Expressing shock, a US-based Hindu group is asking for an immediate end to derogatory slurs and constant racial jeering and abuse of Indigenous Australian Rules footballer star Adam Goodes, which has reportedly caused him to take a leave of absence.

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada (USA) today, stressed that anti-racism initiatives were immediately required in Australia, its growing culture of racial intolerance needed to urgently curbed, and it should do a deep introspection of its heart and be kind to indigenous people, immigrants, minorities, and other vulnerable groups.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, suggested that public apology on national television by Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott and Australian Governor-General Peter Cosgrove on this issue would send a strong message against xenophobia. Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Anglican Church of Australia and other religious groups in Australia should also come out strongly against the prevalent racism, as we were all equal in the eyes of God, Zed added.

It was highly disturbing and appalling to note that such racist attitudes were alive and well in 21st century Australia, a culturally diverse society now. Despite the drastic change in demographics; racism, insensitivity, xenophobia, vilification and racial abuse seemed to be shockingly prevalent in 2015 Australia, Rajan Zed indicated.

Zed further said that Australia should bestow constitutional recognition to nation’s indigenous people, which was long overdue as it should have been done when the constitution was originally framed. It was blatantly unfair and simply wrong for indigenous people not to be recognized in the constitution as Australia’s first residents.

Moreover, Australia should end age-old discrimination suffered by them and bring these native sons and daughters at par with rest of the Australia in education, health, employment, etc., levels, Rajan Zed pointed out.

For nearly fifty years the accepted mantra has been that only direct face-to-face negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians can yield a mutually acceptable settlement. That formula has been tested to destruction.

It founders on two jagged obstacles. One is the basic Palestinian ethos, consistently promulgated through the media and in the classroom, that the very presence of Israel is anathema. All political parties subscribe to the aim of eventually regaining Mandate Palestine complete, “from the river to the sea”.

Hamas and Fatah differ only on the method by which this desirable objective is to be achieved. Hamas refuses to recognize Israel at all and champions the armed struggle; Fatah, which controls the Palestinian Authority (PA), chooses to give lip-service to the concept of the two-state solution – but only as a first step towards the final goal. But no PA leader dare take that first step and sign a peace agreement with Israel. The political backlash would be too great, and he would be lucky to escape with his life.

So however close in their direct negotiations with Israel Yasser Arafat, and later Mahmoud Abbas, came to achieving a fully-fledged sovereign Palestine, actually signing off on an agreement proved a step too far. The Oslo Accords of the early 1990s, the Camp David negotiations of 2000, the intensive wheeling and dealing of 2007 – all finally came to naught.

The second apparently insurmountable barrier follows from this: the maximum that Israel is able to offer in face-to-face negotiations is less than the minimum the Palestinians are able to accept – whatever that minimum, if it exists, may be.
In short, direct bargaining between Israel and the Palestinians is a busted flush. Is there a viable alternative route leading away from a bleak future of endless conflict?

Yair Lapid, chairman of Israel’s Yesh Atid party, believes : “The only way to achieve the two-state solution is to give up on direct talks and manage the negotiations through a regional conference supported by the United States.” His idea has been gathering support from members of Israel’s Labor, Likud, Yisrael Beytenu, Kulanu and Meretz parties.

Its rationale is that the Palestinian leadership alone is incapable of making the compromises needed to reach a deal with Israel, especially regarding Israel’s security. The PA, political writer Dov Lipman recently maintained, can and will make the necessary compromises only in the context of a regional solution in which Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states give it the backing – or force it – to do so. The motivation for these “moderate” states to pressure the Palestinians has, Lipman maintains, increased significantly following the completion of the Iranian deal, which emphasises their community of interest with Israel in confronting extremist Islam in the form of a potentially nuclear armed Iran, and with Islamic State (IS) spreading across the region.

It may come as a revelation to some that the idea of a broadly-based peace conference is backed by Israel’s prime minister. In his address to the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2014, Benjamin Netanyahu advanced the concept of a working alliance between Israel and those Arab states opposed to militant Islamists in general, and IS and Iran in particular.

“After decades of seeing Israel as their enemy,” he declared, “leading states in the Arab world increasingly recognize that, together, we and they face many of the same dangers. Principally this means a nuclear-armed Iran and militant Islamist movements gaining ground in the Sunni world. Our challenge is to transform these common interests to create a productive partnership – one that would build a more secure, peaceful and prosperous Middle East.”

He was on thin ice. However willing some Arab governments may be to enter into a recognised relationship with Israel, they would find difficulty in carrying popular opinion with them. Netanyahu of course understands this, but he soldiered on, in effect inviting the active involvement of Arab countries into the peace process.

“Many have long assumed that an Israeli-Palestinian peace can help facilitate a broader rapprochement between Israel and the Arab world. But these days I think it may work the other way around – namely that a broader rapprochement between Israel and the Arab world may help facilitate an Israeli-Palestinian peace.”

To achieve that peace, he asserted, not only Jerusalem and Ramallah need be involved, but also Cairo, Amman, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and elsewhere.

This position is not so very far from the initiative recently announced by France. As a former colonial power, France has long seen itself as a possible facilitator of an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. As far back as August 2009, when newly-elected US President Obama was clearly eager to relaunch peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, French President Nicolas Sarkozy offered to host an international conference to facilitate the peace process, going so far as to issue invitations to leaders from concerned countries, including Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria.

In January 2010, as Obama’s efforts to bring the parties to the negotiating table were inching their painful way forward, Sarkozy repeated his offer. The concept of a Paris-located international conference reappeared last December, when France took the lead in drafting a Security Council resolution outlining proposals for an Israeli-Palestinian final-status deal. French foreign minister Laurent Fabius played the same tune, with minor variations, in his recent visit to the Middle East – a French-led initiative to reboot the peace process, with backing from an “international support group” formed by the EU, Arab nations and UN Security Council members.

More recently, Paris seems to be having second thoughts about the resolution, though not about a possible conference. Having met with Fabius in Cairo, PA foreign minister Fiyad al-Maliki, speaking on Voice of Palestine radio on July 7, said: “I can say that the idea of the French draft resolution in the Security Council is not a main topic for decision makers in France anymore.” However, said Maliki, still uppermost in their minds was a negotiations support committee comprised  of representatives of the UN Security Council, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

As for the possible US reaction to this French initiative, President Obama is holding his cards close to his chest, but some remember the rumours of April 2013 – never wholly quashed – that the US favoured a multi-national peace conference. Given Netanyahu’s own words on the concept, Washington and Jerusalem may be preparing a somewhat surprising response.

Terrorism has torn Egypt’s Sinai since 2011 and turned it into a military operations area. Since the group of the “Supporters of the Holy House in Jerusalem” (In Arabic: Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdes) pledged allegiance to ISIS (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria), its terrorist attacks against the Egyptian state have dramatically increased, especially against the military and police forces. Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdes is a Jihadi group based in Saini in Egypt and functions as an ISIS wing in what they call the province of Sinai (In Arabic: Wilayat Sinai). The group has been more active since 2013 following Al-Sisi’s coup d’état penetrating unprecedented series of terrorist acts against Egypt since its formation in 2011.

Tensions between the Egyptian military and Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdes have resulted in direct engagement of violence resulting in civilian casualties. Dozens of civilians were killed in military operations and others were killed or kidnapped by militants. While the jihadi group claims victories against Egyptian coercive force, the military in return claims significant success against the terrorist group on all levels.

According to Brigadier-General Mohammad Samir, the spokesman of the Egyptian military forces, the recent clashes between the Egyptian military and the terrorist Jihadi group have resulted in the death of 59 militants, destroying two of their weapon storage stashes and arresting four persons involved in terrorist acts against the state, including the militant Ahmed Jamal Salem, who is involved in explosives making. In return, according to Samir, seven soldiers were killed dead during the fight on 18/07/2015.

While the Egyptian forces, be it security, police or military, are constantly working to dry what they call “the terrorist spots”, repressive measures were taken across the country limiting freedoms and pluralism. On the other hand, the terrorist group, Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdes, follows the steps of ISIS in instilling fear in the hearts of those it controls to strike back at its enemies. Admittedly both parties are using the force of coercion to contain each other. Both are pouring in the same propaganda machine that “the terrorist ISIS wing in Sinai is very strong and dominant”. The group claims strength to attract more fighters while the Egyptian state attempts to show internal and external observers that they are defending the Middle East and the world for that matter against terrorism. In reality, it doesn’t seem so.

Before the recent operation of the Egyptian military in Sinai, the terrorist organization was significantly crippled in the first of July after their attempt to enter Shaikh Zuwaid city on July 1. After five days of intensified fighting, the Egyptian military claimed to have terminated over 241 militants, arrested over 30 suspected persons and destroyed 79 vehicles belong to the terrorist group including weapons and artillery. The military claimed shutting four main centres of Ansar Bayt Al-Maqdes and weakened their communications systems significantly.

Terrorist attacks have decreased significantly since 30 June 2015 especially by the second week of July, according to a report by the Parliamentarian Elections Observation Mission. The average number of terrorist crimes decreased to 83 during the period between 3-9 July 2015, then to 63 crimes in the period between 10-16 July 2015 in comparison with 111 terrorist crimes in the last week of June, according to the same report.

While Egypt under Al-Sisi claims to be the guardian of the “civilized world” against terrorism, terrorist attacks have increased in Egypt since 2013. Egypt wasn’t even one of the main countries hit by terrorism over the recent years. So what happened?

“78% of all terrorist attacks have happened in 10 countries – Iraq, Pakistan, Afghanistan, India, Thailand, Russia, Somalia, Nigeria, Yemen and Colombia,” according to the British Aon Risk Solutions’ 2015 guide to Terrorism & Political Violence risk. Egypt wasn’t even in the hot spot. In 2015 terrorism witnessed decline in countries such as Russia and Colombia, “while Libya and Egypt standout as having seen significant increases.”

The report notes that: “Under President Al-Sisi, the main peril in Egypt is terrorism. A popular mandate, strongly autocratic rule, intensified security and stringent laws against the protests have contributed to reduced risks related to unrest and insurrection, and the lowering of the country risk score from high to severe.”

Jihadi terrorist groups claim that the intensified repression of security forces have increased dissatisfaction and escalated attacks against the state in 2014 – 2015. Oppression, according to Aon’s report, seems to function as a justification to carry out attacks against the Egyptian state.

While Bedouin and Islamist militias were involved in attacks against the Egyptian state since 2011, they intensified their attacks following the removal of Mohammad Morsi in 2013. Based on this “coincidence” these militant militias were linked, at least rhetorically, to the Muslim Brotherhood.

Minimizing chances to channel frustration and feeling of injustice makes violence a viable option. While Egypt is vehemently fighting against terrorism, it failed to address the main reasons that produce such violent movements. Sinai was considered as an operations area and was not fully socially, politically or economically integrated in the Egyptian society leaving a huge margin for radical groups to flourish far from the state’s check.

Pro-government fighters in Yemen have received weapons shipments in the war-torn city of Aden, as Shiite rebels scramble to deploy reinforcements, military officials said Sunday.

Military and port officials in Aden said new heavy and medium weapons and ammunition arrived in Aden in late July by sea to support pro-government army divisions and militias against the Shiite Houthi rebels and allied military units.

The officials said tanks, artillery, missiles and armored vehicles were included in the shipment from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have been waging a US-backed air campaign against the Iran-supported rebels since March.

After months of fierce fighting, pro-government fighters have recently pushed rebels out of Aden and advanced in Taiz, Yemen’s third-largest city.

On Saturday, Yemen’s Prime Minister Khaled Bahah made a symbolic visit to Aden, two weeks after loyalist forces ousted Houthi terrorists from the city.

Bahah, the highest ranking official to return to the southern city since the government announced its liberation in mid-July, is also vice president in Yemen’s internationally recognized government. He moved out of Yemen with President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi and his team in March when the terrorists entered Aden.

Several government officials also arrived in Aden on a separate plane from Saudi Arabia. They will supervise work under way to reopen public buildings, including the resumption of broadcasts at state television and radio, and restore services in the city.

The fighting in Yemen pits the Houthis and troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh against southern separatists, local and tribal militias, Sunni Islamic militants and loyalists of exiled President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is now in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia said one of its citizens was killed Sunday when a house inside the kingdom was struck by fire from neighboring Yemen.

A civil defense spokesman, Ali bin Omair Al-Shahrani, said in comments to the official Saudi Press Agency that the Saudi was killed in the border town of Najran.

During my time in Congress, I regularly introduced legislation forbidding organizations that perform abortions from receiving federal funding. The US Government should not force taxpayers to subsidize an activity they believe is murder. Thus, while I was horrified by the recently released videos showing Planned Parenthood officials casually discussing selling the organs of aborted babies, I am glad that the reaction to these videos has renewed efforts to end federal funding of abortion.

My experience in Congress does not leave me optimistic that federal funding of Planned Parenthood will be ended this year, however. This is not just because the current US president is pro-abortion. When I started my efforts to end taxpayer support of abortion, I was shocked to find out how many Republicans, including some self-described “pro-life” leaders, were unsupportive of, and sometimes hostile to, my efforts.

Most pro-life politicians preferred to add language to funding bills prohibiting federal funds from being used for abortions, rather than denying federal funds to abortion providers. This approach does not stop US taxpayers from subsidizing abortions. The reason is that money is fungible. Giving Planned Parenthood $100 to use for non-abortion activities allows it to spend an additional $100 of its non-government funds on abortion.

Foreign interventionists in both parties were particularly hostile to my efforts to eliminate federal funding for international organizations that performed or promoted abortions. This is a foolish policy that gives people around the globe another reason to resent the US government.

Planned Parenthood may have abandoned the explicitly racist and eugenic views of its founder Margaret Sanger, but the majority of its abortion “services” are still provided to lower-income and minority women. Every day nearly 2,000 African-American babies lose their lives to abortion, a rate five times higher than the Caucasian abortion rates.

I support the black lives matter movement. I have long advocated an end to the drug war, police militarization, and other threats to liberty that disproportionately victimize African-Americans. However, I wish some of the black lives matter movement’s passion and energy was directed to ending abortion. Unborn black lives also matter.

The federal government has no constitutional authority to permit, fund, or even outlaw abortion. Therefore, efforts to make abortion a federal crime are just as unconstitutional as efforts to prohibit states from outlawing abortion. A Congress that truly cared about the Constitution would end all federal funding for abortion and pass legislation restricting federal jurisdiction over abortion, thus returning the issue to the states.

While passing legislation may help limit abortion, the pro-life movement will never succeed unless it changes people’s attitudes toward the unborn. This is why crisis pregnancy centers, which provide care and compassion to women facing unplanned pregnancies, have done more to advance the pro-life cause then any politician. By showing women they have viable alternatives to abortion, these centers have saved many lives.

One factor hindering the anti-abortion movement’s ability to change people’s minds is that too many abortion opponents also support a militaristic foreign policy. These pro-lifers undercut their moral credibility as advocates for unborn American lives when they display a callous indifference to the lives of Iraqi, Iranian, and Afghan children.

Libertarians who support abortion should ask themselves how they can expect a government that does not respect the unborn’s right to life to respect their property rights. Therefore, all those who wish to create a society of liberty, peace, and prosperity should join me in advocating for a consistent ethic of life and liberty that respects the rights of all persons, born and unborn.

This article was published by RonPaul Institute.

A 5.7-magnitude earthquake, equal to the most damaging in country’s history, has hit near the coast of Queensland in northeastern Australia, senior seismologist from Geoscience Australia Dan Jaksa said.

“This is equivalent to the earthquake that occurred in 1989 in Newcastle, which of course is the most damaging earthquake in Australia’s history,” Jaksa said Saturday, as quoted by ABC News.

Jaksa said that a 5-magnitude earthquake is equivalent to an atomic bomb, but Queensland had avoided a disaster because the epicentres were offshore.

He added that the 5.7-magnitude earthquake and the two subsequent ones were the aftershocks of a 5.3-magnitude quake that hit the region on Thursday and was felt by people over 125 miles away.

The Joint Australian Tsunami Warning Centre did not issue a tsunami warning.

By Vincent Bagilet*

In June 2015, the Department of Mineral Resources gazetted regulations related to hydraulic fracturing or fracking in South Africa offering a framework for the exploitation and exploration of shale gas. It could easily lead one to think that another step has been taken in the direction of the highly controversial question of industrial fracking in the Karoo basin.

However, the departments of Environmental Affairs, Water and Sanitation, Energy, Mineral Resources and Science and Technology have issued a joint statement launching a Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) for Shale Gas Development. This SEA establishes a project team which will undertake a two-year study on the possible implications of fracking on a large number of issues – from environmental to economic, including spatial planning, human health and heritage concerns. The SEA emphasises the need for further information before the start of industri-al fracking in South Africa.

This statement could be seen as another delay for applicant companies in their quest for the exploitation of the Karoo’s potential shale gas resources. Companies including Shell, Falcon and Sasol have been wait-ing since 2010 to get an exploration permit which would allow them to undertake field surveys. Indeed, even if the regulation around fracking could lead to the issuing of exploration permits, an industrial process should fortunately not start before the end of the investigation into the impact of fracking in the Karoo.

The sluggish application process reflects the myriad and valid concerns related to fracking.

There is a credible risk that fracking can lead to water contamination. Fracking is also thought to be responsible for air pollution and contributing to global warming through the leakage of methane gas into the atmosphere. Moreover, the process is criticised for the huge quantities of water used. The use of the collected gas also remains a critical point: ultimately, the gas is burned, emitting greenhouse gases (GHGs) into the atmosphere and exacerbating climate change conditions.

Nevertheless, the use of shale gas is commonly couched as a transition to a greener future. Half the amount of CO2 is released in the production of one MW of electricity by burning shale gas compared to the use of coal in the same. However, coal remains the primary source of electricity generation in South Africa and it is important to remember that while appearing to be less harmful than coal, shale gas still releases significantly more GHGs than other energy sources such as solar, nuclear, hydro or wind.

These concerns have motivated some countries to restrict fracking. For example, in France fracking has been prohibited since 2011 by virtue of a decision taken by the French parliament. However, in the US, fracking has been in operation for sixty years which lead to significantly less dependence on other countries for its fossil fuel needs. Indeed, in recent years, an increase in domestic gas production in the US has enabled the country to reduce its gas imports considerably.

The exploitation of shale gas could also support job creation, an increase in the country’s gross domestic product, economic growth and potential socio-economic benefits. Nevertheless, in the case of South Africa, these anticipated outcomes may have to be reevaluated because of the uncertainty around the actual deposits of shale gas in the Karoo.

Indeed, the size of the deposit appears to be the biggest issue in the shale gas debate and the anticipated socio-economic benefits are entirely dependent on its size. If the deposit is very large, it could lead to an exploitation of several years, generating significant employment and useable gas. On the contrary, if it is small, positive spillovers could be limited.

Other important concerns that are unique to South Africa must also be emphasised. One of these is the potential for competition over scarce water sources between cities, farms and fracking companies in the drier areas of the Karoo. Another important consideration is the presence of dolerite dykes in the area. This is the first occurrence of these geological structures where the exploitation of shale gas is planned. This could lead to further problems which are not yet clearly measurable.

The question of fracking is therefore complex. Shale gas is seen by many as a way to start a transition to a greener future, offering a route to produce electricity with a smaller carbon footprint. The process is also viewed as a solution to increase South Africa’s electricity generation capacity in view of the current power crisis.

However, informed by my home county’s decision on the prohibition of the exploitation of shale gas in France, fracking is not a progressive solution given the current climate debate and the concerns around the environmental impact on the fragile ecosystem of the Karoo. While a decision favouring fracking would require the development of new skills and technologies, it would also take attention away from developing new competences related to renewable and sustainable energy sources, instead entrenching a reliance on fossil fuels.

Before arriving at a final decision on fracking, the size of the deposit needs confirmation. As emphasised in the joint statement which resulted in the launch of the SEA, as well as other research in this field, more information and research are required before South Africa takes the route towards the exploitation of shale gas for industrial use. Importantly, fracking should not be considered as an immediate solution to solve South Africa’s current and urgent electricity crisis.

Given the number of concerns to be addressed by the project team for the SEA, sufficient time should be spent on obtaining the relevant information. It is also important to remember that developing a new industry around shale gas is not a sustainable alternative to the production of electricity through coal. Moreover, while skills development in fracking would be essential, it would appear more prudent to de-velop green skills instead of fossil ones.

*Vincent Bagilet is a visiting scholar at SAIIA from the Ecole Centrale Lyon and University of Lyon 2, in France.

By Ronn Pineo*

China has the largest economy in the world, larger than France, Germany, and Italy combined. By 2025 the Chinese economy should be 60 percent larger than that of the United States.¹

The emergence of China is representing a significant change in the distribution of global economic might, one that started in 1978 when China launched a grand economic transformation, adopting key elements of capitalism. China then pushed outward in the 1990s, pursuing markets beyond those of its East Asian neighbors. These initiatives brought extraordinary growth to the Chinese economy. For over three decades, from the late 1970s to the world economic crisis of 2008-2009, China grew at 10 percent or more a year, one of the longest and fastest rates of growth the world has ever seen.²

The restructuring to the Chinese economy generated a dramatic increase in its overall demand. With over 20 percent of the world’s population but only 8 percent of the arable land, China needed to import food. Moreover, as researcher Rhys Jenkins has noted, “resource constraints really began to bite in China at the end of the 1990s,” as the nation’s booming industrialization created significant input bottlenecks.³ China required massive imports of base metals and fuel to feed its growing industries. As Shanghai researcher Liu Yongtao has put it, China needed “more and more raw materials, … iron ore, copper, oil, gas, beans, corn, timber,” and much more.⁴

Responding to Demand from China

China imports 40 percent of global production of soybeans, taking 75 percent of its supplies from Brazil and Argentina. China buys a third of the iron ore sold on world markets and a fifth of the copper, with much coming from Latin America. Responding to the rising demand, between 2000 and 2013 Latin America’s trade with China rose 27 percent a year, a time when the region’s trade with the world grew just 9 percent a year. In these years trade with China increased 22 times over; with the world, just three times over. China is today Latin America’s second largest export market, after the United States.⁵

Brazil is China’s largest trade partner in Latin America, with China accounting for over 40 percent of Brazilian exports and imports. Brazil sends chiefly iron ore and soybeans, which together comprise 70 percent of their exports to China.

Beyond Brazil, Argentina sends soybeans; Venezuela, oil; Chile, copper; and Perú ships copper and fishmeal. The China connection is principally with South America, not with Central America or the Caribbean, the result of the geography of natural resource distribution. China is now the main recipient of exports from Brazil, Chile, and Perú, and the seconding leading destination for exports from Argentina and Venezuela. From 2000 to 2013 Latin American exports to China increased 25 fold, hitting nearly $100 billion USD a year. While China’s trade with Latin America has increased, the U.S. is still more important. In 2010 the U.S. took 41 percent of Latin America’s exports; China 8 percent. In 2010 the U.S. supplied 31 percent of Latin America’s imports; China, 13 percent.⁶

Answering China’s call for raw materials, Latin America’s total exports rose 17 percent a year from 2004 to 2008, fell off in 2009 during the global economic crisis, and then grew again at 25 percent a year in 2010 and 2011. Indeed, it was the trade with China which helped save some of the Latin American region from the 2008-2009 global recession, a time when exports to the U.S. and the European Union fell off sharply.⁷

Asymmetry and Re-Primatization

In 2013 Latin America supplied 7 percent of China’s imports, up from 2 percent in 2000. This is a significant increase, to be sure, but still these shipments still make up just a sliver of China’s total imports. The trade relationship is asymmetrical: China matters to Latin America, but the reserve is not really the case. Brazil is still only China’s ninth most important source of imports overall. For all the shipments of crude from Venezuela, much of it peddled by China on the re-export market, Latin America is not a key source of oil for China. China’s export trade is even more lopsided. As researcher Rhys Jenkins has noted, “China’s exports to the USA, Europe and the rest of Asia are far more significant than its exports to Latin America.”⁸

The China trade has led to another issue. Latin America is re-becoming a raw material exporter to the world, and the reason is China. In the late 1990s only about one-quarter of Latin America’s total exports were of primary products. Today nearly half of the region’s exports are of primary goods. Driven by demand from China, world prices for mining products tripled on world markets from 2000 to 2010. Such primary product exports are far less significant in Latin American shipments to the rest of the world.⁹

In a return to the classic dependency pattern, Latin America ships raw materials, and China sends back, in a smaller stream, finished products, from cell phones, laptops, textiles, shoes, and a wide array of various low-tech, low-cost manufactured items. Already by 2004 complaints were coming from Brazil and Argentina about Chinese dumping of cheap industrial products into their markets, and Mexico was complaining about illegal smuggling of goods from China into their nation.¹⁰

For Latin America the problem is not just that these economic arrangements can leave it trapped in third world-style primary product production. Raw material production generates fewer jobs when compared to other industries. When Chinese firms do open up in Latin America, and this is also beginning to happen more and more, they usually bring in their own work crews, hiring very few local workers, and least of all at the mid-level management level.¹¹

Even China admits that the present trade pattern is not good for Latin America in the long run. As Chinese President Xi Jinping noted at a summit meeting in 2014, “the development modality resulting from economic growth driven principally by … natural resource … [export] is not sustainable… [It is] a dead-end street.”¹² China’s giant strides toward industrialization, and Latin America’s retreat in this regard, may carry another cost. Researchers Kevin Gallagher and Roberto Porzecanski have argued that with China now more economically developed, there may be less room for Latin America to push into global markets, should it return to industrialization.¹³ Falling behind again in the race for economic development may not be good for the long term health of the Latin American economies. There is a cost to bear in this raw material export opportunity.

Slowing Chinese Growth

After growing at a double digit clip for several decades, in 2009 Chinese economic growth slowed to 9.1 percent, and has cooled off even more since then. In 2014 the Chinese economy grew at 7.4 percent, its worst performance in a quarter century. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean predicts it will grow at 7 percent this year, and at between 7 and 6 percent a year until 2020. As a sign of things to come, in 2014 trade between China and Latin America dropped 2 percent over 2013.¹⁴

As demand from China has fallen off, the prices fetched for key Latin American raw material exports, such as oil and copper, have sagged. These changes have had dire implications for Latin America. The world economy grew at an average annual rate of 5.1 percent a year from 2003 to 2007, falling to only 3.6 percent a year from 2011 to 2014, and in the latter period, Latin America had the slowest growth rate, at 3.1 percent, of all developing regions. Latin America’s total growth slowed to 1.1 percent in 2014, and it should do no better this year. Those Latin American nations most linked to China have suffered the most; those with the weakest links to China–Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean–have been harmed the least. As the China trade slows, Mexico, whose economy is still more linked to the United States, will outgrow most nations in the region, and Bolivia, selling essential fuel to Brazil and Argentina but nearly nothing to China, will be among the fastest growers.¹⁵

Chinese Investment and Loans

When the boom began little Chinese direct investment traveled to the nations of Latin America, save for some mining operations in Ecuador and Perú. Since 2010, however, more Chinese investment in Latin America has been flowing to Brazil and Perú. This year China created a $5 billion USD developmental reserve, the China-Celac Cooperation Fund (Celac or the Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños, The Community of Latin American and Caribbean States). China is now the largest source of international credit lines for Ecuador, Venezuela, and Argentina. China’s economic developmental banks today invest more in Latin America than do the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.¹⁶

China has entered into several free trade agreements in the region, with Chile in 2006, Perú in 2010, and Costa Rica in 2011. China is also the leading partner in the New Development Bank, formed in 2014 by the Brics nations as an alternative to the International Monetary Fund. Chinese president Xi Jinping met with Latin American leaders at a summit in Brasilia in July 2014 and subsequently inked an accord, the Cooperation Plan, with Celac, with the goal of increasing Latin American industrial processing of its own raw materials.¹⁷

No Strings Attached

China is swiftly moving into to position to replace the U.S. as Latin America’s leading export destination, and China seems far less determined to press for the lowest conceivable price level for raw materials.¹⁸ Unlike the U.S., there is no evident political or policy conditionality for Chinese trade, loans, or grants. As the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Aid put it, “although China’s aid is limited, it is provided sincerely and without any conditions attached.”¹⁹ At a time when the U.S. severed ties and harshly critiqued Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez and Bolivia’s Evo Morales, both leaders traveled to China for official state visits.²⁰

The one condition that might have been imposed by China, non-recognition of Taiwan, has not really been a factor. Globally some twenty-three nations recognize Taiwan and not China, and twelve of these are in Latin America. Other than Paraguay, all are in the Caribbean and Central America. Ties with Taiwan are driven these days less by contempt for communism than by the very generous aid packages being offered up by Taipei. Yet even though Paraguay and Panamá still recognize Taiwan, each still obtains a significant portion of their imports from China.²¹

Conclusions

The emergence of a more capitalist-oriented China, one committed to free trade and growth, allowed many South American states to flourish economically in recent decades, albeit in a developmentally problematical and environmentally unsustainable manner. There was something of a major coincidence in this, for the boom in the China trade coincided with the rise of the left across much of Latin America. The resulting surge in commodity prices has been fortuitous for progressive governance, allowing the anti-capitalist left to enjoy economic good times.

Previously, Latin American neoliberalism in the 1980s and 1990s championed increased globalization, including more trade with China. If would be fair to conclude that this rising commerce with China was at least in part the product of neoliberalism’s embrace of global trade. To be sure, rising copper prices helped the right of center, free market-oriented governments in Chile and Perú, but soy and iron ore profits poured into center-left Brazil, the soy trade buoyed the left-wing nations of Uruguay, Paraguay, and Argentina, and spiking oil prices benefitted the hard-left nations of Venezuela and Ecuador.²² Without the China-led commodity price rise, the left in Latin America would surely have suffered at the polls. Ironically, it has been Chinese free trade capitalism that has helped to raise the fortunes of the Latin American anti-capitalist left. But as the China trade ebbs and export revenues dry up, hard times may lie ahead for the commodity export-dependent governments of the Latin American left.

*Ronn Pineo, Senior Research Fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs

Notes:

1. Latin American and the Caribbean and China: Towards a New Era in Economic Cooperation. (Santiago, Chile, 2015), 25; Mark Weisbrot, “The World has Nothing to Fear from the US Losing Power,” The Guardian (London, U.K.), May 3, 2014.
2. Adrian H. Hearn and José Luis León-Manríquez, “China and Latin America: A New Era of an Old Exchange,” chapter in, Hearn and León-Manríquez, editors, China Engages Latin America: Tracing the Trajectory (Boulder, 2011), 10; Liu Yongtao, “Promote China-Latin America Relations in the 21^st Century,” Globalization, Competitiveness & Governability 6:1 (January-April 2012), 119.
3. Rhys Jenkins, “Latin America and China—A New Dependency?” Third World Quarterly 33:7 (2012), 1338; Hearn and León-Manríquez, “China and Latin America,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, 10.
4. Yongtao, “Promote China-Latin America Relations,” Globalization, Competitiveness & Governability, 119.
5. David Shambaugh, “Forword,” chapter in, Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, xv; Hearn and León-Manríquez, “China and Latin America,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, 10; ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 39, 44; Yongtao, “Promote China-Latin America Relations,” Globalization, Competitiveness & Governability, 123.
6. Juan de Onis, “China’s Latin Connection: Eclipsing the US?” World Affairs (January/February 2014), 63-63; Shambaugh, “Forword,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, xiv; Yongtao, “Promote China-Latin America Relations,” Globalization, Competitiveness & Governability, 125; Jenkins, “Latin America and China,” Third World Quarterly, 1350, 1352-1353; Barbara Hogenboom, “Depoliticized and Repoliticized Minerals in Latin America,” Journal of Developing Societies 28:2 (April 2012), 142; Barbara Hogenboom, “Latin America and China’s Transnationalizing Oil Industry: A Political Economy Assessment of New Relations,” Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 13 (2014), 631; ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 14.
7. ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 19; Jenkins, “Latin America and China,” Third World Quarterly, 1353.
8. ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 38; Jenkins, “Latin America and China,” Third World Quarterly, 1345, 1348.
9. Hogenboom, “Depoliticized and Repoliticized Minerals,” Journal of Developing Societies, 141; Jenkins, “Latin America and China,” Third World Quarterly, 1344; ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 41.
10. Shambaugh, “Forword,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, xv; Yongtao, “Promote China-Latin America Relations,” Globalization, Competitiveness & Governability, 119.
11. ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 44; Eric Farnsworth, “The New Mercantilism: China’s Emerging Role in the Americas,” Current History 110:733 (February 2011), 59.
12. Chinese President Xi Jinping, quoted in, ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 23.
13. Gallagher and Porzecanski discussed in, Hearn and León-Manríquez, “China and Latin America,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, 5.
14. Yongtao, “Promote China-Latin America Relations,” Globalization, Competitiveness & Governability, 120; ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 6, 13, 23, 35.
15. ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 9, 10, 14, 16; Farnsworth, “New Mercantilism,” Current History, 57.
16. Hans Steinmüller, “China’s Growing Influence in Latin America,” Europa World (London, 2015); ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 59, 60; Kevin Gallagher, “Why Latin America Should Not Squander the China Boom,” BBC News, January 27, 2015; de Onis, “China’s Latin Connection,” World Affairs, 64; Hogenboom, “Depoliticized and Repoliticized Minerals,” Journal of Developing Societies, 143.
17. ECLAC. Latin American and the Caribbean and China, 6, 39.
18. Shambaugh, “Forword,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, xv.
19. Quoted in, José Luis León-Manríquez and Adrian H. Hearn, “China, Latin America, and the Trajectory of Change,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, 283.
20. Steinmüller, “China’s Growing Influence,” Europa World.
21. Shambaugh, “Forword,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, x; Steinmüller, “China’s Growing Influence,” Europa World; Hearn and León-Manríquez, “China and Latin America,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, 18; Jenkins, “Latin America and China,” Third World Quarterly, 1347.
22. Hearn and León-Manríquez, “China and Latin America,” in Hearn and León-Manríquez, China Engages Latin America, 10.

By Jorge Emilio Sierra Montoya*

James Austin, a professor at Harvard University and one of the highest academic authorities in the world of entrepreneurial social responsibility, conducts an in depth study of sustainable development, mostly related to the sustainability which is preferred to be called by many analysts as RSE. As a great academician, he is a friend of clarifying concepts and before entering in this field. He begins to question the meaning of Sustainable Development.

This concept – he explains – comes above all since 1987, later on was expanded in the Summit of Rio de Janeiro and no, twenty years later, was discussed in depth in the most recent conference Rio+20 (where indeed was underlined that the Millennium Objectives would be, from now on, Objectives of Sustainable Development.

And immediately formulates his definition, as it was expected: sustainable development is to satisfy the needs of current generations without compromising the possibilities of satisfying the needs of future generations.” Our needs must be taken care of, for sure, but for that reason, there must not be affected our sons and nephews.

“Living today without killing tomorrow”, it is precise in a very graphic form, very easy to understand, in order to demonstrate the commitment that we have, which we cannot avoid, with those who will continue to inhabit the planet, where human survival, and life in general, are in danger. Let’s see why.
In this respect, Austin recalls the triple dimension (economic, social and environment) which identifies the call for sustainability that is fundamental for sustainable development. As a fact, it insists in the interaction of the three sectors, which establishes other concepts that are key to development.

In the first place, so that development is feasible, thanks to the equilibrium between the economical and environmental; in the second expression, so that is equitable, for the equilibrium between the economical and the social, and for last, so that is livable, for the equilibrium between the social and environmental. There are three circles that are intertwined in order to reach Sustainable Development as a final result.

Why it is not feasible?

For a misfortune, we are far away from reaching a situation that is ideal such as this one. In contrary, all indicates that circumstances of the moment, very critical in the three levels, make our life in the planet not sustainable at a very early time, as it is very easy to demonstrate.

To this effect – observes Austin – the pressure of economic and demographic development over the natural resources (water, air, flora and fauna…) is enormous, while provoking a growing ecological deficit which emerges in our rear view mirror even more so in the last decades, since 1970, a growing and worrisome phenomenon brought together: the industrial waste cannot be recycled at the same speed as they are produced. As one year of bio-capacity consumption takes one year and a half to regenerate, the situation becomes not sustainable at a medium and long term. It is not even feasible at the economic levels!

In terms of demographic aspects, it cannot even be mentioned. The pressure at this magnitude is also great towards the natural resources: at the half of this century, the world’s population will exceed the nine billion people, while being today at seven billion; 80% of the population lives (or survives) in the countries with less income, in which the majority is in a reproductive age which is different from the population in developed countries, and concentration in urban areas reaches 70% in Latin America, although in Colombia it goes up to 82%.

This fact, added together with the economic problems mentioned above, is not sustainable, neither development – as we just mentioned – is feasible. It’s a very dark image, indeed.

But, what to say in terms of equality and “the livable; the other two aspects of Sustainable Development? The situation is not getting better, not even more optimistic. Again sustainability of the current model emerges full of obstacles and problems, while placing at risk the future of humanity.

Equitable or livable?

The recent model of development is neither equitable, according to Austin. And it is easy to confirm this, with various indicators at our hands: a minority of rich countries consumes 80% of natural resources, meanwhile the majority of poor countries barely consumes 1.3%, which explains at a greater length the hunger that reigns in these regions, where there is also a little access to public services, which heavily affect the quality of living.

But also: the poor countries are those that suffer from eco-degradation, with the corresponding loss of biodiversity, that is estimated at 60% as compared to 7% in the developing countries.

This is not sustainable, neither it is the progress that we need”, insists Austin in a very critical tone, in a tacit implication to the biodiversity that we posses in Colombia, which is our most important wealth.

And in regards to the relation between the social and environmental, the problems are evident, not only for the loss in biodiversity (there are 22 thousand species that are at the brink of extinction, every year!), its principal cause: is the global warming, exposed at a higher level of warmth as compared to the last decades, an unprecedented case for the millennial history of our planet.

It is calculated, for example, that at the end of XXI Century the sea levels would rise from 18 to 59 centimeters in average, although in certain areas it will reach from one to two meters, due to phenomena of ice melting in glaciers, not even mentioning the economic consequences, as Stern had anticipated while measuring the impact of global warming in the world economy.

While it seems, it requires 1% of the global GDP to mitigate the effects of climate changes, if we don’t act quickly we will have a global economic recession, equivalent to the 20% of the world’s GDP. “Preventing this catastrophe is an excellent business model”, comments Austin about the high profit return of a similar investment that remains to be seen.

Questions, above all, the high levels of deforestation in countries such as Brazil, where there is being destroyed this pillow of environmental security which is are vast jungles of the Amazon, and attacks, infinitely, the carbon emissions due to the effects generated, maintains the area away from erosion and helps avoid bad administration of water, a service that billions of people do not have in the world.

“We should produce more food with less water”, says Austin in front of the entrepreneurs.

Now, what about companies?

Austin raises the question: what is the relation of the entrepreneurial sector with these problems? While pointing out the process that has taken place during the last fifty years: in the 1960s, exploitation of the resources, with little regulations; in the 1970s, obedience to the law but in a reactive form; in the 1980s, a proactive attitude, reducing the costs; in the 1990s emerged the eco-efficiency, and from 2000, we have the search for a sustainable development under the framework of Entrepreneurial Social Responsibility.

In respect to these phenomena, he distinguished Sustainable Development, as a strategic element, while considering the environment as the launching point of the world movement in favor of Entrepreneurial Social Responsibility, conceived by him as an effective strategy so that companies could generate an economic and social value, a synthesis par excellence of his theory.

About the companies of public services and communications, he says that they are key in order to accomplish the sustainable development, whose quality depends precisely from the quality of such services, which undergo through the demands of sustainable development in order to have successful business plan.
“There the interdependence is obliged, much more than in other sectors”, sustains the time that it demands an adequate participation of these companies for the construction of sustainable cities, another great challenges which in his opinion should face the world.

Now the companies have their word.

* Director, Revista “Desarrollo Indoamericano”,  la Universidad Simón Bolívar de Barranquilla, Colombia

Source: http://www.eje21.com.co/2015/06/los-tres-pilares-del-desarrollo-sostenible/

Translated from Spanish Language: Peter M. Tase

Hindu statesman Rajan Zed has called on the leaders of various religions and denominations to put up a joint fight against the reportedly staggering amount of infidelity in Canada’s capital Ottawa.

According to reports, cheating website “Ashley Madison”, whose tagline is “Life is short. Have an affair”, has 189,810 Ottawa accounts, while its population reportedly is 883,391; which means more than one in five residents. Moreover, there could be other adulterers also who were not “Ashley Madison” members.

Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, in a statement in Nevada today, said that as all major religions strongly condemned adultery, this was a good cause to show religious unity in fight against the evil of adultery, which was the major cause of divorces resulting in break-up of families.

Roman Catholics being the single largest religious group in Ottawa, Archdiocese of Ottawa should lead the effort, involving other Christian denominations — Anglican, United Church, Orthodox, Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal, etc., — as well as Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, Sikhs, and others, Zed suggested.

Zed urged Archbishop of Ottawa, Most Reverend Terrence Thomas Prendergast, to take the lead, and offered Hindu help for the cause.

Religions needed to act before infidelity became a norm, Zed added.

Cynicism of mediocrity is a lack of eyesight and a surplus of blindness (S.H.)

If you just put aside 30 minutes and see the popularity of mediocrity (so-called “celebrity, intellectual and elite people”) within the area of South-East Europe you will be able to completely confirm Noam Chomsky’s tenth strategy for manipulation:

“To encourage the public to be complacent with mediocrity … Promote the public to believe that the fact is fashionable to be stupid, vulgar and uneducated…”

So, let’s begin:

In Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Kosovo*, Slovenia it all too often appears that the most popular people are those for whom we are, usually, saying that they are stupid, vulgar and uneducated – politicians, drug dealers, tycoons (owners of the soccer clubs), red-neck singers, criminals. Indeed, even if we do not mention several individual cases of athletes, soccer and tennis players, the most popular ones are those listed above.

Why?

Simply put, because it can be shown that this is the ultimate goal for everybody to reach their maximum potential is through identifying themselves with the above-mentioned types of people, instead of being identified with inventors, university professors, humanitarian volunteers, writers and scientists.

Again, why?

Because, in that case you will not ask expletive questions regarding any of the truly important issues. Instead, you will simply adjust yourself to the general setup of stupidity, vulgarity and uneducated sense of living.

But, let us see if the people with whom we are identified are really just that?

Stupidity

THEY: All of them have good positions, income and decision-making posts within society, regardless of their quotient of intelligence.

US: We can dream about that and through identification, at least, become like them, regardless of anything. Just being like them. Being stupid or not.

Vulgarity

THEY: It is so funny when we hear and see them cursing each other through the yellow (or in public) press and it shows that they are just like all of us, simple people.

US: They are fashion-makers and if they curse, we can do so also.

Uneducated

THEY: Even though they have finished only “evening schools” or not any school at all, they have everything! Even, if they went through some schools and/or university, the school and/or university did not go through them at all.

US: Why would we not do the same? Who gives a sh…t about school if it is easy to be like them.

Outside of the region, if we look at some of the former presidents of USA (George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, maybe…or Sarah Palin as one of the candidates to become one?) we are able to see that it is a general problem (or solution) for the whole world. Not to mention that politician leaders within the South East Europe region — among which you can count on the fingers of one hand — how many of them deserve respect (out of thousands).

Are we faced with Conspiracy theory?

Not at all, but just with the plan of the rulers all around the world to make it easy to govern, by becoming stupid, vulgar and/or uneducated, and making it easier for them to be much easier manipulated.

For what cause?

Since Plato’s time – The state will never cease to exist. We have just to adjust our Media (il)literacy to it. More we know who they are, the less manipulated we will be.

How to achieve that?

Easy, through the implementation within the curriculum of schools, from the primary level and up to university level, the following subject:

Media literacy

Why?

To upgrade the knowledge towards the establishment of a society that will serve their citizens. Not to manipulate them. It will be a very difficult trip, but the longest trip starts with the first step and to upload the essence instead of the shape.

Has anybody in the World made it? Not yet.

Nobody would like to be the first one. It is more important nowadays to know more about Kim Kardashian or Justin Bieber than anything else, so far.

But, as I said, who will be the first?

There was this guy, 2015 years ago, who tried exactly something along these lines, including among other things for the good of the people to establish a society that would serve its citizens. The same citizens that he was trying to help, however, crucified him first and then afterwards glorified him. As usual, our (society at large) first step is always the wrong one.

Please, for the first time, let us begin with the right step.

Israeli police on Sunday sealed the gates of occupied East Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound amid calls by Jewish extremist groups to storm the holy site.

“Israeli police have stepped up security in the area, deploying hundreds of troops and setting up roadblocks at the mosque’s entrances,” mosque director Omar al-Qiswani told Anadolu Agency.

“Only women and men over 30 years old were allowed to enter the mosque after undergoing rigorous searches,” he said.

Tension has been running high at the flashpoint mosque complex following the murder last week of a Palestinian infant by suspected Jewish extremists.

Ali Saeed Dawabsheh, an 18-month-old Palestinian child, burned to death early Friday after suspected Jewish settlers torched his home in the village of Duma in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Dawabsheh’s parents and brother were seriously injured in the attack.

For Muslims, Al-Aqsa represents the world’s third holiest site. Jews, for their part, refer to the area as the “Temple Mount,” claiming it was the site of two prominent Jewish temples in ancient times.

Original article

One-and-a-half year old Ali Saad Dawabsha became the latest victim of Israeli violence on July 31. He was burnt to death. Other members of his family were also severely burnt in a Jewish settlers’ attack on their home in the village of Duma, near Nablus, in the West Bank.

A spokesman for Rabbis for Human Rights told Al Jazeera Arabic that this is the tenth attack on Nablus by settlers in July. A statement issued by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) provided an even more alarming statistic, putting the number of Jewish settlers’ attacks, some of them lethal, at an estimated 11,000 since the end of 2014.

Ali Dawabsha is not the first Palestinian child to be burnt to death, although the story of Mohamed Abu Khdeir who was tortured and burnt alive by a group of Jewish extremists in July 2014 now serves as a hideous benchmark for Israeli settler violence, which is often conducted under the watchful eye of – or as part of larger violent campaign led by – the Israeli army.

Despite Israeli political theater and statements of condemnations following Abu Khdeir’s grisly murder, Israeli violence against Palestinians is part and parcel of Israel’s Occupation policy, draped in numerous crimes gone unpunished.

Little Ali is no different from the 490 Palestinians killed in Israel’s last summer war on Gaza, which killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, mostly civilians. The Dawabsha family home, which was completely burnt, (while Ali’s mother, father and brother, Ahmed, all sustained serious burns) was no different from the 20,000 Gaza homes which, according to the UN,were destroyed during the Israeli carnage in the Strip.

The West Bank and Gaza, despite physical separation and Palestinian factionalism, are united by a rapport of suffering and a trail of blood that proves stronger than the Hamas-Fatah dispute. They are also united in the perception of Israel, which sees Ali and all Palestinian toddlers as a demographic threat to the ‘Jewish identity’ of the state.

In its statement, the PLO held Israel ‘fully responsible’ for Ali’s murder and the burning of his family and their home. The “brutal assassination” of Ali is “a direct consequence of decades of impunity given by the Israeli Government to settler terrorism,” said PLO Official, Saeb Erekat.

Of course, the statement is accurate, and if these words were uttered by anyone other than the ‘Chief Negotiator’ of the Palestinian Authority (PA), one could have taken them seriously. Alas, such statements only highlight the duplicity and contradiction of the official Palestinian position. In fact, one cannot help but feel that the PA is partly responsible for Ali’s death. The reasons are as follows.

Israel’s impunity is encouraged by many factors, including US-Western backing and the lack of international will to hold Israel – Government, army and settlers – accountable for their crimes. But that impunity is also encouraged by the Palestinian leadership itself, which lives in a massive political and economic bubble in Ramallah, in the West Bank.

Erekat is a resident in the Ramallah bubble. His job consists of two main aspects: to sustain the charade using all the right sounding words, that the PA and Israel are locked in some sort of a perpetual conflict (although they are not) while concurrently working closely with Israel to ensure the survival of the PA.

The PA cannot exist without Israeli support, as Israel’s military Occupation and illegal settlement expansion cannot be sustained without the security arm of the PA, which has suppressed any serious resistance to Israel in the West Bank. Using ‘security coordination’, the PA apprehends any Palestinian who dares pose a threat, real or imagined, to the Israeli occupation and the settlers.

In other words, the PA helps in ensuring the safety of the settlers, like those who killed Ali and many others like him.

Naturally, facing little or no resistance, the settlements are growing. The latest planned expansion was just announced by Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who plans to construct hundreds of new illegal settlement homes on confiscated Palestinian land, in the Jewish settlements of Pisget Ze’ev, Ramot, Gilo and Harhoma in Jerusalem.

In his statement, Erekat did not forget to link the murder of Ali: “We cannot separate the barbaric attack that took place in Duma last night from the recent settlement approval by the Israeli Government, a Government which represents an Israeli national coalition for settlements and Apartheid.”

But he, along with his boss, Mahmoud Abbas, intends to do nothing about it. On the contrary, despite his and other PA officials’ fiery statements, the constant message the PA, in actuality, sends to Israel is that Palestinians are okay with the status quo, and business will carry on as usual, burnt babies or not.

Consider this as an example: the PA Central Council voted in March to halt negotiations and security coordination with Israel. The decision, meant for public consumption mostly, hardly mattered, as top PA officials, including Erekat himself, held recent ‘secret’ talks with Israeli Government officials in Amman, Jordan.

According to Tayseer Khalid of the “Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine”, speaking to Ma’an, “Sadly the PLO Executive Committee and Palestinian leaders know about such meetings only from the Israeli media.”

‘Sadly’, indeed, especially since the Amman meeting was designated as a ‘trust-building’ strategy (a clue that America had a hand in it), and which included Erekat and Israeli Interior Minister, Silvan Shalom.

But that is, in fact, the actual PA strategy in all of its deficiencies and contradictions. The cornerstone of that strategy is to sell as many brands, no matter how conflicting, to different groups of people for the sake of self-preservation. Erekat is, perhaps, often the scapegoat, since he is the most visible face of the PA apparatus but numerous others, too, are implicated in selling mirages to the Palestinian people, while taking part in preserving the very violent occupation that is destroying Palestinian society, robbing it of land, water, and dignity.

A few hours after Ali’s murder, PA officials were scheduled to line up in Ramallah, in front of Abbas, as four new ministers were being sworn in. The revamping of the so-called unity government took place without the approval of Hamas, thus hammering the last nail in the Palestinian Unity coffin which never actualized, to begin with.

The four new ministers, who ultimately have no real authority under the rule of the Israeli Occupation, will read al-Fatiha (verses of the Quran) on the soul of Palestine’s latest ‘hero martyr’, little Ali. A real or fake tear by one or more officials might be highlighted in the Ramallah media to accentuate the emotional bond between the Ramallah bubble and all Palestinians. The charade will carry on for a few more months or years, where the PA will fight against the Occupation using every word available, and fight for the occupation using every means available.

This is the sad tale of the Palestinian leadership and its Ramallah bubble, which is yet to burst.

Sri Lanka plans to achieve an economic growth beyond 8 percent in the next three years while keeping the budget deficit reduced to 5.5 percent of Gross National Production (GDP).

Sri Lanka’s Finance Minister has informed the Cabinet that the government plans to prepare the Budget for the year 2016 to achieve those economic goals.

In addition, the 2016 budget will aim to maintain the state investment level between 6 – 8percent of the GDP and encourage the private sector investment between 22 – 24percent of the GDP to maintain a total investment level of the economy at 30 percent of the GDP.

According to the Minister, the Ministry of Finance is in the process of formulation of the annual national budget for 2016 within the Medium Term Budgetary Framework for 2016-2018 in consultation with the relevant line Ministries.

Since it has been a practice for decades to settle a significant amount of carried forward liabilities at the following budget year, the targets of development programs have not been reached on time and as a result, allocated resources for the year are not sufficient to meet the requirement of the budget year.

Also with these developments, cash flow management of the Treasury has become extremely difficult. Therefore, the Ministry has decided to introduce Zero Based Budgeting method as a tool of budget preparation and implementation from 2016 onwards. With this method it is expected to manage the public expenditure prudently. Accordingly, the Department of National Budget will issue a Budget Call 2016 including guidelines of preparation of this year’s budget within the targets of Medium Term Budgetary Framework.

Further, all spending agencies are requested to prepare their estimate for 2016 under the Medium Term Budgetary Framework by using the zero based budgeting method in which reviewing missions, objectives and functions of Ministries/ departments/ institutions and assessing the relevance of all activities being carried out so far, in the current context are considered integral elements.

An Annual Budget will be prepared with a starting point of “0” and the expenditure will be limited to approve budgetary provisions so that any issue associated with carry forward expenditure should not arise. Resource allocation to the Ministries is based on the sectoral ceilings.

Accordingly, the consultation process with the spending agencies will commence in the 1st week of August 2015.

If one considers the factors that powered the rise of ISIS in Iraq and Syria – political instability, a weak counter-terrorism policy, Sunni predominance, and enormous natural resources — Dzhamiliya Kochoyan says, one is driven to the conclusion that Turkmenistan is at greater risk of an ISIS attack than any other country in Central Asia.

The Regnum analyst points out that “to find information about any political aspect of Turkmenistan is quite difficult” because it is “a closed republic, the foreign political strategy of which is based on the principles of positive neutrality” but several recent developments have exposed its vulnerabilities (regnum.ru/news/polit/1947695.html).

These developments have highlighted three risk factors: First, as in Iraq, she writes, “terrorists in Turkmenistan can unleash clashes along the Afghan-Turkmen border,” a place that from a security point of view is “the ‘Achilles’ heel’ of Turkmenistan” and one that makes that country an especially tempting target for militants connected with ISIS.

Problems along the border are made worse by the weakness of the Turkmenistan military. Not only has it been unable to conduct an effective draft, but it has seen the size of its forces fall from 200,000 to 50,000. Moreover, Kochoyan writes, Ashgabat has not developed a serious anti-terrorist program or thought how to defend the country given “the absence of natural barriers.”

Second, ISIS strategy in the past has focused on the seizure of energy resources so as to be able to sell them in order to finance ISIS military and terrorist activities. At present, Kochoyan says, Turkmenistan has the fourth largest natural gas reserves in the world — and most of them are undeveloped.

And third, ISIS is most effective when it is operating in a Sunni Muslim area. “The overwhelming majority of Muslims” in Turkmenistan are Sunni; and the ethnic Turkmens in Mary velayat are primarily Sunni as well. That makes the Mary district a doubly attractive target for ISIS: it has human resources and it has natural gas.

Kochoyan’s argument is cogent, but there are two caveats to that conclusion. On the one hand, as she points out, outsiders know less about Turkmenistan than they do about any other country in the region. Consequently, much that is written about it is speculative rather than based on hard evidence.

And on the other, Russian commentators and especially those linked to agencies like Regnum have an agenda: they want to force Ashgabat to give up its neutrality and join the Moscow-led camp. Suggesting that Turkmenistan can’t defend itself against ISIS and that no one but Russia will is a powerful argument from that perspective.

By Krishan Dutt

The 34-nation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) faults rich and emerging countries of the bloc for lack of a national strategy on protecting online privacy or funding research in this area. This, it says in a new report, tends to be viewed as a matter for law enforcement authorities to handle.

The report titled OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2015 however notes that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are transforming the ways social interactions and personal relationships are conducted, with fixed, mobile and broadcast networks converging, and devices and objects increasingly connected to form the Internet of Things (IoT).

The term implies the connection of most devices and objects over time to a network of networks. It encompasses developments in machine-to-machine communication, the cloud, big data and sensors, actuators and people. According to the report, this convergence will lead to machine learning, remote control and eventually autonomous machines and systems.

Estimates indicate that 25 billion devices could be connected by 2020, but challenges remain in gathering concrete and accurate data on the widespread use of IoT technology, now and in the future. Adoption will, therefore, depend to a large extent on the capacity of governments to create an adequate regulatory framework in key areas including telecommunication, privacy and consumer policy, says the report.

The report covers areas from broadband penetration and industry consolidation to network neutrality and cloud computing in the 34-nation bloc and its partner countries like Brazil, Colombia and Egypt. The report stresses the need to do more to offer ICT skills training to help people transition to new types of digital jobs.

According to the report, broadband markets are expanding, with an increase in wireless broadband subscriptions – reaching close to 1 billion subscriptions in the OECD area – offsetting a decrease in fixed telephony. The performance of communication networks is improving with the deployment of fibre and 4G, while prices are declining, in particular for mobile services.

“There is significant potential to expand coverage and improve the quality of fixed and mobile broadband infrastructures. New OECD methodology for measuring advertised fixed broadband speeds will facilitate governments’ ability to maintain progress towards the Internet of Things (IoT),” says the OECD report.

With growing demands placed on networks and more spectrum resources needing to be allocated to mobile communications, the complementarity of fixed and mobile networks will need to be exploited, the report adds.

“The potential is huge for increased adoption and use by firms of ICTs and the Internet to boost growth and innovation, across all sectors. While most firms in OECD countries have a broadband connection – 95% of all enterprises with more than 10 employees in 2014 – few use enterprise resource planning software (31%), cloud computing services (22%) or receive electronic orders (21%), the rport points out. Differences among countries and between small and large firms remain considerable, it adds.

While the digital economy pervades countless aspects of the world economy, impacting sectors as varied as banking, retail, energy, transportation, education, publishing, media or health, its full potential has yet to be realised even in the world’s most advanced and emerging countries constituting the OECD.

The report calls for boosting economic and social growth through national digital agendas. It notes that governments in OECD countries are increasingly aware of the need to develop the digital economy in a strategic manner, to expand its benefits and respond to key challenges such as reducing unemployment and inequalities, and lifting people out of poverty.

Today’s national digital strategies cover issues ranging from business creation and productivity growth to public administration, employment and education, health and aging, environment and development. Overall, governments are increasingly aware that “Internet policy making” depends on a set of coherent, whole‑of‑government policies:

Infrastructure, which provides a foundation for new business models, e‑commerce, and new collaborative scientific and social networks, needs to be of high quality, accessible to all and available at competitive prices.

With competition in the digital economy being challenged by several major shifts including technical convergence and the integration of business models among telecommunication providers and new Internet players, governments must also engage in efforts to protect competition, lower artificial barriers to entry, and strengthen regulatory coherence, urges the report.

The consolidation of mobile markets must not reduce innovation or the ability of other actors to compete, it adds.

Encouraging higher uptake of ICTs is essential, particularly by government and businesses including SMEs, says the report.

It adds: Trust in the reliability and security of online networks, services and applications need to be secured, and users assured that their privacy and consumer rights are protected.

The report points out that the OECD has called on leaders and decision makers to integrate digital security and privacy risk management in their broader economic and social risk management frameworks, rather than addressing these issues as separate technical and legal challenges.

“Cybersecurity strategies should be supplemented with national privacy strategies, so as to address privacy issues in a co‑ordinated, holistic manner and identify the limitations society is willing to accept to serve collective public interests,” adds the report.

Through ICT‑related education, training and re‑skilling, people must be equipped with the appropriate skills to make use of ICTs and to manage risks to their online social and economic activities, with a view to fostering entrepreneurship, employment and e‑inclusion.

Recognising the potential disruptive effects of going digital is critical. Governments will need to facilitate the transition of workers to new types of digital jobs., the report adds.

When it comes to vaccinating their babies, bees don’t have a choice — they naturally immunize their offspring against specific diseases found in their environments. And now for the first time, scientists have discovered how they do it.

Researchers from Arizona State University, University of Helsinki, University of Jyväskylä and Norwegian University of Life Sciences made the discovery after studying a bee blood protein called vitellogenin. The scientists found that this protein plays a critical, but previously unknown role in providing bee babies protection against disease.

The findings appear in the journal PLOS Pathogens.

“The process by which bees transfer immunity to their babies was a big mystery until now. What we found is that it’s as simple as eating,” said Gro Amdam, a professor with ASU’s School of Life Sciences and co-author of the paper. “Our amazing discovery was made possible because of 15 years of basic research on vitellogenin. This exemplifies how long-term investments in basic research pay off.”

Co-author Dalial Freitak, a postdoctoral researcher with University of Helsinki adds: “I have been working on bee immune priming since the start of my doctoral studies. Now almost 10 years later, I feel like I’ve solved an important part of the puzzle. It’s a wonderful and very rewarding feeling!”

How it works

In a honey bee colony, the queen rarely leaves the nest, so worker bees must bring food to her. Forager bees can pick up pathogens in the environment while gathering pollen and nectar. Back in the hive, worker bees use this same pollen to create “royal jelly” — a food made just for the queen that incidentally contains bacteria from the outside environment.

After eating these bacteria, the pathogens are digested in the gut and transferred to the body cavity; there they are stored in the queen’s ‘fat body’ — an organ similar to a liver. Pieces of the bacteria are then bound to vitellogenin — a protein — and carried via blood to the developing eggs. Because of this, bee babies are ‘vaccinated’ and their immune systems better prepared to fight diseases found in their environment once they are born.

Vitellogenin is the carrier of these immune-priming signals, something researchers did not know until now.

First edible vaccines for bees

While bees vaccinate their babies against some diseases, many pathogens are deadly and the insects are unable to fight them.

But now that Amdam and Freitak understand how bees vaccinate their babies, this opens the door to creating the first edible and natural vaccine for insects.

“We are patenting a way to produce a harmless vaccine, as well as how to cultivate the vaccines and introduce them to bee hives through a cocktail the bees would eat. They would then be able to stave off disease,” said Freitak.

One destructive disease that affects bees is American Foul Brood, which spreads quickly and destroys hives. The bacterium infects bee larvae as they ingest food contaminated with its spores. These spores get their nourishment from the larvae, eventually killing them.

This disease is just one example where the researchers say a vaccine would be extremely beneficial.

Why this discovery is important to humans

It’s widely known that pollinators, including bees, are facing serious environmental dangers.

During the past six decades, managed honey bee colonies in the United States have declined from 6 million in 1947 to only 2.5 million today. Not only are bees affected by diseases, they have been decimated by a phenomenon called colony collapse disorder. Researchers don’t know exactly what causes this, but pesticides, pests, pathogens and nutrition problems may all be contributing factors.

According to a 2014 report by the U.S. government, pollinators are instrumental for a healthy economy and critical to food security, contributing 35 percent of global food production. In North America, insects pollinate 87 of the top 115 food crops and honey bees are vital in keeping fruits, nuts and vegetables in our diets.

Humans depend on bees and other pollinating insects for a huge portion of their food supply. Insect vaccines could play an important role in helping to combat colony collapse disorder, in addition to fighting a variety of diseases.

All egg-laying species have vitellogenin

This discovery could have far-reaching benefits for other species, as well as substantial, positive impacts on food production. All egg-laying species including fish, poultry, reptiles, amphibians and insects have vitellogenin in their bodies.

The food industry could implement the use of natural vaccines that would not only be inexpensive to produce, they could easily be used in developing countries.

“Because this vaccination process is naturally occurring, this process would be cheap and ultimately simple to implement. It has the potential to both improve and secure food production for humans,” said Amdam.

How the deal will be implemented, whether or not Iran ultimately acquires nuclear weapons in five or ten years, and how the US in particular will act throughout the implementation process will determine if the deal is successful or not, and whether it passes the threshold of being historic.

By Dr. Alon Ben-Meir*

The deal with Iran has been generally characterized as either good or bad, and many pronounced it as historic with far-reaching regional and even global implications. I completely disagree with the characterizations of the deal as entirely good or bad, and certainly it is not historic as of yet. How the deal will be implemented, whether or not Iran ultimately acquires nuclear weapons in five or ten years, and how the US in particular will act throughout the implementation process will determine if the deal is successful or not, and whether it passes the threshold of being historic.

Those who claim that the deal is bad point to the fact that it allows Iran to legally enrich uranium, does not require it to dismantle any of its nuclear facilities, and permits it to continue its research and development of a new generation of centrifuges and intercontinental missile technology.

They further argue that with the relief from sanctions, Iran will have far greater financial resources to finance terrorist groups, shore up extremists such as Hamas and Hezbollah, and destabilize Sunni Arab regimes. Moreover, due to Iran’s propensity to cheat, it will be only a matter of time until Tehran realizes its long-standing goal to secure nuclear weapons.

The most objectionable part of the Iran deal, however, is that the US did not link the deal to Iran’s nefarious activities in and outside the region, which made the nuclear issue acute and unsettling.

The international outcry over Iran’s nuclear program stands in stark contrast to the reaction to India and Pakistan’s testing of nuclear weapons in 1998 within weeks of one another. Although there was worldwide condemnation and the US imposed some sanctions, they were lifted only after a few months.

Unlike Iran, however, neither country was engaged in clandestine, subversive behavior; Iran undermines regimes, supports terrorist organizations and continually calls for the annihilation of another UN member state—Israel. Were Iran not engaged in such activities, there would have been no uproar about its nuclear program and the sanctions might not have been sustained.

Delinking Iran’s conduct from the nuclear deal is ultimately self-defeating as the concerns about Iran’s nuclear weapon program stem directly from the fact that given its conduct, it cannot be trusted with nuclear weapons.

As to whether or not the deal is a “historic event,” I disagree with many who are touting it as such. By employing this kind of rhetoric, the aim is obviously to suggest that Iran has turned the page, that there is no going back to the way things were, and that in fact a new day has dawned.

But does this agreement constitute an event in the sense that it marks a radical turning point in the politics of Iran? For the philosopher Alain Badiou, a true Event allows something completely new to come into existence – it signals a kind of rupture, a break with the state of things, and a departure from dominant assumptions and prejudices: “The event is the sudden creation, not of a new reality, but of a myriad of new possibilities.”

For Badiou, the Arab Spring was an Event, when the “Egyptian and Tunisian peoples” reminded the world that “[mass uprising] is the only kind of action that equals a shared feeling about scandalous occupation by state power.” Even though the Arab Spring seems to have dissipated, it is indeed historic. The awakening of the Arab youth is still in its infancy, and any Arab regime that does not embrace the spirit of the Arab Spring will not be spared the wrath of their people, regardless of how long that might take.

The deal with Iran would certainly not represent an Event in this sense of the term – and, indeed, whether it will prove to be a historic event in any meaningful way remains to be seen. After all, Iran could very well undercut the deal by cheating, and even full compliance does not prevent it from continuing its support of murderous dictators such as Assad of Syria, and waging proxy wars to serve its national agenda.

Moreover, the deal will expire after ten years, at which point Iran will be considerably freer to pursue the acquisition of nuclear weapons, an eventuality that Israel, Saudi Arabia, and others will not sit idly by for, hoping Iran will somehow transform itself into a good and trustworthy neighbor.

That said, being that there is no viable alternative to this deal, those who support it correctly argue that the deal is good as it potentially delays Iran’s ambition to acquire nuclear weapons for at least ten years; it requires Tehran to reduce its stockpile of enriched uranium by 98 percent, disables the Arak facility from producing weapons-grade plutonium, reduces the number of centrifuges by two thirds, converts the Fordow facility into a research center, and allows for unprecedented intrusive inspections.

In addition, the deal would lengthen (from a few months to a year) the timeframe in which Iran could reach the breakout point, which would give the US more time to act, even militarily. Finally, supporters suggest that a more prosperous and secure Iran might give up its drive to obtain nuclear weapons and may even become a constructive player in the community of nations.

Now that the deal has been passed unanimously by the United Nations Security Council, it has become legally enshrined—but that does not guarantee that Iran will fully abide by its provisions, let alone cease its subversive activity.

To that end, to enforce the deal, the US must focus not only on preventing Iran from getting nuclear weapons, but how to force it to change its behavior, which was and still is the real cause that instigated international clamor against Tehran’s nuclear program.

First, now that there are open channels between the US and Iran, Washington should make it abundantly clear (behind the scenes) that Iran must cease and desist its belligerent conduct, and the US will not hesitate to undertake painful punitive actions to stop it, irrespective of the deal.

Second, notwithstanding the personal disdain between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu, both will have to swallow their pride and mend their relations. This deal, however flawed, is better for Israel than no deal. Standing together will send a clear message to Tehran that nothing can compromise America’s commitment to Israel’s national security. This would significantly help sway some members of Congress from opposing to supporting the deal.

Third, the President should dramatically enhance the security of the Gulf States by offering the weapons and training necessary to warn Iran that the US will have zero tolerance to any meddling in the affairs of its allies in the Gulf. The US should also consider offering a formal defense treaty, which could certainly prevent proliferation of nuclear weapons, as Saudi Arabia and Egypt have already indicated they might pursue them in the wake of the deal.

Fourth, regardless of how eager President Obama is to sustain the deal, under no circumstances should the US permit Iran to commit any infraction connected to the deal with impunity. This will dramatically enhance the prospect that Iran fully adheres to every nuance of the deal or face terrible consequences.

Fifth, the President should take advantage of the common concerns that the Sunni Arab states and Israel share about Iran’s threat. The US should facilitate the development of a strategic plan between the two sides, some of which is already taking place, to blunt any Iranian effort to bully its neighbors.

Although President Obama views the Iran deal as his signature foreign policy achievement, he will not see it come to fruition while still in office. He will leave behind this unfinished business to his successor, and his legacy will hang in the balance for years to come before historians render their final judgment.

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

By Joanna Lillis*

President Nursultan Nazarbayev meets with the chairman of the National Bank, Kayrat Kelimbetov, to discuss the bank’s performance and plans. Analysts raise questions about the reasons for Kazakhstan’s national wealth fund’s sale of a 10 percent stake in the state energy company to the National Bank, wondering if the bank was pressured to accept the deal and how well Kazakhstan is coping with a slowdown in economic growth. (Photo: Kazakhstan Presidential Press Service)

Stubbornly low oil prices and delays on a mammoth offshore project have prompted Kazakhstan’s national wealth fund to sell a 10 percent stake in the state energy company to the National Bank, the country’s top fiscal institution.

The sale – ordered by government decree on July 29 – amounts to the state selling itself shares for $4 billion in cash and is sparking questions about how well Kazakhstan is coping with a slowdown in economic growth.

“The share acquisition is a highly unorthodox move for a central bank, although the National Bank does already control the state pension fund,” Alex Nice, a Kazakhstan analyst at the London-based Economist Intelligence Unit, told EurasiaNet.org. “The National Bank’s primary role is to set monetary policy and maintain financial stability.”

The transaction is ostensibly intended to help energy company KazMunayGaz (KMG) reduce its $20 billion debt portfolio, which has been exacerbated by low oil prices. The global oil benchmark stood at around $53 per barrel on July 31.

On top of that, KMG is experiencing protracted delays at the super-giant Kashagan oilfield. The project has long been touted as a driver of prosperity, but the field is now not expected to come on line until 2017. “KMG is planning to buy back some of its historical debt issuance, hence it needs cash,” Anuar Ushbayev, managing partner at Kazakhstan’s Tengri Partners investment firm, told EurasiaNet.org.

The sale will also generate funds for a separate $4.7 billion bailout deal announced in early July. That agreement will see KMG selling half of its 16.8 percent stake in Kashagan to Kazakhstan’s Samruk-Kazyna sovereign wealth fund. Samruk-Kazyna is KMG’s own parent company. KMG will use $2.2 billion from that deal to reduce its loan portfolio.

“To allow KMG to do this, Samruk-Kazyna is planning to acquire a part of KMG’s stake in the Kashagan project,” Ushbayev explained. “Now, the sale of 10 percent of KMG by Samruk-Kazyna to the National Bank is aimed precisely at raising the necessary cash to finance the [bailout].”

Ultimately, the National Bank is stumping up financing for the deal, as the Almaty-based Halyk Finance investment bank pointed out. “Samruk-Kazyna will finance the purchase of the stake in Kashagan from the funds to be received from the [National Bank], which equals 85 percent of the required amount. Thus the liquidity position of Samruk-Kazyna will not be negatively affected,” Halyk Bank said in a research note.

Nice, of the Economist Intelligence Unit, said he believed it was unlikely that the initiative for the operation came from within the National Bank, which raises further questions about the financial body’s independence when it comes to setting fiscal policy.

Ushbayev argued that although the move is unusual, it is not unheard of. “There is nothing to preclude a central bank from investing into the equity asset class,” and “many central banks do precisely that,” he said.

It is more usual “to invest in a diversified portfolio of shares, denominated in foreign currencies,” he conceded. “A concentrated investment of that size into a domicile state-owned business is much less common, perhaps only seen in China, during the recent stock market bubble collapse.”

Since all the entities involved in the KMG deal are owned by the state, the cash carousel is being likened to robbing Peter to pay Paul.

Economist Sayan Kombarov suggested in remarks to the Kursiv newspaper that the operation amounted to “legalized robbery” funded by taxpayers.

It is not just debt-ridden KMG that has taken a battering from the fall in global oil prices, but Kazakhstan’s economy in general.

Astana’s revenues have been hit by the twin pressures of a regional economic downturn emanating from sanctions-hit Russia and a slump in the value of the tenge. That has led the government to scale back its growth forecast to 1.5 percent this year (down from 4.3 percent last year).

Astana has already dipped into its National Oil Fund, which saves energy revenues for a rainy day, to bolster the economy.

News of the unorthodox deal involving KMG, Samruk-Kazyna and the National Bank has some analysts wondering about the National Oil Fund’s condition.

“Why is this share acquisition being done by the central bank, rather than the National Oil Fund, which is the most common channel through which the state provides support to the real economy?” asked Nice. “This raises questions about the condition of the National Oil Fund itself,” he said.

*Joanna Lillis is a freelance writer who specializes in Central Asia.

By Monde Kingsley Nfor

A month ago, the main market in the Cameroonian town of Maroua was bustling with traders and buyers. Now it is a place of fear and suspicion, bordering on paranoia.

Five suicide bombings in just 13 days in the Far North Region, all blamed on Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, have made people jittery. Thousands of troops have been sent north by the government in distant Yaoundé and draconian security measures have come into force across much of the country.

“Since the attacks, nobody dares to come to my bar or any other social gathering along this street,” Clement Tchinda told IRIN outside his premises in central Maroua. “Business has more than collapsed and I don’t know what to do with the rest of my goods.”

The wave of suicide bombings began on 12 July in the town of Fotokol, north of Maroua on the Nigerian border. Two women concealing explosives under their burkas targeted an army bar and a military camp and killed 14 people, including a Chadian soldier. Authorities in the Far North Region responded days later by banning full-face Islamic veils, including the burka, and ordering Muslims to seek permission before gathering in large groups.

But on 22 July, Maroua itself – the capital of the Far North Region, which is 100 kilometres inside Cameroonian territory – became the target. Two girls, reportedly as young as nine and dressed as beggars, carried out the attacks. The first explosion hit the central market. The second ripped through a densely populated residential neighbourhood. Three days later, last Saturday, another suicide bomber, reported to be a teenage girl, blew herself up in a popular night spot.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed at least 48 people and injured scores more, but they are widely seen as retaliation for Cameroon’s involvement in the regional force against Boko Haram. Since a joint offensive earlier this year, the militant group has stepped up attacks in Chad and Niger, the other members of the coalition that border its stronghold in northeastern Nigeria. Maroua is also the base for the Cameroonian military’s operations against the Islamists.

Crackdown hurts livelihoods

Since the latest attacks in Maroua, the government has clamped down, determined to prevent potential suicide bombers from infiltrating deeper into Cameroon and committing attacks in urban centres like Yaoundé and the commercial capital Douala. The burka ban – extended to include all kinds of bulky clothing on men or women – has been imposed across much of the country.

“Any person who tries to hide his or her identity will be considered as a suspect and people should immediately report and stay away from such persons,” local politician Donatien Bonyomo said, announcing tough new measures in the central department of Noun.

“No individual who cannot be identified should be seen taking public transport, on a motorcycle or using any means of movement,” he added. “Any person wanting to wear [a burka] should stay at home.”

While this decision has caused some controversy, many Cameroonians – in a country where about 20 percent of the population is Muslim, most of them in the Far North Region – are in favour of the ban.

“If this will protect the life of innocent people then it should be banned,” Maroua resident Alijah Moussa told IRIN.

A curfew is in place from 8pm until 6am in northern and border regions, where business hours are also limited to between 6am and 6pm. There are also widespread restrictions on movement, military checkpoints on the roads, arbitrary searches of people, vehicles and goods, and on-the-spot ID checks.

Despite this climate of fear, many Cameroonians complain not of the threat from Boko Haram but that their livelihoods are being compromised.

“I’ve just been told not to sell on the streets anymore,” 16-year-old Salif Bashir told IRIN in Maroua.

He said he used to sell phone chargers and other gadgets to passersby during school breaks to pay for his studies.

“I don’t know how I’ll be able to support myself when schools reopen in September. I’m scared of the bombings, but I just can’t stay at home.”

Ismael Sani, a lorry driver who transports goods between Cameroon and Chad, shared Bashir’s anger. “My truck is stopped at several places when [crossing the border]. Some of my goods are taken apart and some end up being destroyed because the military wants to know what I carry.”

Finding the enemy within

The sudden need to have ID papers has serious implications for migrants, refugees and internally displaced people in Cameroon. There are now more than 74,000 refugees from Nigeria living in the Far North Region alone, according to local authorities. Thousands more Cameroonians have also fled the border violence and are now IDPs. Cameroon’s counter-insurgency operations have contributed to a new round of displacement. All are in need of aid.

More than 500 migrants and refugees from Nigeria, Chad and Niger – who had been living in Cameroonian border towns – were recently escorted to camps at the Nigerian border by immigration officers after failing to produce proper identification documents.

“These measures concern only those who are living without regular papers,” said Albert Mekondané Obonou, prefect of Logone and Chari, a department at the northern tip of Cameroon that is part of the Far North Region. “We want to know all those who are living with us in order to better protect our territory and people.”

But many Cameroonians displaced by the violence say they fled Boko Haram without their papers. “I am hoping that the authorities will understand us and help to produce the identification documents,” Moussa Dhubu told IRIN, anxious not to be sent back towards the border danger zone with other suspected foreigners.

Many refugees face similar problems as they were never officially registered and have chosen to live among host populations or as nomadic cattle farmers, and not in camps.

“The new security measures mean that many will go hungry and impoverished in this region, where many depend on small trading to sustain their livings,” said David Magulu, a fellow at the University of Maroua.

He pointed out that many Cameroonians in the Far North Region are uneducated and never deemed it necessary to apply for identification papers. “Some don’t even have birth certificates,” Magulu said.

“How will this group of people who mostly practise hawking survive without falling victim to these measures?”

At times likes this, aid is vital. But most projects, including those formerly run by the United Nations, the World Bank, the Chinese and international faith groups, have been cut back or abandoned because of the security situation.

Marthe Wandu, a spokesperson for local NGO ADELPA said vital UN projects in the Far North Region such as one to reduce infant and prenatal HIV/AIDS morbidity and mortality “have been slowed down by Boko Haram threats.”

The three worst affected areas in the far north, where many health clinics have closed down, cannot be reached.

The UN, which has raised its threat level for the region from 3 (moderate) last year to 5 (high) this year, says it has become difficult to deliver aid to most in-need communities in the Far North Region due to fear of attacks and kidnap. Trucks hired by the government to carry food to the military and IDP camps in the region now require an armed escort. The price for Cameroon’s involvement in the fight against Boko Haram is high.