The nature of the model and the corruption it bred made its survival hinge on capital inflows, remittances from the diaspora, and loans from western governments and international organizations. Through their affluent connections, the two Hariris were the guarantors of this unsustainable rentier economic structure. However, systemic cracks resulting from nefarious practices remained pervasive, regardless of multiple temporary bailouts namely Paris 1, 2, 3, and 4 (CEDRE).

Aid conferences and exceptional hikes in foreign investment, particularly between 2007 and 2010, delayed recurrent threats of collapse. In parallel, this capital inflow was inflating the banking sector (worth around 4 times the size of the national economy), allowing it to finance the governments massive fiscal deficit and invest in unproductive yet highly profitable sectors, particularly real estate.

As a result of failed investments, regional instability, and loss of trust in the economy, Lebanons balance of payments started exhibiting a persistent annual deficit as of 2011. This progressively depleted the Central Banks foreign reserves, which are needed to guarantee the Liras peg to the dollar and finance the import-dependent economy.

The Central Bank hence resorted to unorthodox financial engineering measures by offering commercial banks egregiously high interests on the dollars they deposited in its coffers. While this Ponzi-like scheme led to oddly high interest rates for depositors and record-high profits for banks, it paved the way for the current crisis in liquidities that essentially converted peoples savings into mere accounting entries.

While the 2019 October Revolution was triggered by an increasingly precarious socio-economic reality, opposition to Harirism actually has an often forgotten history. In fact, contestation began in the 1990s with campaigns against privatized reconstruction projects that stole public funds and appropriated peoples lands. The rise of Solidere, a Hariri-owned development company tasked with rebuilding downtown Beirut, captures that growing trend of prioritizing rent-creation at the expense of citizens social and economic rights.

Trade unions also strongly opposed regressive neoliberal policies during the mid-90s, until they got repressed and co-opted by the political establishment. Similarly, the agriculturalist movement in 1997, known as the Revolt of the Hungry, was also directly tied to policies that marginalized local productive sectors while deepening reliance on imports.

Ensuing years saw such infringements on social and economic justice continue, leading up to the 2015 garbage protests, which directly resulted from an inability to manage a reemerging waste crisis due to private economic interests inhibiting the overhaul of the sector.

While this reactionary movement did not lead to tangible changes, the 2019 October Revolution forced Harirism to face a grim reality one asking it to deal with its past decisions and compelling it to confront its potential downfall. With that in mind, what type of future awaits Lebanons political economy?

While going with Diab may seem like a move away from the longstanding economic norm embodied by Hariri, reality today is in fact more complicated. The Hezbollah-led camp, which brought Diab to power, may brandish populist slogans and a socialist rhetoric, but its track record and complicity in preserving Harirism suggests otherwise. Indeed, Hezbollah made its support for Hariris return as PM abundantly clear, yet his attachment to conditions opposed to their interests forced the Iranian-backed party to resort to an alternative strategy.

Originally posted here:

Grappling between past and future: will Lebanon's political economy reproduce itself? - Open Democracy

Pretending has come to be a dominant feature in South Africa.

Citizens continue to vote against their own interest, as if pretending that those in power can actually deliver on their promises will make it come true.

In politics, all parties pretend acting as though they have no crises, no factions, no demagogic and power-hungry individuals. They put on masks and present false fronts, pretending that the internal problems dont exist.

If the ANCs 108th birthday celebration this past weekend and its associated speeches including President Cyril Ramaphosas delivery of the January 8 statementon Saturday (January 11) are anything go by, it seems the party has become a symbol of pretence and pretension.

Great pretender

We know the reality is difficult to face, but in choosing to again wear a mask, the ruling party has become a victim of the unfortunate reality that playing make-believe can come to hide the truth even from the pretender itself.

Only the ANC could say, with a straight face, that it has declared 2020 to be the year of unity, socio-economic renewal and nation building.

Only the ANC could fail to fear shame and embarrassment about claiming to prioritise job creation and economic growth when its actions, decisions and policies as the ruling party have been such that they achieve the opposite.

Pretending has become a coping mechanism, a tool for self-comfort, a way to save face but mostly an excuse for the party to continue to lie to itself that things are going well.

Introspection

Given the countrys past, and the current governments constant failure, a reflection on what is happening inside the ANC including its role in governing SA could have been more useful.

It could have shown that it is a party capable of public self-reflection.

This would also have given it an opportunity to refine its eight priorities including education, healthcare, land reform and growth instead of repeating them. Ramaphosas speech did not mention anything that we didnt already know to be his partys priorities, nor did it introduceanything new.

Believing that repeating a story will somehow make it true does not make it true.Trying to hide ones failures doesnt turn them into successes.

It is unsurprising that nothing very hopeful came out of the presidents speech, and it seems nothing hopeful is going to happen while the ruling party continues to believe the lie that it tells itself and the public.

The collapse of key institutions and state-owned enterprises, the plundering of state coffers, and the erosion of good governance in the public sector has not only reversed any progress, it has plunged the economy into a crushing rut.

Pretending to be a thriving democracy that is able to accomplish political and social growth does not make it so.

The morning after

When the sugar rush from the birthday celebrations wears off and the exhaustion from partying sets in, it may surprise the ANC and its alliance partners to see that much of what the festivities were trying to mask is still there.

The priorities the party set out for the new era are simply a collection of past plans that were never implemented or failed to lift off.

It can be said that, as the ruling party, the ANC has been riding the wave of an organisation that is forward-looking and in control of its own and the countrys future.

The reality is that it is set in its ways, has been plunged into organisational chaos and, as a government, is less clear about what it is doing than it would have its citizens believe.

The Eskom crisis is good evidence of a president at the helm of a government that is incapable of running things, let alone demonstrating a leadership that is in control.

Moreover, the corroding effect of state capture and corrupt practices is so deeply rooted that it has undermined many of the former good practices in the public sector. And the collective response from the powers that be? Go through the motions, set up commissions and inquiries, act as if action is being taken against those liable, and hope that this will keep the public appeased. In other words, present a false image of a party in control and hope that people will believe this image.

I am not moved by statements from a party that pretends to care about reducing poverty and inequality when in reality, through its actions, it extends them.

For many young people who are the most impacted by structural problems, the ruling partys birthday celebration means nothing. Many continue to be locked out of the economy and have no way of knowing how they are going to survive daily, let alone in the coming decade.

This past weekends birthday celebration was a splendid diversion used to cheer the masses, by keeping the pretence of Batho Pele (governments People First initiative) alive. But soon the lies will not hold anymore.

There was a time when the public and even its own members listened closely when the ANC spoke. This is particularly true of the January 8 statement. But the partys command for attention is diminishing.

And so too, unless things change, will its power over the people.

Read more from the original source:

The ANC's 108th birthday bash: A masked ball - Moneyweb.co.za

Sriram Bhupathiraju quit his well-paying corporate job in 2012, after having worked as a business analyst for 11 years, first in the United States and then in India. He would clock in around 18 hours for 15 to 20 days without an off, working according to time zones of global clients. His health suffered, he was disillusioned and began questioning the purpose of his work.

In the last eight years, his health has improved and he talks as though the weight is off his shoulders. Sriram runs half marathons, has backpacked to 11 countries, has visited every UNESCO World Heritage Site in India and now learns Kuchipudi from Bala Tripura Sundari.

He recently started working as a researcher with the Centre for Research in Infrastructure Development and Policy.

After quitting his IT job, he pursued masters in anthropology from the University of Hyderabad and an M.Phil from the IIT-Hyderabad. For his M Phil research topic, he didnt have to look far. What better than to look into your own backyard? he says, referring to his research on Burnout: An ethnographic study of occupational stress among mid career IT professionals in Hyderabad.

Though we do come across engineers who quit their jobs for creative pursuits writing, music, filmmaking, art, theatre Sriram says its only a small percentage that veers away. His research is about the majority that faces burnout and sees no escape route.

For his ethnographic study he spoke to mid-level IT professionals whove worked for more than five years. He conducted 34 interviews in all. The sample size might be small, but academic research of an ethnographic kind, he explains, is not about giving out a questionnaire. I didnt impose my ideas on them. I outlined the objective of my research and listened to their stories, in detail. Then I analysed the data, he says.

A joke among Telugus goes that one studies engineering and then thinks of what to do with life. Those who grew up in the late 90s and early 2000s can recall the craze to study engineering and land a job in the United States. Never mind if the students didnt have their hearts set on engineering. It was seen as a passport to a socio-economic transition. Sriram says things havent improved.

He also spoke to students at a leading engineering institute and observed that many of them had taken up engineering because they saw it as a natural choice or because everyone else is doing it. Sriram calls them reluctant engineers.

As for mid-level IT professionals, his research looks into several aspects of their life. Flexible timings, initially considered a boon to break away from the old school 9am to 5pm/10am to 6pm work schedule, morphed into a trap and employees worked overtime, to cater to clients in different time zones. The digital scenario made it impossible to switch off work after a time. Sriram terms this as collapse of time and space.

As the working from home concept grew, employees were expected to log in from anywhere. So work engages an employee 24/7. We straddle three clocks the [bodys] circadian rhythm, the local time and global time zones, he says.

To make things worse, Sriram points out that the IT sector doesnt look at itself as labour to address these issues. He mentions how corporate and labour lawyers scoff at the idea of addressing IT employee issues as labour issues since theres lucrative pay.

This pay package prevents employees from breaking free. You transcend a social class when you land a job, says Sriram. Socio-economic factors follow. The place of residence, type of residence (gated community? villa?), type of car, the school your child goes to (is it an international school?) are just a few factors that add to the stress.

Srirams research doesnt outline the solution: My research puts things out. There is no one single solution to the problems; if I had to look at them, it would involve a Ph.D, he laughs.

He has approached Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary IT, Telangana, with his research and requested if Nasscom and HYSEA (Hyderabad Software Enterprises Association) can look into it. Burnout has received scant attention. My research aims to address this gap, he sums up.

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Burnt out and nowhere to go - The Hindu

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI/FIDELITY MHLANGA

THE year 2020 has kicked off on a low note as the business sector and consumers continue to suffocate under a harsh economic environment, prompting them to call for urgent solutions, especially political dialogue.

Zimbabwe is reeling under economic hardships characterised by hyperinflation, low salaries, excessive power cuts, dire shortage of maize meal and low production of virtually everything among a plethora of other economic problems that have pushed citizens and businesses to the edge.

The southern African nation features among the worst economic performers, coming only second to Venezuela whose economy is envisaged to contract by 20,5%. Its gross domestic product (GDP) growth is expected to contract -12,9%, according to the Economist Intelligence latest report.

Industry players and consumers who spoke to Standardbusiness last week said the situation was now unsustainable, with businesses suffering a weakened domestic market base, and consumers enduring high prices.

The economy is facing stagnation characterised by negative growth, high rate of inflation, high levels of unemployment or under-employment, chronic forex shortages and power shortages, Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) Matabeleland chapter chairperson Brighton Ncube, said.

Figures from the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) indicate that year-on-year inflation accelerated to 481,05% in November last year from 440,18% in the previous month, a new post-dollarisation high.

Ncube said the fall in domestic demand had affected businesses in a number of ways as most of the businesses derive their working capital from short and long-term financing.

The drop in revenues means businesses are unable to repay loans and financiers are forced to foreclose on overdue debts. The recurrent expenditure is not met adequately and as a result businesses are failing to pay salaries and for utility services. Reduced demand also means suspension of further investments in business operations such as re-tooling. It means the financing for innovation is constrained, he said.

He said the signs of an impending drought this season were further dampening the little prospects of a bright 2020 outlook.

Our economy is mostly agro-driven and a drought strikes right at the core of any hopes for economic growth. We are optimistic though, going by what the bureaucrats are saying, that the rewards for the austerity measures implemented last year will begin to show this year, he said.

CEO Africa Roundtable director Kipson Gundani said as more and more individuals and entities charged hard currency for their goods and services, chances were high that the economy would redollarise in 2020.

Well, its a tricky question, but nothing much has changed from the close of the year in 2019. Energy issues, currency issues, inflationary pressures are persisting. The environment has not changed, meaning to say its Aluta continua. I believe that like every society, you cant continue to sink because once you do that you reach rock-bottom. There is a significant brewing for market forces to self-correct. For instance, everyone is openly selling goods in US$ or the rand. We are likely to see a continuous fight between the market forces and populist forces and market forces will win, said Gundani.

In 2020 we are likely to see the market self-correcting. A second redollarising is brewing. It will bring a borrowed stability like what we experienced in 2009 -2013.The greatest blow is the imminent drought. Its going to hit us hard and affect the bigger chunk of the economy. This will test our level of disaster preparedness. Gone are the days of relying on rain-fed water.

In its economic commentary, FBC Securities last week said challenges that rocked the economy that included high inflation, escalation in electricity load shedding, reduced aggregate demand across all sectors and distortions in local pricing of goods and serviceswould comtinue in 2020.

The challenges in the economic environment are expected to persist in the short to medium term as inflation and foreign currency volatility will constrain operations. The cumulative impact of the macroeconomic and political developments has reflected in a reduction in volumes for both local and exports markets.

This environment creates various challenges which at the same time also bring opportunities to the business community. Intensifying investments in sales and marketing initiatives to promote foreign demand is fundamental as the domestic market remains subdued, FBC Securities saidConfederation of Zimbabwe Industries president Henry Ruzvidzo said the current economic environment was challenging for business on a number of fronts.

These include policy changes, infrastructure challenges, a financial sector unable to support enterprise, a weakened domestic market base, low foreign direct investment and a high demand for forex relative.

The very real prospect of a drought will require that the countrys best minds apply themselves to mitigate the social and business impact. The projection for 2020 will hinge on further policy measures particularly on the monetary front and on energy supply, he said.

It is possible to have a policy mix that encourages growth as already signalled in the 2020 National Budget. Production for both the local and export markets is key to turning around the economy. Policies must be evaluated on whether they increase or decrease national production.

Whilst the prospects for the year ahead appear quite daunting, a single-minded drive towards the national vision complemented by appropriate policies should be sufficient to have the desired outcome, he said.

Association for Business in Zimbabwe CEO Victor Nyoni said the loss of consumer purchasing power was a serious challenge that we would want to see improving in 2020. Failure to do that, businesses are in trouble.

Some businesses are openly trading in foreign currency and nothing is being done to them. This points to policy inconsistency that we always talk about. There is need for commitment from all players, and government should create policies that suit the interests of businesses, he said.

Consumer Council of Zimbabwe Matabeleland regional manager Comfort Muchekeza said save for salaries, everything else had gone up.

Consumers are finding it extremely difficult to make ends meet. They are in a difficult position. There is need for all parties to come together and have an honest discussion over these issues, he said.

National Consumer Rights Association coordinator Effie Ncube said all indicators were pointing towards the wrong direction and Zimbabweans should brace themselves for a fight or for extreme and unmitigated hardships.

It is auto-pilot into poverty and hunger. The economy is expected to contract by at least 15% or worse. Disposable incomes will collapse even further. The cost of living will skyrocket. Unemployment will rise even further, he said.

Business and consumer confidence will decline even more. The Zimbabwean dollar will tumble to catastrophic levels. The little left of the manufacturing industry will disappear. Balance of payments will go deeper into the negative. Protected corruption will worsen.

To avert a national catastrophe, Dube said there was need for an all-stakeholders dialogue wider than parties under the Political Actors Dialogue and as inclusive as all shades of opinion out there should be urgently convened.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has been holding talks, without MDC, with leaders of fringe political parties that took part in last years elections to try to resolve the countrys political and socio-economic crisis, which continues to worsen.

Government must also find a way to instil business and consumer confidence in the worthless Zimbabwean dollar or ditch it for the rand, US dollar or a multi-currency setting. The status quo is unacceptable. Otherwise there is going to be massive civil instability, Dube said.

He said government needed to continue improving the environment for the ease of doing business, adding the policy interventions should encourage growth and attract foreign direct investment.

At present business feels there is over-regulation and it is stifling growth. Confidence must be instilled in the use of the local currency. There is need for business and general stakeholders to seriously start diverting to renewable sources of power as a means of long-term planning for the continued sustainable energy sources.

ZNCC Matabeleland chapter chairperson Brighton Ncube said energy was a key enabler to an economy especially in agriculture, manufacturing and mining which underpin the economic growth and well-being.

Corruption should be dealt with decisively as it is weighing down heavily on all the other efforts to turn the economy around, he said.

See original here:

Business, consumers fear another gloomy year - The Zimbabwe Standard

Key point:To support the 2009 strategy, the Kremlin needed to acquire 1,000 new airplanes and helicopters by 2020.

The Russian air force deployed Su-57 stealth fighters to Syria a second time since first deploying them to the war-torn country in February 2018.

But that doesnt mean the twin-engine Su-57 is any closer to being ready for mass production, to say nothing of its readiness for full-scale warfare against a high-tech foe.

The Russian militarys chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov announced the deployment in mid-December 2019, according to TASS.

"The fifth-generation Su-57 aircraft is being tested, Gerasimov said. They were re-tested in Syria, during which all the planned tasks were successfully completed."

But its unclear what those tasks might have been. The Su-57s first deployment to Syria apparently did not involve any actual combat. Its possible the 2019 deployment didnt, either.

The two T-50s that took part in the 2018 deployment appeared in Syria along with a Russian air force A-50 radar plane, four Su-25 attack planes and four Su-35s fighters. The warplanes arrived in Syria following weeks of intensive airstrikes by Russian planes targeting areas controlled by anti-regime rebels in Idlib and East Ghouta.

U.S. and coalition forces monitoring the air space over Syria reacted with caution. The Su-57s presence certainly raises the level of complexity the crews have to deal with out there, Air Combat Command Commander Holmes said, according to a tweet from Aviation Week reporter Lara Seligman.

But the coalition also seemed to acknowledge the limited combat potential that just two warplanes represented, regardless of their stealth qualities. The presence of any new Russian aircraft in the region does not affect coalition operations, nor do we see this as a danger to coalition aircraft, a coalition spokesperson stated.

In deploying Su-57s, the Kremlin was outright gambling with precious prototypes and their pilots lives, according to Tom Cooper, an aviation expert and author. The Su-57 was then, and remains, a prototype fighter.

The Russian air force possesses just a dozen or so of the type, which flew for the first time in 2010 but has suffered from a dearth of funding and the collapse of a co-development deal with India.

As of early 2018, the Su-57 possessed inadequate and incomplete sensors, incomplete fire-control systems and self-protection suites, no operational integrated avionics and ... unreliable engines, Cooper noted.

The plane had conducted hardly any weapons-separation testing and lacked any other operational weapons beside its 30-millimeter internal cannon. Worse, the aircraft were flown by pilots who lack any kind of doctrine or tactics for the type and who cannot really depend upon the planes avionics and other systems, according to Cooper.

Shortly following the 2018 deployment, the Kremlin suspended production of the Su-57 after the 28th copy, effectively canceling the program. Russian president Vladimir Putin dramatically revived the program in mid-2019, announcing a plan to buy an additional 48 copies.

The Kremlin ordered its first dozen production-standard Su-57s in August 2018, hoping to form the first regular squadron some time in 2019.

Turkey later expressed interest in buying the type after its insistence on acquiring Russian-made air-defense systems got it kicked out of the American-led F-35 program. Moscow has touted the United Arab Emirates as another potential buyer. These possible sales obviously incentivize Russia to portray the Su-57 as an operational warplane.

But for all the drama of its de facto cancelation then restart and for all the talk of exports, the Su-57 program remains under-funded and under-developed. Its one thing for Russia to announce an order for 48 more of the fighters. Its another for the government actually to pay for the planes, and for Sukhoi actually to build them.

It's unclear how much the Su-57's development has cost so far, how much the program would need to complete development and how much each production-standard plane would set back Russian taxpayers. The U.S. military spent more than $60 billion acquiring around 180 F-22s and expects to spend $400 billion buying some 2,300 F-35s.

But the Su-57 undoubtedly is expensive. And time is running out for the Russian air force to integrate the type into its force structure. The "fifth-generation" stealth fighter began development in the early 2000s, but its fortunes are tied to the Kremlin's 2009 defense strategy, which aimed to reverse years of budget cuts and declining military readiness.

In May 2009, Dmitriy Medvedev, then Russia's president, announced a new national security strategy through the year 2020. The strategy praised former, and future, president Putin for leading Russia out of its "political and socio-economic systemic crisis" and anticipated that Russia would "consolidate its influence in the world arena" as a leading political and economic power.

"Unprecedented" new spending backed up the new strategy, according to the 2017 edition of the International Institute for Strategic Studies' "The Military Balance" report. "The proportion of military spending increased when measured against GDP, placing Russia in a small group of nations spending over five percent of GDP on defense."

"After almost two decades of deterioration and neglect of the Russian military, Moscow began developing a more modern military force capable of power projection outside Russias borders," the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency reported in 2017.

The spending supported five fighter production lines -- one producing the Su-57, three making variants of the Su-27 including the Su-30, the Su-34 and the Su-35 and a fifth manufacturing versions of the MiG-29. Russian air arms received around 200 new and upgraded aircraft in 2017, another 100 in 2018 and around 130 in 2019. By comparison, the U.S. armed forces ordered more than 400 new aircraft in 2018 alone.

An economic downturn, which shaved nearly four percent off of GDP in 2015, forced Moscow to reconsider its priorities. "In preparing the 2016 budget, there was clear awareness that this level of spending could not be sustained," IISS reported.

A few years of higher spending had a dramatic effect on the Russian air force. "Substantial deliveries of new frontline aircraft, and their intensive use in Syria, have given the Russian air force an entirely new public face in a short period of time," analyst Keir Giles wrote in a 2017 report for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"Optimistic Russian commentators, comparing their airpower specifically with that of the United States, note approximate quantitative parity with the U.S. Air Force," Giles continued.

In fact, the DIA estimated in 2017 that Russian air arms maintained just 1,000 tactical aircraft. At the same time, the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps between them possessed more than 3,000 fighters, including hundreds of F-22 and F-35 stealth fighters.

To support the 2009 strategy, the Kremlin needed to acquire 1,000 new airplanes and helicopters by 2020, the DIA estimated. Deepening budget cuts could force the Russian armed forces to make do with far fewer new aircraft. The same cash-crunch could weigh on plans to buy scores of Su-57s, and bodes poorly for the types development into a fully combat-capable warplane.

In light of the difficulties the Su-57 program faces, the purported second Syria deployment likely achieved as much as the 2018 deployment did. Nothing much.

David Axe serves as Defense Editor of the National Interest. He is theauthor of the graphic novelsWar Fix,War Is BoringandMachete Squad.

Image: Wikipedia.

Read the original post:

Russia's Su-57 Stealth Fighter Has Become Deadly Thanks to the War in Syria - The National Interest Online

Last weekend in Moscow hosted the international scientific conference Stalin-140, organized by the Moscow Committee of the CPSU-EIF with the support of the Central Committee of the RKRP-CPSU. For the hypnotic mantras of acronyms hides a good job of specific people who were able to collect a decent list of participants for international events on such an embarrassing issue for the bourgeois government. The conference was attended by Belarusian, Belgian, Chinese and Korean comrades reports about Stalin and the situation in their own countries. Known in leftist circles individuals participated in the event, Boris Yulin Igor Pyhalov, representatives of EIF, Alexander Batov, Roman Osin, Ilya Farberow etc. Some of the invited foreign friends are unable to get to Moscow due to unavoidable circumstances.

The conference was held in two days. At the end of the first day the hosts and guests laid flowers on the grave of Stalin in red Square.

Lists of lists, and what about the content? As a direct witness of the first and second day of the conference I hasten to inform you that the event was held at the highest scientific level, except for one incident, but about it below. All reports of the participants differed in their specificity and elaboration on the selected topics. And the themes were: the Struggle for the image of Stalin in the public mind; the Contribution of Stalin to the development of Marxist theory; Stalin as the founder of political economy of socialism; the Myth of the death penalty for children; the Leninist-Stalinist proletarian principles of national democracy and their violation in the post-Stalin period of the Soviet society development became one of the causes of the destruction of the USSR.

Not to frighten readers, we hasten to warn that a reprint of the reports in this short report I will not deal, will only try to highlight the main directions in the speeches. A complete version of the conference viewers will be able to see, I hope, in the near future on YouTube channel of the red Front. The Communists, the most stubborn in the study of Marxist theory, the experience of the USSR and its generalization, will have to wait until March, when a special edition of the magazine Soviet Union, where will be published all papers presented at the conference.

So, on the first day were:

Victor Tyulkin in his speech advised the young Communists in discussions with the anti-Soviet, less justified, as in the USSR under Stalin far exceeds all of the bugs and kinks, and lies you can coin (and anti-Soviet invent still is) a cart. Another tip is not to blame for the collapse of the Soviet Union on a specific person or group of persons (the Trotskyists CIA agents). The tragedy of the late twentieth century was influenced by the amount of factors that are intertwined with each other, and then fused.

Aleksandr Batov, the report analyzed the most popular areas of anti-Stalinist propaganda in modern Russia. The first liberal movement that claims that Stalin is Hitler, a bloody tyrant, killer people eater and devil with a mustache. All touched Stalin, it is bad, but because he was a superhuman with hypnotic abilities, that kept the population under control, he was a hit list, he signed, he brought out the sentence. This idealistic view on thirty years of Soviet history, bordering on madness, is not perceived by the majority of the population, which according to the Levada Center, 70% supported Stalin.

The second direction of attack of the bourgeois-Patriotic. Patriots off Stalin from Lenin assigns Stalin the title of best Manager of the Soviet Union or red monarch, and the USSR the title of the red Empire. Patriots take the individual facts of the Stalin era (the return of epaulets in the Red army), do not stop the fabrications and forgeries (the flight of the Holy icon on the plane before the battle for Moscow, organized by Stalin himself), and the economic system under Stalin called state capitalism. Supporters of these ideas some of the elite and security forces.

The third area is Trotskyism. Good after Lenin came Stalin is bad and ruined everything. In the Soviet Union came the Thermidor, and true Leninists who tried to save the situation, Stalin put to the wall. As we know, only one survived, the most correct and ardent revolutionary, the founder of Trotskyism Trotsky, but the bloody hand of the executioner and to have reached the last true Leninist. Trotskyists, in the opinion of the Batova, are often intellectuals, who are quite simply afraid of their people, afraid to merge with the gray mass after the revolution, thats why prolonging it indefinitely.

Chewing Bossuyt from Belgium introduced the history of the books of his comrade Ludo Martens Another view of Stalin (1994), and told how things work in Communist party of Belgium. Supporters of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin, according to Bossuyt, coming hard ideological battles with his opponents in the party. The ideas of social Democrats and reformists are still the strongest in Europe, so Belgian Communists needed the support of friendly parties, including from Russia.

Now about the promised incident. Alone in the participants is the report of the historian Boris V. Yulina. Topic: the Problem of the sequence of changes of social-economic formations. Before the speech, Boris V. warned me that to broadcast from a tribune it will be anti-Marxism, to which your humble servant had a good laugh and its part warned Boris Vitalyevich, what the hall is equipped with a video camera, and the report will be published. In response made fun Yulin. But when the report was presented to the guests, the hall was not amused. For some 15 minutes historian Yulin cancelled historical materialism and one of the achievements of the classics of Marxism, which revealed a consistent alternation of socio-economic formations among all peoples on Earth (primitive communal, slave, feudal, capitalist and Communist). Yulin called this paticence is untenable, since a new array of historical facts it is not confirmed, and that in Soviet times came out of work with a similar idea, he just sounded, but the inventor of the Bicycle does not consider himself.

Everything else Boris V. twice publicly said that the class struggle does not exist, since fighting among themselves, not classes, and the bearers of class consciousness. But what was this bike, said.

Presenters and guests tried to mitigate the situation, in my opinion, the historical blunder Boris Vitalyevich, putting the historian that he mixed up some definitions of Marxism and, apparently, so the stated topic is not understood to the end. But to persuade Boris Mironov, as you know, only Boris V., but real friends can only throw no, not what a thought to throw concrete historical arguments to rectify, in my opinion, the historical blunder of the historian. At least you must wait for the videos Boris Mironov at the conference or printing of the report to speak on this subject on the merits.

Closed cohort speakers the first day, the representative of the EIF-CPSU Ilya Farberov. In General, the report was dedicated to the dialectical understanding of the processes in the society. Of course, not without critics. First got the magazine a Breakthrough for metaphysical beliefs. According to Berberova, to study Marxism-Leninism completely, and then proceed to practice, as advised by the magazine, is impossible, since Marxism-Leninism is a living knowledge that evolves with practice, and to understand completely only something frozen, has been completed. For example, Stalin was a real dialectician who applied Marxism-Leninism to changing conditions and therefore was able to move so far in the construction of communism. All slander Stalin, he did not build communism empty and baseless. If we consider the economic and political tendencies of development of the USSR under Stalin, its easy to see how weakened the capitalist trends and how trends have strengthened the Communist (lose their value the money, all the property of producing the product gradually became public, was destroyed by antagonistic classes and increasingly erased the boundaries between the collective farm peasantry and the working class by becoming the first state farm workers, etc.).

Second day:

Interesting and even exciting was the report of the comrades from South Korea (names are not called at the request of the guests). Basically, the report boiled down to an Outlook for the future unification of the two Koreas into one Federal state. 70 years after a bloody war imposed upon the Korean people by the American occupation, the country and the people can once again become a single entity, about negotiations between the leaders of the two Koreas. However, with all the bright prospects the soul of a Communist, was plagued by vague doubts whether this initiative is the right choice for North Korea and whether North Korea and its way of life affect the way of South Korea? Two systems and one, albeit Federal, the state today seems utopian creation. Lets not forget that behind capitalist South Korea are the American imperialists, and who stands behind North Korea, to support socialism? Capitalist China?

Leonid Schoolchildren from yet brotherly Belarus in its report laid emphasis on the national question in the Soviet Union, though was ingeniously solved in the 20-ies of Lenin, but since that time, theoretically and practically poorly developed. The years went by alternated heads and Leninist formula has remained unchanged and as it is suitable for all times. It is not surprising that the national question has become one of the key issues during the collapse of the Soviet Union. Nurtured in the Soviet national republics elite have taken away the Soviet Union to pieces and was almost carried off of the RSFSR. Now in the post-Soviet space remains scattered Soviet people, the Soviet nation that could not emerge during the time of cohabitation on the same territory and a common economic space, since Czarist times, and later in the Soviet Union. Therefore, the Soviet Union must be restored, as there is a Soviet nation. The Communists must combine the revolutionary struggle in the republics with the national liberation struggle of the Soviet people then we will win.

Maxim Glebov reported on Stalins policy towards postwar Germany. As you know, after World war II, Germany was divided into allies into two States: the socialist GDR and the capitalist FRG. According to the historian, Stalin was ready to sacrifice the socialist GDR, to withdraw troops and create a neutral United Germany, but stumbled on to resist these plans are not just allies, but the first Federal Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. The West is not without fear looked at the unification of Germany under the auspices of the USSR and were afraid of socialist sentiment. Weight United Germany could behave unpredictably if the occupation troops leave the GDR and the FRG. Stalins policy on the reunification of Germany after his death to continue wanted Beria, but lived little more than a leader. To the XX Congress of the Stalinist idea finally disappeared from the head of the collective leadership of the Communist party.

As we know from history, the unification of Germany happened in 1990, and the laurels of the combiner went to Mikhail Gorbachev, unfortunately, socialist at that time in the GDR and the USSR was little.

Of industrialization in the USSR in the light of contemporary indicators and calculations the guests of the conference could learn from the report of candidate of physico-mathematical Sciences Andrey Mikhailov. His report is probably the most difficult to convey in a short review, because it abounds with accurate figures, therefore, confine ourselves to a statement of fact that, as a scientific method we wouldnt be having the calculations of economic indicators of the USSR, they are still impressive, and the modern bourgeois Russia and not at all seem out of reach. Russia in many respects has not reached the level of RSFSR in 1989.

Historian Igor Pyhalov invited participants of the conference with him to dispel the myth about the executions of minors under Stalin. On the basis of the documents found in the archives Igor Pyhalov, and following the logic of the laws of the criminal code of the USSR, Stalins prosecution in the execution of juvenile offenders, homeless and just innocent children is nothing more than a fabrication of the liberals. A single document (secret circular letter) on which to build the myth of the liberals, has in archive the typewritten copy of the Khrushchev era (1962) and was never mentioned during the trials of the 30s. of Course, assumes Pyhalov, system could be errors may exceptional cases (the execution of 16-18 year old offenders) could take place during the so-called Stalinist repression (1937-1938), Igor V. calls them Yezhov. But in General, the punishment of juvenile offenders in the Stalin era was very soft, the highest measure possible, so under normal circumstances could not arise such a precedent.

To complete the story about the second day of the conference I would like not in order of presentation, and paying tribute to the foreign comrades who were able to participate in the conference and to the organizers who ensured their arrival.

The performance of the Chinese comrades today has a special significance and not only because China is today one of the flagships of the global economy. As you know, in the environment of the Russian Communists, the debate continues about whether to consider China a socialist country or a capitalist? The representatives of the left wing of the Chinese Communist party answered this question as follows: in China is not real socialism, the country is run by the nomenklatura, along with entrepreneurs, China is now integrated into the global market, and the Marxist-Leninist rhetoric of the ruling party is only a deception of the Chinese people. The country pursued Marxist circles, repressed activists, the power suppressed workers strikes. The vast majority of young people in China were not educated as agents of socialism. They were brought up in great love for the country and has grown chauvinists.

Mostly in recent years, especially with the gradual withdrawal of the state from regulation of the production and of the economy, the situation of workers and youth have deteriorated. Therefore, in China, the rise of left-wing sentiment, including in the CCP. But the left wing of the party is a mixture of trends (Trotskyism, Eurocommunism, Maoism, anarchism), which are unable to unite, because youre always bumping into the figure of Stalin.

Was the second day and other presentations, but your humble servant, have not found them already, because left the conference at lunchtime.

Another circumstance to be considered in this brief report that he made notes which he kept during the performance of the participants. Some foreign guests spoke through an interpreter, and some of them reported quite good Russian. But thanks to the format of the event and the patience of the organizers of the many unclear issues were clarified with speakers after their presentations, international visitors were surveyed in greater detail, including the author of these lines, so dramatic contradiction with the reports can not be, but only of errors and not quoting verbatim.

Academic conferences such as this really worthy of a visit, participants reports of intense study, discussion and, of course, constructive criticism. Thanks to the EIF-CPSU for the event, which 140-year anniversary of I. V. Stalin brought us to an even better understanding of history and reality.

K. Poles

Original post:

A brief report on the conference Stalin - 140 - http://www.MICEtimes.asia

Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking of issues that usually dont make to the front pages of newspapers in India or, frankly, anywhere else. My colleagues were in Madrid, covering the UN climate change summit earlier this month. The Paris Agreement, which was concluded in 2015, is all set to come into effect in 2020, and yet the agreement has been largely hollowed out. One of the primary movers of the Paris Agreement was US President Barack Obama. His successor, President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly mocked climate change as a hoax, has pulled the US out of it.

But we live in a world so insane that the Trump administration is not the worst actor. There are many claimants to that crown. One contender worth singling out is Saudi Arabia. It has tried its best to stop scientific consensus from becoming part of the climate change framework. In the coming year it will host the G20, helping set the agenda for the group that represents 80 per cent of global trade.

All this seems far from the day-to-day challenges in India, which, too, has a deplorable record on climate-related issues. Our economic growth is the lowest in almost 30 years; the number of unemployed people is on the rise, and our banking system has lost credibility and the trust of the people. Add to that the damages we suffered due to weather fluctuations, delay in the arrival of rains as well as showers that destroyed crops. Much of India suffered both droughts and floods, one on the heels of the other.

We are paying, partially, for the fault of richer countries who have spent 200 years creating the climate mess through fossil-fuel-driven development. But we are also making the impact harder upon ourselves. For all the floods and droughts, all the farmer suicides and protest marches, there is little discussion on whether agriculture needs to change. For all the drama of political coalitions and who partners with whom, the Maharashtra elections were deeply impacted by unseasonal rains. In the ensuing madness over the division of power and ministerial berths, we heard nothing on whether loan waivers are enough when it comes to dealing with the ongoing crisis.

I do not wish to sound gloomy, especially when the tail-end of the year is witnessing an uprising in India; a movement that is being led by the young and the old, by students and ordinary citizens, activists and lawyers; a movement that is against bad legislations and foul politics. That effervescence, the joy, the courage and the willingness to take personal action at great risk, too is a splendid thing. But it is not enough to save the country.

The reason the climate summit was held in Spain, instead of Chile, is the anger of Chileans against status quo politics in their country. They took to the streets, marching in thousands, raising slogans against problems that sound only too familiar corruption, socio-economic inequality, apathy of the administrators and so on. They stood up to the crackdown by security agencies, braving rubber bullets and tear gas. A shaken government quickly announced reforms and concessions, but the people are unwilling to settle for anything less than complete reformation of the system.

It is easy for many of us to empathise with the average Chilean out on the streets today. But it is also true the protests in Chile are partially responsible for the poor show at Madrid. Most of the delegates came unprepared; when important questions such as the mechanism of calculating the cost of loss and damage came up before the participants, discussions just fell apart.

The frustrating thing about problems in todays world is not that they are hidden or that people are unaware. It is that there are so many problems, with too many layers. When a student in Mumbai hardly knows about the agrarian crisis in Maharashtra, it is unfair to expect protesters in Chile to think of how the collapse of climate change negotiations will impact poor farmers in India. And yet, if we are to have any hope for the future at all, if we are to not descend into groups fighting isolated battles, we need to see that this world is ours together. That our freedom also lies in the freedom of each other. This is the hope I take from this year into the next.

Omair Ahmad is the South Asia Editor for The Third Pole, reporting on water issues in the Himalayas

See original here:

We are the world and our battles are one - BusinessLine

TUNIS - Tunisia on December 17 commemorated the start of the uprising that toppled President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, with recently elected Tunisian President Kais Saied vowing to honour the demands of the revolution.

Saied, an academic with no prior political experience, recorded a landslide election victory in October. He has made few public statements since taking office.

However, he made an unannounced visit to Sidi Bouzid, where the first protests of Tunisias uprising erupted, and promised to realise the key demands of the revolution freedom, work and dignity within the framework of the constitution and within legitimacy.

I will work to honour your demands, he told a crowd in Sidi Bouzid.

Though Saied spoke of the political will to resolve many of the countrys problems and meet the demands of the people, he did not present programmes to achieve the goal. He promised to return to the region when funds are allocated for development programmes.

Tunisians expressed their frustration with promises, demanding action to save the country from economic collapse. The despair was noted during parliamentary and presidential election campaigns this year, with voters pushing for change and attempting to create a new political reality.

A recent poll by Sigma Conseil said more than 80% of Tunisian respondents said the country was going in the wrong direction. It showed, however, the president to be the most trusted public figure.

Saied announced in Sidi Bouzid that December 17 would be a national holiday. Tunisia already marks January 14, the date Ben Ali was deposed, as a holiday.

Ben Ali died in September in Saudi Arabia at the age of 83.

Protests broke out December 17, 2010, after street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself on fire to protest police harassment. Since then, the Sidi Bouzid region has experienced further unrest fuelled by unemployment and poverty.

In December, protests broke out in the region after the death of a 25-year-old man who set himself on fire in the impoverished town of Jelma in desperation over his economic situation.

While Tunisia has been praised as a model of democratic transition, wealth and control of the economy remain concentrated in the hands of a small group against a background of regional imbalances, slow economic growth and a large informal sector.

Deteriorating living standards and rising prices are causing increasing atrophy of the middle class. The country is grappling with an inflation rate of more than 6% and the unemployment rate stands at more than 15%, with nearly double that rate among youth and women.

The countrys government has been in limbo since Octobers legislative elections as Prime Minister-designate Habib Jemli struggled to put together a coalition government that could win parliamentary approval.

Go here to see the original:

Tunisia marks anniversary of revolution as it grapples with socio-economic woes - The Arab Weekly

Deficient rainfall led to the collapse of the Mansabdari system, started by Mughal emperor Akbar, in the late 17th century. Similarly, drought interspersed with violent monsoon rains sounded the death knell for the Khmer empire of south-east Asia in the 15th century.

A recent study by researchers at Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur (IIT-KGP) has revealed that abrupt changes in the Indian monsoon in the last 900 years decided the course of human history in the subcontinent. A paper titled Abrupt changes in Indian summer monsoon strength during the last 900 years and their linkages to socio-economic conditions in the Indian subcontinent by Anil K. Gupta, professor at the geology and geophysics department of IIT-KGP, highlights that decline of Indian dynasties was linked to weak monsoon and reduced food production.

Several dynasties, such as the Sena in Bengal, Solanki in Gujarat in the mid-13th century and Paramara and Yadav in the early to mid-14th century all of which flourished during abundant rainfall declined during the dry phases of Indian summer monsoon (ISM), suggesting role of the climate in the socio-political crisis, the study revealed.

The paper published in international journal PALEO 3 highlights three phases in the 900-year stretch Medieval Climate Anomaly from 950 CE to 1350 CE, Little Ice Age from 1350 CE to 1800 CE and Current Warm Period from 1800 CE till today. The paper highlights strong monsoon during Medieval Climate Anomaly and Current Warm Period and phases of weak and strong monsoon in Little Ice Age.

There can be no doubting the profound impact of the abrupt shifts of rainfall on human history a fact we need to constantly remind ourselves in this day and age of irretrievable climate change. Abrupt shifts in the ISM precipitation has similarly impacted history in India, Prof. Gupta said.

For the study on long-term spatio temporal variability of the ISM, a group of researchers, which also included experts from Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology, looked at palaeoclimatic records using oxygen isotope proxy record from speleothems (a structure formed in a cave by deposition of minerals from water) at the Wah Shikar cave in Meghalaya.

We took samples from every half millimetre or sometimes even one-third of a mm, and we dated using uranium-thorium time series. Such fine sampling of less time interval means we were covering data at two-three years interval while most researches collect data at 20-30 years interval. We even captured the drought events of last few centuries, Prof Gupta said. The results showed abrupt shifts in the ISM, he added.

For more recent phases of human history the study suggests that from the beginning of the 19 century, the changes in the ISM became more abrupt with a rise in atmospheric temperature that coincides with the dawn of the Industrial Revolution.

An increase in the frequency of abrupt shifts in the ISM during the last three centuries, coincidental with a rise in atmospheric temperature, suggests occurrence of more climatic surprises in future consequent to future rise in the global temperature and subsequently more precipitation in the form of rain at higher altitudes. the paper said.

Prof. Gupta said that they were doing similar work extending their Palaeoclimatic study to 6000 years ago to see the impact of climate change on Indus Valley civilization and on population migrations.

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]]> Shoal Creek coal mine uses longwall mining technology. Credit: Peabody Energy, Inc.

On one level, its easy to call for an immediate end to coal mining. The industry is notoriously harmful for the environment, with the International Energy Agency reporting that coal-fired power plants were responsible for 30% of global carbon dioxide emissions in 2018, and emissions from these sources increased by 280 million tonnes from the previous year. The industry also has one of the poorer safety records, with the US Mine Safety and Health Administration reporting that in the decade between 2008 and 2017, 207 coal miners died at work, compared to 197 in all other metal/non-metal operations put together.

Yet while these statistics are striking, their scope is narrow; coal may be considered an outdated source of energy in the western world, but it remains a critical component of economies and livelihoods elsewhere on Earth. China alone employs around 12 million people in the coal industry, more people than the total population of 39 European countries, and simply shutting down coal projects could threaten up to 15% of the sectors workforce, according to Chinese Government figures.

With this in mind, coal mine closure cannot be a simple process, but must be a carefully-considered one, and one that is integrated into the lifetime planning of a mine when it is first constructed. The closure of a coal mine is not only an economic and industrial decision, but a social one, and one that can harm local populations if not done responsibly. Earlier this year, the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) published a study into exactly these impacts, raising questions regarding the irresponsible past of coal mine closure, and how the mining industry can improve its performance in the future.

History shows that when a mining transition is not well managed, the impacts to the environment, economy and social fabric of former mining regions can be catastrophic, said Claudia Strambo, a research fellow at the SEI and one of the lead authors of its latest report. For mining companies, making closure and post-closure plans together with local authorities and trade unions is important to manage the risks associated with closure.

While the destruction of local environments is an obvious consequence of coal mining on any scale, Strambo was eager to point out that mining, and subsequent attempts to remove mines and their infrastructure from an area, can have unintended social consequences.

So far, mining regulations around the world have tended to concentrate on addressing environmental impacts, but international mining best practices are already giving increasing attention to the social and economic implications of mine closure too.

She referred to the collapse of local businesses and public services, emigration of young people and social inequalities as some of these unforeseen and unaccounted for, but entirely serious, impacts of ineffective mine closure.

The SEI profiled a number of actors and decision-makers in coal mine closure, from international organisations to individual miners, to determine how effectively each group had committed to addressing the social consequences of mining; national governments were shown to have devoted the highest percentage of their literature on mine closure to social impacts, but at just 52%, and with no other actor committing more than 50%, there is a dangerous lack of emphasis on social transition.

Indeed, just 15% of the literature taken from households and miners concerns these social consequences, raising the concerning prospect that responsibility for ensuring a transition that will benefit workers and local people is falling to larger organisations, using a top-down approach to protect those most at risk from mine closure.

These risks are particularly pronounced in the Global South, where local and even national governments can lack the resources and authority to implement many of these changes.

National governments have limited resources and have to address multiple development needs from the whole country, said Strambo. Local governments may be staggering in debts while having to respond to the localised impacts of closure with reduced income.

This all represents a huge obstacle to a well-managed mine closure in the Global South. To be truly effective, institutional capacity will have to be strengthened at the same time.

Recent history is filled with examples of ineffective coal mine closures. Many older mines and facilities, which were constructed before rehabilitation and closure plans were required to be considered ahead of permitting, are now reaching the ends of their lifespans, forcing operators to make up rehabilitation plans on the fly. The Bobov Dol and Babino coalfields in western Bulgaria, for instance, once provided work for most of the local people, but the decline of coal in the region has left over 1,000 people without work and deprived local communities of their primary sources of income.

Similarly, the frequent changes in ownership of more modern coal mines enable companies to dodge responsibility for rehabilitation projects, creating complex legal disputes when coal mines close, that only delay the relief offered to local people. In the space of two years, ownership of the Eagle Butte and Belle Ayr mines in the Powder River Basin in the US state of Wyoming flipped between Contura energy and Blackjewel. The two mines produced 35 million tonnes of coal as recently as 2018, but now 1,100 miners have been made redundant, and Contura has been forced to pay around $34m in back taxes and royalties to clean up the messy operation.

With coal coming under increasing pressure due to its poor environmental performance, and alternative sources of power such as renewables and nuclear at the forefront of many governments agendas, coal looks set for a turbulent future, and examples like these raise valid concerns for those in the industry that mismanagement could sweep the sector.

Strambo suggests that mining companies can do their part. When mines cease their operations, companies can actively develop asset closure and labour management plans with the participation of trade unions, regional governments and citizens, she said.

They can help the workers approaching redundancy through, for example, tailored training programs, support finding work placements, counselling and mental health support, redundancy payments and through open and honest communication about the closure. They can also support local organisations in charge of steering and or coordinating the efforts to create new jobs and address the negative socio-economic impacts of closure.

Strambo points to the Ruhr coal-mining region of Germany as an example of coal closure done properly. Over the last 50 years, coal mining has slowly been phased out of the area, with employment in coal mines falling from 390,000 in 1960 to 11,000 by 2014, and the sectors contribution to the local economy declining from 61% to 21% over the same period.

Some of the factors that have contributed to this success include workers active participation in the restructuring process and the use of socially responsible downsizing practices by affected companies, such as early retirement support, worker training programs and redistributing workers between jobs and sites, said Strambo, highlighting the importance of working with employees, and considering a range of factors, when trying to close such a large-scale operation.

Another lesson from the German case is that strategies that aim to keep things the same regardless of changing trends is unlikely to work out, she continued. Big heavy industries tried to keep going the way they used to, but ultimately, they ended up having to diversify to survive.

However, there are caveats to the German example, notably that the country has not abandoned coal entirely, only moved to a different form of coal; lignite, also known as brown coal or soft coal, is a softer and moister mineral that is mined in open-pit operations. Germany is the worlds largest producer of lignite coal, with production rising from 169.8 million tonnes in 2009 to 171.2 million tonnes in 2017, and Clean Energy Wire reports that over 179,000 hectares of German countryside have been given over to lignite-mining operations, which have displaced 313 settlements since 1924.

While there are plans in place to phase out these mines too, they are not expected to close until 2038. Considering Germanys abandonment of nuclear power with nuclear providing 12% of the countrys electricity in 2019, compared to 25% eight years prior lignite looks set to power Germanys energy needs for the foreseeable future, with coal currently accounting for 40% of Germanys energy mix.

However, Strambo remains positive that the decline of coal will create opportunities for new industrial sectors.

There is now a window opening where new business opportunities are emerging, and where policy support is likely to be temporarily stronger, she said.

Read more from the original source:

Social transition and why it matters in coal mine closure - Mining Technology

The Western Cape High Court on Thursday extended interim relief to homeless people in Cape Town from receiving fines and summons or having their personal property interfered with in terms of by-laws around them inhabiting public places.

This seemed to come as a surprise to the lawyers present, who had minutes earlier presented Judge Bernard Martin with a draft order they agreed to during lunch.

This draft order amended the interim relief granted by Judge Lee Bozalek in September so that it would only apply to the seven homeless applicants instead of having a moratorium effect.

READ |Cape Town soup kitchen turned into Bok fan lounge for homeless

In presenting the amended order, advocate Karrisha Pillay, for the City of Cape Town, said there was compromise on all sides and it would stand until the applicants brought an application to review the enforcement or constitutionality of the by-laws next year.

'Courts are no rubber stamps'

The City's lawyers, together with those for the homeless applicants and various ratepayers' organisations (who were admitted as friends of the court on Thursday), agreed that any review should be instituted by February 21 and be heard on June 17.

But Judge Martin said the courts were not a rubber stamp, and he did not believe the amended order met the overriding interests of justice.

He extended Judge Bozalek's order pending the outcome of review proceedings and said the parties could decide whether to stick to the proposed timetable or come up with a different one.

The applicants are Carin Theresa Rhoode-Gelderblom, Emily Smith, Vuyo Mbozi, Beulah Meyer, Natasha Persent, Xolani Siboxo and Patricia Geyser.

News24previously reported that in terms of the by-law relating to streets, public places and the prevention of noise nuisances, the homeless were being fined R1 500 for keeping or starting a fire in a public place and R300 for obstructing pedestrian traffic on a pavement with any object or motor vehicle and sleeping in a stationary vehicle in a public place.

Small-scale littering or dumping attracted a fine of up to R500 in terms of the integrated waste management plan by-law.

'Court must metaphorically remove its gown'

At the outset of proceedings on Thursday, Judge Martin set down the "rules of engagement" for the hearing and said they were dealing with fundamental human rights playing out within a particular socio-economic setting.

"Ubuntu demands that we operate in a different way to which we operated in the past. We have to view our actions through that particular lens," he told the lawyers.

ALSO READ |City of Cape Town's fining of homeless heading for court

"It [the Constitution] says the court must metaphorically remove its gown, remove the blinkers that the adversarial procedure imposes on the courts, roll up our sleeves as judges and get our hands dirty in the social processes that are necessary to attain the vision of our Constitution."

Advocate Nick de Jager, for the applicants, agreed and said the case "cries out for more active management" and the balancing of interests of all parties to attain, foster and encourage good neighbourliness.

'Collapse of law and order'

Advocate Johan de Waal, representing the friends of the court, argued a balance had to be struck between the interests of the homeless applicants and those of residents such as ratepayers.

He feared that if Judge Bozalek's order was extended, there might be civil disobedience by some people on the street thinking they could do what they want without consequences.

Judge Martin wondered where the evidence was for the collapse of law and order in the city since the order was granted in September.

The friends of the court include the Camps Bay Business Forum, ratepayers' associations for the City Bowl, Atlantic Seaboard, Sea Point, Fresnaye and Bantry Bay, and neighbourhood watches for Gardens and Green Point.

It is not yet clear when the case will resume.

View post:

'Ubuntu demands we operate in a different way to the past' - Judge extends interim relief to Cape Town's homeless - News24

By PROF PETER ANYANG' NYONG'OMore by this Author

When the East African Community (EAC) was formed in 1967, it was viewed as an advanced mode of regional economic integration than the then European Economic Community.

We had transformed the East African Common Services Organisation into a formidable engine of regional economic integration running common railways and harbours services; postal and telecommunications services; East African Airways and many other services.

Indeed, at that point in time one could travel from Nairobi to Kampala overnight by train without experiencing the nuisance of border crossing.

Moving towards a common monetary system and a free trade area seemed like just a matter of time on the eve of the break up of the community in 1978. It is fair to ask "what really happened?"

The answer is simple. The folly of politicians. The failure to focus on the bigger picture rather than withdrawing into the cocoon of narrow nationalism.

We soon started investing into similar economic activities from one country to the other, with the misleading gospel of import substitution industrialisation apparently pushed to drive economic development in each country.

The historical limits of this form of socio-economic transformation was a sure recipe for economic stagnation in the whole region by the beginning of the 1980s.

Nay! It was a calamity in the whole of Africa inviting the Bretton Woods institutions to read the riot act to Sub Saharan Africa in the famous "Accelerated Development in sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda for Action," replete with the now discredited Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAPs).

The first item on the agenda was to order the state to stop meddling in the economy and to leave the driving seat to the private sector. The state had to govern and govern well, period.

All the three East African governments became substantially alienated from their people in most of the 1980s and 1990s.

Suspicion of some disquiet among the people invited stringent political authoritarianism punctuated by righteous political ideologies where the ruler always knew everything.

Economic decay went hand-in-hand with political decay. Indicators of economic growth in the whole of East Africa in the 1990s was nothing to write home about. But the people did not sit pretty.

In 1998, 20 years after the collapse of the community, Presidents Daniel arap Moi of Kenya, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda woke up to recognise that reviving the EAC was a good idea after all. This was not out of their sheer benevolence. Popular pressures, including in the mass media, compelled them in this direction.

Separately, the three countries seemed to be heading to the doldrums. Together they perhaps would salvage the admirable achievements of the first EAC days and blaze a new trail for a brighter future for East Africa. Hope was kindled. And sometimes hope alone and goodwill can open doors to new economic opportunities.

Since the restoration of the community, three more countries have joined: Rwanda, Burundi and South Sudan. The last two are like reluctant brides, in love with the would-be husband but reluctant to enter marriage full throttle. How long will the husband keep guessing about the future?

Nature, science tells us, always abhors a vacuum. The new reformist government of Felix Tshisekedi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has set its eyes on joining the EAC sooner rather than later perhaps to fill the vacuum that the reluctant brides seem to have created.

The DR Congo would perhaps bring more potential into the EAC than any of its older members in terms of natural resources, opportunities for investments, outreach into Francophone Africa and a formidable home market in a truly integrated East African Community.

If I were the bureaucrats in Arusha I would work over time to spread a red carpet for DR Congo's entry into the Community yesterday rather than today. The talk about "emerging blue economy" in East Africa needs to bring into centre stage the DR Congo as a key player.

The potential for hydro electric power in the DR Congo is enough to sort out all our energy problems, including electricity powered locomotives.

Lest we forget, the original EAC had perhaps taken the blue economy seriously without actually speaking loudly about it. It was recognised that railways alone were not enough to integrate East Africa transport wise.

With the collapse of the East African Community in 1978, Kenya Ports Authority, for example, completely turned its back on Lake Victoria, forgetting that "harbours" on that lake were once part and parcel of the transportation system that brought East Africa together.

When President Uhuru Kenyatta and former Prime Minister Raila Odinga recently initiated the revitalisation of the Kisumu port, we found two ships and five boats, originally belonging to the East African Railways and Harbours, resting peacefully at the bottom of the Nyanza Gulf! They had sank as a result of sheer neglect: A perfect example of economic decay.

Astronomy is the science that sailors once used to identify their destinations before the invention of the compass. The first lesson was very simple: Know the destination by the position of the stars in the sky. Should you decide to go South, identify where Southern Cross is, fix your eyes on it, and follow it assiduously. You will not get lost.

Have we identified our Southern Cross in our quest for a prosperous, dynamic and developmental East African Community that will raise the economies of our region to a developed status within the next 30 years?

If Singapore did it, why can't we? We need a clear time action plan, convincing enough to rally the energies of our people to pursue a common cause, to achieve the East African Community we all are yearning for.

Prof Peter Anyang Nyongo is the governor of Kisumu County in Kenya. E-mail: [emailprotected]

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NYONG'O: We have EAC, we have integration, now lets aim at attaining a developed economy status - The East African

by Joseph Nathan

There are obvious discrepancies in some of our Free Trade Agreements FTAs that are detrimental to the well being of Singaporeans. Despite much feedbacks and criticisms, our current 4G politicians seem to prefer being oblivious to these issues rather than solving them.

Over time, these issues became protracted and contentious when more Singaporeans find themselves being displaced from good-paying jobs, with some being reduced to serving these new Foreign Talents as drivers or being retrenched into low-paying and stressful jobs such as security guards or cleaners if they are fortunate to find a job.

While Singapore has been well ranked in the world for our education, it is getting disheartening to be learning that some of our children are now graduating into unemployment or having to take on less lucrative jobs despite our economic success.

When Foreign Talents who got into our workforce through FTAs such as the CECA despite graduating from unranked universities in their homelands, questions are being asked about what are our universities and Ministry of Education doing about it. What is the use of Singapore spending a big budget to ensure our universities are well-ranked when our graduates cannot compete with graduates from unranked universities or roadside training centres in our own private sector?

These are serious issues that any citizen-centric government will address with urgency. In the case of Singapore, it is hard to comprehend as to why our 4G government is still trying to downplay these realities and treat feedbacks and criticisms with contempt.

Our present government must start to seriously differentiate their foreign and investment policies from its domestic socio-economic policies. It is reasonable to welcome foreigners, their specialized competencies and Foreign Direct Investments FDIs but these must be balanced against the many trade-offs. When it comes to our domestic socio-economic policies, it is clearly not showing explicitly or vividly that it pays to be a patriotic Singaporean. In its current form, the endless demands outweigh the benefits of being a Singaporean.

From tertiary education to National Service, from employment to business opportunities, from public housing to race-based policy, Singaporeans are being made to feel like second class citizens, slaving right in their homeland.

We are witnessing enclaves of foreigners forming without restraint within our residential space yet Singaporeans are being restricted from forming their own enclave with restrictive public housing policy. Has someone in our Ministry of National Development forgotten that race or nationalistic enclave by foreigners is equally adverse to our Nation Building?

Unless our present government has a double-standard policy that favour foreigner over its own citizens, it is reasonable for Singaporeans to be demanding for a more transparent and fairer socio-economic policy when it comes to foreign talent and new citizens.

Our immigration policy is being exploited by many new citizens. Some male Permanent Resident PR deliberately timed their application for citizenship after they are sure that they would not have to serve National Service. Others selectively apply for citizenships only for themselves and their female children while conveniently leaving out their male children. With their PR status, they get to enjoy almost the full benefits of being a Singaporeans without the burden of their social responsibilities. This is neither tenable nor fair.

Before we start blaming these new citizens, we should be asking the relevant ministries and their agencies as to how they could be so blind or clueless to such extensive exploitations by these new citizens. It is all about maximizing the benefits for themselves against having the least responsibilities.

To make matters worse, our current 4G PAP leaders even promoted one such character as a minister. From an ethical or moral stance point of view, the action of this person makes a mockery of our patriotism for having timed his citizenship to gain maximum benefits and privileges out of our immigration system without the need to serve in our National Service.

As such, our political leaders must understand that they are the one who are sowing and flaming the growing contentious divide between the people and the government. Patriotic citizens are merely vocalizing their failures and incompetence.

Singaporeans who have been vocal about these issues are merely being patriotic. It takes time and resources to articulate feedbacks or to be critical of our socio-economic policies with the sole objective of improving our public governance, the well-being of fellow-Singaporeans and our country. When these well-intended feedbacks and criticisms were ignored, real patriotism is being undermined.

History has shown us that any country that lacks patriotism will collapse without exception. Patriotism, from the perspective of democracy, is the natural counter-balance to good governance. If any government has been proactively managing their socio-economic well, such issues would have been well mitigated centuries ago.

It is precisely due to the fact that when the present government failed to manage the discrepancies caused by their poorly crafted socio-economic policies, patriotic citizens have to be burdened with the task of escalating these issues into the public domain. If all else failed, then protest is the next course of valid action until the people have the chance to vote for a positive change in government.

As such, protest is a function of our democratic system of governance. Valid grievances must be allowed and not be suppressed in any functional democracy. This unique feature differentiates democracy from other autocratic or dictatorial governance such as communist or socialist type.

The country belongs to the people. At election time, it is the people who must be free to elect representatives who they think can serve them and the country well. In between election time, feedbacks and criticisms take the first course of action and when that failed and when the issues become pressing, then protest become the next best course of action. This is the basic right of the people in any given democracy.

While it is true that protest does embarrass the incumbent government, they have themselves to blame in the first place. If they do not want to be embarrassed, then they should be responsive to the plights and concerns of their people. As such, by putting more onerous restrictions and regulations upon patriotic Singaporeans from staging valid protest, it becomes a double-edged sword that will ultimately hurt the country.

Should these restrictions and regulations fall into the hand of the rogue government, they could well be used to suppress the people from staging valid protests. This will ultimately lead to social upheaval as seen in other parts of the world.

Even our first Prime Minister, Lee Kuan Yew has warned Singaporeans explicitly about this risk, without exception even to his own PAP government. For an ultra-rich country like Singapore, such risks are real and imminent, and Singaporeans should take heed of his warning and take their vote seriously by voting for deserving politicians and not be fooled by any political party. Political leaders must be at the service of its people.

As such, when the Police called in Gilbert Goh for questioning over his Anti-CECA Protest at Hong Lim, many cans of the worm were opened. Like the Pink-Dot Protest, it is indeed onerous and mind-blowing for the authority to be holding patriotic Singaporeans responsible against foreign interference.

If our government is indeed against all form of foreign interference, then it must first lead by example. It should not have enlisted the help of foreigners such as NAS DAILY or others to advocate on their behalf. Promoting Singapore is one thing but for these foreigners to be telling the world that all is well in SG when the harsh realities are pointing in the opposite direction is another. It is natural for patriotic Singaporeans to be upset by such foreign interference that, from their perspective, seek to distort the truth and undermine their plights and valid concerns.

As Hong Lim Park is the only designated protest site in Singapore, the relevant authorities ought to be putting up clear signs more prominently to warn foreigners and tourists from venturing into the park whenever protest is being staged. Better still, all inbound flights, at the two causeways and ports, should carry such messaging so as to warn foreigners and tourists alike to stay clear of Hong Lim Park.

If the government and the relevant authorities are not treating the risk of foreign interference more vigorously but expect patriotic Singaporeans to take on such hefty responsibilities, then the whole issue of foreign interference becomes debatable.

Question is, why was this bill passed in parliament without more stringent review and why has no one in parliament raise the risk about rogue government being able to exploit this law to suppress the people as explicitly warned by Lee Kuan Yew? While Lee Kuan Yew may have passed on, this advice of his remains valid. Have our politicians also forgotten the many other good bits of advice from our Founding Fathers who reminded them to always put the welfare and interest of Singaporeans ahead of themselves? If so, why bother to build a Founders Memorial?

If any foreigner or tourist is to venture into Hong Lim Park, the onus should be on the police to arrest them and charge them directly for breaking the law. This will send a strong message to the world that Singapore does not tolerate foreign interference. Isnt this a much more desirable option? Better still, why not build a wall around Hong Lim Park to send a clear and loud message to the world?

If our politicians do truly value patriotism, then they must stand up and seriously review this bill and several other recently introduced bills that may be used by rogue government and politicians to curtail valid criticisms. The alternative to being patriotic is to be spineless or become a pushover. Should Singapore be reduced to a nation of spineless people or pushovers, then all of our past efforts and resources spent on National Security and National Defense will be wasted. Worse still, we will become the laughing stock of Asia.

On this serious note, I hope our Defense Minister will weigh in seriously and not allow patriotism to be trampled by any party-politics or laws. Should the political divide become even more contentious, then it may be too late when a rogue government or politician plunder the wealth of our nation and exploit our citizens mercilessly. As such, patriotism needs to be championed consistently by our leaders so that it will be seen to be triumphing above any party politics or agenda.

Instead of focusing to win big at the next election, I hope our 4G politicians will wake up and see the mess that they have created. The current political divide that is distancing the people from the government is largely due to their collective incompetence. Instead of invoking more laws that could be exploited by rogue politicians, they should be heeding the advice of Lee Kuan Yew more seriously by addressing the plights and concerns of Singaporeans, and ensure that our socio-economic policies are indeed citizen-centric.

While we welcome new citizens, they must know that it is not acceptable for them to be running amok, exploiting our socio-economic system or be treated above patriotic Singaporeans. To put it bluntly, Singapore and patriotic Singaporeans deserve much better.

This was first published on Joseph Nathan Hard Truths of SGs Facebook page and reproduced with permission.

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Without patriotism, there can be no good governance in Singapore - The Online Citizen

By Emmanuel Mutaizibwa

In her book, In the footsteps of Mr Kurtz, British author Michela Wrong writes about the fall of Mobutu in 1997: In a momentary coalition of regional interests never before witnessed in Africa, turning Zaire into the terrain on which alien forces worked out ancient grudges, with the locals swept along for the ride. Mobutu -- who by then was dying of prostate cancer -- was sent into exile with surpassing swiftness, and Laurent Kabila installed in his stead.His defeat began a new phase of a deadly conflict as soldiers subdued locals with barrel of the gun killing millions while those who escaped died of negligible diseases. Plagued by ethnic cleansing, DR Congo became a theatre of war sucking in neighbouring African states, which fought for territory as its resources were carted off. The second Congo war was a mess; it left a lot of scars in the psyche of the Congolese people. There is no need to move our armies across the Congo but let us train them so that they can liberate themselves, argued Mr Okwir Rabwoni, the Western Youth MP in the Sixth Parliament, who was against Ugandas deployment of troops in DRC. Parts of eastern Congo remain under the clutches of Congolese militias, Ugandas ADF rebels and FDLR elements fighting the Kigali regime as thousands continue to flee the war-wracked country and into Uganda.Daily Monitor last month reported that EAC partner states failed to reach an agreement for a joint military operation against rebel groups operating in eastern DRC.The plan to have the joint military offensive was proposed by DRC government and supported by Rwanda but the other countries were reluctant to endorse the move. At the meeting, Uganda was represented by the Commander of Land Forces, Lt Gen Peter Elwelu, and the then 2nd Division Commander, Brig Kayanja Muhanga. This comes at the time DRC is seeking to join EAC. Whereas it is not clear when the trade bloc could take a decision on the application, the conduct of regional players such as Uganda and Rwanda seeks to favour the deal.This request follows the ever-increasing trade between the economic players of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and those of the states of the Community, wrote President Felix Tshisekedi on June 8.The desire of his government, Mr Tshisekedi observed, is to join the Community of regional leaders so that we can work together for the development of our respective countries and stabilise this part of Africa.In terms of trade, DRC accounts for about six percent of total exports from EAC countries.This is a realisation by actors in the region that you cant face challenges individually but as a bloc. We are much aware that the region has had two challenges emanating from South Sudan and DRC. The question of arms proliferation in South Sudan and rebel groups that affected Uganda has been addressed, Mr Grace Masiko a former journalist who covered the DRC conflict in the late 1990s, says. Currently a security firm manager, Mr Masiko says the problems of DRC can be resolved easily under EAC.First of all, there is absence of an effective administration in most parts of Congo, which is so huge. Many educated Congolese have never stepped in Kinshasha because there are no roads and one needs to travel by air, he says.

Charm offensiveBarely after Mr Tshisekedi was elected DRC president after the retirement of Mr Joseph Kabila, both Kampala and Kigali that have historically had hostile relations with Kinshasha engaged shuttle diplomacy to win the confidence of the new leader. In November, Mr Tshisekedi visited Kampala for the first ever Uganda-DRC Business Forum.Uganda and DRC have concluded a number of cooperation frameworks. These include but are not limited to cooperation in: health; peace and security; energy and mineral development; socio-economic infrastructure; trade and investment, among others, a statement from Ugandas Foreign Affairs ministry read. If accepted into the EAC, Congo brings on board a market of 87 million people to the trade bloc. Speaking about DRCs desire to join the EAC, Mr Rabwoni says: Congo brings for the first time East Africa having an access to another ocean so that we straddle the continent both in the Indian Ocean and Atlantic.He argues that one of the biggest hindrances of development in Africa is landlocked countries.It is a welcome development and great opportunity for EAC to expand. Given the resource endowment of the DRC, it will make the region wealthier and stronger. It will be difficult for other players to ignore it and if stabilized, it can act as the bridgehead of Africa, Mr David Pulkol, the former director general of the External Security Organisation, says.Mr Pulkol says DRC can play an advanced role in the economic integration of Africa. DRC has the capacity to light up much of the continent with the projection that its Inga dam can produce 110,000MW of hydropower. But like the paradox of plenty, the country is beset by a number of problems. Congos problem was that of state collapse like Somalia. When a state collapses, there is a vacuum. In Physics, they say nature abhors a vacuum. Other opportunistic forces take change. That is why non-state actors in Ituri, in North Kivu, in South Kivu, given the wealth that is there and the absence of the state, the rest is automatic, somebody is bound to take advantage, Mr Rabwoni says.He adds that non-state actors, who have an axe to grind with the governments in the region, find DRC a safe haven for training for logistics, refreshment and rejuvenation. That is how the ADF, which was defeated in Kasese, relocated to the DRC, Mr Rabwoni adds.However, as DRC seeks to join EAC, it will be confronted by deep-seated suspicion and a history of animosity largely from Kigali and Kampala. In 1997, the Ugandan and Rwandan armies fought as allies to oust Mobutu and helped install Laurent Kabila as president. If Africa had come together in 1997 after the first war that had overthrown Mobutu and tried to offer a Marshall plan, maybe we could not have this problem. Stabilising Congo could have helped the regional economy, Mr Rwaboni says.

Past battlesBut the two armies fell out and between August 1999 and May 2000, the Kisangani battles left thousands most of whom were civilians dead.There are some armies in this region which are accused of genocide in the region. But it is not only Uganda and Rwanda [that have problems with DRC]. Congolese have problems with Angola and Zimbabweans. Zimbabweans were accused of grabbing land and forests and timber. We have to heal the Congo so that the Congo can help us as a region, and if we dont bring repercussions, because the refugees will come and all the other attendant problems of state collapse, Mr Rabwoni adds.In 2005, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded DRC $10b for the plunder of its resources by the Ugandan army.Anchored on Ugandas impassioned pleas to The Hague-based court, ICJ has accepted to review the award, which is more than a third of Ugandas GDP. Acts of brinkmanship largely from neighbouring states through their proxies continue to pose a threat to DRC as well as the problem of ethnicity and politics of identity. In 2012, Uganda and Rwanda were accused by the UN of propping up the M-23 rebellion in eastern Congo, allegations they both denied.The Tutsi-Hutu question has dogged the quadruplets of Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda and DRC. The Hutu and Tutsi are not the problem, the rest of the community should see them as a problem, which should be resolved, Mr Pulkol says. He adds that as DRC seeks to join EAC, it is a pity that the region cannot hold the summit and the rest of the community is not raising up to stop tension between Uganda and Rwanda, and Rwanda and Burundi.The current leaders in the region should seize this opportunity to unite the region rather than tear it apart. They must reject the squabbles and if they cant, they must be replaced by those who can tackle challenges, Mr Pulkol says. In February, Rwanda closed its border at Gatuna and Cyanika, in Kabale and Kisoro districts respectively, a decision, which has disrupted trade. On August 21, Rwanda President Paul Kagame and his Ugandan counterpart Yoweri Museveni signed a pact in Angolas capital Luanda aimed at ending months of hostility based on accusations of espionage and financing rebel activities.The most fundamental one, which could have caused a big spark is Rwanda in the past recruitment of military and intelligence officers and paying them. It is on record that Rwanda recruited and paid senior Uganda police officers to deliver the Kigali agenda to forcefully extradite perceived enemies. Those in security circles were doing this in total breach of the trust and confidence of the Ugandan government. Definitely that compromised our security, Mr Masiko says. He claims that Uganda realised that there was infiltration and allowed these activities to go on until they could be exposed on a larger scale. Rwanda has accused Uganda of offering a safe haven to rebel fighters who are keen to sow mayhem in Rwanda. During the swearing-in-ceremony of new army chiefs and ministers on November 14, President Kagame warned: We are going to raise the cost on the part of anybody who wants to destabilise our security. The cost is going to be very high. It is also the cost mainly that those people who want to destabilise our country are going to incur; it is going to be a very high cost on their part, absolutely. And I mean it, and you know that I mean it.Mr Rabwoni says it is incumbent upon the intelligentsia, civil society and citizens to pressure their leaders to adopt diplomacy.I believe our leaders are sober enough not to reach the brink. The citizenry of the East African Community have to play a role in bringing leaders to account. Once that is understood, the leaders will react positively. We need citizen advocacy in the area of diplomatic policy, he saysBut Mr Rabwoni warns that EAC could only be as good as the individual member states. If governance in the partner states is poor, if regional and integration consciousness of the component parts of the East African community is weak, then the EAC will be weak, he says.South Sudan, a fragile state, which recently joined the EAC, remains locked in conflict since 2013. In a November meeting mediated by President Museveni and Sudans interim leader Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his former vice president-turned foe Riek Machar agreed to push back by 100 days the formation of the new administration.The talks in Entebbe observed that critical tasks remain unresolved, including those related to security arrangements, governance and the integration of fighting forces.The EU was tired of war. After the Second World War, they [citizens] said peace and security is too important to be left in the hands of politicians, Mr Rabwoni says.Key benefitsImpact on trade. Intra-regional trade within the EAC is currently very low standing at just less than 20 per cent. With DRC in the picture the volumes are expected to increase from the current figures. The EAC Secretariat, draft trade and investment report of 2017 indicates that the total value of intra-EAC trade fell by 14.6 per cent to $4.4b (Shs16.5 trillion) in 2016, from $5.1b (Shs19.1 trillion) in 2015.

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DR Congos bid to join EAC shelved amid Uganda - Rwanda standoff - Daily Monitor

On my visit to Lebanon several weeks before the current demonstrations began, two Lebanese leaders, one a minister and the other a parliamentarian, described the mood of the Lebanese people and noted the lack of courage by Lebanese government officials, one admitting, We do not have the courage to address our problems.

That comment now appears prescient as Lebanons crisis is about more than Syrian refugees, who with existing Palestinian refugees and other immigrants, make up at least one-third of the population. This presence adds to the existing pressure on government services, unemployment and underemployment, infrastructure overload, environmental damage, and increased crime. And the government has no national strategy to effectively addresses these concerns.

Nearly daily, Israel threatens to intervene militarily in Lebanon against the Iranian-backed Hezbollah. Israeli jets and drones conduct illegal overflights of Lebanon, while Hezbollah threatens to wreak havoc inside Israel. One miscalculation by either side could lead to a catastrophic war. One almost occurred a month ago when Israel sent drones to the Hezbollah stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut; another in December, when Israel first discovered tunnels dug by Hezbollah from Lebanon into Israel.

However, the Israeli military threat and the refugee crisis are not taking up most of the attention of the Lebanese these days. Its their economy and people from all over the country and across all sectarian groups are demonstrating in the streets.

They have many reasons to demonstrate. Economic growth could be in negative territory in 2019; bond agencies have rated Lebanese bonds as deep junk; unemployment and poverty are on the rise; and the government has little in the way of resources and management to address the countrys socio-economic problems. The Central Bank of Lebanon has enacted monetary policies to maintain the value of the Lebanese pound to prevent economic collapse, rampant inflation, and wage instability. But this cannot last without sound fiscal measures taken by the government. Adding to these pressures are the decrease of remittances and deposits from the Lebanese diaspora and the decline in significant deposits and foreign direct investment from Gulf countries, principally the UAE and Saudi Arabia, who have blocked their investments to Lebanon due to the Iranian influence on Hezbollah. In addition, the Syrian war has also cut off Lebanon from its only overland trade routes.

The U.S. has made its position clear by taking on Hezbollah by taking tough steps to weaken Hezbollah and Iran, sanctioning individuals and two banks in Lebanon, most recently, Jammal Trust. This affected 85,000 mostly innocent Shiite depositors who face challenges in retrieving and transferring their accounts. This is perceived by some as the U.S. targeting Lebanons Shiite community. The banking sector makes up 14% of the GDP of the country, and protecting this industry is a must if Lebanon is to recover.

There is a new U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs and there will soon be a new U.S. Ambassador to Lebanon. These changes lead Lebanese officials to wonder if ongoing U.S. support will continue, especially regarding its negotiations on the Lebanon-Israel land and maritime borders, putting into question the future potential of natural gas development.

Its the perfect storm, said one Lebanese official. Another remarked, The U.S. wants us to be more aggressive with Hezbollah and in our economic policies. We have little room to maneuver, adding, We need breathing spaceThis is not our problem alone. It is a problem involving outside actors much larger than Lebanon: Syria, Russia, Iran, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United States. They have as much an effect on Lebanon as Lebanons internal actors.

As the U.S. has reduced its involvement in the Middle East, Russia sees an opportunity to fill the void and exert leadership. Russia claims to be a more dependable alternative, promising Lebanon and its neighbors increased trade, military equipment, and conflict mediation regarding Lebanons refugee repatriation. So far, Russia has shown little action and questionable capability, but this propaganda works at a time of U.S. regional retreat.

Despite Lebanons fears of abandonment, and in response to the legitimate concerns of the demonstrators, the U.S. can be helpful in many ways. For example, emphasizing its commitment to the sovereignty, independence, and stability of Lebanon, providing significant funding in direct military and foreign assistance, and continuing visits by senior diplomatic and military officials.

Time is running out however for the Lebanese government to show the courage to make the tough decisions necessary to right its economy. Thousands of Lebanese are demonstrating in the streets, expressing their frustration with a government that is failing to take decisive action on the economy.

The government has the power to make the needed changes, address its economic woes, and take control of its destiny. It has been offered $11 billion in soft loans and grants by international donors to rebuild infrastructure, kick-start the economy, and privatize government-run entities.

The international community however expects Lebanon to reduce its budget and public workforce, create transparent oversight mechanisms, and institute anti-corruption policies that will allow this beautiful country to reclaim its historic role as an economic model in the Middle East. The demonstrators are showing their concern and commitment to a more free, open, transparent, and inclusive Lebanonwill the politicians take up the challenge? All it takes is a little courage.

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Does the Lebanese Government Have the Courage to Make the Right Decisions? - International Policy Digest

BDP leadership

Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) has been in power since independence in 1966. That is a period of over half a century. It seeks another term and it is perfectly entitled to do so as do other political parties. It is important to recognise and appreciate that it has done well under trying circumstances to bring Botswana where she is. But to be in power for so long in and of itself breeds complacency, arrogance, fatigue and a serious dereliction of duty. The current state of the political and socio-economic standing of the country is in my view, the result of arrogance, fatigue and serious dereliction of duty. Consequently and in the process, citizens suffer the most in terms of receiving the full social justice benefits they would otherwise receive if there was no such serious dereliction of duty. I am not interested in blaming the Presidents of the BDP but the institution and the brand called the BDP.

Arrogance is borne out of the sheer account that the party is ruling and whatever good motions/ideas from the opposition are ignored on account that they could elevate the opposition profile. I need not tabulate them because they are common knowledge. Fatigue in the sense that important national issues are not treated with the urgency and the speed they deserve. Parliament, which has become subservient to the executive has for example, failed to investigate the shenanigans surrounding the National Petroleum Fund scandal whose funds it authorised. The BDP ganged up to frustrate any motion that sought to investigate this matter. Serious dereliction of duty would encompass the failure to attend to for example, the runaway corruption that has become the way of life.

In the Presidential debate held on 16 October 2019, it emerged that the BDP is challenged in so many fronts with respect to fulfilling its mandate as a ruling party. Chief among these challenges and as conceded by the President of the party are the secretive nature of the agreement between Botswana and the De Beers Group. Rre Ndaba Gaolathe confirmed albeit with no rebuttal from the President during the debate that even parliament is kept in the dark about the agreement. One feels rightly or wrongly that there is more in this agreement for the BDP than it is for the nation. It was also confirmed that the economy of the country is firmly in the hands of non-Batswana. It is mind blogging that Batswana, and by virtue of the fact that this economy belongs to them and should therefore play a tangibly evident role to better their socio-economic circumstances, play very little to no significant role in it. How and why is this so given that the BDP has alone, been in power for over fifty years?

Corruption under the BDP has remained unattended to for as long as one can remember. The latest figure released by the Director General of the DCEC is that over P 5 billion of public funds have disappeared and mysteriously so if I may add. Just how could P 5 billion believably, disappear under the BDPs watch and authority? I guess it should be reasonably easy to trace the paper trial if there is no attendant complicity of some sort in the BDP. Corruption like I have said somewhere in this conversation, has become a way of life in Botswana. The DCEC has not caught and convicted the big fish of the corruption world yet such fish is in our midst and in abundance given the extremely high levels of corruption. In this regard, it tells me that the BDP is not doing something right in corruption fighting except the usual and tired we are fighting corruption slogan. While the Assets and Liabilities Act has come to pass, it was evident from opposition parties in the presidential debate and in parliament that it leaves a lot to be desired. I need not repeat the inadequacies in this law because they are common knowledge as well. Very little if anything, will be attained through this law. Those required by law to make declarations will still do so to their political principals thereby making the whole exercise a mockery of justice. Just why should one make a declaration to a politician amongst others? Its a joke of the century in corporate governance. Why has the BDP lowered the corruption fighting bar this low?

The President of Botswana is above the law as evidenced by Sections 41 and 47 of the Constitution. In this respect, it is not difficult to imagine how the powers conferred therein could be seriously abused. The easiest example is the recent decision by the President that he, and him alone, has decided to reinstate workers dismissed in 2011 after the public service strike. The relevant trade unions representing these workers have according to Botswana Nurses Union official on one of the private radio stations on Thursday, neither been consulted nor engaged on the matter. There are several legal implications to the Presidents decision which on the face it, have not been dealt with. Is this re-employment which would suggest that the dismissed are employed as first and new employees or re-instatement where they are paid their back pays and other attendant benefits they would have lost? The sitting President is alleged to be involved in some corruption/abuse of office with respect to the NPF and the CMB scandals. It is difficult or should I say impossible that the President can be subjected to any form of investigation to establish if these allegations are true or not. This state of affairs (that of the President being above the law) is not good for democracy, the Rule of Law, accountability and transparency. Why has the BDP allowed the President of Botswana to be above the law? The intentions of this law, good as they may have been back then, have long been overtaken by events given the unfolding events. In this day and age, there is no reason why we still have a Motswana who is above the law. Such a person cannot rationally be expected to uphold the Rule of Law regardless of pronouncements made thereto and that he himself or herself is above the law.

State institutions like the DCEC, DIS, IEC, Ombudsman and others are still housed under the office of the President. This issue was raised in the debate where the President responded by saying that this is how the law stands. Fair enough. He failed to convincingly commit that the status quo will change by reforming these institutions and by removing them from his office. The location of these institutions, appointments of their heads and other related matters have been raised by both opposition politicians and the general public but the BDP has remained unmoved. The end result is that these institutions are susceptible if not, to manipulation and influence by the politicians. The BDP has allowed this situation to be perpetuated for time immemorial because predictably, it has served it very well for political expediency.

I have argued before which I still maintain that most Botswanas problems are as a result of painfully lowering the leadership bar. In fact there is no longer any bar to refer to. And this bar is lowered right from the top political leadership level to the boards of parastatals amongst others. Just like it is the case for the country, parastatals leadership is in shambles with the entities performing so poorly. Most of them are on the verge of collapse if they have not already collapsed. Integrity in leadership is a rare commodity leading to no consequent management across the leadership hierarchy. This leadership decay has been largely promoted by arrogance, self-preservation and a serious dereliction of duty as stated above.

It is incontrovertible that the BDP could close BCL mine and in the process render about 5000 people jobless. And this was a decision taken by the BDP without the consent of parliament as it has become the norm under its rule. As a political campaign tool, the party somersaults under unexplained reasons to suggest that it intends to re-open the mine. It is important to mention that competent individuals and bodies richly endowed in mining had advised and correctly so, that it would be catastrophic to close BCL mine. The catastrophic consequences are there for even the blind to see.

The morass Botswana finds herself in, in whatever form or shape, is the result of the BDP having dropped the ball not once, twice but several times. The party has been largely reactive and less proactive in many instances hence the morass which seemingly and at best, is being solved if any, by short cuts and unsustainable measures. The BDP is an institution and a brand that has run its race that needs some introspection and soul searching outside the seat of power. Apart from populist and self-centred view that it is the only party that has the wherewithal to take Botswana forward, the socio-economic circumstances of her citizens largely suggest otherwise. It is somewhat of a movie I have watched before and whose script is still the same. Botswana is spoilt for choice with regard to other citizens taking the baton from the BDP. The argument that no other party is competent to rescue Botswana is seriously flawed to the extreme. I am prepared to be persuade otherwise as always. Judge for Yourself!

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BDP has run the race and deserves a break to introspect - The Patriot On Sunday

This article is a continuation of Sri Lankas rise to healthy nationhood published in the Daily News yesterday.

Elimination of HIV/AIDS by 2030

HIV/AIDS is a major global public health problem having claimed over 34 million lives so far. At present, around 36.7 million people globally are affected with HIV/AIDS. Today, Sri Lanka is named as a low prevalence country for HIV/AIDS.

The challenges facing HIV/AIDS in Sri Lanka

1.) Bringing down the rate of low prevalence to a point of near elimination

2.) Ensure all patients with HIV/AIDS have the right to universal healthcare

3.)Ensure all patients with HIV/AIDS lead a normal life in the community without being marginalised or discriminated by the local community

Magnitude of HIV/AIDSproblem in SL:

(Source: National STD/AIDS Control Programme, December 2017)

Target of HIV/AIDSprogramme in SL:

To reduce the prevalence from 0.01 percent to the overall goal of zero percent - target to be achieved by 2030

The fast track initiative programme, the 90-90-90 needs to identify the following.

1.) Diagnose 90 percent of population infected with HIV.

2.) Treat 90 percent diagnosed with anti viral treatment.

3.) Ensure undetectable HIV in 90 percent of patients is treated with anti viral drugs.

Prevention of HIV/AIDS

1.) Sexual education of young people is mandatory regarding sexual health, sexual responsibility and the need to practice safe sex with the use of condoms.

2.) Advising youth to engage in sexual activity with one trustworthy partner only.

3.) Screening of all pregnant mothers for HIV/AIDS.

4.) Among drug addicts - avoidance of sharing needles for injecting drugs.

5.) Advise suspected cases of HIV/AIDS to avail themselves of freely accessible STD clinics in the government sector and confirm the HIV status confidentially at no cost.

6.) Protection of the baby during pregnancy from HIV infected mothers.

REDUCING ROAD ACCIDENTS

The stark reality of road traffic accidents (RTA) in 2018 was that approximately 3,000 Sri Lankans died on roads. On average, one death occurred every three hours or eight deaths occurred daily. The government spends on each death, including basic treatment, ICU care, investigations, legal workout and post-mortem, approximately Rs. one million per victim.

The WHOs ambitious goal is to reduce the deaths from RTA by 50 percent by 2030. To ensure this, the government will have to enforce strict laws and implement them without any exception via the National Road Safety Council to ensure the countrys roads are safe for its citizens.

Analysis of fatal road traffic accidents in 2016 revealed the following information.

Total number of road traffic deaths - 2961.

This comprised 1,157 motorcyclists, 877 pedestrians, 720 motorists and 244 cyclists. These figures confirm that roads in Sri Lanka pose a serious hazard.

Consequences of road accidents

Deaths from road traffic accidents often involve the breadwinners of families at the peak of their lives. These deaths also invariably spell economic disaster for the families as all financial resources are utilised for treatment of these victims. Invariably these victims who survive from road traffic accidents are left with severe degrees of disability ranging from partial to total paralysis, totally dependent in vegetative states.

Prevention of roadtraffic accidents

1.) Primary prevention - Preventing road traffic accidents before it occurs. This includes education of the public, engineering and enforcement.

2.) Secondary prevention - management of injuries

3.) Tertiary prevention - disability limitation and rehabilitation

The way forward

All road users should act with civic responsibility and obey road rules at all times. They should not drink and drive or drive when they are tired and sleepy. The insurance premium should be increased for reckless driving. Other important measures are withdrawal of licence for six months for drunk driving and implementation of strict fines on dangerous driving without any exceptions.

The Sri Lanka Medical Association(SLMA) has already initiated a programme to increase public awareness of road traffic accidents and their consequences.

KEEPING SRI LANKA MALARIA FREE

Sri Lanka was certified malaria-free on September 5, 2016. This was exactly four years after the last endogenous case of malaria was detected in a soldier at a Sri Lanka Army camp in Mullaitivu. This was exactly 100 years after the British set up the first-ever malaria field station in Kurunegala in 1912. During this period, Sri Lanka was plagued by a devastating epidemic of malaria in 1935. This epidemic affected about 80 percent of the total population of Sri Lanka, which was five million at that time. The maternal mortality during the epidemic was 5,000 per 100,000 live births and the infant mortality rate was 458 per 1,000 live births.

Sri Lanka was free of malaria temporarily in 1963. However, unremitting vigilance was not maintained and malaria re-emerged in the late 60s. Minor epidemics of malaria occurred from 1970 to 1974 and from 1986 to 1988. During this period, 1986 to 1988, malaria was the leading cause of admission of patients to the government hospitals in Sri Lanka. This was the period that I worked at the Polonnaruwa Base Hospital where one-third of all admissions to the medical and paediatric wards comprised patients sick with malaria.

Patterns of malariaepidemics in SL

Elimination of Malaria

With the decline in cases to 124 in 2001 with global funds, the task of elimination of malaria began. This was achieved through

(1.) Integrated and targeted vector control (mosquito larvae) in major irrigation channels and agricultural projects; (2.) Adult vector control by targeted spraying in high-risk areas, indoor residual spraying and the use of long-lasting insecticide sprayed bed nets; and (3.) Parasite control with mobile clinics for active and passive case detection and treatment of patients at all levels.

Despite elimination of malaria in Sri Lanka, we remain receptive and vulnerable to reintroduction of malaria. Receptivity to malaria results from

(1.) The ecosystems of the country favouring a high prevalence of malaria mosquitoes due to suitable temperature and humidity; (2.) Presence of vectors in most parts of the country in irrigation projects, streams, quarry pits and water pools; and (3.) Real danger of a new vector Anopheles stephensi in the Northern Province imported from India. This vector would cause major epidemic of urban malaria if it reaches the Western Province.

Sri Lanka is vulnerable to the reintroduction of malaria due to the tremendous increase in the migrant population, with the possibility of importing the malaria parasite to Sri Lanka from other endemic countries and delay in the detection and treating these imported malaria cases.

These high-risk groups include

(1.) Sri Lankan gem traders travelling to Madagascar and Mozambique; (2.) Businessmen who travel to Asia and Africa; (3.) Pilgrims travelling to India; (4.) Sri Lankan security forces in foreign missions; (5.) Migrant workers, refugees and asylum seekers; and (6.) Tourists from malaria-endemic areas and Sri Lankans on leisure trips to South Africa.

There have been no indigenous cases of malaria since August 2012, confirming zero local transmission since then.

In 2018, there were 47 imported cases and one introduced case in a Sri Lankan who contracted malaria from an Indian worker in Moneragala.

An important message to doctors:

(1.) Always obtain a travel history of patients who present with fever

(2.) Perform blood tests repeatedly to confirm a diagnosis of malaria.

(3.) Remember thrombocytopenia is common not only in dengue but in malaria as well.

(4.) Always follow the national guidelines during treatment.

(5.) Inform all cases of malaria to the hotline, 011 7 626 626.

Take home message to patients:

If you develop fever after visiting a malaria-endemic area, please remind your doctor that it could be malaria.

FACING THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHALLENGES OF AGEING POPULATION

Sri Lanka has one of the fastest ageing populations in the world with 19 percent of population belonging to the elderly population group by 2030. ( See Table 1)

With the decrease in the birth rate and rising of the expectation of life and the geriatric population will need to shift the governments healthcare allocation funds from the pediatric to the geriatric age groups. Increase in the dependency ratio and the shrinking of the working population will consequently cause a tremendous burden on the government.

Mitigating adverse effectsof rising geriatric population

1.) Increase the retirement age and encourage older workers to remain longer in the labour force.

2.) Introduce phased out retirement schemes.

3.) Promote voluntary pro-social behaviour, craft and artistic work among the elderly.

4.) Provide support for independent living for the elderly.

5.) Adaptive transport, housing and rehabilitation.

6.) Prepare for management of age-related diseases such as NCDs, dementia, osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, and Alzheimers disease.

7.) Establishment of day care centres, psychogeriatric clinics, dementia care centres etc.

People living longer and leading productive lives is the crowning achievement of our health services. It is certainly a challenge which must be properly planned and executed. Our aim should be to add life to years and not years to life and to enter the silver age, healthy and productive.

REDUCING BURDEN OF CKDU

In the history of our nation, spanning over 2500 years, agriculture and the paddy farmer have had a special bearing on our economy. It is believed that the migration of Rajarata from Anuradhapura to Polonnaruwa and subsequently to Dambadeniya resulted from the devastating effects of malaria in these kingdoms. Today, the high prevalence of CKDu in the North-Central Province (NCP) has nearly crippled this agricultural heartland, causing a steady outmigration of people and is slowly but surely destroying the agricultural-based civilisation of our country.

The following data highlight the stark reality of this malady.

1.) The age-standardised prevalence of CKDu is 15 percent.

2.) A population of 500,000 is at risk in the NCP namely Medawachchiya, Padavi Sripura and Weli Oya areas

3.) Numbers severely affected with CKDu fearing death is 75,000

4.) Estimated death toll so far is 24,000

5.) Estimated daily deaths are two per day

In 2009, the following were defined as criteria for case definition of CKDu.

1.) No past history of or current treatment for diabetes, chronic hypertension, snakebite or urological disease of known aetiology or glomerulonephritis.

2.) Normal glycosylated haemoglobin (HBA1C) level is below 6.5.

3.) For blood pressure below 160 by 100 mm untreated or blood pressure below 140 by 90 mm mercury up to two hypotensive drugs used (The Health Ministry, 2019).

Main features of CKDu include an insidious onset, slowly progressive chronic interstitial nephritis which predominantly affects, poor rural male farmers in agrochemical intense form of cultivation. The heavy sun exposure in these areas leads to increased sweating. This factor, along with reduced water intake leading to dehydration further aggravate this toxic nephropathy with unique geographical distribution which appeared in Sri Lanka in the mid-1990s. CKDu has been associated strongly with the following factors.

1.) Consumption of hard water containing magnesium and calcium

2.) Spraying of glyphosate (Roundup), the most widely used herbicide in disease-endemic areas with unique metal chelating properties.

3. Use of fertilizers with heavy metals (E.g., arsenic lead, cadmium and chromium)

The above interactions result in the formation of glyphosate metal (GM) complexes. Drinking hard water with the GM complex and subsequent absorption to the circulation leads to high levels reaching the kidney. In the kidney, high concentration of ammonium, NH4 plus ions, releases the heavy metals from the GMA lattice in the proximate tubular areas. When the lattice is broken, it releases metals such as arsenic which damage the glomeruli and leads to glomerulosclerosis and subsequent collapse while arsenic, cadmium, chromium and the other heavy metals cause proximal tubular damage leading to chronic interstitial nephritis.

All these factors associated with agriculture have resulted in change of the name of CKDu to Chronic Interstitial Nephritis of Agricultural Communities (CINAC).

(Source: Int. J. Res. Public Health 2013, Page 2137. C.N. Jayasumana et al.)

Prevention of CKDu/CINAC

1.) Fast track provision of safe water to communities living in affected areas -

Provision of reverse osmosis water purifiers at community levels in common places

(e.g., markets, community centres, temples, pradeshiya sabha grounds)

2.) Provision of safe water for schoolchildren by installing water filters in schools in the affected areas.

3.) Minimise the use of agro chemicals herbicides and weedicides

4.) Avoid the use of chemical fertilizers

5.) Encourage farmers to engage in traditional methods of agriculture by using compost

6.) Population screening and surveillance for early detection of CINAC

It has now been proved beyond doubt that reverse osmosis by water purifiers is the only effective answer to prevent CKD/CINAC. Reverse osmosis removes all suspected causative elements of this malady (e.g., removes arsenic, cadmium, glyphosate, fluoride, calcium and magnesium) Reverse osmosis is therefore the only effective answer to prevent CINAC.

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Raising the country's wellness index - Ceylon Daily News

Dear Editor

The SADC's goal is to further socio-economic cooperation and integration amongst it's 16 Southern African countries and they have not achieved the desired result to date. After failing to maintain price stability, employment, economic stability and the welfare and protection of the Southern African people. SADC leaders declared October the 25th as the day of solidarity protest with Zimbabwe against "illegal sanctions"

A track record like this doesn't inspire confidence in these SADC leaders and serious questions need to be asked. Whose interest does SADC represent? The ZANU-PF sanctions jingles are all propaganda and unfortunately for ZANU-PF, we are not all that gullible. Selective application of the law is what brought targeted sanctions. Therefore Zimbabweans in the diaspora, UK, in particular, will be demonstrating against SADC anti-sanctions protest on the 25th of October 2019 at the Tanzanian Embassy.

Various groups in the UK are collaborating harmoniously in all platforms driving an agenda on the true narrative regarding sanctions. Since there is no end in sight with the ZANU-PF's aggression towards its own citizens, sanctions shouldn't be lifted. Harsher sanctions should be imposed as the Mnangagwa's new dispensation continues to undermine the democratic process in Zimbabwe.

We have prepared banners, placards and leaflets. We will be presenting the signed petition to each Embassy. The Embassies to be shown our utter disapproval of the SADC stunt are the South African High Commission, the Botswana Embassy and the Tanzanian Embassy as the SADC hosting country this year.

SADC has become synonymously known as the Southern African dictators club. Which continues to turn a blind eye to gross human rights violation, abduction, arbitrary arrests, torture and rape orchestrated Zimbabwe Militia. Every time these atrocities are carried out by the Zimbabwean Army SADC is silent. We also note that SADC is silent when Africans are being butchered in the South African xenophobic attacks. Now they align themselves with Mnangagwa's regime which is engaged in corruption and uses it's security forces to brutalize and silence fed up Zimbabweans.

All Zimbabweans and Southern African people are welcome to this protest on Friday at 11 am. All the information is available on our petition website, No to SADC facebook page and leaflets. We maintain that ZANU-PF misgovernance is to blame for the collapse of the economy, not sanctions.

Human Rights Activist

Bigboy Sibanda

Email: bigsibanda40@gmail.com

All articles and letters published on Bulawayo24 have been independently written by members of Bulawayo24's community. The views of users published on Bulawayo24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Bulawayo24. Bulawayo24 editors also reserve the right to edit or delete any and all comments received.

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SADC failing on core responsibilities - Bulawayo24 News

There has been a real wind of change in estate agency and over the last 18 months we have seen the emergence and establishment of a different way of working: the self-employed agent.

This ties in with the general revolution on our high street but also with changes in our socio-economic environment.

I call it: localism joins the gig economy. It is clear that across all kinds of industries and sectors more and more people are choosing to step out of the 9 to 5 grind and create a better lifestyle for themselves.

Work is important to pay the bills but so is the quality of life! There is no point slaving all hours to then not be able to enjoy one's success for lack of time. Or worse, to miss out on your children growing up or helping your ageing parents because work takes up all your time - and of course when not working you are recovering from the strain...

There has also been a big shift in the consumer's attitudes. For various reasons they prefer to work with someone they know and trust rather than a big corporation.

We have seen this in coffee shop culture. If one has the choice between Starbucks or a small independent, you go to the small independent.

Years of tax avoidance (offshoring?) and generic surroundings without a personal feel have just made high streets the same everywhere with nothing which is really local.

Online shopping has also transformed the way we consume. In my opinion, the high street will probably move away from being a place to mass shop to being more a place to network and enjoy yourself - work out, eat out, and find those objects and particular services you cannot get online. Quality, originality and great service are the future.

This philosophy applies across all sectors. For example, you can look at the drinks industry. Ten years ago, the only gin one could get was London gin or Bombay Sapphire. Now there is real choice offered by small independent distillers in line with what I am saying above. For people love the idea of a small craftsmen making something special and limited in volume and above all with a story behind it.

Anyway, this brings me back to our industry - estate agency. Yes, we have all watched the collapse of high street model, and over the last ten years we have also seen the discount onliners grabbing a share of the market, but it has not really worked.

For although the latter were able to create brand visibility via mass marketing and branding roll-out, they could not offer quality of service because of the low prices they charge.

We can see from the share prices of the likes of Purplebricks and Countrywide that both models - the traditional and the recent challenger - are failing.

So, a third model, one based on very personal bespoke service, is really starting to get a foothold.

Buyers and sellers, landlords and tenants can now choose to rely on an individual who works for himself/herself under a banner such as Agent & Homes, Keller Williams, the London Broker, Harding and Green and many others who are all trying to occupy this new space in their own way.

The difference with the individual self-employed agent is of course localism and true independence, which gives these new agents the ability to work when they want, how they want, where they want.

They set their fees and work across disciplines, and they aren't tied to a desk in a corporate structure. They are able to understand the situation better, to really look after their clients and give proper advice - the service craved above all by the new consumer. And because this model offers high rewards, they can also earn a good living while having a great life.

Probably the three models will co-exist for a while, and time will tell which of them comes to dominate, but the key will surely be who can offer the best service for a fair commission...

*Rollo Miles is co-founder of Agent& Homes

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The wind of change in the estate agency industry... - Estate Agent Today

Chairman Mao tried to sell the Marxist-Leninist thought to solve the ethnic problem in his multi-ethnic country (PRC). Not only did the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) fail but Maos social engineering proved to be highly destructive. It led to the widespread discrimination and segregation of the non-Han minorities prevalent today based on their distinct religion, habitus, physiognomy, language, culture and socioeconomic status. After the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, the CCP began to relax its policies towards Muslims in 1978. But its policy of Hanification of the non-Han communities via the all-too-familiar colonial-style settlements and acculturation or a forced assimilation to the dominant Han culture did not ebb an iota.

The most vivid example of this experiment is Xinjiang (formerly East Turkestan) where the Han Communists developed it as a penal colony, as a nuclear testing ground and dumping ground for radioactive wastes (that is responsible for unusually high birth defects and mortality rate amongst the inhabitants) and as a buffer zone against invasion, and as a supplier of raw materials and living space for an overpopulated country. [Note: In this respect, Hanification has some resemblance to the Soviet experiment in the Muslim-majority Central Asia.]

Determined to end the push and pull of centuries, Maos successors resorted to Hanification of Xinjiang, which is primarily carried out in two folds: settlements and language or culture. They have had changed the demography of the region by settling the Han Chinese from other parts of the PRC and conducted forced abortion on Uighur women. Arienne M. Dwyer notes in an article The Xinjiang Conflict: Uyghur Identity, Language Policy, and Political Discourse the Han population increased from nearly 300,000 in 1953 to nearly 6 million in 1990, in addition to more than one-half million demobilized soldiers in the Production and Construction Corps. This increase in Xinjiang was made possible as a result of state-sponsored population transfers from other parts of China.

A second massive Hanification in the form of systematic colonization took place in the 1990s soon after the collapse of the Soviet Empire. Mindful of the emergence of the Central Asian republics (that are culturally, mostly Turkish), the CCP offered an attractive economic incentive program called the Big Development of the Northwest to the poor Han-Chinese to transfer them from the underdeveloped areas of the country to the Muslim-majority territories. The CCPs calculated attempts brought success. It brought between one and two million new Han-Chinese settlers to Xinjiang alone. Today, the HanChinese population makes up more than 40 percent of Xinjiangs total population of 22 million, from what was only 6 percent in the early 1950s.

As part of its acculturation strategy, the Han supremacists curtailed the Xinjiangs millennium-plus-years old rich Muslim culture and are practicing widespread religious repression against the ethnic Uighurs (also spelled Uyghur). They have closed down Quranic and Uighur language schools to cut down their Islamic and cultural ties with other Muslims. Because of the Mandarin-based educational policy of the state, the Uighurs cant pass and find jobs in their own land. The party-state has institutionalized discrimination based on Uighurs distinct religion, habitus, physiognomy, language culture and socioeconomic status. In so doing, they have only widened the gap between the settlers and the indigenous inhabitants.

Since the 1950s, successive Chinese political leaderships have systematically formulated policies and carefully implemented action plans to ensure the total de-empowerment of the Uighurs in Xinjiang: politically, socially and economically. [Interested readers may like to read the article: Chinas Hanification of Xinjiang is Failing By Habib Siddiqui and A.R.M. Imtiyaz]

In January 2019, Beijing passed a new Draconian law that seeks to Sinicize Islam. The campaign to Sinicize religion the third form of Hanification actually began in 2015 when President Xi Jinping passed a policy to bring religions in line with Chinese culture and the CCP. The law criminalized any expression of dissent or religious belief on behalf of Uyghurs alongside with branding their cultural traditions as signs of radicalization and terrorism. In October 2016, the government declared that all Xinjiang residents need to submit their documents for review to the Public Security Bureau (PSB), with the intention of limiting their travel outside the country. As a result of that, many students who pursued education abroad were forcefully returned and disappeared upon arrival at the Chinese border since their loyalty to the Peoples Party was questioned.

In addition to that, throughout the province, smartphone owners found their phones inspected for suspicious content or undesirable social media applications, as a result of which many of them reportedly got installed bug- and tracking devices or spyware. Surveillance cameras were also updated with face recognition software, which facilitated the identification of individuals at crowded places. In South-eastern Xinjiang, authorities have ordered all vehicles to have compulsory GPS trackers installed, for what they call a comprehensive supervision. These and various other stringent security measures established the legislative foundation for the States repressive policies in the following years.

While Islam is one of the five officially recognized religions in China, the Han Chinese leadership began to show its unease toward Islam as well as Christianity soon after 9/11. The latest phase of taking down Arabic script and Islamic symbols, including those from halal restaurants and food stalls, represents an escalation in the Sinicization of Islam, especially in major cities like Beijing with high Hui Muslim population.

The new law, symbolizing Han anti-Muslim supremacist assaults, has led to painful experience for tens of millions of Chinese Muslims, especially the Uighur and Hui Muslims. Hundreds of Muslim intellectuals have either been executed or simply disappeared in the Chinese Gulag. One of those academics is Tashpolat Tiyip, a Uighur Muslim. Until 2017 he was a model academic, head of Xinjiang University, globally connected, and with an honorary degree from a prestigious Paris university. But that year, without warning, he disappeared, with no word from officials. His friends believe that after a secret trial, Prof Tiyip was convicted of separatism and sentenced to death.

As I noted in an earlier article, Professor Tiyip is not the only academic to disappear in the Chinese Gulag. Among the first high profile arrests was economist Ilham Tohti, another Uighur Muslim, who was convicted of separatism and sentenced to life in prison in 2014. Last month (Sept. 2019), he was awarded the Council of Europes Vaclaw Havel Prize for human rights. Another example is anthropologist Rahile Dawut, also of Xinjiang University. She disappeared in late 2017 and has not been heard of since.

According to Michael Caster, a researcher and author of The Peoples Republic of the Disappeared, There are hundreds of Uighur academics and professionals swept up into this mass internment campaign. This is targeting community, cultural, and intellectual leaders; it is tantamount to cultural genocide.

One of the latest strategies towards cementing Han supremacy is the building of detention camps, which are being branded as re-education centres, and undeniably further deteriorate the situation by disenfranchising the local population. The epithet, re-education camps has been given to internment camps, which have been operating secretly and unlawfully since 2016.

In 2018 a United Nations committee estimated that about 1 million Muslims mostly ethnic Uighurs but also other Muslim minorities were being held incommunicado in Xinjiang without being charged or tried, under the pretext of countering terrorism and religious extremism. Experts say the Turkic minorities are being subjected to intense political indoctrination, forced confessions and intimidation. Dr. Adrian Zenz, an academic, whose research focus is on Chinas ethnic policy and public recruitment in Tibetan regions and Xinjiang, argues that these mass camps are indiscriminately subjecting Uyghur Muslims to extrajudicial inhumane, humiliating and brainwashing conditions, supposedly as an attempt of lecturing the detainees how to distinguish the so-called legitimate from illegitimate religious practices, traditions and behavior.

Dr. Sean R. Roberts, Director of the International Development Studies Program at George Washington Universitys Elliott School of International Affairs and expert on Central Asia and China, has characterized Beijings perception of the Uyghurs as a biological threat to society, akin to a virus that must be eradicated, quarantined, or cleansed from those it infects. He explains how such attitude generates an environment similar to Michael Foucaults all-seeing Panopticon or George Orwells Surveillance Society, where every single move or word of the individual is being monitored, rendering a milieu where surveillance remains the norm, even if the person discontinues his/her actions.

In a recently published article Ethnic Cleansing of Uyghur Identity by China the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS) notes, Chinas campaign of coercive social re-engineering, justified under the slogan of war on terror, clearly comes closer to war on humankind. Such violent repression inevitably appears counter-productive, since it evokes even more violent resistance on behalf of the Uyghurs, which eventually leads to more repressive security measures on behalf of Beijing. Therefore, such perpetual cycle of repression-violence-repression only contributes to the complete disintegration of relations between the Chinese and the Uyghurs, rendering their peaceful habitation practically impossible.

The latest reports suggest that some 3 million Uighurs are being detained in Chinas concentration camps, making them the largest group since Nazi Germany. They are facing what can surely be termed as cultural genocide. Muslims cannot fast during Ramadan and are forced to eat pork, which is considered haram in Islam. In recent months, scores of mosques have also been razed to the ground at the behest of the PRC government. Among the sites completely destroyed was the Imam Asim shrine, which used to attract thousands of Uighur pilgrims each year. Its mosque and other buildings have been torn down and only the tomb remained, the Guardian reported.

Muslims caught praying, fasting, growing a beard or wearing a hijab, a headscarf worn by many Muslim women who feel it is part of their religion, face the threat of arrest. According to the Human Rights Watch, Beijing keeps a database of DNA samples, fingerprints, iris scans and blood types of all residents between the age of 12 and 16 in Xinjiang. Many Uighurs are now feared to have vanished either killed or held in detention camps by the Chinese authorities.

Succinctly put, President Xi Jinpings communist regime has proven to be anti-Muslim, supremacist and brutally serious about Hanification of the entire country. Under his authoritarian rule, PRC has become a state of, for and by the Han Chinese via the all-too-obvious supremacist Hanification process.

Thus, the disappearance and detention of more than a million Uighurs in Xinjiang who are victims of one of the worst forms of persecution and face a socio-economic-cultural genocide today in their ancestral land with their rights robbed and mutilated are all part of a statist project to cementing Han racial supremacy, and colonizing, minoritizing and securitizing them by every possible means. The sad reality is with the Chinese veto power in the UN and its enormous economic muscle (second only to the USA), the likelihood of securing the level of international cooperation needed to either punish the Han supremacists or change their criminally repugnant policy remains very low.

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Uighurs: The Victims Of Hanification - OpEd - Eurasia Review