- small percentage of boys will rape, but a lot more tures. These girls are styling themselves to a porn will press a button and send a picture. It’s e-rape.

NEWSWEEK 63 05/27/2016