Category Archives: Socio-economic Collapse

The Talibanheldtalks with European Union envoysin the Qatari capital of Doha on Tuesday. A day earlier, EU officials said that representatives from the United States would also take part.

Ahead ofthe meeting, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the bloc was looking to bolster its direct aid to the Afghan people in an effort to stave off "collapse".

"We cannot 'wait and see'. We need to act, and act quickly," Borrell said after discussions with EU development ministers.

"We want positive relationships with the whole world. We believe in balanced international relations. We believe such a balanced relationship can save Afghanistan from instability,"Taliban acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said on Monday.

EU spokesperson Nabila Massrali said the talks "are an informal exchange at technical level. It does not constitute recognition of the 'interim government.'" She addedthe two sides will discuss access to humanitarian aid and women's rights, among other issues.

Separately, the leaders of the G20 group of nations were also holding a virtual conference Tuesday addressing the deteriorating economic situation in the country.

As part of that summit, the EU promised 1 billion ($1.15 billion) in emergency aid to Afghanistan to prevent whatEuropean Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday called "humanitarian and socio-economic collapse."

Von der Leyen emphasized the need to work "fast," saying,"we have been clear about our conditions for any engagement with the Afghan authorities, including on the respect of human rights. So far, the reports speak for themselves. But the Afghan people should not pay the price of the Taliban's actions."

US President Joe Bidenjoined the summit by video link, and the White House released a statement saying leaders "discussed the critical need to maintain a laser-focus on our enduring counterterrorism efforts, including against threats from 'IS-K,'" the statement said, referring to the "Islamic State" in Afghanistan.

Later, the US State Department said the US has the capability to see that terror groups cannot use Afghanistan as a base to threaten the US.

Following the virtual G20 meetingTuesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the international community cannot stand by and watch as "40 million people fall into chaos" because they lack electricity and a financial system.

"We all have nothing to gain if in Afghanistan the entire monetary system collapses or the financial system collapses, because humanitarian aid can then also no longer be provided," Merkel said.

Merkel reemphasized that Germany has pledged $600 million in humanitarian aid for Afghanistan and said UN aid agencies must be given full access to provide aid.

However, the chancellor added that recognizing the Taliban officially as Afghanistan's government is not on Germany's agenda.

Merkel's remarks come aftera German delegation met with the Taliban in Doha on Monday for the first time.

Theofficials taking part in those talks included German special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan Jasper Wieck, along with Markus Potzel, who serves as Germany's ambassador-designate to Afghanistan.

Following the discussions, the German delegation said the Taliban governmentis a "reality." The group took over Afghanistan on August 15 asthe US and NATO allieswithdrewforces from the country.

A statement from the German Foreign Office regarding the meetingsaid the delegation focused"on the safe passage for Germans and Afghan citizens for whom Germany has a special responsibility," along with"respect for human and especially women's rights," as well as security-related issues.

The Taliban reportedly told the German delegation that the group is committed to protecting foreign diplomats and humanitarian aid organizations in Afghanistan.

As the Taliban seekto bolster ties with the international community, the United Nations is warning Afghanistan it faces imminent economic collapse.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on the world to "take action and inject liquidity into the Afghan economy" as much of the country's assets abroad have been frozen since the Taliban takeover.

Guterres added that injecting liquidity to prevent economic collapse is separatefrom recognition of the Taliban, lifting sanctions, unfreezing frozen assets or restoring international aid.

At the same time, he slammed the Taliban's "broken promises" towardAfghanistan'sfemale population.

"I strongly appeal to the Taliban to keep their promises to women and girls and fulfill their obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law," Guterres said, adding that "there is no way the Afghan economy and society will recover" without the inclusion of women.

Now that the Taliban have regained power, there have been reports that Afghan women have been prevented from returning to work and barred from playing sports, indicating a return to the repression that characterized the group's rule from two decades ago.

That era ended when the US military invaded Afghanistan in 2001 the US pullout from Afghanistan this year precipitated the Taliban's return to power.

wmr,wd,es/jsi(Reuters,AFP, dpa)

Read more:

Afghanistan: Taliban meet with EU, US representatives as ...

Their creator is long gone, but Belkis Ayns figures live on in syncretic shadow and silhouette, forever slipping between realms and roles, borders and beliefs.

Over the course of a short but brilliant life whose final years were profoundly marked by the chaos that the collapse of the Soviet Union visited on her native Cuba, Ayn established herself as an artist whose technical skills were matched only by the haunted and hallucinatory intensity of her imagination.

Today, Ayn hailed as one of the outstanding printmakers of the 20th century is the subject of an overdue retrospective at the Reina Sofa museum in Madrid. The 90 or so works assembled for the show that started last week chronicle the obsessions and shifting phases of a career that ended when Ayn killed herself, for reasons that still remain a mystery to her friends and family, in Havana in 1999. She was 32.

While many of her contemporaries were dabbling with installations, Ayn embraced the graphic technique of collography as a medium through which to explore her fascinations not least with Abaku, a secret, all-male society that was brought to Cuba by west African slaves in the early 19th century.

Her collographs made by sticking a collage of materials to backings such as cardboard, covering it with ink and then putting it through a printing press return, time and time again, to Abaku rites and beliefs.

Recurrent in her work is the figure of Sikn, a princess and the only female character in Abaku mythology. Sikns fate is sealed after she discovers Tanze, a sacred fish sent by the supreme god that will bring peace to an embattled region. She is ordered to remain silent about the discovery but shares her secret with her fiance, who is from an enemy land. Her perceived betrayal leads to her execution, but with her dies Tanze.

In Sikn whom Ayn saw as the principal character, the mother of every Abaku, the great sacrificed initiator the artist saw a reflection of herself and other marginalised yet pivotal women. Sikn becomes her alter-ego and the character appears repeatedly as Ayn moves from colour to black, white and grey, and begins to fuse Abaku beliefs with Christian motifs such as the Last Supper, the Stations of the Cross, and the Resurrection.

These Abaku legends were passed on orally and what Belkis does is give that oral tradition a visual form, says Manuel Borja-Villel, the director of the Reina Sofa. But what she does is also personal because although this is a secret male society, the central figure is Sikn, a female figure who ends up being sacrificed by the community. That idea of a masculine society where the key figure is a woman has a lot to do with Belkis Ayns position.

But as the shows curator, Cristina Vives, points out, Ayns work must also be seen in the context of life in Cuba following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. As familiar certainties disappeared and shortages of food and petrol hit, Cuba was pitched into crisis overnight.

People usually talk about it as an economic crisis, but it went far beyond mere economic crisis, says Vives. It was a crisis of values in which the entire socio-economic structure and its accompanying ethical beliefs tumbled down before the eyes of every single Cuban.

According to Vives, Ayn and her fellow Cuban artists sought to reflect, question and criticise their reality in their work while also trying to make ends meet.

The artists participation in the 1993 Venice Biennale got off to a less than auspicious start. She cycled the 30km from her home to the airport with her brother-in-law, Ernesto Leyva, carrying her bags on his bike, and her father following with her art on his. The artist and her bags made the flight, but her pieces did not because her father fell too far behind, meaning the precious cargo missed the plane. Fortunately, her exhibits finally arrived in Venice a few hours before the biennale began.

Leyva laughs about the airport dash and smiles at the memory of his sister-in-law. Belkis was always a daring girl and she was really funny, he says. But she was also headstrong and serious. She came to be well known in the artistic community of Havana and the whole country and she knew how to party. But when it was time to work, she always knuckled down.

Ayn could also be relied on to help her fellow artists, supporting them emotionally but also materially by bringing much-needed supplies back from her foreign trips.

Her final works drifted away from Abaku and focused instead on mixing the lyrics of Latin American popular songs with self-referential images and musings on the veil with which St Veronica wiped Jesus Christs face on the way to Calvary. Their titles talk of deep wounds, the agonies of love, assault, fear and abandonment many of the pains endured by Ayns alter-ego, Sikn.

Twenty-two years on, the artists death remains a puzzle to all those who knew her. Weve never known why she did it, says Leyva. We couldnt believe it when we heard and it still hurts now.

Vives, who was also a close friend of Ayn, hopes this first European retrospective will enable people to see an ethical artist but also a very civic-minded woman whose ferocious creativity transcended her life, circumstances and personal preoccupations.

Belkis Ayn built a universal discourse against marginalisation, frustration, fear, censorship, intolerance, violence, powerlessness and the lack of freedom, says the curator. Her work still serves to send out the message that her country and humanity needs to hear.

Belkis Ayn: Collographs is at the Reina Sofa until 18 April 2022

Originally posted here:

On show at last: the myths and mysteries of Belkis Ayn, a giant of Cuban art - The Guardian

Nigeria is currently at its lowest ebb as a nation with a near complete economic collapse, total breakdown of law and order, widespread banditry and terrorism. However, with purposeful leadership and a renewed sense of shared commitment, there is still a modicum of chance that Africas most populous nation may be able to pull back from the precipice. But its doubtful that any nation could survive a zombie apocalypse.

As the sun was casting long shadows on the ground one Saturday in April 2018, a 21-year-old Nigerian named Kenneth, but mostly known as Dagba Junior, headed out with his friends for a weekend hangout. After horsing around for a while, the crew ended up lounging in a local pub in Ikorodu, a suburb of Lagos. As the night wore on, they ate, drank and gyrated to Afrobeats, but at some point, Ken decided to treat himself to a little extra. He went for this new craze in town called gutter water; a dangerous cocktail of drugs, including codeine, tramadol, rohypnol, cannabis and juice, which young Africans now use to get high on the cheap. Next thing you knew, the young man went into an uncontrolled seizure, foaming in his mouth. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where minutes later, he was pronounced dead. His friends from school described Kenneth as a jolly good fellow with big dreams.

Kenneths story is one that has become all too common in most of Nigerias major cities, though grossly under-reported. In fact, it could be heard across the whole continent of Africa, where a generation of poor, unemployed and under-employed youths have taken to illicit drugs as an escape from poverty.

According to a 2018 survey commissioned by Nigerias National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA), with technical support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), one in every seven persons in Nigeria, aged between the age of 15 and 64, had used a drug in the past year, many of whom suffered drug-related disorders. The highest level of drug use was recorded among people aged between 25 and 39. Kano, Nigerias second largest city, records the highest number of people with a history of drug use and the most amount of people arrested for illicit drug trafficking. Thirty-seven per cent of that citys population, according to one official figure released by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), use drugs.

The ancient kingdom was once a bustling commercial hub, known for its leather and cotton goods that attracted merchants from across the Sahara to North Africa and Europe for centuries. Kano was also reputed to be one of the largest industrial centres in Nigeria, second only to Lagos. Following the introduction of Sharia in the year 2000, many non-Muslims and traders left the city. The problem was compounded by the Boko Haram insurgency and after a series of coordinated bomb blasts and shooting that killed about one hundred and seventy-eight people in January 2012, many fled the city and so did businesses, leaving several young people with no jobs and plenty of free time. Numerous streets in a once bustling area of the city are now gradually being replaced by dusty alleys filled with kids doing cocktails of recreational drugs.

In this new race to the bottom, the South-East promises not to be outdone. There is a frightening drug phenomenon sweeping across the region and making zombies out of young people. The culprit drug is locally called mkpulummili, which is a brand of crystal methamphetamine. A recent video making the round showed a teenage boy under the influence, tenaciously grabbing the breast of a female manikin, in a lewd act.

Many reasons have been given for the increasing incidence of drug use in Nigeria. Aside socio-economic factors that breed a vulnerable population, there is also a big problem from the supply side of things. Cheap synthetic opioids manufactured in China and India have been making way into the African market. Added to this is the alleged duplicity on the part of Nigerias big pharmaceutical companies in the thriving black market for illicit drugs.

In June 2015, the Special Enforcement Team (SET) of Nigerias NDLEA busted a drug trafficking ring led by one Sylvester Ikejiakwu, a.k.a Blessed. He was accused of running methamphetamine production facilities in Ozubulu, Ekwusigo local government area of Anambra State. Mr Ikejiakwu, the group managing director of Blessed Group of Companies, allegedly hides under the cover of a motorcycle spare parts business, while running a drug cell that has international affiliations.

The rest of Africa is not spared of the illicit drug epidemic. Methamphetamine is also popular in South Africa, where in the streets of Cape Town, it goes by the name of Tik. In Kenya, one study found that many street children were addicted to sniffing glue. In all, there is a rich assortment that goes from Tramadol and Codeine to everything from cobwebs, lizard poop, petrol fumes and rat poison.

Being a medical practitioner who has witnessed the devastating effect of illicit drug use in Americas inner cities and treated my fair share of addicts, I have often dreaded that this day will come in my homeland. Drug abuse has torn families apart, churned out thousands of child victims and utterly decimated an entire generation of people, young and old. A drug infested population is a hotbed for violent criminalbehaviours, and according to Brigadier General Buba Marwa, chairman of the NDLEA, there is a nexus between recreational drug use and terrorism, insurgency, kidnapping, and banditry. Its frightening to contemplate Africas future in the face of an illicit drug epidemic, given that rich nations of the Western world continue to grapple with and are ravaged by it, despite the enormous resources at their disposal.

Many reasons have been given for the increasing incidence of drug use in Nigeria. Aside socio-economic factors that breed a vulnerable population, there is also a big problem from the supply side of things. Cheap synthetic opioids manufactured in China and India have been making way into the African market. Added to this is the alleged duplicity on the part of Nigerias big pharmaceutical companies in the thriving black market for illicit drugs. That may be part of the reason why at some point the Nigerian government banned codeine, which is often found in cough syrups.

Interventions should, as a matter of priority, target the unconscionable and ruthless death merchants who produce or distribute these killer drugs. It is crucial to focus more on preemptive, rather than reactionary, measures and the approach needs to be multi-faceted, coordinating with all stakeholders, including the government, faith-based organisations and community leaders. Preventive measures need to target the youths and other vulnerable populations, such as students, and commercial sex workers. Of course, good governance creates gainful employment opportunities to a teeming youth population and helps to distract them from seeking drugs to drown misery.

Torturing addicts, arresting and throwing them in jail, while leaving the drug barons to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth, may not help in the long run but rather produce repeat offenders who will come back to harm the society. The best way to down a tree is not by cutting off its branches, which will regrow sooner than later. The roots needs to come off.

A holistic approach to the problem would also involve the establishment of drug rehabilitation programmes. At one point, Kano pioneered a model where drug abusers were institutionalised and made to undergo sixty days of rehabilitation that encompasses detoxification, counselling and skills acquisition, which would help the victims navigate life after drugs. Torturing addicts, arresting and throwing them in jail, while leaving the drug barons to enjoy their ill-gotten wealth, may not help in the long run but rather produce repeat offenders who will come back to harm the society. The best way to down a tree is not by cutting off its branches, which will regrow sooner than later. The roots needs to come off.

A few years ago, a man from South Florida named James West was caught on video trying to break down the door to the Fort Lauderdale Police Headquarters. Tracy Figone, the police detective who watched the incident stated that, His power was so forceful that, when he pulled, you could see the doors shaking, and him throwing the rocks that cracked the impact windows,. Upon investigation, he was found to be on a street drug named flakka. Since then, many of such incident have been reported, including another man who ran through the street screaming that he was a god before committing a sexual act on a tree.

Aside from causing agitation, convulsion, delusion, victims of flakka manifest superhuman strength marked by violent outbursts. One researcher reported that, it gives users what feels like the strength and fury of the Incredible Hulk. They look like reanimated dead bodies; hence its colloquially called the zombie drug. Mkpurumiri, as it turns out, is our own flakka.

Nigeria is currently at its lowest ebb as a nation with a near complete economic collapse, total breakdown of law and order, widespread banditry and terrorism. However, with purposeful leadership and a renewed sense of shared commitment, there is still a modicum of chance that Africas most populous nation may be able to pull back from the precipice. But its doubtful that any nation could survive a zombie apocalypse.

Osmund Agbo, a public affairs analyst is the coordinator of African Center for Transparency and Convener of Save Nigeria Project.Email:Eagleosmund@yahoo.com

Donate

TEXT AD: To advertise here . Call Willie +2347088095401...

Go here to read the rest:

Nigeria's burgeoning drug problem and the threat of a zombie apocalypse, By Osmund Agbo - Premium Times

In todays India the programme of affirmative action or reservation based on caste criteria has been set on different dimensions and practical experiences as existed in pre- and post-independence society, such as, social discrimination, economic discrimination, compensation for historical wrongs, and so on., Not to talk about the social discrimination at the time of independence, even today, especially in rural India, despite the collapse of the traditional subsistence economy, caste continues to exert its strong presence in different forms and manifestations.

Untouchability, a cursed legacy, is present and survives by adapting to new socio-economic realities where tea stalls keep separate cups for Dalit customers which they have to wash themselves, not buying milk or vegetables from Dalit vendors, making Dalit children sit separately at the back of the classroom in schools, and the worst form of punishment comes when a marriage is performed flouting the caste norms between a Dalit and an upper caste woman. Although in urban India we hardly come across such instances, its a shame to continue the practice, outlawed more than seven decades ago. Constitutionally, socially and practically it should have no place in any part of India in which we are committed to live with dignity of labour and without any form of discrimination.

The second major cause of making the caste a basis for reservation is economic discrimination which reflected in our society in public and private enterprises where we found a wide gap in wages of SC/ ST/ and OBC workers in comparison to Others. As these two groups enter the market with substantial differences in education levels, their pre-market discrimination showed a thorough gap in the whole professional life wherever they move and work regardless of the position of the market, active or inactive.

Surprisingly, this factor is working more explicitly in urban areas where identification of caste is difficult and the nature of market is both more modern and formal than in rural and less developed zones. In the context its also a fact that urban markets are supposed to more merit-oriented. and naturally recruitment decisions are taken on access to education and quality of education, access to resources which enhance overall learning and develop skills suitable for the work as well as responsiveness.

In addition, this factor becomes clearer when we focus the role of networks in informal and personalized recruitments where who you know is often more important than what you know as a well knitted chain of people you know, especially in case of important places and famous institutions where talents are easily earned and used in favour of people produced from the same institutions. Employers across the country, including those who belong to Multinational Companie,s care much about social identity, region, and merit along with conviction that merit is distributed by caste and things we value most. In the circumstances, it is clear that only preferred position for reserved category is not a remedy of discrimination and the public sector is only place, they can be employed or engaged for improvement of their overall status in society as they found very limited entry in private enterprises.

In fact, the past ill-doings have generated systematic disparity between caste groups and actively kept untouchables at the very bottom of the social and economic order. It motivated the Indian government to compensate for the historical wrongs and enact legislation for reservation for some of these disadvantaged groups in education, public sector employment, and politics. Although, from the beginning the Indian government provided for reservation to compensate the historical injustices, it is not sufficient to resolve the problems of discrimination which led to exclusion to a large number of unprivileged people, originated to the division of labour in the household, in the community, and in the world of work.

The contours of exploitation evolved and muted in different forms over the centuries, its manifestations like inequality and injustice in society remained the same throughout the period. In the context, deep and large-scale exploitation gave rise to exclusion which contains multiple dimensions-social, economic, and political. It is not simply used to describe a situation but also to focus on a process which excludes individuals or groups from communities, livelihoods, and rights, thus depriving them of freedoms that are constitutive of, and instrumental in development, which is a source of well-being for people, ordinary people. Closely related to it is the concept of exclusion from markets available in society. In general markets exclude people as consumers or buyers as well as producers and sellers if they do not have income, People excluded from the society experience the feeling if they have neither assets, physical or financial, which can be used to yield an income in the form of rent, interest, or profits.

In pre and post-Independence periods the provision for reservation was made to uplift the position of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes through adequate representation who were also lagging far behind socially, educationally and as a result in employment in comparison to other members of society who were in the mainstream of society, politics and decision-making of the State as well.

For this purpose, the Constitution itself provided a three-fold scheme bearing a. Protective arrangements, which required to enforce equality, to provide punitive measures for transgression, to eliminate and to eliminate established practices that perpetuate inequality; b. Affirmative action, which provided positive or preferential treatment in allotment of jobs and access to higher education for integration in the mainstream society. In Independent India the reservation for SCs and STs community was first implemented in 1950 with 12.5 percent and 5 percent respectively which later revised in proportion as 15 percent and 7.5 percent in direct recruitment in services of Central and State Government. They were getting the facility of reservation in promotion since 1954 and further in the year 1982 the government specified 15 and 7.5 percent jobs in public sector undertakings government-aided educational institutions as quota reserved for SC and ST candidates.

Follow this link:

Reasons behind caste-based reservation in India - Pakistan Today

WE NEED THE GREATEST ECONOMIC TRANSFORMATION IN HUMAN HISTORY, IN THE SHORTEST TIMESPAN.OR ELSE ITS GAME OVER

You might be forgiven for tuning out whats going on atCOP26, the latest UN Climate Change Conference.

Like many, youre probably tuning out becauseyou know the score:countries get together, some announce goals that are lauded as ambitious, though theyre not nearly enough, and then, fast forward a few years later, not even that much has been delivered.

503 fossil fuel lobbyists attended COP26, more delegates than any delegation from any one country, representing100 fossil fuel companies and 30 oil and gas trade associations.

The likes of Shell and BP were inside these talks despite openly admitting to upping their production of fossil fuels.

Its like having arms dealers present at a disarmament conference

The World Health Organization didnt get serious about banning tobacco until all the lobbyists for Big Tobacco were banned from WHO meetings.

It should be the same treatment for Big Oil.

TheClimate Change movement is still not strong enough.

With last years defeat of Donald Trump, its enemies lost their most powerful figurehead.

But the governments of Australia, Brazil, Russia and Saudi Arabia continue to obstruct progress and at Cop26, yet again, they and the other backers of the fossil fuel-powered status quo outgunned supporters of the immediate decarbonisation that is needed.

Australias deputy prime minister told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Monday the Australian government had done a great job to protect coalminers jobs before proceeding to mock the chairman of COP26.

US climate action was limited at the summit because the countrys action ultimately depends on Congress, and, more specifically, on Sen. Joe Manchin, who represents coal-rich West Virginia and who opposes climate legislation that would rapidly reduce the use of fossil fuel.

Emissions must shrink by around 45% this decade to keep alive the chance of limiting heating to 1.5C.

Based on current commitments, we are on track for 2.4C.

Meanwhile, our children and grandchildren will have to live on a planet Earth afflicted by climate catastrophe and environmental collapse, intensifying year after year.

Shrug..MehWho cares?

Another day, another failure.

If this was a football match, Boris Johnson explained in a speech in week one of the conference, the current score would be 5-1 down in the match between Humanity and Climate Change.

What I think you can say today after two days of talks with about 120 world leaders is that weve pulled back a goal, or perhaps even two, and I think were going to be able to take this thing to extra time.

Righto.

As Boris himself would say, Donnez-moi un break.

This mainly confirmed that this clown doesnt even understand how football works, which suggests that stewarding a historic international effort against climate change might be a conceptual task some galaxies of distance beyond him.and all the other leaders.

The World is going to have huge difficulty coping with the crises of the 21st century.

Covid-19 has already shown that.

More frequent future pandemics, the looming climate catastrophe, environmental collapse, the ongoing 6th Mass Extinction with loss of species, water wars, overpopulation, mass human migration all these await Mankind.

Climate change is a vastly much more immense, much more complicated problem than COVID, a problem that requires navigation of complex scientific analysis and the imposition of intensely painful policies internationally to ensure collective survival.

Covid-19 didnt require much more than leaders who listened to basic medical advice.

And we couldnt do even that.

Covid-19 was like a pop quiz before the big final exam, and it revealed thatsignificant portions of Civilizations elites do not care about mass death in their country and, to put it in the most naked terms, have no capacity to impose policy or respond collectively to events.

The challenges are monumental.

They will force us to question our identities, our values, and our loyalties like no other experience in our history.

Who are we?

Are we, first and foremost, human beings struggling to raise our families, strengthen our communities, and coexist with the other inhabitants of Earth?

Or do our primary loyalties belong to our nation, our culture, our race, our ideology, or our religion?

Can we put the survival of our species and our planet first, or will we allow ourselves to become hopelessly divided along national, cultural, racial, religious, or party lines?

Will we overcome denial and despair; kick our addiction to fossil fuels; and pull together to break the grip of corporate power over our lives?

Can we foster genuine Democracy, harness renewable energy, reweave our communities, re-learn forgotten skills, and heal the wounds weve inflicted on the Earth?

Or will fear and prejudice drive us into hostile camps, fighting over the dwindling resources of a degraded planet?

The worry is that our response to the Climate Crisis will look eerily similar to our response to COVID:

Denial, Delay and Incrementalism.

Initial denialism and delay about the severity of the looming crisis.

Double down on Individual Liberty rhetoric.

Obsession with economic impacts of mitigating measures.

Tentative, slow, incremental measures, playing whack-a-mole, rather than early, deep, sharp effective actions to tackle the crisis.

Desensitization to mass death.

The next 50-100 years will be a Critical Existential Test for our children and grandchildren.

If it feels like theres an elephant in the room, which all those Prime Ministers and Presidents arent discussing, thats because there is.

There is a very good reason that this theatrical spectacle lets save the planet oops, we didnt do much of anything plays out year after year after dismal year.

That reason is the macroeconomics of climate change,the macroeconomics of our civilization.

Perpetual Economic Growth And Development Are Capitalisms Sacred Cows.

No-Growth Capitalism is an oxymoron: when Economic Growth ceases the system is in a state of Crisis.

In fact, all Economics is based on the absurd Myth of Perpetual Growth.

The science of economics is not science.

Yes, it looks scientific with all the fancy math algorithms and computer models and charts that economists use, but all thats just window dressing to make the economist look scientific and rational.

Theyre not.

Their conclusions are pre-ordained, fabricated, based on their biases, personal ideologies and whatever their employer wants to prove to manipulate consumers, voters or investors to buy what theyre selling.

BusinessWeek in a famous editorial several years ago headlined: What Do You Call an Economist with a Prediction??

Wrong!!

Unfortunately, we live in a world of Capitalists who thrive on the great Myth of Perpetual Growth, endless growth, ad infinitum, forever, till the end of time.

But driving the economists growth myth is Population Growth.

Its the independent variable in their equation.

Population Growth drives all other derivative projections, forecasts and predictions.

All GDP growth, income growth, wealth growth, production growth, everything.

These unscientific growth assumptions fit into the overall left-brain, logical, mind-set of Western leaders, all the corporate CEOs, Wall Street bankers and government leaders who run America and the world.

But just because a large group collectively believes in something doesnt make it true.

Perpetual Growth is still a Myth no matter how many economists, CEOs, bankers and politicians believe it.

Its still an illusion trapped in the brains of all these irrational, biased and uncritical folks.

Two centuries of fossil fuel combustion have saturated the biosphere with climate-altering carbon that will continue wreaking havoc for generations to come.

The damage to Earths living systems the circulation and chemical composition of the atmosphere and the oceans; the stability of the hydrological and biogeochemical cycles; and the biodiversity of the entire planet is essentially permanent.

Humans have become the most harmful invasive species the planet has ever known.

Although we are a mere .01% of the planets biomass, our domesticated crops and livestock dominate life on Earth.

In terms of total biomass, 96% of all the mammals on Earth are livestock; only 4% are wild mammals.

70% of all birds are domesticated poultry, only 30% are wild.

80% of all the Earths wild animals have been lost in just the last 50 years.

Scientists estimate that half of all remaining species will be extinct by the end of the century.

There are no more unspoiled ecosystems or new frontiers where people can escape the damage theyve caused and recover from collapse.

Is biodiversity a luxury affordable only to the richest countries on the planet?

The human predicament is driven by overpopulation, overconsumption of natural resources, and the use of unnecessarily environmentally damaging technologies and socio-economic-political arrangements to service Homo sapiens aggregate consumption.

The uncomfortable truth is that the physical resources of the biosphere are finite.

Were not approaching the Ecological Limits To Growth were well past them.

And in the process were polluting the globe with our wastes and threatening the natural systems on which humanity and all other species depend.

How far the human population size now is above the planets long-term carrying capacity is suggested (conservatively) by ecological footprint analysis.

It shows that to support todays population of 7.9 billion sustainably (i.e. with business as usual, including current technologies and standards of living) would require over half an additional planet Earth.

If all citizens of Earth consumed resources at the US/Canadian level, it would take 15 more planet Earths.

Adding the projected 2.5 billion more people by 2050 will make the human assault on civilizations life-support systems disproportionately worse.

Growth is Capitalisms Sacred Cow but its Grow or Die theory doesnt work anymore.

Its being challenged by a New God Of Reality thats flashing warnings of an emerging new reality from critics, contrarians and eco-economists.

The difference between the mind-set of traditional economists and the new eco-economists is simple:

Traditional economists think short-term, react short-term, pursue short-term goals.

New eco-economists think long-term.

We can see that in plain sight.

Were now in the midst of the first Anthropocene (human-made) Mass Extinction, the Sixth Mass Extinction.

(The last major mass extinction event which wiped out all the dinosaurs was 66 million years ago.)

Vast numbers of species are dying off.

Its not just those at the bottom of the food chain apart from our livestock, weve killed off more than 80% of wild mammals on the planet.

Read the original post:

Peter Chow: What Will You Say To Your Grandchildren? - SaultOnline.com

Madeline Hsu during her lecture in Memorial Union's Great Hall.

Iowa State's Lecture Series hosted a lecture on the history of Asian immigration to the United States and its cultural implications Tuesday night. Presenting the lecture was Madeline Hsu, historian and professor at the University of Texas in Austin.

Hsu's lecture began at 6 p.m. in Memorial Union's Great Hall; the lecture was titled "From Yellow Peril to Model Minority and Back Again: Immigration and Sino-US Foreign Relations." The lecture covered the history in the United States concerning immigration reform and its impact on Asian populations.

Hsu's lecture was filled with informative graphs and collections of data, as well as political cartoons to demonstrate American understandings of immigration at the time.

Hsu began her lecture by explaining how the expansion of the United States to the west coast brought about a new era of United States immigration. As Americans began settling in the west and discovered the presence of gold, immigration from Asia increased. Hsu explained how the booming Asian population helped develop the Californian economy but threatened some Americans in a similar fashion that illegal immigrants do today.

As time went on, Americans' perception of Asian immigrants was flipped multiple times, driven by wars and changes in the socio-economic climate of China and the world as a whole. As China erupted in civil war, many Chinese immigrants became stranded in the United States, but their educational attainments and technical skills motivated efforts to let the immigrants stay in the United States.

"We have this phenomenon right, this contradictory set of attitudes against the Chinese," said Hsu. "With World War II these views will sort of collapse because China in World War II becomes the United State's key military ally against the shared enemy of Japan."

This resulted in the repeal of the exclusion laws against Chinese immigrants and a changed perception of Chinese immigrants. After World War II, immigration was again flipped over with another wave of anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States.

Hsu explained how the waves of immigration reform in the United States changed and reshaped the nation's perception of Chinese immigrants and the relationship between China and the United States.

After the lecture, one audience member, Brian Behnken, associate professor of history, offered his take on the lecture.

"Yeah, you know, so I think this topic is really important,"said Behnken."I think that when we think of, like immigrants and immigration, a lot of times we think about folks from Latin America, and I think she makes a really good point that for most of this country's history when we talk about immigrants, we're talking about Asian people. When we talk about immigration reform, we're talking about restricting, you know, Asian people coming here."

This restriction of immigrants based on the place of origin and ethnicity of immigrants is obviously present throughout the United State's history. Acknowledging this presence and the way it's affected nations and the world as a whole and its effects on individuals is extremely important.

In addition to its occurrence in Memorial Union's Great Hall, the lecture was live-streamed and will be available until the end of November at this link.

Read more:

Lecture Series hosts lecture on the history of Chinese immigration in the United States - Iowa State Daily

The condition of free media in Central and Eastern Europe is far from foolproof. With the aim to improve its standing, certain metrics need to be evaluated and none more so than information sovereignty. Our attempt at this task resulted in the analysis of the EU Labour Force Survey data on the number of working journalists in the region and the trends of their profession over the past decade. Although the results may suggest a positive development, it is useful to look at the surrounding circumstances and what they hold for the future of journalism in CEE.

To begin with a bold claim: we have the right to know if the information we are being given is true.

It is reminiscent of the values which are driven into most of us from a very early age and which is repeated time and again by teachers, family members and public figures (albeit occasionally with more than a hint of irony).

Yet, we have witnessed a strange consequence of postmodern subjectivity: while giving opportunity and platforms for a multiplicity of perspectives that were missing from the contemporary, historical and collective discussions, we inadvertently brought into question some of the more concrete notions of truth and validity. Malign, non-democratic actors and states subsequently took advantage of this space and populated it with fake news, using our very platforms and attempts at being inclusive against our societies so as to undermine our democratic security and erode trust in our institutions.

We have the right to ask our societies and governments for tools to help us understand what is accurate reporting and what is misleading; we have the right to information sovereignty. After all, having control over the politys information space has a significant influence on a societys decisions in democratic elections.

Visegrad Insights previous report defined information sovereignty as a set of conditions and processes that enable societies to exert oversight of the government and have control over their future.

Measuring the level of information sovereignty is as complicated as any abstract notion; however, a useful indicator is the number of independent journalists working in a given society or sector. The rationale behind this thinking is rather straightforward: fewer journalists working in independent outlets leads to less available and reliable information in the mediasphere and in effect, decreases the ability of a society to take informed decisions.

The report takes into account the challenges that free media is facing in the CEE region, for instance, unsustainable business models, the spread of disinformation and democratic backsliding.

All of these factors influence the environment journalists are working in. Whether it is laying off media employees, receiving threats from the people who believe mainstream media is part of a global hoax or being told what to write by elected officials whose aim is to crack down on the free media of their country.

In a region where democratic backsliding is either already in full swing in some countries or lingering in the background in others, the trends of journalists working conditions or even the trend of the number of working journalists can paint an image of how the environment is changing for the people at the forefront of the struggle for reliable and independent media.

Together with the Group for Research in Applied Economics (GRAPE) centre, Visegrad Insight took a look at the data from the EU Labour Force Survey (LFS) to explore the socio-economic trends of people who applied the ISCO categorisation to self-identify as Journalists (code 2642) or in the wider category of Authors, Journalists and Linguists (code 264).

There are numerous uses for such analysis, which may have security-based, economic, political or social implications. For example, the countries that have been examined are all members of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI), a format that allows members to cooperate on large, cross-border infrastructure projects worth billions of euros in political environments where informality and a lack of transparency are still part of major state ventures.

In another report, Towards 3SI Civil Society Forum, we outline the perils associated with having a weak civil society; namely, it can have a profound impact on investment into the necessary connectivity projects of the region. To ameliorate the situation, we called for the creation of a Civil Society Forum, one which aims to monitor the economic exposure of the 3SI and help understand what is legitimate or not in terms of democratic innovation.

High levels of information sovereignty stemming from well-funded and properly functioning mediascapes are essential for civil societies to flourish.

What the LFS data shows us, expanded on below, is that less democratic media landscapes in the CEE region might actually offer more stability to loyal journalists at least in the short term. The increasing numbers of journalists are the most visible mainly in the worst-performing countries in terms of media freedom.

Along with the recommendations presented in the Information Sovereignty report, we also propose the following suggestions:

As mentioned above, in order to assess the media environment, we looked into the trends of the number of working journalists; the share of wage-employed journalists; the share of full-time employed journalists; the average number of hours worked per week and the share of journalists receiving a below-the-median wage. These indicators were viewed in the light of various indices revealing an intricate situation in the CEE media landscape.

The data from the Labour Force Survey we were able to access provided the numbers for the category of Authors, Journalists and Linguists (ISCO 264) for 10 3SI countries: Austria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. Although the inclusive categorisation of journalists and other professions makes the data only approximate, the main objective of the research was to discover the trends and not the exact numbers of indicators in question.

However, for Poland, we were also able to examine the data of the Journalists category (ISCO 2642) only. In another source from the Czech Statistical Office (the Structure of Earnings Survey) an approximate number of journalists could also be found for the Czech Republic allowing us to draw rough proportions of what share of people categorised under the inclusive ISCO 264 category in LFS are journalists.

Accordingly, from the latest data available, the approximate number of journalists working in the 10 countries where the data was accessible stands at 100,000-120,000. And the number seems to be growing at least since 2011. In 6 countries (Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Poland and Romania), there is a distinguishable positive trend while in Lithuania and Slovakia a negative trend can be discerned.

Although a simple assessment of the growing number of journalists could indicate an increasing appeal of the profession, (i.e., more people choosing the occupation and a positive trend), the countries listed excluding Estonia are undergoing the most negative trends regarding media freedom. The RSF World Press Freedom Index rates the five states the lowest in the CEE region, with only Bulgaria scoring lower. The state of media freedom has deteriorated there at least since 2013 for several different reasons: governmental takeover of state broadcast media or private outlets, smear campaigns against journalists and media ownership concentration in the hands of a few oligarchs.

What is even more interesting is that out of the 10 countries researched, the Czech Republic, Romania, Croatia, Poland and Hungary are also evaluated as carrying the highest risks to journalistic profession, standards and protection by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom in their 2021 report.

Alongside the absence of a legal framework to prevent Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, journalists also rarely have laws protecting their working conditions and lack social security, especially self-employed journalists whose conditions were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, in Croatia, 85 per cent of freelance journalists lost their contracts in public or commercial media at the beginning of April 2020.

According to the LFS data, in every country researched except for Poland and Romania, people who identified themselves working in the inclusive journalists category were more likely to be self-employed than the rest of the working population, which indicates a less stable working environment.

However, the increasing numbers of freelancers were recorded only in the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, while in others, no significant change or decrease in the number of self-employed journalists was distinguishable. Croatia was the only country that had a significant negative trend of the number of freelancers working in the 264 ISCO category, a tendency that, as mentioned before, must have been enhanced after 2020 by the pandemic.

The data also tells us that in the Czech Republic there is a significantly larger share of inclusive category journalists working as freelancers than in the other countries researched. In 2015, around 37 per cent of journalists working in newsrooms were working for the public service media. However, a lot of these journalists are not employed but work as freelancers in order for the organisation to save on health and social contributions and taxes. Although this group of journalists working for public media may constitute a minor share in the data, it is still an important factor when considering the state of protection of journalists socio-economic conditions.

While working as a self-employed journalist provides more flexibility and freedom of choice, it also comes with less stability and limited social security, especially in the CEE countries. The possibly growing numbers of freelancers in the aforementioned four countries could indicate that an increasing number of journalists are working in conditions that make them particularly vulnerable to economic or any other crises that affect the media landscape.

Another indicator offering a glimpse into the structure of media employment in the 3SI countries is the share of journalists working on full-time contracts. According to the LFS data, in the majority of the 3SI countries, employees in the inclusive journalists category are less likely to work in full-time positions than the rest of the working population. However, in all of the 10 countries except Austria, the trend stays above the 70 per cent line with the highest percentage in the most recent available year being reported in Romania, Croatia and Hungary.

A positive trend for the share of journalists from the inclusive category working full-time is distinguishable in 4 countries: Hungary, Poland, Croatia and Estonia with the former two exhibiting considerably steep rises. A decrease in the share of full-time employees can be discerned in the Czech Republic, Latvia and Slovakia.

When it comes to the average weekly working hours of journalists, authors and linguists in the 3SI region, Hungary is a country that stands out with a distinguishable growing average of working hours since 2011. In the majority of the 10 countries, people who have an inclusive journalists category occupation have a lower average of working hours compared to the rest of the working population, and the average seems to be generally decreasing. With a growing number of journalists, it seems natural for the average working hours to decrease; however, Hungary then becomes an interesting case in the study.

Lastly, we were able to look into some of the countries inclusive journalists category income data and see whether there has been any change in the share of journalists receiving a below-the-median wage. This data for at least 6 years in between 2011-2018 was available for Austria, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania and Slovakia.

From the graph, it is visible that in Estonia, Austria, Romania and Croatia the share of respondents receiving a below-the-median wage has increased which does not necessarily mean that more journalists started receiving lower wages. However, what it could indicate is that economically the status of the journalist profession is declining. Meanwhile, in Lithuania, Hungary and Slovakia, one can discern that an increasing share of respondents from the inclusive journalists category is receiving above-the-median wages.

While the situation in the media landscape after 2018 the most recent year for which we could access the LFS data has been significantly altered by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw many media outlets laying off their employees, Nelly Ognyanova, a professor of media studies at Sofia University in Bulgaria, states that the pandemic has only come to magnify the existing problems in the Central and Eastern European region.

To look into the existing problems of the media landscape of the region and predict how it would develop in the future, it is not particularly constructive to generalise the situation for the whole region. Therefore, the scenarios from the Information Sovereignty: Scenarios for Central Europe report can be adjusted to specific CEE country groups.

From the trends identified above, four groups of 3SI countries can be discerned in terms of respondents from the inclusive journalists category working conditions and their socio-economic status. The countries were classified according to their overlapping trends and similar ranking in the World Press Freedom Index. However, the Czech Republic fell in between two groups having overlapping characteristics with two groups similar to its score in the Freedom Index. The groups are presented in the table below.

The first group of Austria and Estonia has a positive trend of a growing number of people working in the inclusive journalists category (although Austrias trendline is quite subtle). There is little to no change in the share of self-employed respondents from the category in the two countries, meanwhile, an increasing share earn a below-the-median wage. Journalism in both states faces very little risk to its fundamental protection; however, there is an increasing horizontal concentration of media. Estonia and Austria lack an effective legal framework to prevent media mergers or consolidating media companies in the hands of the few and hindering natural competition. The current circumstances seem to indicate that the two countries are on the path of Scenario One: Centralisation of Media. Although these two countries rank the highest in the Media Freedom Index, their score has also deteriorated compared to the start of the 2010s showing signs that the media landscape in Austria and Estonia are not in a healthy condition.

The next group of countries links Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia together.

In these three countries, there is either a negative trend in the number of respondents working in the inclusive category of journalists or no change is reported. Also the category is seeing a decrease in the share of full-time employees while the average of working hours per week has a negative trend line as well. Similar to the first group, these countries also protect journalisms fundamental tenets better than in the rest of the region by having a legally enshrined protection of freedom of speech and the governments or leading politicians of the countries usually avoid attacking free media verbally or by legal action (in Slovakia, at least since the murder of the investigative journalist Jan Kuciak).

In Latvia and Slovakia, besides the Latvian and Slovak media players dominating the market, there are also Russian and Czech-based media outlets who have an important role in the media landscape respectively. Also, in the three countries, there is an increasing problem of the decline of local media with their advertising revenues being very low and political and business actors stepping in to fund the outlets not without strings attached.

Taking everything into account, this group could be projected heading towards Scenario Two: Disruptive Decentralisation. With the leading media outlets expanding their digital toolbox and building up subscription-based business models, leaving the market diversified with local media lagging behind and taken over by interest groups who start mixing journalism with PR activity. The vulnerable groups of society are left to consume partial media leading to more polarisation in the society.

The third group consists of Croatia and Romania which show a positive trend in the number of people working in the inclusive category of journalists. There is also a decrease in the share of self-employed journalists, authors and linguists and an increasing share of them earning a below-the-median wage.

Both countries media landscapes suffer from ineffective regulation and self-regulation leading to the lack of media plurality and owner interference into the published content of the media outlets. There is also a lack of monitoring and regulation of the online advertising market.

The conditions in the media landscape put Croatia and Romania on the path of Scenario Four: Collapse of the Advertising Market. Although the digital markets in these countries are yet to reach the levels of Estonia, the lack of legal framework and awareness for the dangers that come with business models based on online advertising show the absence of resilience these media landscapes have to online advertising fraud and inflated advertising markets.

The Czech Republics LFS data characteristics seem to be overlapping with two groups of countries, positioning it between Latvia, Lithuania and Slovakia and Croatia and Romania. Although there is a positive trend in the number of people working in the inclusive journalists category in the Czech Republic, there is also a decrease in the share of them working full-time, and the average working hours per week is also shrinking.

While the legal measures for the violations of freedom of expression are effective and both the state and commercial sphere respect the basic rights in journalism, there are also significant issues with horizontal concentration and lack of transparency of media ownership. The situation in the regional media has been worsening for more than a decade: in 2009, there were 60 local newspapers, in 2019, only 29 remained.

These factors seem to indicate that the Czech Republic is heading towards Scenario One: Centralisation of Media. Though independent media does not disappear in the country, uninformed media messages lead to a lack of diverse opinions and views in the public discourse benefiting political and business actors who have agenda-setting power in the media.

Finally, the last group of countries consists of Hungary and Poland. Both of these countries have been at the forefront of democratic backsliding in Europe with their media landscape being overtaken by the ruling parties and their circles either through the state institutions themselves or by creating a parallel state.

However, according to LFS data, the number of journalists is increasing, as well as the share of journalists working full-time. Moreover, the share of self-employed journalists is positive. The media landscape in the two countries is exceptionally polarised with pro-government media often portraying events and processes in a biased way while independent media critical of the government is being cracked down by legal initiatives or commercial acquisitions by people close to the ruling parties.

The two countries fit into Scenario Three: Growth of a Fragmented Sphere in which governmental funding for the pro-government media damages the advertising market in turn leaving a possibility for a fragmented media landscape when a crisis constrains the government from funding its propaganda machine. Vulnerable market spaces can then be easily filled with alternative information sources leaving an already polarised society even more so.

What the LFS data shows us is that less democratic media landscapes in the CEE region might actually offer more stability to loyal journalists at least in the short term. The increasing numbers of journalists are the most visible mainly in the worst-performing countries in terms of media freedom.

The data from Poland and Hungary indicate that there is an increasing trend of journalists working on full-time contracts and Hungary is one of only two countries where a decreasing share of journalists earn a below-the-median wage. Although this data is preliminary and the deduction is mostly intuitive, the increasing number of journalists in the 5 worst-ranked CEE countries could be showing that unhealthy media environments prompt more people to work as journalists; perhaps this phenomenon could be happening due to unsustainable government funding for pro-government media who is able to hire more journalists or maybe more people decide to get into journalism in order to write about the media deterioration happening in their countries.

This report was written by Valdon niukait and contributed to by analysts and economists at GRAPE as well as the team at Visegrad Insight.

Weekly updates with our latest articles and the editorial commentary.

Read this article:

Diverging Paths of Journalists in CEE Visegrad Insight - Visegrad Insight

NewsClint Chan Tack2 Days AgoKiran Singh -

BUSINESS leaders say the end of the state of emergency (SoE) brings to bear the reality that Trinidad and Tobago must learn to live with covid19 for the long term.

Weighing in on the issue on Sunday were Trent Restaurants Ltd chairman Peter George, Greater Confederation of Regional Chambers co-ordinator Jai Leladarsingh and Greater San Fernando Chamber of Commerce president Kiran Singh.

At a news conference at the Diplomatic Centre on Saturday, the Prime Minister announced that the House of Representatives will sit on Wednesday to lift the SoE on the same day.

Dr Rowley acknowledged the national vaccination programme had stalled and occupancy in the parallel health care system was around 86 per cent, with most patients being unvaccinated.

While all this shows that TT is in a dangerous place where covid19 is concerned, Rowley said, "The automatic response is not to shut the country down. The response is to work harder to live with the virus."

George said, "It's long overdue. We cannot be consumed by the covid19."

He said virus was not something that TT can run away from. "We have to live with it. You cannot put everything aside and say covid19 and just press 'Stop' on everything else."

George did not know what breathing room the SoE gave with respect to dealing with the covid19 pandemic.

"It has put us back to square one, exactly where we are, 20 months later billions in economic destruction."

George expressed concern about the latest figures with respect to covid19 deaths. "What needs to happen now is another type of approach."

He accepted Rowley's statement about burnt-out medical personnel and the tremendous work they have been doing to battle the pandemic and try to keep the population safe for the last 20 months.

But, George observed, "There are burnt-out citizens and burnt-out businesses. Yes, there is a collapse of the medical system, but there is also a collapse of our economic way of life and our livelihoods.

"When you shut down an economy, naturally you are going to have tremendous economic repercussions."

He said with the lifting of the curfew, businesses would be able to operate as they normally would.

He did not know how effective the covid19 safe zones, established during the pandemic to allow fully vaccinated people to access certain businesses, have been.

Georges restaurant chain includes Trotters, Buzo, Amara, Blue Star Diner, and Tommys Restaurant. Under the public health regulations, in-house dining in restaurants is permitted to fully vaccinated people.

"The first incarnation of the safe zones did nothing from our perspective."

He reiterated the major issue which must be addressed immediately is the medical issue.

"We continue to work as hard as we can to get people vaccinated within the ambit of the law and practise in as safe environments as we can."

George added, "We have to face our demons now and face the reality of what this (covid19) is.

"The time is now for people to make some smart, courageous and individual behavioural decisions to face this thing frontally and get ahead of this, as a human race, as a society and as a country, as opposed to try to avoid it."

He warned any further socio-economic damage going forward could be irreparable. With the public health regulations being the guiding covid19 protocols once the SoE is lifted, George was baffled about why one of the regulations mandates members of the same family to be masked when they are together in the same vehicle. He was equally baffled why there was no pushback from citizens about this.

George said this law was absurd, unfair and based solely on the inability of the authorities to tell the difference between a PH taxi and ordinary people driving in vehicles they own.

Leladarsingh said, "It is a welcome move to lift the SoE.

"The SoE served little to no purpose and was disastrous for many small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and family-based businesses." He said under the SoE, "from an economic standpoint, the whole situation was grossly mismanaged.

"There were business closures, many people became unemployed and the business sector got little to no support from the Government.

"This has set the stage for a loss in confidence for making any future investments due to this high level of uncertainty and this has exacerbated any future growth in this sector."

He said with the SoE being lifted, bars and restaurants could "fully operate and persons can find employment to an extent."

Leladarsingh also hoped there will be rigorous compliance in the covid19 safe zones so they function as they were intended to.

Singh said the lifting of the SoE is "welcome news for the entire country." He was optimistic the food, beverage and entertainment sectors would be the first beneficiaries of this.

With the removal of the curfew, Singh said businesses will have to revert their operations to what they were before the SoE.

"This will increase employment levels, bringing it closer to pre-pandemic levels."

While essential manufacturing was allowed during the SoE, Singh said the parts of the manufacturing sector which were not operating can now do so.

However, he was concerned that crime could increase once the SoE and associated curfew were lifted.

"Crime was at comparatively lower levels during the pandemic due to the lockdowns, the SoE and curfew."

Noting Christmas is traditionally a booming period for businesses, Singh hoped there would be joint police-army patrols to help maintain law and order during this period.

He was also hopeful with the members of the new Police Service Commission to be sworn in soon, it would not be too much longer before a substantive commissioner of police is appointed.

On the safe-zone initiative, he said it had varying degrees of success.

"Cinemas and gyms appear to have high success with the safe zones."

Singh said while restaurants have been able to successfully operate as safe zones, "the same cannot be said for food courts."

The customer base for many shopping malls, he continued, is their food courts. "The safe zone policy for food courts needs to be tweaked to make it less discriminatory."

View original post here:

Business leaders: Time to live with covid19 - TT Newsday

As opposed to private-sector conflicts or disputes between people and organisations, an international conflict between nation states entail deaths, destruction, famine, displacement of millions of people and sometimes a change in the world map. The continued trend of creating and winning wars has lasting implications and destructive consequences. This approach has generated long-term uncertainties thereby leaving humanitys negative imprint on the global stage. The direct and indirect economic impact of prevailing tensions in the world needs to be realised and understood if the ultimate objective is to achieve lasting peace. Otherwise, this perfectly delimitted situation may end up destroying the very essence of existence in the coming years.

The prevailing political unrest and economic injustice is making it increasingly difficult to visualise a comparatively peaceful future for the human race on planet Earth. Whether economic injustice breeds political unrest or vice versa, the unfortunate fact remains that advancement in technology has further widened the yawning gap between the rich and the poor besides quietly taking away the most important facet of existencelife.

Rather than trying to address and resolve the existing conflicts and work towards global peace, precious mental and material resources are being used to find ways of subduing the enemy through innovative ways and means. Centuries old cause of conflict relating to the thought this is mine still remains relevant when one looks around and closely observes what is happening around the world. The irony is that the majority of these conflicts are being addressed by those who actually were involved in creating them in the first place, sometimes openly, other times from behind the scenes. The situation gets even more complicated when the locals claim a war imposed by foreigners as their own.

Presently, there are several war-zones wherein human and economic loss has become a routine matter. Socio-economic grievances and ethno-nationalism have resulted in the killing of hundreds and displacing of millions, bringing Ethiopia perhaps on the verge of becoming another Yugoslavia. Yemen, being the critical fault line in the Middle East rivalry between two Muslim states has already claimed more than 100,000 lives with local, regional and international involvement. Ever since Qaddafi was overthrown in 2011, Libya is split into two parallel administrative units. The tribal clashes and other factors have made it another area of outside competition amongst at least four Muslim countries.

Militants are waging insurgency in Burkina Faso, displacing over 500,000 people and bringing the country on the verge of collapse. Presence of local IS and Al Qaeda elements are further aggravating the already gloomy political and social scenario. Syria, a story of broken promises and false hopes, has become a coliseum for international show of force, killing more than 400,000 people since 2011 while displacing millions. Seven million people of the oil-rich Venezuela need humanitarian aid after experiencing crushing poverty, controversial elections, two governments at the same time and a possible collapse of public services. Ukraines over seven-year-old conflict with separatists in the countrys eastern Donbas region is awaiting a comprehensive ceasefire and further disengagement at front-line positions.

The simmering tensions amongst Iran, Israel and the US particularly after the Trump administrations decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear agreement and impose mounting unilateral sanctions against Tehran and ending already-limited exemptions on Irans oil sales add to the existing tensions in the Persian Gulf region. Then there are military tensions in the Himalayan border, Taiwan and the South China Sea. Add into it the threats of nuclear annihilation, stepping up short-range ballistic missile tests and the ongoing US-North Korea deadlock; Israeli military strikes inside Syria, Lebanon & Palestine; Jammu and Kashmir dispute and unending tensions between India and Pakistan and one could clearly see a number of flash points ready to explode by design or by accident. The Sino-US race for global governance and dominance has made it perhaps the most important area of future conflicts. As if it was not enough, the sudden conquering of Afghanistan by its own people has added a totally different dimension to the nature of existing conflicts.

Not that the world is unaware of different approaches, techniques, processes, mechanisms or strategies to resolve an international conflict. Neither is there any dearth of regional and international frameworks of interaction to forestall or effectively deal with any conflict. There exists a wealth of general as well as usable knowledge of addressing intrastate and interstate conflicts, from structural prevention to operational prevention to normative and formal to multilateral peace process to establishing Truth Commissions, an array of institutionalised frameworks is available to successfully deal with international disputes. Not only will the powerful international actors be able to efficiently address an existing international dispute, but they are also able to prevent a conflict beforehand. One wonders at the extreme wisdom with which they move, employing discreet or open means to bringing out the most desirable outcome and that too with lightening speed such as a regime change in any third world country.

The worlds attention is accorded more to conflict of interest rather than conflict resolution. Furthermore, the worlds attention span on such routine matters as the assassination of President Jovenel Mose of Haiti and removal of Tunisian PM Mechichi in July is not more than a few minutes. The worlds attention may momentarily be diverted to any other emerging event next day before coming back to the prevailing conflicts in its fervent bid to exhibit willingness to contribute to the maximum to address these permanently and completely.

Even if we know that such disputes would remain as such and the announced efforts would not go beyond mere lip service unless some powerful actors national interest was brought into it seeking support for undertaking rectifying measures, we unconsciously express surprise while still holding firm opinions on each and every international conflict. The presence of hope and surprise is apparently keeping us moving forward. Otherwise, the ever-increasing indifference and psychological helplessness would have long consumed us.

The writer is a former Ambassador of Pakistan and author of seven books in three languages. He can be reached at najmussaqib

1960@msn.com

The prevailing political unrest and economic injustice is making it increasingly difficult to visualise a comparatively peaceful future

Read the original post:

Conflicts: Myth and reality - The Nation

Across Iran, there have been a reported number of 253 protests that have taken place between September 23 and October 7 with people coming from all walks of life to take to the streets and voice their concerns over Irans current social and economic crises.

The crises are a result of the Iranian regimes institutionalized corruption and their malign activities that have had devastating consequences for the Iranian people, with the majority of them being pushed below the poverty line and struggling to provide for their families. As the regime has yet to address any of the socio-economic problems, there is no end in sight for societys tension and outrage.

On Monday, farmers in the city of Isfahan held a demonstration outside of the local Water and Electricity organization to protest for their right to water irrigation. The angry farmers managed to storm the office in the building, despite a large anti-riot unit presence at the scene.

In the last few years, farmers in Isfahan have been holding protests and demanding their right to water irrigation. Eastern parts of Isfahan province have been deprived of natural water of Zayanderude river following the redirection of its water to other regions.

Monday also saw a protest in the city of Larestan in the Shiraz province. A group of locals gathered outside of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development office to protest the poor conditions of the Jahrom-Lae-Bandar Abbas transition road that runs through the area.

In Khuzestan, a demonstration took place for the third consecutive day with retirees of the Hafttappeh Sugarcane Factory in Shush demanding the payment of their long-overdue pensions and the wrong calculations of their bonuses.

On Sunday, several workers of Machine Sazi Arak held a protest gathering, demanding the immediate return of their fired co-workers, and an increase of salary in accordance with the current economic situation.

Four more protests took place on Sunday also. In Tabriz, retirees were demanding that their pensions should be adjusted to match the skyrocketing inflation rate in the country and the high costs of basic needs, while Miners of the Kerman Coal Company in southeast Iran demonstrated against the plans to privatize the mines and transfer their ownership to the Dalahu Company.

Another protest consisted of a group of nurses who work for Irans Social Security Organization. They rallied outside the regimes Majlis (parliament) in Tehran with a number of demands, including the number of legal provisions commensurate with the Ministry of Health to be increased, and the law on Hard and Harmful Occupations to be enforced.

According to the protesting nurses, the regime has increased pressure on them, despite their difficult working conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic. These nurses had also held a protest gathering on Saturday in front of the regimes Program and Budget Organization and Parliament.

Simultaneous protests were held in both Tehran and Mashhad on Sunday also by defrauded investors of the Caspian credit institution. The institution, which is affiliated with the notorious Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been scamming clients since 2016 by looting their deposits. Over the past few years, hundreds of protests have taken place by angry investors who have lost their life savings.

On Saturday, a number of teachers, who work in the most deprived areas of the East Azerbaijan province in Iran, took to the streets to demand their wages that have been delayed for 14 months. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the teachers still had to work but have been devoid of any payment of their salaries for almost a year and a half. As their usual salaries are around 3 million tomans, many teachers are living way below the poverty line.

On November 9, the state-run Jahan-e Sanat daily warned that the, Lack of economic security, increasing financial problems, the severe decline in peoples livelihoods, growing inequalities, discrimination and the peoples distrust of officials with their consequences, growth and expansion lead in the long run to the systems collapse.

Read more here:

Iran: Record Number of Protests Took Place Within a Two-Week Period Between September and October - Iran Focus