Daily Archives: July 29, 2021

Wed, Jul 28, 2021

MENASourcebyKarim Mezran, Alissa Pavia

After a night of celebrations and tension following the announcement of the constitutional coup of the President of the Republic Kais Saied. The Ennahdha militants led by their leader Rached Ghannouchi are still in front of the gates of the Assembly and clashed with pro Tunisian President Kais Saied activists under the control of the police outside and the army inside the parliament. At the end of the morning the slogan of the party will be to leave the sit-in, the parliament still held by the military regains its calm. Tunis, Tunisia, on July 26, 2021. Photo by Nicolas Fauque/Images de Tunisie/ABACAPRESS.COM

On July 25, Tunisians experienced a peculiar day. In the morning, they were on social media, celebrating swimmer Ahmed Hafnaoui, who unexpectedly won gold in the 400-meter freestyle final at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Later that day, protests rocked the capital Tunis and several other cities across the countryMonastir, Sfax, El Kef, Sousse, and Touzeuras protestors called on the government to step down due to the poor handling of the latest COVID-19 breakout and economic collapse of the country. In the evening, Tunisian President Kais Saied invoked Article 80 of the 2014 constitution to prevent imminent dangerthreatening the integrity of the country. He then announced the freezing of the activities of parliament for thirty days, the suspension of parliamentary immunity for all members of parliament, and the dismissal of Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi. President Saied will assume all executive powers and subsequently choose a prime minister of his choice.

According to Article 80, in the event of imminent danger threatening the nations institutions or the security or independence of the country, and hampering the normal functioning of the state, the president may take any measures necessitated by the exceptional circumstances, after consultation with the prime minister and speaker of parliament and informing the president of the constitutional court. Unfortunately, Tunisia does not yet have a functioning constitutional court, so legal experts opinions on the legality of Saieds decision vary. Political parties were also divided. The Islamist party Ennahda and its leader, Rached Ghannouchi, who is also the speaker of parliament, called the decision a coup against the 2011 Jasmine Revolution, while other parties supported Saieds decision.

How did things get here?

This crisis is long in the making. After almost perfectly handling the first wave of COVID-19 in mid-2020, the country fell into a deep political, economic, and later health crisis. On July 15, 2020, former Prime Minister Elyes Fakhfakh resigned after days of mounting political tension between him and some coalition parties, primarily Ennahda.

Ten days later, on July 25, 2020, Saied nominated Mechichi as the head of the new government. Mechici, the interior minister in 2020 under Fakhfakh, had a technocratic profile as the former chief investigator in the national anti-corruption authority. He is from Jendouba, a town of the disadvantaged area of northwest Tunisia.

His government won the vote of confidence in September 2020 by 134 votes to sixty-seven. The heterogeneity of the groups supporting his executivethe Islamist Ennahda and Karama and the modernist Qalb Tounes and Tahya Tounesshowed that the modernist-Islamist cleavage is not particularly helpful in making sense of the current phase of Tunisian politics.

The current phase can be defined as an institutional conflict, pitting the presidency against the parliament, Saied against Ghannouchia conflict that has been brewing for a while now. Initially, Mechichi was perceived to be close to Saied, but soon after the formers appointment, the situation changed. As relations between him and the president soured, Mechichi got closer and closer to the parties supporting his executive. However, his executive struggled to address the problems adequately. Tunisia is facing a particularly deep socio-economic crisis which has been ongoing for several years.

Against this backdrop, the COVID-19 pandemic was also becoming unmanageable in Tunisia over the past few weeks. The country witnessed a rapid rise in infections due to the spread of the Delta variant. On July 13, Tunisia recorded 157 coronavirus deaths and almost 8500 new cases, the highest daily infection rate and death toll since the start of the pandemic. Hospitals were overwhelmed and the country faced shortages of oxygen supplies, vaccines, and medicines. After chaos erupted at the vaccination centers on the first day of the Muslim Eid al-Adha holiday on July 21, Mechichi sacked Health Minister Faouzi Mehdi. However, as the crisis deepened, many in Tunisia criticized the attitude of Mechichi not only for the lack of efficiency in dealing with the crisis, but also for some of his actions. A week earlier, on July 14, Mechichi had played tennis in front of cameras with Ons Jabeur, the rising star of Tunisian tennis, at the peak of the crisis. It was also later revealed that Mechichi and other members of the cabinet held a retreat in a luxury hotel and pool in Hammamet during the crisis, further exacerbating social tensions.

International reactions to Tunisia

The international community reacted slowly to the events of July 25, with most political leaders publishing weak, largely insignificant statements. In the immediate aftermath of President Saieds decision to freeze parliament and sack the prime minister, neither the United States nor the European Union (EU) responded. Only by the end of the day, when the situation deteriorated and the protests seemed to become more violent, did the US issue an official statement siding with Tunisias democracy. The State Department published the statement after Secretary Antony Blinken called President Saied urging him to adhere to the principles of democracy and human rights. Meanwhile, the EU waited two full days before issuing an official declaration. Joseph Borrell, the EUs foreign policy chief, called for the restoration of institutional stability as soon as possible and, in particular, for the resumption of parliamentary activity.

Individual EU member states also showed discontent at the events in Tunisia, but none took a decisive stance against President Saieds actions. Germany said it was following the latest developments with concern while France called for a return to the normal functioning of the states institutions.

Turkeys foreign ministry expressed deep concern and called for the restoration of democratic legitimacy. As expected, Turkey is siding with its ally Ennahda. Turkeys position can be instrumentally used by some countries, such as the Emirates and Egypt, to emphasize the Islamist secularist divide as the main cleavage in Tunisia and potentially depict the Tunisian crisis as a repetition of the Egyptian coup of General al-Sisi of 2013, when democratically-elected Islamist President Mohamed Morsi was deposed. Saieds actions can be presented as the actions of a secular modernist leader that is intent on preserving the country from the backwardness of the Islamic movement.

Qatar took a more neutral position, despite the offices of its state-owned news channel Al Jazeera being stormed by Tunisian police and its journalists expelled. Only the foreign ministry issued an official statement, saying that Qatar hopes that Tunisian parties will adopt the path of dialogue to overcome the crisis. Qatar did not make any official announcement condemning the attack.

Both Russias and Saudi Arabias comments focus on maintaining the security and stability of the country and its people.

So far, it appears that most international actors are taking a bystander position and waiting to see how the situation in Tunisia evolves. They are particularly interested in knowing the official position of the powerful Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT). Thus far, the UGTT seems somewhat supportive of President Saieds decisions, saying that his actions were in line with the constitution. Otherwise, the UGTT has not yet issued a strong statement. In any case, the main issue is not whether the actions of the president are legitimate or not according to the constitution, but the fact that these actions were taken at the worst possible moment for the country, one in which the fragile economy and political system may not survive the blow inflicted by this decision, thus, underscoring how President Saied does not have Tunisias best interests at heart.

Karim Mezran is director of the North Africa Initiative and resident senior fellow with the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council

Alissa Pavia is assistant director for the North Africa Initiative within the Rafik Hariri Center and Middle East Programs at the Atlantic Council

Tue, Jul 27, 2021

On July 25, President Kais Saied invoked Article 80 of Tunisias constitution to sack Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi and dissolve parliament. Atlantic Council experts react to the events, assess the impact on the fledgling democracy, and offer their thoughts on how the international community may respond.

MENASourcebyAtlantic Council

Thu, Jul 15, 2021

Libyas political system prior to the elections is preferred but not imperative. What is essential is giving the Libyans a strong voice on the outcome of their political system.

MENASourcebyKarim Mezran and Hafed Al-Ghwell

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Tunisia was the only democracy to blossom from the Arab Spring. Now it's a mess. - Atlantic Council

India, for some time, has been wearing a tiara of its vulnerabilities.

Revenge tourism is on every mind, including the ones who have been cautious all along the pandemic. Practicing restraint has been tough on human mind but a necessary evil to accomplish. Hence, an urge to spread ones wings in free air has become difficult to extinguish.

But there remains no point where a disaster could be confined to a particular part of India. If Northern Bihar is facing annual floods, Indias southern states, in particular, Maharashtra too, is facing the drift.

About 2,29,074 people were evacuated from the flood-hit areas from a total of 1,028 affected villages on the western coast and nearly 25,564 animals died in vain.

Landslides are pretty common in upper belts of Uttarakhand and a few calculated lower stretches. So, what is different this time? Uttarakhand has been reporting a succession of landslides ever since the month began.

Being a mountain baby, it becomes easy to decide where it is safer to go. But maybe, not anymore. Even the mountain stretches hard and emboldened enough to resist the downward movement, are facing the landslides.

Himachal Pradesh also reported a bridge collapse due to boulder-fall killing 9 and leaving many injured.

Like all the unexpected events taking hold of the human world, increasing intensity and frequency of natural disasters has grabbed its own place to make lives miserable and pathetic.

Not only lives are lost because of these disasters, additionally, misinformation and confusion prevails that leads to further chaos.

From being ranked 44 out of 191 countries in the World Bank Groups2019 Inform Risk Index (and 29 out of 191 in terms of high disaster risks) to constantly facing from all clouts and blows of Nature, India is attempting to recover.

According to the rankings, India has very high exposure to greater risks and this has even driven its social vulnerability ramping people under extreme poverty, accelerating unemployment and consequent trafficking. India has 420,000 sqkm, or 12.6% of its total land as landslide-prone.

With the climate change in picture, this is bound to worsen.

India has repeatedly faced some of the highest maximum temperatures around the world, with an average monthly maximum of around 30C.

Floods constitute one of the greatest sources of annual losses to Indian exchequer caused by disasters, a staggering $7 billion every year.

And nearly 86% of worldwide deaths caused from tropical cyclones are accounted for, in India and Bangladesh alone.

Experts have warned that we can no longer ignore the climate change dynamics, as it significantly engulfs our daily routine. The monsoon rains are bound to increase unprecedented with an increase in the global temperatures.

As per one of the latest studies Climate change is making the Indian monsoon seasons more chaotic: For every degree Celsius of warming, monsoon rains will likely increase by about 5 per cent. Global warming is increasing the monsoon rainfall in India even more than previously thought.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Changes (IPCC) fifth Assessment Report (AR5)has clarified the impact of humans on climate system and vice-versa.

It is dominating the monsoon dynamics of the 21st century. Climate change is leading to unpredictable weather extremes and their serious consequences. What is really on the line is the socio-economic well-being of the Indian subcontinent.

A more chaotic monsoon season poses a threat to the agriculture and economy in the region and should be a wake-up call for policymakers to drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

Western Ghats, according to Madhav Gadgil committee, have been termed as ecologically sensitive and any development in the zone attracts deep scrutiny yet the deforestation and rapid urbanization in these serene Ghats have led to the warming of atmosphere.

This has fueled the capacity of air to absorb and retain moisture, prospering the existence and formation of intense cumulus-nimbus clouds, the giant vertical clouds bearing rain, to trigger an incessant downpour over this region.

The same story is ruling the mountains where unbated construction of hydropower plants for increasing electricity demand of increasing population and roads, hotels or homes causes deforestation and alteration in land-use planning.

Removal of forest cover can lead to the loosening of soil and easy landslides even with the smallest amount of rainfall.

Hills or upper regions are more sensitive and susceptible to changes in weather system and even respond to these threats more quickly.

With the development of cumulonimbus clouds, paired with the absence of strong upper air currents can cause cloud bursts. As the clouds get trapped and could not travel afar, it tends to expend all its water over a certain area, taking the face of cloud bursts.

It is no longer a developing countrys problem alone, but it is now hitting the industrialized nations such as Germany, Belgium, and The Netherlands, explains a researcher from IPCC.

There is a grim picture in every country possible, be it the third wave in US, floods in China, heat waves in most of the countries or floods in Italy and nearby countries. The differentiation has ended ultimately.

More here:

Indias Landslide saga and why India needs to be concerned as these are surely not the lasts or worsts - The Indian Wire

Calls are growing for Government action in the wake of the Cleveland Bridge crisis as supply chain firms face a bleak future.

The Federation of Small Businesses in the region warned that many SMEs in the supply chain would need help and Seema Malhotra MP, Labour's Shadow Minister for Business and Consumers, said urgent action need to be taken.

The FSB called for the right support in the right places.

Reshma Begum,Development Manager for the region said: "Small businesses dont have the luxury of significant cash reserves to offset the detrimental impact of losing a large contract, so it is essential that support is provided to both the employees and the businesses impacted by the crisis.

"The Cleveland Bridge crisis will undoubtedly cause serious concerns amongst the businesses across the country, operating within their supply chain.

"Small businesses are often required to dedicate significant proportions of their resource and capacity to service large scale contracts, and the threat of losing the same could be devastating for already hard-hit businesses navigating their way out of the Covid pandemic."

Seema Malhotra said: "This is extremely worrying news and my immediate thoughts are with every affected employee who may be feeling anxious about their livelihood."

"The Government must explain as a matter of urgency what it is doing to protect these jobs. And Ministers must also dig deeper and explain how it can be possible that an engineering company of this significance, a major employer in the North responsible for building landmarks across our country, can be in such a perilous position.

"This news underlines again that we need a long-term plan for oursteel industry which is vital for our economy and national security. The UK has a proud manufacturing history and it's crucial government backs Britain's manufacturers to secure their proud future."

Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng

The Business SecretaryKwasi Kwarteng is understood to have asked his team at theDepartment for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy to find out what happened in abid to understand how it could all have ended so badly so quickly.

The Northern Echo understands that Tees Valley Mayor Ben Houchen has been asked to helpthe investigation.

A BEIS spokesperson said: "We recognise that this will be distressing news for Cleveland Bridge employees and their families. Government officials are engaging with local partners in Tees Valley to understand the situation in more detail.

We are working hard to make sure that the sector has the best possible chance of competing for and winning public contracts. All Government departments and arms-length bodies are required to consider socio-economic factors when procuring steel.

The department has already established a new joint industry and BEIS Steel Procurement Taskforce with the aim of working with the sector to promote the unique selling points of UK steel and explore how best to support and position the industry for success in forthcoming major public contracts.

The is also the 315m Industrial Energy Transformation Fund which aims to support businesses with high energy use to cut their bills and reduce carbon emissions.The department says it has also provided up to 66m through the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund to help steel and other foundation industries develop radical new technologies and establish innovation centres of excellence in these sectors.

And Kwasi Kwarteng has reformed and co-chaired the UK Steel Council for 2021. There have been three meetings so far, the latest only on Wednesday,to work in partnership on the shared objective of creating an achievable, long-term plan to support the sectors transition to a competitive, sustainable and low carbon future.The news broke just a few days ago thatCleveland Bridge - one of the great engineering icons of the North - had called in administrators, putting hundreds of jobs at risk.

Read more:Jobs threat as Darlington's Cleveland Bridge 'calls in administrators'

That team of administrators then confirmed that it was the Covid pandemic that had pushed the company over the edge, and they warned: "No business is immune to the far-reaching impact of the pandemic, which has delayed major infrastructure projects around the world and put significant financial pressure on the teams behind them."

Read more:Administrators blame Covid for Darlington's Cleveland Bridge crisis

Cleveland Bridge on Yarm Road

Butit also thought that the Government may have to answer for more deep-rooted problems in the sector as firms face major problems in the global marketplace.

There is anger at the lack of a level playing field and concern in many quarters that Government support is not welded together.

Read more:Cleveland Bridge: The six questions we still need answering on Darlington firm's future

Alex Cunningham, MP for Stockton North, has already clearly blamed the Government, saying: Too often weve seen the Tories fail our industries and workers in the Tees Valley. When we needed help to save the Redcar SSI blast furnace they turned their backs and when the Sirius mine project needed a helping hand the Government and the Tees Mayor were content to see it taken over by a multi-national company leaving local investors, some of whom sunk their life savings into it, high and dry.

Too many jobs have been lost in the Tees Valley in recent years some 12000 since the start of the pandemic and we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. This time the Government, without the restrictions on aid they could have faced because of the EU, must ensure these jobs and this internationally renowned company are saved.

Read more from the original source:

Threat to small businesses after Cleveland Bridge collapse - The Northern Echo

The Supreme Courts ruling last week on cooperatives restricts the operation of the 97th Amendment to the Constitution, passed by Parliament in 2011, to multi-State cooperative societies. This Amendment had sought to spell out a set of governance norms to be enforced by the Centre on cooperatives, the running of which is a State subject. The apex court has observed that for the amendment to hold, at least half the State assemblies should have passed it. Therefore, the newly formed Cooperation Ministry at the Centre can oversee the running of multi-State cooperatives (which form a fraction of the over 8.5 lakh such bodies in India). The Reserve Bank of India oversees the functioning of urban cooperative banks, following an amendment to the Banking Regulation Act last September. However, cooperatives that do not call themselves banks, do not issue cheques, and are restricted in their operations to a single State, will continue to be governed by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies (RoCS). Cooperative societies are set up either as quasi-banks (receiving term deposits and disbursing credit) or producing or marketing entities, such as in sugar, dairy and fertiliser sectors. A collapse of a credit cooperative can cause a serious contagion effect. The trouble here is that the district and State cooperative banks are under RBI and NABARD oversight, while primary agriculture credit societies (PACS) that accept lay deposits are under the RoCS. The unfolding of a cooperative bank scam in Kerala, where the primary agriculture credit societies (PACS) actually call themselves banks, underscores the need for cohesive regulation which the States should appreciate. The RoCS has failed to ensure professional governance. For PACS an independent body that comprises the RoCC and other professionals should be set up in the States.

Producer cooperatives have achieved impressive socio-economic gains in Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu. However, their structure and access to resources financial, physical and human opens them to political misuse and patronage. Revenues from cooperatives finance elections, while jockeying for political control of cooperatives is commonplace in these States. As for credit cooperatives, it is true that some PACS have produced remarkable outcomes but are deprived of necessary funding from district cooperative banks for political reasons. The challenge is to improve transparency in the running of all cooperatives.

There can be no denying that the States, while fiercely defending their turf here, need to set cooperatives right and not merely blame the Centre for interference. Successes in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala should be replicated in the rest of the country. An independent oversight system for cooperatives could show the way forward. The Centre should operate with a light touch, recognising that decentralised governance works best.

More here:

Co-operative solution - BusinessLine