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These are the worst of times, but they can become the best of times, said speaker Dr. Walden Bello, seeking to inspire thousands of progressives who gathered for the World Social Forum (WSF) in Kathmandu on Thursday with the planet under clouds of armed conflict and assaults on democracy. “We have a climate catastrophe facing […]

By Anis Chowdhury
SYDNEY, Feb 14 2024 (IPS)

Israel continues to defy its strongest backer the US and its western allies in its quest to control the land from the “River to the Sea”, and in the process ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is determined to push ahead with a ground offensive against Gaza’s southernmost town of Rafah despite mounting warnings from aid agencies and the international community that an assault on Rafah would be a catastrophe. He also snubbed the US on the latest hostage release and ceasefire deal brokered by Qatar and Egypt. The interim order of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to take all effective measures to stop “plausible” genocide in Gaza seems irrelevant to Israel. Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief admits that Netanyahu “doesn’t listen to anyone”.

Anis Chowdhury

Israel’s impunity

One should not be surprised at all at Israel’s defiance. It has been enjoying impunity ever since it was established in 1948. When David Ben-Gurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel on 14 May, 1948, the US President Harry S. Truman recognised the new nation on the same day. Israel has violated 28 resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) which are legally binding on the UN Member States.

Between 1972 and February 2023 the US has cast a veto 53 times in the UNSC against anti-Israel resolutions or condemnations of Israel. An opinion piece in Israel’s reputable newspaper, Haaretz asked, “When Will the U.S. Get Tired of Helping Israel With UN Vetoes?” It vetoed every attempt by the UNSC for a permanent ceasefire in Israel’s latest onslaught on Gaza, following 7 October Hamas attack on Israel that have resulted in nearly 30,000 deaths most of whom are children and women.

When Joe Biden met with Benjamin Netanyahu and his war cabinet during his visit to Israel, immediately following the Hamas attack, President Biden assured them: “I don’t believe you have to be a Jew to be a Zionist, and I am a Zionist”. Faced with global outcry and domestic pressure, especially within the Democratic Party and growing dissent of administration staff, President Biden expressed some frustrations, saying Israel’s bombardment of Gaza is “indiscriminate” or Israel’s reaction to the 7 October Hamas attack was “over the top”.

But the US and its allies’ military, financial and diplomatic supports for Israel continue unconditionally. The US and its Western allies, especially Germany and the UK, are critical of South Africa’s case against Israel at the ICJ seeking an interim injunction against plausible violations of the Genocide Convention. They dismissed it as “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever”, or “wrong and provocative”, rushing to defend Israel at the ICJ, while Israel’s President called it “atrocious and preposterous.”

The West has failed to stop Israel’s illegal settlements in the occupied land of Palestine. Occasionally the US and its Western allies have used some stronger words like “deeply dismayed”, “deeply troubled” and “strongly opposed,” not to mention banal expressions such as “against unilateral steps” and “calls for restraint and stability”, reiterating their “commitment to a 2-State solution”.

As the Haaretz opinion piece observed, “These bland themes carry no consequences. They’re not much different from the “thoughts and prayers” that American politicians offer after a mass shooting. These hollow statements from Washington have become the foreign policy version of “nothing to see here, carry on.”

The US and its Western allies condemn “form the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free” as anti-Semitic. But fail to mention the Likud Party’s manifesto which says “The right of the Jewish people to the land of Israel is eternal and indisputable and … [the land, i.e., Judea and Samaria] between the Sea and the Jordan [River] there will only be Israeli sovereignty”. No one raised any concerns when Netanyahu in September 2023 gleefully displayed at the annual UN General Assembly Session the new Middle-East map with Israel from the “River to the Sea”, less than a month before the 7 October Hamas attack.

Why should one be surprised when Israel’s influential finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, accused President Joe Biden of engaging in an “anti-Semitic lie” in reaction to Biden’s administrative order of sanctions against violent Zionist settlers in the occupied West Bank? Is it not ironic that a self-declared non-Jew Zionist is accused of anti-Semitism? Netanyahu termed the US sanctions as “drastic” and declared “there is no place for drastic steps on this matter.”

Ariel Sharon spoke the truth

Ariel Sharon, the former prime minister of Israel, said in an acrimonious argument with his Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, “Every time we do something, you tell me Americans will do this and do that. I want to tell you something very clear; don’t worry about American pressure on Israel; we, the Jewish people, control America ….”.

Supporting Israel has historically been incredibly politically popular in the US, bolstered by a well-funded pro-Israel lobby in Washington, such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). James Petras in his “The Power of Israel in the United States” (2006), provided detailed analysis and documentation of the power of Israel via the Israeli, Jewish or Pro-Zionist Lobby. He explored the extraordinary extent of US political, economic, military and diplomatic support for the state of Israel, along with the means whereby such support is generated and consolidated.

Petras’ book sheds light on the AIPAC spying scandal and other Israeli espionage against America; the fraudulent and complicit role of America’s academic “terrorist experts” in furthering criminal government policies, and the orchestration of the Danish cartoons to foment antipathy between Muslims and the West. James Petras argued that Zionist power in America ensured unconditional US backing for Israeli colonisation of Palestine and its massive uprooting of Palestinians.

Frankenstein’s fate?

In Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel Frankenstein, the scientist Victor Frankenstein creates a monster. The monster attempts to fit into human society, but finds itself rejected; thus, becoming vengeful, especially against its creator.

The monster killed Frankenstein’s younger brother, best friend and bride on their wedding night, whereupon Frankenstein’s father died of grief. Finally, Frankenstein dedicated himself to destroying his creation. But the monster goaded him to pursuing him the North, through Scandinavia and into Russia, staying ahead of him the entire way. Suffering from severe exhaustion and hypothermia, Victor Frankenstein died at the end.

As Israel tramples over all the international institutions, including the UN, the US and its Western allies have become complicit in the destruction of the rule-based world order that they themselves created. Israel’s open defiance of the US and its Western allies is a clear sign that it is too late to reign in the monster they created. As the US and its Western allies are losing influence and credibility in the Global South, one wonders whether the US-led West is facing Frankenstein’s fate.

Anis Chowdhury is Adjunct Professor, School of Business, Western Sydney University. He held senior United Nations positions in the area of Economic and Social Affairs in New York and Bangkok.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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Tendayi Westerhof was one of the first celebrities in Zimbabwe to disclose their HIV-positive status.

By Ed Holt
BRATISLAVA, Feb 14 2024 (IPS)

UNAIDS Executive Director, Winnie Byanyima, recently made an impassioned call for governments to support women and girls from marginalized communities at the frontlines of the defence of human rights, to help ensure, among others, that global health is protected.

This comes as the latest data from UNAIDS shows that:

• Globally, 46% of all new HIV infections were among women and girls in 2022
• In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) accounted for more than 77% of new infections among young people aged 15–24 years in 2022.
• In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls and young women (aged 15–24 years) were more than three times as likely to acquire HIV than their male peers in 2022.
• Every week, 4000 adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24 years became infected with HIV globally in 2022, with 3100 of these infections occurring in sub-Saharan Africa.
• Only about 42% of districts with high HIV incidence in sub-Saharan Africa had dedicated HIV prevention programmes for adolescent girls and young women in 2021.

Tendayi Westerhof, national director of the PAN-African Positive Women’s Coalition Zimbabwe (PAPWC-ZIM), was one of the first celebrities in Zimbabwe to disclose their HIV-positive status and is one of the most prominent figures in the fight against HIV/AIDS in her country.

IPS spoke to the former model turned HIV activist about defending the rights of people living with HIV and the key role women and girls can play in the AIDS response.

IPS: Do you think that, globally, governments have failed to do enough to support women and girls from marginalized communities who are defending the rights of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and if so, why have they not done enough?

Marking World AIDS Day 2023 in Chinotimba Township, Victoria Falls, Tendayi Westerhof meets Winnie Byanyima, UNAIDS Executive Director, and others from UNAIDS and the National AIDS Council Zimbabwe.

Westerhof: First and foremost is to understand what the rights of people living with HIV are and to ascertain if both women, girls and people living with HIV know their rights. The AIDS response must centre around human rights at every level. PLHIV have the right to treatment access for HIV, they too have sexual and reproductive health rights and are not a homogenous group. It is important to recognize that aspect of diversity among women, girls and PLHIV and ensure that their universal human rights are protected at country level. Laws that criminalize PLHIV and key populations fuel the spread of HIV and AIDS and continue to put the significant many in these groups at risk of HIV, and fuel stigma and discrimination.

IPS: What kind of support should governments or other international bodies be giving to women and girls in marginalised communities who are defending rights for PLHIV?

Westerhof: Women and girls in marginalized communities must be recognized as equal partners in the response to end AIDS and that they too have human rights. They need support in terms of inclusion in leadership and decision-making spaces and not tokenistic appointments. They need both technical and financial resources to effectively defend the rights of PLHIV.

IPS: From your experience as an HIV activist working with PLHIV, why do you think women and girls from marginalised communities specifically should be leading the fight to defend the rights of PLHIV?

Westerhof: I believe in the mantra ”nothing about us without us”.  The Greater Involvement of People Living with HIV (GIPA) principles are clear in calling for the greater and meaningful involvement of people living with HIV in all our diversities.  PLHIV are vectors of the disease but must be seen as equal partners who are bringing the realities of living with HIV to ensure that the planning, design, and implementation of HIV programmes are tailored to address their needs. They are also experts on various aspects [of HIV] especially peer support, issues of treatment literacy/adherence, HIV prevention and awareness, with the main focus being to address stigma and discrimination. 

IPS: As someone living with HIV for a number of years, and an HIV activist, what have been the greatest challenges you have faced in trying to defend the rights of PLHIV?

Westerhof: My greatest challenge has been sometimes working in silos without a collective voice towards defending the rights of PLHIV.  Also limited resources: most defenders are driven to do their work by the experiences they have been through, and by their passion, and end up working as unpaid volunteers. Getting burnt out and sometimes forgetting self-care and other mental health issues. The big issues of inequality, gender-based violence, in particular intimate partner violence, stigma and discrimination. There have been socio-economic challenges, but other challenges of funding and new emerging issues such as climate change, and disasters are shifting the focus from the fight against HIV and AIDS and resources keep dwindling. We are still recovering from the impact of COVID-19 and we need to continue empowering women and adolescent girls with information about HIV/AIDS and other pandemics.

IPS: Adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) have a disproportionate risk of acquiring HIV, compared to male peers, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) for a number of reasons, including biological, socio-economic, religious, and cultural factors. Some experts have suggested these factors could be addressed through stricter sentences for sexual offenders, economically empowering AGYW, improving the provision of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) education and services to AGYW, and better access to HIV prevention and treatment. But do you think these measures would be enough to significantly reduce the disproportionate risk of acquiring HIV that AGYW face, especially in SSA countries?

Westerhof: A lot is happening in my country to address issues of gender-based violence (GBV), and in particular sexual violence. There is a need to keep bringing GBV matters into the spotlight through the media.  Men’s/boys’ engagement in the response to end all forms of sexual violence must be intensified. Getting to boys at a younger age can help. Making use of our traditional and cultural leaders can also help to reduce GBV. AGYW still remain more vulnerable to HIV and AIDS and GBV than adult boys and young men (ABYM), and there is a need to continue with strategies that protect them.

IPS: Introducing any of the above measures, and ensuring their continued practical implementation would require the support of a number of state institutions, including not just judicial bodies, but health and economic institutions too. Do you have much confidence that these bodies and institutions would ensure that any laws passed, such as stricter sentences for sexual offenders, or guaranteeing better rights and access to HIV treatment for AGYW, would also be properly implemented in practice?

Westerhof: Most countries have these measures and law but the problem is operationalizing them. AGYW need continuous empowerment through these laws, and in how they can report cased of GBV. Victim-friendly courts are there, but sometimes they are not fully utilized. Perpetrators of GBV and sexual violence sometimes walk away scot-free in the absence of compelling evidence beyond reasonable doubt and other factors. Nevertheless, there are many perpetrators of GBV and sexual offences who are behind bars.

IPS: Stigma around HIV continues to play a significant role in fuelling epidemics as it puts many women off seeking treatment or accessing other services for fear their status may be disclosed. What should governments be doing to eliminate this stigma?

Westerhof: In my country the law prohibits stigma and discrimination of PLHIV, including women and AGYW. Also, a national study on stigma was conducted which provides guidance on how to plan, design and implement programs that aim to eliminate stigma and discrimination.

IPS: Do you think your own story as someone who publicly disclosed your HIV status despite the stigma around it at the time, your continued advocacy for PLHIV, and good health, is a good example for women and girls with HIV of the role they can play in helping to eliminate this stigma, and lead healthy, successful lives?

Westerhof: Disclosure helps to break the stigma and discrimination of HIV and AIDS. It encourages others to see that there is still life after a positive HIV test, as living with HIV is today a condition that can be managed with anti-retroviral therapy (ART). PLHIV have continued to play major roles in various communities, such as advocacy for better treatment, care, and support, community mobilization for HIV testing, cervical cancer screening, TB screening and others. Their testimonies have made it easier to make HIV and AIDS a normal  subject and increase the acceptance of PLHIV. My public disclosure of my HIV+ status opened new doors for me.

IPS: You have previously spoken of how important it is that people in local communities are educated about HIV, its treatment and its prevention, and that everyone has access to that education and treatment and prevention services. But in communities where strong patriarchal attitudes are prevalent, and stigma around HIV is high, what measures can be taken to ensure women and girls get that education and access to services?

Westerhof: Community leaders can play a role to ensure that patriarchal attitudes are eliminated. This is an ongoing process whereby people’s attitudes are eventually changed through behaviour change.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Air strikes on Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip have caused widespread damage. Credit: UNICEF/Eyad El Baba

By Joseph Chamie
PORTLAND, USA, Feb 14 2024 (IPS)

Together religious identity and demographics play an important role in the decades-long conflict between Israelis and the Palestinians. If the Palestinians, who are largely Muslim and Christian, had been Jewish, they would have been allowed to live in their homes on their lands and be entitled to be Israeli citizens.

According to Israel’s Law of Return (חוק השבות, ḥok ha-shvūt), passed by the Knesset on 5 July 1950, people, including Palestinians, with one or more Jewish grandparent and their spouses have the right to relocate to Israel and acquire Israeli citizenship, assuming they pose no threat to the country and are not dangerous criminals.

 

The British Mandate Past

The British Mandate for Palestine, or Mandatory Palestine, was approved by the League of Nations in 1922. The religious composition of the population of Mandatory Palestine was predominantly non-Jewish. Among the resident population at that time, approximately 11 percent were Jewish, 78 percent were Muslims, and 10 percent Christians (Table 1).

 

 

As a result of Jewish migration to Mandatory Palestine, largely from Eastern Europe, the religious composition of the resident population underwent noteworthy change. The estimated numbers of Jewish migrants to Mandatory Palestine during the 1920s, 1930s, and from 1940 to 1945 are 100,000, 223,000, and 45,000, respectively, resulting in a total of 368,000.

By 1945, the Jewish population in Mandatory Palestine had increased tenfold and the proportion Jewish nearly tripled to 31 percent. Also, the non-Jewish population in Mandatory Palestine doubled and the majority of the population continued to be non-Jewish, i.e., 60 percent Muslim and 8 percent Christian.

Becoming a politically active movement at the end of the 19th century, the Zionist movement recognized that their dream of creating a “Jewish” state in historic Palestine would need to be unencumbered by the native population of non-Jews. In other words, the establishment of a Jewish state would necessarily involve the displacement or expulsion of the land’s current non-Jewish residents.

After decades of violent confrontations between the Jewish and non-Jewish populations in Mandatory Palestine and various attempts by the British and others to resolve the conflict, the Palestine problem was turned over to the United Nations to resolve. In 1947, the United Nations adopted the Solomonic proposal terminating the Mandate and dividing Palestine into two states, largely resulting demographically in one Jewish and one non-Jewish, i.e., primarily Muslim and Christian (Figure 1).

 

Source: United Nations partition plan for Palestine, 1947.

Although in 1947 about one third of the population in Mandatory Palestine was Jewish, the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 (II) allocated 55 percent of the land to the Jewish state. Consequently, neighboring Arab countries and the non-Jewish population of Mandatory Palestine rejected the proposal.

Following the United Nations proposal to partition Mandatory Palestine into two states and various actions that were undertaken for the creation of the Jewish nation of Israel on 14 May 1948, the demographic composition of the territory underwent significant changes with the displacement and dispossession, or the Nakba النكبة) ) , of an estimated 750,000 non-Jewish Palestinians from Israel.

In the newly founded nation of Israel with a population of 873 thousand, the proportion Jewish was 82 percent. If the non-Jewish Palestinian population had not been displaced but had remained in their homes, the Jewish population in Israel would have been about half of its actual 1948 level, or about 43 percent.

Following its establishment in 1948 and the war involving neighboring Arab states, the borders of Israel expanded to 77 percent of the original territory of Mandate Palestine, including the larger part of Jerusalem. Also, after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, Israel’s population with the support and resources of each Israeli government began expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip (Figure 2).

Source: World Atlas.

 

Today approximately 700 thousand Israeli settlers are living in 279 settlements across the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Recently, some Israelis and far-right Israeli lawmakers are rallying support in the country to reestablish Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip, which Israeli authorities and Jewish settlers vacated in 2005.

Most countries deem the Jewish settlements built on land Israel occupied in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war as illegal. The continued expansion of Israeli Jewish settlements remains among the most contentious issues between Israelis and the Palestinians as well as the international community.

 

Options to address the conflict

Seventy-five years after its creation, the Jewish proportion of Israel is approximately 73 percent. Again, if the current non-Jewish Palestinian inhabitants in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip were permitted to become Israeli citizens, the Jewish population in the demographically enlarged Israel would instead be approximately 48 percent.

Various options have been proposed to address the nearly century-long conflict that began following the establishment of the British Mandate for Palestine. Among those options are the one-state solution, a federation of Palestinian provinces, the transfer of the Palestinians from the occupied territories and the two-state solution (Table 2).

 

Same rights, justice and equality for Jews and non-Jews, which is generally the case among Western democracies. Some believe that a one state reality, or a de facto single state, already predominates in the territories controlled by Israel. Accordingly, they maintain that it’s time for Israelis and Palestinians as well as the international community to revise their attitudes to resolving the conflict.

A national poll conducted several years ago by the Pew Research Center found that most Israeli Jews, 79 percent, say Jews deserve preferential treatment in Israel. In addition, in 2018, the Knesset passed the Nation-State law that states, among other things, the Jewish people’s right to self-determination, which it restricts to the Israel’s Jewish population, establishes Jewish settlement as a national value and mandates that the state will labor to encourage and promote its establishment and development. Also importantly, as noted above, the one-state solution would result in the Jewish Israeli population becoming a minority of approximately 48 percent.

A federation of Palestinian provinces would not meet the needs and aspirations of the Palestinians. After decades of conflict, displacement and statelessness, Palestinians desire a full-fledged independent nation of their own.

Although objectionable to many, the expulsion, transfer or emigration of Palestinians to other countries has been proposed by some far-right Israelis and their supporters. That demographic change would be followed by Israeli civilians resettling the vacated territories including most recently the Gaza Strip area.

Also according to the national poll by the Pew Research Center, nearly half of Jewish Israelis indicated that Arab Israelis should be expelled or transferred from Israel. Many Jewish Israelis envision a return to ancient Greater Israel with the Jewish inhabitants being the overwhelming majority and the law enshrining Jewish supremacy over the entire geographic area.

The often cited two-state solution to resolve the conflict is the preferred option of many countries both inside and outside the region, including Israel’s main political supporter and economic benefactor the United States. However, the current Israeli government is against the creation of a Palestinian state.

In addition, a Gallup survey taken in the last few months of 2023 found a clear majority of Israelis, two-thirds of Israeli adults, do not support the existence of an independent Palestinian state. Also, only one in four Palestinians, 24 percent, supported a two-state solution when surveyed between July and September 2023.

 

Prospects for peace

Admittedly, achieving a just, equitable and comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including the two-state proposal, is indeed a formidable undertaking with many serious challenges. Those challenges have been heightened in the aftermath of the October 7 brutal Hamas attack on Israelis and Israel’s war in Gaza that has resulted in a great number of Palestinian civilian deaths and vast destruction of homes and infrastructure.

Nevertheless, despite the daunting challenges including salient demographic realities and ingrained religious identity, a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians is certainly achievable in the near term and would lead to innumerable benefits.

An Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement would foster beneficial relationships, promote economic cooperation and advance mutual understanding in this strategically important region. The demographics of being Jewish or non-Jewish would then diminish as an underlying source for conflict and hostilities among Israelis and Palestinians. And importantly, Israelis and Palestinians would reap the rewards of peace, including the prospects for better lives for themselves and for the populations of future generations.

Joseph Chamie is a consulting demographer and a former director of the United Nations Population Division. He is the author of numerous publications on population issues, including his recent book, “Population Levels, Trends, and Differentials”.

 

SunCulture has raised over $40 million to equip rural farmers with solar-powered irrigation systems.

By Finbarr Toesland
NAIROBI, Kenya, Feb 14 2024 (IPS)

Often referred to as the “Sun continent,” Africa receives more hours of bright sunlight than any other continent. But even with 60 per cent of the world’s solar resources, Africa has only one per cent of solar generation capacity, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).

Due to energy production and infrastructure challenges, many African countries regularly deal with blackouts, brownouts and poor electricity supply. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit the global economy hard, and commodity prices surged after the invasion of Ukraine, making energy even more difficult for poorer Africans to buy.

Increasingly, start-ups rather than established corporations are offering access to advanced solar energy solutions to the majority of people across Africa. By harnessing the sun’s power and transitioning to clean energy, Africans can expect major economic and social developments across the continent.

Solar energy brightens other industries

Headquartered in Nairobi, SunCulture has raised over $40 million to equip rural farmers with solar-powered irrigation systems. Instead of counting on rainfall or revving up diesel or petrol pumps, farmers can now rely on solar-powered systems that are cheaper, use renewable energy and need minimal maintenance.

Once the company installs a solar panel on top of a farmer’s house and connects it to a battery-powered water pump, the irrigation system can cover up to three acres.

“Solar is particularly attractive because of its positive environmental impact, job creation potential, and economic development potential,” said Mikayla Czajkowski, chief of staff at SunCulture.

“African nations have immense potential to benefit from utilizing solar energy – especially in remote and under-served regions where energy access is limited – and facilitates a reduction in the continent’s carbon footprint, making a valuable contribution to global efforts to combat climate change,” Ms. Czajkowski added.

In an impact survey of SunCulture’s customers, measurement company 60 Decibels [a US-based an organisation that offers customized assessments] found that SunCulture brought about significant improvements: 89 per cent of smallholder farmers experienced a boost in their quality of life, 90 per cent increased their production, and 87 per cent enhanced their earnings.

Ambitious start-ups

From GridX Africa, a firm that offers off-grid solar power to farms, safari lodges for tourists and construction projects in Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania, to the pay-as-you-go solar company Bboxx and the Egypt-based solar power developer and electricity distributor KarmSolar, Africa has no shortage of original solar energy start-ups.

While the ambitions of these solar businesses are laudable, achieving high levels of growth is not easy.

Emily McAteer, founder and chief executive officer, of Odyssey Energy Solutions spent more than a decade working to finance and build distributed solar projects across Africa and India.

Her firm provides technology and finance solutions for distributed renewable energy businesses. At every stage of project development, she hit key bottlenecks that make it hard for solar companies like hers to scale.

By offering tools for solar developers to aggregate and pitch portfolios of projects to financiers, firms can access capital more effectively. To procure equipment more effectively, Odyssey streamlined the procurement process by negotiating directly with original equipment manufacturers for better prices and warranties and by working with developers for supply chain support.

“Operations and maintenance, especially in remote areas, can be a big hurdle,” Ms. McAteer said. “We offer hardware and software that sits on top of solar assets so that operators and investors can get deep insight into performance and optimize performance of their systems.”

Global initiatives need catalytic capital

More than 500 million people living in Africa have no access to electricity, according the IEA Africa Energy Outlook 2022. Governments and non-governmental organizations have launched many high-profile schemes to boost the solar energy sector in African countries, with mixed success. The continent needs a global response to address a challenge of this immense scale.

Launched in 2012, the US-Africa Clean Energy Finance (US-ACEF) initiative attempted to offset the costs of the early-stage development of clean energy projects, in a bid to draw investment to these ventures.

Solar is particularly attractive because of its positive environmental and economic impacts.

For Ms. McAteer, the US-ACEF model proved effective. Now innovators need higher levels of catalytic capital to continue scaling so that they can meet the UN Sustainable Development Goal 7, “Ensuring access to Clean and Affordable Energy.”

“Annual capital investment in renewables in emerging markets needs to reach $1 trillion per year if the world is to achieve the goal of net-zero emissions by 2050. US-ACEF set the model for how the industry can achieve that,” Ms. McAteer said. “Now the missing piece is continued investment from both public and private financiers.”

Innovation underway across Africa

So far, the US-ACEF has supported 32 projects, with country-specific investments in Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania and Uganda.

Nijhad Jamal, managing partner of Equator, an early-stage venture capital firm focusing on climate technology in sub-Saharan Africa, agrees that Africa’s solar energy sector has benefited greatly from US-ACEF.

“There is a lot more impact to come from US-ACEF with projects like the Health Electrification Alliance, which aims to electrify over 10,000 health facilities in Africa,” Mr. Jamal said. “Most of the US-ACEF projects emphasize sustainability. In our opinion, this will have a lasting impact on the solar energy sector.”

Source: Africa Renewal– a United Nations digital magazine that covers Africa’s economic, social and political developments—and the challenges the continent faces and the solutions to these by Africans themselves, including with the support of the United Nations and international community.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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By Jomo Kwame Sundaram
KATHMANDU, Nepal, Feb 14 2024 (IPS)

A gathering ‘perfect storm’ – due to various developments, several quite deliberate – now threatens much devastation in the global South, likely to most hurt the poorest and most vulnerable.

Globalisation’s protracted decline
The age of globalization had mixed consequences, unevenly incorporating national markets for labour, goods and even some services. It ended gradually, with the trend far more pronounced following the protracted worldwide stagnation since the 2008 global financial crisis.

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Sometimes still referred to as the Great Recession, Western central banks resorted to unconventional monetary policies, mainly ‘quantitative easing’, to keep their economies afloat. But easier credit enabled more financialization and indebtedness, rather than recovery, let alone sustainable development.

But the end of the era of globalization did not mean a simple return to the status quo ante. Most economies had been transformed irreversibly by economic liberalization, both nationally and internationally, with dire lasting consequences.

Market pressures for fiscal austerity were strengthened by conditionalities and advice from international financial institutions. This inevitably led to deep cuts in government spending, leaving little for public investments, which might contribute to the recovery of the real economy.

Interest rate hikes accelerate stagnation
The 2008 Wolfowitz doctrine, from late in the Bush Jr presidency, was revised by the Obama administration to launch the second Cold War. The COVID-19 pandemic and the last two years of war and sanctions have worsened supply-side disruptions exacerbating ‘cost-push’ inflation.

Some prices spiked due to opportunistic market manipulation by investors and speculators as well as deliberate disruptive interventions for political advantage. The rule of law – even once sacred property rights – has been sacrificed for political expediency, undermining trust, especially in states.

Hence, concerted interest rate hikes by influential Western central banks have proved to be an unnecessary, inappropriate and blunt demand-side tool to address contemporary inflation driven primarily by supply-side factors!

Instead of addressing inflation due to supply disruptions, higher interest rates have cut both private and government spending, resulting in less demand, jobs and incomes in much of the world.

In the US, successive presidents maintained full employment since Obama inherited the 2008 global financial crisis. Uniquely, its central bank, the US Fed, has a dual mandate to maintain full employment and financial stability.

All over the world, the deliberate and concerted interest rate hikes of 2022 and 2023 have proved to be both contractionary and biased against labour and jobs.

Global South’s hands tied
Policymakers in the Global South are greatly constrained by their circumstances. Exposed to global markets and with limited fiscal and monetary policy instruments at their disposal, they are captive to pro-cyclical policy biases.

The International Monetary Fund and other international financial institutions tend to demand fiscal austerity conditionalities in return for any credit relief provided.

Thus, recipient governments are subject to spending constraints instead of providing relief. Worse, many legislatures have imposed unnecessary spending constraints on themselves, supposedly to enhance government fiscal credibility.

Supposedly independent central banks have further compounded monetary policy constraints. Such central banks are primarily responsive to international and national financial interests rather than national policy priorities.

Following monetary and financial liberalisation in recent decades, developing countries are much more exposed to debt crises worse than those experienced in the 1980s.

Then, governments in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere had borrowed heavily, mainly from US and UK commercial banks. After US Fed chair Paul Volcker raised interest rates sharply from 1980, severe fiscal and debt crises paralysed many of these governments for over a decade.

The debt exposure level is much higher and borrowed from varied sources, significantly more market-based and non-bank. Governments have also provided guarantees for state-owned enterprises to borrow heavily, but less accountably than with sovereign debt.

New divides in post-unipolar world
The unipolar world moment after the end of the first Cold War briefly saw unchallenged US hegemony. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development developed policies for the global North in trade, investment, technology, finance, tax and other vital areas, typically at the expense of the South.

More recently, the ‘new Cold War’ or geopolitical policies, including illegal sanctions, have frustrated developing countries’ aspirations to reach the Sustainable Development Goals, adapt to global warming and its effects, and retrieve a fairer share of global corporate income tax revenue.

With most economies barely growing, and efforts by many governments to reduce imports, export opportunities have become more uncertain and constrained, ending a crucial premise for globalisation. With higher interest rates, even finance has abandoned developing countries in ‘flights to safety’ to the US.

Lacking the ‘exorbitant privilege’ of issuing the US dollar, still the world’s reserve currency, most developing countries lack monetary, fiscal and policy space. Unlike rich nations which borrow in their own currencies, most developing countries remain vulnerable to foreign exchange rate vagaries.

Poorest getting poorer
With Obama’s ‘Pivot to Asia’ launching US efforts to check China, its lending to developing countries, including in Sub-Saharan Africa, fell from around 2016.

Despite higher borrowing costs, many of the poorest countries turned to private creditors. But private market lending to poor nations dried up from 2022 as the US Fed raised interest rates sharply for almost two years.

As debt service costs soared, distress risks have risen sharply, especially in the poorest nations. While not obviously due to a conspiracy against the global South, there is little concern for the predicament of the worst off in the poorest countries.

Meanwhile, poverty in the poorest countries has not declined for over a decade.

With international disparities growing at the expense of the poorest people in the poorest nations, the desire to emigrate continues to rise although mainly unaffordable to the poorest.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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A poster of the World Social Forum in Kathmandu, to be held Feb. 15-19, 2024. This is the second time that the Forum is holding its world meeting in Asia. The first was in Mumbai, India, in 2004, when it was attended by 111,000 people. CREDIT: WSF

By Mario Osava
RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 13 2024 (IPS)

The World Social Forum (WSF) is today “more necessary than ever,” according to Oded Grajew, promoter and co-founder of the global civil society meeting – a festival of diversity that has not yet succeeded in fomenting or designing the “other possible world” that it predicted when it was created and adopted that motto.

The WSF, whose next edition will be held Feb. 15-19 in Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, first emerged in 2001 in Porto Alegre, a city in southern Brazil, at the initiative of Brazilian organizations and social movements, in coordination with international groups.

The idea proposed by Grajew was to hold a counterpoint to the World Economic Forum, which meets annually in the Swiss Alps city of Davos. Hence the similar name but different focus, on social issues, the initial coincidence of dates in January, and the banners against neoliberalism and globalization.

The first edition brought together nearly 20,000 people from 117 countries. Participation grew and exceeded 100,000 people in several global meetings held in different countries, after the first three held in Porto Alegre, where it has returned on several occasions.

The meetings took place in the Indian city of Mumbai in 2004, then in 2006, the WSF was divided between Bamako (Mali) and Caracas, to be followed by Nairobi (2007), Dakar (2011), Tunis (2013 and 2015) and Mexico City (2022).

In addition to Porto Alegre, it returned to Brazil in 2009 (Belém, in the eastern Amazon) and 2018 (Salvador, in the northeast). And it expanded into national, regional and thematic forums, promoting debates on a range of issues, from economic to environmental and climate, gender, ethnic, sexual minorities, and disabilities questions.

But the WSF has been in decline since the last decade. It has lost its initial charm and repercussions, and its current impact on global crises is hardly noticeable, especially since it was born as a movement that did not aim to reach conclusions, but rather to generate debates and demonstrate that “another world is possible.”

“We are losing the game so far,” Grajew told IPS by telephone from Sao Paulo. “The climate crisis has worsened, inequalities and conflicts have grown, with the risk of nuclear war, confidence in democracy is declining and global governance is lacking. These are enormous risks that threaten the human species.”

All of this increases the need to revitalize the WSF, because it is about strengthening civil society, the only way to solve the challenges, in the view of its organizers.

The WSF, despite everything, has already left a legacy as a “space for making connections and mounting resistance by society around the world,” Grajew said. It contributed to raising the visibility of the climate emergency on the international agenda, strengthened the anti-racist struggle and fostered alliances that made indigenous peoples “political actors in a way that they were not before,” he said, to illustrate.

In Brazil, it was the increasingly strong civil society that prevented a coup d’état that would have installed a dictatorship and returned the far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro to office, said Grajew, currently an advisor to several institutions and president emeritus of the Ethos Institute for Business and Social Responsibility, a businessman turned social activist who remains so at the age of 80.

A picture from one of the first editions of the World Social Forum, in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre, showing the globe seen from the South, which has been a repeated part of its logos, as well as its slogan: “Another world is possible”. The assembly style that does not reach conclusions has been at the same time the strength and weakness of the movement. CREDIT: Claes

Solutions and resources are available

“Today we know what the problems of humanity are and how to solve them; what is lacking is political will,” Grajew argued.

“Our problem is not economic, it’s not a lack of resources; it’s a problem of political and social organization,” said Ladislau Dowbor, an 83-year-old economist who always addresses the WSF. “Global GDP is 100 trillion dollars per year, equivalent to 4,200 dollars a month per family of four people. It is enough for a decent and comfortable life for all. All that would be needed is a tax of only four percent on the fortunes of the richest one percent of humanity.”

The WSF is an attempt to create a connected political force from the profusion of organizations and social movements in which civil society seems to be fragmented, with a multiplicity of banners, from environmental to feminist, anti-racist and egalitarian.

There was an explosion of social diversity in the 1960s and 1970s, with the affirmation of multiple identities and their struggles, which seek convergence in processes such as the WSF. These are generally progressive movements, which are not automatically connected together.

The most immediate antecedent was the so-called “Battle for Seattle,” the city in the northwest U.S. state of Washington that in 1999 brought together anti-globalization activists during a World Trade Organization summit, demanding globalization of the people and not of the economy.

“It’s a long-term process. Diversity is a richness, but sometimes it is divided by identity sectarianism,” said Daniel Aarão Reis, a 78-year-old historian who extensively studied Brazil’s 1964-1985 military dictatorship and the Soviet revolution.

In his view, the consolidation of opposition to or containment of the damage caused by capitalism in the current situation faces two adverse factors.

“One is the decline of the working class, which since the late nineteenth century, concentrated in the cities, had a demographic weight and organized strength to lead that struggle, attracting other popular segments, which were sometimes even a majority of the population, such as peasant farmers. But it has suffered demographic losses, slow but evident since the 1970s,” Aarão Reis said.

Another is the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, which gave way to unbridled capitalism, with the “restoration of tsarist traditions.” This hit progressive forces even if they were critical of authoritarian socialism. For a long period Moscow had supported, for example, national liberation struggles.

Photo of a march of the Thematic Social Forum on Older Adults in Porto Alegre, southern Brazil, in January 2023. Thematic, national and regional forums proliferated around the world after the first global meetings of the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, from 2001 to 2003, and in Mumbai, India, in 2004. CREDIT: Tânia Rego / Agência Brasil

Far right can unite progressives

“Creating connections between the myriad of dispersed currents, without a powerful hub such as workers’ struggles, with their unions and parties, is a great challenge. But sometimes an external enemy helps foment these connections. That was the case of Nazism, which gave rise to a broad alliance against it,” the historian said in an interview with IPS in Rio de Janeiro.

The far right, which brings together racism, threat to democracy, misogyny and other retrograde stances, can “help condense that dispersed nebula that the left has become,” said Aarão Reis, a professor at the Fluminense Federal University.

In the case of the WSF, its apparent loss of momentum exacerbated internal divisions in the International Council which is responsible for managing the forum.

“The WSF is like the spiritual exercises of the church, which benefit those who are present, but are basically internal, and don’t spread to society,” by not expressing itself on the burning issues of the world and thus making it impossible to communicate outwardly, Argentine- Italian Roberto Savio, co-founder and president emeritus of Inter Press Service (IPS), who was an active member of the International Council, said from Rome.

This is how the 89-year-old expert on South-South communications described the disagreement of some activists and advisers with the Charter of Principles that defines the WSF as “a plural and diversified space” of reflection and connection of entities and movements, that is “non-partisan” and “non-deliberative.”

Screenshot from the closing assembly, on Jan. 31, of the World Social Forum 2021, which was held only in digital format that year. The difficulties of organizing an unprecedented online meeting did not prevent, according to the organizers, 9,561 participants from 144 countries and 1,360 organizations from taking part in 751 activities, including workshops, round tables, debates and sectoral assemblies. CREDIT: Mario Osava / IPS

Not a party

Chico Whitaker, another co-founder of the Forum and a fervent defender of the Charter of Principles, said “We have to continue being a space for connection, for the search for alternatives and forms of action, for new paths. Action is a function of the participating organizations and movements, not of the Forum.”

The discrepancy has existed since the beginning of the WSF and stems from “an old culture of hierarchical, autocratic politics,” he told IPS by telephone from São Paulo.

At 92 years of age, Whitaker regretted that he was not able to travel to Kathmandu which was “too far away,” and that he would be engaged in “very limited” digital participation.

The edition in Kathmandu will be hybrid, both face-to-face and digital, but the time zone difference between the capital of Nepal and São Paulo, for example, is nine hours, which makes it difficult to follow the activities from afar.

That is why the debates of greatest interest in the Americas will be held at night in the Nepali capital, said Rita Freire, representative of the Ciranda network, which is in charge of the WSF collaborative communication at the International Council.

Freire, a 66-year-old journalist and editor of the Middle East Monitor, also represents an alternative of political action “within the process of the Forum, but maintaining the Charter of Principles.”

A new body is being tested in Kathmandu, the Assembly of Struggles and Resistance with social movements, which will adopt political positions and declarations. “But it will do so in its own name and not in the name of the Forum,” Freire clarified from São Paulo by telephone a few hours before taking a flight to Kathmandu.

Holding the gathering in Asia opens new horizons for the WSF, as it is the most dynamic region of the global South, at least in economic terms, agreed Freire and Whitaker. It reflects a mobilization of the social organizations of Nepal and neighboring countries, which came together and offered to host the Forum.

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A vegetable vendor serves a customer at a market in Manila, Philippines. Credit: IMF/Lisa Marie David

By Anil Ari and Lev Ratnovski
WASHINGTON DC, Feb 13 2024 (IPS)

In the early 1970s, conflict in the Middle East set off a spike in oil prices that left central banks around the world scrambling to control inflation. After a year or so, oil prices stabilized and inflation started to retreat. Many countries believed they had restored price stability and loosened policy to revive their recession-hit economies only to see inflation return. Could history repeat?

World inflation reached historic highs in 2022 after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a terms-of-trade shock akin to that of the 1970s. Disruptions to Russian oil and gas supplies added to COVID supply-chain problems to drive prices higher. In advanced economies, prices rose at the fastest pace since 1984. In emerging market and developing economies, the price increase was the largest since the 1990s.

Aided by the sharpest rise in interest rates in a generation, inflation has started to subside at last. Headline inflation in the United States and across much of Europe has halved from about 10 percent last year to less than 5 percent today. The latest conflict in the Middle East has, for now at least, not had a large impact on oil prices. But it is still too soon for policymakers to celebrate victory over inflation.

Our recent study of over 100 inflation shocks since the 1970s offers two reasons for caution. First, history teaches us that inflation is persistent. It takes years to “resolve” inflation by reducing it to the rate that prevailed before the initial shock. Forty percent of countries in our study failed to resolve inflation shocks even after five years. It took the remaining 60 percent an average of three years to return inflation to pre-shock rates (Chart 1).

Second, countries have historically celebrated victory over inflation and loosened policy prematurely in response to an initial decline in price pressures. This was a mistake because inflation soon returned. Denmark, France, Greece, and the United States were among nearly 30 countries in our sample to loosen policy prematurely after the 1973 oil-price shock (Chart 2).

In fact, almost all countries in our analysis (90 percent) that failed to resolve inflation saw price growth slow sharply in the first few years after an initial shock, only to accelerate again or become stuck at a faster pace.

Today’s policymakers must not repeat their predecessors’ mistakes. Central bankers are right to warn that the inflation fight is far from over, even as recent readings show a welcome moderation in price pressures.

Consistency and credibility

How should policymakers respond to persistent inflation? Again, history provides some lessons. The countries in our study that successfully resolved inflation tightened macroeconomic policies more in response to the inflation shock and, crucially, maintained a tight policy stance consistently over a period of several years.

Examples here include Italy and Japan, which adopted tighter-for-longer policies after the 1979 oil-price shock. By contrast, countries that did not resolve inflation had looser policy stances and were more likely to change between tightening and loosening cycle (Chart 3).

Policy credibility matters, too. Countries where inflation expectations were more firmly anchored, or where central banks had more success maintaining low and stable inflation in the past, were more likely to defeat inflation.

Today’s policymakers can take some solace from this finding. Central bankers in many countries may find it easier to defeat inflation this time because of the policy credibility they have built up over several decades of successful macroeconomic management. With the right policies in place, countries could resolve inflationary pressures sooner than in the past.

But it won’t be easy. Conditions in the labor market in particular require close attention. In many countries, workers’ wages have fallen in real inflation-adjusted terms and may need to rise again to catch up with higher prices. Yet wage growth could fuel inflation if it is too high and could lead to pernicious wage-price spirals.

Historically, countries that resolved inflation successfully tended to have lower nominal wage growth. Importantly, this did not translate into lower real wages and a loss of purchasing power, because lower nominal wage growth was accompanied by lower price growth.

The implication for policymakers here is to remain focused on real wages, not nominal wages, when responding to developments in the labor market.

Countries that resolved inflation successfully were also better at maintaining external stability. Free-floating currencies were less likely to depreciate sharply, and currency pegs were more likely to survive. This is not a call for currency intervention.

Instead, it appears that countries’ success in fighting inflation—through tighter monetary policy and greater policy credibility—was instrumental in shoring up exchange rates. Countries that allow inflation to linger ultimately pay a higher price.

The ultimate prize

Fighting inflation is difficult. But it is important to recognize the benefits of price stability. Historically, countries that resolved inflation had lower economic growth in the short term than those that did not. But this relationship reversed over the medium and long term.

Five years after the inflation shock, countries that resolved inflation had higher growth and lower unemployment than economies that allowed inflation to linger.

The economics behind this finding are intuitive. There is a trade-off between bringing inflation down on one hand and achieving higher growth and lower unemployment on the other. But this trade-off is temporary: growth recovers and jobs are created once inflation is brought under control.

By contrast, leaving inflation unresolved comes with its own costs of macroeconomic instability and inefficiency. These costs accumulate for as long as inflation remains high. Consequently, cumulative welfare losses from unresolved or permanently high inflation dominate over the medium to long term (Chart 4). Countries that allow inflation to linger ultimately pay a higher price.

Central bankers are on the front line of the fight against inflation and should pay the most attention to these lessons. But governments must not make the task of monetary authorities harder by adding to price pressures with loose fiscal policy.

To make fiscal support during a cost-of-living crisis less inflationary, governments should target relief to the most vulnerable, where it will alleviate suffering most.

The past is never a perfect guide to the present, because no two crises are precisely alike. All the same, history offers clear lessons to policymakers today. Fighting inflation is a marathon, not a sprint. Policymakers must persevere, demonstrate policy credibility and consistency, and keep their eyes on the prize: macroeconomic stability and stronger growth brought about by returning inflation firmly to target.

If history is a guide, inflation’s recent decline could be transitory. Policymakers would be wise not to celebrate too soon.

Source: IMF Finance and Development

Anil Ari is an economist in the IMF’s Strategy, Policy, and Review Department; Lev Ratnovski is an economist in the IMF’s European Department.

The opinions expressed are those of the authors; they do not necessarily reflect IMF policy.
This article draws on IMF Working Paper 2023/190, “One Hundred Inflation Shocks: Seven Stylized Facts,” by Anil Ari, Carlos Mulas-Granados, Victor Mylonas, Lev Ratnovski, and Wei Zhao.

IPS UN Bureau

 

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A view of part of Guayaquil, Ecuador's second most populated city and main port, which is now dominated by violence as a hub for shipping drugs out of the country to the United States and Europe. CREDIT: Carolina Loza León / IPS

By Carolina Loza
GUAYAQUIL, Ecuador, Feb 12 2024 (IPS)

“For a couple of years now we’ve been seeing the violence growing so fast,” said José, who asked not to give his last name for fear of reprisals he may face in Monte Sinai, a low-income neighborhood in Ecuador’s most populous city, Guayaquil.

José, a 45-year-old Venezuelan, came here looking for a better life in 2019. “You could scrape by, barely, but you could make a living,” he said.

For José, Ecuador offered an opportunity for a peaceful life that allowed him to cover his expenses and raise his three children, something he could no longer do in his native Venezuela. He first moved to a shantytown in this part of western Guayaquil, which is also the country’s main port and one of its two economic hubs, along with Quito, the capital.

José paused before telling IPS: “In the last two years, the violence has accelerated, it’s impossible to live.”

This South American country has recently become one of the most violent in Latin America and the world. And José’s anxious observations coincide with the analysis of different organizations and experts.

Ecuador’s geographic position between two cocaine producers, Colombia and Peru, make it a strategic location for drug distribution across the Pacific Ocean.

The demand for drug trafficking, the gradual economic devastation and the weakening of the country’s political system exacerbated in 2023 with the dissolution of the legislature and a call for early elections, helped strengthen criminal gangs, which began to take root in Ecuador as part of the chain of trafficking of cocaine and other drugs.

Growing institutional corruption enabled the gangs to infiltrate the police and the prison system, making it easier for imprisoned criminal leaders to turn prison facilities, intended for rehabilitation, into their centers of operations and expansion.

In the gangs’ struggle to gain control, in 2021, the first large-scale massacre inside a prison in Ecuador occurred, something that became routine as the violence escalated.

For years in Ecuador, criminal organizations have been coordinating their actions against the State, according to Renato Rivera-Rhon, an organized crime and security analyst. “Prisons are an environment of opportunity for organized crime in Ecuador,” he said in an interview with InSightCrime, an organization that focuses on criminal activities.

Rivera-Rhon mentioned that networks within prisons facilitate dialogue, and gang leaders have lawyers within the network, indicating the existence of a web of a certain level of agreements between organized crime gangs.

Police officers prepare to patrol the streets in Guayaquil, on Ecuador’s Pacific coast, days after the declaration of a state of emergency as the government tries to combat the drug gangs that have turned Ecuador into one of the world’s most violent countries. CREDIT: Carolina Loza León / IPS

José told IPS how he went from being a street vendor outside schools in Guayaquil without any complications to becoming a victim of extortion, forced to make “protection payments” known locally as “vacunas” or vaccines.

Monte Sinai was one of the first areas in Guayaquil where residents and business owners became the victims of criminal gangs who began demanding “vacunas”, although none of the residents consulted by IPS would identify the group that controls the area, and they never refer to it by name.

The extortion method varies depending on the business and the payment can be demanded weekly, monthly or, as in José’s case, daily. “One of them (a gang member) would hang around when I was selling outside the schools, and would keep track of how much I sold and charge me a third of what I earned that day,” José said.

“You can’t live like this. They don’t let you do anything, you can’t survive,” he complained.

One of José’s three sons was also a victim of extortion when he set up a fast food business selling mainly hamburgers.

Friends of José told him that when they rode on public transportation buses, people would get on and ask for “a little donation,” which was actually another form of extortion. The charge was one dollar, which they had to plan for on top of the 0.35 cent fare.

“You prefer not to ride the bus, because you don’t have the money to pay a dollar for each trip,” said a friend of José’s who preferred not to be identified.

Monte Sinai is a rapidly growing neighborhood, a city within a city as some demographers call it, where a large number of people make a living in the informal economy.

In Ecuador, a country of some 17 million inhabitants, where more than 3.6 million people live in Greater Guayaquil, over 50 percent of the economically active population works in the informal economy.

The growth of gangs in Ecuador took hold gradually, in poor areas such as Monte Sinai, and their presence and control boomed during the last two years. Bomb threats, sporadic detonations, leaflets in which gangs threaten individuals or groups such as immigrants, and an increase in robberies are reflections of the violent control exercised by these groups.

The activity of the gangs has spread throughout the country, in an escalation that has reached the point of total chaos at times, such as on Jan. 9.

That day, a television station was taken over by a gang in Guayaquil, there were bomb threats in several cities and shootings near judicial entities, which led the government to declare a state of emergency.

The state of emergency allowed for joint military and police action in the streets and prisons, under the premise that the State is in conflict with armed criminal groups.

Lorenzo and his teenage son Carlos are photographed on one of the unpaved streets of Monte Sinai, a low-income neighborhood in northwest Guayaquil, which they had to flee because of threats and extortion by criminal gangs in the area. CREDIT: Carolina Loza León / IPS

Rivera-Rhon stressed that on Jan. 9, the alliances and ties between criminal gangs were demonstrated by the scope and coordination of the chaos in the country and the fear provoked among the public.

He said that “if you look at things from the point of view of someone in the capital, law enforcement has a monopoly of force, but this is not the case in rural areas, where there is total abandonment by the State.”

The expert on crime mentioned how in localities on the border with Colombia, there was already a social order imposed by armed groups that “generated a contagion to other areas of the country” and wondered whether the State had control over the exercise of force in other parts of the country and neighborhoods in cities such as Guayaquil.

Carlos Carrión, secretary of the Fundación Desaparecidos en Ecuador (Foundation for Missing People), said abandonment by the State has been going on for decades. A resident of Jaramijó, a fishing village near the port city of Manta, for years he has led petitions for the repatriation of fishermen imprisoned in the United States for transporting drugs.

Carrión pointed to the lack of response at the State level and the growing control of drug trafficking networks that recruit fishermen, without any control by the armed forces. “Nobody seems to have cared for years, and look where we’ve ended up,” Carrión told IPS by telephone from Jaramijó, some 190 kilometers north of Guayaquil.

Lorenzo, 46, said the Jan. 9 violence was nothing new. In 2023 he had to move from Guayaquil to the port of Posorja, after he became the victim of robberies and closed down his small business.

“Outside the store there were four guys on a motorcycle. From far away, one of them pulled a gun on me and I didn’t know how to get away. I had a backpack, where I carried my phone. I also had my watch and money that I always carry, about 20 or 40 dollars. They took everything,” said Lorenzo, who had worked hard to open a small store selling food and other products in Monte Sinai.

He told IPS that “they said to me: ‘get out of here.’ They left quickly, after going around the same street twice.” It was the last episode of violence and extortion he put up with in Guayaquil and the one that led him to decide to close his shop and look for work in Posorja, a small fishing port 113 kilometers away.

“I used to live here, but now we’re doing better. I had my monthly income from the store, but I had to leave the house in Monte Sinai to rent in Posorja,” he said during one of his last Sunday visits to the neighborhood to see friends and check on his now empty house.

One of his sons, teenager Carlos, was with him on the Sunday he was interviewed by IPS in Monte Sinai. His two older sons have also moved out of the neighborhood.

Businesses are closed in a small shopping center on Delta Avenue, near the main university in the Ecuadorian city of Guayaquil, due to people’s fear of going out in certain areas of the port city. CREDIT: Carolina Loza León / IPS

Lorenzo’s biggest fear before leaving Monte Sinai was that something would happen to his children. He even considered emigrating in 2022, crossing the Darien Gap, after hearing about people who had made it through that dangerous stretch of Panamanian jungle to the United States.

Both José and Lorenzo lived in fear of the impact that the violence and increased insecurity could have on their families.

According to José, violence during 2023 in the area “increased by 70 percent.” And so far, according to his former neighbors, the armed forces have not yet arrived in Monte Sinaí, despite the fact that a state of emergency has been declared and that the area is notorious for the violence suffered by local residents.

José stays in contact with his former neighbors, a community that welcomed him with solidarity and to which he will always be grateful.

“I love Ecuador, I was welcomed here, but the situation had become unlivable,” he said from Quito, the capital, where he now sells candy at stop lights. At the end of January, José decided to move to Quito and check out the possibility of settling in this city, where he feels safer.

With most of Monte Sinai’s schools closed due to the violence, José had no alternative when he was left without a source of income and became subject to constant threats, he told IPS during a second meeting in Quito, 430 kilometers from his old life.

His eldest son sold the supplies for his fast food business and returned to Venezuela, while his two teenagers are still in Guayaquil, waiting for their father to get everything ready in Quito.

Lorenzo is no longer returning to Monte Sinai, he told IPS by telephone from Pasorj
a a few days after the interview there, because both he and his son Carlos received new threats. He is looking for alternatives to move to the coastal province of Manabí, which is also affected by violence, although to a lesser degree than Guayas province, of which Guayaquil is the capital.

José finds some consolation in living in Quito and being able to go out on the street with a little more peace of mind. He quotes a friend who stayed in Guayaquil: “Back there, the only thing they don’t charge us for is breathing.”

Goitered gazelle: Credit CMS

By Alison Kentish
DOMINICA, Feb 12 2024 (IPS)

A groundbreaking State of the World’s Migratory Species report is calling for accelerated global conservation measures to counter the threat of extinction faced by 1 in 5 of all migratory species.

The report was launched at the opening press conference of the 14th Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS COP14) in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Feb. 12. 

It is the first comprehensive assessment of migratory animals—species that travel to different parts of the world every year. They include ocean species like sharks and sea turtles, terrestrial animals such as elephants, as well as those undertaking airborne journeys like birds and butterflies. The report’s authors say migratory species’ remarkable journeys not only connect the world; they offer a unique angle to research and understand the magnitude of planetary changes.

The report has concluded that the conservation status of migratory species overall is deteriorating. Its results have been described as “startling” by the Executive Secretary of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), Amy Fraenkel.

“Overexploitation emerges as the greatest threat for many migratory species, surpassing habitat loss and fragmentation,” she stated in the report. “This includes the taking of species from the wild through intentional removal, such as through hunting and fishing, as well as the incidental capture of non-target species. Bycatch of non-target species in fisheries is a leading cause of mortality of many CMS-listed marine species.”

State of the World’s Migratory Species, Credit: CMS

Some of the troubling findings include population declines for almost half of CMS migratory species, extinction threats for almost all (97%) of CMS-listed fish, and a growing extinction risk for migratory species globally, including those not listed under the CMS.

“Migratory species are of ecological, economic, and cultural importance. Within ecosystems, they perform a variety of crucial functions, ranging from the large-scale transfer of nutrients between environments to the positive impacts of grazing animals on grassland biodiversity,” the report states.

It adds that these species’ habitats and movements are at risk, with half experiencing unsustainable levels of human-induced pressure.

“The urgency for action to protect and conserve these species becomes even greater when we consider the integral but undervalued role they play in maintaining the complex ecosystems that support a healthy planet—by, for example, transferring nutrients between environments, performing migratory grazing that supports the maintenance of carbon-storing habitats, and pollination and seed dispersal services,” said Inger Andersen, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Director, UN Environment Programme.

The present reality for migratory species and the cost of inaction or inadequate action are concerning, but the report is heavy on both hope and concrete recommendations for global action.

It contains a section dedicated to proposed policy actions. Among the most crucial are the need to address the unsustainable and illegal harvesting of migratory species at the national level, measures to reduce bycatch and other incidental captures, and the identification and recognition of all significant sites for migratory species.

The recommendations are to “protect, connect, and restore” habitats, tackle overexploitation, reduce the damaging impacts of environmental pollution, address the root causes and cross-cutting impacts of climate change, and ensure the CMS Appendices protect all migratory species in need of further conservation action. They also call for ‘follow-through’ on global commitments to ecosystem restoration.

“This includes those linked to the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration and Target 2 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework to ensure that at least 30% of degraded terrestrial, inland water, and coastal and marine ecosystems are under effective restoration by 2030. To support these efforts, develop and implement national restoration plans focused on restoring and maintaining important habitats for migratory species,” it states.

UNEP’s Inger Andersen says the report is an important milestone in the establishment of a roadmap for the conservation of migratory species.

“Given the precarious situation of many of these animals and their critical role for healthy and well-functioning ecosystems, we must not miss this chance to act—starting now by urgently implementing the recommendations set out in this report,” she stated.

For the CMS’ Amy Fraenkel, conservation of migratory species is a shared responsibility among the world’s nations.

“Migratory species are a shared natural treasure. This landmark report will help underpin much-needed policy actions to ensure that they continue to traverse the world’s skies, lands, oceans, lakes, and rivers.”

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Excerpt:

The United Nations inaugural assessment of the state of global migratory species states that 1 in 5 faces extinction and warns that the world cannot afford to miss this chance to act on recommendations to protect, connect, and restore habitats.

Women who always ate last in the household had four times greater chance of having “probable depression,” study finds. Credit: Shutterstock.

By Marty Logan
KATHMANDU, Feb 12 2024 (IPS)

Studies have long shown that some women’s lower status in Nepali households could mean that they eat last and less and as a result lack nutrition. Experts are now looking into how this could affect their mental health, and if the growing impacts of climate change might amplify the process.

“When women eat last (as a mark of respect or due to low status in the household), they often get the last bits of food left over, and they may be compromising the amount of food, which could also be adversely impacting their mental health,” says researcher Lakshmi Gopalakrishnan, in an online interview.

Gopalakrishnan’s research is based on interviews with about 200 newly married women, ages 18-25, in Nawalparasi District in Nepal’s southern Madhesh region, bordering northern India. As is customary, the women moved into their new husband’s homes, living with in-laws in an extended family. They also ate after everyone else had finished their meals, another custom.

The study, titled The relationship between the gendered norm of eating last and mental health of newly married women in Nepal, found that women who always ate last in the household had four times greater chance of having “probable depression.” The reason? Eating last is symbolic of women’s ranking in the household, explains Gopalakrishnan. In the newly married context, women “don’t have the autonomy to make their own decisions; they don’t have the freedom to move outside the house,” she adds.

 

Food insecurity is key

More recent research concluded that household food insecurity is the main factor in determining women’s eating patterns. Although changes such as a woman becoming pregnant or getting a paying job could improve her household status, and therefore her order of eating — at least temporarily — there would be no changes if the household remained food insecure.

Climate change is already destroying croplands, causing farmers to seek seasonal work and migration to escape food insecurity. This leaves their wives victimized in the community, leading to stress and mental illness in these women

“Across the board, women in food insecure households are more likely to eat last always or most of the time,” says the 2022 article, Do changes in women’s household status in Nepal improve access to food and nutrition? published in the journal Maternal & Child Nutrition.

It adds, “a recent analysis of data from India found that women who eat last have worse mental health, suggesting that there could be additional health impacts of this practice.”

Gopalakrishnan did not find the same link between diminishing household food insecurity and eating less. Her study suggests that’s because “women are treated as lower-status individuals regardless of food security levels in the households.”

The researcher is quick to point out that her work did not find that the women had four times as many episodes of depression, but that they were four times more likely to have “probable depression”. She also suggests, but did not measure, that as women are eating last they might not be eating enough or getting adequate nutrition, creating a “biological pathway” to depression.

Chanda Gurung, a consultant in gender equality and social inclusion, agrees that a possible biological link needs further inquiry. “Sometimes there is food, but what kind of food?” she asks in an online interview. “We really need health professionals (who can say) what kind of food is required to affect mental health, such as stress levels, or what women think? The physical impacts we know.”

Gurung formerly worked as a senior gender expert with the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development, which focuses on eight countries in the Hindu Kush Himalaya mountain region. She is confident that climate change is affecting food security, but adds that there are many more factors that take a toll on rural women’s lives.

“With more men migrating… women’s workload has grown to the point that they shoulder most of the activities now —whether it’s on the farm, meeting government officials, going to health centres; women are doing all that,” Goodyear says.

 

Mental and physical health affected

“In some ways it has made women more empowered, more confident because now they can interact more easily. In a way that’s a blessing… but the work burden is extremely high, which takes a toll on both their physical and mental health.”

The heavier workload, added to societal demands — “She’s alone. Is she getting harassed in the family? Facing a lack of income?” — puts more stresses on women, she adds.

A 2021 assessment found that “mental health issues are likely to increase in Nepal due to climate change… For example, climate change is already destroying croplands, causing farmers to seek seasonal work and migration to escape food insecurity. This leaves their wives victimized in the community, leading to stress and mental illness in these women.”

“Poor, rural, female-headed families will face higher vulnerabilities as the climate continues to change,” concluded the report, by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Gopalakrishnan says studies have shown that there are ways to influence the gender norms that translate into how women are treated in their households.

For example, in one “interventional study”, girls and boys at school were taught about gender equality for two years. “And that actually led to increased support for women and girls opportunities and changed their attitudes towards gender. So these are some examples where we see that yes, it’s possible to change people’s gender attitudes.”

Secretary-General António Guterres.

By Naureen Hossain
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 12 2024 (IPS)

The United Nations and its Member States are up against what the Secretary-General António Guterres calls existential challenges for the world, and they must be organized in taking a united approach to addressing these issues through ambitious plans and widespread reform.

In his statement to the General Assembly on February 7, 2024, Guterres laid out his priorities for the coming year, consisting of various ongoing issues that call for urgent action. He has called for member states to fulfill their obligations to the UN Charter, under which every person’s right to life and dignity should be guaranteed. But at present, governments are undermining the tenets of multilateralism with no accountability, he said.

The mechanisms in a multipolar world that would keep relations in check are not present, he added. “We are seeing the results: a dangerous and unpredictable free-for-all with total impunity,” he said. “…As conflicts proliferate, global humanitarian needs are at an all-time high, but funding is not keeping pace.”

When he spoke to reporters on February 8, 2024, he added: “When the world is divided and the geopolitical divides today are enormous, when we see that we are no longer in a bipolar or unipolar world, we are kind of on the way to a multipolar world, but in a very chaotic situation. Power relations became unclear. And what we see today in the world is political actors doing whatever they want and with total impunity.”

Since the previous year’s SDG Summit, calls have been made for major reforms, notably in the Security Council and in international financial architecture. Much has been said about the divisions within the Council that have prevented decisions from being made. In the context of the current war between Israel and Hamas, resolutions that would have called for a humanitarian ceasefire have not been passed due to those member states that did not vote in favor.

To that end, Guterres has said that the Council’s working methods must be updated in order to make and implement decisions, even where there is division. He added that the Council must also take steps to become more representative, noting that it was unacceptable that the African continent did not have a permanent seat in the Council.

In the context of international financing, Guterres remarked that the architecture was failing to provide all countries with the affordable finance needed to achieve shared goals. They do not provide the “basic function of providing a financial safety net for all developing countries,” he said. This has come as a way to address the ripple effect of disruptions in development and the global supply chain that have been caused by the compounding crises of the COVID-19 pandemic, climate-induced disasters, and conflicts.

The countries that would benefit most from stronger financial support in the current architecture are receiving the least of its benefits. Developing countries in particular have been hit hardest by the disruptions in the global economy, which Guterres noted will be addressed in the upcoming conferences for Small Island Developing States and Landlocked Developing Countries.

The Summit of the Future, which is scheduled to take place this September, is the hope that the international community will not only accelerate its efforts to meet its existing commitments but implement concrete measures to respond to present and emerging challenges. Guterres expressed that among the outcomes of the summit, what should emerge is a path forward “for a number of important transformations,” understanding that the institutions are outdated and that what is needed is multilateralism that is more inclusive and reflects present realities.

In addition to proposing institutional reform, some of the intended outcomes from the Summit include accepting A New Agenda for Peace, which outlines the Secretary-General’s vision for multilateral measures in peace and security. A Global Digital Compact was also proposed as a document that would, according to Guterres, “maximize the benefits of new technologies and minimize the risks”. This is pertinent when considering the public interest in artificial intelligence in recent years, and efforts that have been made within the tech sector and even in the UN through its AI Advisory Board to determine how to regulate it.

When it comes to climate change, Guterres stated that he would be “mobilizing the entire UN system to assist” to support member states to take action in addressing climate change through financing, among other plans of action. He called for expanding the channels for climate finance through innovative sources and for all countries to agree on their goals at COP29 this year. This must be of service to the countries “at the frontline of climate chaos”.

What the Secretary-General is asking—and has been asking for some time now—is ambitious reform while seeking urgent action. The Summit of the Future is one of the answers to the concerns raised in the previous year, when it was made clear that we were far off track in achieving the SDGs. What should have been markers of progress stand now as reminders of the work left to be done, and even regression in some cases.

As long as these issues persist, and as long as the international community is reminded of how they impact everyone, they are interconnected. “In one form or another, every element connects to the most essential of all human endeavours: the pursuit of peace,” Guterres said.

“In today’s troubled world, building peace is a conscious, bold, and even radical act. It is humanity’s greatest responsibility. That responsibility belongs to us all, individually and collectively.”

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Credit: Pexels/Plato Terentev

By Jessica Henn, Channe Lindstrom Oguzhan and Angie Elizabeth Carrion Cueva
BANGKOK, Thailand, Feb 12 2024 (IPS)

Let’s call her Anita. Four years ago, her life took an unexpected turn when the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted everything she knew. As businesses closed and economic uncertainty loomed, Anita, like countless others, found herself forced out of work. Providing for her three young children became a daily struggle, prompting her to seek informal work as a subsistence agricultural worker to ease the financial burden.

Just as Anita began to rebuild her life, hoping for a semblance of normalcy, climate change left Anita’s village facing the worst drought in decades, destroying the crops on which they survived. With no social protection for informal workers like Anita, the aftermath left her grappling with the devastation, both emotional and economic.

Yet, through it all, Antia’s resilience shone bright. She sought opportunities, determined to shield her children from the harsh realities they faced.

However, the challenges did not cease. Against a backdrop of rising geopolitical tensions and global climate shocks, food prices began to soar. Anita, despite her tenacity, found it increasingly difficult to put food on the table for her children. In a difficult situation, Anita reached out for assistance, seeking a loan to navigate the financial hurdles.

Yet, discriminatory legal frameworks and gender norms prevented Anita from accessing the financial lifeline she desperately needed, pushing her further into poverty.

Anita’s story is not an isolated case. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, more than 165 million people globally have fallen (back) into poverty, with an additional 75 million more people living in extreme poverty, on less than USD $2.15 a day. It is estimated that 8 per cent of the world’s female population (342.4 million women and girls) will live on less than $2.15 a day by 2030 if current trends continue.

In the Asia-Pacific region, existing gender poverty gaps have widened, particularly in South Asia which is forecast to have 129 women in the 25-34 age group living in poverty for every 100 men by 2030, rising from 118 women to every 100 men in 2021.

Yet, while recent polycrises have reversed hard-won gains towards poverty eradication, strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective can get us back on track to eradicate extreme poverty and close the growing gender poverty gap.

A policy simulation analysis using the International Futures Model estimates that nearly 150 million women and girls globally could be lifted out of poverty by 2030 with increased spending on social protection, investments in the green economy, better infrastructure and education.

Pooling resources for these investments is achievable through a combination of public and private financing mechanisms, ensuring gender mainstreaming in all economic policies and interventions.

Strengthened gender-sensitive public institutions play a pivotal role promoting gender equality in all spheres, supported by investments in women’s leadership and political participation, alongside institutional initiatives aimed at overcoming biases and stereotypes.

With this compelling case, has there ever been a more important moment in history for multilateral collaboration and action than now? For many voices at the just concluded Asia-Pacific Regional Consultation on the 68th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW68), the call to action rang equally loud and clear.

Participants from diverse backgrounds shared valuable contributions and insights on accelerating the achievement of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls by addressing poverty and strengthening institutions and financing with a gender perspective.

While noting the challenges, they shared innovative solutions to strengthen the policies and institutions and develop innovative new sources of financing for women’s economic empowerment. These included promoting access to finance for women-owned small and medium-sized enterprises, and policies and programmes to reduce poverty and vulnerability by promoting labour markets.

Credit: ESCAP Photo/Caio Perim

The two-day regional consultation resulted in a set of suggested actions highlighting the importance of addressing the interconnections between gender, poverty, and economic inequality, and stress the significance of regional collaboration, involving governments, civil society, the private sector, and other stakeholders.

These suggested actions will contribute towards the set of agreed conclusions for member States to take under advisement at CSW68 that will take place from 11 to 22 March 2024 in New York.

It is now that the global community must come together in solidarity, for the benefit of the most vulnerable population groups, to make good on the promise of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, to leave no one behind.

Disclaimer note: Anita’s story is inspired by real accounts of women experiencing poverty in the Asia-Pacific region. However, the story has been fictionalized for narrative purposes, and any similarities to real individuals or events are purely coincidental.

Jessica Henn is Consultant, SDD, ESCAP; Channe Lindstrom Oguzhan is Social Affairs Officer, SDD, ESCAP; Angie Elizabeth Carrion Cueva is Intern, SDD, ESCAP

Relevant SDGs: 1, 5, 10, 17

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Myanmar’s resistance called a ‘silent strike’ on February 1, the third anniversary of the military coup. This main street leading to Sule Pagoda in central Yangon was relatively quiet, but residents said fewer people heeded the strike call this year. Credit: William Webb/IPS

By William Webb
YANGON, Myanmar, Feb 12 2024 (IPS)

Landing in Rangoon nearly 100 years ago, a young Chilean poet described “a city of blood, dreams, and gold” with “leprous streets”. The flourishing capital of then British-ruled Burma and its major port were a must-see staging post on an Asian tour.

Pablo Neruda’s poem from 1927 rings true today. The city, now called Yangon, with well over five million inhabitants, is bursting with life—part hedonistic and part dystopian—and both fuelled and choked by the grip of the junta that seized power three years ago.

Empty rail tracks in central Yangon. Fewer trains are running in Myanmar because rail workers quit in protest at the 2021 coup, and resistance fighters are targeting lines and trains used by the military up and down the country. Credit: William Webb/IPS

 

The military regime organised a rally in central Yangon on February 1 to counter the resistance’s strike call. People were transported there under heavy security and given flags and a free lunch. Credit: William Webb/IPS

The reality is that Myanmar no longer exists as a coherent country, except on maps. Three years of extremely brutal conflict between a complex patchwork of pro- and anti-military forces has left Yangon—still a vital commercial hub—a relatively calm yet deeply troubled bubble amidst a stop-start process of nationwide fragmentation.

The military that overthrew Aung San Suu Kyi’s twice-elected government in February 2021 is losing control over large chunks of Myanmar. Armed mainly by China and Russia, the junta uses aerial supremacy and artillery to terrorise a population that, for the first time in modern history, has seen the Bamar majority turn overwhelmingly against the generals in Myanmar’s heartland.

But the war is not quite knocking at Yangon’s door yet, and the military has been emboldened to issue tourist and business visas to foreigners, no doubt welcoming their US dollars.

Yangon’s other “reality” is that despite being ranked as one of the world’s poorest countries, it is actually awash in money—the blood and gold described by Neruda. Billions of dollars flow from the expanding production and trade of narcotics, particularly methamphetamines, ketamine, and opium/heroin, and from vast casinos, brothels, and scam centres along the border with China and Thailand, populated by victims of trafficking.

Street markets in Yangon are brimming with food, but people complain vociferously about soaring prices and low wages. Despite the conflict, food is in plentiful supply in Myanmar’s biggest city. Credit: William Webb/IPS

 

Aung San Suu Kyi, whose government was overthrown after a second landslide election victory, is jailed in the capital, Nay Pyi Taw. She remains popular, and her image can be occasionally spotted in the street, here with other icons. Credit: William Webb/IPS

 

Chinatown in Yangon is packed with people preparing Chinese New Year celebrations on February 10. Tense relations between China and the Myanmar junta have made the community nervous. Credit: William Webb/IPS

 

A woman with two toddlers and a baby on her lap begs outside a temple in Yangon. People say more children can be seen begging these days as the economy struggles and migrants move into the city from conflict areas. Credit: William Webb/IP

The junta does not directly control all these operations, but it takes a large slice, as do allied militias, criminal gangs, and some ethnic armed groups.

A gleaming white Bentley is parked outside one newly opened nightspot frequented by the offspring of the Yangon elite—the “cronies” whose businesses prosper in spite of, or often because of, sanctions imposed by the West. Inside the plush bar, youngsters in smart and sometimes scanty attire order expensive western drinks and truffle-flavoured fries.

“Madness prevails,” says a charity worker who describes walking through a compound and seeing a Rolls Royce, a Ferrari, and “even a Bugatti” parked there. Such ostentatious wealth abounds, but he cannot find a nurse to employ.

Elsewhere, the boom-boom of Burmese techno-rock and the strobe lights of the Levitate nightclub exclude conversation among the heaving dancing mass. There is “the choice of ecstasy, ketamine, or cocaine” instead, as one regular put it.

“FUCK THEM WE SLAY,” a neon sign proclaims ambiguously.

A neon sign illuminates the Levitate nightclub in Yangon, where revellers dance through curfew hours, fuelled by booze and cheap drugs. Credit: William Webb/IPS

 

A book seller said motivational books were popular these days. This classic by Carnegie was translated into Burmese by U Nu, a former prime minister who was ousted by the military in 1962. Credit: William Webb/IPS

Further down the social scale, Yangon’s familiar open-air “beer stations” are thriving too. Supporters of the resistance take a stand by boycotting the once popular Myanmar Beer brand owned by a military conglomerate, but more expensive alternatives exist.

And then there are the growing numbers of beggars, especially children who dodge traffic to thrust their hands through open car windows or huddle with their mothers in the shade of overpasses.

Rush hour traffic is still chokingly intense and was even quite busy on February 1, the third anniversary of the coup, when the resistance called a ‘silent strike’, urging people to stay off the streets in peaceful protest. Adherence in Yangon was patchy and less than last year.

“People are tired and want to get on with their lives,” comments one long-time observer.

And this is the nub of it. Life goes on, but it does not mean the Burmese are less opposed to the junta, as before when troops crushed street protests in 2021 with mass arrests and live bullets. Aung San Suu Kyi, stuck in prison and turning 80 next year, remains popular.

However, people do seem to be losing faith in the opposition’s declarations of the military’s imminent collapse, even if, as one businessman opined, “There’s a strong sense that things are falling apart now, that the military is overstretched.”

Some Yangon residents are also tired of feeling guilty that they are living relatively well while young resistance fighters in far-flung rural parts are dying in combat and conflict-zone civilians are being bombed in villages, schools, and temples.

A woman selling umbrellas made of waterproofed cotton. She said times are difficult. Credit: William Webb/IPS

Many are leaving the country—legally with passports, risking dangerous routes through the jungle to Thailand, or clandestinely by sea for the persecuted Muslim Rohingya minority. Studying Japanese is suddenly popular in Yangon.

The city by day seems normal enough, with little visible military presence in most places, but by night it changes. Plainclothes police demand ID papers and go through mobile phones. Suspicious bank payments, perhaps to the opposition, mean arrest or demands for a bribe.

Ye, whose business collapsed in the post-coup pandemic lockdown, has sent his children back to a public school after taking them out of classes, as many did. They won’t see their mother for a long time. She has gone abroad to earn money as a care worker.

Like everyone you meet, the family frets about the soaring cost of living, especially food.

Daily power cuts, sometimes scheduled but often not, make life almost unbearable in the intense pre-monsoon heat. People are drawn to the air-conditioned cool of shopping malls, powered by giant diesel generators.

Still, Yangon’s vibrancy is irrepressible. Artists are again holding exhibitions (staying clear of controversial themes). Chinatown is a hive of shoppers ahead of the Lunar New Year, ushering in the Dragon, a symbol of good luck and prosperity, but also of power.

• William Webb is a travel writer whose love affair with Asia began 50 years ago

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In Gaza, every day is a struggle to find bread and water. Without safe water, many people will die from deprivation and disease. Credit: UNRWA

By Robert Misik
VIENNA, Austria , Feb 9 2024 (IPS)

A bloodbath is taking place in the Middle East, and yet, the world is embroiled in absurd debates. One is tempted to say, paraphrasing Marx: here the tragedy, there the farce. The German-speaking world – and Germany in particular – takes a decidedly pro-Israeli stance, while in other societies, an equally dubious anti-Israeli position prevails.

At the beginning of October, Hamas and other Islamist groups not only launched an attack from the Gaza strip but also carried out a cruel massacre. Over 1 200 people were killed, most of them civilians, young party people, including many peace activists: the majority of the inhabitants of the affected kibbutzim belonged to the Israeli left.

Horrific war crimes were committed, which cannot be justified as ‘collateral damage’ of legitimate resistance. Nor can we ignore the fanatical ideology of radical Islamism, which eliminates empathy and justifies acts of bloodshed.

However, due to the bloody history of at least 75 years of conflict and the recent history of occupation policies and the irresponsible escalation strategies of Benjamin Netanyahu’s radical right-wing governments, the attack met much approval within the Palestinian population. Fatah and the Palestinian Authority have been weakened for years, and their support is dwindling.

Rights and obligations

The Israeli government responded with massive military action and retaliatory strikes. This, on the one hand, was to be expected – no nation in the world could not have reacted to such an attack – but, on the other hand, the war immediately escalated in a horrific manner, which was, unfortunately, also to be expected. Around 27 000 people have now lost their lives in Gaza. Entire families have been wiped out by the bombardments.

Under international law, Israel has the right to respond to such an attack, but every country also has the duty to act ‘proportionately’. What is proportionate – in relation to threats or to defined, legitimate war aims – is a complicated legal debate.

But it is largely undisputed that the shrugging acceptance of tens of thousands of civilian casualties cannot be justified, even in the fight against a ‘terrorist’ organisation. And excessive force that literally razes Gaza to the ground, which destroys the livelihoods of the civilian population, the supply of food and the medical-care system, is itself a war crime.

Put quite simply: to a bestial war crime by Hamas, Israel has itself responded with war crimes. And the matter is made worse by the fact that leading members of Israel’s government have engaged in appalling rhetoric, from Manichean religious-war language to vile fantasies of mass expulsions and ‘ethnic cleansing’.

Just as the history of the conflict has for decades provided both sides with arguments for viewing the other as the perpetrator and their own side only as the victim, the same has been true in these recent months. Palestinian figures see Hamas’ actions as a justified reaction to oppression, while their Israeli counterparts see excessive (and criminal) military action as a legitimate response to terror.

Yet, that is precisely the problem. Those who paint a Manichean, black-and-white picture fall far short of the terrible complexities of this conflict. There are horrible pogroms in the West Bank by right-wing extremist settlers and members of the army, and violent expulsions of Palestinians and an expropriation of their land. And there are terrible acts of violence involving unspeakable cruelty by Palestinian militias.

But the world is increasingly sorting itself into vocal supporter groups of fans and followers. In many societies, this is obviously about their own history and identity. To be more precise: a complex reality is being accommodated to the apparent requirements of their domestic politics of remembrance — and if it doesn’t fit, it is being made to.

Manipulation strategies

Germany and Austria have adopted a decidedly pro-Israeli position. First, this can be explained by their own history, the fatal past of genocidal anti-Semitism which escalated under the Nazi regime into the Shoah against European Jews.

This is why Germany has been an ally of Israel for decades: the former chancellor, Angela Merkel, declared it an important element of the German Staatsräson (reason of state). This is why there is, properly, a strong sensitivity in Germany towards anti-Semitism and the threat to Jews and why the identity of Israel as a safe ‘home’ for all Jews is supported.

The extreme right in both Germany and Austria supports Israel today, on the one hand because Israel’s opponents are Muslims (whom it hates even more than contemporary Jews) and on the other because this is the best way to immunise itself against the accusation of being ‘Nazi’.

In addition, however, the Israeli right – above all the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his party, in alliance with right-wing Jewish lobby groups abroad – has sought in recent decades to denounce almost any criticism of Israeli policy as ‘anti-Semitic’ and thus morally eliminate it.

In German-speaking countries and some other societies with a very well-founded sense of guilt, this manipulation strategy has worked: nobody wants to expose themselves to the suspicion of being seen as a person with morally reprehensible opinions — in other words, as an anti-Semite.

Susan Neiman, a Jewish-German-American intellectual who is director of the Berlin Einstein Centre, recently wrote a major essay in the New York Review of Books in which she spoke of a ‘philosemitic McCarthyism’ that had taken on the characteristics of ‘hysteria’.

Things had gone so far that ‘non-Jewish Germans publicly accuse Jewish writers, artists and activists of anti-Semitism’. As in the early postwar campaign of denunciation of ‘anti-Americanism’ led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, dissenting views are silenced.

In extreme cases, this has had bizarre consequences. Conferences have been banned, at which large numbers of people with the most diverse views should have been exchanging them. In Kassel, an Indian art critic and curator lost his position because he had signed a (rather stupid) Israel boycott petition years ago, despite having unequivocally condemned ‘the terror unleashed by Hamas on 7 October’ as a ‘terrible massacre’.

A Berlin theatre removed from its programme a humorous play (The Situation) about the conflict of narratives by the Austro-Israeli playwright Yael Ronen — now that the situation ‘puts us on Israel’s side’.

‘Israel’ has become a ‘trigger point’ in the culture wars, as with ‘wokeness’ or similar themes elsewhere. ‘Part of a proper culture war is … to want to misunderstand the other side at all costs’, the critic Hanno Rautenberg wrote recently in the Hamburg weekly Die Zeit, about the German debates on Israel: ‘One wrong word or even just one unsaid word and you’re threatened with discursive excommunication.’

No doubt there are forms of criticism of specific Israeli policies that carry more than just anti-Semitic overtones, but in most cases, this is far from reality. As a result, German public opinion is oddly many times more ‘pro-Israeli’ than Israeli public opinion itself.

Good and evil, oppressor and oppressed

If there is one-sidedness in the discourse in the German-speaking world, this certainly exists in other parts of the world as well, and not only in Muslim or Arab countries such as Turkey, Iran, Jordan or Indonesia.

In the United States, Britain and other societies, significant sections of the public and the academic left cultivate their own one-sidedness. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is described in categories of imperialism and colonialism, into which it hardly fits.

The ‘post-colonial’ left has adopted theories, some of which are quite inspiring and have opened up productive new intellectual horizons, but it has radicalised them into Manichean delusions. The world is divided into oppressor and oppressed — and, in this simple-minded worldview, the person identified as the ‘oppressed’ is always right. Since oppressors can never even comprehend the experiences of the oppressed, the oppressed must always be proved right.

From there, it is only a small step to the final clicking into place: the Palestinians are black / ‘people of colour’, the Jews are white, and in Israel, they are beacons of ‘US imperialism’. Even if one cannot find everything Hamas does to be right, as an authentic expression of the resistance of the oppressed against the system of oppression it is ‘right’ in a higher way. Israel, on the other hand, is a ‘settler-colonialist’ project.

Since, in this perspective, the idea of free debate is a ‘bourgeois ideology’ only invented to support the ruling power, dissenting views should be delegitimised or, if necessary, shouted down, because what is deemed ‘sayable’ and what ‘non-sayable’ is merely an effect of power.

Just as in Germany, any criticism of Israel is labelled ‘anti-Semitic’ and thus compromised as morally culpable, so any defence of Israel’s right to exist is dismissed as an expression of ‘racism’.

Amid all this dogmatism, one gets the impression the whole world has gone mad. While Germany unconditionally supports Israel, as an imperative of its own guilt and exterminationist anti-Semitism, American, British and other discourses are also characterised by the imperatives of their own history: racism, the genocide of indigenous populations, the enslavement of black people, imperial exploitation, colonial oppression and exploitation. Fragments of the real are used arbitrarily and pressed into the scheme of one’s own politics of memory, for which ‘identity politics’ is then actually the opposite decryption.

Most of the time, all this has less to do with real Palestinians and real Israelis than who and what one wants to be — how one wants to see the world and oneself in it. One poses as a heroic fighter against anti-Semitism, or against racism and colonialism, while the external appurtenances of reality become at most the set for this show of the self, as props in a play— to whose script reality must be made to conform.

Source: Social Europe and International Politics and Society (IPS)-Journal, Brussels.

Robert Misik is a writer and essayist. He publishes in many German-language newspapers and magazines, including Die Zeit and Die Tageszeitung.

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Credit: United Nations

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 9 2024 (IPS)

As the UN continues its never-ending saga on the reform of the Security Council (UNSC), one of the political anomalies that keeps cropping up is the absence of Africa, among the five permanent members (P5)—a privilege bestowed only on the US, UK, France, China and the Russian Federation.

The African continent, which has been shut out, consists of 55 states with a total population of over 1.4 billion people.

Providing a list of his “priorities for 2024”, Secretary-General Antonion Guterres singled out the reform of the Security Council— a lingering issue in an institution which is nearly 79 years old—when he told delegates on February 7, “it is totally unacceptable that the African continent is still waiting for a permanent seat”

Guterres said: “And indeed our world badly needs: Reform of the Security Council; Reform of the international financial system; the meaningful engagement of youth in decision-making; a Global Digital Compact to maximize the benefits of new technologies and minimize the risks and an emergency platform to improve the international response to complex global shocks.”

Responding to a question at a press conference during the South Summit in Uganda last month, Guterres was critical of what he called “a clear injustice, a flagrant injustice, that there is not one single African permanent member of the Security Council’.

And, he said, one of the reasons was that most of the countries of Africa were not independent when the UN institutions were created.

“But in recent public declarations, I’ve seen the permanent members being favourable to at least one African permanent member. United States said so, the Russian Federation said so, China has been positive in this regard, UK and France too”.

“So, for the first time, I’m hopeful that at least a partial reform of the UN Security Council could be possible for this flagrant injustice to be corrected, and for Africa to have at least one permanent member in the Security Council”.

But it is not guaranteed, he cautioned, because nothing depends on the Secretary-General. “It depends exclusively on Member States, on the General Assembly, but for the first time I think there are reasons to be hopeful.”

Meanwhile, the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region, which has over 670 million people, with 12 Latin American countries and 21 self-governing territories, mostly in the Caribbean, is also missing from permanent membership in the UNSC.

Martin S. Edwards, Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs, School of Diplomacy and International Relations, at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, told IPS: “I think that we should be talking seriously about issues of representation in the Security Council, but the challenge is how to move from rhetoric to a serious proposal”.

There are different ways to frame this, he pointed out.

“The G20 added the African Union (AU) as a member, and of course, we could also think about regional seats along the lines of the Human Rights Council. But this having been said, the key issue is what is the ask.”

The US position has been to increase regional representation without a veto. “I realize that this might not go as far as advocates would want, but since there is already a significant movement underway to delegitimize the veto, insisting on the veto would put those efforts at cross purposes.”

But the bigger and unaddressed challenge for all proposals for reform is that they do not respect the realities of US domestic politics.

The US Senate would have to approve any proposed change to the charter, and the window for any proposed reform is now largely shut because of the realities of the US electoral calendar, declared Edwards.

Responding to a question at a news briefing last month, UN Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said the Secretary-General’s opinion is reflective of a lot of people’s opinion.

“That you have a whole continent, where in fact, a lot of the UN’s peace and security work is ongoing. And no Member State from that continent sits on the body that discusses and decides policies relating to peace and security”.

“And he’s talked about the injustice of those countries that were former colonies that were penalized twice — once by being colonized and second, by not even being at the table when the architecture of the multilateral system was discussed.”

“How Member States decide on Security Council reform, what that will look like, will be up to them. He’s made his feelings known, and I think it’s not the first time he’s said something like that. But in the end, it will be up to Member States themselves to decide. And whether or not they take into account the view of António Guterres is, we will see”, said Dujarric.

Purnima Mane, Past President and Executive Director, Pathfinder International and a former Assistant Secretary General (ASG) and Deputy Executive Director (Programmes) at UNFPA, told IPS the Secretary-General’s regret at the injustice of the absence of even a single African permanent member of the Security Council opens up a long-standing debate on the relevance of the original framework used in the appointment of permanent members of the Security Council.

She said the discussion on the relevance of the current permanent membership of the Security Council is not new but has not really gone anywhere. The issue of the relevance in the modern world of permanent membership based on historical reasons has been somewhat circumvented by establishing the possibility of non-permanent membership.

“The SG in his comments stated that each of the five current permanent members have expressed their openness to this change but when the rubber hits the road, coming to clear rules of implementation will not be easy.

She posed several pertinent questions: “Will the existing rules of the UN SC membership be altered entirely? How many such permanent positions will be created? And will this membership be limited to a specific country like the current membership, or based on regional allocation like Africa as the SG suggests? “

And what will be the process for determining which country gets this privilege and will it also be in perpetuity or a rotating membership like the non-permanent membership? asked Mane.

She said there will be lots of questions will come up, including the willingness of the five permanent members to act on what the SG refers to as their openness to having an African country join the cadre of permanent membership, and the response from other regions which are not represented in the permanent membership currently.

“Knowing how complex the processes in the UN can be, any change process in the membership model is bound to be long, complex and resisted by some countries. If the issue of justice and fairness is to be raised, UN member countries might well question the relevance in today’s world of the need for maintaining the historical reasons for the establishment of permanent membership of the Security Council” she argued.

This certainly opens the door for a broader definition of membership of the Security Council, challenging the hierarchy of privileges which might be seen as unjust in today’s world.

The UN could certainly benefit from a discussion of this nature. Even if this discussion will involve lengthy and complex processes to come to any resolution, it is surely worth the effort in order to ensure that UN membership is seen as equal, in essence, in the eyes of all its members.

https://www.ipsnews.net/2024/02/reform-un-security-council-good-try-lost-cause/

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Rwanda is using drone technology as an effective and innovative way of eradicating malaria in breeding sites. Credit: Aimable Twahirwa/IPS

By Aimable Twahirwa
KIGALI, Feb 8 2024 (IPS)

Experts recommend that the current prevention of malaria in highly endemic countries in Africa should integrate “locally appropriate” control measures to cope with the highest burden of mosquito-borne disease on the continent.

The latest 2023 World Malaria Report shows that the life-threatening disease remains a significant public health challenge, with both malaria incidence and mortality higher now than they were before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic on the African continent.

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report, the effects of climate change and other issues pose a threat to the advancement of the disease-fighting effort.

Official statistics show that the African region disproportionally bore the brunt of the malaria burden in 2022, accounting for 94 percent of global malaria cases and 95 percent of all malaria deaths, which were estimated at 608,000, a nearly 6 percent increase since 2019.

WHO’s Africa office’s Tropical and Vector Borne Disease Lead, Dr. Dorothy Fosah-Achu, told IPS that vector control interventions in Africa have remained challenged, with bednets being one of the most effective vector control tools the continent is relying on.

“Most endemic countries [in Africa] are adopting new treated bednets to replace those having the issue with resistance, but these improved nets are more expensive, which makes it challenging for countries to cover large zones using this intervention,” Fosah-Achu said in an exclusive interview.

The latest WHO report on malaria places a special focus on climate change as a critical factor threatening progress in the fight against malaria. Climate-related disruptions, such as extreme weather events, may have exacerbated the spread of the disease.

Alongside climate change, other issues are threatening efforts to fight malaria.

The funding gap has grown, the report says. “Total spending in 2022 reached USD 4.1 billion—well below the USD 7.8 billion required globally to stay on track for the global milestones of reducing case incidence and mortality rates by at least 90 percent by 2030 (compared with a 2015 baseline).” This funding would include both control, diagnosis, preventative therapies, and treatment.

Growing resistance to available control tools, such as insecticides and antimalarial drugs, remains an increasing concern.

According to experts, most African countries do not have enough bednets.  They do have insecticides that can be used to spray homes at breeding sites, but those interventions are very expensive.

While the high proportion of the population without access to quality medicines for malaria in Africa continues to be another issue, Fosah-Achu is convinced that the consequence of high mortality in Sub-Saharan Africa is also related to the limited health facilities and hospitals that provide access to treatment in a timely manner to the population living in remote zones.

In addition, health experts say that any success of antimalarial interventions in endemic countries in Africa will require appropriate coordination of efforts in terms of fighting against the resistance of vectors to insecticides and the resistance of parasites to medicines.

According to experts, another challenge is that endemic countries in Africa have technical capacity gaps because their national health facilities are not equipped with the right human resources who are able to manage programs and monitor some of these biological threats, such as vector resistance.

The latest estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that in Africa, an estimated 233 million cases of malaria occur each year, resulting in approximately 1 million deaths. More than 90 percent of these are in children under five. Official statistics show that currently the African region bears the heaviest malaria burden, with 94 percent of cases and 95 percent of deaths globally, representing 233 million malaria cases and 580,000 deaths.

Dr. Ludoviko Zirimenya, a medical researcher at the Uganda Virus Research Institute (UVRI), told IPS that the changing climate across many endemic regions in Africa poses a substantial risk to progress against malaria.

“Africa is the most affected due to a combination of factors, the major one being climate change,” Zirimenya said.

In Rwanda, like other endemic countries across Africa, malaria is often found in rainy seasons, and meteorological factors and altitude are described by experts as the major drivers of malaria incidence on the continent.

Both Zirimenya and Fosah-Achu believe that the burden of malaria transmission on the continent can be reduced when countries put in place appropriate mechanisms to strengthen the data management system to ensure they have strong surveillance systems.

Public health experts observe that climate change is a growing issue, and countries in some endemic countries have little support to set up programmes to counter its impact.

The WHO report acknowledges this saying: “Equally crucial is the need to position the fight against malaria within the climate change/health nexus and to equip communities to anticipate, adapt to, and mitigate the effects of climate change, including the rise of extreme weather events. As you will see in the report, there are a range of actions—strategic, technical, and operational—that countries and their partners should begin to pursue now.”

Currently, numerous interventions to control malaria have been implemented across many African countries, but experts note that the incidence of the killer disease has increased in recent years.

“There are financial capacity gaps to be filled by some countries. Most African governments still need to learn how to mobilize resources and ensure that [malaria interventions] programs deliver on the plans that they have developed themselves,” Fosah-Achu said.

Despite these challenges, there have also been achievements. Recent progress includes the launch of the first malaria vaccine, RTS,S/AS01, and the endorsement by WHO of a second vaccine, R21/Matrix-M. Additionally, the use of new dual-active ingredient insecticide-treated nets and expanded malaria prevention for high-risk children have been crucial advancements, offering new avenues for combating the disease.

IPS UN Bureau Report

 

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Left: Rocky Dawuni, Singer and UNEP Goodwill Ambassador, promotes the SDGs. Credit: UN Photo/Mark Garten.
 
Right: Tendayi Achiume, Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, briefs journalists. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe.
When empowered, people of African descent can make a difference!

By Sonya Beard
NEW YORK, Feb 8 2024 (IPS)

In 1977, a record-breaking mini-series carved its place in the milestone of US history. Based on Alex Haley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Roots: The Saga of an American Family, the small-screen adaptation exposed the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade and its impact on generations thereafter.

Suddenly overnight — eight nights, to be exact — the Emmy Award-winning Roots transformed the racial slur “Go back to Africa” into a call to action, an opportunity for African Americans to reclaim their stolen heritage.

Back to Africa

Nearly 40 years after the release of Roots, Diallo Sumbry went to Ghana to seek spiritual discipline. “Initially, I came to study manifestation and traditional African science,” the Washington, DC-based entrepreneur said.

Credit: Diallo Sumbry
The UN designated the International Decade for People of African Descent, from 2015 to 2024, to promote the recognition, justice, and development of African descendants worldwide. Through various programs, events, and awareness campaigns, the Decade seeks to create a platform for dialogue, understanding, and positive change in the lives of people in the diaspora. Africa Renewal, a UN publication, is publishing ‘In Search of Long-Lost Identities’ – a four-part series highlighting the journeys African Americans are taking to reconnect with Africa – the continent their ancestors called home.

Everywhere you go, people are talking about the diaspora.On a trip in 2016, Mr. Sumbry received a prophecy, that “if I moved to Ghana and decided to do business here, things would go well for me. I would fulfil my life’s mission, and Ghana would be my spiritual home.”

A dozen trips later, he found himself fulfilling that prophecy by reconnecting people in the African diaspora to the African continent.

As co-architect of Ghana’s “Year of Return,” Mr. Sumbry helped to facilitate an international campaign for the 400-year commemoration of the first documented arrival of enslaved Africans in America in 1619.

[The 2019 Year of Return was an initiative of the government of Ghana and the Adinkra Group, which sought to encourage African diasporans to settle and invest in the continent].

Visiting Africa can offer African Americans a high level of freedom. … You can be who you are.With more than 1.1 million international visitors, according to the Ghana Tourism Authority, the return may go down as the largest transatlantic African-American homecoming in history.

“The ‘Year of Return’ changed African tourism,” Mr. Sumbry said.

In 2020, the “Year of Return” campaign evolved into “Beyond the Return,” the tourism authority’s 10-year initiative. “Everywhere you go, people are talking about the diaspora,” Mr. Sumbry observed. “It sparked something, and we probably won’t see the full breadth of its impact for years to come.”

Respite from racism

Every person of African descent should visit the continent at least once in their life, according to Mr. Sumbry, who arranges trips through his firm, the Adinkra Group, where he serves as president and chief executive officer.

“The experience can offer African Americans a high level of freedom,” he said. “There is no racism here as we see it in America. You are more rooted here. You can feel your spirit and your ancestors. You can be who you are.”

His efforts may place the Sumbry name on the list of historical figures who championed ‘Back-to-Africa’ movements. He would be in excellent company.

In 1815, Massachusetts shipping magnate Paul Cuffe doubted whether he would achieve racial equality in his lifetime. The philanthropist convinced 38 other African Americans to settle in Sierra Leone, and he financed their resettlement there.

According to the White House Historical Association, Mr. Cuffe is believed to have led the first successful Back-to-Africa movement in the United States; his efforts served as inspiration for the American Colonization Society, founded in 1816 to establish Liberia and resettle African Americans there.

A century later, Jamaican-born Marcus Garvey moved to New York City and encouraged African Americans to board ships of his Black Star Line for the voyage back across the Atlantic.

Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah took inspiration from the Harvard-educated Pan-African scholar W.E.B. Dubois, who co-founded in 1909 what would become America’s longest-running civil rights organisation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

According to the Constitutional Rights Foundation, Mr. Dubois renounced his US citizenship and became a citizen of Ghana, where he spent his final days. He rests in peace at a museum named in his honour in Accra.

In the early 1960s, poet Maya Angelou and her son also lived in Ghana among nearly 200 African Americans expatriates whom she referred to as the “Revolutionist Returnees.”

“We were Black Americans living in West Africa, where — for the first time in our lives — the colour of our skin was accepted as correct and normal,” Ms. Angelou wrote in her autobiography, All God’s Children Need Traveling Shoes.

To this day, Ms. Angelou’s sentiments resonate with African-American mothers who have decided to repatriate to the motherland.

Peace of home

In corporate America, Ashley Cleveland was working her dream tech job with an executive title and a lucrative salary while management treated her as if she were in an administrative assistant role.

“Black women get brought into corporations, and they are celebrated at first,” the Boston native said. “Then they go through all these micro-aggressions, and finally they are let go.”

After three layoffs in five years, she checked into a psychotherapy treatment centre, only to find it filled with other senior-level Black women with similar stories. She took a year to reset her life: she traded visiting psychiatrists and using prescription medication for taking hikes and walking on the beaches of Tanzania in East Africa.

Initially, she doubted whether she should move abroad when her first child was born. Recently, the mother of two relocated to Johannesburg.

“We were Black Americans living in West Africa, where … the colour of our skin was accepted as correct and normal.”

When she is not working as head of growth for BrandUp Global, she echoes Ms. Angelou in telling other African-American families why they must relocate to the continent. “I explain the benefits that it provides Black children to live in societies where their skin colour is not an issue.”

Ms. Cleveland, whose children are learning Zulu and Kiswahili in primary school, said they are more well-rounded and intellectually challenged abroad. “They have a better childhood. We no longer worry about sending them to school and wondering if they’re going to make it back safely.”

“I have a sense of peace here [in South Africa.] Here, I’m a better mother.”

When asked whether she had any plans to return home, she answered: “Where? America? I have a sense of peace here that I shouldn’t have to give up. We don’t worry about getting pulled over by the police. I’m not operating with that anxiety as a parent anymore. Here, I’m a better mother.”

For Ms. Cleveland, Africa is home.

Sonya Beard is a writer and educator based in New York.

Source: Africa Renewal, United Nations

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Woke, adjective; woker, wokest. Chiefly US slang – Being aware of and actively attentive to important societal facts and issues (especially issues of racial and social justice). Disapproving: politically liberal or progressive (as in matters of racial and social justice) especially in a way that is considered unreasonable or extreme.
Webster’s Dictionary

By Jan Lundius
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Feb 8 2024 (IPS)

“Woke” was for a century, especially among black people in the US, an inspirational concept. However, almost overnight it turned into a pejorative. Like using the term “politically correct” as an insult, calling someone “woke” came to imply that the referred person’s views are excessively ridiculous, or even despicable. Being “anti-woke” has become an indication that you do not belong to an assumed group of “do-gooders”, who at the expense of right-minded “ordinary” citizens assert the demands of interest groups, which declare themselves to be discriminated against due to their ethnicity/race, gender, sexual preference, and/or physical or psychological disabilities.

Originally being woked meant to be attentive to injustice, in a sense indicated by Martin Luther King Jr. in his 1967 book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?

One of the great liabilities of history is that all too many people fail to remain awake through great periods of social change. Every society has its protectors of the status quo and its fraternities of the indifferent who are notorious for sleeping through revolutions. But today our very survival depends on our ability to stay awake, to adjust to new ideas, to remain vigilant and to face the challenge of change.

In those days to be woke meant to be knowledgeable about and attentive to threats to tolerance, compassion and human rights. Or like the R&B group Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes sang in 1975: “Wake up everybody, no more sleeping in bed, no more backwards thinking, time for thinking ahead!” Martin Luther King’s statement and the R&B tune might be compared with opinions currently expressed by former US -, and maybe would-be, president Donald J. Trump:

… political correctness is just absolutely killing us as a country. You can’t say anything. Anything you say today, they’ll find a reason why it’s not good.

I don’t like the term “woke” because I hear, “Woke, woke, woke.” It’s just a term they use, half the people can’t even define it, they don’t know what it is.

Trump has repeatedly claimed that the Biden-administration is “destroying the country with woke”, accusations repeated by European right-wingers declaring that their nations also are destroyed by woke, like Hungary’s Orbán who stated that “we [the Hungarians] will not give up fighting against woke ideology”.

The “woke nightmare” of anti-woke activists might be compared to a futuristic short story Kurt Vonnegut wrote as a warning of threats to self-expression. Harrison Bergeron is a dystopian satire taking place in the year of 2081, 120 years after the story was written. According this nightmare a US, “politically correct” Constitution dictates that all Americans have to be entirely equal. No one is allowed to be smarter, better-looking, or more physically able than anyone else. Ruthless agents of a Handicapper General enforce equality laws by forcing citizens to wear so called handicaps, i.e. masks for those who are too beautiful, earpiece radio-transmitters for the intelligent, which blast out noises meant to disrupt their thoughts, and heavy weights for the strong and athletic.

To many, this equality delirium is now becoming a reality. “Woke” is found at the epicentre on both the left and right side of the political spectrum. It has become a pervasive catchphrase for a wide variety of social movements related to issues concerning LGBTQ rights, feminism, immigration, climate change and marginalised communities. The woke concept is accordingly an abhorrence for people opposed to phenomena like the toppling, or besmirching of statues deemed to honour villains. Another “woke initiative” making opponents agitated are efforts to ensure an environment supportive of transgender and/or gender non-conforming individuals, by advising against using “gender identifying” terminologies like father/mother, male/female, brother/sister etc., while propagating for the installation of separate toilets for transgender people. Another alleged woke proposal, which tend to upset people, are attempts to rebrand religious holidays by recommending a “neutral terminology” and even decide against their open celebration. Related to this is the implementation of measures to please religious fundamentalists, like separate gender-based rules when it comes to dress, sports, education, etc. To large swaths of the general public such a development indicates “political correctness” gone mad.

However, the problem with assaults on “political correctness” is that they might go too far, emboldening obscurantists, who have been lurking in the shadows, to bring their hate speech into the light of day. Anti-wokes are also lowering the bar for what is considered to be an acceptable discourse among politicians and other leaders, while forcing them further to extreme positions. “Woke” has become a slur dividing the world in “us” and “them”, without exploring the reasons for different beliefs. Influencers have declared that what they call The Great Awokening has become a cult of “leftist social justice”. An almost religious, fundamentalistic sectarianism with followers demonstrating a fervour similar to that of born-again zealots, who want to punish heresy by banishing sinners from society, or coercing them to public demonstrations of shame.

One political pressure group infected by anti-woke feelings are Climate change deniers, who use pseudoscience to contradict a scientific consensus about the threat of climate change. Efforts are made to sweep legitimate concerns about this lurking danger under the rug. One of many examples of dangerous white-washing is the Fox Channel-promoted and influential Republican politician and Baptist minister Mike Huckabee, whose 2023 The Kids Guide to the Truth About Climate Change, falsely minimize fossil fuel emissions’ contribution to global warming.

Such storytelling might be considered in the light of President Trump’s environmental policies, which erased or loosened almost 100 rules and regulations concerning pollution in the air, water and atmosphere, as well as they were instrumental in the US withdrawal from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. Such actions critically influenced and slowed down global efforts to reduce emissions and prompted other governments to downplay scientifically based warnings about the urgency of putting a stop to fossil fuel burning.

One of many indicators of a growing support to anti-wokers is the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC), which in October 2023 celebrated its first conference in Greenwich, London, featuring 100 speakers, attracting 1,500 delegates from 71 nations The event was labelled as “one of the largest gatherings of the global centre-right in recent British history”, an “anti-woke Davos”. The ARC is an international organisation, which purpose is to replace a “sense of division and drift within Conservatism and Western society at large, with a renewed cohesion and purpose”. The Conference was inaugurated with a speech by Philippa Stroud, “the Baroness Stroud” a Conservative Party Peer in the British House of Lords and leader of several conservative think tanks. She greeted the participants with the words: “You are all here because you are personally invited, since you are people with courage, vision and a transformative way of thinking.”

This was different from the Trumpist movements’ less unpolished and forthright anti-woke meetings. The ARC conference was more lavish, polished and academic, though even if the packaging was different the messages were similar. Conservative and liberal speakers were critical of what they considered to be a failed liberal social order, fomenting climate alarmism, totalitarianism, “cultural Marxism”, and lack of parental responsibility.

Climate change was not dismissed, but reporting on its dangers were described as misleading and dishonest. The climate change activist Greta Thunberg was described as suffering from a “histrionic personality disorder” and it was declared that the climate movement had similarities to narcissism and hysteria. The conference’s opposite and more “positive” message was that energy and prosperity are interconnected and that a continuous use of fossil fuels is decisive for lifting countries out of poverty. Climate change will reduce prosperity, but not eradicate it. A somewhat spurious assertion.

A double-edged message is common for most anti-woke affirmations and the ARC conference’s self-proclaimed “positive attitude” was an example of this. The individual’s value, personal responsibility and right to self-determination were emphasized and contrasted to “the woke culture’s” insistence on structural explanations for group adversity. Not a word was uttered about inequality and/or the State’s concern and responsibility for equal rights to education and health care, instead it was declared that “State interference is not the solution, but the problem”.

The nuclear family was described as a recipe for success. Mothers had to be encouraged to stay at home for at least three years, but it was not explained how this would be socio-economically realized. Nothing was said about the fact that not all families are happy, or the importance of a loving home where chores are shared, instead there were obscure statements about “conservative family values”, attacking abortion and same-sex marriages.

The anti-woke movement, as it emerged during the ARC conference, claims to be a revolt against the Establishment. However, many of the speakers were extremely privileged, or even millionaires, being representatives of the same elite, which the movement declares it wants to distance itself from. What made Donald Trump so successful was not that he was like his voters, but that he made them consider him to be one of them. It’s one thing to formulate a story, another to achieve it in reality. In many ways, the anti-woke movement appears to be a myth to live by, rather than a serious attempt to wake up to a threatening reality and do something about it. In many respects, the anti-woke movement appears to be more of a hankering for bygone times than a search for innovative visions for the future. On a wall in the conference room was a huge poster with a quote from the US social anthropologist Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” One might wonder – What kind of change?

Main sources: Ekman, Malin (2023) ”Petersons massmöte vill stoppa ‘woke-sjukan’”, Svenska Dagbladet, 12 October. Vonnegut, Kurt (1968) Welcome to the Monkey House. New York: Delacorte.

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