Africa

By Jomo Kwame Sundaram and Anis Chowdhury
KUALA LUMPUR and SYDNEY, May 7 2019 (IPS)

Over the last four decades, growing concentration of market power in the hands of oligopolies, if not monopolies, has been greatly enabled by ostensibly neo-liberal reforms, worsening wealth concentration and gross inequalities in the world.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

The ‘counter-revolution’ against Keynesian and development economics four decades ago, which inspired the Washington Consensus, claimed to promote economic liberalization, including market competition, but strengthening property rights entitlements, especially for intellectual property, has been far more important.

Such oligopolistic and monopolistic trends have recently accelerated in much of the world, while already feeble anti-trust efforts have lagged far behind. Over a century after US President Teddy Roosevelt’s anti-trust initiatives, with the neoliberal rhetoric of recent decades, many all over the world still have great expectations of similar US reform initiatives.

Privacy legislation for?
Responding to the ‘big data’ controversy, Apple CEO Tim Cook’s recent Time magazine opinion called for US privacy legislation informed by four principles for user rights: first, corporations should collect as little user data as possible; second, users should know what data has been collected and why; third, users should be able “to access, correct and delete [their] personal data”; and fourth, data should be secure, “without which trust is impossible”.

Cook has also proposed a US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) ‘data-broker clearinghouse’, with all entities handling data required to register so that the public can track how their data has been sold, and delete their own, if they so choose.

While national privacy legislation should include these principles, the proposals do not recognize that transparency and post hoc control do not address some of the worst dangers posed by online platform monopolies such as Google and Amazon.

Anis Chowdhury

Their monopolistic market power implies that users are often not really able to exercise their notional rights to privacy. For example, without a realistic alternative to Google’s search function, people have little option but to provide personal information about themselves, especially when their work or participating in society requires them to use Google.

Effective privacy legislation thus requires regulating such corporations so that they no longer have any incentive to exploit user data. As Cambridge Analytica whistle-blower Christopher Wylie has suggested, “We should take a step back from this narrative of consent and start to look at the fact that people don’t have a choice.”

Digital public policy?
Facebook and Google are able to collect considerable personal data, enabling them to secure monopoly profits by renting their platforms and data to third parties.

These third parties can then use the Facebook and Google platforms and their vast personal data troves to manipulate what individual users see, read, think and buy. Google thus earned some US$95 billion, while Facebook earned about US$40 billion in 2017 alone.

Appropriate public policy can make this business model far less lucrative. The US has previously used various ‘common carriage’ rules to limit or prevent railways, telecommunication companies and other monopolistic owners of essential infrastructure from discriminating among different users.

For example, AT&T was not allowed to set different rates or terms of service for different people based on what it could learn about their personal lives. Applying similar rules to Google, Facebook and Amazon now would reduce much of their incentive to collect, use, sell or rent personal data by limiting their means to profit from thus using such information.

To be sure, Apple also benefits from the Google and Facebook business models. In 2018, Google paid Apple US$9 billion to become the default search engine on Apple products, while Goldman Sachs expects such payments to increase to US$12 billion in 2019.

US reforms today
The US-based Open Markets Institute (OMI) has proposed new laws to overrule pro-monopoly judicial precedents and to empower employees, consumers and small businesses against abuses by large monopolies.

Accordingly, the OMI has proposed four measures to the US Congress’ Judiciary Committee: first, investigate growing concentration in and control of specific industries; second, conduct hearings on the relationship of such concentration to political corruption; third, educate the public about what it describes as the national ‘monopoly crisis’; and fourth, advocate anti-monopoly policies and principles with other Congressional committees and federal agencies.

The OMI recommends starting with pharmaceuticals, hospital fees, dominant platforms, advertising, labour, inequality, agriculture, other FTC priorities, the US Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, trade and national security.

Developing countries?
However, it is doubtful that the rest of the world, especially developing countries, can count on US policy reforms to protect, let alone advance their best interests, whether in terms of development or even, appropriate competition policy.

Given the limited size of most developing economies, a single minded obsession with competition may well undermine the likelihood of achieving economies of scale and international competitiveness, both important for accelerating economic development.

Size matters, and what may be appropriate for large economies may not be appropriate for smaller national economies. Furthermore, the limited jurisdiction of US legislation is likely to encourage corporations to engage in regulatory arbitrage abroad to their own advantage.

In any case, even if US lawmakers and regulators are able to protect and advance the US public interest through appropriate and effective regulatory policy, there is little reason to assume that the best interests of others will be best served by the effective exercise of US regulation

The post Neoliberal Reforms Strengthening Monopoly Power and Abuses appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Roseate spoonbills (Platalea ajaja), coastal birds in Sonora, Mexico. Conservation efforts over the past decade have reduced the extinction risks for mammals and birds in 109 countries, however, there remains a mass loss of biodiversity around the world. Credit: Mauricio Ramos/IPS

By A. D. McKenzie
PARIS, May 7 2019 (IPS)

An alarming report about the massive loss of biodiversity around the world warns that future generations will be at risk if urgent action isn’t taken to protect the more than one million species of plants and animals threatened with extinction.

Such extinction could happen “within decades” and could affect 40 percent of amphibian species, more than a third of marine mammals and nearly 33 percent of reef-forming corals, said the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES).

“Biodiversity is important for human well-being, and we humans are destroying it,” Sir Robert Watson, the outgoing chair of the IPBES, said as the report was launched Monday, May 7.

The body, formed in 2012 and comprising more than 130 government members, stated in its comprehensive review that nature is “declining globally at rates unprecedented in human history”.

The IPBES Global Assessment Report added that the rate of species extinction is also “accelerating”, and that this entails serious effects for the world’s human population as well, with an increasing impact on food, water and energy security, and on peace and stability.

“It’s a security issue in so far as the loss of natural resources, especially in poor, developing countries, can lead to conflict,” Watson said.

In a media briefing at the end of a six-day plenary—hosted by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in Paris—scientists called for bold measures at all levels of society to save the planet’s biodiversity, putting the issue at the same level of urgency as climate change.

“Unless we act now, we will undermine human well-being for current and future generations,” Watson said. “It’s a moral issue: we should not destroy nature. And it’s an ethical issue because the loss of biodiversity hurts the poorest of people, further exacerbating an already inequitable world.”

While climate change up to now has not been a dominant factor in biodiversity loss, it is expected to equal or surpass the issues of overfishing, pollution of sea and land (with toxic waste, plastics and heavy metals), the spread of invasive species decimating native ones, and the destruction of natural forests, the IPBES said.

Scientists said the “picture is less clear” for insect species, but the available evidence points to about 10 percent being threatened.

IPBES experts further state that at least 680 “vertebrate species” (or species with backbone) have been driven to extinction since the 16th century, and more than nine percent of all domesticated breeds of mammals used for food and agriculture had become extinct by 2016, with at least 1,000 more breeds still threatened. This has happened at a faster rate than in previous eras.

The 455 experts involved in the report analysed upwards of 15,000 scientific papers among their fields of research, said IPBES Executive Secretary Anne Larigauderie. They ranked the five “direct drivers of change in nature with the largest relative global impacts” on the world’s estimated eight million species.

These five drivers are: changes in land and sea use; direct exploitation of organisms; climate change; pollution; and invasive alien species, according to the report.

Ocean pollution, with toxic waste and tons of plastic devastating marine life, is now common knowledge, but perhaps people are less aware that the use of fertilisers has created some 400 coastal ecosystem “dead zones”, affecting 245,000 square kilometres.

Despite the disturbing statistics, Larigauderie said the IPBES still wished to send a message of hope.

“We don’t want that people feel discouraged, that there’s nothing that can be done, that we’ve lost the battle, because we’ve not,” she said.

A CEIBA Biological Centre (CEIBA) study investigated the impact of global warming on tropical ectotherms, namely, butterflies and lizards, whose body temperatures are determined by the environment. Amazonian ectotherms may be adjusting their behaviour to cope with the heat, but at the expense of the normal activities required for survival and breeding. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

Conservation efforts over the past decade have reduced the extinction risks for mammals and birds in 109 countries, and more than a hundred highly threatened birds, mammals and reptiles are “estimated to have benefitted from the eradication of invasive mammals on islands”, according to IPBES experts.

They emphasised that there was still time to give nature a chance to recover if the world takes transformative action for global sustainability, including the use of renewables, ecological farming methods and reducing run-off pollution into oceans.

“What we offer is scientific evidence never put together before,” said Eduardo S. Brondizio, one of the three co-chairs of the report and professor of anthropology at Indiana University.

“This is evidence that can be taken seriously, and people can be awakened to take action,” Brondizio told IPS. “This report is important for change.”

During the briefing at UNESCO, Brondizio had clear words for society at large and for the financial sectors and policy makers.

“We need to change our narratives,” he said. “Both our individual narratives that associate wasteful consumption with quality of life and with status, and the narratives of the economic systems that still consider that environmental degradation and social inequality are inevitable outcomes of economic growth.”

“Economic growth is a means and not an end,” he added. “We need to look for the quality of life of the planet.”

He said that “positive incentives” were required to “move away from harmful subsidies” that were contributing to unsustainable business models.

The report says there has been a 15 percent increase in global per capita consumption of materials since 1980 and a 300 percent increase in food crop production since 1970, reducing the habitat of some species and causing pollution through fertilisers.

Elephants from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. A recent report by the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services states more than one million species of plants and animals threatened with extinction. Credit: Malini Shankar/IPS

Meanwhile, 85 percent of wetlands present in 1700 had been lost by 2000, and 3.5 percent of domesticated breed of birds were extinct by 2016.

Among the “cross-sectoral solutions” that the report proposes, Brondizio highlighted complementary and inter-dependent approaches to food production and conservation, sustainable fisheries, land-based climate-change mitigation and “nature-based” initiatives in cities – which is crucial for overall sustainability.

He pointed out that over the past decade, the “largest portion of urban growth has been in the urban South”, with the largest portion being among the poor who live in cities with stressed environmental issues.

If adequate action isn’t taken to halt the loss of biodiversity in cities, to deal with climate change and to improve quality of life for urban residents, the negative impact will be globally felt, he said.

Brondizio equally called for the need to recognise the knowledge, innovations and practices, institutions and values of indigenous peoples and local communities.

“They are equal partners in this journey, and we need their inclusion and participation in environmental governance,” he said.

Also addressing the report, UNESCO’s Director-General Audrey Azoulay stressed the importance of education in ensuring sustainability and of sharing knowledge to heighten awareness. 

“Following the adoption of this historic report, no one will be able to claim that they did not know. We can no longer continue to destroy the diversity of life. This is our responsibility towards future generations,” she said.

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The post Loss of Biodiversity Puts Current and Future Generations at Risk appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Retractable Ground Floor in Dubai HealthCare City. Credit: Google Street View

By Karishma Asarpota
DUBAI, May 7 2019 (IPS)

Dubai is an Emirate in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a population of about 3 million. The discovery of oil in the 1960’s transformed Dubai from a sleepy port town to a global metropolis. The recent shift to address environmental sustainability in Dubai draws attention to energy issues in the city.

As per Dubai’s Integrated Energy Strategy, the Emirate aims to increase renewable energy production to 44% by 2050. This will help to reduce the dependence on natural gas for electricity production and reduce fossil fuel-based greenhouse gas emissions. Further, this will be supported with a goal to reduce energy demand by 30% in the next 20 years.

The urban area of Dubai has grown by almost 24 times in the last 44 years. This makes the pattern of urban development central to discussing energy efficiency in Dubai.

The way our neighbourhoods are designed can have an impact on energy efficiency. As residents, we can contribute to this goal is by reducing the amount of energy and water we consume in our homes. But a bigger responsibility is in the hands of urban designers, planners and architects.

Often, we turn to technological solutions to address the energy question such as installing more solar panels, implementing district energy systems or upgrading to a smart gird. These solutions overshadow urban design solutions that can help reduce our energy needs to begin with.

To be more successful at achieving an energy-efficient neighbourhood, technological solutions should complement urban design solutions. Here are some of the ways in which we should rethink architectural or urban design solutions.

1 – Improve pedestrian and cyclist infrastructure
More neighbourhoods in Dubai need to have continuous pavements and cycling lanes to support pedestrians and cyclists. This will help encourage residents to change their travel choices and reduce the number of trips made through mechanical means of transport resulting in energy savings and its related carbon emissions.

But we should be mindful of the extreme desert climate in the city. Dubai experiences a tropical desert climate with temperatures reaching an average of 45℃ for many days. It is unrealistic to expect people to cycle and walk in the extreme heat without implementing design solutions to provide relief from the heat such as shading and street orientation.

We need to turn to more climate appropriate urban design solutions like retractable ground floor (image 1) or narrow and shaded pedestrian areas.

Dubai Metro connectivity across the city. Credit: Karishma Asarpota – (Author)

2 – Provide access to public transit

Residential neighbourhoods should be within walking distance of a public transit stop to encourage the use of public transport and reduce car-based travel. Ridership of Dubai Metro has increased from 6% in 2006 to 15% in 2015, which is remarkable.

The Dubai Metro has about 329,365 daily commuters which is just about 10% of the city’s population. This is low as compared to other cities like Hong Kong or Vancouver where about 90% and 20% of the population are daily commuters on public transport.

Though Dubai is taking steps in the right direction many areas still remain disconnected from access to convenient public transport. The map shows the connectivity of Dubai Metro.

3 – Design climate responsive buildings

The way buildings are designed can have a significant impact on indoor and outdoor thermal comfort. This has a direct impact on the amount of energy that is needed to maintain a comfortable indoor climate. Buildings should be designed to respond to the micro-climate of a place to avoid heat gain.

Dubai Sustainable City. Credit: Luca Locatelli, Institute for National Geographic

Dubai Sustainable City is an example of a project that considered energy demand in the architectural and urban design. Decisions such as orientation and density helped reduce energy demand with little financial investment.

Villas in Dubai Sustainable City use 42% less electricity as compared to traditional villas in Dubai.

4 – Build a more compact development

Promoting compact and denser development can reduce transport demand and its associated energy use and emissions and will increase land use efficiency in urban areas. Moreover, less resources are needed to meet infrastructural need such as transport or utility networks.

As Dubai has grown, the city has spread along the coast increasing the distance between neighbourhoods and making the city dependent on car transport.

5 – Increase renewable energy supply

Increasing energy supply in neighbourhoods using renewable sources of energy like solar or geothermal can help diversify fuel sources and move away from carbon based fuels which have a high carbon emission rate.

Sheikh Zayed Road, Dubai. Credit: Zuhair Lokhandwala

The Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park currently has an installed capacity of 200 MW and is planned to expand to 5,000 MW by 2030. Al Shams is the new initiative by DEWA aimed at promoting decentralized solar power production within individual buildings. Though Al Shams is a step in the right direction, incentives to make solar power more widespread are lacking.

6 – Implement district cooling systems

In Dubai, district cooling systems increase the efficiency of cooling networks as chilled water is produced at a central point and then distributed to individual buildings to be utilized in individual AC (air-conditioning) systems.

AC systems generate warmer water which is sent back to the district cooling plant for chilling. District cooling plants can increase their efficiency by installing a thermal storage unit. A thermal storage unit helps to manage demand better as it is capable to store chilled and warm water.

Solar panels on a residence. Credit: Beacon Energy Solutions, Dubai

This helps to reduce the size of the cooling plant as added storage means that the plant can produce chilled water at night when ambient temperature is low and chiller efficiency is high.

This way the plant needs to be designed as per average demand and not peak demand. New neighbourhoods should be built using a district energy system as it can increase energy efficiency by about 40%.

7- Conserve water

Water is a precious resource which should not be misused especially in the Gulf region as it is water stressed. Moreover, water in Dubai is produced through desalination which is an energy intensive process.

District cooling system schematic. Credit: Karishma Asarpota – (Author)

Conserve indoor and outdoor water use and avoid wasting water. Indoor water fixtures should be upgraded to more efficient fixtures where feasible. Outdoor landscaping should employ only native species and use treated sewage effluent for maintenance.

Using native species for outdoor landscaping. Credit: Silvia Razgova, The National, Abu Dhabi

The post Building a More Energy-Efficient Neighbourhood in Dubai appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Karishma Asarpota is an urban planner, researcher and Climate Tracker Journalism Fellow

The post Building a More Energy-Efficient Neighbourhood in Dubai appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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By Mohammad Zoglul Kamal
DHAKA, Bangladesh, May 6 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(UNB/IPS) – Kaptai Lake, the biggest manmade lake in Bangladesh, is heading for a tragic end as sediments fill up its bottom and waste materials continue to pollute it every day.

The 688-square-kilometre lake, created by damming the Karnafuli River in Rangamati for hydroelectricity in 1960, has been providing livelihood for a large portion of the local population through tourism, fishing, transportation and much else.

Pollution and the use of pesticides are playing big roles in the water body’s decline, environmentalists say.

The lake, connecting six sub-districts, is traversed by thousands of people every day. Waste and oil from the launches and boats go into it, apart from those dumped by people living on its edges, locals say.

It is unclear how much waste, including plastic and polythene, is dumped into the lake daily. Deputy Commissioner of Rangamati AKM Mamunur Rashid says he is not sure if there had been any cleanup drives.

‘Never been dredged’

But siltation has turned out to be the major concern. The lake has never been dredged in 59 years, says Commodore Mahbub-ul Islam, chairman of Bangladesh Inland Water Transportation Authority (BIWTA).

Although the lake’s average depth is nine metres, when the water level recedes, it becomes dotted with small shoals. Launches and steamers have to suspend operations until the water level rises.

It is not just affecting the people dependent on the lake but also hampering power production.

The 230-megawatt capacity hydroelectric power plant’s production has come down to 110MW, says ATM Abjjur Zaher, the project manager, noting that the situation will not improve until there’s adequate rainfall.

It is an alarming situation that calls for urgent and effective measures, local say. They are pushing for dredging but the idea is opposed by some environmental activists.

MA Matin, general secretary of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, a movement to protect the environment, argues that dredging is not a permanent solution.

The water is more or less stagnant when a dam is constructed, he notes. “If we remove silt now, the basin will again be filled up in another 10 years,” he says, recommending searching for alternatives.

Deputy Commissioner Rashid admits that there are pitfalls but insists that it will be impossible to overcome the situation without removing the silt.

He says the lake is gradually becoming unusable because of siltation. “We’ve written to higher authorities but without any result. Recently, a BIWTA team has conducted a survey of Kaptai area,” he says.

Landslide scare

People, pushing for dredging, are not realising that it will take time, Rashid says.

“You can’t just dredge the lake. More research is needed before action, and issues like landslides should be considered,” he tells UNB.

Md Mahbubul Islam, Soil Resource Development Institute’s acting chief scientific officer in Bandarban, concurs.

“We can’t deny the possibility of landslides since dredging will change the basin’s structure,” he says.

Islam suggests a long-term study and exploring ways to protect the area and warns that otherwise, there will be a possibility of damage.

He says the lake covers a huge area and needs time for studies or to start dredging. The process will be a “little bit complex”, he notes.

Sunil Kanti Dey, a Rangamati-based journalist who has seen Kaptai Lake from its inception, says that it is now a pale shadow of its former self.

“Restoring the lake’s former glory will be very difficult, if not impossible,” he says. “It’ll be too late if we don’t act now.”

The post Bangladesh’s largest freshwater lake inching towards death appeared first on Inter Press Service.

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When war broke out in 2013 in South Sudan, refugees poured into neighbouring Gambella. Today, 485,000 South Sudanese refugees lived in the Gambella region, according to UNHCR, the United Nations refugee organisation. Some displaced Nuer brought arms across the border, destabilising an already tense region. “The fact that the Nuer and Anuwak exist on both sides of the border makes it easy for people of both communities to pass backwards and forwards, taking with them their conflicts both between the two tribes but also at the national level,” says John Ashworth, who has been working in South Sudan and the surrounding region for the last 30 years. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

By James Jeffrey
GAMBELLA, Ethiopia, May 6 2019 (IPS)

Right up against the border with South Sudan, the western Gambella region of Ethiopia has become a watchword for trouble and no-go areas as its neighbour’s troubles have spilled over. But now there may be reason for optimism on either side of the border.

The brown waters of the Baro River meandering through the Ethiopian city of Gambella—from which the surrounding region takes its name—coupled with an atmosphere of tropical languor creates an almost cliched archetype of the Western idea of an African river port. Except for the fact that there is not a single boat on the river. The 2013 outbreak of civil war in South Sudan, whose border lies 50 kilometres from the city, put an end to the thriving trade that once plied this waterway between Gambella and Juba, the South Sudanese capital. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

It is hard to visit Gambella and not be struck by the height of many locals, some with horizontal scarification lines across their foreheads. The Nuer are one of five ethnic groups populating the region. Close ties and tensions between the Nuer and Anuwak, the two largest ethnic groups, representing about 45 percent and 26 percent of the population, respectively, date back centuries. The modern border between the two nations does not delineate where either group lives nor is movement across the South Sudan-Ethiopia border a new phenomenon. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

When war broke out in 2013 in South Sudan, refugees poured into neighbouring Gambella. Today, 485,000 South Sudanese refugees lived in the Gambella region, according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UN refugee organisation. Some displaced Nuer brought arms across the border, destabilising an already tense region. “The fact that the Nuer and Anuwak exist on both sides of the border makes it easy for people of both communities to pass backwards and forwards, taking with them their conflicts both between the two tribes but also at the national level,” says John Ashworth, who has been working in South Sudan and the surrounding region for the last 30 years. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

This is the closest you will come to finding a boat in Gambella nowadays. “The river used to be full of boats and trade before 2013 and the war broke out,” one Gambella local says of the Baro River and its tributaries flowing across the border. Nowadays the most urgent traffic around the city comes from the plethora of white SUVs, plastered with the logos of almost every NGO to be found in Ethiopia. Some locals are employed by NGOs as drivers and translators, but the vast majority of locals struggling to get by see little of the money generated by Ethiopia’s refugee industry. In 2018 the budget required for Ethiopia’s total refugee population—around 900,000 people—was estimated at 618 million dollars. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

Gambella city has an intriguing modern history, in which the Baro River plays a crucial part. In the late 19th century, Britain came knocking, seeing the Baro’s navigable reach to Khartoum as an excellent highway for exporting coffee and other produce to Sudan and Egypt. The Ethiopian emperor granted Britain the use of land for a port and Gambella was established in 1907. Only a few hundred hectares in size, this tiny British territory became a prosperous trade centre as ships from Khartoum sailed regularly during the rainy season when the water was high. The Italians captured Gambella in 1936 but it was back with the British after a bloody battle in 1941. Gambella became part of Sudan in 1951, but was reincorporated into Ethiopia five years later. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

Here a woman sells fish in a small market. Everyday life appears slow and peaceful. But the Gambella region has gained a reputation as a no-go area among foreigners and Ethiopians alike. Back in 1962, the first of several civil wars broke out next door in Sudan at the start of a 50-year quest for South Sudanese independence, and from which Gambella could not remain immune. The stigma attached to the region hasn’t been helped by the Ethiopian government’ tendency to take a dismissive view of the region, underscored by a prejudice—one that extends throughout Ethiopian society—that the blacker one is the less Ethiopia you are, says Dereje Feyissa, a senior advisor at the Addis Ababa-based International Law and Policy Institute. “The Ethiopian centre has always related to its periphery in a predatory way,” Dereje says. “This is not only because of the geographic distance but also the historical, social and cultural differences which the discourse on skin colour signifies.” Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

Local men carrying wrapped-up dried fish on their heads walk through an Anuwak village. The Gambella region is something of an anomaly in Ethiopia, displaying stronger historical, ethnic and climatic links to neighbouring South Sudan. “This was not the Ethiopia of cool highlands and white flowing traditional dress, but Nilotic Africa, in the blazing southwestern lowlands near the Sudanese border,” recalls Steve Buff, a former Peace Corps Volunteer. “This was much closer to our childhood National Geographic images of Africa than any place we’d seen before in Ethiopia.” Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

Since the latest peace agreement between South Sudan’s warring factions late last year, the indications seem more promising than with previous peace agreements that fell apart. By December 2018, the security situation in South Sudan had significantly improved, stated Jean-Pierre Lacroix, head of United Nations Peacekeeping. And by February this year, David Shearer, head of the UN Mission in South Sudan, told reporters in New York that political violence has “dropped dramatically.” Shearer added that the success of the peace agreement will be partly measured by the extent to which people return to home towns and villages. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

This year the UNHCR has reported spontaneous movements of South Sudanese refugees from various Gambella-based camps heading toward South Sudan, an estimated 5,000 since mid-December. Perhaps a good sign of what Shearer discussed? Interviews with the refugees, however, indicated they were returning to South Sudan for fear of retaliatory action following clan-based conflicts in camps, while some said they were going to visit their families, and would eventually return to the camps in Gambella. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

“This time it is different, as the international community is involved,” a South Sudanese refugee in Gambella remarked while reading Facebook posts on his smartphone about the latest peace deal. At the same time, the time it has taken to overcome the animosity of the past and get to the current stage of the peace process suggests there will be South Sudanese refugees in Gambella for some time yet. Meanwhile, the Baro River will flow on undisturbed by river traffic through a land of limbo caught up in the surrounding troubles, its seemingly placid surface deceiving to the eye. “There are plenty of crocodiles, though you won’t see them as the water is high,” a local man says. Credit: James Jeffrey/IPS

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The post The Ethiopian City Lost in the Shadow of South Sudan’s War appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Thousands of people fleeing fear of violence in Burundi have arrived in Mahama Refugee Camp, Rwanda. Credit: UNHCR/Kate Holt

By Paula Donovan
NEW YORK, May 6 2019 (IPS)

Last week the Washington Post published a scathing critique by the executive director of Human Rights Watch, titled “Why the U.N. Chief’s Silence on Human Rights is Deeply Troubling.” Kenneth Roth argued that Secretary-General António Guterres “is becoming defined by his silence on human rights—even as serious rights abuses proliferate.”

That must have made things difficult for the UN spokespeople who form a human shield around António Guterres. It’s impossible to explain away the litany of recent atrocities—by Saudi Arabia, Russia, China, Syria, Congo, Myanmar, Trump—that have provoked neither comment nor condemnation from the Secretary-General.

Mr. Roth, who knows a great deal about the power of words, is absolutely right. Silence can be strategic, but sometimes it’s just spineless. Or worse: Sometimes silence means consent. Take the case of Burundi.

One is loath to believe that Mr. Guterres’ wordlessness on Burundi could possibly signal an endorsement of President Pierre Nkurunziza and the horrendous crimes he’s suspected of orchestrating against his political opponents.

But with no rationale coming from the Secretary-General to explain why he’s in business with an autocratic regime while it’s being investigated by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity, we can only rely on documented facts. They speak for themselves.

The UN pays Burundi for the use of its soldiers as UN peacekeepers—some US $13 million annually, or almost a quarter of the poverty-stricken country’s entire defense budget—and currently deploys 740 of them to its mission known as MINUSCA to “protect” the war-racked Central African Republic (CAR).

The Security Council has authorized the Secretary-General to send military peacekeepers home “when there is credible evidence of widespread or systemic sexual exploitation and abuse.” It’s left to the Secretary-General to decide how much sexual violence is too much.

Burundians account for one-fifth of all the UN peacekeeping soldiers since 2015 who have been formally accused by CAR women and children of rape and other sexual “misconduct,” although fewer than seven percent of MINUSCA’s current complement of 11,158 peacekeeping soldiers are contributed by Burundi.

Burundi’s behavior in CAR should surprise no one. Back at home, the Burundian army’s chain of command looks something like this: President Nkurunziza is under divine orders—heard only by him—to rule for life, and his army is under instruction to eliminate Burundian citizens who dare to challenge that order.

When the president announced four years ago that he would seek a third term, voters demonstrated in the streets, and the massacres began. Since 2016, bone-chilling official reports from independent UN investigators and commissioners have described rape, sexual torture, dismemberment, and mass murder carried out by government soldiers, police, and militia.

Experts believe that the gruesome campaign is ongoing. Keeping an army loyal enough to sustain brutal levels of rape and murder against its own people, year after year, is costly. On whom can Nkurunziza depend for steady income? The answer: Secretary-General Guterres.

Even compared with the world’s most notorious campaigns of state terror and mayhem, Burundi stands out. International Criminal Court investigations are rare, but alleged past and ongoing attacks by the Nkurunziza government against its own citizens have been grotesque enough to warrant one, based on credible evidence of the worst of all offenses: crimes against humanity.

If there is any reasonable explanation for allowing Burundi to keep contributing peacekeepers, Nkurunziza’s victims deserve to hear it from the UN Secretary-General.

Why is he bankrolling their oppressor? And the women and children of CAR deserve to hear why, when their government asked the international community for peacekeepers, Mr. Guterres sent them an army notorious for raping and murdering instead.

Nkurunziza has no problem making his views heard. He angrily withdrew his country from the International Criminal Court when it announced the probe into alleged crimes against humanity (though by international law, the withdrawal was not enough to stop the ICC’s investigation.)

He had already forced the UN to withdraw its expert investigators and commissioners. And most recently, he expelled the UN human rights office from the country.

The withdrawals, expulsions, and denunciations have gone in just one direction. António Guterres has maintained his silence, punctured only by the sound of a pen scratching on a checkbook: Pay to the order of Pierre Nkurunziza, US $13 million. The world is owed an explanation.

The post UN Chief’s Reprehensible Bankrolling of Violence in Burundi appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Paula Donovan is Co-Director, AIDS-Free World and its Code Blue Campaign

The post UN Chief’s Reprehensible Bankrolling of Violence in Burundi appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM / ROME, May 6 2019 (IPS)

The catastrophic fire in Notre Dame produced a massive emotional reaction. In a Paris famous for its secularism tearful people knelt on the pavement, sang the Ave Maria and prayed to God to save their cathedral. Several stated that it was not only a church burning, but the soul of Paris passing away. What did they mean to say?

In Rome I was once told that even if all people were removed from it, that town would still be alive. An observation similar to the one of ancient Romans, who assumed that specific places were kept alive by the presence of divine forces called genii locorum.

Around 64 CE, in one of 124 letters to his friend Lucilius, the philosopher and author Seneca wrote:

If ever you have come upon a dense wood of ancient trees that have risen to an exceptional height, shutting out all sight of the sky with one thick screen of branches upon another, the loftiness of the forest, the exclusion of the spot, your sense of wonderment at finding so deep and unbroken a gloom out of doors, will persuade you of the presence of a deity. 1

Feelings of a spiritual presence are common to most cultures. For example, Japanese kami are elements of the landscape; forces of nature, as well as various living and deceased beings, like the spirits of venerated dead persons. In Shintoism impressive natural manifestations, even those that to others may appear as being insignificant, may carry divine messages, like in a haiku by Hoshinaga Fumio (b. 1933):

Flicking off water
a dragonfly quickly
becomes divine. 2

A place imbued with a sense of enigmatic presence may be considered as a sacred venue. Terms like sacred and holy tend to be used interchangeably, though holiness is actually related to persons, while sacredness refers to objects, places, or happenings. However, both words denote something different from everyday existence and thus worthy of being respected. The Latin word sanctum means ”to set apart”. A sacred place may be referred to as a hierophany [Greek hieros – holy and phanein – to reveal/bring to light], or as the historian of religions Mircia Eliade describes the term ”breakthroughs of the sacred into the World.” 3

A sacred place represents interests and profound feelings of an individual and/or a group of people. A site of reference, a centre which through its tangible existence provides stability and meaning to our lives. To enter a church, a mosque or any other holy temple or secluded space venerated by deeply religious people may even for a non-believer create feelings of tranquillity and reveration.

In the very centre of Paris stands Our Lady of Paris, Notre-Dame de Paris, a magnificent gothic cathedral. Notre-Dame has throughout centuries been at the heart of a city fostering creativity, strong feelings and it has often even been called The Capital of Love.

In 1831, Victor Hugo published his novel Notre-Dame de Paris while declaring that his intention had been to make his contemporaries aware of how medieval piety had been expressed through the splendour of Gothic architecture. At the time, magnificent French cathedrals were being neglected and often destroyed to be replaced by new buildings or defaced in the name of ”modernity”. What particularly pained Victor Hugo was that during the revolution of 1830 a fire had broken out and severly damaged the three rosette windows of his beloved Notre Dame. Parisian authorities had voted to replace these chefs d´oeuvre of Christendom with plain glass windows to ”bring more light into the gloomy cathedral.” It is probable that Hugo´s magnificent novel about Quasimodo, the kind-hearted, crippled and ugly custodian of the Cathedral and his impossible love for the beautiful Esmeralda saved Notre Dame from this thoughtless profanation. The Cathedral is actually the most significant aspect of Hugo´s novel. The focal point of a prodigious epic depicting an entire epoch. A comprehensive panorama of an entire people, represented by characters caught in the whirlwind of history. It was one of the first novels that tried to encompass the entirety of a city, from the royal courts down to the depths of its sewers.

Notre Dame is the genius loci of Paris, its sacred, living heart. Seeing it engulfed by flames was a painful experience for everyone who has learned to love the city and the splendour of human endeavours. A monument like Notre Dame is not only a magnificent building. It encapsulates human piety, our striving for peace and unity.

To watch the burning Notre Dame reminded us of how entire, wonderous cities like Dresden and Aleppo were bombed and burned to cinders. How World Heritage like the giant Buddhas of Bamiyan, or temples in Palmyra, were intentionally destroyed by fanatics. It is not only monuments that are being destroyed. Such acts of pityless vandalism constitute attacks on our common sense of piety, our feelings of unity and humility while we face the perils of human existence. When the Spirit of Place, like Notre Dame, burns and is destroyed, the human soul also suffers.

1 Seneca (1969) Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium. London: Penguin Classics, p. 87.
2 Gilbert, Richard (2008) Poems of Conciousness: Contemporary Japanese & English-Language Haiku in Cross-Cultural Perspective. Winchester, Va: Red Moon Presss, p. 163.
3 Eliade, Mircea (1963) Myth and Reality. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin, p. 6

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 The Burning of Notre Dame and the Spirit of Place appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Ajax and Cameroon's Andre Onana believes black goalkeepers have to work harder to prove themselves in European football.

By Inge Kaul
BERLIN, May 6 2019 (IPS)

This year’s annual “SDG Global Festival of Action” was held in Bonn, Germany, from May 2–4, 2019. The festival’s overall aim is to gather campaigners and multiple stakeholders from around the world at one place for interaction with each other; furthermore, it seeks to inspire them to scale up action in support of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set forth in the 2030 Agenda adopted by the United Nations General Assembly.

As can be seen from the festival website, it is a dynamic event awash in the specific color codes of the various SDGs. About 1,500 “festival-goers” meet and chat in the hallways, share information, or listen to brief interventions—some lasting just 2 minutes—by an array of speakers commenting on a wide range of topics.

They also enjoy cultural performances and SDG-related films screened in different formats, such as 2D, 3D, as well as virtual and augmented reality. Award ceremonies and evening parties are held and, on top of this, the festival fireworks light up the skies over the river Rhine.

However, one is compelled to ask: why hold a festival? Why use fireworks? Why should we have a good time at the banks of the Rhine when there is still a long way to go to achieve the SDGs?

The ill-effects of global warming continue to wreak havoc. In some parts of the world, people and animals starve because of droughts caused by climate change; in other parts, harvests are being destroyed and houses swept away by torrential rains and floods.

Lives are still being cut short because of the unavailability or unaffordability of medicines. Inhuman working conditions, including those prevailing in factories and mines producing goods for export to the world’s rich and super-rich, are still being tolerated.

Human trafficking is still rampant, as are various forms illicit trade and tax evasion. War, international terrorism, and conflict continue to persist, increasing the number of people forcibly displaced within their own country, as well as the number of refugees and international migrants.

So, it is worth wondering what would be the reaction of refugees, who are living in camps and hardly have any real prospects of change in their living conditions, if they have a functioning smart phone and would be able to see pictures of the SDG Global Action Festival and the fun-filled activities held in Bonn?

Would they accept them as part the effort toward “leaving no one behind,” a commitment enshrined in paragraph 4 of the 2030 Agenda? Would these pictures not seem like a cruel and twisted joke to the people caught up in the devastating war in Yemen and the conscience-shocking humanitarian crisis that followed it?

I want to make it clear that many of the contemporary global challenges do not adversely affect only those living in the Global South. People in the Global North also increasingly suffer from rising inequality, relative poverty, unresolved financial problems, and mounting uncertainty about their future living conditions.

This includes uncertainty about managing the risks and tapping the opportunities, such as those arising from the digitalization of economies, as well as the development and application of artificial intelligence and other new technologies. In fact, many Northern consumption and production patterns negatively affect the living conditions of people in the South; further, many of the South’s unresolved problems spill over into the North.

Thus, progress toward meeting the SDGs still faces a number of obstacles that require major reforms in the global economy and an improvement in the functioning of the system of international cooperation.

Therefore, this is not the time for fun travel from one international SDG meeting to another, a pattern that has become rather popular after 2015. Although networking, information sharing, and storytelling can be useful policy tools, there is no justification yet for holding a festival or getting into a festive mood.

In fact, doing so can be construed as signaling a lack of respect not only for the deprived among the current and future generations, but for the planet as a whole.

Even as we face many challenges today, we possess the knowledge and the resources needed to tackle them. The key missing element, which prevents scaled-up and accelerated progress, is the willingness to start “walking the talk,” that is, to act unilaterally and, as and when necessary, collectively with the requisite sense of urgency on the most pressing, high-risk challenges.

Such a shift from slow to quick policymaking calls for a worldwide action on part of the truly determined, realistic yet ambitious change advocates urging policymakers to act now and to do all what others cannot do better to ensure that problems not only get addressed in a piecemeal manner, off and on, but rather actually get resolved decisively.

This could revitalize the global public’s and policymakers’ willingness to cooperate and innovate and move us forward toward global sustainable growth and development.

To facilitate the emergence of such a strong worldwide movement of change advocates, the series of annual “SDG Festivals” could be discontinued and the UN could encourage the festival partners: (1) to lend their support instead to the hard work of transformative change, while holding in check festivities and the fireworks until we see real progress; and (2) to use available resources to offer a global platform for interaction and cooperation to the recently sprung-up but steadily growing and already world-spanning movement of “Fridays for Future.”

The bottom line is – if we fail to effectively limit global warming, many other developments, however big or small, may come to naught. In the longer run, we might even find that “Fridays for Future” was the beginning of a durable innovation in global governance: the beginning of a “future generations council” (perhaps under the umbrella of the United Nations) aimed at fostering an enhanced balance between policymaking for the short and the longer term.

* The author can be reached at contact@ingekaul.net

1 For the full text of the 2030 Agenda, see: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/21252030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development%20web.pdf/
2 For more information on the Festival, see https://globalfestivalofaction.org/

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Excerpt:

Inge Kaul is adjunct professor, Hertie School of Governance, Berlin, and first director of UNDP’s Offices of the Human Development Report and Global Development Studies

The post Sustainable Development Goals: One of the Greatest Fun Things in the World!? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Photo Courtesy: Sachin Sachdeva

By Sachin Sachdeva
NEW DELHI, May 6 2019 (IPS)

Communities are treated as passive recipients, giving them no say in the functioning of their schools. Here’s why this needs to change.

During our work with people living around the Ranthambhor National Park on issues of conservation, livelihoods, and eco-development, a constant question we were asked was how long we thought we could continue helping them. And then, an accompanying question — would their children never be in a position to help themselves? To advocate for and implement the change they wanted to see?

People had been led to believe that sending children to school was a precondition for a better future. Despite this, what they kept seeing was that the education system accessible to them was not equipping their children with the skills and abilities that they required to negotiate better futures for themselves.

Poor solutions for poor people

Working in Sawai Madhopur made us painfully aware of the community’s past experiences with education. Over time they had experienced the Shiksha Karmi Programme (which trained daughters-in-law to run schools), and the Rajiv Gandhi Pathshalas (which trained a young person who had passed Class 10, to run schools), not counting their countless experiences with government schools in the larger villages, most of which were sub-optimal.

When we look at the pitfalls of the government schooling system — be it teacher absenteeism, quality of textbooks, a lack of adequate infrastructure, constrained budgets and human resources — and the plans or schemes that have been created to address them, we realise that most of them could be categorised as ‘poor solutions for poor people’.

People often believe that the problems in the education space have more to do with curricula or pedagogy, or with the capacity of teachers. We disagree. The main issue is that today, communities are missing from the school ecosystem.

The current school system has made communities passive recipients of whatever the government tosses at them, giving them no say in the functioning of the school. It does not work with the community to help them actively engage with the process.

 

People don’t understand the gap between their aspirations and reality

The idea that any kind of education should lead to a job (preferably a government one) is prevalent amongst the communities we work with. However, what is less clear is how exactly that will happen, and what the probability is of it happening at all.

People had begun to realise that their education system was leaving children under prepared – they may have completed class 10 or 12, but their capacities and skill sets were far lower than they should have been – making it impossible for them to find the job they dreamed of, or continue on an educational path that would get them there.

What’s worse, by dedicating most of their time and resources to school, these children were sometimes unable to take up their traditional occupations – be it in agriculture or livestock rearing – making them incapable of earning a substantial income.

In such a situation, with huge gaps between their reality and aspirations, young people often found themselves helpless. There was scarcely anyone in the village who could have told them what needed to be done to become a doctor, engineer, bureaucrat, lawyer, entrepreneur – or what it entailed.

Despite this, children would go through their schools and come to urban centres looking for opportunities – be it that elusive government job or being a professional. It was only upon reaching the cities that they would realise how under-prepared they were, and as a result end up taking whatever work they could get–as waiters, drivers, cleaners, helpers, construction workers and similar positions in the informal sector.

It is no surprise then, that when it came to education, people in the community were losing faith in government schools.

 

Communities are the main stakeholder in their education

People often believe that the problems in the education space have more to do with curricula or pedagogy, or with the capacity of teachers. We disagree. The main issue is that today, communities are missing from the school ecosystem.

The community is the biggest stakeholder in the education space, and they need to be treated as such. People need to have a real idea of what they can expect from the system, and they need the system to be accountable to them. This has never happened.

So while there is plenty of work being done to train teachers, help principals, build the skills of School Management Committees (SMCs), design curriculum and change pedagogy, there is not enough being done with parents and community members. Even though parents make up the bulk of the SMC, they tend to be involved only in issues related to infrastructure or for instance, looking at teacher attendance or organising events – essentially any activity that is easy to monitor and does not demand engagement in processes.

It is time that we understood that education is about creating the right ecosystem for learning to happen, and that a village and its community are part of that process. When families have a better understanding of learning processes, they will also ensure that the home environment provides the right encouragement. When community members are able to offer their knowledge—as farmers, mechanics or officers in government—to students, they are teaching children about different possibilities in their future. It is only through involvement of the community that people will learn to ask the right questions, to seek accountability from the system. SMCs, being a subset of the community, offer a channel to do this. And if the community is aware, the SMCs will also function well.

For change to occur, communities must be more aware, and in charge of their education.

 

Photo Courtesy: Sachin Sachdeva

 

Working with communities to improve the education system

Having said that, we have to keep in mind that today, most communities, having been passive recipients of education thus far, are unprepared to challenge the system. It is therefore essential that we work to change this.

Based on our work at Gramin Shiksha Kendra (GSK) – an organisation which works with communities to enhance the quality of education in government schools – over the last 14 years, here are some suggestions on how this can be done:

 

1. Give them positions of seniority/power

Include members of the local community in your organisation board and involve them in the decision making. For example, at GSK we have people from the community on our board – some of them are parents who missed the opportunities of a quality education for their children, and two of them have never been to school but bring in their insights, wisdom and understanding of the local context.

These community members have guided and helped the organisation evolve its strategies, brought concerns and aspirations of the people to the board, and cautioned us against taking decisions that might not have the right impact.

 

2. Change your metrics of success

For example, we have kept the strength and management capacities of the school management committees as our apex indicator of success/failure, rather than only focussing on learning outcomes. We believe that when the schools and government-appointed school teachers become accountable to the SMC, and the SMC is in a position to guide and manage, the initiative will have succeeded.

 

3. Involve them in the work being done

Members from the community are invited to teach in the schools as guest teachers. Their experiences add to the curriculum of the school and are adapted for the schools. To be a teacher is still a valued profession, which gives parents a sense of importance and respect in the area.

Additionally, in an attempt to create a community-led ecosystem for education, we have an annual education festival called Kilol in our villages. The village community takes responsibility to organise Kilol’s and GSK shares, through exhibits and processes, our ways of teaching science, language, math, as well as the importance of components like pottery, sport and carpentry. The festival gives everyone in the community an opportunity to celebrate learning and understand what happens in school.

 

4. Give the initiative that is for them, to them

Our latest attempt is in handing over one of the schools that GSK set up back to the community to manage. That is when the school will become truly community-owned and community-managed.

We made this possible by, over the last 14 years, giving different members from the community a chance to be a part of the SMC. This has resulted in over 35 members in the community who have at one point or another been members of the SMC.

Because of their experience, the SMCs will soon be able to take over the management of the school and run it. GSK plans to facilitate this process and will help the SMC and the community evolve a future course of action – whether that leads to a science education initiative in the area, a comprehensive school, or an outreach programme.

This is important, as it defines our education initiative in the area. We don’t intend running the schools for ever, we want the community to take over. This will be our biggest success and we will continue providing them the technical support – or any other support that they may require. Most importantly, by giving the school back to the community, we are giving power back to the people – which is where it should be.

 

Sachin Sachdeva is a Co-Founder of Gramin Shiksha Kendra, www.graminshiksha.org.in , an organisation which works with communities to enhance the quality of education in government schools. Sachin has worked with development initiatives over the past 25 years and has been working with communities to help them look at their futures from a position of strength. GSK works with over 70 schools around the Ranthambhor National Park and along with the community runs three schools, one of which has been set up in a rehabilitated village. He is currently Director of the Paul Hamlyn Foundation’s India programme.

 

This story was originally published by India Development Review (IDR)

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Renaissance Berkane of Morocco and Egypt's Zamalek reach the African Confederation Cup final after aggregate wins over CS Sfaxien and Etoile du Sahel.

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Yassin Mohammed painted and drew pictures of his time inside Egyptian jails as a way of coping with prison life.