The Small Exploration Company That Shocked The Oil Industry

A small Canadian oil explorer may have shocked the industry this year when it published initial results that pointed to the potential of a giant oil discovery in Namibia’s Kavango Basin.


Editor OilPrice.com
July 8, 2021·

Now, as our anticipation builds over the next drill results, this small Canadian driller looks to be attracting attention from around the globe.

In April, Reconnaissance Energy Africa (TSXV:RECO, OTC:RECAF) announced early findings from the first of their initial 3-well drill program in Namibia’s 6.3-million-acre Kavango Basin. It came as a surprise to many of us: Results indicated signs of a working petroleum system after only the first test drill.


On June 3rd, investors got another surprise when RECO announced further indication of a working petroleum system in the shallow section of its second well.

Now, we’re waiting for an announcement about the completion of the second drill to 12,500 feet, which we think should be any day now.

Previous projections have compared the possible numbers with some of the largest oil discoveries in the world in recent years, like the Midland Basin in West Texas.

And Daniel Jarvie, an industry-recognized geochemist and source rock expert, thinks that the play is “pretty much a no-brainer. It will be productive and I’m expecting high-quality oil.”

He’s estimated the basin generated potential billions of barrels of oil—conservatively.

And he’s not the only industry-known scientist involved in this play.

Recognized geologist Bill Cathey was another early bird.

Cathey—whose clients have included supermajors such as ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Chevron—performed the entire magnetic survey interpretation of the Kavango Basin for ReconAfrica and was very clear in saying: “Nowhere in the world is there a sedimentary basin this deep that does not produce commercial hydrocarbons.”

What some are considering now is whether there is potential for this to be the last big onshore oil discovery that the world may ever see, as ReconAfrica looks to continue efforts to de-risk Kavango.

How Big Could This Potentially Be?

With the drilling of their first test well in an initial 3-well program, ReconAfrica has had to rely primarily on some encouraging survey data to guide them in their exploration work.

Reco

The results so far, however, are reported to have well exceeded their expectations.

In samples from the first well, ReconAfrica encountered clear evidence that ReconAfrica is sitting on a working petroleum system in the Kavango Basin.

In fact, they showed even more than that:

Sample log results from the first (6-2) stratigraphic test well (6-2) provided over 200 meters of light oil and natural gas indicators over three discrete intervals in a stacked sequence of reservoir and source rock. Oil was then extracted from these samples and the results supported an active petroleum system with multiple source intervals.

The second stratigraphic test well (6-1) has so far encountered 343 meters of oil and gas indicators just at the shallow level, further confirming an active petroleum system in Kavango. The well is now set to reach its full depth (12,500 feet) in the first part of this month, following a short break for maintenance, which has now been concluded, with drilling having resumed last week.

“These wells suggest there is commercial potential in the basin,” Recon Africa director Dr. James Granath, PhD Structural Geology, said in a recent statement. “It took 30 wells in offshore Norway to get to this point, we've been lucky enough to do it in the first two."

We’re also waiting for well analysis from some of the biggest names in the industry, including Schlumberger.

Is This Namibia’s Time to Shine?

Namibia’s never produced a barrel of oil in its history, so ReconAfrica’s (TSXV:RECO, OTC:RECAF) work here could put it on the global oil map for the first time, and in a very big way.

It could also transform the lives of many Namibians, starting with ReconAfrica’s efforts to use its resources to drill community water wells for Kavango residents, nearly half of whom live in generational poverty and are forced to transport water by foot for miles every day.

Kavango

One of ReconAfrica’s first moves as it began trying to prove up Kavango’s commercial potential was to drill water wells for the people of Kavango, and that’s only one part of its reported $10-million ESG commitment to the country and the region, $1 million of which has gone to Namibia’s COVID-19 vaccine program.

The company says the aim of this play isn’t unconventional, either, so the environmental impact questions are far less pressing. ReconAfrica has stated that it does not have any fracking permits and hasn’t applied for any, putting that brief controversy to rest.

Furthermore, the company reports that drilling is taking place more than 50 kilometers south of the ecologically sensitive Okavango River and some 260 kilometers west of the Okavango Delta.

2D seismic, for which ReconAfrica announced government approval this week, is reportedly being conducted by some of the best in the business, with the lightest impact in the world. In addition, ReconAfrica founder Craig Steinke has stated that the company is using 100% organic and biodegradable drilling fluids that are later used as vegetable garden fertilizers.

For Namibia, especially in an era with a strong focus on ESG, and with many eyes trained on efforts to avoid any more “resource curse” scenarios, there may be a lot at stake, and the local and national governments look to be fully on board.

"We are pleased with ReconAfrica's approach to working closely and in constant consultation with our office, the traditional leadership, local authority, and the community. This is only the beginning stages and we have already started to experience the positive economic and social impact of the project in our regions." Kavango East Governor, Bonifasius Wakudumo said.

What Happens Next?

Next, we anticipate lots of potentially exciting news for this small explorer sitting on what could be a supermajor-size exploration play at the final frontier of onshore oil that includes not only the 6.3 million acres of Namibia’s portion of the Kavango basin but also 2.2 million acres in Botswana.

Kavango

In a matter of days, we expect to hear the results of the completed second drill to 12,500 feet.

And now, 2D seismic is reported to be kicking off, with approval just granted by the Government of Namibia.

That will help ReconAfrica determine where to drill to commercialize this basin in the next campaign.

By the end of July, the company reports they plan to have started the seismic acquisition program, which they expect will help them target the most promising areas to drill for their next round.

If those results are positive and the project progresses, ReconAfrica (TSXV:RECO, OTC:RECAF) has a right to a 25-year production sharing contract, and they may seek to enter into potential JV negotiations, and that’s what we think could send this exploration play over the edge.

Other companies looking to capitalize on rising oil prices:

Exxon (NYSE:XOM) is a large multinational corporation headquartered in Irving, Texas. Exxon Corporation engages in the exploration and production of crude oil and natural gas around the world. With its headquarters being located in Dallas, Texas and with operations all over the globe, Exxon has been able to create an empire that has lasted for over 100 years.

Exxon was founded on October 17th, 1999 by John D Rockefeller Jr., who at the time was running Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (which would be later renamed as Exxon Company USA). The company began as a merger between two companies: Standard Oil Company of New Jersey and Humble Oil & Refining Co., which were both subsidiaries of Standard Oil Trust.

While Exxon is one of the world’s top oil producers, it isn’t ignoring the reality of the market. It has made major moves in its commitment to reduce its emissions. It claims to have about one-fifth of the world’s total carbon capture capacity. The company captures about 7 million tons per year of carbon.

Eni (NYSE:E) is a global energy company that was established in 1959. They have grown into one of the top 10 natural gas producers and are ranked #2 for production and reserves. Eni has operations around the world, with their headquarters located in Rome, Italy.

The oil major described 2020 as a “year of war”, regarding the energy crisis experienced in the face of COVID-1. But it may be too soon to see the issues faced last year as a thing of the past. Eni is committing to lower the price of oil at which the company breaks even going into 2021, as a means of tackling the uncertainty of the oil economy in the coming months. Francesco Gattei, CFO at Eni, stated that “Volatility is growing every year.”, highlighting the need to be prepared for the energy demand of the future. In fact, Eni has now set out a plan to lower its greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050, leveraging natural gas as a major tool in its arsenal.

In addition to its natural gas push, Eni is also jumping on the green hydrogen bandwagon. In fact, in December, the Italian oil major announced a partnership with Entel to produce hydrogen using electrolyzers powered by renewable energy. “Our goal is to accelerate the reduction of our carbon footprint by implementing the best applicable low carbon solution, either green or blue, to reduce our direct emissions as well as switching to bio products to supply our clients,” Eni’s chief executive officer (CEO), Claudio Descalzi, said in a company statement.

Halliburton (NYSE:HAL) is a company that provides products and services to the energy industry. The company has been in business for more than 100 years, and it employs more than 50,000 people across the globe. Halliburton’s employees are located in over 80 countries around the world. Halliburton operates in four segments: upstream (oil exploration), downstream (manufacturing of oil products), engineering-and- construction, and chemicals. The company offers exploration services, such as drilling wells; production services such as well completion; processing services like natural gas liquefaction and refining.

Halliburton is one of the largest oilfield services companies in the world. The company has secured its place as a giant in the oil and gas industry. But it didn’t happen overnight. The oilfield services sector is highly competitive and ripe with innovation. In order to stay ahead, companies must be on the absolute cutting edge of technology. And that’s exactly what Halliburton has done. And recently, Halliburton increased the heat for its competition. Partnering with Microsoft, Halliburton has become one of the most exciting “tech” plays in the industry.

This partnership is significant. Microsoft, a leader in the tech world, is looking to bring machine learning, augmented reality, and the Industrial Internet of Things to the oil and gas industry, and Halliburton is welcoming the new take on the resource realm with open arms.

Pioneer Natural Resources (NYSE:PXD) is an independent oil and gas exploration and production company with a diversified portfolio of high quality assets in the United States. The company's operations are concentrated primarily in two areas: West Texas, where it has developed one of the most significant unconventional resource plays in North America, the Eagle Ford shale; and Southern California, where it has assembled a large position onshore Los Angeles basin. Pioneer Natural Resources was founded in 1954 by Ross Shaw who had long been involved with land leasing for drilling purposes. With his son James as president, they drilled their first well near Big Lake, Texas.

As a leader in the Permian, Pioneer is also making major waves in its commitment to cut back flaring in the region. In fact, Pioneer consistently flares a smaller percentage of its production than the basin average. The average flaring rate for oil producers in the Permian is 3.7%, according to GaffneyCline, yet Pioneer’s average is just 0.8%.

Despite its commitment to the Permian, however, CEO Scott Sheffield isn’t particularly bullish on the region in the short term. “I never anticipate growing above 5% under any conditions,” Sheffield also said. “Even if oil went to $100 a barrel and the world was short of supply.” The shale major CEO explained this was because the service costs associated with adding more drilling rigs would undermine profit margins.

Enterprise Products Partners (NYSE:EPD) is a leading provider of innovative solutions for the global energy industry. We partner with some of the world's most renowned companies and provide them with integrity, expertise, and innovation in all aspects of their business including: exploration, production, refining, transmission & distribution. Enterprise has been around since 1928 when it first started as an oil pipeline company in Tulsa Oklahoma.

Enterprise is the top transporter of natural gas liquids (NGLs) and also owns the most NGL fractionation capacity in the United States, as well as dock space for exports. Enterprise Products is the largest midstream MLP in the country. Enterprise has clearly read the signs of the times and has begun to work with partners to scale back its project backlog. In the past, EP was able to weather the normal industry headwinds thanks to robust cash coverage and manageable leverage. Unfortunately, Covid-19 has been anything but your average downturn, and EP has been forced to seriously cut back on Capex.

After spending $17 billion in capital projects in 2015-19, including new oil pipelines, NGL and LPG pipeline-and-export facilities, and NGL fractionation plants, the giant MLP spent just $2.5-$3 billion last year, down from a prior budget of $3.5-$4 billion as well as a combined $4 billion in 2021-22. However, these dramatic cuts are expected to pay off big time.

Canadian Natural Resources (NYSE:CNQ, TSX:CNQ) is a natural resources company that conducts oil and gas exploration, development, production, and marketing operations in Canada. They are one of the largest independent crude oil producers in Canada with producing assets primarily located in the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin. The firm also operates two refineries: Strathcona Refinery near Edmonton, Alberta; and Scotford Refinery near Edmonton, Alberta.

Canadian Natural Resources was one of the few oil producers that kept its dividend intact after swinging to a loss for the first half of 2020. Though Canadian Natural Resources kept its dividend, it withdrew its production guidance for 2020, however. It also said it would curtail some production at high-cost conventional projects in North America and oil sands operations and carry out planned turnaround activities at oil sands projects in the second half of 2020.

Despite the negative stigma surrounding the the oil sands, the sector is starting to clean up its act a bit. And Canadian Natural Resources is leading the charge. And if analysts are right about Canada’s comeback, Canadian Natural Resources could be in for a big year.

Suncor Energy (TSX:SU) is a Canadian multinational energy company, headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. It operates Canada’s largest oil sands project - Suncor's Oil Sands Operations. The company is Canada's most profitable and one of the world's largest integrated energy companies with its operations spanning North America and 20 other countries around the world. With over $120 billion in assets, it has more than 10 million acres of land holdings for exploration and production across six continents.

Suncor has adopted a number of high-tech solutions for finding, pumping, storing, and delivering its resources. Not only is it big in the oil sector, however, it is a leader in renewable energy. Recently, the company invested $300 million in a wind farm located in Alberta.

MEG Energy Corp (TSX:MEG) is a Canadian energy company that provides natural gas and renewable power products and services to customers in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia. The company operates in three segments: Pipeline Services; Power Generation Services; Renewable Power Production. MEG has been able to grow their pipeline business by engaging with key stakeholders on regulatory fronts across North America as well as through expansion of their existing pipeline network.
The company’s large proven resources and their cutting-edge technology make MEG a promising company for investors looking to get in to the promising oil sands in Alberta

Gibson Energy (TSX:GEI) is an energy company that specializes in the production, transmission and distribution of natural gas. Gibson Energy has been providing reliable service to their customers for over 100 years. The company currently employs more than 1,400 people across North America.

Gibson has a long history in Canada’s oil and gas game, going back to 1953. The company has a diverse portfolio which includes transportation, storage, processing, marketing and distribution of oil, condensates, oilfield waste, refined products and natural gas. With Gibson’s huge array of assets and its multi-platform sales strategies, it’s hedged a lot of the risk for investors in an inherently high-risk, high-reward industry.

Pembina Pipeline Corp. (TSX:PPL) is a company that has been around for more than 50 years and was the first pipeline company in Canada to offer gas transmission services. They are now one of the largest natural gas transmission companies in North America with an annual throughput capacity of almost 66 billion cubic feet per day. This blog post will discuss Pembina's recent acquisition by Enbridge Inc., their financial performance, and how they view long-term growth opportunities.

Pembina Pipeline Corporation is a Canadian energy infrastructure business that provides products such as natural gas, oil, renewable power, and chemicals to customers primarily located on the eastern coast of North America from its operations in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.

By. Jason Cantle

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Forward-Looking Statements. Statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainty affecting the business of Recon. All estimates and statements with respect to Recon’s operations, its plans and projections, size of potential oil reserves, comparisons to other oil producing fields, oil prices, recoverable oil, production targets, production and other operating costs and likelihood of oil recoverability are forward-looking statements under applicable securities laws and necessarily involve risks and uncertainties including, without limitation: risks associated with oil and gas exploration, including drilling and other exploration activities, timing of reports, development, exploitation and production, geological risks, marketing and transportation, availability of adequate funding, volatility of commodity prices, imprecision of reserve and resource estimates, environmental risks, competition from other producers, government regulation, dates of commencement of production and changes in the regulatory and taxation environment. Actual results may vary materially from the information provided in this document, and there is no representation that the actual results realized in the future will be the same in whole or in part as those presented herein. Other factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements are also set forth in filings that Recon and its technical analysts have made. We undertake no obligation, except as otherwise required by law, to update these forward-looking statements except as required by law.

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Algerians Toppled a President. Now They Are Fighting for Real Democracy.

Two years since millions-strong protests toppled Algeria’s longtime president, June’s regime-organized elections met with a massive popular boycott. For Algerians to really control their lives, the whole regime must go.

Algerians rally in the northern town of Kherrata on February 16, 2021, marking the return of the Hirak protests, two years after the mass movement swept former president Abdelaziz Bouteflika from power. (AFP via Getty Images)

BY MALIA BOUATTIA & SAI ENGLERT
JACOBIN
07.24.2021

Following over a year of demobilization owing to Algeria’s COVID-19 restrictions, this February the Hirak (“movement”) returned to the streets to mark two years since the mass uprising which ended president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s twenty-year rule. Alongside ongoing weekly demonstrations and strikes, last month the Hirak organized a mass boycott of national elections held by the regime, whose legitimacy it refuses to acknowledge. In the end, turnout was under 23 percent.

The regime has been wrong-footed by both a growing economic crisis — largely caused by the fall in income from oil and gas exports — and an inability to control popular discontent. It is trapped between trying to appeal to the population through gestures of goodwill and continuing to repress activists, journalists, and demonstrators. Yet rather than help the regime to regain control, each such decision fuels the flames. The dismal turnout in June’s vote demonstrated the depth of its crisis, as less than one in four eligible voters cast their ballots.

Illustrating the rising intensity of street contestation, last week mass demonstrations erupted in the two southern wilayas (provinces) of Ouargla and Touggourt. Led by the unemployed, protesters blocked key roads and clashed with police forces following the announcement of new hires in the oil industry, which the demonstrators claim are distributed based on cronyism. More fundamentally, people in the south of Algeria are revolting against a system that continually underfunds their regions even though they sit on top of the oil and gas reserves on which the entire national economy still depends.

The south is not alone, however. In recent months, demonstrators have returned to the streets to demand, in the words of the Hirak’s central slogan, Yitnahawga3 (“They all have to go”). This demand captures the radical nature of the movement. Protesters are not satisfied with a change in the presidency or limited electoral reform but are fighting to disband the entire regime. The latter is made up of the army, whose indirect hold over the country dates from the 1960s; the ruling National Liberation Front (FLN), which has ruled Algeria since independence and has long stopped representing the ideals of freedom and independence it once fought for; and the state officials and private businessmen who have become rich on the backs of the people.People in the south of Algeria are revolting against a system that continually underfunds their regions even though they sit on top of the oil and gas reserves on which the entire national economy still depends.

However, while the mobilization by students and the wider population have sustained the uprising over the last twenty-nine months, a more recent development is pointing to further radicalization, as workers have turned to striking and joining the protests collectively. Firefighters did both — in uniform, visibly as workers in revolt — while teachers, postal workers, and even doctors have also taken action. They are making the connection between the political and economic aspects of the movement in practice.

But faced with this radicalization, the government has stepped up its repressive tendencies — attempting both to behead the movement by depriving it of leadership and to use fear to dissuade others from joining.
Repression

Earlier in 2021, at the same time as demonstrations gathered speed in northern Algeria’s main cities, Ouargla province saw significant riots and clashes with police. This followed the arrest of Ameur Guerrache — a long-standing regional leader and active organizer of the current revolt — for “incitement to terrorism” and “insulting the president.” Guerrache’s mother publicly appealed to the president to release her son, but to no avail.

The state has in recent months increasingly used the specific accusation of “terrorism” to target activists. Ahead of June’s elections, prominent activists and lawyers were arrested for “conspiracy against the state.” With obvious repressive intent, such accusations rely on a boundlessly expansive definition of terrorism, applicable to anyone organizing, demonstrating, or striking against the regime.


This strategy has a double significance in the Algerian context. First, it harks back to the civil war which ravaged the country from the early 1990s to the early 2000s, after the military coup that followed the election of the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS). The language of anti-terrorism was a key strategy mobilized by the state to justify its repression and violence — which in turn justified more violence from its opponents. For a long time, the fear of the return of the “Dark Decade” (La Décennie Noire), as the civil war years are colloquially known, stopped social movements and confrontations against the state from developing. It is on this fear that the regime is hoping to play today.

Furthermore, by framing its repression of activists as a struggle against terrorism, the Algerian state is attempting to appeal to its allies in Paris and Washington. It is painting its actions in the framework of the so-called War on Terror and thus as a defense of, rather than an assault on, democratic rights. The regime was, indeed, a pioneer of this approach, now reproduced by states across the world, from China and Britain to Syria and the United States. But the truth is that the regime is under pressure, desperate and lashing out against its opponents.The state has in recent months increasingly used the specific accusation of ‘terrorism’ to target activists. Ahead of June’s elections, prominent activists and lawyers were arrested for ‘conspiracy against the state.’

The arrest of journalist Khaled Drareni is striking in this regard. Drareni was already arrested during an earlier roundup of activists, under the cover of “harming the integrity of the national territory.” After serving a year in prison, he was released on bail in February, as the regime attempted to show goodwill before the second anniversary of the Hirak. Now that this strategy has clearly failed and the movement is gaining strength, Drareni has again been detained.

The recent election, snubbed by the vast majority of Algerians, thus took place in an increasingly repressive atmosphere. Leading activists as well as journalists were imprisoned in the run up to the vote, while others were charged with breaking electoral laws and received disproportionate fines and jail sentences. The northern region of Kabyle was particularly targeted.
Crisis at the Top

Astriking aspect of the current conjuncture in Algeria, then, is a sustained and apparently unresolvable crisis at the top of the state. The regime (Le Pouvoir, as it is known by Algerians) is dealing with a profound crisis of legitimacy that it is unable to resolve. Attempts at staging elections, arresting and releasing activists, reforming the constitution, or developing a rhetoric of national renewal have all failed to appeal to the population, let alone divide the movement.

If anything, each of these attempts by the state to reclaim control further demonstrates its failures — strengthening Hirak participants in the conviction that the break with the old order must be complete to be effective. This lesson has no doubt been reinforced by the revolutionary experiences in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region since 2011.

Moreover, the collapse in the authority of the two most important institutions of the postindependence Algerian state — the National Liberation Front (FLN) and the army — is not new; it has been brewing for decades. Already in the 1980s, as the failure of the developmental strategies of the Houari Boumédiène years started to show — with Algeria’s dependence on oil rents prompting economic crisis during the oil slump toward the end of the decade — thousands of Algerians repeatedly took to the streets to demand economic and political reform. That decade thus marked the beginning of a long-term process of resistance against the regime, of which the current movement is the latest iteration.

While the regime was able to buy some time through violent and bloody repression — most strikingly during the civil war — as well as through a minimal reinvestment of the income from the early 2000s oil boom, the absence of an immediate “enemy within” to fight exposed the fragility of the state’s power and its reliance on fear to stabilize the system. Over time, it became increasingly difficult for military and civil leaders to invoke their participation in the anti-colonial struggle against France as a source of legitimacy. This is, certainly, no basis for self-renewal.

Bouteflika’s presidency (1999–2019) well represents this dilemma. Not only is it clear that the narrative of his heroic contribution to the struggle against the French settler state is a myth (much like his supposed long-term opposition to military influence over civilian life), but after he was incapacitated by a stroke in 2013, the regime found it easier to keep him in place as a puppet president rather than go to the trouble of replacing him. His health condition meant that he effectively disappeared from public life and was increasingly replaced by his portrait at official events. This “rule by portrait” has repeatedly been mentioned by activists as a key trigger for the current uprising.Attempts at staging elections, arresting and releasing activists, reforming the constitution, or developing a rhetoric of national renewal have all failed to appeal to the population, let alone divide the movement.

Since Bouteflika’s fall two years ago, the regime has continued to demonstrate its inability to reproduce itself at the top. General Gaïd Salah — the military strongman largely seen as the effective leader of the country in the post-Bouteflika period — suddenly passed away of a heart attack in December 2019, aged seventy-nine. Similarly, the current president, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, is seventy-six and owes his presidency primarily to the fact that he was chosen by the regime to be its candidate, rather than to his subsequent election, which was boycotted by the Hirak — a boycott that over 60 percent of Algerian voters heeded.
Where Next?

While thus far the regime has clearly been unable to rebuild its legitimacy or divide the movement through piecemeal and largely cosmetic reforms or repression, it is less clear that the Hirak has the necessary organizational strength to defeat Le Pouvoir head-on and build a new Algeria. The current period has therefore been defined by a lasting stalemate between a state that cannot rule and an uprising that cannot take over.

The challenge so far has been twofold.

First, despite massive popular mobilizations, the Hirak has not yet been able to build up sufficient social pressure to break the back of the regime. Unlike during other recent revolutions in the region — Egypt, Tunisia, Bahrain, Sudan, Iraq, or Yemen — public space has not been occupied continuously to create an organizational base for the revolution, where politics, strategy, and alternative visions for the state can be debated and developed. Occupied universities played that role to some extent in 2019, as have different conferences and gatherings throughout the movement’s twenty-nine months of activity. Overall, however, the uprising has depended on informal and less visible networks and channels of communication. Alternative forms of self-governance, as in the case of Syria’s Local Coordination Committees, have also not seen the day.

Furthermore, the Algerian uprising has not yet translated into sustained industrial action, through which the political contestation in the street could move into an economic contestation in the workplace. It is at the point of unity between these two that the revolutions in Egypt, Tunisia, and Sudan gathered the greatest power and were able to push the regime back the furthest — even if temporarily. There have been small localized developments in this direction at different moments in Algeria. As mentioned above, teachers, postal workers, firefighters, and doctors have struck in recent months. Sections of the judiciary have expressed their support for the Hirak. And, most importantly, early on in the movement, walkouts took place by Sonatrach workers (the state-owned oil company) in the south, after management called on workers not to join the uprising. While these are important examples of collective workers’ action, they have not yet generalized.

Second, the movement has not developed formalized leadership, either in the shape of political parties, coordination committees, or unions and resistance committees as in Sudan. This can largely be understood as a legacy of Algeria’s recent history: on the one hand, the civil war led to the elimination of countless progressive figures and intellectuals — such as Tahar Djaout and Nabila Djahnine, to name but a couple — who were systematically targeted for assassination, effectively beheading the radical left, which could have constituted an alternative amid the civil war.
A Weak and Isolated Left

Long-standing left-wing organizations, with roots in the struggle for independence, were unable to respond to the rapid and deadly escalation of violence between the FIS and the army. The Party of the Socialist Vanguard (PAGS), which brought together former Communist Party activists and their periphery, collapsed under the pressure of the nascent civil war, while others, like the Trotskyist Socialist Workers Party (PST), survived but faded into total isolation. The Workers’ Party (PT), formally also of a Trotskyist hue, made its peace with the regime in exchange for a small share of the vote in the post–civil war, state-managed elections. This in turn led to its leadership entering parliament as MPs and enjoying the associated incomes and privileges. For a modicum of (imagined) influence, the party accepted to sustain the illusion of democratic life in Algeria. Louisa Hanoune, its historic leader, was chased out of the Hirak demonstrations as a consequence of this collaboration with the regime.

The Front of Socialist Forces (FFS), which was founded by the historic Amazigh FLN leader Hocine Aït Ahmed as he broke with the nascent regime in 1962 over the issue of military control and centralization of power, is a partial exception. It continues to wield influence in the Kabyle region and has largely avoided being co-opted by the regime, despite its legalization in 1991. It boycotted several — but not all — legislative election in the aftermath of the civil war. It continues to support the struggle against the repressive state machine controlled by the FLN and the army, regardless of previous participation in parliaments after 2012.

Finally, the General Union of Algerian Workers (UGTA) has remained firmly under FLN control, despite some resistance by rank-and-file activists.

However, this absence of a clearly identifiable, formalized leadership to the Hirak should not be understood as an outright lack of leadership. Clearly, local demonstrations, as well as the nascent industrial movement, are organized by well-rooted activists who are not new to political contestation against the state. Ameur Guerrache, mentioned above, is one such example. At the same time, the current movement is throwing up a new generation of organizers and leaders. For example, a string of young Amazigh activists — such as Samira Messouci and Messaoud Leftissi — were arrested around the time of the 2019 elections in an attempt to disorganize the Hirak before Algerians cast their ballots. In this sense, the pattern of state repression points to newly emerging centers of organization.

Two simultaneous realties in the Algerian context continue to push the movement toward increasingly radical action and analysis — something which should hearten the Left, despite the weakness of organized socialist and progressive politics. The first is that the regime continues to be unable to provide any solution to the structural failures against which people are revolting. Historically, the Algerian state has been a one-trick pony, depending on a limited redistribution of its oil revenues in the form of minimal infrastructure or welfare services. This avenue is currently closed to it, as oil income is at an all-time low, leading the state to dig deep into its foreign currency reserves, which have been falling at a dizzying rate, from $200 billion in 2014 to $47 billion in 2020. This situation prevents the regime spending its way out of the impasse — Bouteflika’s strategy in the aftermath of the civil war.

Alongside this material factor, the Hirak’s key slogan — Yitnahawga3 — contains a both radical and radicalizing core message. Having learned from previous rounds of struggle from the early 1980s onward, as well as from the uprisings that have shaken the MENA region since 2011, the Hirak has maintained a steadfast commitment to the demand that “they all have to go.” Even after Bouteflika stepped down, even after former ministers and military leaders were arrested, and even after (carefully stage-managed) elections brought a reshuffle at the top of the state machine, the movement did not relent. These changes were seen as evidence of the Hirak’s effective pressure but never as final victories. The demand for a full clearing out of the old regime opens the door to mass, radical alternatives both economically and politically.

In addition, the fact that the movement appears to be spreading to workplaces creates the possibility of calls for the democratization of the workplace to emerge — a key demand of the revolutionary left, which the historic Greek Trotskyist leader Michel Pablo convinced Ahmed Ben Bella to include (albeit only formally) in the first Algerian constitution. A mass movement which demands the clearing out of the ruling class from both political and economic power and insists on democratic control over all aspects of life is surely the most fertile ground for socialist ideas to develop.

The question, then, for the Algerian uprising and for all progressive forces with an interest in its victory, is how the current stalemate between the state and the Hirak will be resolved. Only time will tell whether the state’s incapacity to either repress or disorganize the movement will last long enough to allow for the further deepening of the revolt and the emergence of a more coherent leadership. But, for now, what is certain is that there is no turning back to the way things were.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Malia Bouattia is an activist, writer, and editor at Red Pepper magazine.

Sai Englert is a socialist activist and a lecturer at Leiden University. He sits on the editorial boards of Historical Materialism and Notes from Below.

Exploring Tunisia's cinematic routes: how the country's pivotal role in film history could attract a new wave of tourism

A new scheme aims to highlight some of the areas made famous by films such as 'Star Wars' and 'Indiana Jones'

The Mos Espa set. Courtesy Simon Speakman Cordall


May 2, 2021

Tunisia's place in film history isn't widely known. However, the North African country can lay a convincing claim to having played a pivotal role in many of cinema's most well-known productions. Over the years, Tunisia has doubled as ancient Rome, 1930s Egypt and even a small planet far, far away.

Now, after many years of neglect, the country's Ministry of Tourism, supported by the German international co-operation agency Gesellschaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (Giz), will open up many of these locations to a new generation of film lovers, once the pandemic has passed.

Overall, locations from the Star Wars films, Monty Python's Life of Brian, The Lost Legion, The English Patient, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Black Gold are being targeted.

Some, such as those for the The English Patient and Star Wars, partially overlap. Others, such as those in Life of Brian are as unique as their premise. However, all, to varying degrees, have been hit by the economic slide that prompted Tunisia's revolution and the political and financial turmoil that came afterwards.

Sidi Bouhel, better known as the Juntland Wastes in the movies, was dubbed Star Wars Canyon by Lucasfilm. Courtesy Simon Speakman Cordall

While the project, dubbed Cinematic Routes, remains in development, the hope is that private operators will be able to transport visitors to the sites from nearby tourist resorts or take the truly committed on individual tours of them. Many, such as the madinah in Kairouan, remain largely unchanged since Steven Spielberg filmed his 1981 classic Raiders of the Lost Ark there. While that lack of architectural development allowed the location to convincingly double as Cairo, it can be perplexing to visiting film fans that few within the Tunisian city have heard of the film, or are all that likely to understand the passions it inspires.

However, should Cinematic Routes bear fruit, it promises even greater dividends, with extras and backstage engineers from the original films also on hand to talk visitors through production. One extra who I met, Ezzedinemlik (Azziz), worked on Raiders of the Lost Ark and Star Wars, on which he says he was asked to dress as a "sort of cow". People like Azziz, such as other extras, construction professionals and location scouts, are found throughout Tunisia, and all are hungry to tell their stories.

For anyone really hoping to explore Tunisia's rich cinema heritage, Tozeur is the place to visit. It is here that three of the world's most famous films all come together, specifically at Sidi Bouhlel Canyon, not far outside the desert city. It was within these dramatic sandstone walls that several scenes from the original Star Wars were shot, as well as Raiders of the Lost Ark and The English Patient, which were all filmed within the same 500 yards of canyon.

Nearby stands the unique desert formation of Ong Jemel, or the Camel's Neck, a short stub of raised sand that stands above the sprawling salty flats that were in The English Patient and the Star Wars prequels. Farther into the salt flats, or the Chott el Djerid, are the empty Star Wars sets from the first of the prequel films, which have largely been left to the care of trinket hucksters and souvenir hawkers. Elsewhere, practically lost within the endless horizons of the Chott el Djerid, is the small fibreglass igloo that served as the exterior of Luke Skywalker's Tataouine home. Be warned, it can be tricky to find it on your own, but is a guaranteed pit stop on any cinema tour.

The interior of that home lies about three hours south, in Matmata. It was here that the traditional Amazigh troglodyte houses doubled as the interior of the Lars Homestead. The actual set remains largely intact and, before the pandemic, continued to get by as a hotel – the Sidi Driss.

The Lars Homestead has been converted into Hotel Sidi Driss. Courtesy Simon Speakman Cordall

Its manager, Massoud Ben Rached, still maintains the property and its distinctive props that featured in the prequels, which dominate the property's main courtyard. However, the hotel has been largely closed for business since the pandemic hit.

"We were contacted by Giz around a month ago," he tells The National. "They did say they're going to help us, so we hope things will get better. They said they're going to help us repair the broken decor and all. I hope they'll help us change it with a new one. We do want to take care of the hotel, but you know, things aren't that easy ... Money problems and all."

<span>Through the film route, tourists will be attracted to places that they might otherwise never have visited, also in remote areas of Tunisia" </span>

Travelling north along Tunisia's stunning Mediterranean coast takes you to Monastir – unrecognisable now from its appearance in the 1979 film Monty Python's Life of Brian – where the city's distinctive Ribat was transformed into a centre of Roman classicism, and where Brian Cohen, we're told, was a very naughty boy.

Further north lies Nabeul, where part of 2007's The Last Legion was filmed, as was 2011's Black Gold. And not too far away lies the capital, Tunis. Here, if you have a mind to, you can seek out the Roman theatre where Brian found himself selling larks' tongues, wrens' livers and chaffinch brains to the crowds watching the gladiators fight. Nearby, though not directly related to any film (but it would be a shame not to go), stand the Roman ruins of the Antonine Baths, as well as ancient Carthage.

The Cinematic Routes project, which combines funding from several bodies, hopes to provide up to 1,000 new jobs, as well as draw tourism in Tunisia away from the sprawling resort hotels on which it has traditionally relied.

“Through the film route, tourists will be attracted to places that they might otherwise never have visited, also in remote areas of Tunisia,” says Jose Frohling, who works with Giz's Promotion of Sustainable Tourism in Tunisia project. “Giz will support the local population and Tunisian enterprises to create touristic offers.”

Frohling outlines how the routes would connect tourists with the locations and offer advice on how best to reach them. From there, Giz hopes to partner with local communities, municipalities and the private sector to develop ideas on how to best manage and promote the sites.

“Giz will support the site-owners and other partners in preserving and renovating the natural and cultural sites,” Frohling says. “From the beginning, we co-operate with all public and non-governmental stakeholders as well as the private sector, in order to anchor capacities locally. In this way we ensure that the routes create a long-term economic benefit for the local communities in these areas.”

\

The medina of Kairouan starred in 'Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark'. Unsplash

Sadly, since its 2011 revolution and the rise of Morocco as a North African destination for directors looking to capture far-flung Middle Eastern vistas with all the amenities of the 21st century, Tunisia’s star has waned somewhat. While film production continues, many of those who were employed in some of the most famous films have had to find work elsewhere.

For them, and the hotels, restaurants and cafes near the locations slated for development, opening up the sites will provide a much-needed lifeline. And for anyone claiming to be interested in the history of modern cinema, it’s an unmissable opportunity.

Take the trip. The force is strong there.

Tunisian teen wins surprise Olympic swimming gold

By BETH HARRIS

1 of 4


TOKYO (AP) — Nobody was watching Ahmed Hafnaoui in lane eight of the Olympic pool.

All eyes were on the Tunisian teenager at the finish.

Hafnaoui was the stunning winner of the 400-meter freestyle at the Tokyo Games on Sunday, beating a field of faster and older swimmers. The 18-year-old finished in 3 minutes, 43.26 seconds, punctuating his victory with loud yelling that echoed in the mostly empty 15,000-seat arena.

“I believe when I touched the wall and I saw myself first,” he said. “I was so surprised.”

Australia’s Jack McLoughlin earned silver and American Kieran Smith took bronze. The top three were separated by less than a second after the eight-lap race.

“When I hit the water, I was just thinking about the medal, not the time,” Hafnaoui said.

He squeaked into the final by 14-hundredths of a second, landing him in the far outside lane. The fastest qualifiers were in the middle of the pool, without the ability to track Hafnaoui during the race.

Asked what he knew about Hafnaoui, Smith said, “Absolutely nothing.”

Hafnaoui made sure he’ll be remembered with a performance that boosted his resume considerably.

He joined Ous Mellouli as the only Tunisians to win a gold in swimming. Mellouli won the 1,500 freestyle at the 2008 Beijing Games, one of his three career Olympic medals. He reached out with a good-luck message to the teenager before the race.

“I wish to be like him one day,” Hafnaoui said.

The teen who trains in the capital of Tunis is the North Africa country’s fourth Olympic gold medalist. He’s the second-youngest athlete from an African nation to win a swimming gold; Joan Harrison of South Africa was 16 when she won the 100 backstroke at the 1952 Helsinki Games.

Standing on the podium, his coach furiously pumping his arms in triumph in the stands, the moment was overwhelming for Hafnaoui.

“I was in tears because when I see the flag of my country and I hear the anthem in the background, it was great,” he said. “I’m so proud of it. I dedicate it to all the Tunisian people.”

Hafnaoui began swimming at age 6 when his father enrolled him in a swim club. His limited international experience includes an eighth-place finish in the 400 free at the 2018 Youth Olympics.

“The best people are the ones who can come up and swim their best times at the Olympic Games,” McLoughlin said.

Hafnaoui has another chance to pull off a surprise when he competes in the 800 free on Thursday. Next year, he said he plans to attend college in the U.S.

___

More AP Olympic coverage: https://www.apnews.com/OlympicGames and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Tokyo 2020: Shock swimming gold for Japan and Tunisia
Updated / Sunday, 25 Jul 2021

Ahmed Hafnaoui claimed a stunning victory


Tunisia and Japan celebrated unexpected golds on the opening day of swimming medal events before normal service was resumed with the Australian women's 4x100m freestyle relay team smashing their own world record on the way to the title in Tokyo.

Chase Kalisz settled American nerves by delivering the country's first gold of these Games, winning the men's 400m medley as part of a US one-two with Jay Litherland.

On a day of surprises, Tunisian teenager Ahmed Hafnaoui pulled off the biggest shock of all with a stunning victory in the men's 400m freestyle.

The 18-year-old, swimming in the outside lane as the slowest qualifier, produced a blistering finish to pip Australia's Jack McLoughlin to gold with a time of 3:43.36, with American Kieran Smith taking bronze.

Hafnaoui's gold is only the fifth by a Tunisian athlete at the Olympics, but their third in swimming, and he was left stunned by his performance.

"I just can't believe it. It's a dream and it became true. It was great. it was my best race ever," he said.

While Hafnaoui's coach celebrated the victory by leaping around the edge of the pool, it was hard not to wonder what the scenes would have been like had Yui Ohashi's victory in the women's 400m medley come in front of a home crowd.

It was left to her team mates and Japanese officials to roar her home as she delivered gold for the hosts in a time of 4:32.08.

"It doesn't feel real. It is like a dream for me," she said.

"I couldn’t go to the Rio Olympics, so for the past five years this became a big dream for me. This accomplishment is amazing."

Yui Ohashi celebrates gold

American Emma Weyant took the silver medal 0.68 behind and compatriot Hali Flickinger picked up the bronze.

Ohashi pulled away from Flickinger in the breaststroke leg and went into the freestyle with a lead of 1.99 seconds, giving her a comfortable cushion to hold off Weyant's late surge.

Hungarian Katinka Hosszu, who has dominated the event in recent years and was defending champion, could finish only fifth.

The 32-year-old 'Iron Lady' was looking to become the second-oldest women’s swimming gold medallist in history, behind American Dara Torres, and she has three more chances in this Games.

In the men's 400m medley, a confident Kalisz powered to victory as the Americans finally made their presence felt.

The silver medallist from Rio went one better in Tokyo with a time of 4:09.42, Litherland trailing him home 0.86 behind. Australia's Brendon Smith was a further tenth of a second back taking bronze.

Kalisz, 27, grabbed the lead on the first length of the backstroke after France's Leon Marchand had led after the butterfly leg and never looked back.

He battled with New Zealand's Lewis Clareburt through the breaststroke but the Kiwi faded badly in the freestyle and finished seventh.

"It means the world. This is the last thing that I really wanted to accomplish in my swimming career," said Kalisz.

"It was something that was a dream of mine for as long as I could remember. I can't believe it."

Japan's Daiya Seto, the pre-Games favourite for gold, had failed to qualify from Saturday's heats.

While it was a disappointing day for Australia in the men's events, the women set a world record of 3:29.69 in the 4x100m freestyle relay, with Canada taking silver, 3:09 behind the winners, and the United States in bronze position.

The quartet of sisters Bronte and Cate Campbell, Meg Harris and Emma McKeon ensured a third straight gold in the event for Australia, taking 0.36 off their previous record of 3:30.05 set in April 2018.

Cate Campbell has featured in all three of the relay victories

Ireland have two swimmer in action in the pool on Sunday.

Danielle Hill is first out as she goes in her heat in the 100m backstroke at 11:07am, with Mona McSharry taking part in the 100m breaststroke heats at 11:45am.

FENCING & FEMINISM

Ines Boubakri: Tunisian fencer on making history for Arab women

By Katie FalkinghamBBC Sport
Last udated on14 July 2021

Ines Boubakri battled through injury to win Olympic bronze in Rio

Winning Olympic bronze in Rio allowed Ines Boubakri to realise she no longer had to prove herself to anyone.

The Tunisian had had a lifetime of doing that. But in that moment, dropping her mask to the floor and her foil to her side as she became the first African and Arab woman to win a medal in fencing, she knew every hurdle had been worth overcoming.

"You remember all that you sacrificed, how it was hard, because in fencing, we don't have this tradition," she said.

"When I started to be one of the best in the world, people were like 'oh, she's from Tunisia, how can she be one of the best ranked in the world?'.

"When I got this medal, I said 'I don't have to prove anything'. I deserved this medal."

Listen: On the Podium Podcast - How an Olympic fencer made history for Arab women

Boubakri is from a fencing family - her mother, Henda Zaouali, competed at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, while her husband, Erwann Le Pechoux, is a French Olympian. Zaouali couldn't be in Rio to watch her daughter take her place on the podium but Boubakri said she was happy because her mum "wanted that medal".

It hadn't been an easy win, though. Boubakri had battled back and knee pain in the foil bronze medal match, and was forced to fight back from a hefty deficit to defeat Russian Aida Shanayeva.

The now 32-year-old was given a "president's welcome" upon her return home to Tunisia, where she found she had a new following; followers who had realised, through Boubakri's success, that their futures could be limitless.

"It's a responsibility because there are a lot of young girls following me," Boubakri told the BBC World Service podcast On the Podium.

"I have some pressure and some responsibility because I want to show them how to get this medal, not just in sport or in other careers, to show that she can do it.

"It's not because we are Arab or from Africa that we can't, just believe in yourself, be confident and don't let people judge you. Just do what you want and believe in yourself."

Boubakri says the world changed how it viewed her. Now, she wants to help other women from similar backgrounds achieve their true potential.

"For me, it's very important that we have equality between women and men," she said.

"Unfortunately, in the Arab world, they still compare women and men, 'she cannot do this because she is a woman'.

"I want to prove that you cannot compare. Sometimes men cannot do some things that women can do. I want to stop this inequality."

She added: "I've heard a lot of girls say they don't want to do sport, or have muscles like men. When I hear this, I am shocked. I have been fencing now for more than 20 years and it's helped my body to keep fit.

"You can do whatever sport you like and you are not obliged to be at the highest level. Try lots of things and you will see what your body can do."

Ines Boubakri is a three-time Olympian, having competed in Beijing, London and Rio

Tokyo will be Boubakri's fourth Olympics, and could be her last, but regardless of what happens in Japan this summer she already has her future mapped out.

Having moved to France with the support of her family at 18-years-old for better fencing opportunities, Boubakri now wants to bring those opportunities back to the next generation of the sport who need them.

"I don't know when I will stop my career, sometimes I say it will be my last Olympics in Tokyo, sometimes I say why not [carry on]?," she said.

"I have a Masters in sport psychology and I can be a PE teacher, so after my career, I dream about making an international academy.

"I'm thinking of people like me, people who don't have a big structure, big clubs, a lot of fencers to practice [with].

"So my plan, and I hope it can work, is to build an international academy for all the people who don't have big federations, they can join our academy and I can share with them how to improve in fencing, my experiences and go with them to competitions, to be their coach."

REST IN POWER

Bangladesh: Legendary folk musician and freedom fighter Fakir Alamgir passes away



Folk music legend and freedom fighter Fakir Alamgir passed away in Dhaka on Friday night. He was suffering from Coronavirus infection and suffered a heart attack in the evening. He was 71.

Singer, musician and songwriter, Fakir Alamgir was a leading exponent of Gono Sangeet or songs of the masses. He was known as a leading voice for the weaker sections of society.

President M. Hamid in his condolence message said that Fakir Alamgir’s music played an important role in the revival of patriotism and the development of the liberation war consciousness among the younger generation. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said that he will be remembered for his great role in popularising the Gono Sangeet among people.

Fakir Alamgir studied Mass Communication and Journalism at Dhaka University. He was a member of the cultural groups Kranti Shilpi Gosthi and Gono Shilpi Gosthi during the mass upsurge of 1969 against the Pakistani government. He also worked with Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra, the radio station which played a significant role during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971.

Starting his musical journey in 1966, Fakir Alamgir was counted among the most influential artists of modern Bangladeshi music combining the folk music with the western sounds. He was also a writer having published several books in Bangla.

He was awarded the top literary award of Bangladesh Ekushey Padak in 1999 for his contribution to music.

By AIR News
INTERNATIONAL
July 24, 2021

GLOBALIZATION IS OUTSOURCING


Bangladesh draws smartphone assembly as brands eye growing market

Nokia, Samsung and Chinese makers including Vivo enticed by government incentives

Dhaka shops selling smartphones from Oppo and Vivo, two Chinese companies that are among the global manufacturers producing the devices in Bangladesh. (Photo by Syful Islam)

SYFUL ISLAM, 

Contributing writer

NIKKEI ASIA

June 30, 2021 


DHAKA -- International mobile phone brands Nokia, Samsung, Vivo and others are increasingly choosing to set up manufacturing ventures in Bangladesh to avoid the South Asian country's high import tariffs and get direct access to its large and growing population.

Bangladesh, once a perennial bottom-dweller in global league tables, has drawn increasing attention in recent years as its economy racks up high growth rates and consumer spending power in the country of 163 million people expands.

It has also taken steps to attract foreign investment and increase local production and consumption through its "Made in Bangladesh" program, nudging phone brands to enter the country by raising tariffs on imported handsets, collecting lower duties on component imports and exempting consumer purchases from the country's value-added tax.

Finland's Nokia is just the latest manufacturer to make the move, following on the heels of South Korea's Samsung as well as China's Oppo, Vivo, Transsion and Realme to adopt a strategy previously reserved for bigger markets like India and Brazil. Bangladeshi officials say other Chinese brands are expected to follow suit.

Thanks to an effective price gap of 15-26% between imported and locally assembled smartphones, domestic production has climbed, now accounting for nearly 80% of sales.

Noting the new predominance of local phones, Finance Minister A.H.M. Mustafa Kamal this month proposed extending the VAT exemption another two years. Another measure, set to come into effect on July 1, will block buyers of smuggled phones from registering their devices on local networks.

"That will shut [down the] illegal import of handsets into Bangladesh, and local manufactures will get encouraged, as their market shares will go up," Shahidul Alam, director general of the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission, told Nikkei Asia.

Bangladesh's economy has been growing at a rapid pace in recent years. © AP

Local manufacturing of phones only began in October 2017 when local electronics maker Walton started production under its own brand in a Dhaka suburb. It has since made 1.7 million smartphones and 4.3 million older-style feature phones.

A number of other companies now making smartphones in Bangladesh are local ventures, often arms of large conglomerates. But Vivo and Realme, both under the umbrella of China's BBK Electronics, and compatriot Transsion have set up their own factories in the country.

Tanzib Ahamed, brand manager at Vivo Bangladesh, said it had won "sizable" market share since launching its local plant in 2019 by making "global technology much more affordable for local consumers."

Citing data from research company Canalys, a local spokesman for Realme said his company is now one of Bangladesh's top three smartphone brands, with a 14% share.

"It is now possible to offer our products at a much more competitive price to the smartphone users," he said, adding that the company's factory in the city of Gazipur now has 600 employees. "We are registering phenomenal growth in Bangladesh."

Rezwanul Hoque, chief executive of Transsion's local unit, said he expects to be able to price phones even lower in the future as local factories start production of motherboards, batteries, chargers and other components.

Consumers welcome the trend.

"We are now using 'Made in Bangladesh' handsets. We are proud of it," said Atiqur Rahman, a private banker, who added that smartphone prices should go down further so that those with lower incomes also can buy high quality handsets.

The rush to produce phones in Bangladesh comes as its economy has been growing steadily. Before the pandemic, gross domestic product grew by over 7% annually for several years, and in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020, GDP expanded 5.2%, according to the finance minister. Though lower than before, it was the strongest in Asia, he said.

Bangladeshis seen outside the Bashundhara City Shopping Complex in Dhaka on Oct. 2, 2020. Producing smartphones in the country makes them more affordable to consumers. © EPA/Jiji

The country has $45 billion in foreign exchange reserves, enough to cover six months of imports, and last fiscal year received over $21 billion in remittances from citizens working abroad, a figure the finance minister expects to reach $25 billion by the end of June. The country has also racked up merchandise exports of nearly $40 billion a year.

Bangladesh's 175.27 million active mobile phone accounts at the end of May -- well within the top 10 in Asia in size -- means the country is a key attraction for brands, according to the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission.

Union Group, the local conglomerate that will make Nokia phones under contract with Espoo, Finland-based brand owner HMD Global, aims to soon start producing 500,000 handsets a month, according to Mohammed Asif Alamgir, business controller of the group's mobile division.

"Nokia is a very old and trusted brand compared to Chinese makers," he said. "None will be able to match ... Nokia's brand acceptance."

Takayuki Omino, spokesman for HMD Global, said, "Consumers will be able to buy their [be]loved brand Nokia handsets at an affordable price."

An official at the Ministry of Posts, Telecommunications and Information Technology said Xiaomi and Motorola, which is now part of China's Lenovo, are also working on plans for local production. However, Lenovo spokeswoman Genevieve Hilton denied that, while Xiaomi did not respond to queries.

Beyond the domestic market, the country's phone makers are starting to consider exporting. Walton has begun assembling phones for a foreign brand for export, with the first shipment dispatched to the U.S. in March, according to Uday Hakim, executive director at Walton Hi-Tech Industries. Walton also exported handsets under its own brand to Nepal, he said, though shipments are now suspended due to the pandemic.

Fair Group, the local conglomerate that assembles Samsung phones, also has its eye on foreign markets.

"We are expecting to start handset exports from Bangladesh by 2023 or 2024," said Chief Marketing Officer Mohammed Mesbah Uddin.

"Almost all the global brands either have received permission or [are] under process to set up factories here," he said, estimating that once that happens, 95% of smartphones for the domestic market will be produced locally.

Edison Group, another local conglomerate, makes phones under its own Symphony brand.

"We aim to turn Bangladesh into a regional hub for mobile handset production," Managing Director Jakaria Shahid told Nikkei, forecasting that exports by the industry will start to take off next year.

Bangladesh draws smartphone assembly as brands eye growing market - Nikkei Asia

Japan faces heat over Bangladesh’s coal power

Funding commitment for Matarbari scheme sits awkwardly with carbon pledges

Some 4,000km from Japan, on a verdant, mangrove-lined island in south-eastern Bangladesh, sits one of the biggest and most controversial tests of Tokyo’s commitment to help phase out fossil fuels.

Thanks to low-interest loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency, Bangladesh is currently building the Matarbari coal plant: a power complex set to be completed by 2024. And JICA, a government body, has been considering funding an expansion to the 10-year-old project, known as Matarbari Phase 2 — despite, earlier this year, saying it would work with Bangladesh “to promote a low- or zero-carbon transformation” of its energy economy.

This debate around the Matarbari plant embodies the tensions in Japan’s fossil-fuel policies. Its financing of coal power in developing countries risks falling out of step with moves to promote renewable energy at home and abroad.

In Bangladesh — a low-lying country highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change, such as rising sea levels and erratic rainfall — the government of prime minister Sheikh Hasina has been backing coal to meet energy needs.

However, official enthusiasm for mega-projects such as Matarbari is waning as renewable alternatives become cheaper. Hasina’s government last month scrapped 10 of the coal-power plants it had planned. While the mooted Matarbari Phase 2 project was not officially among them, analysts say it is looking less and less viable.

One activist says Japan is ‘making money transferring pollution to other countries’

“Now, [Bangladesh’s] focus is more pro-renewables, and [it] seems to be turning away from coal,” says Simon Nicholas, an analyst with US think-tank the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). “That’s more economics than anything else.” Bangladesh says it wants to generate 40 per cent of its power from renewable energy within 20 years.

Yesterday’s policy

Japan has long invested in Bangladeshi infrastructure, a partnership that stems back nearly as far as the South Asian nation’s independence 50 years ago. But JICA’s support for the Matarbari units has faced severe censure.

“Japan has no right to invest in coal in other countries — they have a responsibility to ensure zero emissions,” argues Hasan Mehedi, an activist with the Bangladesh Working Group on External Debt, which opposes the project. Japan is “making money . . . transferring pollution to other countries so that they can phase themselves clean,” Mehedi says.

Within Japan, too, there is belated recognition that its support for overseas coal plants has become anachronistic.

Until recently, its suppliers of coal-fired boilers and turbines were regarded as the kind of strategic national industry the country had a duty to support. Now, it has realised that there is little future in coal. That prompted a big shift in policy last year, when Japan adopted a presumption against new coal projects overseas. Banks began to question whether coal financing was worth the international opprobrium. 

“There are very few possibilities for Japanese industry to export coal power plants,” says University of Tokyo professor Yukari Takamura, who was part of a government expert panel on the topic. She adds that “almost all Japanese banks have now said they will not finance new coal plants overseas.”

While there is some ambiguity about official Japanese policy — there is still no clear ban on coal projects overseas — the government made its strongest commitment yet at last month’s G7 summit in the UK: agreeing to halt all new direct government support for unabated coal power generation abroad by the end of 2021 (that is, plants that do not capture the carbon dioxide they produce).

That has left a few pipeline projects, including Matarbari Phase 2, in a no man’s land. They now run against official policy, but commitments were made. JICA says that preparatory surveys are continuing.

Who benefits?

Local attitudes towards the Matarbari project, about 40 miles from Bangladesh’s second-largest city Chattogram, are polarised.

Supporters have touted its job-creating potential, but critics accuse it of displacing residents and polluting the adjacent Kohelia river. Sharif Jamil, of environmental group Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, says locals complain that construction contractors are bringing in workers from outside areas. They had hoped “the area will be developed like Singapore,” he says. “But now the myth has gone.”

IEEFA’s Nicholas argues that such projects will exacerbate Bangladesh’s power overcapacity, with utilisation of the power system currently around 40 per cent. He thinks the country should instead upgrad

e its grid to make better use of its existing electricity supply and to meet its renewable energy targets.

“Until recently, Bangladesh was expected to be one of the key growth markets for seaborne thermal coal,” he says. “The potential growth markets around Asia — that were supposed to replace Japan, South Korea and China as they shift away from thermal coal imports — increasingly look like they will disappoint the coal industry.”

Additional reporting by Robin Harding

https://www.ft.com/content/0428b4b5-b3c9-4ce9-a207-c88445216a19

Bangladesh's 'banker to the poor' Yunus awarded prestigious Olympic Laurel

Xinhua/Tokyo
Filed on July 23, 2021

(Twitter)
The 81-year-old Nobel laureate accepts award via video link from his home in Dhaka.

Bangladeshi 'banker to the poor' Muhammad Yunus has written the name of his country into Olympic history, as he was awarded the Olympic Laurel at the opening ceremony of Tokyo Olympics on Friday night.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Yunus will become the second recipient of the laurel, which was introduced in 2016 to honor people who have "made significant achievements in education, culture, development and peace through sport."

A banker by trade, Yunus, has dedicated his life to fighting poverty around the world through establishing the Grameen Bank - a community development bank that makes small loans to impoverished people without requiring collateral. His work has therefore earned him the nickname of the "world's banker to the poor."

He was given the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

The 81-year-old man accepted the award by video link from his home in Dhaka and said it represented a significant moment for Bangladesh's Olympic history.

In addition to his work with the impoverished, Yunus has also collaborated with the IOC on a Young Leaders Programme for athletes.

IOC President Thomas Bach spoke highly of Yunus for his "extensive work" helping athletes "become socially responsible entrepreneurs" and for his work building a new sustainable Olympic model.

Born in the Chittagong district of Bangladesh in 1940, Yunus was educated at the Chittagong College and the Department of Economics at Dhaka University.

After spending 13 years lecturing at various institutions and working on his PhD in economics, Yunus in 1974 became involved in reducing poverty, championing microcredit small loans with small interest rates for poor people.

In 1983 his pilot microfinance program had 28,000 members and became the Grameen - or village - Bank.

By 2007 the bank had issued loans worth 6.38 billion US dollars to 7.4 million borrowers.

IT NEVER LEFT

The Biden Era Is Witnessing a Return of the Military-Industrial Complex

One of the top national security think tanks backing the Biden administration, the Center for a New American Security, has been taking money from every major defense contractor while pumping out a steady stream of research supporting those companies’ interests. It’s yet another sign that Biden’s promised “return to normal” has, unfortunately, arrived.  

Troops gather as the US Capitol in January before Joe Biden's presidential inauguration. (Rod Lamkey / Getty Images)


BY BRANKO MARCETIC
02.12.2021
JACOBIN

The promise of a “return to normal” under Joe Biden always meant two possibilities. It could mean a hard break from the obscene, in-your-face corruption and self-dealing that defined Donald Trump’s presidency. Or it could mean going back to the kind of run-of-the-mill, revolving-door Washington corruption that Trump had pledged to clean up, but ended up wallowing in.

According to a new report by the Revolving Door Project, titled “The Military-Industrial-Think Tank Complex: Conflict of Interest at the Center for a New American Security,” it looks to be the latter option that is so far prevailing in the Biden years. Released yesterday, the report charges top Democratic foreign policy think tank the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) of “at best, a serious deficiency of accountability,” and at worst, “a systematically corrupt arrangement” that sees it promote its corporate sponsors’ interests while passing it off as a public good.

The report recounts several examples of this arrangement. In 2009, for instance, CNAS published a report maintaining that the controversial use of private military contractors was essential and “here to stay” in wars like Afghanistan, all while taking money from several different firms providing those very services. One of these firms, DynCorp, was on the receiving end of $2.8 billion of the state department’s Afghanistan operations funding from 2002 to 2013, or 69 percent of the total sum.

In another case, a 2018 CNAS report charged that the Air Force’s plans to buy a hundred B-21 bombers did “not go far enough,” pushing the military to add fifty to seventy-five more jets at an extra cost of $32.8-49.2 billion. Those profits would have gone to the bomber’s maker, Northrop Grumman, an arms manufacturer that also happened to direct more than half of its total think tank donations during the 2014–19 period to CNAS.

A year before that, CNAS had charged the UAE embassy in the United States $250,000 for a report advocating looser rules for exporting US drones (“I think it will help push the debate in the right direction,” the ambassador wrote in a thank you e-mail), before publishing a separate paper calling on Trump to loosen those restrictions. The UAE ended up signing a nearly $200 million deal for the drones with General Atomics, whose billionaire chairman and CEO, Neal Blue, is both a generous donor to CNAS and sits on its board of advisors.

In these and other examples, the report states, the center failed to disclose the conflicts of interest in their reports, despite noting the existence of a policy on such conflicts in their tax filings. It also repeatedly violated the “very clear line” CNAS cofounder Kurt Campbell — then about to serve in Barack Obama’s state department, and now serving on Biden’s national security council — testified about in his 2009 confirmation hearing: that the CNAS doesn’t write about specific products its donors make, but rather stays limited to big picture foreign policy ideas.

The center’s reliance on the corporate sector, particularly military contractors, is extensive, having taken donations from all “big five” such firms in the last decade, along with twenty-four others. According to a Center for International Policy report released last year, CNAS got more defense contractor money than any of the top fifty US think tanks it analyzed. That’s in addition to contributions from NATO, the governments of the United States and eleven other allied countries, and corporate titans spanning fossil fuel, financial, tech, and other sectors, all of whom have given generously to CNAS over the years.

As the report points out, CNAS’s own cofounder — Michèle Flournoy, tipped to be Biden’s defense secretary before her own extensive conflicts of interest derailed her — pointed out the issues with a corporate funding model in a 2014 speech.

“Every funder has intent. They’re giving you money for a reason,” she said. “There are some organizations that call themselves ‘think tanks’ that actually accept money from corporations to do very specific work that tends to advocate the programs those companies produce, and I think that sort of … makes the waters more murky.”

“The scale and scope of conflicts of interest that appear in CNAS’s work and the influence that its donors may be exerting on policy further highlights serious concerns about political corruption,” wrote Brett Heinz, coauthor of the report.

Of course, CNAS is far from unique. A whole host of think tanks, including those in the foreign policy sphere like the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the Atlantic Council, regularly overlap their advocacy work with the interests of their well-heeled benefactors. But few have as much influence on the workings of the US government, with at least thirteen of the center’s alumni ending up in the Biden administration to date. As the foreign policy equivalent of the Center for American Progress, this is, after all, why CNAS exists: to serve as the future Democratic administration’s foreign policy team in waiting.

Washington, it seems, is finally back in the guiding hands of the experts who were always meant to be running the show. This also means that, true to Biden’s promise, the city has reverted back to the same, unremarkably money-driven state that Trump first used to take power four years ago.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Branko Marcetic is a Jacobin staff writer and the author of Yesterday's Man: The Case Against Joe Biden. He lives in Toronto, Canada.