Africa

A displaced Yemeni woman stands outside a makeshift shelter that she shares with her extended family. Courtesy: IOM/O. Headon

By Samira Sadeque
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 3 2020 (IPS)

World leaders gathered on Tuesday to pledge $1.35 billion in aid for Yemen, which currently undergoing what many is the world’s “worst humanitarian crisis”, with Saudi Arabia announcing a contribution of $500 million. 

At the ceremony, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) Peter Maurer said that reducing aid to Yemen at this time would be “catastrophic.” 

Those present at the ceremony repeatedly called for humanitarian access to be made accessible, without conditions, in the war-ravaged, famine-struck country where an estimated two million children are suffering from acute malnutrition. 

The pledge, the first of its kind to be held virtually, was organised jointly by the government of Saudi Arabia and the United Nations. Representatives from 125 member states, among other NGOs and civil society members, participated. 

The event was co-hosted by Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, Saudia Arabia’s foreign affairs minister, and Mark Lowcock, U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

Yemen has been embroiled in a five-year-long civil war, with Saudi-backed forces fighting the country’s Houthi rebels. 

On Tuesday, Secretary-General António Guterres warned about the crises being exacerbated by the current coronavirus pandemic. 

“The pandemic poses a terrifying threat to some of the most vulnerable people in the world, weakened by years of conflict, and with a health system that is already on the brink of collapse,” he said.    

“Public health measures are particularly challenging in a country where trust in the authorities is weak, and fifty percent of the population do not have access to clean water to wash their hands,” he added. 

He said in order for the current situation to be contained, it was the crucial that the war ended. This, Guterres said, would open up channels to respond to the country’s needs in the fields of health, humanitarian concerns and human development. 

He reiterated his calls for a global ceasefire, which he appealed for in March as countries around the world began their lockdowns to contain the spread of the coronavirus.     

His calls were further echoed by Maurer, president of the ICRC, who blasted the blocking of humanitarian aid to the Yemeni people. 

“People’s needs are enormous, yet neutral humanitarian work is routinely blocked or politicised by conditioning it to intractable political progress,” Maurer said. “Blackmailing people into misery is not an option.”  

He announced four call-to-action on behalf of ICRC:

• a political solution, as this is the only means for creating a “sustainable improvement” for the current situation;
• reminding all actors that they must comply by International Humanitarian Law’;
• allowing full humanitarian access; and
• urging donors to scale up their donations as the world plunges into an economic downturn. 

“Conditioning aid to political progress is taking the people of Yemen hostage,” he added. 

The United Kingdom, which pledged $197 million in aid for Yemen, also highlighted similar concerns. It demanded that all restrictions that currently stand as a barrier for Yemenis to receive aid should be “immediately and permanently removed.” 

Guterres welcomed the aid. “Today’s pledges will help our United Nations humanitarian agencies and their partners on the ground to continue providing a lifeline to millions of Yemenis.”

The post World Comes Together with $1.35 billion for Yemen appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By External Source
Jun 3 2020 (IPS)

My name is Emma, I’m 10 years old, and I live in Canada. I am sharing this video with you, today, because I learned at school that my future – the future of all children – will be determined by what we do together today.

The life we lead – from the foods we eat, the air we breathe, the water we drink and the climate that makes our planet a livable place – comes from nature. If we do not do our part to help it, everything we have in our lives will be lost.

We are at a point of “no return.”

World Environment Day is the most important day for environmental action. It has been celebrated every year on June 5th: working with governments, businesses, celebrities, and citizens to focus their efforts on a key environmental issue.

This year, the theme for the day is “Biodiversity.” It is the foundation that supports all life on land and below water. It affects every aspect of human health, providing clean air and water, nutritious foods, science and medicine, resistance to disease and helps with climate change. Changing, or removing, just one part of this delicately balanced system affects the entire life system – and the results are devastating.

According to IPBES, as many as one million species of living things are at risk of extinction. 75% of our land-based environments and two thirds of our marine environments have been changed by human actions. Urban areas have more than doubled since 1992. Plastic pollution has increased ten times since 1980, all long before I was born.

And now, COVID19 shows just how the destruction of biodiversity can harm the system that supports human life. The United Nations says that almost one billion cases of illness and millions of deaths happen every year from diseases caused by coronaviruses. About three quarters of all emerging infectious diseases in humans are passed on to people from animals. And what most people do not understand is that sustaining biodiversity on our planet protects us against pandemics.

IUCN has made it clear that governments have not done enough to stop the loss of biodiversity on our planet.
Much remains to be done.

Nature is sending us a message. So please listen for the sake of our future!

The post WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2020 appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Momodou Lamin Sisay, 39, from The Gambia, was shot dead after a car chase in Georgia.

By Pragyan Deb, Davide Furceri, Jonathan D. Ostry and Nour Tawk
Jun 3 2020 (IPS)

Since the COVID-19 outbreak was first reported in Wuhan, China in late December 2019, the disease has spread to more than 200 countries and territories. In the absence of a vaccine or effective treatment, governments worldwide have responded by implementing unprecedented containment and mitigation measures—the Great Lockdown. This in turn has resulted in large short-term economic losses, and a decline in global economic activity not seen since the Great Depression. Did it work?

Our analysis, based on a global sample, suggests that containment measures, by reducing mobility, have been very effective in flattening the “pandemic curve.” For example, the stringent containment measures put in place in New Zealand—restrictions on gatherings and public events implemented when cases were in single digits, followed by school and workplace closings as well as stay-at-home orders just a few days later—are likely to have reduced the number of fatalities by over 90 percent relative to a baseline with no containment measures. In other words, the results suggest that, in a country like New Zealand, the number of confirmed COVID-19 deaths would have been at least ten times larger than in the absence of stringent containment measures.

Credit: International Monetary Fund

Early intervention and containment measured as the number of days it took a country to implement containment measures after a significant outbreak—public health response time in epidemiology lingo—played a significant role in flattening the curve. Countries such as Vietnam that were faster to put in place containment measures witnessed a reduction in the average number of infections and deaths of 95 and 98 percent respectively. This in turn has laid the foundation for growth in the medium term.

Credit: International Monetary Fund

The effect of containment measures also varied depending on variations in country and social characteristics. The impacts were stronger in countries where colder weather during the outbreak produced higher infection rates, and where the population was older and hence more vulnerable to infection. On the other hand, having a strong health system and lower population density enhanced the effectiveness of containment and mitigation strategies by making them easier to implement and enforce. How civil society responded to de jure restrictions mattered as well. Countries where lockdown measures resulted in less mobility, and therefore more social distancing, saw a greater reduction in the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths.

Credit: International Monetary Fund

Finally, we explored whether the effect of containment varies across types of measure. Many of these measures were introduced simultaneously as part of the country’s response to limit the spread of the virus, making it challenging to identify the most effective measure. Nevertheless, our results suggest that while all measures have contributed to significantly reduce the number of COVID-19 cases and deaths, stay-at-home orders appear to have been relatively more effective.

Our empirical estimates provide a reasonable assessment of the causal effect of containment policies on infections and deaths, giving us comfort that the Great Lockdown, despite its enormous short-term economic costs, has saved hundreds of thousands of lives. Ultimately, the course of the global health crisis and the fate of the global economy are inseparably intertwined—fighting the pandemic is a necessity for the economy to rebound.

Pragyan Deb is an Economist in the IMF’s Strategy, Policy and Review Department. Davide Furceri is a Deputy Division Chief in the IMF’s Research Department. Jonathan D. Ostry is Deputy Director of the IMF’s Asia and Pacific Department.

The post How the Great Lockdown Saved Lives appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Rules around funerals, informal workers and exercise were found to be unconnected to halting the virus.

Responding to Climate Change. Credit UNEP

By Dr Olukoya Obafemi
BRANDENBURG, Germany, Jun 3 2020 (IPS)

The COVID-19 insurgence has highlighted the need for multilateral cooperation among sustainability stakeholders. As the journey towards achieving Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is fraught with imminent global challenges, global environmental leaders agree that now is the time to act collectively for nature, leaving no one behind.

The shortage of sustainability knowledge in Africa is particularly appalling, and it seems the continent is oblivious to the world’s agenda. This is evident through the data-based analysis of Africa’s lack of progress towards achieving sustainability.

In response, Dr. Adenike Akinsemolu, educator, sustainability advocate, academic associate with SDSN, and a scientific committee member of the 2018 ICSD at the Earth Institute, Columbia University, swung into action.

She founded The Green Institute, a sustainability education organization in Nigeria, and authored an indigenous sustainability text, The Principles of Green and Sustainability Science (Springer, 2020).

The Green Institute confronted this challenge in Africa through the instrumentality of home-based solutions of education, innovation, and advocacy. One pertinent question arose and resonated with Dr. Akinsemolu all through her efforts towards bridging the knowledge gap of sustainability in Africa.

How can we bring the Agenda of Sustainability to indeed become the people’s Agenda in Nigeria and Africa? Having entered a new decade, unless Africa embraces a virtuous cycle of sustainability, she will decline in a vicious cycle of poverty, social injustice, and environmental degradation.

To change this, her organization went further by organizing a virtual summit aimed to mobilize sustainability leaders to share their expertise in the face of a global pandemic.

On June 5, 2020, the Green Institute, in collaboration with Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar Foundation), will host Jeffrey Sachs (SDSN) and over 25 renowned sustainability experts from across the globe, at a virtual symposium Time #ForNature for World Environment Day, a United Nations awareness campaign for environmental protection, held annually since 1974.

The theme for World Environment Day 2020 is biodiversity.

Unsustainable agriculture practices are taking an incalculable toll on biodiversity. Credit: FAO/Giulio Napolitano

This hallmark event organized by a sustainability organization is a confluence of sustainability leaders in various fields endeavored at assembling individuals and organizations towards achieving sustainable development in Africa and beyond.

Armed with a plethora of speakers, the virtual symposium incorporates diverse fields of human endeavors ranging from sciences to arts, botany to engineering, health to et cetera.

The virtual symposium is also launching the indigenous sustainability text titled The Principles of Green and Sustainability Science, authored by Dr. Adenike Akinsemolu. “Everyday anthropogenic activities are responsible for the problems of our planet, and there is a need to salvage the situation through creativity, innovation, and critical thinking,” Dr. Akinsemolu stresses in her book.

She offers a detailed and step-by-step guide to understanding sustainability and discusses best practices to establish a more harmonious and balanced approach to living. In the words of Prof. Marc A. Rosen (Ontario Tech University), “The book enriches a global movement while highlighting efforts in Africa.”

Alongside the author is world-renowned sustainability leader Prof. Jeffrey Sachs who will be speaking on Building Resilient Health Structures to Combat Novel Diseases: A Case of COVID-19.

Sachs was twice named as Time magazine’s 100 most influential world leaders and was ranked by The Economist among the top three most influential living economists.

Among the topics discussed at the summit are biodiversity conservation, sustainable agriculture, sustainable building, urban innovation, minimal living, eco-feminism, waste management, renewable energy and others.

Over a century of civilization, humans have founded and established values that regulate human societal behaviors. With a new sustainable agenda spanning for the next decade, Dr. M. Evren Tok will explain the impacts of values and morality in sustainable development.

As the Associate Professor at the College of Islamic Studies (CIS) at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (Qatar Foundation), the Assistant Dean for Innovation and Community Development and Lead Project Investigator for a Qatar National Research Priorities Program on Localizing Entrepreneurship Education in Qatar, Dr. Tok has extensive experience in building disruptive mechanisms in education and learning in post-graduate studies.

He is the founder of the first MakerSpace in Qatar Foundation, built around the concept of Green Economies, Social Innovation, and Entrepreneurship.

The development of the world economy has consistently been at loggerheads with the environment. How can we simultaneously achieve economic growth and environmental wellbeing? Prof. Marc Rosen, Prof. Manfred Max Bergman (University of Basel), and Samson Ogbole (Farm Lab) strongly argue that both the environment and the economy could thrive simultaneously.

One of the essential directions for ensuring a shift in progress towards Agenda is education. The right to education is a fundamental human right that every nation aspires to fulfill. In an age of sustainability, what changes to our educational system are pivotal towards achieving sustainable development?

Ruba Hinnawi (Qatar Green Building Council) and Noah Martin (Georgetown University) will discuss the educational transformation that must occur if we are to transition towards sustainable development. The visual artist Data Oruwari will reveal the role that arts play towards achieving sustainability.

As the saying goes, “One is too small a number to achieve greatness.” The Green Institute has partnered with various international organizations that share the same commitment towards achieving sustainable development.

Organizations such as the Hamad Bin Khalifa University (a member of Qatar Foundation) and the Sustainable Solutions Development Network have been instrumental towards the success of The Green Institute.

The Nigerian organization behind the global summit believes that although SDG 17 is the last of the SDGs, it is by no means the least.

Ironically, it serves as an overarching framework for the successful implementation of the remaining 16 goals. To this end, The Green Institute continually extends its hand of partnership to collaborate with other organizations in achieving sustainable development.

The participating organizations include the UNEP, UNDP, Qatar Green Building Council, Qur’anic Botanic Garden, Farm Lab, Human Future, Springer Nature, Institute for Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development, University of Basel, the Open University UK, TerraCycle, Design Future(s) Initiative of Georgetown University, United Nations Development Program, and the Green Maasai Troupe Doha Qatar.

For more information, full schedule and registration: www.greeninstitute.ng/wed2020

The post How to Transform UN’s Environmental Goals into a People’s Agenda for Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr Olukoya Obafemi is a Researcher, Brandenburg Technical University, Institute of Graduate Research: Heritage Studies. He is also affiliated with The Green Institute, Ondo, Nigeria.

 
The UN will commemorate World Environment Day 2020 on Friday June 5

The post How to Transform UN’s Environmental Goals into a People’s Agenda for Africa appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Ayaanle and Kahaa work online to help Somalis who have views that do not square with tradition.

A recreation of how New York's Times Square could be transformed as part of the ideas of reversible urbanism which experts are calling for in the wake of the pandemic. CREDIT: PaisajeTransversal.org

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Jun 2 2020 (IPS)

The first priority in the COVID-19 pandemic was to save lives, in an effort to avoid even more devastating economic losses if strict lockdown and isolation were not put in place.

But that priority could be reversed in the wake of the crisis, and lessons that would open up paths for shaping better cities could be discarded.

“The pandemic served to raise awareness of the need to change the urban paradigm,” while at the same time awakening “spontaneous solidarity among networked citizens, many helping neighbours who they previously ignored,” said Carmen Santana, a Chilean city planner who splits her time between Paris and Barcelona, Spain.

Social inequality, already so widespread in Latin America, has been exacerbated now that this region is becoming the epicentre of the pandemic, and is taking its toll in lives."…[T]he greatest contagion has more to do with the flow and circulation of people than with density…Cities that attract many people from many countries, with large-scale global circulation, like London, New York and São Paulo, became hotspots for the pandemic." -- Raquel Rolnik

Also pushing up the death toll is the precarious state of health services, and poor nutrition reflected in undernourishment and in obesity, which was found to increase vulnerability to COVID-19.

The question remains as to whether cities, especially the large metropolises that have suffered the most brutal attack by the new coronavirus, will begin to focus their development on human needs or will continue to follow a dynamic dictated by economic interests that have given rise to dysfunctional systems, according to urban planners that IPS interviewed by phone in different cities.

It is too early to predict what urban transformations will arise, because they depend on how long the isolation and social distancing will last, said Nabil Bonduki, a professor at the University of São Paulo School of Architecture and Urbanism (FAU-USP).

If the epidemic loses momentum or is curbed by a vaccine or drugs in the short term, cities will return to normal with their previous contradictions, he said. But if the current rigid measures against gathering in crowded places in public, or in shows or businesses, are maintained, there will be changes that are still unpredictable, he warned.

“A strong increase in virtual activities is already inevitable, such as business meetings, which have proved to be very productive, remote work and distance learning,” the professor said from São Paulo.

Bonduki, who led the development of São Paulo’s Master Plan as a city councilman in 2013-2014, does not believe there will be a rollback in the search for denser cities, with “occupation of urban voids and underutilised areas, and perhaps larger apartments,” to include office space.

In any case, it is the political powers-that-be that will set the course, although strong pressure from society for greater investment in health and poverty reduction can be expected, he predicted.

His colleague at the FAU-USP, Raquel Rolnik, who served as U.N. Special Rapporteur on the Right to Housing from 2008 to 2014, rejects the widespread belief in a correlation between urban density and the spread of coronavirus.

“Super-dense metropolises like Singapore, Hong Kong and Seoul have not suffered a catastrophe, but have had a relatively low number of victims. In New York, the district of Manhattan, which is very dense, had no more deaths than Staten Island, which is less densely populated,” she said.

A view of a favela in São Bernardo do Campo, an industrial city near the metropolis of São Paulo in southern Brazil. The idea was that shantytowns in Brazil and other countries of the developing South would be easy prey to the COVID-19 pandemic because of overcrowding, but this has not been the case. There are populous slums in Brazil and other countries that have had few cases .CREDIT: Mario Osava/IPS

She also pointed out that “in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, there are favelas (shantytowns) that have seen outbreaks of COVID-19 while others have not” – an argument that can help combat the stigma faced by these overcrowded neighbourhoods.

“In Brazil and around the world, you can see that the greatest contagion has more to do with the flow and circulation of people than with density,” Rolnik said from São Paulo.

“Cities that attract many people from many countries, with large-scale global circulation, like London, New York and São Paulo, became hotspots for the pandemic,” she said. To this list can be added Milan or Madrid, in the two countries that were epicentres of the pandemic in Europe.

The simplification of the issue is in the interest of groups that build, for example, high-end condominiums on the outskirts of cities, which try to tempt potential buyers with the benefits of living away from the crowded city and the possibility of telecommuting, she said.

These are the same financial interests that drive “non-resilient” cities, which accumulate problems such as “increasingly expensive and smaller housing” and air pollution from mushrooming numbers of cars, said Santana, who described herself as having “a Chilean soul, a French spirit and a Catalonian heart.”

“Real estate speculators” try to make a parallel between crowds that fuel contagion and urban density, which can actually be “healthy and sensitive”, with more humans and fewer cars, she said from Barcelona, capital of the region of Catalonia and Spain’s second largest city in terms of population.

Vehicles take up 50 to 60 percent of city space, she said.

Urban issues are complex and their solutions are not to be found in “pyramidal and linear thinking, but in circular thinking,” said Santana, a partner in the company Archikubik, which describes itself as an “ecosystem of architecture, urban planning and urban landscape”.

A crowd celebrates during Rio de Janeiro’s last carnival, in one of the last festive gatherings in the world before the coronavirus pandemic. No one knows whether carnival and other mass gatherings will be held in 2021 and the next few years. CREDIT: Fernando Maia | Riotur-Public Photos

Her proposals for redevelopment, which she hopes will be better received in the wake of the pandemic, include green public spaces, productive neighbourhoods that include urban agriculture, places of human dignity with housing and public toilets to serve refugees and the homeless, and the “renaturalisation” of cities.

“Animals reappeared in the cities when the cars stopped moving around, generating a new urban ecology and bringing people closer to nature,” she said.

The pandemic encourages reflection on how to reverse “the physical proximity and social distancing” of many in the city. “What is needed is a reasonable density, dense because of multifunctionality, with housing, work, commerce, recreation, culture, services, all in a local mix,” argued Carlos Moreno, a professor at the University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne.

Moreno, a Colombian-French urbanist and scientist and expert in intelligent cities, technological innovation and complex systems, prefers to describe “reasonable density” as “social intensity” with premises that combine economic, ecological and social dimensions.

We must promote the “urban-human encounter” in which people stop being “socially disconnected digital ghosts,” he said from Paris.

The possible increased use of cars would constitute a “triple blowback”, because they emit pollutants, like nitrogen dioxide and fine particles, which make COVID-19 more lethal. According to several studies, the air inside cars is stale and the vehicle subjects its users to “citizen anonymity,” Moreno said.

The urban space is one of coexistence, that generates bonds, but “the car generates neither economic activity nor social bonds,” reflects selfishness and today does not even represent social status, he asserted.

These are urban issues whose debate should intensify ahead of the 27th World Congress of Architects, which was postponed from this year to Jun. 18-22, 2021, due to the pandemic. It is expected to draw about 15,000 participants in Rio de Janeiro.

Postponing the meeting gives the International Union of Architects more time to organise it and to expand the debates, to include discussions of the effects of coronavirus in cities, said Sergio Magalhães, an architect and urban planner who chairs the Organising Committee.

Rio de Janeiro, named the World Capital of Architecture 2020 by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation), will showcase its nearly five-century-old historic centre, and the impact of the pandemic in a tourist city.

Brazil will also stand out with cities that are badly treated by local and national governments, according to Magalhães, a professor at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro who is renowned for his role in the upgrading of some 150 of the city’s favelas in the Favela-Bairro (favela-neighbourhood) project in the 1990s.

Brazilian cities are precarious because 80 percent of the homes were built by private individuals themselves, without any financing or support. From 1950 to 2010 about 60 million urban homes were built this way in the country, a popular feat.

Another 40 million will be built by 2030, although the population of the country will barely grow, because the birth rate has declined and families are shrinking, Magalhães explained.

One major problem is urban sprawl, with low density areas that make sanitation and urban services difficult to deliver. The area covered by Rio de Janeiro has grown three times more than the population since 1960, he said.

The post Prioritising Life or the Economy Will Determine the Post-Pandemic Focus in Urban Areas appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Stephen Wamukota came up with a hand-washing machine that helps prevent the spread of Covid-19.

Black Lives Matter protest in London May 31. Credit: Tara Carey / Equality Now

By Dr Alon Ben-Meir
NEW YORK, Jun 2 2020 (IPS)

The murder of George Floyd by a police officer in broad daylight came amid a high point in the continuing rampage of the coronavirus throughout the country, killing over 100,000 and infecting nearly 2 million while more than 45 million have lost their jobs.

The death of Floyd is no longer seen merely as an act of police brutality but the final crack in the dam, revealing the insidious socio-economic and healthcare malaise that continues to be inflicted disproportionately on the African American community.

A paper in the Annals of Epidemiology reports that while disproportionately black counties make up only 30 percent of the US population, they are the location of 56 percent of all COVID-19 deaths. According to NPR’s analysis, blacks are dying at higher rates relative to their total proportion of the population in 32 states plus Washington, DC.

Dr. Marcella Nunez-Smith, director of the Equity Research and Innovation Center at Yale School of Medicine, says “We know that these racial ethnic disparities in COVID-19 are the result of pre-pandemic realities. It’s a legacy of structural discrimination that has limited access to health and wealth for people of color.”

What made matters worse is Trump’s overt racism, the muted leadership of the Republican Party, and its antipathy toward the black community, all of which added fuel to the simmering fire of the centuries-long history of slavery, discrimination, and hopelessness.

They know that their plight will not allay any time soon, not as long as Trump is the president and his party follows him like sheep that blindly graze in the meadows of discontent while the country is unraveling at the seams. They have betrayed the country by putting the party’s interests above that of the nation.

We are now reaping the harvest of the seeds of racism and discrimination; the devaluation of black life in job opportunities, in buying and lending, in wages, positions, and treatment. The whole socio-economic and cultural system is lopsided, as it lacks the fundamentals of justice and equality.

The pandemic provided the wakeup call that pointed out the ugly tradition of subjugation of the black community, which sadly did not stop with the end of slavery, but continued in the wanton indifference to their pain and agony, our uncanny negligence, and our failure to understand what they are really experiencing.

Time is not our ally; neither concerned white nor black people should now be satisfied with words of sympathy toward the plight of African Americans. It is not merely changing the police culture and practices in the way they handle black versus white suspects.

What is needed is a fundamental change from our innate desire to apply slavery to black people as deserving nothing more than bare necessities.

Little has changed since the birth of the civil rights movement more than a half century ago. Although the majority of white Americans may not be white supremacists, they certainly hold onto their privileges in all walks of life as they view their relation with black people and other people of color as a zero-sum game, as if a black man’s gain invariably chips away from a white man’s privileges.

The insidious, learned biases pitting white against black Americans directly leads to the treating of black Americans as second-class citizens and suppression (whether conscious or unconscious) by white Americans—a necessary ingredient that satisfies their ego and elevates their self-worth.

The week-long demonstrations throughout the country suggest not only the obvious—that black lives matter, that inequality is rampant and must be addressed, that racism is consuming America from within, that injustice affects the perpetrators just as much as the victims, that enough is enough.

The demonstrations also reveal the deep sense of frustration with a president who fans the flame of racism, who sees the country as his own enterprise, who can do whatever serves his own interests. He is cruel, cunning, and careless about the pain and suffering of black America; he cannot count on their political support and hence his complete rejection of their outcry.

As has been widely observed, there have been instances of looting and destruction of property; much of it by opportunistic individuals trying to take advantage of the situation, and also by bad-faith actors attempting to delegitimize the protests.

These acts are succeeding in drawing the attention of the media away from the importance and relevance of the majority of demonstrations that have been peaceful.

This is exactly what Trump wants to see happening. He wants the country divided between us and them. He wants to blame the Democrats and the liberal minded people for the mayhem, while cowering in fear in the White House basement. He is refusing to address the nation, knowing that regardless of what he says, nothing will hide his demagoguery and disdain for people of color.

I wish to see tens of millions of Americans demonstrate peacefully day in and day out and send a clear message to this corrupt Trump administration that they will not rest until a fundamental change occurs. They must demand that bipartisan legislation passes that will address discrimination against all people of color under any circumstances; in particular in affordable housing, healthcare, job opportunities, and equal pay, and in anti-bias training for police and national bans on the use of force.

I also wish to see the Republican leadership wake up and halt their blind subservience to a president who has lost his way and dangerously degraded America here at home and abroad. If nothing else, the pandemic has demonstrated his utter ineptitude and the huge disparity between white versus black America, topped with his demonstrable racism in which he takes pleasure.

I am not naïve enough to assume that my wishes will come true. But it should serve as a warning to every Republican member of Congress that the murder of George Floyd and the horrifying injustice it confirmed is the poison they will have to swallow just before Election Day if they fail to act.

The post The Pandemic Underlines America’s Ingrained Racism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr. Alon Ben-Meir is a professor of international relations at the Center for Global Affairs at NYU. He teaches courses on international negotiation and Middle Eastern studies.

The post The Pandemic Underlines America’s Ingrained Racism appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Sipa USA Minneapolis Star Tribune/TNS/Sip

By External Source
MELBOURNE, Australia, Jun 2 2020 (IPS)

Violence has erupted across several US cities after the death of a black man, George Floyd, who was shown on video gasping for breath as a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, knelt on his neck. The unrest poses serious challenges for President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden as each man readies his campaign for the November 3 election.

If the coronavirus had not already posed a threat to civil discourse in the US, the latest flashpoint in American racial politics makes this presidential campaign potentially one of the most incendiary in history.

COVID-19 and Minneapolis may very well form the nexus within which the 2020 campaign will unfold. Trump’s critics have assailed his handling of both and questioned whether he can effectively lead the country in a moment of crisis.

And yet, he may not be any more vulnerable heading into the election.

 

A presidency in crisis?

As the incumbent, Trump certainly faces the most immediate challenges. Not since Franklin Roosevelt in the second world war has a US president presided over the deaths of so many Americans from a single cause.

The Axis powers and COVID-19 are not analogous, but any presidency is judged by its capacity to respond to enemies like these. With pandemic deaths now surpassing 100,000, Trump’s fortunes will be inexorably tied to this staggering (and still rising) figure.

Worse, the Minneapolis protests are showing how an already precarious social fabric has been frayed by the COVID-19 lockdowns.

Americans have not come together to fight the virus. Rather, they have allowed a public health disaster to deepen divisions along racial, economic, sectional and ideological lines.

Trump has, of course, often sought to gain from such divisions. But the magnitude and severity of the twin crises he is now facing will make this very difficult. By numerous measures, his is a presidency in crisis.

And yet.

Trump, a ferocious campaigner, will try to find ways to use both tragedies to his advantage and, importantly, makes things worse for his challenger.

For starters, Trump did not cause coronavirus. And he will continue to insist that his great geo-strategic adversary, the Chinese Communist Party, did.

And his is not the first presidency to be marked by the conflagration of several US cities.

Before Minneapolis, Detroit (1967), Los Angeles (1992) and Ferguson, Missouri (2014) were all the scenes of angry protests and riots over racial tensions that still haven’t healed.

And in the 19th century, 750,000 Americans were killed in a civil war that was fought over whether the enslavement of African-Americans was constitutional.

Trump may not have healed racial tensions in the US during his presidency. But, like coronavirus, he did not cause them.

 

How Trump can blame Democrats for Minneapolis

Not unhappily for Trump, Minneapolis is a largely Democratic city in a reliably blue state. He will campaign now on the failure of Democratic state leaders to answer the needs of black voters.

Trump will claim that decades of Democratic policies in Minnesota – including the eight years of the Obama administration – have caused Minneapolis to be one of the most racially unequal cities in the nation.

In 2016, Trump famously asked African-Americans whether Democratic leaders have done anything to improve their lives.

What do you have to lose by trying something new, like Trump?

He will repeat this mantra in the coming months.

It also certainly helps that his support among Republican voters has never wavered, no matter how shocking his behaviour.

He has enjoyed a stable 80% approval rating with GOP voters throughout the coronavirus crisis. This has helped keep his approval rating among all voters steady as the pandemic has worsened, hovering between 40 and 50%.

These are not terrible numbers. Yes, Trump’s leadership has contributed to a series of disasters. But if the polls are correct, he has so far avoided the kinds of catastrophe that could imperil his chances of re-election.

 

Why this moment is challenging for Biden

Biden should be able to make a good case to the American people at this moment that he is the more effective leader.

But this has not yet been reflected in polls, most of which continue to give the Democrat only a lukewarm advantage over Trump in the election.

The other problem is that the Democratic party remains discordant. And Biden has not yet shown a capacity to heal it.

Race has also long been a source of division within Biden’s party. Southern Democrats, for instance, were the key agents of slavery in the 19th century and the segregation that followed it into the 20th.

After the 1960s, Democrats sought to make themselves the natural home of African-American voters as the Republican party courted disaffected white Southern voters. The Democrats largely succeeded on that front – the party routinely gets around 85-90% of black votes in presidential elections.

The challenge for Biden now is how to retain African-American loyalty to his party, while evading responsibility for the socio-economic failures of Democratic policies in cities like Minneapolis.

He is also a white northerner (from Delaware). Between 1964 and 2008, only three Democrats were elected president. All of them were southerners.

To compensate, Biden has had to rely on racial politics to separate himself from his primary challenger – Bernie Sanders struggled to channel black aspirations – and from Republicans. And this has, at times, caused him to court controversy.

In 2012, he warned African-Americans that then-Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney would put them “all back in chains”. And just over a week ago, he angered black voters by suggesting those who would support Trump in the election “ain’t black”.

Biden is far better than Trump on racial issues and should be able to use the current crises to present himself as a more natural “consoler-in-chief”, but instead, he has appeared somewhat flatfooted and derided for being racially patronising.

The opportunities COVID-19 and the Minneapolis unrest might afford his campaign remain elusive.

 

There is reason for hope

America enters the final months of the 2020 campaign in a state of despair and disrepair. The choice is between an opportunistic incumbent and a tin-eared challenger.

But the US has faced serious challenges before – and emerged stronger. Neither the civil war in the 19th century or the Spanish flu pandemic in the early 20th halted the extraordinary growth in power that followed both.

Moreover, the US constitution remains intact and federalism has undergone something of a rebirth since the start of the pandemic. And there is a new generation of younger, more diverse, national leaders being forged in the fire of crisis to help lead the recovery.

 

Timothy J. Lynch, Associate Professor in American Politics, University of Melbourne

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

The post As Minneapolis Burns, Trump’s Presidency is Sinking Deeper into Crisis. And yet, he may still be Re-elected appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Monalisa started boxing after her mother died as a result of domestic violence.

By A. D. McKenzie
PARIS, Jun 2 2020 (IPS-Partners)

The film Haingosoa had barely made it onto screens in France when the government ordered a lockdown because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Theatres, cinemas, museums and other cultural institutions had to shutter their doors, leaving the arts world scrambling to salvage numerous projects.

A.D. McKenzie

While the lockdown rules have now been eased, cinemas remain closed and Haingosoa – like many other films – is moving online. It will be offered via e-cinema and VOD from June 9, and viewers will be able to participate in virtual debates with its French director Édouard Joubeaud.

Haingosoa is ostensibly the story of Haingo – a young, single mother from southern Madagascar who, unable to pay her daughter’s school fees, leaves her family and travels far to join a dance company in the country’s capital. Haingo has only a few days to learn a dance that is totally foreign to her, and viewers follow her ups and downs as she tries to make the move work.

Played by the engaging real-life Haingo, the main character readily gains empathy, and viewers will find themselves cheering her on. Yet, the real star of Haingosoa is the music of Madagascar, as the director mixes drama and documentary to highlight the country’s rich and diverse artistic traditions.

“I wanted to give a different viewpoint of Madagascar, by focusing both on the woman lead and on the country,” Joubeaud said in an interview. “I’ve always been interested in the music, and I wanted to show the range of stories as well as the culture.”

Haingosoa brings together several generations of revered Malagasy composers and musicians, such as Remanindry, Haingo’s father. A leading performer of the music of the Androy, the island’s southern, arid region, Remanindry basically plays himself – and his own music – in the film.

Meanwhile, the Randria Ernest Company of Antananarivo, which provides the fictional dance space for Haingo, represents “in its own way” the dance and music of the highlands of today, according to Joubeaud.

Additionally, one of the composers of the film’s soundtrack is Dadagaby, an icon of Malagasy music whom Joubeaud knew for 10 years. The creator of countless songs popular in Madagascar, Dadagaby died during the making of the film – which is dedicated to his memory.

The movie also features 13-year-old prodigy Voara, who performs two of her songs: Sahondra (accompanied in the film by her father on guitar) and Mananjary. We see Voara singing in a backyard, as Haingo goes for a walk. The scene comes across as being there just for the music, with Voara’s soaring, memorable voice.

There are segments as well showing young musicians casually playing instruments and singing as they sit on a wall, and dancers practising to traditional music – again just to spotlight the distinctive music and array of vocal styles.

So, what about the story, the plot? To be honest, this is fairly simple: Haingo goes away to try to earn enough to pay for her little girl’s education. The boss of the dance company she joins is harsh and puts her to work cooking and washing rather than dancing. But with the help of her friends, including the gifted dancer Dimison, Haingo is able to reveal her true talent.

That is the surface story. The backstory is that the film is based on Haingo’s own life. She had a child at age sixteen and experienced many of the difficulties covered in the movie, and she’s at her most affecting when pleading for her daughter to be able to continue attending school, despite falling behind on the fees.

“You can feel the real emotion here because this is something she really had to deal with,” said Joubeaud.

As a director, he faced a dilemma, however: how much of the film should be about Haingo’s actual life?

“It was a little bit tricky,” he admits. “I didn’t want to expose too much about her life. So, we used her story as the starting point of the film and made a lot of the rest fictional. We wrote it in consultation with her.”

This reticence comes across in the film and may be seen as a drawback. The drama never reaches the high point that viewers expect, and the finale is more of a fizzle than a flare.

The unsatisfactory ending is also due to budget constraints, Joubeaud said. After completing the first half of the film, he ran short of funds and had to make a decision: stop filming or continue?

He decided to continue, especially as part of the reason for the film was apparently to raise money for Haingo’s daughter to continue in school, and for the main character to see how she could move forward. (Now in a relationship, Haingo, 25 years old, is the mother of three children.)

As a French director, Joubeaud could have perhaps accessed more sponsorship by making the film in French, but he shot it fully in Malagasy. He says he has studied the language for many years, after first visiting the country in 1999. The work, however, is not eligible to apply for screening in some African film festivals because of Joubeaud’s nationality.

“I do recognize the limits of a French director going to Africa, and I don’t pretend to give anyone any lessons,” Joubeaud said. “I see this as a personal project, related to my life and to Haingo’s life. I think my responsibility is to respect her consent, to respect all the participants in the film and to avoid stereotypes.”

Regarding what he hopes viewers will take from the film, he added: “My first hope is that viewers will be enlightened by diving into the story of a Malagasy woman, by the richness of her context, and the richness of Madagascar’s diversity – in music, dance, culture.”

Some viewers will indeed feel that they have gained an insight into the diverseness of Malagasy culture and developed a new appreciation for the music, but others will wish that the film had gone further and delved more deeply – into the socioeconomic reasons for Haingo’s situation and into the legacy of French colonial rule on the island. –

Follow SWAN on Twitter: @mckenzie_ale

The post The Music of Madagascar Is Real Star of New Film appeared first on Inter Press Service.

The artist popular for hits in the 1980s and 1990s died in his sleep in New York, his manager said.

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, Jun 2 2020 (IPS)

Indonesia’s founding President Sukarno delivered his annual Independence or National Day address on 17 August 1964 anticipating the forthcoming year as Tahun vivere pericoloso, the ‘year of living dangerously’. 2020 may well be the world’s turn, and not only due to the obvious Covid-19 threat to the world.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

US as number one
With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, the US became the world’s sole superpower. Many argue that after abandoning its pre-Second World War isolationism to become the post-war hegemon, the US has needed threats to justify ever rising military spending for the US ‘military-industrial complex’, as President (General) Dwight D. Eisenhower warned.

The more recent rise of US President Donald Trump probably reflects these two seemingly contradictory claims, both the re-assertion of post-Cold War dominance as well as jingoist paranoia about American decline due to neoliberal globalization.

After George W Bush saw God in the eyes of Vladimir Putin, the Obama administration reinstated Russia as the main US enemy threat, not particularly credible after its collapse during Boris Yeltsin’s first presidency, reducing the economy by half and lowering life expectancy by more than five years in less than half a decade!

Nevertheless, in the last three years, the US Democratic Party establishment has tried, in vain, to use ‘Russiagate’ to discredit President Trump for trying to ‘normalize’ relations with Russia.

Making America great again?
Trump’s populist jingoism has multiple foreign enemies. Even though Japan, Korea, Germany, Canada and Mexico account for much of the large US trade deficit, it is easily blamed on China, the familiar source of most cheap consumer goods to the public.

The US trade deficit with China grew rapidly from the end of the 20th century, as US transnational corporations (TNCs) ‘off-shored’ production to China, reducing labour costs for more profits. With living costs thus lowered, consumers in the North did not really complain until job losses and lower real incomes eroded employees’ wellbeing and self-esteem.

Anis Chowdhury

The earlier US preoccupation with intellectual property probably accelerated China’s fast-growing technological capabilities, epitomized by Huawei’s 5G edge, recently the target of a largely unsuccessful Washington effort to mobilize allied support against its adoption.

US TNCs remain divided over Trump’s increasingly belligerent xenophobia against a wide range of security and economic threats from China, real and fictitious. Thus, Trump now blames China for Covid-19, despite praising its response in January after securing a favourable trade deal to reduce earlier US-China tensions following his moves against Huawei.

China’s emergence as the principal US threat is especially urgent as Trump seeks re-election after mishandling Covid-19 contagion. China’s increasing willingness to stand up to him may thus help Trump secure re-election, as will protests against African-American deaths at the hands of the police.

Presidential powers ripe for abuse
The Trump administration has been considering punitive measures, including outright confiscation of China’s assets in the US. The 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) gives POTUS the right to do almost anything with any property of a foreign country posing an “unusual and extraordinary threat”.

In the past 40 years, the US has invoked the Act 58 times for supposed emergencies, most lasting more than a decade. Currently, there are 31 ongoing IEEPA declarations, including the longest-running emergency, the Iran hostage crisis declared by President Carter in 1979.

Trump invoked the act last year to stop US companies from investing in China. On 1 May, Trump used the IEEPA to stop power-grid equipment imports from any ‘foreign adversary’.

Outright default on sovereign debt, including over a trillion dollars of US Treasury (T) bonds held by China, is not only prohibited by the US Constitution, but would also greatly disrupt the US$18 trillion US T-bonds market. This would be reckless as the US needs to borrow heavily after Trump’s huge post-election tax cuts.

While the US cannot simply refuse to pay all its debt, it could try to target China, e.g., by seizing or freezing its assets, or by stopping banks from paying to ostensibly Chinese government accounts.

China not helpless
China could circumvent attempts to make it pay by reneging on US debt obligations to China by selling T-bonds on the international market. China also has several other options for retaliation. For example, if the US does not respect the laws of other countries, or international law, why should China defer to US laws on commercial contracts, patents, brands or even nationalization?

Many US TNC production facilities are located in China, a preferred location for offshoring production until recently. Of course, POTUS could retaliate against Chinese assets in the US, but it is not clear who would be worse off following rounds of mutual retaliation.

Of course, no one, except the most naïve, should expect the US to ‘play fair’ regardless of its rhetoric. The US has already blacklisted Huawei and tried to coerce NATO and other allies to reject it.

This has, in turn, inadvertently adversely affected US semiconductor corporations selling chips to Huawei. Washington’s actions are seen by many TNCs, foreign and American, as disrupting global manufacturing supply chains and interdependence, enabled by previous administrations.

Foreign investments, technologies and training have undoubtedly helped enhance China’s industrial capacities. However, Chinese technological capabilities have also been developed by its own entrepreneurs, producing not only for export, but increasingly also for its own large consumer market.

After China was forced to appreciate its currency from around a decade and a half ago, and its labour surplus declined, its authorities greatly expanded its domestic market by enabling real wage rates and working conditions to improve significantly.

Success’ high costs
And if ‘weaponizing’ Chinese ownership of US government debt proves ‘successful’, others will be more cautious in buying US T-bonds, undermining the very market which has enabled easy and cheap US access to foreign savings. If the US Federal Reserve became the only purchaser of T-bonds, fiat money to finance the deficit could simply be printed, without issuing bonds.

Such weaponization may also affect general willingness to hold other US dollar-denominated assets, thus negatively impacting stock and other financial markets, and undermining the dollar’s role as world reserve currency, which would limit its ability to run trade and budget deficits by printing money.

If Trump decides to ‘up the ante’ against China, all the world will be at great risk. If he gets more politically desperate, he may view the adverse consequences of stepping up measures against China as a small price to pay for its political benefits.

The US-led encirclement of China, except on the Russian and Korean fronts, suggests that a conflict is more likely to be provoked in South or Southeast Asia. Although recent India-China hostilities have captured headlines, Pakistan’s long-time alignment to both the US and China suggest that Southeast Asia may become the next theatre for confrontation.

The post This Year of Living Dangerously appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Black Lives Matter protest in London May 31. Credit: Tara Carey / Equality Now

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Jun 2 2020 (IPS)

The deadly coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of over 372,000 people worldwide, has reinforced the concept of “social distancing” which bars any gathering of over 10 or 20 people – whether at a social event, a wedding, a political rally or even a funeral.

In the US, guidelines laid down by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are loudly clear: “limit face-to-face contact, stay at least 6 feet (about 2 arms’ length) from other people. Do not gather in groups. And stay out of crowded places and avoid mass gatherings.”

But all those warnings have been unceremoniously jettisoned as hundreds and thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets in several cities, including in Hongkong, Argentina, Lebanon, Brazil, Israel, Ukraine and India, and most recently in the US and UK.

In the United States alone, where coronavirus deaths have exceeded 103,000, demonstrators in riot-torn cities in 31 States have openly defied edicts both from medical experts and city and State authorities resulting in curfews.

The defiant stand has triggered the question: is the fight for human rights and racial justice overriding coronavirus threats — even as thousands have participated in demonstrations violating stay-at-home orders and stoking fears of a sharp increase in infections upending virus control efforts?

The Mayor of the city of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms, was quoted as saying: “If you were out protesting last night, you probably need to go get a COVID test this week. There is still a pandemic in America that’s killing black and brown people at higher numbers.”

Ironically, some of the protestors who set fire to police vehicles, gas stations, post offices, banks and electronic stories, were masked to avoid infections. But others were mostly mask-less.

A new study by the University of Manchester in the UK, released last week, has found that people are still willing to take part in protests in large numbers, despite the inherent dangers from the spreading coronavirus pandemic.

Dr. Olga Onuch, an Associate Professor in Politics [Senior Lecturer] at the University of Manchester and principal investigator and lead author of the study, told IPS: “My sense is that like in the US, Israel, Hong Kong, Brazil and beyond, large groups of people will continue to protest even when faced with infection. I think all the evidence points to more, not less protests,”

Asked if these demonstrators were risking their lives fighting for human rights and racial justice, Dr Onuch said: “I am not an epidemiologist but it would be my understanding, especially given the level of Covid-19 infections, I would expect that the risk of contracting the disease during mass gatherings like protests, is very high indeed.

“Yes, I believe they are risking their lives in participating in protests”.

“But it is my hypothesis that people’s patience is lower as a result of the pressures of confinement, and thus, people are actually more likely to get engaged when they see a clear violation of basic rights”, said Dr Onuch, who is also an Associate Fellow in Politics at Nuffield College, at Oxford University.

The study said that in Argentina, which has seen several mass protests since the end of the dictatorship in 1983, readiness to protest is typically high.

But even by Argentine standards, the researchers were shocked to find that 45% of people were still happy to protest despite the country’s lockdown and rising rates of COVID-19 infections.

Black Lives Matter protest in London May 31. Credit: Tara Carey / Equality Now

Norman Solomon, executive director at the Washington-based, Institute for Public Accuracy, told IPS that some people ignore social distancing health-protection guidelines while partying on beaches or congregating in bars and other venues.

“Other people ignore those guidelines while nonviolently protesting injustice. I’d certainly say that such protesters are quite admirable compared to those who violate the guidelines merely in order to have fun,” he added.

“That said, the guidelines exist for valid reasons and should be adhered to whenever possible; the risks endanger not only those who choose to ignore the guidelines but also those who are exposed due to the unfortunate choices of others”, declared Solomon.

The protests, which in some US cities extended through seven consecutive nights, virtually reached the steps of the White House last week as the Secret Service was forced to rush the US president into an underground bunker for his safety.

The New York Times reported on June 1, there are parallel plagues ravaging America: the coronavirus crisis and police killings of black men and women.

The initial demonstrations resulted from the brutal killing of an unarmed black man George Floyd by a white police officer in the city of Minneapolis which was caught on-camera and went viral on Facebook.

According to the Times, there were at least 600 Americans who reportedly died from Covid-19 on a single day – Sunday—when the demonstrations were in full swing.

Commenting on the growing protests, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said at his daily briefing on Sunday: “You turn on the TV and you see these mass gatherings that could potentially be infecting hundreds and hundreds of people after everything that we have done. We have to take a minute and ask ourselves: ’What are we doing here?”

Tara Carey, senior media and content manager at Equality Now, who witnessed the London protests on Sunday, told IPS times of crisis exacerbate inequality, and this had been brutally exposed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has disproportionally affected disadvantaged and minority communities around the world.

“The widespread harm caused by coronavirus has compounded pre-existing discrimination and political unrest, creating a tinder box atmosphere in which many people feel passionately that the dangers posed by systems of oppression must be challenged on the streets, even if this involves the possibility of contracting a potentially deadly contagious disease”, she argued.

From the USA to Lebanon, the UK to Hong Kong, demonstrators have risked both infection and arrest to join together in demanding change, she noted.

“Participating in political protests often comes with personal risk and COVID-19 has added to this. The right to demonstrate against injustice and persecution is a fundamental human right and it is important for people to think about how to protest safely.”

“For those participating in street protests, they must weigh up the health risks to themselves and those around them. For those who think the risk is too high, there are other ways to confront oppression and stand in solidarity,” she noted.

“Speaking out in support, contacting political representatives and other duty bearers, and donating to organizations that provide support to those in need and campaign for change, all have an important role to play,” declared Carey.

Commenting on her University’s survey, Dr Onuch said: “Our findings suggest that we shouldn’t be surprised if we continue to see protests, and we shouldn’t assume that these are younger people who are less likely to fear contracting the virus.”

“More importantly, governments must not think that they have a free pass because of crisis. Not only do governments have to weigh the trade-offs between public health and the economy they also need to consider how to respect their citizens’ right to protest, even during a pandemic.”

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@aol.com

The post Is the Fight for Human Rights & Racial Justice Overriding the Coronavirus Risk? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Now is the time to take advantage of this opportunity to build a better world
 
Kristalina Georgieva is managing director of the IMF

By Kristalina Georgieva
WASHINGTON DC, Jun 2 2020 (IPS)

Looking back to the start of 2020, the world has changed almost beyond recognition. To protect public health, the global economy was put into stasis. Shops closed, factories were mothballed, and people’s freedom of movement was severely curtailed.

No country has escaped the health, economic, and social impacts of the COVID-19 crisis. Tragically, more than 260,000 people have died and millions have been infected. The IMF is projecting global economic activity to decline on a scale not seen since the Great Depression. It is truly a crisis like no other.

Kristalina Georgieva. Credit: IMF

Despite the bleak outlook, I am hopeful for the future. A crisis often brings the best out in people—I have seen it firsthand in countries hit by wars and natural disasters.

This is happening already in the fight against the pandemic as doctors and nurses around the world put saving lives of others ahead of their own lives. And governments are stepping up in an unprecedented manner. To fight the pandemic they have combined dramatic public health interventions with fiscal measures amounting to about $8.7 trillion. Central banks have undertaken massive liquidity injections, and richer countries have stepped up to support poorer nations.

Record speed

The IMF has responded at record speed. We doubled our emergency rapid-disbursing capacity to meet expected demand of about $100 billion—and by end-May the IMF had approved financing for 60 countries, a record. We also established a new short-term liquidity line, and we took steps to triple our concessional funding, targeting $17 billion in new loan resources for our Poverty Reduction and Growth Trust, which helps poorer economies.

To help vulnerable members through rapid debt-service relief on their IMF obligations we reformed our Catastrophe Containment and Relief Trust. Working with the World Bank, we catalyzed suspension of official bilateral debt repayments for the poorest countries through the end of 2020.

While moving at speed, the IMF has consistently emphasized its collective commitment and steadfast support for its members in addressing governance vulnerabilities. Corruption drains resources away from priorities like public health, social protection, distance learning, and other essential services. Distorted spending priorities will undermine the recovery and long-term efforts to promote sustainable, inclusive growth, or raise productivity and living standards. Our message to governments is clear: do whatever you can, but make sure you keep the receipts. We don’t want accountability and transparency to take a back seat. In practice, this means support for countries in adopting a range of public financial management, anti-corruption, and anti-money-laundering measures.

During the crisis peak, governments have rightly been focused on saving lives and preserving livelihoods. In places where new infections and deaths are in decline, governments are considering how best to reopen the economy in a responsible fashion. In developing economies with large numbers of hand-to-mouth households, prolonged containment measures may not be a viable option and consideration needs to be given as to how to reopen safely given more limited health care capacity.

In the early phase at least, the recovery will be unusual as uncertainty remains about the path of the virus, potential vaccines, and therapeutics. This could hamper the rebound of investment and consumption, especially if infection rates climb back up as containment measures are eased.

Nonetheless, the recovery will share several features with previous episodes. Countries with stronger macroeconomic fundamentals, social cohesion, and safety nets are likely to experience faster and stronger recoveries. Existing vulnerabilities such as high sovereign debt; weak corporate, household, and bank balance sheets; and limited policy credibility will hinder the recovery. Governments will face the challenge of phasing out crisis-related policies. And more than ever, global cooperation will be vital, facilitated by international institutions, to coordinate actions, share data, protect supply chains, and support more vulnerable countries.

A green recovery

From a position nearing economic stasis there is nonetheless an opportunity to use policies to reshape how we live and to build a world that is greener, smarter, and fairer.

Greener: The current health crisis reminds us how vulnerable each person is in the face of the incredible power of nature. Yet just as scientists warned against the risk of a pandemic—a “black swan” event—they have also warned us of the terrible consequences of catastrophic climate change. We cannot turn back the COVID-19 clock, but we can invest in reducing emissions and adapting to new environmental conditions.

As economies stabilize, we have the chance to reorient them to prioritize sustainability and resilience alongside efficiency and profitability. The right policies will help allocate resources to investments that support public goods like clean air, flood defenses, resilient infrastructure, and renewable energy. Meanwhile, lower commodity prices can create the fiscal space to phase out regressive fuel subsidies that increase carbon emissions. The payoff would be considerable: in just the energy sector, a low-carbon transition could require $2.3 trillion in investment every year for a decade, bringing growth and jobs during the recovery phase.

Smarter: Through necessity many of us have been working remotely and using technology to remain productive. We have traveled less, consumed fewer resources, and introduced more agile business processes. While schools, businesses, and institutions will likely formalize some of the smarter ways of working that have proved successful, the crisis has thrown light on the importance of investing in robust digital infrastructure and policy frameworks.

In 2018, the IMF and the World Bank Group launched the Bali Fintech Agenda to help countries harness the benefits of rapid advances in financial technology while managing its risks. We are accelerating our work with members to broaden the digital transformation so that its benefits are shared even more widely. Well-managed fintech, for example, can help end financial exclusion for the 1.7 billion people in developing economies who have no access to banking.

Fairer: IMF research has also shown that lower income inequality is associated with stronger and more sustainable growth, yet many social disparities have become more pronounced during the Great Lockdown. For example, informal workers in unregulated sectors or outside the tax system are twice as likely to belong to poor households. These same workers typically have no access to sick leave or unemployment benefits, and their access to health benefits is often precarious.

As governments ramp up spending to support individuals, businesses, and communities, there is an opportunity to build fairer societies and economies by investing in people. That means spending more and spending better on schools, training, and reskilling. It means expanding social programs that are well targeted to reach the most vulnerable. And it means empowering women by reducing labor market discrimination. Such investment will need to be funded by more equitable taxation, especially given enhanced public debt levels stemming from the crisis.

A new spirt of solidarity

At a large and small scale we are helping each other. The staff of the IMF has made it possible for billions of dollars to support the world’s most vulnerable people. They also have cooked meals for the vulnerable in our own community and have looked after neighbors who are sick.

It is this solidarity that makes me hopeful for the future. The IMF has already shown its mettle as an economic first responder during this crisis. As we enter the next phase, I am determined that we will support our members however we can—through policy advice, financing, and capacity development. Together, we will take the chance to build a better world.

The post Beyond the Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Now is the time to take advantage of this opportunity to build a better world

 
Kristalina Georgieva is managing director of the IMF

The post Beyond the Crisis appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka helped set up university brotherhoods in the 1950s but never imagined what they would become.

By Daud Khan and Leila Yasmine Khan
AMSTERDAM/ROME, Jun 1 2020 (IPS)

As the COVID-19 virus spread rapidly around the globe, so did various theories about what caused the pandemic. According to the standard scientific theory, the virus probably originated in bats and then crossed over to humans, probably via another intermediate host. It then spread rapidly across the globe, piggybacking on the international travel network.

While the mainstream scientific theory sufficed for some, a large number of people saw the pandemic as the work of cold-hearted military or industrial strategists. An equally large number of people saw it as some kind of divine or natural retribution for an increasingly recalcrinant human race. It’s interesting to look at these various alternative theories. It is even more interesting to speculate why they have such a strong hold among the public.

In the first of this two part article, we will look at conspiracy theories; in the second part, at the apocalyptic theories.

Why are conspiracy theories so popular? Why do they persist despite statements by the scientific community that the virus has natural origins and was not humanly manufactured? Why do the President and the Secretary of State of the most powerful nation on earth, with the best universities and research capabilities, continue to maintain that the whole thing was a Chinese plot with connivance of the World Health Organization?

At the start of the pandemic, the most popular candidate for the villain was the USA. According to this set of conspiracy theories – I use the word “set” deliberately, as there were many variants – the CIA had developed and released the virus. It was an easy and low cost way to limit China’s growing economic and political clout. The theory gained support as the next hotspot was Iran – another problematic country for the USA.

However, as the COVID-19 virus spread to other countries, the blame spotlight turned on the Chinese. It was the Chinese who had developed and released the virus to bring the USA and Europe to its knees, and usher in the biggest recession of the century. One objective was to impact western economic and military presence around the globe.

Another was to undermine the soft power of these countries as their democratic systems of governance and their traditions of open debate would inevitably lead to squabbling between and within countries – something that would show the limitations of western democracy in today’s globalized world. At the same time, the fall in stock prices around the world allowed Chinese investors to buy massive quantities of shares in US and European markets with discounts of 30% to 50%. And if all this was not convincing enough, one only had to ask: who is the world’s largest importer of oil and gas? Who stands to benefit most from the collapse of petroleum prices? China!

Of course, there are other candidates for the role of the villain in the COVID saga, including Big Pharma and Big Finance. According to first of these, the big pharmaceutical companies not only developed the virus but already have a vaccine ready.

They are only waiting for sales of standard medicines and medical supplies to peak before announcing the vaccine. They would then sit back and watch the money pouring in. A sub-plot in the big-pharma narrative is that the illness can easily be avoided, or even cured, by low cost interventions such as lemon juice, honey, garlic, hot water or the Artemisia plant. However, these low cost cures are not in the interest of the pharmaceutical companies. Big Pharma is therefore working with the medical profession to discredit such low cost therapies.

According to the second theory, it the big pension funds and insurance companies whose projected earnings and valuations have been badly eroded by the progressive increase in life expectancy. By targeting the old and chronically ill, COVID-19 has been a silver bullet for them. So surely they must be behind it.

Most recently the conspiracy theorists have also found a new villain. Bill Gates, who in a video several years ago – at the time of the Ebola crisis – talked about the risks of a global pandemic. Apparently, his goal is to place a computer chip inside each of us so that we can be monitored at all times. Why in the world Bill Gates would want to do such a thing remains unexplained.

But why are conspiracy theories so popular? Why do they persist despite statements by the scientific community that the virus has natural origins and was not humanly manufactured? Why do the President and the Secretary of State of the most powerful nation on earth, with the best universities and research capabilities, continue to maintain that the whole thing was a Chinese plot with connivance of the World Health Organization?

There is certainly a personality type that would choose a good conspiracy theory over other explanations any day. It is a way of demonstrating that they know more than others and that they can see through the smoke screens and disinformation fed to the general public. It is a way of asserting inserting intellectual superiority.

But in the case of COVID-19, there is also a huge amount of collective anxiety that feeds on a primordial fear of the unknown, of death and of economic deprivation. This anxiety is like a virus that lives in our minds and is spread through millions of messages on Facebook and WhatsApp, by dramatic images on TV, and by graphs and statistics in the print media.

Although this fear is universal, it has a particularly strong hold in Europe and the USA where consistent improvements over the last 50 years in living standards, health care and life expectancy has created a feeling of invincibility which COVID-19 has badly shaken.

This collective anxiety is much placated through having a clear target on whom to pin blame. The assumption is that by unmasking the villains and by punishing them, the problem will likely go away. Clearly this is what is happening in the USA and why so many believe whatever untruths the President and his team is feeding them. There is also a huge risk that populist political parties in Europe, as well as Asia, Africa and Latin America will also find it expedient to take the same tack: give us a chance and we will take strong and determined action that will solve the problem. This is a time to beware!

 

Daud Khan is a former United Nations official who lives between Italy and Pakistan. He holds degrees in Economics from the London School of Economics and Oxford University where he was a Rhodes Scholar; and a degree in Environmental Management from the Imperial College of Science and Technology.

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

 

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