Category Archives: Socio-economic Collapse

On May 12, the Bortolami Gallery will open in its new home at 39 Walkerits moving from Chelseawith a show by Daniel Buren. Below: An in-progress shot of the space.

The TV show Bull is back shooting in the Warren/W. Broadway vicinity on Friday. If the Mayors Office of Media & Entertainment really does give certain areas a break from filming every now and then, this area is overdue.

Simit + Smith, the Turkish bakery on Worth (between Broadway and Lafayette), has closed. I suspect it closed a while agothats a block I rarely walk down.

I was looking on OpenTable the other night, and it lists City Vineyard in the West Village and Schilling in Tribeca. Whats the point of the site if you cant sort accurately by neighborhood?

Three new shows open May 2 at Alexander and Bonin. One: Summer and Winter, an exhibition of recent paintings, drawings and watercolors by Sylvia Plimack Mangold will be presented in the main gallery. Beginning in the late 1970s, Plimack Mangold focused her attention on the landscape around her property in Washingtonville, New York, and eventually to individual trees. Working from direct observation, Plimack Mangold has painted the maple tree outside her studio window in the summer and winter over successive years. Two: Want, an exhibition of new sculpture by Robert Kinmont, will be on view on the lower level. Kinmont grew up in the desert near Bishop, CA and has lived most of his adult life in northern California. These rural environments have provided the practical and conceptual foundation for his work, exemplified by his recurrent use of commonplace and natural materials such as wood, pine, and dirt. Kinmont uses these modest materials to explore the relationship between the environment and his own body and life. Three: Willie Dohertys No Return (2017), a single channel projection, will be installed in the video gallery. No Return was shot in Braddock, a town once known as the cradle of Western Pennsylvanias steel industry, before suffering from its collapse in the 1980s. While the work engages with the landscape as it looks today, it also approaches it as both a repository for the memories of past experiences and a witness to the ravages of socio-economic change. Below: Summer Maple Detail by Sylvia Plimack Mangold.

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Seen & Heard: Bortolami Gallery Opening Date - Tribeca Citizen

On April 18, US Secretary of Defense James Mattis arrived in Saudi Arabia to meet with King Salman and other high-ranking officials in the kingdom as part of a regional trip, which also included stops in Djibouti, Egypt, Israel, and Qatar. Mattis said that his frankcandidhonest talks with the Saudis could not have gone better. The Pentagon chief praised the kingdom, which he called one of Washingtons best counterterrorism partners, for stepping up to its regional leadership roleto restore stability in this key region of the world. The following day an official from the administration suggested that Donald Trump may soon make his first visit to Saudi Arabia as president of the United States. While speaking with Mohammad bin Salman, Saudi Arabias Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister, Mattis stated that it serves Washingtons interest to see a strong Saudi Arabia.

Building on Mohammed bin Salmans visit to the White House in March, which Saudi officials claimed marked a historic turning point in US-Saudi relations, Mattis recent trip to Riyadh served to further strengthen Saudi confidence in the Trump administrations approach to countering Irans mischief. After commending Saudi Arabia for supporting two close US alliesEgypt and JordanMattis condemned Iran for backing Lebanese Hezbollah and Bashar al-Assads regime in Damascus, as well as deploying its own military forces to Syria. He asserted, Everywhere you look, if there is trouble in the region, you find Iran.

In continuity with the last administration, Mattis expressed the White Houses support for pursuing a diplomatic settlement to Yemens civil war, which involves bringing Iranian-backed Houthi rebels to the roundtable. The Trump administration, at least based on its words, seems to have joined the consensus that military action alone cannot bring peace to Yemen. However, in reassuring the Saudi leadership, Mattis stressed the administrations view that Iran, rather than the collapse of the Yemeni nation-state or other socio-economic and sectarian problems, lies at the heart of Yemens crisis. He pointed to Irans delivery of weapons to Ansarullah (the dominant Houthi militia), saying that Iran once again is no help. Although the international community can make progress on Yemen, Mattis declared that it must first overcome Irans efforts to destabilize yet another country and create another militia in their image of Lebanese Hezbollah.

Read it at LobeLog

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Trump and the Yemeni Quagmire - International Policy Digest (press release) (blog)

A street child is a term for homeless children who are poor and are living on the streets of cities and towns.

According to the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the concept is used to refer to boys and girls aged 18 years and below whose permanent place of abode has become the street where they earn their livelihood and are constantly facing insecurities.

Estimated figures according to UN sources suggest there are about 150 million street children in the world. This worldwide phenomenon, among other conditions, is caused by socio-economic collapse as a result of violence, drug and alcohol abuse, the death of a parent, family breakdown, civil wars and natural disasters.

Plight

Yesterday, April 12 is the day set to highlight the plight of street children worldwide. It is the 7th International Day for Street Children which provides the platform for governments, civil society organisations, non-governmental organisations and international organisations working to protect the rights of street children.

To mark the event, Chance for Children, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), organised an outreach programme for some street children in Accra yesterday.

The organisation fed 120 street children and played out-door games with them after which they gave a pep-talk to the children, and advised them to take care of themselves to attain a prosperous future.

ISCD

In an interview with the Daily Graphic, the Manager of the organisations recreational centre, Drop in Centre, Mr Osman Adam Ibrahim, said the programme was organised to appreciate and recognise the children who were also human beings, but unfortunately ended up on the streets, due partly to lack of proper parental care.

Mr Ibrahim disclosed that the NGO had a centre that catered for 45 street children, and added that they were fed, clothed and taught by volunteer teachers. He said they had shelter homes where some of the children were taken to. Others, he said, had been also reunited with their respective families.

Law enforcement

He appealed to the government to enforce the law to punish parents and caretakers who left underage children to their fate, exposing them to dangers on the streets, which eventually affected them psychologically and forced them to engage in anti-social acts such as abuse of hard drugs to their detriment.

He called on the society not to have a negative perception about street children and stigmatise them, pointing out that negative perceptions about street children, such as tagging them as thieves and sometimes concluding that the girls were into prostitution, were very bad ways of treating children because it took their confidence away from them.

These children are not thieves, and even if they steal it is not their intention to do it; it is because of the situation they find themselves. I am not justifying what they do but society should accept them. I think most of the social vices they involve themselves in can be curbed, he stated.

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Global community marks International Day for Street Children - BusinessGhana

Nikola Gruveski, Macedonian Prime Minister, with Angela Merkel. Markus Schreiber/DPA/PA Images. All rights reserved.

Looking at the current Western Balkans political landscape, in the first half of 2017, one notices that in all of the former Yugoslav states, nationalists dominate the scene and all governments are formed by parties that were involved in the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s on the pro-independence side.

From the Tudjman founded HDZ in Croatia to Serbias Progressive Party (born from the Party of Radicals), from Montenegros one party rule to Bosnias ethnic tri-partite Presidency, and from Kosovos former fighters to Gruevskis authoritarianism in Macedonia, the region oozes nationalism, identity politics, border disputes and rival historical claims.

All of these governing parties are on the right-wing side of the ideological spectrum (except Montenegro), they are socially conservative, openly neo-liberal in their economic policies and not particularly tolerant towards ethnic minorities. The parties of the centre-left, the so-called social democratic parties, are currently in opposition in the Western Balkans and have a limited impact. In an environment of increasing social inequalities, dodgy privatisations, de-industrialisation and the lowest GDP per capita in Europe, the centre left space is left without a voice.

This has not always been the case, as there are a large number of parties in the Western Balkans that call themselves social democratic or socialist, which have played a significant role in the post-communist transformation of these polities, in the context of a variety of cleavages of right versus left, authoritarianism versus democracy, nationalism versus cosmopolitanism and extremism versus moderation.

In this piece, I argue that the social democratic parties in the Western Balkans are in a state of ideological confusion and lacking political strategy. In their declarations, all of them affirm their allegiance to a progressive and moderate political agenda, they present themselves as solid pro-Europeans, conciliatory vis a vis ethnic minorities and socially sensitive.

In reality, however, they practice very little of all that, and most of them have compromised their ideas for the sake of power. They fail to propose any alternatives to the current dominant conservative paradigms and in that sense they are emulating the wider European centre-left story.

Today, social democracy in the Western Balkans is suffering from five infections. These are the communist, the neo-liberal, the ethnic, the fragmentation and the external.

What we call social democracy in the Western Balkans today is in historical terms a choice between continuity and rupture with the pre-1989 communist parties. The initial formative years of regime change and transition have left a clear imprint on party politics, in general, and social democratic politics, in particular. Back in the 1990s, the re-labelling social democracy was the passport to the new world of democratic politics, indicating the ideological transformation and decommunistisation of the former totalitarian parties.

As in other East European countries, the electoral success of these parties depended on their rebranding as social democratic. As it happened, following the collapse of the communist rule, the communist parties either reformed early (FYR Macedonia), or reformed later (Croatia, Albania), or turned nationalist (Serbia, Montenegro). Many of the reformed communist parties, played a pivotal role during the years of transition, as important power contenders, in government or opposition, giving birth gradually to new formations, a second generation of social democratic parties in the Western Balkans.

The real question, which remains until today, is to what extent they succeeded in ridding themselves from communism, by democratising their internal procedures, embracing new issues, attracting new members, especially from the younger generation. While all these parties adjusted to the new competitive environment of elections, in most cases, they retained much of their prior political culture of top down hierarchical structures, clientelist distribution of administrative jobs and resources, internal fights among personalities and resistance to new ideas.

Many of these parties are still struggling to attract new members, they are slow in introducing internal reforms and display an unconditional obedience to the party leader. Some of them like Djukanovics party in Montenegro or Dodiks party in Republika Srpska are criticised openly for authoritarian practices and anti-social democratic tendencies. But even in the case of Albania where the Socialist Party has been lately trying to modernise and embrace new members, there has been heavy criticism on the adopted party rule that the leader of the party cannot be challenged or removed if he or she loses the election. There is often a feeling in the region that social democratic parties are still guided by unreformed communists.

During the long transition years, the regional economics were dominated by the hegemonic discourse of neoliberalism. As all of the economic policies were designed from abroad, with no domestic input whatsoever, the practices of privatisation, de-industrialisation, and labour reforms were never challenged, despite the fact that they were generating all sorts of market deviations, oligopolies, corrupt practices and social inequalities.

For all the Western Balkan states, the post-communist economic model comprised infrastructural, tourist and construction opportunities, leading mostly to economies of services and consumption. Following the FDI boost, the consumption boom and the high rates of growth of the 2000s, the financial and the eurozone crises affected the small, open and vulnerable economies of the Western Balkans by hitting their banking sectors, decreasing investment, exacerbating growth rates, widening social inequalities, increasing unemployment and weakening welfare provisions. The rising numbers of outward migration and brain drain to advanced western Europe, during the last few years, testifies to the gloomy economic conditions and the lack of opportunities in all Western Balkan states.

Where has social democracy stood in this sequencing of transition, boom and bust? From the start, the social democratic parties distanced themselves from the disgraced communist dogmas by adopting ad hoc and less ideological positions and abiding to the new economic principles. Hostages to the end of ideology thesis, they refused to explore any regional deviations from the hegemonic liberal and neoliberal consensus while at the same time losing their traditional clientele, the working classes and trade unionism, all of which disappeared in the new space of deindustrialisation.

By espousing wholeheartedly, the European Union perspective, they attached themselves to the rhetoric of structural reforms, fiscal discipline and spending cuts, largely designed by the IMF, and resigned from any claims to social justice, equality, trade unionism and social protection for the sake of the TINA (There Is No Alternative) thesis. Today, some social democrats in the region justify their ideological obedience to neoliberalism by claiming that their countries may need more free market opportunities before they can improve on social policies and implement the true social democratic ideals!

Like all other political parties in the Western Balkans, social democratic parties have not been immune to the nationalist claims and ethnic divisions that have tormented the post-Yugoslav space.

While they adopted a pro-European liberal orientation and declared themselves more tolerant towards ethnic and minority rights, many of them were actively or passively responsive to nationalist ideas, if these helped them win elections and remain in power. Djukanovic flirting with Yugoslav nationalism at first, co-cooperating with Serbian nationalism later, before embracing full hearted Montenegrin nationalism, helped sustain himself and his party in power for the last three decades and becoming the longest serving post-communist leader in Central and Eastern Europe. In fact, his Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS) due to its chameleon-like changes managed to enjoy power uninterruptedly since 1991, making Montenegros polity a dominant party system.

Elsewhere, social democratic parties, like Dodiks Alliance of Independent Social Democrats (SNSD) in Bosnia abandoned their ideals for the sake of independence for Republika Srpska. The ethnicisation of Bosnian politics infected even the Social Democratic Party of Bosnia and Herzegovina (SDP BiH), the only influential multi-ethnic party and the only alternative to the dominant ethnic party system, which constantly faced serious dilemmas, whether to give in to nationalists in power-sharing arrangements or defend its multi-ethnic cause in opposition.

In Kosovo, what was originally a promising and fresh social democratic option, Vetevendosje turned into a purely nationalist movement, currently monopolising the patriotic agenda by disrupting the parliamentary process against any border deals with Montenegro and normalisation with Serbia. Most of the social democratic parties in the Western Balkans, for fear that they will be criticised by the nationalist parties as anti-patriotic, opt for ambiguity on issues of national interest, adopting unclear, non-credible approaches on the sensitive national questions.

This is the case of the social democratic parties in Serbia, most of which are not trusted to handle relations with Kosovo, leaving the space for formerly hard and currently reformed nationalists, such as Aleksandar Vucic and Ivica Dacic, to have their Nixon in China moment with Kosovo and claim their nationalist credentials.

It is well known that the biggest fights are usually within the family and that the biggest political enemies are always from within. This is certainly true for the social democratic political family, where political infights are often personal and for the sake of power grabbing and access to state resources.

All social democratic parties in the region have been infected by fragmentation and creation of new political formations, all of which have declared their true allegiance to social democracy and end up fighting each other, instead of the ideological enemies beyond.

This is very visible in Montenegro where even under the dominating shadow of Djukanonics Democratic Party of Socialists (DPS), the centre left space includes a number of smaller alternatives, such as currently the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the Social Democrats (SD) and the Democratic Montenegro, among others.

In Serbia, following Tadics electoral defeat in 2012, the centre-left space is inundated with social democratic parties all of which have been struggling to surpass the 5% parliamentary threshold; this includes the Democratic Party (DS), the Social Democratic Party of Serbia (SDPS), the Social Democratic Party (SDS), the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV), Together for Serbia or the Party of United Pensioners for Serbia all of which are represented in the National Assembly of the 2016 elections totalling 40 MPs all together out of 250.

The fragmentation of the centre left space is further exacerbated by the existence of a number of socialist, green or other one issue parties. This has allowed the present strongman of Serbia, Aleksandar Vucic to use consecutive elections (three in the last three years) to benefit from the oppositions fragmentation and consolidate his own position.

In the April 2017 presidential elections, Vucic triumphed from the first round with 55% followed by the independent Sasa Jankovic who just got a 17%, raising fears among European democrats that Serbia is gradually turning into another Orbans land.

Much of what is happening in the Western Balkans is reminiscent of the state of European social democracy, and is a reflection of a wider social democratic malaise in the continent.

To be sure, the ideological problems with European social democracy have their roots in the 1980s and 1990s, which led the British political philosopher Ralf Dahrendorf famously predict the end of the social democratic century. Indeed, the start of the new century signalled the futility of the third way in its ideological closeness to market liberalism while, at the same time, some of the socially progressive ideas, traditionally espoused by social democrats were gradually embraced by the parties of the centre right too.

Consequently, the consecutive economic crises gave a big blow to the most influential social democratic parties in Europe including Britain, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, the Netherlands and most prominently Greece, not only because they had no alternative to the dominant socio-economic model but also because they were largely seen to be responsible for the severe economic downturn.

One after the other the social democratic parties have been performing badly in national electoral results while the 2014 European Parliament elections confirmed this negative trend across Europes social democracy, with its lowest representation since 1979.

Similarly, social democracy is suffering electorally in central and eastern Europe with conservative parties currently prevailing almost everywhere from Bulgaria to Poland and Hungary, the latter shifting clearly towards authoritarianism. No wonder then that the impact of Europes social democracy on their Western Balkan counterparts is bound to be weak in terms of political guidance and ideological inspiration.

It should be added here that the European Party of Socialists (and the Socialist International) to whom most of the Western Balkan social democratic parties are attached, have no commonly agreed yardsticks or examples of best practice for democratic party development that could be transposed to social democratic parties in the region. The best they have been offering is their influence on keeping the accession process of the Western Balkans alive but with not much practical guidance along the way. If there is any leverage this comes mostly from the European Commission, in the context of the accession process and this relates more to inter-party relations, rather than intra-party developments, such as brokering in parliamentary boycotts in Albania, FYR Macedonia, Montenegro or Kosovo.

In fact, by focusing on executive politics and prioritising inter-party relations and consensus politics, the EU and its social democratic parties have underestimated the importance of democratisation and modernisation of the party machines, while the preference for technocrats and capacity building depoliticises the parties and strips them from their ideological dynamism.

Between the years 2012 to 2016, many Balkan states experienced citizens unrests, starting with Bulgaria and Romania and extending to Croatia, Bosnia, FYR Macedonia and Montenegro. Social democratic parties failed to cease the moment and capitalise on such mobilisation because in the eyes of the electorates they were seen as equally responsible for their dismay and discontent. This essay has shown that the reason why social democratic, centre left politics are failing to capture the imagination of the electorates is because they are suffering from multiple infections of internal and external nature.

Social democracy in the Western Balkans like with the rest of Europe lacks the full package - consistent ideology and credible political strategy. It suffers more when compared with the existing political alternatives which are clearer and even, dare one say, more authentic in their ideological proclamations: from the radical left which has embraced a critical anti-globalisation, anti-neoliberal discourse but totally lacks political strategy, to the conservative, centre right political alternatives which are openly embracing nationalism, neo-liberal policies as well as use a statist friendly discourse and dominate political praxis.

On the contrary, the centre left cannot convince that they have genuinely reformed from the communist times, that they can deal with the difficult national questions, that they can address the social and economic inequalities, nor that they can stay united as a credible alternative. One then would expect that Europes social democratic family should try to be the guide for genuine reform in the Western Balkan region, but in order to do this, it needs first to find its own orientation.

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The five 'infections' of the social democratic 'family' in the Western Balkans - Open Democracy

THE countrys opposition has slammed the Zanu PF led governments ad hoc measures to deal with a revolting economy which has further been weighed down by a crippling cash crisis.

In separate interviews with NewZimbabwe.com weekend, the MDC-T and PDP said no amount of ambush policies by the countrys current rulers can dig the economy out of its deepening abyss.

A shrinking economy has seen government introduce a raft of measures in attempts to draw revenue from a highly informalised economy.

This has been accompanied by measures by the central bank to deal with a recurrent liquidity crisis that has seen business and ordinary citizens now stashing cash in their bedrooms.

Faced with a shrinking economy which has seen only 10 percent of the national purse going towards developmental projects with the rest gobbled up by government wages, the finance ministry recently introduced a wave of taxes on informal businesses such as hair salons and commuter transport.

So scrupulously does the government intend to run the operation that even hair salons will be taxed $10 per chair every month.

The Zanu PF-led administration has also moved to increase fines on vehicular traffic related offences.

Through its tax collector, Zimra, the government also announced plans to start monitoring the activities of high spenders to see if they were honouring their tax obligations.

The central bank, on the other hand has introduced cash withdrawal limits, barred the carrying of amount exceeding US$1,000 out of the country and lately, the imposition of a $20 cap in the cash back facility by retailers and wholesalers.

This, according to PDP finance and economic affairs secretary Vince Musewe, was proof the current administration has reached its wits end and cannot be trusted to still invent any fresh ideas capable of saving the country from its economic hole.

They are in crisis, groping at anything that smells money, Musewe said.

We now have a rent seeking culture because of the decimation of the formal economy. That is typical of an economy that is fast running out of oxygen.

Until we deal with the fundamental structural issues including prudent developmental fiscal policy, nothing will change.

MDC-T spokesperson Obert Gutu said the only solution left for the country to restore its yesteryear economic prosperity was for the entire government to exit from power.

As long at Robert Mugabe and his Zanu PF remain in power, Zimbabweans can simply forget about any socio-economic development and turnaround, Gutu said.

This regime is utterly and completely clueless. Through decades of mismanagement and unprecedented corruption, the Zanu PF regime had trashed and vandalised the Zimbabwean economy and left it as a small, struggling and largely informalised entity.

The regime has introduced ruinous economic policies in the past such as the introduction of bond notes that have virtually led o the collapse of the formal banking sector as people can no longer access their hard-earned money.

The Zanu PF government has often blamed the rot on the effects of western imposed sanctions on President Mugabe, his inner circle and associated firms.

Last year, the government found cover behind a devastating drought period insisting they had no powers to change the weather patterns.

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Cornered govt slammed for ambush economic policies - New Zimbabwe.com

Walter Scheidel, a Stanford humanities professor, builds on Joseph Stiglitz's and Thomas Piketty's work on economic inequality with his own book, The Great Leveler, Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the Twenty-first Century.

In it, Scheidel offers a perceptive, if grim, explanation for the ever-widening socio-economic gap in America, for the growing practice of paying corporate leaders 300 or 400 times whats paid workers on the shop floor, and for the reasoning behind appointing a Cabinet filled with billionaires who have little in common with average citizens.

Instead of focusing on the great, if fitful, advance of the democratic impulse from the Greeks to town meeting, he argues that four immense shocks have been the principle drivers of economic leveling. And when almost everyone was made poorer, the rich arguably lost the most.

The first driver is pestilence or plague, like the Black Death of the late Middle Ages, which, by killing more than a third of Europe's population, radically changed the value of land and labor.

The second is the collapse of whole empires, such as that of Western Rome, or various Chinese dynasties.

Next are the great wars of mass mobilization, two of which happened in the 20th Century. Scheidel argues that a greater degree of democracy - and patriotism - was the price that political and economic elites paid to engage the middle and lower classes in mass warfare.

Finally, socio-economic leveling occurs during financial upheavals like the Great Depression of the 1930's, the only one of these four shocks to the socio-economic system in which millions did not die. That this Depression was book-ended by two world Wars created a tri-fecta of misery but also more economic equality.

On the one hand, considering Scheidels four alternatives, Im pessimistically reminded of the wag's version of the Golden Rule, in which its said that "He who has the gold, makes the rules!"

But the optimist in me says that while peaceful efforts to narrow this economic inequality have been weak, most people, including Scheidel would agree theyve done little harm.

Besides, even if theyre not fully up to the "growing challenges ahead" I dont even want to consider the alternatives.

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Mares: Drivers Of Economic Leveling - Vermont Public Radio

Gift Phiri 15 April 2017 2:52PM 8 comments

HARARE - With Zimbabwes economy continuing to die as manifested by rising poverty levels, worsening job losses and severe cash shortages the government is showing signs of panic, amid fresh warnings by experts that the country is headed for an economic disaster akin to the meltdown of 2008.

This comes as the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) has set the maximum limit for cash back facilities by retailers and wholesalers at $20, as authorities desperately try to mitigate the countrys worsening cash crisis which is forcing long-suffering Zimbabweans to spend hours at banks queuing for their money.

Any cash-back facility made available by retailers and wholesalers shall not exceed an amount of $20.

The Reserve Bank shall collaborate with wholesalers, retailers and their associations to ensure the adequate provision of Point of Sale (POS) machines in order to enhance the use of plastic money for transactions, the under-pressure central bank said on Thursday.

But a government source who spoke to the Daily News yesterday said the countrys bigwigs were panicking over the ever-deteriorating state of the economy.

I wont lie to you, we are all panicking. While its clear that the Reserve Bank is doing its best, unfortunately our problems are deeper than the central banks mandate, which is why they appear to be treating the symptoms and not the causes of the problems, the senior official said.

An executive with a retail chain, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also criticised what he called panicky, knee-jerk policy pronouncements by the government that he felt would not mitigate the dire situation obtaining on the ground.

We have now reached a situation where we do not know whether to laugh or cry. I mean, what kind of policies are these where we are compelled to bank our money but cant get this cash back when we need it?

Our biggest fear is that this is more and more looking like the nightmare of 2008 . . . and while Im not one of (Peoples Democractic Party leader Tendai) Bitis admirers, I think he was correct when he described our economy as a Ponzi scheme (a fraudulent investment operation), he said.

On its part, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirais Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the RBZ should simply own up and declare that the prevailing cash crisis is beyond its control.

The wheels have totally come off, MDC spokesperson Obert Gutu told the Daily News yesterday.

The bond notes experiment has been a spectacular flop. The chickens are coming home to roost.

What Zimbabwe needs and needs very urgently, is a lasting solution to its long standing political and socio-economic crisis.

These stop-gap measures like limiting cash backs to be paid by retailers simply wont do. We need to cure the cause of the disease, not just rushing to suppress the symptoms, he said.

PDP spokesperson Jacob Mafume alleged that senior government officials were the biggest hoarders of cash in the country and not ordinary Zimbabweans who were targeted by the new monetary measures.

He also said the RBZ was criminalising what is ordinary economic activity in other countries.

Economist Kipson Gundani said the new cash back limits showed that Zimbabwe had entered an era of cash rationing adding that he did not expect the measures to end the countrys severe cash shortages.

Mfundo Mlilo, a governance and public policy expert, also said the cash back limits reflected the fact that the countrys cash crisis was worsening.

The money supply situation is worsening and this will negatively affect aggregate national demand . . . Its an ungodly act at Easter, Mlilo said.

Other economists warned that the cash crunch would pull down Zimbabwes gross domestic product (GDP) growth and spawn a recession, with companies and traders relying on cash set to be worst affected.

Economist Prosper Chitambara said the new regulations were a desperate measure to curb the countrys worst financial crisis in eight years, but would not succeed.

Definitely, this wont address the problem . . . this is a confidence issue, as there are uncertainties in the market. People have no confidence in using the formal system, he said.

In the meantime, Zimbabwes worsening cash crisis has forced banks to reduce further their daily withdrawal limits in addition to suspending dispensing money through Automated Teller Machines (ATMs).

This prompted analysts who spoke to the Daily News recently to say that this confirmed that the local economy was dying and hurtling towards total collapse.

It also comes as most banks are now disbursing a maximum of $30 dollars a day, down from their usual $100 while those that had capped the maximum withdrawal limit at $500 a week have pulled this back to $200.

The cash shortages are also continuing to worsen despite the recent opening of the tobacco marketing season.

Economic advisor to President Robert Mugabe, Ashok Chakravarti, told the Daily News last week that the escalating cash crisis was a result of long-term problems that came after the country opted to have one of the worlds strongest currencies, the US dollar, as its anchor currency.

We have close to $6,5 billion in deposits and at the end of January we had a little over $300 million in cash circulating.

Under such circumstances, it only makes sense that we have shortages. Do not blame the banks, it is not their fault, they are only looking for a coping mechanism, Chakravarti said.

He recommended that the government should adopt the South African rand and ditch the dollar.

I have said this before, we need a weaker currency. The weaker, the better for us. As South Africa has just been downgraded, this is an opportune time. What we just need is a weaker currency, he added.

Veteran economist John Robertson said the cash problems were going to persist until the government urgently fixed the countrys economic fundamentals.

This has been going on for the past year and in my view, the situation is not likely to improve in the near future because economic fundamentals remain the same.

Governments wage bill still makes up the majority of deposits and as soon as those deposits are recorded, civil servants want to withdraw the money. But there is essentially no money in the system . . . Not even tobacco earnings will save us this time Robertson said.

The cash shortages come as there are growing fears that the countrys economy may soon hit the disastrous lows of 2008 as bond notes continue to lose their value against the United States dollar, with the coveted greenback now almost completely unavailable on the open market.

At the same time, economists have also told the Daily News that poverty levels in the country are skyrocketing, with average incomes now at their lowest levels in more than 60 years and with more than 76 percent of the countrys families now having to make do with pitiful incomes that are well below the poverty datum line of more than $500.

Economists have also warned of a fresh round of sharp rises in the prices of basic goods, including foodstuffs as the US dollar continues to vanish from the market, leading political analysts to worry about renewed civil unrest in the country.

Biti, who is the countrys former Former Finance minister has also said that Zimbabwe is heading for an economic calamity which would see the government formally reintroducing the Zimbabwe dollar which has been decommissioned.

They are already printing what we call Zollars, an amphibious creature which is half Zimdollar and half US dollar that is reflected in treasury bills and bond notes which have no cover.

This is reflected in unfinanced RTGS (real-time gross settlement) and debit card transactions. We have created hot air, and as a result broad money supply, M3, must be frightening. It must be close to 60 percent of GDP. We are heading straight to hyperinflation.

Zimbabweans must prepare for a long winter of despair. Its in Zanu PFs DNA to print money and just spend it as if there is no tomorrow. The flood gates are open and will drown us. Its just a question of time now, Biti said.

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Govt panics as wheels come off - DailyNews Live - DailyNews

BRIEFLY

Community breakfast to open Trinity's Easter service

MERCER Trinity Presbyterian Church, 110 East Market St., will offer a light breakfast for the community in the social room at 9:45 a.m. Sunday, preceding the church's Easter service at 11 a.m.

Christian Women's retreat scheduled at McKeever

SANDY LAKE Christian Women's Outreach of Mercer County is sponsoring a retreat April 21-22 at McKeever Environmental Learning Center, state Route 358.

The retreat begins at 4:30 p.m. the first day and ends at the conclusion of the 2 p.m. session the second day. Overnight stays are optional.

Guest speakers are Brandy Palmiero of Clarks Mills and Pastor Janet Pratt of Stoneboro. The retreat offers women time away from busy lives, a time of communion with Jesus and of sharing with others.

Costs: Friday night only, $17, includes dinner; Saturday only, $30, includes all meals; Friday and Saturday no overnight, $40, includes all meals; and Friday and Saturday overnight, $45, includes all meals. Scholarships are available. Registration forms may be obtained by calling Patti at 724-475-3520 or Shirley at 814-425-7572.

Clergy group to hold Easter sunrise service

SHARPSVILLE AREA The Greater Sharpsville Area Clergy Association is sponsoring special events Easter Sunday.

On Easter Sunday, a community sunrise service will be held at 7 a.m. in Mahaney Park at the Shenango Lake. Speaker will be Rev. Dr. Carl Nicklas.

Member churches are Sharpsville Nazarene, First Presbyterian, First United Methodist, South Py Community, Clark Trinity United Methodist, St. Bartholomews and Eastgate Christian. Shenango Valley Faith Academy and Transform! Counseling Center also are part of the association.

Eagles Nest Church sets Easter services, eventGREENVILLE Eagles Nest Church, which worships at the American Legion Hall, 278 Main St., has scheduled special Easter Sunday services.

At 9:30 a.m. Easter Sunday, a Galilean breakfast will be held at the Pymatuning dam by the gatehouse, featuring fish and loaves and a retelling of the story in John chapter 21. A celebration service will be held at 10:30 at the legion hall.

Info: Pastor Vince Bellanca, 724-456-8900.

Wayside church slates Good Friday, Easter services

FINDLEY TOWNSHIP Wayside Community Church, 1911 Mercer-Grove City Road, will hold Easter Sunday service at 10:30 a.m.

New Life Baptist sets 3 Easter celebration services

NEW WILMINGTON Community Easter celebration services will be held at New Life Baptist Church, 3414 state Route 208, at 6 p.m. today and at 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday.

The services will include deaf interpretation and their will be classes for children of all ages.

Info: 724-946-2816 or http://www.mynlbc.com

WM area churches to hold outdoor sunrise service WEST MIDDLESEX AREA West Middlesex area churches will hold an outdoor Easter sunrise service at 7 a.m. Sunday in the east-facing parking lot of Unity Presbyterian Church at Greenfield, 1857 Mercer West Middlesex Road in Lackawannock Township.

Pastor Jim Moose of the host church will speak. Those attending are asked to bring lawn chairs.

Following the outdoor service, breakfast will be served in the Unity fellowship hall, which is handicapped accessible.

In case of rain the service will be held in the Unity sanctuary.

Info: 724-346-9501 and leave a message.

Rev. Oatis to speak at IHS 'Sonrise' service

HERMITAGE Rev. Don Oatis will be the speaker at the 7 a.m. Easter Sunday Sonrise service in IHS Gospel Ministries, 786 Karen Lane. Breakfast will be at 8 a.m., followed by Sunday school and the worship service.

Vision & Values conference looks at God that Failed

GROVE CITY The Center for Vision & Values at Grove City College will take a deep look at a fallen socio-economic idol that may be making a comeback during the conservative think tank's 13th annual conference April 20 and 21 on campus.

The God That Failed: Communism and Socialism Then and Now features dozens of speakers and scholars exploring a variety of issues related to the communist-socialist phenomenon of past, present and future.

National Review Senior Editor Jonah Goldburg, one the nations most-read and respected conservative writers, leads a pack of nationally-known guests who will descend on campus for the conference, which also features a number of Grove City College faculty who will present original research and scholarship and lead discussions throughout.

Others scheduled to speak during the two-day conference include: David Horowitz, founder and president of the Freedom Center and editor of FrontPage Magazine; Michael Medved, nationally syndicated radio talk show host, best-selling author, political commentator and veteran film critic; Ron Radosh, a writer, professor, historian and former communist; and Lee Edwards, distinguished fellow at The Heritage Foundation and author of Freedoms College: The History of Grove City College.

The conference takes its name from a 1949 book detailing the disillusionment of former Communists and also serves to mark the centenary of the launch of global communism with the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, communist and socialist societies persist in the 21st century and recent events indicate that the ideology may be attractive to todays millennial generation. The conference seeks to explore the ways in which current ideologies bare resemblance to communism and how people of faith should assess socialism and its more radical variants.

For a complete schedule of events or to register, visit: http://www.visionandvalues.org.

The Center for Vision & Values is conservative think tank strengthening the faith and freedom foundation of American citizenship at Grove City College. It is a leading forum for the study and application of freedom to economic, political, social, religious and scientific issues. The views and opinions expressed by Center staff or conference participants do not necessarily reflect the view of Grove City College.

Chestnut Ridge to host Carol Missik's 'Concert of Worship'

HUBBARD Rev. Carol Missik will present Concert of Worship at 5 p.m. April 23 in Chestnut Ridge Church of God. Performing guests will be Loree Schmidt; Higher Praise of Warren, Ohio; the mens praise team of the host church and soloists and instrumentalists with Missik at the keyboard.

An offering will be received to support Operation Capital City, an affiliate of South East Asia Prayer Center headquartered in Oakmont, Pa. Operation Capital Citys purpose is to strategically cover with intense prayer each capital city in each state or region in any nation the organization believes God is leading.

Ruth A.M.E. Zion schedules Women's Day services

SHARON Ruth A.M.E. Zion Church, 95 Connelly Blvd., will hold Women's Day services April 29 and 30.

A prayer brunch will be at 11 a.m. April 29, with guest speaker Rev. Geraldine D. Williams, former pastor. An offering will be received. At 3 p.m. that day, a praise extravaganza will feature area choirs, groups and individuals.

The 11 a.m. April 30 service will conclude the weekend activities. Speaker will be Rev. Deborah Hines, associate minister of Bethel A.M.E. Zion Church in Cleveland.

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Church happenings, Easter Week events - Allied News

Kazakhstans President Nursultan Nazarbayev has called on his government to begin preparing to shift the nations alphabet from the Cyrillicas used by neighbor Russiato the Latin.

Kazakhstan has been independent since the collapse of the Soviet Union but Russian is still widely spoken alongside Kazakh and both are official languages.

But despite the use of Russian in Kazakhstan and its neighbors, the regions native languages belong to the Turkic rather than Slavic family.

Other countries with Turkic languages, such as Turkey, Azerbaijan and nearby Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan use the Latin alphabet. And now, according to Russian news agency Interfax, Nazarbayev has commissioned experts to begin work on a Kazakh alphabet based on the Latin one, by the end of the year.

"The Latin alphabet was used [in Kazakhstan] from 1929 to 1940, Nazarbayev said. In 1940a law was adopted transferring the Kazakh language from the Latin alphabet to one based on Russian script. Thus, changes in the Kazakh alphabet were political.

Nazarbayev plans the transition to the new Latinized Kazakh script to be complete by 2025. The stated purpose of the move is to make Kazakhstan a more recognizable brand internationally, but it will also appeal to patriotic Kazakhs.

According to Camilla Hagelund, Central Asia analyst at risk analytics firm Verisk Maplecroft, the initiative will likely be a success given Nazarbayevs immense unilateral influence in his country and the fact that the change reflects the public mood.

Kazakh businesses have, for example, increasingly adopted the use of Q instead of K in their company namesusing Qazaq instead of Kazakh, she says. Such changes are closer to non-Cyrillic regional conventions. The letter Q does not exist in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Nazarbayev even noted that the Kazakh diaspora in Turkey is already widely using Latin script to write in Kazakh and schoolchildren all learn the Latin alphabet as part of studying English at school. That is not to say the transition will be without pitfalls, however, as Hagelund warns companies will have to rebrand products and retrain personnel on using new equipment.

At the socio-economic level the implications are much greater, including the need to replace school books, adding pressure on strained public finances, Hagelund says. The change would [also] risk making large swathes of the public illiterate.

Hagelund does not expect Russia to be overly concerned about losing a common alphabet with one of its closest allies, however.

Continue reading here:

Kazakhstan Could Become Qazaqstan as it Eyes New Alphabet - Newsweek

This week, Christians around the world mark the holiest week in their religious calendar, observing the Passion, crucifixion, and Resurrection of Jesus in Jerusalem. This sober time of reflection and prayer comes in the midst of continued threats to Christians in the Middle East most recently in the PalmSunday bombings at two churches in Egypt claimed by ISIS.

Over the past decade, some of the oldest Christian communities have been disappearing from the lands where the faith was born and first took root. A combination of violence and discrimination has driven Christians to migrate abroad for physical security and better educational and economic opportunities. Christians have been targeted by terrorist groups like ISIS and devastated by the regions civil wars. In addition, deeply rooted discrimination against Christians and other non-Muslims institutionalized in the legal codes and official practices of most Middle Eastern countries is another factor leading to the declining Christian presence.

The United States alone cannot stop these trends but acknowledging them and taking modest steps to address the underlying problems will be important as the United States steps up its engagement in the Middle East. U.S. action on this front is more than a matter of altruistic goodwill; its an important part of a long-term stabilization strategy for the Middle East.

The challenges for Christians in the Middle East vary significantly across countries, but there is one common thread related to overall stability: poor governance. Islamist extremist groups have exploited weaknesses in the rule of law to target Christians and secular authoritarians have cultivated the marginalization and erasure of Christian communities.

The eradication of Christians and their religious sites amounts to memoricide erasing any living presence and memory footprint of Christians in their homelands. Turkeys president reported plans to hold Muslim prayers inside the Byzantine Orthodox Cathedral of Aghia Sophia this coming Good Fridayis one example of active efforts to erase Christian heritage and patrimony.

These actions by authoritarian leaders and terrorist groups have contributed to the problem of state failure and collapse in the Middle East, a global security threat. The 9/11 attacks and the spread of Islamist extremist ideologies, and the massive human flows across the Mediterranean in the worlds worst refugee crisis since the Second World War, is directly linked to the failure of states to protect the rights of all its citizens, particularly persecuted religious groups. Greater respect for religious pluralism and freedom is a key component to long-term stability.

The U.S. militarys current tactical and operational escalation in Syria, Iraq, and other parts of the Middle East will not stop state fragmentation without a long-term engagement strategy that takes seriously the fact that religious pluralism matters for state legitimacy and socio-economic stability. This doesnt mean direct nation-building by the United States but it does mean ending the tendency to see religious freedom as a boutique policy issue and integrating it in our diplomacy.

Of course, Christian communities are just one of many religious communities that need to be part of peace-building and post-conflict stabilization in Iraq and Syria. In Syria, many Christians cling to the Assad regime despite its brutality, out of fear for what might come next. Next door in Iraq, the Christian community was decimated by the ongoing war. To help these countries achieve long-term stability, the United States must engage other religious communities whose commitments to equality, freedom, and universal human rights can reinforce stability in the region. Legal frameworks and institutional arrangements that demand state accountability to all citizens can help resolve societal differences a key ingredient for peace processes.

A few days after entering office, President Trump told the Christian Broadcasting Network that Christians in the Middle East have been horribly treated, and Were going to help them. But President Trumps proposal to drastically cut funding for the State Department and other development assistance would undermine Americas ability to help on this front. Meanwhile, his broader refugee ban undermines Americas influence and moral authority, and reduces the overall number of people fleeing persecution and trying to come to the United States

Instead, Trump should take concrete steps to follow up on the U.S. State Departments designation made in March of last year that ISIS was committing genocide, including providing funding and support for tools necessary to investigate and prosecute war crimes and acts of genocide. Trump should also revisit the proposed State Department budget and develop practical mechanisms for helping post-conflict stabilization efforts that include religious pluralism and freedom as a priority.

Christians are organic to the fabric of religious diversity that made the Middle East a civilizational crucible of intellectual dynamism and economic innovation as far back as Roman and Byzantine times. This historical energy and diversity can be resurrected.

Brian Katulis is a senior fellow for national security at the Center for American Progress. Elizabeth Prodromou, a visiting associate professor of negotiation and conflict resolution at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, is also a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

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Trump Administration Must Act To Address The Plight of Christians In The Middle East - Huffington Post