Category Archives: Socio-economic Collapse

There are also many countries presumed to be on top of the pandemic that are now facing new flare-ups. China is a case in point, with the recent outbreak of the Delta strain in Guangzhou, a city of more than 18 million and capital of the southern Guangdong province.

Partly because of previous success in pandemic control, China has not been at the forefront of vaccination, but the sheer speed of its reaction in Guangzhou was astonishing, with nearly all the citizens tested within three days across the entire city, followed by the immediate and near-total lockdown of affected neighbourhoods.

And its not just China much of Asia has experienced reversals. Thailand, Taiwan and Australia were all considered to be success stories but have had to react to flare-ups, while hospitals in Myanmar are reported to be in a state of collapse. These examples lay bare the severe danger of allowing the virus to re-emerge in a more potent form (Delta) when vaccination levels are still low.

The core problem is that there is a persistent global viral pool, with the virus circulating in many different social, economic and ecological environments, giving myriad opportunities for mutation. The great majority of these variants are less dangerous than the norm but in the space of less than a year there have already been four of concern, Alpha through to Delta. The most recent, Delta, has proved to be the most worrying and easily spread given that it is more than 50% more transmissible and has some degree of resistance to vaccines.

Experienced epidemiologists are concerned about this rate of variant evolution because it is common sense that variants of concern will arise, and they may be more infectious, vaccine-resistant, or a combination of both, but this is not being taken into account in global strategy. Unless sustained global action is taken, then judging by present trends, we could be heading from a disaster into an utter catastrophe.

To avoid even more deaths on a large scale, global vaccination is urgently needed by the end of this year, and not the end of next year as planned. This must be combined with improved test and trace systems right across the world, far more effective border controls and improvements in countries health services wherever required. Of course, the logistics of such operations are gigantic with 15 billion doses of vaccine needed as are the costs.

Estimates for vaccine production and delivery vary but figures of $100bn worldwide are likely not far off the mark. And of course there are the extra costs of emergency aid to improve many countries health facilities, as well as yearly boosters and modified vaccines for new variants.

To be realistic, costs could easily run to $200bn over the first few months and $100bn a year in the years to come. Those figures sound out of this world, so its worth bringing in two bits of perspective here.

The first is that during the initial phase of the pandemic from April to July last year, the worlds 2,158 billionaires increased their collective wealth by more than $2.5trn, ten times what is required for global vaccination, and the 2021 edition of The Sunday Times Rich list showed that the pandemic spawned more billionaires in Britain than ever.

The second is that $200bn over 12 months, even if that is a ballpark figure, is still only 10% of global annual spending on military defence, to seemingly protect nations security. COVID-19 has killed about ten million people in a year and a half. If this virus is not a security threat of epic proportions, then what is?

If rapid action isnt taken soon, more lethal variants will arise and the ultimate death toll could surpass 30 million, causing long-term consequences for human health and the socio-economic wellbeing of many countries worldwide.

This is an opportunity for leaders to rethink what security actually means and learn the value of cooperation with other nations. If we can leave behind the inward-looking mentality that has caused the unravelling of Britains fight against COVID-19, and work together as a global community to really get on top of the pandemic, then we have some hope of responding to the even greater challenge of climate breakdown.

Correction, 19 June 2021: When this article was first published, it misstated the number of doses needed for global vaccination. This has now been corrected

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COVID-19 is a bigger threat than war. So why isn't it funded the same? - Open Democracy

In The News is a roundup of stories from The Canadian Press designed to kickstart your day. Here is what's on the radar of our editors for the morning of June 17 ...

What we are watching in Canada ...

The rush to get initial doses of COVID-19 vaccines appears to be slowing down in the Prairies, with the rate of the eligible population getting a first shot hovering around 70 per cent in the three provinces.

Canada's chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, is warning that the country has to up its vaccination game, so efforts are being made to persuade more people to roll up their sleeves.

"We're seeing sort of a saturation of first doses ... and that is a concerning phenomenon that we need to address," Dr. Philippe Lagace-Wiens, a medical microbiologist at St. Boniface Hospital in Winnipeg, said in an interview this week.

Timothy Caulfield, a Canada Research Chair in health law and policy at the University of Alberta, is seeing the same trend in Alberta. He is optimistic the province can surpass 80 per cent "if we really try."

"It's going to be tough. It's going to require that we use every tool at our disposal," Caulfield said.

Lagace-Wiens and Caulfield say people who have not yet been vaccinated include outright pandemic deniers, people who are hesitant and those who face mobility, cultural or socio-economic barriers.

Recent data compiled by the Manitoba government has attempted to lay out the size of each group.

The data, a compilation of opinion surveys and online feedback first released in March, estimated 69 per cent of Manitobans were "keeners" intent on getting doses as soon as they could.

It said another 12 per cent were likely to get the vaccine but were not in a rush, about nine per cent were skeptical and undecided, and fewer than 10 per cent were adamant that they would not get a shot.

The government released updated data this month that estimated the number of keeners had risen while all other categories had dropped.

Governments are trying carrots more than sticks to win over the hesitant. Manitoba and Alberta are offering lotteries with prizes totalling millions of dollars. There are ad campaigns urging people to get a vaccine to protect their loved ones, or to help move a province to the point where it can reopen concert venues, theatres and large sporting events.

Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe said this week his government will not hold a lottery.

"You get to protect your family, your friends, your loved ones and everyone around you from this COVID virus," Moe said Tuesday.

"If you like to gamble, then I would suggest to you dont get your shot. The prize is not what you think."

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Also this ...

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International say Canada detains thousands of asylum seekers every year in often abusive conditions where people of colour appear to be held for longer periods.

The two leading human rights organizations documented in a joint report how people in immigration detention, including those fleeing persecution and seeking protection in Canada, are regularly handcuffed, shackled and held with little to no contact with the outside world.

The secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada says the countrys abusive immigration detention system is in stark contrast to the rich diversity and the values of equality and justice that Canada is known for.

Ketty Nivyabandi says there should be no place in Canada for racism, cruelty, and human rights violations against people coming to this country seeking safety and a better life.

The Canada Border Services Agency says on its website that individuals may be detained for a number of reasons, including if they have criminal convictions, if they lack "ties to the community" or if they may be a danger to the public or the security of Canada.

It says a national immigration detention framework introduced in 2016, with a five-year investment of $138 million, created a "better, fairer" system that supports the "humane and dignified treatment of individuals while protecting public safety."

Nivyabandi says Canada should sign and ratify the United Nations' Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture to further prevent violations and open detention sites for international inspection.

She adds Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch are calling on the Canadian authorities to end the inhumane treatment of people in the immigration and refugee protection system by gradually ending immigration detention in Canada.

The 100-page report says people can be held for months or years on immigration-related grounds. Detainees who are from communities of colour, particularly Black detainees, appear to be held for longer periods, often in provincial jails, it says.

The report says Canada locked up 8,825 people between the ages of 15 and 83, including 1,932 in provincial jails between April 2019 and March 2020.

During the same period, 136 children were put in detention to avoid separating them from their detained parents, including 73 children under age six.

Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International found that Canada has held more than 300 immigration detainees for longer than a year since 2016.

The report includes 90 interviews with former immigration detainees and their relatives, mental health experts, academics, lawyers, civil society representatives, and government officials.

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What we are watching in the U.S. ...

WASHINGTON The United States will soon have a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the nation.

The House passed a bill Wednesday that would make Juneteenth, or June 19th, a federal holiday. The House voted 415-14 to make Juneteenth the 12th federal holiday.

Juneteenth commemorates when the last enslaved African Americans learned they were free. Confederate soldiers surrendered in April 1865, but word didnt reach the last enslaved Black people until June 19, when Union soldiers brought the news of freedom to Galveston, Texas.

The bill now goes to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature.

Its the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983.

"Our federal holidays are purposely few in number and recognize the most important milestones," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-NY. "I cannot think of a more important milestone to commemorate than the end of slavery in the United States."

The Senate passed the bill a day earlier under a unanimous consent agreement that expedites the process for considering legislation. It takes just one senators objection to block such agreements.

Some Republican lawmakers opposed the effort. Rep. Matt Rosendale, R-Mont., said creating the federal holiday was an effort to celebrate "identity politics."

"Since I believe in treating everyone equally, regardless of race, and that we should be focused on what unites us rather than our differences, I will vote no," he said in a news release.

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What we are watching in the rest of the world ...

GENEVA U.S. President Joe Biden and Russias Vladimir Putin have exchanged cordial words and plotted out modest next steps on arms control and diplomacy.

But the two leaders emerged from their much-anticipated Swiss summit Wednesday largely where they started with deep differences on human rights, cyberattacks, election interference and more.

They did reach an important, but hardly relationship-changing agreement to return their chief diplomats to Moscow and Washington after each was called home as the relationship deteriorated in recent months. And Biden and Putin agreed to start working on a plan to fortify their countries last remaining treaty limiting nuclear weapons.

But their three hours of talks on the shores of Lake Geneva left both men standing firmly in the same positions they had started in.

"Im not confident hell change his behaviour," Biden said at a post-summit news conference, when he was asked about what evidence he saw that former KGB agent Putin would adjust his ways and actions. "What will change his behaviour is the rest of the world reacts to them, and they diminish their standing in the world. Im not confident in anything."

Both the White House and Kremlin had set low expectations going into the summit. They issued an joint statement after the conclusion that said their meeting showed the "practical work our two countries can do to advance our mutual interests and also benefit the world."

Putin showed defiance at questions about Biden pressing him on human rights, but he also expressed respect for the U.S. president as an experienced political leader.

He noted that Biden repeated wise advice his mother had given him and that American president also spoke about his family messaging that Putin said might not have been entirely relevant to their summit but demonstrated Biden's "moral values."

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On this day in 1958 ...

The collapse of the half-finished Second Narrows bridge at Vancouver killed 18 workers and injured 20.

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In entertainment ...

TORONTO "Kim's Convenience" star Simu Liu says there's a lesson to be learned from the way the hit Korean-Canadian family comedy ended.

The Toronto-raised actor addressed the situation on the CBC series in a virtual chat with musician and actor Sook-Yin Lee at the Banff World Media Festival, following up on his Facebook post earlier this month that decried a lack of East Asian and female representation among writers for the show.

Liu said the show had an "overwhelmingly white" team of producers who shut out creative input from the cast of Asian Canadians.

Liu acknowledged creative differences can exist on any show but said he was upset about the way producers cancelled "Kim's Convenience" a show lauded for its cultural representation.

"To see such a Canadian success story snuffed out in such an anticlimactic and almost pathetic kind of way, it did not befit a show of that calibre and of that social reach and social quality," Liu told Lee in Wednesday's Banff chat.

"It really got me thinking about the importance of representation. And when I say representation, I mean so much more than what you see on the surface in front of the screen. I think it is so important to have voices in the decision-making process that are sensitive to the groups that your show or your production represents.

"In the case of 'Kim's Convenience,' that was Korean Canadians, that was East Asian Canadians, and we rightly felt like we didn't have that voice in the writers' room or at the creators' table."

A representative for the show said Wednesday "the producers don't have any further comments at this time."

The star of Marvel's upcoming film "Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings" is among several cast members to speak publicly about being unhappy with the way producers ended the show after its fifth season because co-creators Ins Choi and Kevin White were moving on to pursue other projects.

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ICYMI ...

OTTAWA A Parliamentary committee says the rights of air travellers need to better protected, while airlines and airports should be in line for more financial help as the industry recovers from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the standing committee on transport, infrastructure and communities says any financial support from the government should be on the condition that airlines immediately refund Canadian travellers for pandemic related cancellations and that they restore regional routes in the country.

Airlines dropped multiple routes in regions, including Atlantic Canada, during the pandemic as passenger volume plummeted with COVID-19 restrictions.

The report acknowledges the air transport industry will need extended financial relief that outlasts existing government subsidies, and that programs like wage subsidies and rent relief must continue past the summer for airlines and airports.

Vance Badawey, A Liberal MP who is chair of the committee, said in a statement that the recommendations are "aimed at maintaining the sector's competitiveness, protecting jobs and ensuring the health and safety of workers, passengers and the Canadian public."

The committee report says any federal aid should be aimed at protecting existing jobs and rehiring workers. It also calls on the government to form a detailed aviation restart program, something that airlines and travel operators have been calling for to help the industries develop a clear plan for the coming months.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 17, 2021

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Vaccine hesitancy in the Prairies, abuse of asylum seekers : In The News for June 17 - Kamloops This Week

Forced into a two-week lockdown which Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin had just days earlier said would be catastrophic for the economy, Malaysia's hopes of a swift return to pre-pandemic GDP levels this year have evaporated.

The head of its Covid-19 response has also put paid to any notion of a swift exit from the shutdown, warning that it could be the final quarter of the year before a rampant surge in infections is under control.

Most analysts have lowered their growth projections to below the official 6 per cent to 7.5 per cent forecast, with even state-linked Affin Hwang Investment reducing its estimate by a whopping 2 percentage points to 4 per cent.

Despite 17 economic sectors being allowed to operate with 60 per cent staff during phase one of the lockdown, the investment house said in a report yesterday that it estimated daily losses to be up to RM2 billion (S$641 million).

A looser four-week phase two would ensue if case numbers drop, before a phase three similar to last month's soft-touch movement control order (MCO) returns.

But Director-General of Health Noor Hisham Abdullah said on Sunday that with aggressive new variants spreading across the country, a "strategy of combining public health measures and increasing vaccination rates... may be able to flatten the curve in three to four months".

Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz said yesterday that there would be a downward revision of the gross domestic product, but "it is still relatively early so we are calculating the impact" of the lockdown and much would depend on the "success of the vaccination programme".

"That's our exit strategy. We are putting as much of our resources as possible to get as high a number of people vaccinated in the next couple of months," he told reporters, adding that densely populated economic centres such as the Klang Valley should reach herd immunity by October.

But Malaysia has fully vaccinated only 3.5 per cent of its population against Covid-19 so far, and has yet to average even half of the 250,000 doses it must administer daily to hit its 80 per cent inoculation target.

The premier had said on May 23 that the government was avoiding a lockdown to avert economic collapse. But his hand was forced after three weeks of the MCO - barring inter-district travel and social activities but leaving economic sectors largely untouched - failed to suppress Malaysia's worst coronavirus wave. Death and infection numbers kept rising to new records.

In May alone, more than 1,200 people succumbed to the disease, nearly half the total since the pandemic began, while more than 160,000 were infected, which is 29 per cent of cases to date.

When the first MCO was imposed in March last year, strict stay-home directives saw GDP bleed RM2.4 billion a day, and the government eventually spent RM55 billion across the year to ease the fallout. Malaysia's economy shrank 5.6 per cent last year - its worst decline since the 1998 Asian financial crisis.

But while unveiling a RM40 billion aid package on Monday night, hours before the lockdown took effect, Tan Sri Muhyiddin admitted that "the government has limited fiscal space to spend at this moment" which resulted in the "Pemerkasa Plus" involving a meagre RM5 billion of actual spending from state coffers.

Barclays regional economist Brian Tan noted the "very limited fiscal injection... amounts to less than half of the previous RM11 billion... announced in March to support the economic recovery following MCO 2.0".

Key initiatives in Pemerkasa Plus may not last long enough to help smaller firms and Malaysia's poorest weather the storm.

The RM1.5 billion in wage subsidies will benefit an estimated 2.5 million workers for a month, while RM2.1 billion in cash handouts range from RM500 to each of the poorest families, to just RM100 for each household with a monthly income between RM2,501 and RM5,000.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and the poorest 40 per cent of the population can choose between a three-month loan moratorium, or reducing instalments by half for six months.

SME Association president Michale Kang had previously said four in 10 members had planned to cut jobs or suspend operations without loan moratoriums and subsidies for wages and rent.

Malaysians have already flooded social media with accounts of forced unpaid leave or salary cuts, with some pointing out they have yet to find new jobs after being fired or closing their businesses last year.

But Socio-Economic Research Centre chief Lee Heng Guie believes the impact of the lockdown will not be so severe - potentially up to 0.7 per cent of GDP - as booming industries such as export-focused manufacturing and retail are still allowed to operate.

"Business enterprises have accumulated RM24.1 billion during the period between February 2020 and March 2021 for their cash flow needs. Many soft loans, funds and credit facilities established last year for SMEs and businesses are not fully utilised and would continue this year," he told The Straits Times, adding that financial institutions have also rolled out targeted assistance to debtors.

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Surge in cases douses hopes of economic recovery this year - The Straits Times

Socialism and the path to socialism in Vietnam is a truly fundamental theoretical and practical topic of great importance. It covers a broad array of diverse and complex issues under various approaches, and requires both painstaking and serious investigation, and a deep and scientific stocktaking of practice. Within the scope of this writing, I would like to touch upon some aspects from Vietnam's practical perspective. I would only focus on answering the following questions: What is socialism? Why did Vietnam choose the socialist path? How to gradually build socialism in Vietnam? How significant have the Doi Moi (Renewal) and the building of socialism been in Vietnam over the past years? And what are the issues facing this process?

As we are well aware that socialism is usually understood in three aspects: socialism as a doctrine, socialism as a movement, and socialism as a polity. Each aspect has different manifestations, depending on the world outlook and development level in a specific historical period. The socialism as referred to in this writing is a scientific socialism, based on Marxism - Leninism in the world today. How, then, shall we define socialism and chart the course towards socialism, in a manner suitable to the particular condition and characteristics in Vietnam?

Previously, while the Soviet Union and its constellation of socialist countries existed in the world, the question of advancing towards socialism in Vietnam seemed beyond doubt and implicitly validated. However, after the collapse of the socialist model in the Soviet Union and many other Eastern European countries and the decline of the world revolution, the advancement towards socialism was once again put into question and became the topic for every discussion, even drawing heated debate.

Anti-communism and political opportunists rejoiced, and seized that opportunity to spread misinformation and subvert the movement. Within the revolutionary rank, there are also those who wallowed in pessimism and faltered. Some began to doubt the correctness and science of socialism, and blamed the dissolution of the Soviet Union on the errors of Marxism-Leninism and the choice of socialism as the way forward.

From this premise, they believe we have chosen the wrong way and must march on another path. Some echoed the hostile arguments, disparaged and criticized socialism, and indulged in one-sided praise of capitalism. Some even claimed repentance for having had faith in Marxism-Leninism and socialism. But is this the truth? Is it true that capitalism today, including those long-standing capitalist countries, are still growing well? Has Vietnam chosen the wrong way?

We concur that capitalism has never been more global as it is today, and has achieved immense accomplishments, especially in liberating and developing the productive capacity and advancing science and technology. Many developed capitalist countries, building on their advanced economic foundation and also thanks to the struggle of the working class and working people, have made adjustments and set up considerable social welfare schemes that are more progressive than before. Since the mid-1970s, and particularly after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, international capitalism spared no effort to adjust itself and promoted neo-liberalism at the global scale in order to adapt to new conditions. For this reason, it is still able to grow further. Yet capitalism still cannot address its innate and fundamental contradictions. Crises continue to break out. Most notably, in 2008 and 2009 we witnessed a financial crisis and economic recession starting in the United States. It then rapidly spread to other centres of capitalism and affected nearly every country in the world. Capitalist states and governments in the West injected huge amounts of money into their system to save transnational corporations, industrial, financial and banking complexes, and security markets, but they only gained limited success. And today we witness a multi-faceted health, social, political and economic crisis unfolding under the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. An economy in recession has unmasked social injustice within capitalist societies. The living standard of the majority of working people is falling dramatically while unemployment rises. The rich-poor gap grows larger, exacerbating antagonism and conflict among ethnicities. Instances of bad development and anti-development paradoxes have spilled over from the economic and financial domain into social life, igniting social conflicts. In many places, economic incidents became political ones, where waves of demonstrations and strikes would shake the entire regime. Reality has shown us that the free market of capitalism itself cannot help solve these problems, and in many cases even causes serious harm to poor countries and deepens the conflict between global labour and global capital. This reality also rips apart economic theories or development models that have long been considered as in vogue. They were praised by bourgeois politicians and viewed as optimal and sensible by bourgeois experts.

The economic and financial crises are accompanied by the energy and food crises, the exhaustion of natural resources and the degradation of the environment and ecosystem. These are posing monumental challenges to the existence and development of mankind. They are the consequences of a process of economic and social development that crowned profit as its supreme end, that esteemed the possession of wealth and consumption of material as the yardstick of civilization, and that upholds individual interest as the pillar of society. Such are the core characteristics of the capitalist mode of production and consumption. The ongoing crises once again prove the economic, social and ecological unsustainability of capitalism. According to many scientists, the present crises are impossible to be fully resolved within the framework of a capitalist regime.

Recent social protest movements flaring up in many developed capitalist countries have further exposed the truth about the nature of capitalist polities. In fact, democratic institutions in the mould of freedom and democracy that the West spares no effort to promote and impose upon the world at large not at all guarantee that power shall truly be of the people, by the people and for the people - what democracy means at its core. This system of power still belongs mainly to the wealthy few and serves the interest of large capitalist cartels. A tiny minority, even just about 1% of the population, possesses the vast majority of wealth and means of production, controls three quarter of financial and knowledge resources and the mainstream mass media, and accordingly dominates the entire society. This is the root cause of the 99% versus 1% movement in the United States in early 2011, which has since spread like wildfire into other capitalist countries. The claim of equal rights detached from equal opportunities to exercise these rights led to democracy in name only - emptiness and without substance. In political life, once the power of money dominates, the power of the people shall be overpowered. This is why in developed capitalist countries, free and democratic elections, as they claim, may change governments, but may not change the ruling power. Behind the multi-party system in fact remains the dictatorship of capitalist cartels.

We need a society in which development is truly for humans, not for exploitation and dehumanization for the sake of profit. We need economic development accompanied by social progress and equality, not an increase in the gap between the rich and the poor or greater social inequity. We need a society of compassion, solidarity and mutual assistance towards progressive and humanistic values, not unfair competition where the weak are meat, and the strong do eat to satisfy the selfish interest of a few individuals and cliques. We need sustainable development in harmony with nature to secure a clean living environment for present and future generations, instead of unlimited exploitation and possession of resources, unrestrained consumption and destruction of the environment. And we need a political system where power truly belongs to the people, is enforced by the people and serve the people, not merely in the interest of the wealthy few. Such beautiful ideals are the true values of socialism, arent they? And, are they also the goal and the path that President Ho Chi Minh and our Party and people had chosen, the path upon which we persevere, arent they?

As we all know, the Vietnamese people have undergone a long, arduous and sacrifice-filled revolutionary struggle against colonialist and imperialist domination and invasion in order to defend the sacred national independence and sovereignty and for the freedom and happiness of our people, in the spirit of Nothing is more precious than independence and freedom.

National independence associated with socialism is the fundamental guideline of Vietnam's revolution and at the same time the quintessence in the theoretical legacy of President Ho Chi Minh. Through his wealth of practical experience, combined with the revolutionary and scientific theories of Marxism-Leninism, Ho Chi Minh came to a profound conclusion that only socialism and communism may fully answer the question of national independence and bring about freedom, wellbeing and happiness to everyone and every nation.

Since its inception and throughout its revolutionary struggle, the Communist Party of Vietnam has always asserted that socialism is the goal and ideal of the Communist Party and people of Vietnam, and that advancing towards socialism is an objective demand of and the inevitable course of Vietnamese revolution. In 1930, in its Political Platform, the Communist Party of Vietnam stated its line of action: to carry out a peoples national democratic revolution under the leadership of the working class and advance towards socialism, bypassing the stage of capitalism. In the late 20th century, while a large part of the socialist realism in the world collapsed, the bloc of socialist states ceased to exist and the socialist movement entered a period of crisis, decline and hardship, the Communist Party of Vietnam continued to hold that "Our Party and people are determined to build Vietnam on the path towards socialism on the basis of Marxism- Leninism and Ho Chi Minh thought. At the 11th National Congress of the Communist Party (January 2011), in the Platform for National construction in the period of transition to socialism (amended and further developed in 2011), once again we affirmed that "Advancing to socialism is the aspiration of our people and the correct choice of the Communist Party of Vietnam and President Ho Chi Minh, and is in line with the development trajectory of history".

However, What is socialism, and how shall we advance to socialism? That is the question we are always pondering, deliberating, investigating and weighing, in order to gradually improve our guideline and viewpoint, and organize for their implementation, so as to both observe the general law and satisfy the particular conditions in Vietnam.

During the years of Doi Moi, based on the review of praxis and study of theory, the Communist Party of Vietnam has been gradually reaching a more complete and profound understanding of socialism and the transition into socialism. We have in stages addressed simplistic ideas we held previously, such as homogenizing the end goal of socialism with the task currently at hand, one-sidedly stressing production relations and equal distribution without fully realizing the need to develop the productive force in the transition period, not recognizing the existence of other economic sectors, putting the market economy in the same basket as capitalism, and viewing the rule-of-law state as the same as a bourgeois state, just to name a few.

As of today, while there remain areas for further study, we have established an overarching understanding: The socialist society that the Vietnamese people are making all efforts to build is a society where the people are well-off, the nation is strong and the people are owners, a society characterized by democracy, equality and civilization. It possesses a highly developed economy on the basis of a modern productive force and suitable and progressive production relations. It enjoys an advanced culture imbued with national identity. Its people are entitled to wellbeing, freedom and happiness and are blessed with opportunities for comprehensive development. Ethnic groups in the Vietnamese community are equal, united, respectful and supportive of each other to grow together. It has a rule-of-law socialist state of the people, by the people and for the people under the leadership of the Communist Party. And it maintains friendship and cooperation with all countries in the world.

To achieve this goal, we must step up industrialization and modernization in conjunction with the development of a knowledge-based economy. We must also develop a socialist-oriented market economy, build an advanced culture imbued with national identity, boost human resource development, improve the people's living standards, and exercise social progress and equality. We must safeguard national defense and security, public order and security. We must implement the foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, multilateralization and diversification for peace, friendship, cooperation and development, and actively engage in international integration. We must build a socialist democracy, harness the will and power of all-nation unity in combination with the power of our time. We must build the socialist rule-of-law state of the people, by the people and for the people. We must build an untarnished, strong Party and polity in every respect.

The further our Party delves into practical guidance, the more we realize that the transition to socialism is a long-term and immensely challenging and complex task, for it must bring about profound, qualitative changes across all fields of social life. Vietnam embarked on its journey to socialism from its starting point as an underdeveloped agricultural country, bypassing the stage capitalism and with a very limited productive force. The country was further weakened by decades of wars resulting in severe devastation, and by the constant subversive attempts of hostile forces. These factors have hinder Vietnams path to socialism. As such it unavoidably requires a protracted transition that involves various stages and forms of socio-economic organization, with a struggle between the old and the new. To say that Vietnam bypasses the stage of capitalism, I mean the country bypasses a regime of oppression, inequality and capitalist exploitation, and bypasses harmful practices and political institutions and arrangements unsuitable in a socialist system. It does not mean that we must reject the accomplishments and values of civilization that mankind has achieved throughout the development of capitalism. Naturally, these achievements must be selectively absorbed via the lens of science and development.

The concept of developing a socialist-oriented market economy is a particularly fundamental and creative theoretical breakthrough of our Party. It is an important theoretical achievement gleaned through 35 years of implementing the Doi Moi, stemming from Vietnams praxis and selective absorption of experiences around the world. Our understanding is that, a socialist-oriented market economy is a modern market economy well integrated with the world. It is an economy that operates fully and cohesively in line with the laws of a market economy. It is regulated by a rule-of-law socialist state under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam. It upholds a socialist orientation towards the goals of an affluent people, prosperous nation, democratic, equitable and advanced society. It is a new form of market economy in the history of this economic model. It is a mode of economic organization that abides by the laws of the market economy, but is also built on and guided by the principles and nature of socialism. This is reflected in all three aspects, namely ownership, organization and governance, and distribution. This is not a capitalist market economy, and has yet to become a full-fledged socialist market economy (since our country is still undergoing the transition period).

A socialist-oriented market economy encompasses multiple forms of ownership and multiple economic sectors. Economic sectors operating in compliance with the law are important components of the economy. They are equal under the law in the interest of long-term development, cooperation and healthy competition. In this system, the state economy plays a key role; the collective economy is constantly consolidated and developed; the private sector is an important engine of the economy; the FDI sector is encouraged to develop consistently with the socio-economic development strategies and plans. Distribution relations must ensure fairness and create momentum for growth. Distribution is to be conducted primarily based on labor outcomes, economic efficiency, and capital and resource contributions. It should also be implemented via the system of social security and welfare. The state regulates the economy via the law, strategies, plans, policies and material resources so as to provide orientation to, regulate and stimulate socio-economic development.

A fundamental characteristic and important feature of the socialist orientation in the Vietnams market economy is the combination of economics and society, the coordination of economic and social policies. It also ensures that economic growth would be accompanied by social progress and equality in every stage, every policy, and throughout the development process. This means that we shall not wait until the economy has reached a high level of development to begin exercising social progress and equality. We also shall certainly not sacrifice social progress and equality in pursuit of mere economic growth. On the contrary, every economic policy should target the goal of social development, and every social policy should seek to promote economic growth. Encouraging people to enrich themselves legally should go hand in hand with promoting sustainable eradication of hunger and poverty reduction, and taking care of the disadvantaged and those who have rendered great service to the nation. This is a matter of principle to ensure a healthy, sustainable and socialist-oriented development.

We consider culture as a spiritual foundation of the society, an internal strength, an engine for national development and defense. We regard the holistic development of culture in harmony with economic growth, social progress and equality as a fundamental guideline underlying the construction of socialism in Vietnam. The culture that we are building is one of progress, rich in national identity. It is a culture of unity in diversity, on the basis of progressive and humanistic values. Marxism - Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thoughts play a primary role in the spiritual life of the society. We seek to build upon and advance the wholesome traditional values of all ethnicities within our country, and learn from the cultural achievements and quintessence of humanity at large. We strive to build an advanced and healthy society for the true interests and dignity of the people that fosters an increasingly higher level of knowledge, morality, physical fitness, lifestyle and aesthetics. We place the people at the heart of our development strategies. Cultural and human development are both the target and the momentum of Doi Moi. Cultivation of education - training and science - technology constitute our top national policy. Environmental protection is an existential issue and a criterion for sustainable development. The building of happy and progressive families produces a concrete foundation for the society, and the upholding of gender equality is the norm for progress and civilization.

A socialist society is one that strives toward progressive and humanistic values, based on the harmony between the common interests of the entire society and legitimate interests of the people. This is qualitatively different from other societies characterized by competition to acquire exclusive interest between individuals and groups. Therefore, it requires and is also able to cultivate social consensus rather than social opposition and antagonism. In a socialist political system, the relationship between the Party, State and people is a relationship between entities unified in their goals and interests. Every Party guideline, every government policy, law and action, aims to serve the interest and happiness of the people. The political model and its overall mode of operation involves the leadership of the Party, the management by the State, and the mastery by the people. Democracy is the nature of the socialist regime. It is both the goal and engine for the construction of socialism. Building a socialist democracy that ensures the real power belongs to the people is an ultimate and long-term mandate of Vietnams revolution. We aim to unceasingly promote democracy and build a law-governed socialist state that is truly of the people, for the people and by the people, on the basis of the alliance between workers, farmers and intellectuals under the leadership of the Communist Party of Vietnam. The State represents the peoples right to mastery, and organizes the implementation of the Partys guidelines. There are mechanisms in place to allow the people to exercise their right to direct mastery and democratic representative in all areas of society, and take part in the governance of society. We are aware that a law-governed socialist state, by nature, is different from a rule-of-law capitalist state. Legislative power under a capitalist regime is essentially an instrument to protect and serve the interests of the bourgeois class. By contrast, the rule of law under socialism is a tool to reflect and exercise the peoples right to mastery, to ensure and protect the interests of the majority of the people. Through the enforcement of the law, the State would secure conditions for the people to truly be the subject of political power, and exercise sole state power to address all actions that violate the interests of the Fatherland and the people. We, at the same time, consider the great national unity to be a source of strength and a decisive factor for the lasting victory of Vietnams revolution. Equality and unity among our ethnic groups and religions are constantly promoted.

Being deeply aware of the Communist Partys leadership is a factor that decides the success of the Doi Moi and ensures our countrys development in line with the socialist path, we pay special attention to party building and rectification. This task is critical to the survival of the Party and the socialist system. The Communist Party of Vietnam is the vanguard of the Vietnamese working class. The founding, existence and development of the Party aim to serve the interest of the working class, the working people, and the entire nation. As the Party takes the helms and leads the nation, it is recognized by the whole people as their vanguard, and is accordingly the vanguard of both the working class and the mass of working people and the entire Vietnamese nation. This is not meant to downplay the class nature of the Party, but rather to reflect a deeper and more complete understanding of this class nature, for the interest of the working class is aligned with that of the mass of working people and the entire nation. Our Party perseveres with Marxism - Leninism and Ho Chi Minh Thoughts as the foundation and lodestar for the revolution, and holds democratic centralism as the fundamental organizing principle. The Party asserts its leadership through its platforms, strategies, and major guidelines and policies. In practice, these are translated into information dissemination, persuasion, mobilization, organization, inspection, oversight. The Party also leads with Party members role models and holds the unified leadership of personnel work. As it understands that the risks to the ruling party are corruption, bureaucracy and degradation, particularly in a market economy, the Communist Party of Vietnam requires regular self-improvement and self-rectification, and deems it necessary to constantly combat opportunism, individualism, corruption, bureaucracy, extravagance and moral degradation within the Party and the entire political system.

The Doi Moi, including the development of the socialist-oriented market economy, has truly brought about enormous and positive changes to our country over the past 35 years.

Prior to the Doi Moi (in 1986), Vietnam used to be a poor and war-torn country, with devastated human lives, infrastructure, and environment. For instance, to date, millions of people fall victim to grave diseases, and hundreds of thousands of children are born with birth defects and disabilities due to Agent Orange/dioxin used by the US Army during wartime. According to experts, it would take another 100 years or more for Vietnam to fully remove the remaining post-war unexploded ordnance (UXOs). After the war, the US and the Western imposed economic sanctions on Vietnam for nearly 20 years. That period also saw complex developments in the region and the world, to our detriment. There was a severe shortage of food and essential goods, and our people lived in great hardships, with three quarters of the population living under the poverty line.

Thanks to the Doi Moi, our economy has begun to thrive, enjoying a relatively high growth rate over the course of 35 years at around 7% per year. Our GDP is continually expanding, reaching US$342.7 billion in 2020 and becomes the 4th largest economy in ASEAN. Per-capita income has increased seventeen-fold to US$3,512. Vietnam successfully graduated from low-income status in 2008. From a country faced with constant food shortages, at present, Vietnam not only is able to ensure food security, but also has become a leading exporter of rice and various other agricultural products in the world. Our industries are flourishing, the shares of industry and services in our GDP are constantly increasing, and today account for 85% of total GDP. Our foreign trade turnover is growing dramatically, exceeding US$540 billion in 2020, in which exports reached over US$280 billion. Our foreign exchange reserves jumped to US$100 billion in 2020. Foreign direct investment is also rapidly expanding, with a total registered capital of nearly US$395 billion by late 2020. With regard to our economic structure in terms of ownership, the state sector accounts for 27% of Vietnams total GDP, the collective economy for 4%, the household economy for 30%, the domestic private sector for 10%, and the FDI sector for 20%.

Vietnam today has a population of over 97 million people across 54 brotherly ethnic groups, 60% of whom residing in rural areas. Economic development has delivered the country from the socio-economic crisis of the 1980s and remarkably improved the peoples living standards. The percentage of poor households falls by 1.5% every year on average, from 58% in 1993 to 5.8% in 2016 by the Government poverty standards, and to less than 3% in 2020 according to the multidimensional poverty index (whose standards are higher than previously). Today, more than 60% of communes have met the standards of new-style rural areas. Most of them enjoy car roads leading into their neighborhood center, national power line coverage, primary and secondary schools, clinics, and telephone services. While we are yet able to provide free education at all levels for all, Vietnam have been focusing its efforts on eradicating illiteracy. We realized universal primary education in 2000 and universal secondary education in 2010. The number of university and college students has increased by 17 times over the last 35 years. Currently, 95% of Vietnamese adults are literate. While we have yet to achieve universal health coverage, we are focusing on enhancing preventive healthcare, epidemic prevention and control, and providing support for disadvantaged persons. Many once-prevalent diseases have been successfully curbed. The poor, children under 6, and the elderly are provided with free health insurance coverage. Children malnutrition and infant mortality have been slashed about three-fold. Average life expectancy has gone up from 62 years in 1990 to 73.7 years in 2020. Thanks to economic progress, we have also been able to take better care of people with significant contributions to the revolution and Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, and tend to the graves of martyrs who sacrificed themselves for the Fatherland. The cultural life has also been significantly enriched with a diverse and growing range of cultural activities. 70% of the population now have internet access and Vietnam is among the worlds fastest-developing IT countries. The United Nations has recognized Vietnam as one of the leading countries in reaching the Millennium Development Goals. In 2019, Vietnams Human Development Index (HDI) value reached 0.704, putting the country in the high human development category. This is a commendable achievement, especially compared to countries at a similar level of development.

Thus, we can say that the implementation of Doi Moi has delivered clear, profound and positive transformations in Vietnam. The economy is booming and the productive force is strengthened. Poverty is rapidly and constantly falling. The peoples living standard is improving and many social issues have been addressed. Political and social stability, defense, and security are well-safeguarded. We enjoy an increasingly broader foreign relations and more extensive international integration. Our national standing and power are growing and the peoples trust in the Partys leadership is bolstered.

In its review of 20 years of Doi Moi, the 10th National Party Congress (2006) noted that the Doi Moi process has garnered immense historic achievements. Indeed, in many respects, the Vietnamese people nowadays enjoy living standards higher than ever before. It is one of the reasons why the Doi Moi initiated and led by the Communist Party of Vietnam receives such support, and is actively implemented by the broad mass of Vietnamese citizenry. The successes of Doi Moi have proved that socialist-oriented development is not only more economically positive, but also capable of better addressing social problems, than is the case in capitalist countries at the same level of economic development. The extraordinary results and accomplishments of Vietnam amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and global recession since early 2020 have been recognized and commended by international friends and peoples, thus illustrating the superiority of the socialist system in our country. Recently, the 13th National Party Congress once again asserted and emphasized that After 35 years of Doi Moi, 30 years of implementing the Platform for national development during the transition to socialism, the theories on Doi Moi, socialism, and the path towards socialism in Vietnam are becoming more complete and gradually translated into reality. We have achieved tremendous and historic progress, and are developing more vigorously and comprehensively compared to the pre-Doi Moi era. With all due modesty, we can say that Never has our country had such fortune, potential, international standing and prestige as it does today. Such progress is the crystallization of the creativity of the entire Party, people and army, and the product of our enduring and constant endeavor over the many past terms of office. It is testimony to the correctness of our path to socialism. It proves that this process is well in line with objective laws, the situation in Vietnam, and the development trajectory of our times. It demonstrates that the Doi Moi guideline set by the Party is correct and innovative. It proves that the leadership of the Party is the foremost element that decides all victories of the revolution in Vietnam. The political platform of the Party continues to be the ideological banner that strengthens our peoples resolve and leads them along the path of comprehensive and holistic Doi Moi. It serves as the foundation for our Party to improve its guideline for the building and defense of our Fatherland, the Socialist State of Vietnam, in the new era. (Documents of the 13th National Party Congress, volume 1, National Political Publishing House, Hanoi, 2021, page 25-26).

Apart from the dominant streak of achievements and positive aspects, there remain considerable drawbacks and limitations, in addition to emerging challenges that we must face in our national development.

Economically, Vietnam's growth quality and competitiveness remain low and not very sustainable. Infrastructure lacks coherence, and the effectiveness and capability of many businesses, including state-owned enterprises, are limited. The environment in many areas suffers from pollution. The administration and regulation of the market still exhibit many shortcomings. Meanwhile, competition is growing increasingly fiercer against the backdrop of globalization and international integration.

Socially, the wealth gap is on the rise, while the quality of education, healthcare and other public services still leaves much to desire. Our culture and social morality shows signs of decline in certain aspects, and crime and social evils continue to see complex developments. Most alarmingly, corruption, extravagance, degradation in political thought, morality and lifestyle can be observed in a portion of cadres and Party members. At the same time, hostile forces are trying all means to intervene, subvert, cause instability and carry out peaceful evolution in order to undermine socialism in Vietnam.

Our Party recognizes that Vietnam is in a transitional period towards socialism. During this transition, socialist elements are taking shape, intertwined and competing against non-socialist elements, including capitalist elements in a number of areas.

This overlap and competition become even more complex and intense against the backdrops of the market economy, openness, and international integration. Apart from achievements and positive developments, there will always be negative aspects and challenges that demand rational consideration and prompt and effective resolution. This is an arduous and grueling struggle that requires a new vision, new resolve, and new drive for innovation. Advancing towards socialism is a period of tirelessly bolstering, augmenting and harnessing socialist elements so that they would become more dominant and superior, and ultimately triumph. Success or failure depends, first and foremost, on the correctness of the Party guideline and its political fortitude, leadership, and combativeness.

Presently, we are continuing to accelerate the transformation of our growth model and economic restructuring with greater focus on quality and sustainability. In this connection, we have identified the following breakthroughs: the synchronous improvement of development institutions, with priority given to the socialist-oriented market economy; the development of human resources, particularly highly-skilled workers; and the development of synchronized and modern infrastructure, economically and socially (Documentation of the XIII Congress, volume 2, pp. 337 - 338).

With regards to social development, we continue to promote sustainable poverty reduction, improve the quality of healthcare, education and other public services, and further enhance peoples cultural life. The entire Party, people and army are making every effort to study and emulate President Ho Chi Minh's thoughts, morality and style with the determination to stem and reverse the degeneration in political ideology, morality, and lifestyles among a portion of cadres and Party members, primarily leadership and managerial cadre at all levels. We shall strive to better implement the principles of Party organization and building, in order to ensure the Party organization and the state apparatus will grow stronger and free from taint, maintain the Party's revolutionary nature and improve its leadership capacity and combativeness.

Both theory and praxis have shown that building socialism means creating a qualitatively new type of society, which is by no means a simple or easy task. This is a grand and innovative endeavor, full of challenges and adversities. It is a self-driven, continuous, long-term and goal-oriented cause that cannot be rushed. Therefore, in addition to charting the correct Party line and policy and ensuring its leadership role, we must actively harness people's creativity, support and active participation. The people shall welcome, support and enthusiastically participate in the implementation of the Party lines since they see that such guidelines are in their interest and live up to their aspirations. The ultimate victory and development is deeply rooted in the strength of the Vietnamese people.

On the other hand, the Partys leadership and stewardship, in shaping the political line and making decisions, should not refer only to the reality of its own country and nation. It must instead also study and learn from the experience of the world and that of the times. In today's globalized world, the development of each nation-state cannot stand alone and separate from the impacts of the world and the times, and those of the context and the dynamics. Therefore, we must actively engage in international integration, implement a foreign policy of independence, self-reliance, peace, cooperation and development, and multilateralization and diversification of international relations, on the basis of respect for the independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity of each other, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit.

And it is of great importance to remain steadfast and firm on the foundation of Marxism - Leninism - the scientific and revolutionary doctrine of the working class and the working people. The scientific and uncompromising revolutionary nature of Marxism-Leninism and Ho Chi Minhs Thought are enduring values that have been pursued and implemented by generations of revolutionaries. This will continue to develop and prove its vitality in the reality of both the revolutionary movement and scientific development. We need to selectively accept and supplement in the spirit of criticism and creativity of the latest ideological and scientific achievements, so that they shall forever be fresh and revitalized, and filled with the breath of our times, thus not falling prey to dogmatism and obsoleteness.

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Some theoretical and practical issues on socialism and the path towards socialism in Vietnam - Nhan Dan Online

As richer nations start to see the end of the tunnel thanks to vaccines, in Asia and Latin America the pandemic is still raging. Swiss Solidarity, the humanitarian arm of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC), has launched a new appeal to help those most in need.

With its nearly two billion inhabitants, South Asia currently accounts for half of all known new Covid-19 cases worldwide. More than three new infections are recorded there every second, the United Nations childrens fund UNICEF warned on May 21. Each minute, over three people die from the disease.

The situation is particularly dire in India, which last week registered its highest number of daily deaths since the start of the pandemic. But the alarm is now also sounding in neighbouring Nepal, where the virus is spreading exponentially.

New infections there have shot up from around 150 to over 8,000 a day in a matter of weeks a figure that is surely far below the real one, according to the UN Country Team in Nepal. The health system, more fragile than Indias, is overwhelmed and severely lacking basic medical supplies. Switzerland has just sent 30 tonnes of materials, after a previous shipment to India in early May.

Other very vulnerable countries in the region, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, are also at great risk, according to UNICEF.

On the other side of the planet, Latin America is also badly hit. The region has the highest number of confirmed deaths to date. Besides Brazil, where the pandemic has raged out of control for months, the situation has deteriorated sharply in several countries in Central and South America, in particular in Peru, which has one of the worst mortality rates, and in Bolivia, now grappling with its third wave.

In most countries in these regions, fewer than one in ten people have received at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine. This is nowhere near enough to stem the pandemic.

Fragile infrastructure, poverty and pre-existing political instability raise fears of catastrophic and lasting consequences, warns Ernst Lber, who heads Swiss Solidaritys humanitarian programmes department. This is why the humanitarian foundation, which is linked to SBC (SWI swissinfo.chs parent company), has launched a new appeal for donations.

In many countries, access to medical care was a major problem already before the crisis; today, their health systems are on the brink of collapse. Media outlets have relayed desperate scenes of people in urgent need of oxygen cylinders or being turned away from hospitals. Moreover, those suffering from chronic diseases other than Covid-19, which are widespread in emerging countries, can no longer receive the necessary care.

The spread of new variants of the virus has further complicated matters and exposed the inadequacy of certain government responses, in particular in middle-income countries [like India and Brazil], which in theory stood a better chance of pulling through, says Lber.

The pandemic is also taking a devastating economic toll. In many countries, a large part of the population depends on the informal economy and day labour. Job losses resulting from sanitary restrictions can set off chain reactions that are difficult to reverse later on, Lber cautions.

People lose their entire income and have to sell off assets that they need in order to earn a living or get into debt; children no longer go to school; people who were working in cities have to return to the countryside, thereby helping spread the virus in rural areas where health care is even less accessible.

The Coronavirus International fundraising campaign was launched by Swiss Solidarity in October and has raised over CHF9 million ($10 million). The money has been used to support the projects of 16 non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working locally in 14 countries. We have now almost exhausted these funds, but the problem is still there, Lber says.

Donations to the Coronavirus International fundraising campaign can be made directly online via the Swiss Solidarity website, or to its postal account 10-15000-6 with the reference COVID INT.

As part of the Coronavirus International campaign, Swiss Solidarity is working with 16 NGOs, including Caritas, the Red Cross, Helvetas and Doctors Without Borders.

Projects have so far been supported in 14 countries, mainly in South Asia and Latin America, but also in some countries in the Middle East and Africa. Supplementary aid has moreover been provided to India and Brazil.

The projects follow two main approaches: the first involves direct socio-economic assistance for those most affected by the restrictions (people working in the informal sector, migrants, displaced persons, marginalised groups). The goal here is to cushion the economic shock by forestalling chain reactions and helping people to bounce back, Lber explains.

The other priority is health care and entails support for health services, the provision of medical supplies, awareness campaigns, etc. Just a few dozen francs can already make a difference. According to the NGO Helvetas, a donation of CHF120 can buy hygiene kits for ten people, for instance.

As richer nations start to see the end of the tunnel thanks to the vaccination roll-out, aid organisations are stressing the importance of collective action to fight the pandemic on the one hand because no one will be safe until everyone is safe; but above all out of solidarity. As Lber concludes, we cannot just accept the situation as it is.

Swiss Solidarity started out in 1946 as a radio programme called the Chane du Bonheur, broadcast from Lausanne by French-speaking Swiss public radio (now Radio Tlvision Suisse (RTS) which is a branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation). The initiative quickly spread to Switzerlands German and Italian-speaking regions, where it was called the Glckskette and Catena della Solidariet, respectively.

The programme initially involved regular radio broadcasts aimed at collecting donations for humanitarian causes. In 1983, the Chane du Bonheur was granted legal status as an autonomous foundation, while remaining closely linked to the Swiss public broadcasting sector, as its humanitarian arm. In 2013, it took on the English name Swiss Solidarity. Today, the foundations fundraising appeals are systematically relayed by public media channels.

The donations collected are distributed among 24 humanitarian partner NGOs. The projects supported focus on long-term efforts, such as reconstruction after disasters, in Switzerland and around the world.

Since its creation, Swiss Solidarity has organised over 250 fundraising campaigns and raised over CHF1.8 billion in donations, making it Switzerlands largest humanitarian aid donor.

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Covid-19: 'No one will be safe until everyone is safe' - Expat Guide to Switzerland - Expatica Switzerland

COVID-19 poses massive challenges nationally and globally when it comes to socio-economic inequality. It has hit the vaccine rollout especially hard, threatening new and potentially more lethal variants, while low-risk people are being vaccinated in rich countries well ahead of high-risk people in poorer countries.

Even before the pandemic was officially declared on March 11, 2020, socio-economic inequality was flagged as one of the greatest threats to the global economy.

The pandemic has only accelerated socio-economic inequality, impacting women and racialized people especially hard.

But why is socio-economic inequality so threatening to human societies and how can archeology inform public policies for mitigating it?

As an archeologist who has spent the past 13 years excavating and studying material culture at the site of Eleon, an ancient town in central Greece, I study the effects of a socio-economic collapse that took place over 3,000 years ago. By excavating and interpreting the human past, I believe that we can avoid past mistakes and build a more inclusive future.

READ MORE:Coronavirus mythbusters: WHO dispels some of the myths

Long before Athens and Sparta were major players, Greece was home to the Mycenaeans, a Late Bronze Age culture comprising small city-states each ruled by a wanax (king).

The wanakes (kings) established their authority at feasts, where the wanax and other elites performed sacrifices to the gods. These feasts manifested and reinforced social inequalities within Mycenaean society. Inequalities between participants were emphasized by the rooms they could access within the palaces, the clothes they wore, the food they ate and even what they drank from.

Palace-sponsored feasting required contributions from individuals and communities. This had an effect on agricultural strategies, which favoured short-term intensification in production over long-term resilience.

This increased the Mycenaean elites vulnerability to climate change, disease and warfare. Ultimately, the Mycenaean city-states collapsed around 1200 BCE. The palaces burned and the wanakes disappeared from Greece for good.

While we are unable to identify a singular cause for the collapse of the Mycenaean Greek palatial culture, it is clear that the one per cent paid the highest price when the system went bust. A growing number of archeological studies across the globe question the economic and social impact of collapse on the 99 per cent.

The degree to which collapse disproportionately impacted elites has even led to the hypothesis that class warfare played a role in the fall of the Mycenaean palaces.

READ MORE:Greeces ineffective handling of Lockdown 2.0: The king is naked

In a recent paper fellow archeologist Bartomiej Lis and I examined one element of palace-sponsored feasting: handwashing.

Our research identifies handwashing equipment archeologically for the first time through a detailed study of abrasion patterns on clay vessels. We trace the origins of this equipment to Egypt, where similar metal handwashing vessels appear during the third millennium BCE.

Mycenaean elites maintained a monopoly over the earliest bronze handwashing equipment. Vessels were used for a form of purification that required both metal vessels and ritual knowledge to properly perform, preventing the custom from spreading outside the palatial elite.

Other forms of daily handwashing likely took place that did not require this equipment. Local elites performed handwashing with metal vessels to highlight their own privileged socio-economic status. Think of this showboating like gathering a few of your close friends and flying them to a tropical island for your birthday in the middle of a pandemic.

Our research found that post-collapse, Greek handwashing equipment became widely available, now manufactured in cheap clay versions. This demonstrates that some elites with knowledge of this handwashing custom survived the collapse. It also shows that the custom was no longer restricted to a specific social class. This shows how collapse functions not only to redistribute wealth and political authority, but also technology and information monopolized by elites.

While these may seem like positives, we should not forget the economic devastation brought by the collapse. Most Mycenaean infrastructure fell into disuse, settlements were abandoned and population levels plummeted. These impacts were felt for centuries.

READ MORE:Simple protective procedures you can take to reduce coronavirus risk

The Mycenaean collapse serves as a warning: unchecked growth of socio-economic inequality increases the vulnerability of complex societies to collapse. However, the same data argues that reducing inequality can make economies more resilient to future climate challenges.

Geoffrey Kron, an expert in Greek and Roman economics, has shown how both in ancient Greece and the United States increasing economic inequality can be linked with authoritarian governments and the erosion of democracy. Governments should heed the growing socio-economic inequalities laid bare by COVID-19. Those that fail to address growing inequalities do so at their own peril.

It is easy to think that handwashing is accessible to all today, but COVID-19 calls attention to communities both within Canada and around the globe where clean water is not a given. In these communities, even the most basic defence against the novel coronavirus is a daily challenge.

While there are positive signs that socio-economic inequality is being recognized nationally in Canada and the U.S., more can be done by all governments to mitigate socio-economic inequality starting with investing in remote and traditionally disadvantaged communities.

In doing so, we can truly build back better.

Trevor Van Damme is Postdoctoral Fellow in Greek and Roman Studies at the University of Victoria. This was first published in The Conversation.

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What ancient Greek handwashing can teach us about socio ...

The Weimar Republic was Germanys first experiment in democracy. It was founded after the aftermath of the German defeat in World War I. The Republic faced many challenges during its short life. It was undermined by right and left-wing extremists and the military. Many have seen the fall of the Weimar Republic as inevitable. However, it could have succeeded but for the economic calamity of the Great Depression.

After the failure of the last great German offensive on the western front in 1918, it was clear that Germany would lose the war. Because of the war and the Allied blockade, many Germans were on the verge of starvation. There were waves of strikes, and communists and socialists were actively demonstrating against the government. The German Field Marshal Ludendorff, who had effectively been the military dictator of Germany, was dismissed, and the Imperial government sought to make peace with the allies.

As the government was negotiating peace terms with the Allies, a revolution broke out in German. Workers went on strike and established committees that seized control of many urban centers. In response, the Social Democrat leader Erbert demanded to become Chancellor of Germany. He and others declared the Weimar Republic in November 1918. Soon after, elections were held, and the Social Democrats formed the first government. The Constitution of the Weimar Republic established it as a presidential republic.[1]

The Weimar Republic had to negotiate the Treaty of Versailles with the victorious allied and implement its perceived harsh conditions, such as the payment of war reparations to France and other countries, loss of territories and colonies, and the limits sets on Germanys army.[2] These negotiations made the government extremely unpopular with many in the traditional elite and the army. The first government of the Weimar Republic was effectively coerced into signing the Treaty of Versailles. One of the chief goals of successive Weimar governments was to renegotiate or to alleviate the terms of what many Germans saw as an unjust and infamous treaty.[3]

Despite the Revolution in 1918, many on the left believed that it did not go far enough. The radical left wanted a communist system in Germany. Revolutionaries established the Communist Republic in Bavaria and later seized control of the Ruhr. These were both defeated by the German army and right wing-militias the Freirkorps. In 1919, Communists, led by Rosa Luxembourg, tried to stage a revolution in Berlin. The army also defeated this with great brutality. It was not only the left that was a threat to the Weimar Republic.

The far-right also sought to overthrow the Republic. They blamed the Weimar Republic for the predicament of Germany and the infamous Treaty of Versailles. There was an attempted right-wing coup in Berlin in 1919, the Kapp Putsch. In 1922, Adolf Hitler and the Nazis tried to seize Munich control but was quickly defeated by German troops.[4]

The Weimar Republic was able to resist the extremists attempts to seize power.[5] However, the Republic, because of its poor economic decisions and the effect of reparations, resulted in hyperinflation. Inflation rose, and the price of essential goods rose dramatically. Inflation caused bankruptcies, strikes, and extraordinary poverty. Many Germans starved at this time. Yet, the Weimar Republic was resilient and survived the challenges. In part because many Germans feared that it would be replaced by something worse, such as Communism.[6]

Despite the hyperinflation and extremist violence, the Weimar Republic survived, and democratically elected governments were able to make significant changes to the German economy and society. Able politicians like Gustave Stresemann were able to secure amendments to the Versailles Treaty's financial clauses, which helped the economy improve. He was also able to secure loans from the United States to help Germany recover from the war and hyperinflation.

The Weimar Republic was also able to improve relations with other countries such as France. German culture also flourished at this time, and Berlin became a famous artistic center at this time. By 1928, it appeared that the Weimar Republic was a success and would provide Germany with a stable and democratic form of government for many years to come. During these years, the left and right-wing extremists had been marginalized, but they still had significant popular support.[7]

In 1929 the Great Depression was triggered by a massive US stock market crash. Counterproductive and damaging economic policies exacerbated it. Financial panics and bank failures slow crept around the world. The repercussions were felt around the globe and especially in Germany. The United States could no longer provide the loans that the Weimar Republic needed.

Furthermore, global trade almost came to a standstill, and many Germans became unemployed. One in three Germans were unemployed at the height of the economic crisis, and poverty and hunger were widespread. The Republic was in the grip of an economic and social crisis.

In 1930, the conservatives won the election. Chancellor Brunning embarked on a series of disastrous economic and political policies. His economic policies involved devaluing the German currency, but this had only the effect of causing hyperinflation that compounded Germanys economic problems. Furthermore, Brunning discarded the Constitution and ruled by Presidential decree to manage the country's socio-economic conditions. The Great Recession and Brunning's response led many people to become disillusioned with the Republic and even democracy. [8]

As the effects of the Great Depression continued, there was a revival in the extremist parties in Germany. The Communist Party received approximately one-quarter of the popular vote, and its supports controlled many working-class neighborhoods in urban centers. The right-wing National Socialist Party also won support, and in the 1932 election, they received almost one-third of the vote.[9] The mainstream political parties seemed unable to manage the socio-economic crisis. Many conservatives were worried about the specter of a Communist revolution.[10] They withdrew their support for the Republic and looked for ways to ensure that the Communists did not take control.

President Hindenburg and his allies offered the Chancellorship to Adolf Hitler as part of a strategy to keep the Communists out of power. Hitler began to assume more and more power and suspended the Weimar Republic's Constitution, and it was effectively dead. Under the 1934 Enabling Act, Hitler was made the German people and nation's undisputed leader.[11]

The Weimar Republic was born out of war and revolution. The Republic faced many internal threats from Communists and right-wing extremists. It also had to manage an unprecedented economic crisis and a war-ravaged society. It was also left with the task of signing the unpopular Versailles Treaty. However, it was able to negotiate these and could bring stability and some limited prosperity to Germany. The Great Depression was to prove fatal for the Republic. The Weimar political parties were unable to deal with the socio-political crisis caused by the Depression, which led people to seek their salvation in Communism and Nazism, which led to the death of the Republic, after only a 15-year existence.

Updated November 14, 2018Admin and EricLambrecht

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Why did the Weimar Republic Collapse? - DailyHistory.org

If the purpose of a thought experiment is to cast new light on familiar phenomena, the better to inspire a cascade of new thoughts on scarcely registered realities, J.B. MacKinnon certainly delivers in The Day the World Stops Shopping. On his way to exploring what could happen in the wake of a sudden 25 per cent drop in human consumption, MacKinnon offers eye-opening explanations of everything from why energy-saving products have not decreased climate-threatening carbon emissions to what causes those mysterious holes in your T-shirt. Shopping begins by noting that, for 50 years, our consumption of planetary resources has accelerated, first in rich countries and then worldwideto the extent that it passed population as humanitys greatest environmental challenge around the turn of the millennium, according to the UNs expert panel on resources. And weve barely noticed, the author adds in an interview.

Its one of those shifting baselines where the circumstances change so gradually, says MacKinnon, one of the most prominent journalists in Canada, whose previous books include the Charles Taylor Prize winner Dead Man in Paradise and the bestseller The 100-Mile Diet. Airline travel is the first personal change that comes to his mind. When I think back to life in the year 2000, comparing the amount I flew then to how much Iand the people I knowfly now, its much more. Im constantly encountering people who take off for a quick break several times a year. But flight is not alone in explosive 21st-century growth. The number of clothing items bought per person has increased 60 per cent over 20 years, and the number of digital devices has risen even more sharply.

READ:The sense of urgency around climate change is trending up

There is much to unpack in those and related developments. The growth in clothes buying is accompanied by a reduction in apparel cost. In 2000, clothing expenditure represented about 15 per cent of the average household budget; thats now five per cent. We spend the savings on more but cheaper garmentstheir average lifeems have been halvedbecause its the thrill of shopping that matters most. (Balance that against the holes that quickly appear in contemporary T-shirts thin fabric from being rubbed at the beltline: Im glad to explain that one, MacKinnon laughs. I hope that helps a lot of people.)

The contemporary everyone-their-own-phone, a-TV-in-every-room world requires enormous amounts of power, also little noticed by most users. According to one expert interviewed by MacKinnon, when asked about the energy use associated with their phones, most people think only of recharging the batteries, not about the massive data processing centres that allow users to stream the video they watch on those phones. We still associate energy demand and emissions with goods, not services, although they are just as voracious. Remember when millennials were declared to be the generation that would save the planet because they were shifting from products to experiences? asks the 51-year-old author. Well, their experiences turned out to be intensely consumeristic.

Or consider the arrival of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). They use 75 per cent less energy than older light bulbs and should have made a serious dent in power demands. Instead, we seem to have spent the money saved on . . . more lighting. The enormous video screens on building facades, the 10,000 lights on the Hernando de Soto Bridge in Memphis, Tenn., and the explosion in decorative lighting in private homes and gardens were all made possible by LEDs. Back in 2016, MacKinnon recalls, experts were sure LED use, however widespread, could never cancel out the energy saving. But now, when I talk to those same people, they say nobodys going to be surprised if it turns out LEDs are consuming as much or more energy than the technology they replaced.

The world has also been greening its energy for the past two decades, investing billions in energy-efficient technology and renewable energy in an effort that has yet to reduce carbon emissions for even a single year. Theres so much magical thinking about green technology, says MacKinnon. People buy an electric car and literally feel that it has no environmental consequences. When there is energy to spare, especially low-cost energy, humans use it. Since the Second World War, carbon emissions have fallen only four times, all during severe economic downturns: the mid-1980s, the early 1990s, 2009 and 2020s pandemic lockdowns. Emissions only fall, MacKinnon concludes, when the world stops shopping.

READ:What will shopping in Canada look like in the aftermath of coronavirus?

So why not give that a try, MacKinnon asks, rather than hoping for a techno-fix to our climate-imperilling lifestyle? Hence his thought experiment. He does acknowledge, however, than an overnight drop in consumption of 25 per cent would return the planet only to the economic activity level of a decade ago. And it would be no solution to our environmental woes, although it would buy time to delay the climate shocks widely predicted to start hitting hard a decade from now.

The authors theoretical model is hardly elegant, but its not entirely an imaginative exercise. There is real-life data to support the idea that humans would adapt and that the economic contraction would be, MacKinnon writes, the end of the world as we know it, but not the end of the world. Finland suffered a sharp, brutal economic downturn in the 1990s. Most middle-class people in Ecuador live now as most of North America did in 1970, with vacations close to home and restaurant meals as rare treats. Contemporary Japan, slowly depopulating, offers a possible slow- to no-growth future path.

There are places that use less night lighting, and others that effect some sort of common day of economic shutdown, the way Sunday closing once did in most of Canada, a day for a society to reduce its carbon footprint. Most widely shared of all, though, were 2020s COVID lockdowns, when emissions shrank by seven per cent over the yearmore than the global economy itselfwhile blue skies and animal life rebounded.

The lockdown experience provides the strongest case for MacKinnons de-growth side. For years, the International Energy Agency (IEA), once one of the leading groups fighting climate change, has taken the position that the only way to reduce carbon emissions is to decouple the emissions from economic growth by greening the energy. Reducing growth was a non-starter, as IEA chief economist Laszlo Varro told MacKinnon: I am not aware of a country where a government won a democratic election with a program of We want to intentionally reduce your consumption. But even the best green-growth scenarios do little to stop the emissions tide even while requiring technological and cultural changes hardly more plausible, according to Shopping, than the idea that the worlds citizens could be persuaded to buy a little less stuff. De-growth, on the other hand, provides immediate benefits: a 25 per cent cut in consumption equals a 25 per cent drop in emissions.

The dislocation would be massive, of course, including job losses centred in poorer nations, where the rich worlds stuff is made. Clothing factories would be particularly hard hit. Those sorts of socio-economic transitions, like the developed worlds evolution from farm to dark satanic mill to contemporary prosperity, have always been brutal. But they neednt be, according to MacKinnon. If we were to make the transition as I would want society to make it, we would pay close attention to who is vulnerable, and when there is less work and less income, to redistribute access to that work and income.

To that end, Shopping offers practical steps forward. They include lifespan labelling to encourage product durability in a throwaway societyand thereby reduce buyingas well as tax regimes that favour repair over disposability, and a basic annual income that would blunt the job sector dislocation. And ever-practical MacKinnon is even willing to sharply reduce his 25 per cent goal. Start with a five per cent cut, he urges, because carrying on the way we are really isnt an option. A simpler life awaits us one way or another, if not through some great awakening, then because civilization will collapse beneath its own weight.

This article appears in print in the June 2021 issue of Macleans magazine with the headline, More is too much. Subscribe to the monthly print magazine here.

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Green technology is fine, but to really save the planet we need to shop less - Maclean's

With the dramatic collapse of communism in Southeast and Eastern Europe, the newly democratically elected governments had to face the harsh reality of being unable to properly run their countries based on a liberal democratic political system. Also, neither the governments nor their productive sector was able to cope with the rising private enterprise, which was based on supply and demand, fruitful competition, and quality of products. As a result, promoting the essence of democracy and free markets, fell into the hands of the U.S, which for years tried to find a way to make its presence in the region clear. The response of the U.S government after the fall of communism in 1989 and the dissolvement of the Soviet Union in 1991, was swift and methodical. With the signing of a series of legislative acts in the period of 1989-1995, known as the Support for East European Democracy (SEED) Act of 1989, and their implementation through the United States Agency for International Development, the U.S has managed to leave its footprint in the region and establish a network of democratic support to all the former Warsaw Pact country members, as well as the country members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance.

The SEED Act and Americas objectives in post-communist Eastern Europe

The Support for East European Democracy (SEED) Act of 1989, was part of a series of legislative acts that passed by Congress in the period 1989-1995. The laws were passed under the presidency of both George H.W Bush and Bill Clinton. The legislation was passed as a response to the growing demand for international help in post-communist countries. It is regarded by many as the most successful policy act towards Central and Eastern European countries. While initially the focus of this policy was targeted towards Hungary and Poland, with the growing request from other nation-states in the region, the U.S encompassed more countries such as Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Albania e.t.c, and later on, after the end of the Yugoslavia wars, it managed to include more countries from the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

The primary goal of the SEED is to promote the establishment and enhancement of democratic institutions and help transit the economies of the respected countries that are part of this act, into a free market economy, that will allow any of those countries not only to overcome the centralized bureaucratic communist system but also to become more productive, reliable and trustworthy members of the greater Transatlantic community like their fellow Western democracies. At first, this legislation was focused on Poland and Hungary allowing the U.S to designate two private, nonprofit organizations such as the Polish-American Enterprise Fund and the Hungarian-American Enterprise Fund to promote the development of the Polish and Hungarian private sectors. With that being said, the initial thought of the American side was to not recreate a full-scale of the Marshall Plan, simply because the crushing budget deficits of those countries provoked little interest for the U.S. Instead through the SEED, the U.S government managed to establish different assistance programs, that over time, managed to assist more countries in Central and Eastern Europe and later on, in the Balkan region. These programs were focused on stabilization assistance, development assistance, technical assistance, and political conversion. Also, the aid that would come from the U.S would be directly focused on the agricultural sector, the private sector, educational and cultural programs, as well as scientific programs.

The core message that was expressed through the SEED was the fact that, although at the beginning, any sort of financial aid would be minimal, there would be a possibility of a change to this tactic, only if the fledgling democracies that were undergoing a massive transformation would agree to adopt the ways of Western Europe and the ways that the U.S was proposing for the. In other words, this meant that, if by any chance any of the countries that wished to benefit from the SEED Act, had to fulfill some pre-requirements. For the financial assistance to be implemented, the interested countries had to remove trade restrictions while fully liberalizing the investment and the capital of the country, including foreign investment, while allowing any interested U.S investors to export their profits from these countries. Also, there had to be an increased focus on the development of the capital financial markets that would allow privatization of any public assets. Throughout the years, the SEED Act, allowed the U.S to leave a footprint in the countries that got rid of communism and further help them through other independent agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which is responsible for administering foreign aid and development assistance. If we provide an analysis as to why the U.S is so keen on the development of the post-communist countries, we can identify the two main reasons as to why the U.S was and still is so interested in the democratic and free-market development of the region. The first reason was the fact that if the U.S would financially assist these countries, then it will manage to increase its economic transactions with more countries while also boosting its trading and the uninterrupted free flow of capital profits back to it. The second reason has to do with the geopolitical aspect of the SEED act and the role of the USAID.

If we examine this from a realistic point of view, the U.S has managed not only to increase its economic capital but also establish close diplomatic and military ties with the respected countries in an effort to counter any foreign interest coming from Russia or China. Also, this means that, once the U.S has assured the economic development and establishment of democratic institutions in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, then their accession to the NATO and eventually their incorporation into the European Union, would allow the U.S to maintain close ties in the region and add to its already large military cooperation with third countries. Out of all the countries that the U.S has managed to assist, Romania is one of those interesting cases in Southeast Europe, and it has proven itself as a reliable strategic partner for the United States of America.

The case of Romania

The bilateral ties between Romania and the U.S were always more or less on warm status, but both countries built a strong bilateral relationship after the Romanian Revolution of 1989. The U.S was focused on the legal and fair transition of power in Romania. In 1990, right after the end of the revolution, Secretary of State James Baker expressed the concern of the U.S towards the unfair discriminatory treatment of opposition parties in the May elections in Romania and made it clear that the U.S would not support an undemocratic Romanian government. The Romanians quickly realized that if they wanted any support from the U.S they would have to incorporate more Western democratic values in their country. As a result, in 1992, Romania conducted fair parliamentary and presidential elections. Encouraged by the fair democratic results, Deputy Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger visited Romania in 1992. It was a symbolic visit because it allowed the Romanians to demonstrate their commitment to fully implement Western democratic values in their country. The same year, both countries signed a bilateral investment treaty (BIT), and one year later, in 1993, Romania returned to the status of Most Favored Nation (MFN). These agreements allowed Romania to completely transition its economy, allowing for American investment in energy, manufacturing, telecommunications services, consumer products sectors, and information technology.

With that being said, it was clear that Romania was managing step by step to take substantive steps toward institutionalizing political democracy and economic pluralism, the sole requirement of the SEED act. Besides that, the USAID had a critical role in Romania. In a span of 17 years, until Romanias graduation from the program in 2008, the socio-economic profile of the country has changed for the better. The USAID has managed to fund and establish various NGOs that focus on the rapid decrease of children in orphanages and improving the condition in the remaining institutions for these kids. Also, the civic organizations in Romania, have managed to establish sustainable partnerships with the public and private sector and improve transparency and fairness in both sectors. Last but not least, the private businesses in Romania have managed to become an established feature of Romanias civil society by gaining sustainable funds from the USAID that are directly invested in the tourism, agriculture, food processing, and the industrial sector that allow Romania to flourish as a stable economic power in Southeast Europe.

Apart from the socio-economic factors, the U.S has contributed to the enhancement of the military treaties between itself and Romania. On March 29, 2004, Romania joined NATO and established itself as a reliable ally of the U.S in Southeast Europe. A year after that, in 2005, Romania and the United States signed the Defense Cooperation Agreement, the framework for any future military engagements of both countries. With Romania joining NATO, the U.S managed to gain a foothold in Southeast Europe, close to Russia, and demonstrated its capabilities in creating and sustaining reliable military alliances, helping Romania avoid any influence from the East, while protecting its national interests in the region. With Romania joining NATO, the road towards a future integration in the EU was clearer. With the help of the U.S, Romania managed to meet the requirements for an EU integration. Some of those requirements were focused on reforms that would help Romania become more Western, such as the acknowledgment of respect for human rights, the commitment to personal freedom of expression, having a functioning free-market economy e.t.c. Romania joined the European Union on January 1st, 2007 and according to the European Commission, the country is set to join the Eurozone sometime in 2024. Some may argue that Romania has to be thankful to the U.S for the tremendous progress that has been made, and this will not be far from the truth, since until today both countries enjoy strong military and economic ties.

Democratization or Americanization of Romania?

However, there are always some voices from within Romania that see this whole progress with skepticism. Some argue that although Romania is a democracy, it does not have a democratic society. There are reports of high levels of corruption and nepotism in the public sector. According to Transparency International, Romania is the fourth most corrupt country in the EU, after Hungary, Greece, and Bulgaria. Besides that, the standard of living in the country has not changed significantly since the end of communism, and there is a strong demographic collapse that is connected with the so-called brain drain of the country, with high levels of labor export towards Western Europe. There is some criticism towards the U.S, that points to the fact that the changes in Romania have benefited the American side more than the Romanian one, and there is a feeling that Romania is still stuck in the past.

Although any sort of criticism should be reviewed thoroughly, one can argue that the U.S is not to be solely blamed. After all, the aid that was sent to Romania and the efforts of the U.S to westernize the country were always focused on the national and economic interests of the United States. It is safe to say that the U.S was applying a realistic aspect in its policy towards Romania, realizing the strategic geopolitical position of the country and the important economic outcomes that would come if Romania became a close ally of the United States. The alliance between the two countries and their ties are relatively strong even today, and although there are corruption problems in the country, Romania seems to have benefited more than any other post-communist country regarding aid from the United States. In a way, the policy of the U.S towards Romania was a success as both countries remain close allies, and Romania is enjoying a better socio-economic and political situation within its borders.

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European Union Strategy for Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific and the Role for India - Modern Diplomacy

We can neither deny nor ignore the fact that under the erstwhile NDC administration, Ghana experienced massive economic meltdown which regrettably brought to pass harsh socio-economic standards of living.

Thus, it will be extremely difficult for any economist or government to reverse such mess within a shortest possible time.

Given the circumstances, the critics are far from right for asserting somewhat passionately that President Akufo-Addo has wilfully worsened the plight of Ghanaians since assuming power on 7th January 2017.

If for nothing at all, Akufo-Addo received massive commendations and endorsements from a host of international organisations and other prominent individuals leading to the 2020 general elections.

Take, for example, sometime in 2019, a video clip went vile showing a Nigerian scholar, who happened to be a guest speaker at a forum organised by the leadership of the opposition NDC, candidly commending the Akufo-Addo government on Ghanas auspicious economic growth, apparently, to the utter chagrin of his hosts (the NDC Executives), many of whom were extremely befuddled on the guest speakers unbelievable intellectual honesty.

The overarching question however is: Did the NDC loyalists really trust the judgement of the said knowledgeable and largely credible Nigerian academic?

Well, I am pretty sure they did; else they would not have invited him to speak on Ghanas economy at their special gathering.

Interestingly, preceding the honest and erudite Nigerians endorsement of Ghanas well-publicised propitious economic growth, were praises from some credible international organisations and influential people, both home and abroad. Indeed, but for the unspeakable coronavirus, Ghanas economy would have been transformed tremendously.

Prior to the 2020 general elections, the reputable Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) reported that the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) was going to retain power in the 2020 general elections (see: 2020 election is yours to lose-EIU predicts NPP victory; myjoyonline.com/ghanaweb.com, 15/09/2019).

The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) report concluded that former President John Dramani Mahama was going to find it extremely difficult to convince discerning Ghanaians into accepting that he is the preferable manager of Ghanas economy, given his abysmal performance while in office and the countrys fairly strong economic growth under President Akufo-Addo.

The Economist Intelligence Unit could not have put it any better: Ghana is indeed heading towards a favourable economic growth under the NPP government.

In fact, before the deadly coronavirus, Akufo-Addos administration moved Ghanas economic growth from a disappointing 3.4% in December 2016 to a favourable 8.6%.

And the previously double digit inflation (15.8 in December 2016) was reduced drastically to around 7.5%.

Truly, the EIU was extremely charitable to former President Mahama for failing to make it clear that NDC would have stood a better chance in 2020 if the party Delegates had elected a different flagbearer.

Since assuming power on 7th January 2017, the Akufo-Addos government has rolled out numerous social intervention programmes and policies such as the One District One Factory, One Constituency One Million, Planting for Food and Jobs, Planting for Expert and Rural Development, Free SHS, One Village One Dam in the Northern Regions, National Builders Corp (NABCO), amongst others.

The vast majority of Ghanaians, in fact, have benefited immensely from the implementation of the aforesaid programmes and policies. So it is somewhat fallacious for the sceptics to assert that the thriving economy is not reflecting in the pockets of Ghanaians.

Let us remind ourselves that since the inception of the Fourth Republican Constitution, the successive NPP governments have introduced numerous interventions such as the Free Maternal Care, the NHIS, the Metro Mass Transport, the School Feeding Programme, the Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty (LEAP), and the Free SHS, amongst others.

Take, for example, upon taking office, the Akufo-Addo government took pragmatic steps and restored the Nurses and Teachers Allowances which were regrettably cancelled by the erstwhile Mahama administration.

So do the economic experts want to tell us that such interventions arent reflecting in the pockets of the Nurses and Teachers?

In addition, the Akufo-Addos government has judiciously distributed the national resources in the form of Free SHS, which has paved way for more than 400,000 children a year, including the over 190,000 children who otherwise would not have the opportunity to enter senior high school.

There is no gainsaying the fact that parents are reaping tremendous benefits from the Free SHS policy.

It is, anticipated that the government will spend not less than GH5532.83 over a period of three years on each student.

In effect, parents with three children in SHS will be pocketing not less than GH16598.49 over three years.

So how can any economist convince some of us, who are mere plebes when it comes to economics that the Free SHS scheme is not reflecting in the lives of Ghanaian parents?

Given the fact that the erstwhile Mahamas administration wilfully left behind massive debt amidst economic meltdown, it was, indeed, commendable for Akufo-Addos government to afford to implement the seemingly admirable, albeit costly social intervention such as Free SHS.

It was, also quite estimable for the incumbent NPP administration to relieve Ghanaians of over eighteen nuisance taxes which had hitherto crippled businesses.

The sensitive Akufo-Addo government commendably slashed the import taxes (30% on cars and 50% on goods) to the utter delight of importers, and Ghanaians as a whole.

Suffice it to emphasise that since the announcement of the reductions of benchmark values, some beneficiaries have attested to considerable discounts.

Take, for example, we have been informed by some credible sources that following the announcement, the duty on a Toyota Corolla saloon car has been reduced from GH22, 000 to GH15, 000.

Obviously, there is a considerable discount of GH7000. Isnt this money going into a Ghanaian pocket?

We also heard another importer narrating how he previously paid GH14000 duty on a certain saloon car and only paid GH9500 after the announcement.

Dearest reader, is this individual not pocketing GH4500 because of good governance?

Obviously, the lives of Ghanaians are being transformed steadily through many pragmatic interventions, such as tax reductions (including import taxes), favourable economic growth, low inflation, and gargantuan savings on free SHS, amongst others.

It is based on such commendable achievements that some of us cannot buy the isolated thinkers view that the Akufo-Addos administration is not doing enough, as the fairly stable economy is not reflecting in the lives of Ghanaians.

In any case, it beggars belief that despite the wanton corruption, the arrogance of power and the crass incompetence exhibited by the erstwhile Mahama administration which resulted in massive economic collapse, the NDC faithful could still muster the courage to chastise Akufo-Addo and clamour inexorably for the return of former President Mahama.

Considering the conspicuous rot in the Mahamas administration, some of us cannot help but to giggle over the NDC loyalists renewed zeal to return to power so soon.

It is, indeed, baffling to see the brassbound supporters of NDC moving heaven and earth to reclaim power after being voted out of office by discerning Ghanaians for the dreadful errors in judgement which brought about massive economic mess.

We, however, hope and pray that Ghanaians will miraculously overcome their perceived beguiling, albeit harmful memory loss so as to hold NDC accountable for the errors of judgement which unfortunately brought the country to its knees.

Believe it or not, discerning Ghanaians cannot forgive and forget Ibrahim Mahamas GH12 million alleged import tax evasion.

Indeed, but for the Honourable Agyapongs whistling blowing prowess, Ghana would have been GH12 million worse off.

Ghanaians should not relent in their efforts to take Mahama and NDC to task for woefully dragging the 14% economic growth in 2011 to a disappointing 3.4% in December 2016.

Shouldnt Ghanaians hold NDC to account for wilfully raising Ghanas debt from GH9.5 billion in 2009 to an incredible GH122.4 billion by December 2016 with a little to show for?

Let us be honest, the National Democratic Congress cannot exonerate itself from the blame for collapsing Ghanas currency beyond redemption. In December 2011, the exchange rate was GH1.65 to $1.

Regrettably, however, due to dreadful economic decision-making, within five years the exchange rate took an unbelievable flight and stood at GH4.20 to $1 by December 2016.

The good people of Ghana cannot so soon forget and forgive former President Mahama and NDC for the business crippling dumsor in the last five years of the erstwhile NDC administration.

Ghanaians cannot so soon forget that Mahama and his NDC government shrunk the GDP from $47 billion in 2011 to $40 billion by December 2016.

Trust me, not every Ghanaian has forgotten and forgiven Mahama and NDC for carelessly giving out large portions of Ghanas scarce resources to parasitic creatures like Madam Akua Donkor.

Ghanaians cannot forgive Mahama for unjustifiably wasting Ghanas scarce resources on apologists like Madam Akua Donkor of Ghana Freedom Party (GFP) of two four wheel drive cars and a luxury bungalow (estimated to cost a staggering $470,000) for no work done.

Truly, no one can fault Ghanaians for holding Mahama and NDC responsible for egregiously giving away 58% of Ghanas bauxite to Ibrahim Mahama on 29th December 2016, just a little over one week before exiting power.

Discerning Ghanaians cannot so soon forget the over GH800 million dubious judgment debt payments, including the GH51.2 million to Woyome, $30 million to the Waterville and $325,000 to Isofoton which resulted in the drastic reduction of capital expenditure, and as a consequence, most contractors were not paid by the erstwhile NDC administration.

Besides, the $175 million loan facility secured in 2012 meant to provide seven district hospitals which the NDC hierarchy misapplied is still fresh in the memories of Ghanaians.

Ghanaians should continue to hold Mahama and NDC accountable for clandestinely diverting $6 million of a government loan facility of $175 million meant to provide seven district hospitals into researching the then governing NDCs chances of winning the 2016 general elections.

If we do the arithmetic of the $175 million loan facility which was supposed to provide seven district hospitals, each hospital should have cost us $25 million.

The all-important question then is: where is the rest of the $175 million loan facility?

How can we advance as a nation when some shameless individuals keep hiding behind party coloration, devoid of patriotism and disgustingly squandering our scarce resources to the detriment of the poor and disadvantage Ghanaians?

Dearest reader, tell me, if the wanton bribery and corruption, the stashing of national funds by some greedy opportunists , the misappropriation of resources and the crude embezzlement of funds meant for developmental projects by some public officials do not warrant criminal charges, then where are we heading as a nation?

In fact, Ghanaians shouldnt let go the sadness over the GH200 million SADA funds wasted on trees and the guinea fowls which shockingly flew to the neighbouring Burkina Faso without a trace. How bizarre?

Who says discerning Ghanaians will so soon forget the scandalous Bus Branding, the Brazil World Cup, SUBA, GYEEDA, SSNIT, NCA, the NDC MPs double salary, amongst others?

Since the birth of Ghanas Fourth Republic (from 1993 to present), the nation has regrettably lost billions of dollars meant for developmental projects through unbridled bribery and corruption.

In ending, Ghanaians will definitely shrug off the chronic amnesia and ventilate their arousing disgust over NDCs dreadful errors in decision-making which culminated in harsh socio-economic standards of living.

K. Badu, UK.

[emailprotected]

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Lets face it, the NDC had a hand in Ghanas economic collapse - Modern Ghana