Shortages hit hard in Sri Lanka as citizens protest and the government seeks IMF bailout

"The people want better from their leaders"

Written byRezwan

Posted 23 March 2022 

A Ceylon Petroleum fuel truck. Image from Flickr by Dhammika Heenpella. CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

On March 18, 2022, the authorities announced that the final term examinations of schools in the Western Province of Sri Lanka would be delayed due to a shortage of paper and other materials required to prepare the examination papers. The printers of examination papers were unable to secure foreign currency to import the paper and ink they needed.

Twitter user @SriLankaTweet informs that the paper shortage has affected other things:

This is not the only predicament Sri Lanka is facing. Widespread shortages, such as fuel, gas, medicines, or even car parts, triggered by higher prices and foreign exchange shortages are making everyday life miserable in the country. On August 30, 2021, the country declared an economic emergency to control  soaring food prices amid the foreign exchange crisis. Food inflation rose above 25 percent in February 2022.

The country is reeling from its worst financial crisis since independence in 1948 — its usable foreign currency reserves plunged below $1 billion in 2022. Sri Lanka may soon face a sovereign debt default and it has requested an IMF bailout.

An unprecedented crisis

Over the past five decades, Sri Lanka undertook several infrastructure development projects, which were financed through foreign loans. By 1989, Sri Lanka’s public debt (domestic and foreign) amounted to 109 percent of its GDP, but the country could manage it with the support of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as these were concessionary loans with low-interest rates — not market rates — and longer payback periods. So the government did not have to pay a huge amount of money as foreign debt repayments each year.

After the end of the 30 year-long civil war in 2009, the country needed infrastructural development and it did not generate sufficient revenue to meet its expenditure in the following decade. So it increased reliance on loans provided by export-import (exim) banks, especially from the Exim Bank of China. These loans were commercial with a shorter repayment period, and, by the end of 2020, more than half of Sri Lanka’s foreign loans were commercial, non-concessionary loans. That means the country has to repay the loan instalments within a short time or will face default. During the pandemic, the debt situation worsened and, in 2022 alone, the country has accrued a debt obligation of USD 7 billion.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka devalued its currency on March 9, 2022, causing the currency value to dip by over 30 percent.

The fuel crisis and the dominoes falling

Though the signs were there in earlier months, in early March, Sri Lanka fell into a severe fuel shortage as it did not have sufficient foreign currency to import and replenish stock. The market price of fuel rose more than 12 percent immediately. Public transport services were crippled as many buses were shut down and taxi drivers had to wait hours in queues to buy fuel as some filling stations capped the sale to a maximum of ten litres per customer. On March 20, two elderly people died while waiting for fuel.

Journalist and writer Kavinthan tweeted:

Scheduled power outages had started in February due to fuel shortage and, from March 2, power cuts were scheduled for over 7 hours in some areas. Sri Lankans on social media started reacting to the crisis.

Twitter user Rehana quipped:

Adilah Ismail, a writer based in Colombo, shared some photos:

By the first week of March 2022, approximately 1,000 bakeries had to close because of a severe shortage of cooking gas.

Storyteller and creative director Brandon Ingram tweeted:

Protests

On March 15, 2022, tens of thousands of protesters gathered outside the president's office, led by supporters of the opposition alliance the Samagi Jana Balawegaya (United People's Force) demanding that President Gotabaya Rajapaksa resign.

Marianne David, the deputy editor of The Sunday Morning tweeted:

Citizens in different places in Sri Lanka, even in small numbers, are holding independent vigils and protests to show their anger against the government over the current crisis.

Writer Amalini talks about a protest in the Wattala suburb of the capital Colombo (read the whole thread).

Journalist Vajira Sumedha reported:

Twitter user Avanthi Ratnayake commented:

On March 22, Sri Lanka deployed soldiers at hundreds of petrol stations across the country to help distribute fuel and manage protests.

More loans required for the bailout

Last week, the Sri Lankan government formally requested the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a favourable support program to help the country.

On March 9, 2022, Sri Lanka imposed import restrictions on 367 non-essential items such as fruits, milk products and fish in a bid to tackle the foreign exchange shortage. On March 17, they signed a line of credit of USD 1 billion with neighbour India and a currency swap of USD 400 million was added to the deal.

The Sri Lankan government is currently negotiating with China for additional funding of USD 2.5 billion. Since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, China has provided USD 2.8 billion financial assistance to Sri Lanka, including a USD 1.5 billion currency swap.

Not just the U.S.: Residente portrays all of America in ‘This is Not America’

The song is the blistering cry of a continent

Written byMelissa Vida

Posted 23 March 2022 

Screen capture from Residente's “This is Not America” music video on Youtube.

Popular Puerto Rican rapper René Pérez, best known as Residente, recently released “This is Not America,” a track that puts the spotlight on Latin America's struggles for peace and justice. By incorporating bold symbolic images of state repression, racism, and exploitation, the video already gathered more than 9 million views on Youtube and counting.

Throughout the song, Residente externalizes a familiar exasperation that many Latin Americans feel when the word “America” is used to define the United States and not the continent ranging from Argentina to Canada. In an interview with the BBC, Residente said: “From the U.S. point of view, everything that happens in the video is not America.”

Elements of the title, lyrics, and video are a direct reference to Childish Gambino's “This is America,” which had vividly denounced racism against Black people in the United States back in 2018.

Accompanied by Ibeyi, an Afro-French Cuban musical duo, Residente denounces a list of ailments plaguing the continent on strong drum beats, such as colonization and extraction of natural resources, police violence, the killings of journalists, and forced migration.

Residente also hails Indigenous contributions, such as the Mayan calendar and Túpac Amaru, an Indigenous leader from Peru who gave rise to the “Great Rebellion” against the Spanish crown in 1780. Residente draws a parallel between the 18th-century Indigenous leader and famous California-born rapper Tupac Shakur (2Pac).

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

Tupac is named after Tupac Amaru of Peru.
America is not only the U.S., man

The music video is also very striking and tells a story of Latin America through a multitude of cultural, sociopolitical, and historical references.

It opens with a scene portraying the historical figure of Lolita Lebrón, a leader in Puerto Rico's independence movement, who attacked the U.S. Capitol in 1954 in an attempt to give full sovereignty to the island, followed by symbolic images of a vibrant culture surviving amidst social protests and the extermination of Indigenous peoples. The image of the Indigenous man pulled by four police officers refers to when the Spanish colonizers attempted to dismember Tupac Amaru with horses in 1781.

Forced migration of families towards the United States is also referenced in the video, with a mother breastfeeding her child who has been separated from her due to U.S. immigration policy. Central Americans fleeing gang violence — represented by people with tattoos — are also seen on Mexico's side of the U.S. border wall in Tijuana. The fresh twist is that gang members are shown as victims, refugees, and fervent Catholics rather than through their reputation of being “animals,” a dehumanizing term.

The women wearing black hoods over their faces represent the Indigenous Zapatista political movement in Mexico. The Zapatista Army of National Liberation (EZLN for its acronym in Spanish) took control of southern parts of Mexico, in Chiapas, to install an Indigenous-led libertarian socialist government. For many, the Zapatistas have become an example of the Indigenous and peasant struggle for self-determination as these groups have been the most historically marginalized on the continent.

A large segment is dedicated to the juxtaposition of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro eating a steak and wiping his mouth on the Brazilian flag while an Amazonian Indigenous child watches him. In Brazil, Indigenous peoples have denounced Bolsonaro for committing genocide against their populations by encouraging the accelerated deforestation of the Amazon forest for industrial crops and pastures to raise cows for meat consumption. 

There is also a significant critique of U.S. companies throughout the video, particularly making reference to megacorporations like Starbucks, Amazon, and McDonald's. Indigenous children in traditional attire interact with Western companies — such as the Amazonian child throwing away boxes of what looks like Jeff Bezos’ Amazon company. Another child is filmed eating a burger. Western fast-food companies have “aggressively expanded” in Latin America, “contributing to obesity and health problems,” according to the New York Times.

The scene where the soldier shoots the musician refers to the torture and killing of Chilean singer Víctor Jara at the national stadium at the hands of state forces after the U.S.-supported 1973 coup against Salvador Allende. Numerous shots show the frequent repression of student protests throughout the region, such as the 2014 Ayotzinapa abduction and disappearance of 43 students.

Above all, the song is a tribute to Indigenous, student, peasant, and Afrodescendant resistance to state repression and extraction of resources. For example, Residente makes a reference to Latin America's economic dependence on sugar production — which drives “killings, land loss, displacement, denial of free, prior and informed consent,” according to human rights reports — by stating that campesino workers can rebel.

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

The machete is not only for cutting cane,
It's also for cutting heads

On Twitter, where the response to the song was overwhelmingly positive, users were quick to analyze more references from the video in Twitter threads such as this one:

The visual references I was able to identify in Residente's video:

Lolita Lebron

An underground comic book displays the zeitgeist of Skopje, the capital of North Macedonia

Streets and sewers are main locations of this comix social commentary

Written byFilip Stojanovski

Posted 25 March 2022 5:55 GMT 

Macedonian edition of the book “Streetdog and Rat” (Џукела и Пацоф) by Matej Bogdanovski. 

Photo by Filip Stojanovski, CC BY 3.0.

The comic book “Streetdog and Rat” (“Džukela i Pacof” in Macedonian) was published in October 2021. The author Matej Bogdanovski has given Global Voices  permission to publish several pages translated from Macedonian into English.

The satirical comics “Streetdog and Rat” comments on life in Skopje during the decade of  the 2010s. It consists of 40 short stories, one page each, presenting anecdotes from the life and times of two pals, Streetdog and Rat, and a host of other anthropomorphic animals (Crow, Bat, Kitty, Poodle, Frog).

It can be considered underground both stylistically and literally, as it takes place on the city streets, and below them in its sewers.

The main characters Streetdog and Rat live on the margins of society, barely making ends meet, akin to these two kinds of animals that live in cities, adapting to all the cruelty the urban environment. At the same time, the city protects them from dangers they would encounter in nature.

In a conversation published by the online magazine Okno.mk, the writer Rumena Bužarovska asked Bogdanovski whether there's any optimism in the characters of Streetdog and Rat, whom she described as “cute losers, both heroes and villains at the same time.” He replied:

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

The two of them are not even villains. They might be considered some sort of antiheroes, but they don't have bad intentions, which would make them villains. They are apathetic and opportunistic; at the same time, lazy and passive. While its not all the same to them when their interests are endangered, their reactions are passive aggressive. For instance in one story they complain about the efficacy of the public garbage disposal service that empty the dumpsters on time, because that deprives them of food. Or when Rat starts a protest against the increase of salaries, because he thinks that, as an unemployed person, he would suffer from the ensuing increase of prices.

Streetdog and Rat episode 2 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

While the author didn't conceive of the comics as overtly political, it still refers to some general conditions related to politics that affect everyday life. For instance, the fourth mini story deals with the widespread practice among populist political parties in the Balkans of boosting the number of attendees of their public events with people who are both coerced and bribed with food, such as sandwiches and ice cream.

Streetdog and Rat episode 4 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

One of the characters is the corrupt local politician Crow, who uses buzzwords such as “The Green Agenda” that became popular among politicians who think that nationalist narratives have become ineffective or spent, while trying to appear fancy, worldly and modern.

Streetdog and Rat episode 7 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

Bogdanovski explained that, in order to convey various layers of  contradictory feelings that denizens of Skopje express about their city, at times he used the diminutive term of endearment “Skopjence” that can be translated as “our little Skopje.”

• Translation
 
• Original Quote

Skopje. A city thorn between the desire to be a metropolis and the quiet life in small neighborhoods. A city destroyed by irresponsible policies and boorish defilement by the urbanistic/construction mafia run by thugs trying to compensate for their lack of constructive experiences. A city tired of changes, in which several generations each have their own Old Skopje. A city which changes loudly, but rebels quietly. A city which lost its authenticity by trying to look like some other cities. A city whose citizens express all their passivity and city's failings through one word: “Skopjence.”

Streetdog and Rat episode 27 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

Bogdanovski doesn't consider himself a socially engaged artist. He simply considers himself a visual artist and, above all, a painter. It is by continuing the tradition of other painters from the past who had also commented on society that he reacts to developments in society through his work, expressing his position or dissatisfaction.

Streetdog and Rat episode 33 by Matej Bogdanovski. Used with permission.

Matej Bogdanovski was born in 1979 in Skopje, and has graduated and finished masters studies at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Skopje. Alongside with his primary job as a painter, he is also the author of comics and books, including collections of illustrated short stories and coloring books, as well as book based on memes related to the Skopje 2014 project titled “Skopje rados ti ke bidesh” (Skopje happiness you'll be).

His other comic books include “KŠŠC” (2010), a tale about Skopje night life and rock and roll subculture; “Patentalia and Tentelina” (Perfect Ten) (2016) a fantasy parody mixing folklore and fairytale motives with modern issues like copyright, piracy and body image on social media; “Street” (2020), an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Slavko Janevski; and the educational comics for kids “The Skopje Aqueduct” (2021).

More of Matej Bogdanovski's art is publicly available via his Facebook profile.

Threatened with deportation in Thailand, a Lao activist seeks asylum in Canada

He was arrested in January for violating his Thailand visa

Written byMong Palatino
Posted 25 March 2022 


A Lao activist Khoukham Keomanivong (Photo Credit; RFA Asia), Copyright © 1998-2020, RFA. Used with the permission of Radio Free Asia, 2025 M St. NW, Suite 300, Washington DC 20036.

Lao activist Khoukham Keomanivong arrived in Canada on March 11, 2022, seeking asylum almost two months after he was arrested in Bangkok, Thailand, and threatened with deportation.

Khoukham is among the founders of Free Laos, a network of Lao workers in Thailand pushing for human rights in their home country. He was detained by Thai authorities on January 29 for allegedly violating his visa rules, but he was released on bail three days later through the legal assistance of a human rights lawyer.

His arrest was widely condemned by civil society groups across Asia because he is officially recognized as an asylum seeker by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Khoukham’s story and his refugee status were widely shared on social media to pressure Thai authorities to stop the deportation procedures. Travel restrictions were imposed on Khoukham despite his release on February 1.

Khoukham insisted that he has not participated in any political activity in the past two years, as required by the UNHCR when he received his refugee card. He thinks someone maliciously reported him to Thai authorities by reposting his previous posts on social media that tackled human rights issues. The prospect of being deported terrifies him and his supporters because it could lead to a long prison sentence as the Laos government is known for handing out harsh punishment to dissidents.

News about Khoukham’s safe arrival in Vancouver was welcomed by human rights advocates.

In an interview with Radio Free Asia a few days after arriving in Canada, Khoukham shared his relief on being able to talk and move freely again.

…the most important thing is that I’m in a safe place and in a free country now. I think nobody will restrict my freedoms anymore.

He added that he may soon resume speaking out about the human rights situation in Laos:

Deep in my heart, I’m still the same person, and in whatever country I live — free or not — I’ll continue to speak out and express myself about my native country. I think that is a basic human right. I might come out one day and be just as critical as I was before, because here in Canada I don’t have to be afraid of anyone anymore. It’s our right to speak out.

Khoukham was not the first Lao refugee and activist to be detained in Thailand. Some even mysteriously disappeared while waiting to be resettled into another country. Human rights groups have expressed concern about the rising cases of arrested and disappeared dissidents who sought refuge in Thailand. These political refugees are from neighboring Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Thailand’s military-backed government, which came to power in 2014, has been accused of cooperating with its Southeast Asian neighbors to deport activists and refugees. Thailand is able to deport asylum seekers as illegal immigrants because it is not party to the 1951 Refugee Convention.

Khoukham has had a difficult journey which brought him from Laos to Thailand and now in Canada. But he is still fortunate since he was able to evade the fate of his fellow dissidents who had gone missing either in Thailand or Laos. His journey and pursuit of justice continues in Canada.


Written byMong Palatino

Israeli Settlers attack Palestinians, seize land around Nablus

The hills around Nablus have become a primary target for new settlements for many years, dispossessing Palestinians of their land in the occupied West Bank

2021 saw the highest number of settler attacks on Palestinians in more than a decade - with no signs of the trend abating [Getty]

Israeli settlers have set up several caravans on Palestinian-owned land in the village of Qusra to the south of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian News Agency Wafa on Sunday.

Ghassan Daghlas, a local Palestinian official in charge of monitoring Israeli settlement activity, told Wafa that a group of Israeli settlers from the illegal outpost settlement of Magdalim installed the caravans with the aim of expanding on Palestinian land.

Israeli settlers also attacked Palestinian-owned commercial structures and caused damages to a Palestinian vehicle at the entrance of the village of Burqa, northwest of Nablus on the same day, according to Daghlas.

The city of Nablus has become encircled by settlements and unofficial outposts in the last decade, leading to a ten-year peak in violence against Palestinians by settlers in 2021, according to the UN.

Attacks take place across Areas A, B and C - with Palestinians living in Area C, under the control of Israeli Occupying Forces most at risk of violence and dispossession by new settlement projects.

Israel has occupied the West Bank illegally since 1967, and commits various abuses against Palestinian civilians, human rights groups say.

More than 600,000 Jewish Israelis live in settlements in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, in constructions considered illegal under international law.

Elsewhere in occupied Palestinian territories, Israel has on Sunday approved five new settlements in the eastern part of the Negev (also called Naqab in Arabic), amid mounting tensions between local Jewish and Palestinian Bedouin communities over land ownership, Israeli media reported on Sunday.

Israel approves five new settlements in the Negev

The newly approved settlements include four for Jewish settlers.

The New Arab Staff
27 March, 2022

Protests against Israeli land grabs have rocked the Negev since

 the beginning of the year [AHMAD GHARABLI/AFP via Getty]

Israel has on Sunday approved five new settlements in the eastern part of the Negev (also called Naqab in Arabic), amid mounting tensions between local Jewish and Palestinian Bedouin communities over land ownership, Israeli media reported on Sunday.

Four of the approved settlements will be for Jewish settlers, including one kibbutz (agricultural cooperative community), after the cabinet approved it in a committee session that descended into a screaming match following strong opposition from left-wing ministers.

The cabinet decision also authorised the establishment of a Palestinian Bedouin village, an extremely rare provision given that the Israeli government generally denies building permits to members of the local Palestinian communities.

The Negev desert is home to over 300,000 Palestinian Bedouins, who are extremely marginalised and constitute Israel's poorest minority.

Israel has long pursued a policy to sedentarise and concentrate this community in a handful of state-built cities.

While many Bedouins have agreed to live in these cities, others continue to live in their historic villages and cultivate their ancestral lands - much of which is considered by Israel as state property, since Bedouin communities were expropriated at the time of Israel's creation or they failed to register their deeds with the new authorities.

These villages are "unrecognised" by the Israeli government and lack basic services - be it road, electricity, water or schools.

The provision to establish a recognised Bedouin village in the Negev brings Israel's ruling coalition one step closer to fulfilling long-awaited concessions promised to Ra'am, the first Palestinian party to be part of a ruling coalition in Israel.

The Negev is a key base of the party, who promised to push for the recognition of unrecognised Bedouin villages by the Israeli government.

The concession could also be a mean to appease tensions with the Bedouins, which have reached new heights recently over a tree-planting initiative launched by Israeli authorities and targeting several 'unrecognised' Bedouin villages.

A further five Jewish settlements in the southern Negev are also in the early planning stages.

CORPORATE CHRISTIANITY INC.

Hillsong is facing catastrophe but the Houston's will be loath to give up control

Analysis: the global church, founded almost 40 years ago in north-west Sydney, has little choice but to launch an independent inquiry

Hillsong’s church in Baulkham Hills, north-west Sydney. The global church is in crisis after the resignation of its founder Brian Houston. Photograph: Andrew Merry/Getty Images

Elle Hardy

THE GUARDIAN
Sun 27 Mar 2022 

Judgment Day has come for Hillsong – but not in the way its pastors promised.

To recap a damning week for the church, its founder and global senior pastor, Brian Houston, has resigned after an internal investigation found he had breached the church’s code of conduct twice over the past decade by behaving inappropriately towards two women.

The church has further been rocked by the revelation that the former Hillsong Dallas pastor Reed Bogard resigned last year after he was accused of rape. A former Hillsong college student also went public with claims that the church had covered up her sexual assault.


‘Disappointed and shocked’: Scott Morrison distances himself from Hillsong pastor Brian Houston

On Thursday Hillsong Atlanta’s lead pastor, Sam Collier, resigned, citing the ongoing scandals and accusations about various members of Hillsong. “A lot of our members were becoming really fatigued with a lot of the scandals and having to talk about it so much,” Collier said. “[Trust] is the only thing you have when building a church.”

That the church has chosen to act now against Houston, despite having known about the matters for some time, feels significant, and possibly indicative of an internal power struggle. Over the past two years a number of prominent Hillsong pastors have been sacked or moved to new roles for their own indiscretions, most notably the celebrity preacher Carl Lentz – but Houston remained the church’s undisputed leader.

In a transcript of a leaked private video conference last week, church leaders acknowledged the obvious: Hillsong is in crisis. I would go further: it is facing catastrophe. Scandals it largely tried to blame on individual shortcomings show a widespread culture that is rotten to its core.

Hillsong built an empire through an audience that is young, multicultural and majority female. They attend Hillsong because they like a particular pastor, attend a youth group, love the music, or to be among friends. That Collier, a popular and gifted young preacher, can no longer be associated with Hillsong marks a significant turn.

Hip-hop-focused Hillsong Atlanta, not even 12 months old, was supposed to be a new dawn. Collier was its first African American senior pastor. He was also among the first to undergo a more stringent vetting procedure after Lentz’s downfall.

Many leaders and churchgoers were awaiting the outcome of Houston’s criminal trial in Sydney for allegedly concealing child abuse by his father before making judgments for themselves. Collier’s decision may well spark an exodus.

Now, other more established local pastors hold the key to Hillsong’s fate. If leaders – or significant numbers of worshipers – in places including South Africa and other branches in the US take their leave, Hillsong may find itself in freefall.

That is certainly a live possibility. Having spoken to a number of Hillsongers, there is a feeling of profound sadness for what has occurred. Many are taking time for deep personal reflection.

On top of the moral questions, there is also, to borrow an Australian expression, the vibe of the thing. Thanks to its modern music and upbeat style of worship, Hillsong’s popularity is due in large part to the way it helps people feel good about their faith.

The vast majority of Hillsong attenders don’t have a personal connection to Brian Houston but to their local pastor. They had been able to overlook Lentz and other scandals. But the weight of them and media attention, including an explosive documentary released last week about the church, is taking its toll. Having to answer questions from friends and family about why they are still attending Hillsong will quickly dampen the feelgood appeal.

Hillsong’s Brian Houston resigns from megachurch

Then there’s the damage to the wider brand. Hillsong’s finances are fairly opaque, but we know from other similar churches that the vast majority of their income – upwards of 80% – come from music and merchandise sales. Some 50 million people sing Hillsong songs each week in churches around the world, and its channels have had more than a billion views on YouTube.

If they begin tuning out – or tuning into Hillsong’s many imitators – the entire brand could be in real trouble. For context, Hillsong church has 1.8 million Facebook followers. Its two musical arms, Hillsong United and Hillsong Worship, have a combined 12.8 million. Hillsong’s branding and financial muscle is entirely wedded to its musical empire, without which it wouldn’t have been able to spread aggressively and successfully across 30 countries on six continents.

I’ve previously written that Hillsong faced a decision about whether to become more bureaucratic and rein in its pastors and lose some of its appeal, or continue on defiantly. Now, it has little choice but to launch an independent inquiry across all of its branches. The church may even need to assess whether the music and education arms need to rebrand or devolve from central leadership.

Ultimately, I believe that the Houstons will be loath to give up control of the organisation that they have led for almost 40 years. Brian and his wife, Bobbie, built Hillsong from a congregation of 45 in north-west Sydney, and changed the global religious landscape in the process. No matter its reach, it remains very much a family firm.


Which is why I would expect that Phil Dooley – the lead pastor of Hillsong Cape Town, who took on global leadership when Houston stepped aside earlier this year to contest the charges – to continue to guide the church through this rocky time. Longer-term, I suspect we may see the Houstons’ daughter, Laura, and her husband, Peter Toganivalu, become the faces of a rebirth. The youth ministry leaders, who abbreviate their surname to “Toggs” on social media, don’t carry the Houston name and are more representative of a diverse, young, global Hillsong.

As for Brian Houston, expect him to stay silent until his trial is completed. Regardless of the outcome, I don’t see a man who believes so fervently in repentance and rebirth being willing to stay out of the spotlight for ever.

Whether there is still the Hillsong we know today waiting for his return is another matter. For the first time in its history, Hillsong’s survival is no longer in its own hands.

Elle Hardy is a freelance journalist and author of Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World

Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World Hardcover – 

March 15 2022

by Elle Hardy (Author)

Hardcover  $37.62 

How has a Christian movement, founded at the turn of the twentieth century by the son of freed slaves, become the fastest-growing religion on Earth? Pentecostalism has 600 million followers; by 2050, they'll be one in ten people worldwide. This is the religion of the Holy Spirit, withbelievers directly experiencing God and His blessings: success for the mind, body, spirit and wallet.

Pentecostalism is a social movement. It serves impoverished people in Africa and Latin America, and inspires anti-establishment leaders from Trump to Bolsonaro. In Australia, Europe and Korea, it throws itself into culture wars and social media, offering meaning and community to the rootless and marginalized in a fragmenting world.

Reporting this revolution from twelve countries and six US states, Elle Hardy weaves a timeless tale of miracles, money and power, set in our volatile age of extremes. By turns troubling and entertaining, Beyond Belief exposes the Pentecostal agenda: not just saving souls, but transforming societies and controlling politics. These modern prophets, embedded in our institutions, have the cash and the influence to wage their holy war.

Review

'Hardy is a first-class reporter. [...] Beyond Belief makes for an often gripping story, full of twists and turns.' -- The Sunday Times

'[An] elegant account [...] Hardy is an engaging usher round the Pentecostal world.' -- The Telegraph

'[A] lively book [and] a useful introduction to the world's fastest growing faith. [...] An empathetic observer Hardy may be, but she is clear-eyed about the challenge posed to secular societies by these strikingly modern holy warriors.' -- The Irish Times

'A fantastic read. Hardy gets right into the nucleus of the Pentecostal movement with empathy and a sharp journalistic eye. An incredibly important book.' -- Erica Buist, author of This Party's Dead: Grief, Joy and Spilled Rum at the World's Death Festivals

'An arresting, page-turning narrative, worthy of the pageantry, vivacity and charm of Pentecostalism. Ambitious in its coverage and earnest in its exploration, Beyond Belief is a truly compelling account of the world's foremost Christian renewal movement.' -- Ebenezer Obadare, author of Pentecostal

Republic

'Informative, engaging, and unsettling, Beyond Belief is an in-depth exploration of global Pentecostalism in lively, accessible prose.' -- Chrissy Stroop, journalist, commentator and senior researcher on the Postsecular Conflicts Project

'An excellent panorama of the world's powerful and enigmatic Pentecostal movements. Path-breaking and thought-provoking, elegantly and lucidly written, this is an exceptional book.' -- Olufemi Vaughan, Chair of Black Studies, Amherst College, and author of Religion and the Making of Nigeria

'With a deft combination of reportage and analysis, Hardy's engaging book fills critical gaps in the popular understanding of Pentecostalism and its substantial sway over politics and society around the world.' -- Katherine Stewart, author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of

Religious Nationalism

About the Author

Elle Hardy is a journalist and foreign correspondent who has reported from the United States, the former USSR and North Korea, among a long list of places. Her work has appeared in GQ, Lonely Planet, Foreign Policy and Business Insider, and on ABC Australia.

Without Russia, science going solo on world’s woes, dreams
By JOHN LEICESTER

1 of 4

This photo provided by the CNES shows a Russian Soyuz rocket lifting off from the Kourou space base, French Guiana, early Wednesday Dec.18, 2019. The war in Ukraine is causing a swift and broad decaying of scientific ties between Russia and the West.

 (JM Guillon/ESA-CNES-Arianespace via AP, File)


PARIS (AP) — Without Russian help, climate scientists worry how they’ll keep up their important work of documenting warming in the Arctic.

Europe’s space agency is wrestling with how its planned Mars rover might survive freezing nights on the Red Planet without its Russian heating unit.

And what of the world’s quest for carbon-free energy if 35 nations cooperating on an experimental fusion-power reactor in France can’t ship vital components from Russia?

In scientific fields with profound implications for mankind’s future and knowledge, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine is causing a swift and broad decaying of relationships and projects that bound together Moscow and the West. Post-Cold War bridge-building through science is unraveling as Western nations seek to punish and isolate the Kremlin by drying up support for scientific programs involving Russia.

The costs of this decoupling, scientists say, could be high on both sides. Tackling climate change and other problems will be tougher without collaboration and time will be lost. Russian and Western scientists have become dependent on each other’s expertise as they have worked together on conundrums from unlocking the power of atoms to firing probes into space. Picking apart the dense web of relationships will be complicated.

The European Space Agency’s planned Mars rover with Russia is an example. Arrays of Russian sensors to sniff, scour and study the planet’s environment may have to be unbolted and replaced and a non-Russian launcher rocket found if the suspension of their collaboration becomes a lasting rupture. In that case, the launch, already scrubbed for this year, couldn’t happen before 2026.

“We need to untangle all this cooperation which we had, and this is a very complex process, a painful one I can also tell you,” the ESA director, Josef Aschbacher, said in an Associated Press interview. “Dependency on each other, of course, creates also stability and, to a certain extent, trust. And this is something that we will lose, and we have lost now, through the invasion of Russia in Ukraine.”

International indignation and sanctions on Russia are making formal collaborations difficult or impossible. Scientists who became friends are staying in touch informally but plugs are being pulled on their projects big and small. The European Union is freezing Russian entities out of its main 95 billion euro ($105 billion) fund for research, suspending payments and saying they’ll get no new contracts. In Germany, Britain and elsewhere, funding and support is also being withdrawn for projects involving Russia.

In the United States, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology severed ties with a research university it helped establish in Moscow. The oldest and largest university in Estonia won’t accept new students from Russia and ally Belarus. The president of the Estonian Academy of Sciences, Tarmo Soomere, says the breaking of scientific connections is necessary but also will hurt.

“We are in danger of losing much of the momentum that drives our world towards better solutions, (a) better future,” he told the AP. “Globally, we are in danger of losing the core point of science — which is obtaining new and essential information and communicating it to others.”

Russian scientists are bracing for painful isolation. An online petition by Russian scientists and scientific workers opposed to the war says it now has more than 8,000 signatories. They warn that by invading Ukraine, Russia has turned itself into a pariah state, which “means that we can’t normally do our work as scientists, because conducting research is impossible without full-fledged cooperation with foreign colleagues.”

The growing estrangement is being pushed by Russian authorities, too. An order from the Science Ministry suggested that scientists no longer need bother getting research published in scientific journals, saying they’ll no longer be used as benchmarks for the quality for their work.

Lev Zelenyi, a leading physicist at the Space Research Institute in Moscow who was involved in the now-suspended collaboration on the ExoMars rover, described the situation as “tragic” and said by email to the AP that he and other Russian scientists must now “learn how to live and work in this new non-enabling environment.”

On some major collaborations, the future isn’t clear. Work continues on the 35-nation ITER fusion-energy project in southern France, with Russia still among seven founders sharing costs and results from the experiment.

ITER spokesman Laban Coblentz said the project remains “a deliberate attempt by countries with different ideologies to physically build something together.” Among the essential components being supplied by Russia is a massive superconducting magnet awaiting testing in St. Petersburg before shipment — due in several years.

Researchers hunting for elusive dark matter hope they’ll not lose the more than 1,000 Russian scientists contributing to experiments at the European nuclear research organization CERN. Joachim Mnich, the director for research and computing, said punishment should be reserved for the Russian government, not Russian colleagues. CERN has already suspended Russia’s observer status at the organization, but “we are not sending anyone home,” Mnich told the AP.

In other fields as well, scientists say Russian expertise will be missed. Adrian Muxworthy, a professor at London’s Imperial College, says that in his research of the Earth’s magnetic field, Russian-made instruments “can do types of measurements that other commercial instruments made in the West can’t do.” Muxworthy is no longer expecting delivery from Russia of 250 million-year-old Siberian rocks that he had planned to study.

In Germany, atmospheric scientist Markus Rex said the year-long international mission he led into the Arctic in 2019-2020 would have been impossible without powerful Russian ships that bust through the ice to keep their research vessel supplied with food, fuel and other essentials. The Ukraine invasion is stopping this “very close collaboration,” as well as future joint efforts to study the impact of climate change, he told the AP.

“It will hurt science. We are going to lose things,” Rex said. “Just lay out a map and look at the Arctic. It is extremely difficult to do meaningful research in the Arctic if you ignore that big thing there that is Russia.”

“It really is a nightmare because the Arctic is changing rapidly,” he added. “It won’t wait for us to solve all of our political conflicts or ambitions to just conquer other countries.”

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Frank Jordans in Berlin, Jamey Keaten in Geneva and other AP journalists contributed to this report.

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Follow the AP’s coverage of the war at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine and of climate issues at https://apnews.com/hub/climate