Africa

A U.S. soldier stands watch at the Kindi IDP Resettlement Center near Baghdad, Iraq, Nov. 16, 2009. Credit: U.S. Navy Photo

By Leila Yasmine Khan and Daud Khan
AMSTERDAM/ROME, Jun 24 2019 (IPS)

As China rapidly replaces Europe and the USA as the key player in developing countries, the Western press is full of articles about the dangers of dealing with the Chinese.

China, it is said, is not liberal and not democratic and hence is not a trustworthy partner in strategic and economic matters. An often cited example is that of Hambantota – a strategically located port that was handed over by the Sri Lankan Government to the Chinese in lieu of repayment of loans.

Of course closely corresponding examples of what was done by western countries is not mentioned such as Diego Garcia. This is a strategically located island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. In the late 1960s the USA and United Kingdom forcibly removed the local population and established a miltiary base.

Acts like that of Diego Garcia are justified by the excuse that they were necessary to dafeguard democarcy and liberalism. The most glaring recent example for western countries going to war to defend democracy is in Iraq.

Diplomatic pressure, collusion, corruption and, when necessary, war are justified by the fact that these other societies have systems and values distinct from the liberal ones

The USA invaded Iraq to save democratic countries (read Israel) from Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, and to liberate the Iraqi people from an undemocratic regime. This narrative had strong resonance in Congress, in the Senate, in the popular media and among the general public and created a groundswell of support for the Shock and Awe campaign.

In a few weeks over 1,500 air strikes were launched against Iraq and almost 7,000 civilians were killed. A triumphant President Bush was able to proudly announce “Mission Accomplished” to an adulating public and pave the way to a second term in office.

An important question for developing countries is:  are these patterns of behavior aberrations in what are otherwise free, peaceful and caring societies; or are they an integral part of the political systems of these countries?

Would things be different if more leaders of the western world were like Justin Trudeau? Would things be different if Hilary Clinton had won the election instead of Donald Trump? Will things be different if the aggressive tendencies of the deep state and occult elites, such as the military-industrial complex, are harnessed by more democratic institutions? In order to answer this we need to look a little into the political philosophy and social consensus that underpins these societies.

Over the last two to three centuries, the values espoused by the Enlightenment – freedom, equality, dignity and independence – have come to dominate the political and socio-economical mainstream in Europe and the USA.

This classical liberalism was complemented by shared views on social justice, the welfare state, and a reliance on the free market for the allocation of a society’s resources.  The view that the liberal, democratic, free-market system is the best way to organize society is now widely shared in the West.

A somewhat deeper look suggests that aggression and exploitation are not an aberration but are very much part of western liberalism. In their critique to John Rawls’ liberal theory, modern political philosophers such as Charles W. Mills, Leif Wenar and Branko Milanovic point out that a liberal society is “a cooperative venture for mutual advantage” regulated by rules for advancing the interests “of those taking part in it”.

The practical manifestation of this is that the social commitment to liberal beliefs often tends to translate into a belief that if the system is under threat, or perceived to be under threat, it is legitimate to defend it against others – by violence when necessary.

As a result the values of peace, freedom and liberty, which are the pillars of western liberal society, tend not to be extended to countries outside this system. Diplomatic pressure, collusion, corruption and, when necessary, war are justified by the fact that these other societies have systems and values distinct from the liberal ones.

As in the case of the Iraq war, the 9/11 attacks and the perceived threat to democracy, and the western way of life, created an unprecedented wave of popular indignation.  It was considered more than sufficient cause to bomb Afghanistan back to the stone-age and to threaten other countries with a similar fate.

History abounds with similar examples where liberal societies have had no qualms about going to war with the excuse of bringing civilization, trade or democracy to other countries. In the same vein, western democracies have no second thoughts about making alliances with repressive and undemocratic regimes whenever it suited them.

The fact that western liberal societies are capable of colonialism and war does not mean that China is going to be a heaven-sent, or that developing countries should abandon our progress towards liberal values such as tolerance, freedom and equality. However, it does mean that they should not get swayed by the anti-China rhetoric of the western press but take a pragmatic approach way for the good of the country.

 

Leila Yasmine Khan is an independent writer and editor based in the Netherlands. She has Master’s in Philosophy and a Master’s in Argumentation and Rhetoric from the University of Amsterdam, as well as a Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy from the University of Rome (Roma Tre).

Daud Khan a retired UN staff based in Rome. He has degrees in economics from the LSE and Oxford – where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College of Science and Technology.

The post Liberalism and Developing Countries appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Mali Women score the three lowest T20I totals in history as they endure a tournament to forget in Rwanda.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, Jun 24 2019 (IPS)

Being a frequent visitor to the Dominican Republic, where I occasionally have enjoyed the high standard, security and excellent service of its resorts, I became puzzled by recent, quiet excessive media reactions to statistically insignificant cases of deaths in these resorts. The number of demises in Dominican resorts have been more or less the same over the years and do not at all differ from those of most other tourist destinations. People die in hotels all over the world. There may even be specific reasons for this and they are far from being unique to the Dominican Republic.

Hotel rooms are liminal spaces on the borderline between everyday life and something different. Unknown people have lived there before us, while strangers will occupy the rooms when we have left. During the Edo-period (1600-1867 CE) the red-light district of Edo (modern Tokyo) was called Ukiyo, the floating/transient world. Several modern hotels can be described as Ukiyoes, where people tend to behave quite differently from what they do at home. Drugs, excessive sex and other forms of “misconduct” are temptations in places you can leave without cleaning up after you. Furthermore, abnormal behaviour may be fostered by “all-inclusive” drinking and eating binges. Within the unfamiliar and secluded confinement of a hotel room you and your traveling companion/s may furthermore be prone to complaints and abuse you otherwise would refrain from. Our mind and bodies may also be exhausted after intensive day trips, heat and sunburn, conditions worsened by the content of ”private pharmacies” tourists tend to bring with them. To sum up – reasons for suffering sickness and even facing death in hotel rooms may be numerous.

In fictitious tales, hotel rooms provide the stage for horrific events and have been part of literary genres ever since the mythological villain Procrustes invited travelers to spend a night in his inn, where he stretched out, or cut off, their limbs to make them fit into his beds. A Victorian horror writer like William Wilkie Collins excelled in tales about hotel horrors, like The Dream Woman, A Terribly Strange Bed and The Haunted Hotel, the last one dealt with English tourists in Venice. Many of the murder mysteries in Agatha Christie´s 66 detective novels have hotel rooms as their main setting and they are also a common ambiance in Stephen King´s horror stories, whose The Shining and 408 became successful movies, together with other hotel horror blockbusters like Psycho, Vacancy and No Country for Old Men.

In Disney´s amusement parks in Orlando, Paris, and Tokyo you might enjoy a ride within The Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, a skyscraper hotel inspired by a famous TVSeries. Several ”documentaries” like the popular America´s Haunted Hotels have presented mysterious happenings referred to by employees and guests working and staying in frightening hotels. Prominent among haunted US hotels is the Cecil Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles, which since its opening in 1931 gained a reputation for suicides and violent crimes. That this hotel changed its name to Stay on Main did apparently not distance it from its tragic reputation. Another ”haunted hotel” is The Luxor on the Las Vegas Strip. It has not changed its name and seems to thrive on its lugubrious fame.

Las Vegas may be described as an Ukiyo, a ”Floating World” where people come to indulge in gambling and entertainment. The town´s many hotels appear to confirm the rumour that such places cause both ”natural” and violent deaths. Not only do elderly people die in their rooms from heart attacks and respiratory problems, but people are committing suicide, die from overdoses and/or suffer crime related deaths and violent attacks. Last year, 205 murders and 1 296 rapes were reported in Las Vegas, a rate of 12 murders and 80 rapes per 100 000 people, while in New York 3 murders and 27 rapes were committed per 100 000 people.2 The Las Vegas death toll was considerably higher in 2017, when on October 1 a certain Stephen Paddock fired more than 1 100 rounds of ammunition from his suite on the 32nd floor of the Manadalay Bay Hotel into a crowd of concertgoers on the Las Vegas Strip. He killed 58 people and wounded 422. Mr. Paddock´s motive remains undetermined. He was found dead in his room from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Hotel related fatalities have not affected Las Vegas´s popularity as a tourist destination and do seldom figure in descriptions of this renowned resort city.3 Nevertheless, hotel deaths have recently gained prominence while describing another tourist destination – the Dominican Republic. After Tammy Lawrence-Daley on May 29 posted an account on her Facebook about the attack she suffered on the grounds of The Majestic Elegance Resort,4 accounts of deaths at Dominican resort hotels have gone viral and are currently being reported on the web, by major TV networks and daily newspapers around the world.5

During the past 12 months, six cases of sudden deaths of US citizens at hotels in the Dominican Republic have been reported. In July last year, a 45-year-old man died in his hotel room after a heart attack and in April this year a 67-year-old man died at the same resort after “drinking a Scotch from the minibar”. In June 2018, a 51-year-old woman died in another resort. She had also “had a drink from the minibar”. On May 24 this year, a woman died from a heart attack in another Dominican resort, she was 41 years old. A few days later at another resort, a 63-year-old man and his 49-year-old wife died from “respiratory failure and pulmonary edema.”6 Since these cases were revealed, numerous reports are appearing from people claiming to have become sick at hotels in the Dominican Republic, among them a couple who recently filed a lawsuit against a resort asking for $1 million after they had been refused a refund after claiming an insecticide had made them sick.7

More than two million US citizens visit the Dominican Republic every year, making up about a third of the country’s tourists. Several question marks may be added to the recent reports that already have had damaging effects on the Dominican tourist industry. Foremost among them are – Why is there suddenly such an intense reporting about six resort related deaths among 6.5 million visitors to the Dominican Republic? Particularly since deaths at hotels are not entirely uncommon, not the least in the US. The Dominican Republic is furthermore known to be comparatively safe for tourists, at least considerably safer than Las Vegas.

Reporting of Dominican tourist deaths was triggered by Tammy Lawrence-Daley´s not entirely crystal clear story. She did not place her account on Facebook until three months after the event, stating she had been attacked around 11 PM by a man wearing a Majestic Elegance uniform. Her husband did not report his wife´s disappearance until three and a half hours later and she was found by 6:40 in the morning “at a restricted area of the hotel”, showing bruises on her face and with a broken fingernail, though without the signs of the brutal violence evident on the photos she revealed on Facebook.

I cannot assess the veracity of Mrs. Lawrence-Daley´s statement, though I am inclined to question if her misfortune and six resort deaths within a year are reasons enough for placing the entire tourist industry of a country in jeopardy. A horror tale affecting not only hotel owners, but the hundreds of thousands Dominicans whose livelihood and that of their families depend on tourists visiting their island.8

1 Fulton, Robin (2006) Thomas Tranströmer: The Great Enigma, new collected poems. New York: New Directions.
2 https:/www.areavibes.com/las+vegas-nv/crime and https://www.areavibes.com/new+york-ny/crime
3 A famous exception is Hunter S. Thompson´s outrageous novel from 1971: Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: A Savage Journey to the Heart of the American Dream.
4 Woods, Amanda (2019) “Dominican Republic resort claims Tammy Lawrence-Daley demanded $2.2M before going public”, New York Post, June 6.
5 Martinez, Gina and Josiah Bates (2019) “9 U.S. Tourists Have Died in the Dominican Republic in 2019. Should You Cancel Your Trip?” Time Magazine, June 18.
6 Mzezewa, Tairo (2019) “What Do We Know About the Dominican Republic Tourist Deaths?” The New York Times, June 12.
7 Salo, Jackie (2019) ”Couple recounts nightmare illness at the same Dominican resort where 3 died,” New York Post, June 6.
8 In 2018, The Dominican Republic was visited by 6.5 million tourists, spending $7.6 billion, an increase of 6 percent over the year before, when the tourist industry supplied more than 332,580 jobs, or 8.5 percent of the country´s total workforce. https://www.efe.com/efe/english/world/dominican-republic-s-economy-grows-by-7-pct-in-2018/50000262-3853232 and https://dominicantoday.com/dr/economy/2017/10/03/44886/

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 Are Hotels Dangerous? Putting in Context Dominican Republic Tourist Deaths appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

I stayed overnight at a motel by the E3.
In my room a smell I’d felt before […]
I stayed overnight in the echoing house.
Many want to come in through the walls
but most of them can´t make it:
they´re overcome by the white hiss of oblivion.
Anonymous singing drowns in the walls
Discreet tappings that don´t want to be heard
drown-out sighs
my old repartees creeping homelessly.

                                              Thomas Tranströmer The Gallery 1

The post Are Hotels Dangerous? Putting in Context Dominican Republic Tourist Deaths appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Flags are flying at half-mast as Prime Minister Abiy declares a day of mourning for killed officials.

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 24 2019 (IPS)

With a new report projecting a rise in population, specifically in Asia and Africa, the United Nations has warned that continued rapid population growth presents enormous challenges for sustainable development in the world’s 134 developing nations.

Among them, the heaviest impact will be on the 47 least developed countries (LDCs), described as the poorest of the world’s poor, and the 57 small island developing states (SIDS), including 20 “territories” which are non-UN members, largely vulnerable to continued economic hardships and environmental hazards.

https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/wp-content/uploads/sites/45/publication/ldc_list.pdf

In an interview with IPS, Dr Benoit Kalasa, Director Technical Division at the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) said LDCs are among the world’s fastest growing – and many are projected to double in population between 2019 and 2050 – putting pressure on already strained resources and challenging policies that aim to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and ensure that no one is left behind.

For many countries or areas, including some Small Island Developing States, he pointed out, the challenges to achieving sustainable development are compounded by their vulnerability to climate change, climate variability and sea-level rise.
http://unohrlls.org/about-sids/

In sub-Saharan Africa, the region that is expected to account for more than half of the world’s population growth over the coming decades, the number of babies projected to be born between 2020 and 2050 (nearly 1.4 billion) exceeds the number born between 1990 and 2020 by more than 50 per cent.

Excerpts from the interview:

IPS: Will the projected increase in population have an impact on the implementation of the 17 SDGs which have a 2030 deadline?

Dr KALASA: A rapidly increasing number of births poses particularly significant challenges for countries striving to expand services for mothers and newborns (SDGs 1, 3 and 5).

A growing number of infants foreshadows growing numbers of school-aged children and adolescents and youth in the future. In the 47 LDCs, the number of adolescents and youth aged 15 to 24 years is projected to grow from 207 million in 2019 to 336 million in 2050.

Leveraging the opportunity presented by the demographic dividend depends critically on investing in the health and education (SDGs 3 and 4) of the young people who will soon join the labour force, and on ensuring their successful integration into the labour market, with full and productive employment and decent work for all (SDG 8).

Many of the countries with the highest levels of maternal mortality and the greatest unmet need for family planning continue to experience growth in the number of women of reproductive age.

Programmes to expand access to family planning must keep pace with population growth just to maintain current levels of coverage.

In all countries and areas, achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women requires eliminating all forms of violence and discrimination against women (SDG 5), promoting female education (SDG 4), and ensuring that women have access to safe and effective means of family planning (SDG 3), as well as equal access to the labour market (SDG 8), social security and the political process (SDGs 8, 5 and 16).

Persons aged 65 or over make up the world’s fastest-growing age group. Virtually all countries are anticipating an increase in the percentage of older persons in their populations.

Countries need to plan for population ageing and ensure the well-being of older persons by protecting their human rights and economic security and by ensuring access to age-appropriate health care services, lifelong learning opportunities, and formal and informal support networks (SDGs 1, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 and 16).

IPS: Is the anticipated increase in world population by 2 billion in the next 30 years a positive or negative factor?

Dr KALASA: While the projected addition of two billion people in the next 30 years poses challenges to the implementation of the 2030 agenda, it also brings a tremendous opportunity.

With human rights-based, quality sexual and reproductive health service provision, sufficient investment in education and health of young people, and gender equality, and promotion of the rights choices and well-being of older persons and immigrants, we will realize the demographic dividend and ensure the rights and choices of a new generation.

IPS: How reliable is the UN’s population estimates?

Dr KALASA: The UN Population Division has been estimating and projecting the world’s population since 1951. The estimates are based on all available sources of data on population size and levels of fertility, mortality and international migration for 235 countries or areas.

For each revision, any new, recent but also historical, information that has become available from population censuses, vital registration of births and deaths, and household surveys are considered to produce consistent time series of population estimates for each country or areas from 1950 to today.

For the 2019 revision, the latest assessment, 1,690 population censuses conducted between 1950 and 2018, as well as information on births and deaths from vital registration systems for 163 countries and demographic indicators from 2,700 surveys were considered.

The availability of new information contributed to revising recent, as well as past, population estimates and demographic indicators.

It is worth mentioning that the quality of population estimates and projections hinges on the collection of reliable and timely demographic data, including through civil registration systems, population censuses, population registers, where they exist, and household surveys.

The 2020 round of national population censuses, which is currently underway, will provide critical demographic information to inform development planning and to assess progress towards the achievement of the SDGs.

IPS: What is the impact of international migration?

Dr KALASA: International migration can be a transformative force, lifting millions of people out of poverty and contributing to sustainable development in both countries of origin and countries of destination.

Facilitating safe, orderly and regular migration, while reducing incentives for irregular migration, is the best possible way to harness the full development potential of migration (SDGs 8, 10 and 16). Addressing the adverse drivers of migration, such as poverty, insecurity and lack of decent work, can help to make the option of remaining in one’s country viable for all people.

IPS: Whatever happened to the 1960s concept of Zero Population Growth (ZPG)?

Dr KALASA: The ICPD Programme of Action (the International Conference on Population and Development) called for voluntary and rights-based family planning. At UNFPA, we counter any notion of “population control” and warrant that future generations never take a hard-won human right for granted.

Ensuring women’s right to decide freely and responsibly on the number and spacing of their children is at the center of our agenda.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

The post World’s Poorest Nations Weighed Down by Fastest Growing Populations appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By IPS INTERNATIONAL DESK
ROME, Jun 24 2019 (IPS)

Qu Dongyu, China’s vice minister for agriculture and rural affairs, was elected to be the next Director-General of FAO, winning a majority of the 191 votes cast in the first round of an election held Sunday.

Qu said he will be “committed to the aspirations, mandates and missions of the Organization” and pledged to lead “all of FAO’s staff in working for member countries and for the world’s farmers.”

The new Director-General of FAO will be in office for the period 1 August 2019 to 31 July 2023. He will be eligible for only one additional mandate of four years.

Qu Dongyu succeeds José Graziano da Silva, who was first elected in 2011 and has served two consecutive terms.

These are some excerpts from a presentation he made over the weekend to the FAO Conference.

The post Chinese DG To Lead FAO For 4 Years From 1 Aug 2019 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Four candidates said they would use "all legal means" to challenge the presidential election result.

Polo is widely seen as a men-only game in northern Nigeria, but one woman is changing the narrative.

A growing number of Arabs in the Middle East and North Africa say they are no longer religious, a major survey suggests.

Senegal, Algeria and Morocco earned opening victories at the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday, so what can we expect on day four?

Manchester City winger Riyad Mahrez scores as Algeria defeat Group C rivals Kenya at the Africa Cup of Nations.

Cameroon coach Alain Djeumfa admits his team lost their temper in the Women's World Cup defeat by England but says they "never refused to play".

South Africa are knocked out of the World Cup by Pakistan, who keep their slim semi-final hopes alive at Lord's.

Cameroon coach Clarence Seedorf says the African champions have not been affected by the bonus row which delayed their journey to Egypt for the Nations Cup.

Preview followed by live coverage of Sunday's Africa Cup of Nations game between Senegal and Tanzania.

Preview followed by live coverage of Sunday's Africa Cup of Nations game between Morocco and Namibia.

Nigeria threaten a sit-in protest at their hotel over unpaid bonuses and allowances following their Women's World Cup last-16 defeat by Germany.

Kenyan Shiyenze Khasoha sells clothes she designs to pay for her ovarian cancer treatment.

The attack on Seare Mekonnen followed an attempted coup in the northern Amhara region.

Three-time champions Nigeria made a winning start to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations on Saturday, so what can we expect on day three?