Africa

Some women allege they were raped by soldiers during the night raids to suppress recent protests.

The Comoros Football Federation lodges a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport over Cameroon's participation at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.

Ivory Coast defender Ghislain Konan faces a battle to be fit for the Africa Cup of Nations finals after picking up an injury with his French club Reims.

A de-radicalisation scheme in Nigeria is helping former Boko Haram militants rejoin society.

Football's world body Fifa says Zambia's former African Footballer of the Year, Kalusha Bwalya, has had his two-year ban from all football reduced on appeal.

Tanzanian authorities say the bodies were missing ears and teeth in deaths linked to witchcraft.

Everton boss Marco Silva says the club have rejected an offer from Paris-St-Germain for midfielder Idrissa Gueye.

Graham Potter suggests Ivory Coast striker Wilfried Bony is edging closer to a move away from Swansea City.

Authorities say it's unclear what started the fire at the popular tourist attraction.

The Argentina Football Association confirms its national team will play a friendly against Morocco on 26 March.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jan 28 2019 (IPS)

In 1989 I watched Back to the Future, Part II by Robert Zemickis, a complicated story about a youngster who from 1985 time travelled to 2015. Within the movie I spotted a poster from the imaginary 2015: US AIR Surf Vietnam. Back in 1989 I associated Vietnam with the war that lasted from 1955 to the fall of Saigon in 1975 and by different media was brought into the homes of millions, radicalizing and engaging youngsters, not the least me.

Catching sight of the poster I associated it with a scene in Francis Ford Coppola´s masterpiece Apocalypse Now, where a gung-ho US Colonel ordered his troops to attack a fishing village so he and his men could go surfing on its beach. Like the entire movie the episode commented on the absurdity of a high-tech superpower using bewildered youngsters to wage war on people who with primitive means defended their homeland. Of course, reality was more complicated than that, though the Vietnam War was soon turned into a mythological fight between good and evil.

In 1989, a poster advertising Vietnam as a tourist destination for American surfers seemed to be quite absurd. Many Americans still feared the Vietnamese as merciless enemies and the country suffered from a US imposed trade embargo. At the time I watched the movie, I could not imagine that I in the near future would move to Vietnam with my family.

Then, just like now, Vietnam was a one-party state governed by the Communist Party. Being a member of other political parties was not allowed. Human rights were severely restricted and long prison sentences were meted out to those who criticized the regime, or the widespread corruption. Nevertheless, Vietnam was in those days a completely different world from what it is now. Back then it was a poor country, scarred by the war, with veterans who told stories about abuse and terror, both from American invaders and their own Government. Hanoi was infested by rats, its streets clogged by bicycles. When I drove our heavy Soviet Volga (it was first after a year we bought a Toyota) I felt like a shark swimming through shoals of small fish.

We lived a privileged life, we were free to move around in the town but had to live in Van Phuc, a fenced area peopled by foreigners working for international organizations. Our entire time in Hanoi was overshadowed by dealings with The People’s Committee (Uỷ Ban Nhân Dân) and other governmental organizations, several of them infested by corruption.

I was fascinated by the pragmatism surrounding us. People seemed to be working every day of the week. I remember a carpenter who made beautiful mahogany furniture. I talked with him with the help of our friend and interpreter, Luan. Since he had several foreign customers I asked the carpenter why he in spite of that lived like a poor man. He answered:

– I have money, but with a predatory government like ours it is not advisable to expose any wealth. Better times will come and then I will build a house and give my children an excellent education.

Once I saw a beautiful cupboard in his workshop telling him I would buy it if he made some minor adjustments, while asking him why he had not made it perfect from the beginning. He answered:

– Why should I make such an effort when a foreigner like you would buy it anyway?

When I came back the following week and asked about the cupboard, he told me:

– I sold it to a Chinese gentleman. Like you he appreciated an excellent work. Thanks to your suggestions I improved the cupboard and asked for a higher prize. I will give you a cup of tea instead.

I was also fascinated by what I perceived as a strong thirst for knowledge, even the street beggars could be seen reading books. I used to visit a bookshop to buy cheap, but lavishly illustrated, Russian art books. One evening the shop administrator told me:

– I and my colleagues have seen that you often come here. Since you speak English we wonder if you could not stay one hour after closing time and teach us all English. We will pay you by giving you the books you want.

People in the street, as well as government officials, seemed to share the same interest in gaining knowledge. At a party at the Swedish embassy I had been talking with a Government official. The day after the embassy received a call from the Institute for Foreign Relations. They asked if the embassy could bring me to the Institute. On our way to the Institute a somewhat bewildered Secretary of the Embassy told me:

– I really don´t know what they want from you. It´s not likely they want to know anything about religion, which is somewhat of a taboo here. I´ll tell them you may speak about Swedish culture.

Four serious men, in the typical green uniforms and high peaked hats of the Vietnamese military, sat smoking while listening to the embassy secretary. One of them suddenly stubbed out his cigarette, stating:

– We don´t want anything of that. We know this Swede is a historian of religions and what we want from him is something we don´t know much about. We want him to lecture us about Muslim fundamentalism and the organisation of the Jesuits.

By the beginning of the 1990s Muslim fundamentalism was not yet such a great concern as it is now, but the Vietnamese government probably had an inkling about what would come. But, why were they interested in the Jesuits? Maybe this was also some kind of foreboding? Yesterday, a Jesuit friend of mine told me that the Society of Jesus enjoy its fastest growth in Vietnam. The country has now more Jesuit priests per capita than any other country. An amazing development considering that it was not until 2003 that the Society of Jesus began to function there as a religious institution.

When I visited the country again in 2011, I found Hanoi to be a completely changed town, modern and prosperous. An impression which was reinforced when I met friends I had known during my first stay in Vietnam. They were all better off and considered the future with optimism. Could there after all be a relation between prosperity and authoritarianism? I hope not.

A market economy reform, Đổi mới, was launched in 1984, making almost all farmers self-employed, transforming a rice importing country into the world’s third largest exporter of rice. The US embargo was lifted in 1994. Membership in the World Trade Organization has attracted over 22,000 direct investment projects, global groups like Samsung, LG, Toyota, Honda and Canon have selected Vietnam as a manufacturing base. A wealth of bilateral and multilateral free trade agreements has been signed. Tourism has become an important industry, but also manufacturing of shoes, textiles and food.

In spite of all this I am inclined to consider the go-ahead spirit of my Vietnamese friends to be an outcome of their pragmatism, a result of war and the hardship suffered under totalitarianism, combined with state sponsored education and health care. I hope all this finally will result in a democracy and an unrestricted adherence to human rights.

Jan Lundius holds a PhD. on History of Religion from Lund University and has served as a development expert, researcher and advisor at SIDA, UNESCO, FAO and other international organisations.

The post Back to the Future: Vietnam Now and Then appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Sierra Leone president Julius Maada Bio is among a large crowd to welcome the return of league football in the country after a four-and-a-half year absence.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa orders the arrest of officials filmed attacking a protester.

Children in Nobouday housing slum close to Old Dhaka. Dhaka, Bangladesh. Credit: UN Photo/Kibae Park

By Liu Zhenmin
UNITED NATIONS, Jan 28 2019 (IPS)

World leaders have committed to ending poverty everywhere for all people by 2030.

Achieving this aim means facing up to the need for dramatic declines in inequalities – in income, in opportunity, in exposure to risk, across gender, between countries and within countries – over the next decade.

Inequality is a well-recognized barrier to poverty eradication, as well as many other development challenges.

It features in multiple dimensions across the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development— the universally adopted plan to promote prosperity and social well-being while protecting the environment.

According to many metrics, income inequality among countries has declined somewhat in recent decades, driven primarily by strong growth in East Asian and South Asian economies.

But there are many countries—particularly in parts of Africa, Western Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean— where income levels have continued to fall further behind, exacerbating income inequalities between countries.

The latest United Nation’s analysis in the World Economic Situation and Prospects 2019 indicates that per capita income levels essentially stagnated or declined in a total of 47 developing and transition economies last year.

Most of these countries have been consistently falling behind for several decades. This poses an enormous challenge as countries strive to reduce poverty, develop essential infrastructure, create jobs and support economic diversification.

Most of the lagging countries are highly dependent on commodities, stressing the importance of both diversification and effective management of natural resource wealth to tap into their development potential.

Several countries have also suffered long-standing armed conflict or civil unrest and political instability. If this trend continues, eradicating poverty and creating decent jobs for all will become increasingly out of reach.

Weak economic performance is also linked to insufficient investment in quality education, health services, social protection, programs for marginalized groups and mitigation and adaptation to climate change.

Faster GDP growth alone will not necessarily lead to broad-based improvements in living standards. Deep inequalities also persist in the distribution of income within countries, acting as a major barrier to development progress.

High inequality within countries is associated with social exclusion and fragmentation; weaker institution-building and governance; and increased risk of violence and internal conflict.

Fundamental transformations are needed going forward, to narrow the income gaps between and within countries.

According to UN estimates, without significant changes in behaviour, more than 7 per cent of the global population may remain in poverty by the year 2030, including about 30 per cent of the populations in Africa and the least developed countries (LDCs).

In Africa, where the population is expanding at a rate of more than 2 per cent per year, reducing the level of extreme poverty to below 5 per cent by 2030 will require a combination of double digit GDP growth and dramatic declines in inequality.

This is well-outside the realms of historical precedence. Integrated and cross-cutting policy measures that both raise prospects for economic growth and reduce income inequalities are essential to shift the world towards a more sustainable and inclusive path.

This includes investing in education, health care, resilience to climate change, and financial and digital inclusion, to support economic growth and job creation in the short-term, while promoting sustainable development in the long term.

Macroeconomic stability and a strong development-oriented policy framework, including a well-functioning and robust financial system, are key elements for successfully tackling inequality.

Well-designed fiscal policies can help smooth the business cycle, provide public goods, correct market failures and directly influence the income distribution.

Broadening access to quality education is also crucial, coupled with employment policies, such as raising minimum wages and expanding social protection.

Prioritizing rural infrastructure development, through public investment in transport, agriculture and energy, can also support poverty alleviation and narrow inequalities within countries.

While there is no one-size-fits-all policy prescription that guarantees delivery of a more equal and prosperous society, one overarching message is clear: calls to eradicate poverty are meaningless without concerted and committed policy action to reduce inequality.

* Liu Zhenmin became Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs in July 2017. Prior to his appointment, he was the Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of China since 2013. He brings to the position more than 30 years of experience in the diplomatic service, with a strong focus on the promotion of bilateral, regional and global issues. He was deeply involved for 10 years in climate change negotiations, including the conclusion of the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement.

The post Ending Poverty is Possible, but it Means Facing up to Inequality – Within & Between Countries appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Liu Zhenmin* is UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs

The post Ending Poverty is Possible, but it Means Facing up to Inequality – Within & Between Countries appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Nigeria's president says Western powers were wrong to criticise the suspension of the chief justice.

The planet is losing 12 million hectares of prime land yearly due to degradation. This photo taken in 2013 records efforts to green portions of the Kubuqi Desert, the seventh largest in China. Credit: Manipadma Jena/IPS

By Desmond Brown
GEORGETOWN, Jan 28 2019 (IPS)

The link between desertification, land degradation and climate change is among several issues occupying the attention of the 197 Parties to the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) for the next three days.

Guyana, a member-country of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), is hosting the 17th Session of the Committee for the Review of Implementation of the UNCCD (CRIC 17) from Jan. 28 to 30. It’s the first meeting of a subsidiary body of UNCCD to be held in the English-speaking Caribbean.

Troy Torrington, director of multilateral and global affairs within the Guyana Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the meeting is an important one for the Caribbean as it will highlight the role of land in combatting the climate challenge.

“It is critical that we place greater emphasis on land if we are going to be successful in meeting the global climate challenge,” Torrington told IPS.

“In fact, land has several important contributions to the climate. One of the foremost of those is in terms of the sequestering of carbon. The sequestration of carbon enriches the land . . . and with good land use planning, management and practices, you can in fact significantly advance the solutions to the global climate challenge.”

Troy Torrington, director of multilateral and global affairs within the Guyana Ministry of Foreign Affairs, says in order to be successful in meeting the global climate challenge, greater emphasis must be placed on land. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

In 2009, Guyana made a deal with Norway, where the Nordic country agreed to pay up to 250 million dollars over the course of five years if Guyana maintained its low deforestation rate. It was the first time a developed country, conscious of its own carbon-dioxide emissions, had paid a developing country to keep its trees in the ground.

Under the initiative, developed by the United Nations and called REDD+ (for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation), Guyana was able continue logging as long as biodiversity is protected.

Melchiade Bukuru, chief at the UNCCD New York liaison office agrees with Torrington on the issue of sequestration, noting that carbon, which once belonged to and serves as a fertiliser in the soil, is a polluter in the air.

He said that in order to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN), some 500 million acres of degraded land must be reclaimed and made fertile once more.

“Unless we harness the capacity of our soil to sequester carbon, to bring back the carbon where it belongs, we will not be able to achieve even the UNFCCC goal of 2° C,” Bukuru said. UNFCCC or the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change is a global intergovernmental treaty formed to address climate change. The Conference of Parties (COP), the highest-decision making body of the Convention, meets annually to discuss progress and adopt new decision in combating climate change. 

At COP21 the Paris Agreement was formed, which committed to hold the increase in global average temperature to well below 2° C, to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5° C, and to achieve net zero emissions in the second half of this century.

Bukuru said land degradation also remains a major challenge for countries, adding that each year, the planet is losing 12 million hectares of prime land due to degradation.

Meteorologist with the Barbados-based Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH) Dr. Andrea Sealy (right), says severe Sahara dust episodes significantly affect air quality especially in Eastern Caribbean countries. Sealy shakes hands with Melchiade Bukuru, chief at the UNCCD New York liaison office (left). Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

Meanwhile, the issue of sand and dust storms will also come up for discussion. Dr. Andrea Sealy, a meteorologist with the Barbados-based Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology (CIMH), said severe Sahara dust episodes significantly affect air quality, especially in Eastern Caribbean countries.

“If you have a lot of dust, it also compromises solar panels. Once the solar panels are covered with dust, the amount of radiation they absorb is decreased. So that’s another issue we would need to look at because in the region we are very dependent on solar energy and we will be becoming more dependent as well,” Sealy told IPS.

“There are also issues with the marine ecosystems with dust affecting them. It’s possible the dust could be affecting terrestrial ecosystems. I know for sure studies have been done on the Amazon where it shows to have a positive effect on the soil. In terms of the marine ecosystems though, there are negative effects because you get the algae blooms.”

With several countries experiencing periods of extreme drought in recent years, Guyana’s lands and surveys commissioner Trevor Benn said land and water are inextricably linked.

He pointed to neighbouring Barbados. Benn explained that the island nation is running out of water, but he added that some people fail to see the link between land use and water scarcity.

“I believe if Barbados begins to look more seriously at how they utilise the land, what type of cultivation [they do], what type of infrastructure they put where, you will see that the issues relating to water may subside,” Benn said.

“The importance of land cannot be overstated. It is the pinnacle of everything we do.”

According to the UNCCD, CRIC 17 will review the first global assessment of land degradation based on Earth observation data reported by governments. The assessment, which was conducted by reporting countries using a harmonised approach, shows the trends in land degradation between 2000 to 2015 based on data provided by 145 of the 197 countries that are party to the Convention.

The assessment is expected to provide a baseline for assessing progress in the reduction or reversal of land degradation globally, going forward. It will also contribute to country efforts to achieve LDN, which is Sustainable Development Goal target 15.3.

CRIC 17 will also conduct interactive dialogues on three related emerging issues – the gender action plan as a tool to improve the living conditions of the people affected by land degradation; new and innovative sources to finance initiatives to combat land degradation; and the progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal target on land degradation neutrality, for which the Convention plays a lead role.

At the end of the session, CRIC 17 will propose recommendations that will be considered by its governing body, COP.

CRIC meets once in between the sessions of the COP to review country reports submitted in compliance with the COP decisions.

Related Articles

• Bringing Greener Pastures Back Home
• Using Data to Restore Land
• Q&A: 17 Percent of the Problem, but 30 Percent of the Solution

The post Desertification, Land Degradation and Climate Change Go Hand in Hand appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Organisers of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt change the dates of the tournament to allow players to rest after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The heroin-based cocktail that robbed a man of a decade of his life in one South African township.

Sudan's president Omar al-Bashir says protesters are trying to replicate the so-called Arab Spring.

South Sudan's FA announces that all international matches in 2019 will be played in Uganda whilst the Juba national stadium undergoes renovations.