Thursday, April 07, 2022

College Grads Got Lion’s Share of Pandemic Wealth Gains in U.S.

Alex Tanzi, Bloomberg News

BC-College-Grads-Got-Lion’s-Share-of-Pandemic-Wealth-Gains-in-US , Alex Tanzi

(Bloomberg) -- The extra wealth created in the U.S. during the pandemic flowed overwhelmingly to households headed by a college graduate, according to the latest data from the Federal Reserve.

Those households have seen their net worth surge by $23.4 trillion since the end of 2019, Fed data show. That’s almost three times as much as the wealth accumulated by households headed by someone without a college degree -- which make up a majority of the country’s population.

Wealth gaps linked to education levels have become increasingly prominent in the U.S. as the labor market skewed toward higher-skilled work, exacerbating political divisions and complicating policy debates.

The share of adult Americans with a bachelor’s degree or higher has risen sharply in the past few decades. Still, only 38% of all households are headed by someone who completed a college degree. They held a total of $101 trillion in wealth at the end of 2021, compared with $41 trillion for the larger non-college segment.

As of the end of 2021, 9.6% of U.S. households were headed by someone lacking a high-school degree -- and those households saw their share of the national wealth shrink to a record low of 1.5%, down from about 10% in the late 1980s.

The initial impact of the pandemic on labor markets tended to reinforce such trends. Over the last two years, payrolls in professional and business services, for example, have increased by more than 800,000 and in finance by 60,000. Meanwhile there are 736,000 fewer jobs in leisure and hospitality.

The latest employment report, though, suggests that less-educated and lower-income workers are seeing faster wage gains in a tight labor market. In leisure and hospitality, pay was up by 11.8% on average in March, compared with a year earlier.

Gaming’s ‘Das Kapitalist’ Sees A Lot of Hype in NFTs, DAOs, And the Metaverse

Yueqi Yang and Max Abelson, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg Markets) -- Sam Peurifoy sits at the forefront of financial innovation, but he doesn’t move around a lot. The chemistry Ph.D. and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. alum, who turns 28 in May, spends most of his days at his computer in an apartment in Manhattan’s Financial District. He’s the chief executive officer of Playground Labs, a company that blends video gaming and cryptocurrency, and the head of interactive for Hivemind Capital Partners, a $1.5 billion venture firm focused on crypto investments, where he leads a strategy called play-to-earn.

Peurifoy spoke with Bloomberg Markets in early March about how skeptical he is of Big Tech’s definition of the metaverse, the nonfungible token fad, and some of the groups that call themselves decentralized autonomous organizations. While he remains on guard against crypto poseurs, he does believe crypto could help reshape the world—from Russia to gaming to payday. Peurifoy, who’s known in gaming circles as “Das Kapitalist,” says he eats the same meal every day and is lucky if he plays a few hours on the weekends these days. The interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

BLOOMBERG MARKETS: Your wife’s family is Russian. Do you see Russia’s invasion of Ukraine changing crypto?

SAM PEURIFOY: It’s going to boil down to two competing forces. Are government bodies evading sanctions using these tokens? The other force is: With a local currency that’s being devalued by the hour, almost, at what point do citizens turn to more stable digital currencies? Citizens using a more stable currency is obviously a plus, but sanctioned countries evading sanctions is obviously a minus. It’s a very difficult line to tread. Maybe we run know-your-customer on every single person who installs a crypto wallet.

BM: You left Goldman Sachs last year. When do you think bankers will warm up to crypto?

SP: When the market was superfrothy, I was having financial professionals reach out to me on a daily basis asking me how to get into crypto. And these were not people from low-ranking firms, either. They were very serious financial professionals, with genuine interest from across the board. Perhaps they feel like they’re not making enough in their current position, but I actually think that’s not really what’s going on. I think they’re genuinely just bored.

BM: Do you see a pattern among these financial professionals in terms of work history or demographics?

SP: You have managing directors to portfolio managers, vice presidents, analysts, equity analysts, investment bankers. It’s everything.

BM: What does Hivemind do?

SP: We provide capital and specific blockchain expertise to projects building in the crypto space. We aspire to being the Blackstone of crypto.

BM: How many people are there?

SP: We aim to have more than 30 employees by the end of the year. We’ve just ramped up hiring extremely substantially.

BM: What do your returns look like?

SP: The recent market downturn provided a large number of excellent buying opportunities for coins and companies. I don’t think I can give you anything more specific than that.

BM: The idea of Playground Labs, and your “Das Kapitalist” gaming identity, is that you seed other players with money. How?

SP: If they have joined with the intention of trying to play these play-to-earn games, then what happens next—assuming there’s no waitlist, because there’s usually a gigantic list of people trying to play these things—we basically issue them assets, they play the assets, and if they do a good job they can continue playing the assets and keep half of what they make. There’s no risk to the player, no capital responsibility on the player at all. There’s only upside. It’s constrained by how much cash we can deploy into it, which is partially determined by private investors and partially by the earnings of the ecosystem itself.

BM: How many hours of video games are you playing these days?

SP: I need to be playing more, because I need to go interact with my community more. If I do two to four hours generally on the weekend, I’m doing a good job.

BM: Do you network through video games?

SP: You’re playing World of Warcraft, you engage in a certain activity with other people, you realize you’ve enjoyed playing with them, probably because they’ve done a good job, you message them, you talk about the game, you talk about life, you get to be friends, you start calling, and now they’re in your Discord. And that’s the cycle of life right there.

BM : The crypto industry has been dominated by men. Is that changing?

SP : It begs the question, OK, if it’s so fair and open, why is it not more diverse? And ultimately it hasn’t reached an education threshold whereby most of the world could really see and know what to engage with next. We’re getting there. You’re seeing builders come online from all different parts of the world, but it’s not this tsunami.

BM : Besides inclusion, what are your biggest worries about the industry?

SP : I don’t think you can talk about crypto right now without bringing up NFTs, which are the elephant in the room. It is undeniable that NFTs have caused a lot of commotion. There have been a ton of scams. People poorly understand the technology. People are throwing money and FOMO-ing into things that they don’t understand. They think all pictures of monkeys are going to go to the moon. It’s not a good situation. It’s a mess.

BM: What are the use cases that excite you the most?

SP: You can reduce the friction on micropayments down to such a low amount that you can imagine streaming Netflix in real time and paying for each individual megabyte of data. That’s the level of granularity. Instead of waiting two weeks for my paycheck, maybe my salary is streamed to me in real time, and then I can immediately go down and buy a coffee.

BM: Where do you see decentralized autonomous organizations going as organization structures and fundraising mechanisms?

SP: A lot of people are coming out with DAOs that are not DAOs. There is a difference between governing a community using smart contracts vs. governing a community by using what basically is a Facebook poll. Unfortunately, the end user cannot read the smart contract and cannot vet the tokens. The issue is, people are basically being told they have control over some organization when, in truth, they don’t.

BM: Are there real use cases with wide appeal for the metaverse, in the current iteration of the internet or the decentralized version called web3?

SP: A lot of people sitting on both sides of the fence, web2 and web3, have completely different conceptions of what the metaverse will look like. The web3 side, the crypto builders, they see a metaverse as an area where economics and utility are fairly distributed among the users and the platforms are ultimately owned by the users. In web2, the core thesis is virtual reality is the metaverse. And it’s not! Virtual reality has been around for a long time. It’s not a huge game changer.

BM: You mentioned that you were recently diagnosed with Covid again and that you only went out twice during the pandemic and got sick both times. Is that true?

SP: I really don’t go outside very much. That’s not a joke. Two times is probably a little bit of an exaggeration, but I really don’t leave this desk. That’s partially because I enjoy it—I love being here. I’m attached to this screen for 16 to 18 hours a day. I do my one hour of exercise each day, and that’s it.

BM: How often do you sleep?

SP: I sleep at exactly 10:30 p.m. every single night, I wake up somewhere between 4:30 and 5:30 in the morning, and then I do take a 15-minute nap at almost exactly 12:30 almost every single day.

BM: You seem very disciplined.

SP: I eat here. I really like these chicken cordon bleus, that’s usually what I eat. I eat two chicken cordon bleus a day. They’re really good. It’s like two little logs. Don’t worry, I’m having tons of fun.

Yang covers crypto market structure and Abelson covers finance for Bloomberg News in New York.

OPINION

Deepening Stagflation: Out of the Frying Pan into the Fire

By Anis Chowdhury and Jomo Kwame Sundaram

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Apr 5 2022 (IPS) - The world is sailing into a perfect storm as key leaders seem intent on threatening more war, albeit while proclaiming the noblest of intentions. By doing so, they block international cooperation to create conditions for sustainable peace and shared prosperity for all.

Anis Chowdhury

Monetarist counter-revolution
The 1970s saw Milton Friedman disciples’ monetarist counter revolution blaming stagflation on ostensibly Keynesian economic policies. In 1974, Nixon replacement President Gerald Ford declared inflation “public enemy number one” and US “determination to whip inflation”.

Monetarists wanted tighter monetary policies to fight inflation. Curbing rising prices was deemed urgent, even though it would increase joblessness. They advocated abandoning expansionary fiscal measures for more growth and jobs.

But US Federal Reserve Bank chair Arthur Burns still considered ensuring full employment his top priority. For Burns, addressing inflation ‘head-on’ – as urged by his detractors – was too costly for the economy and people’s wellbeing.

Nevertheless, the monetarist ascendance was confirmed when the 1946 Employment Act was replaced. The successor 1978 Full Employment and Balanced Growth Act is better known as the Humphrey-Hawkins Act for its sponsors, including the Democrats’ 1968 presidential nominee.

In early 1980, Burns’ Fed chair successor, Paul Volcker insisted, “[M]y basic philosophy is over time we have no choice but to deal with the inflationary situation because over time inflation and the unemployment rate go together.… Isn’t that the lesson of the 1970s?”

Jomo Kwame Sundaram

Thus, ‘fight inflation first’ became the clarion call in 1980. This was the pretext for sharply raising US interest rates, while claiming that reducing inflation would somehow eventually create many more jobs. The UK and many other industrial countries followed, deepening recessions and raising unemployment.

By post-1950s’ Western standards, the 1980s saw very high unemployment. Unemployment in rich developed OECD countries averaged 7.3% during 1980-89, compared to just under 5% during 1974-79, and under 3% during the 1960s.

Debt crises, lost decades
The sharp US interest rate spike triggered debt crises in Poland, Latin America and elsewhere in the early 1980s. Earlier, US commercial banks had enjoyed windfall gains following the two oil price spikes in the 1970s.

The US government had long provided concessional low interest rate loans to allies to secure support during the Cold War. Flush with deposits from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) members in the 1970s, they pushed loans to borrowing governments, many in Latin America.

With the interest rate spikes, borrowing countries suddenly faced liquidity crises, also creating systemic risks for their US and UK bankers. Successive US Treasury Secretaries, James Baker and Nicholas Brady, came up with various debt restructuring schemes to contain the problem, with the latter adopted.

Related IPS Articles

Meanwhile, International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank financial support was tied to short-term stabilization programmes and medium-term liberalizing reforms, packaged as structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) with explicit policy conditionalities.

The liquidity crises were due to the sudden sharp interest rate increases. But instead, these were portrayed as solvency crises stemming from weak ‘economic fundamentals’, blamed on ‘over regulation’ and protectionism.

Although African countries were generally not able to borrow as much, they too faced problems as commodity prices collapsed with the growth slowdowns. Many were forced to seek financial support from the IMF and World Bank, and thus obliged to implement SAPs as well.

The liberalizing and deregulating SAP reforms were supposed to usher in rapid growth. Instead, however, both Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa experienced “lost decades of development”.

Stagflation in Europe
Stagflation in our times is expected to be initially most severe in Europe. This has been caricatured as fighting for Ukraine until ‘the last European’ as it bears the brunt of NATO imposed sanctions on Russia. Besides oil and gas, they will pay more for imported wheat, fertilizers and other Russian exports.

But other economic trends will likely make things worse. First, some rich economies – particularly the UK and the US – are weaker now, having lost much of their manufacturing edge. Others have been experiencing declines in productivity growth since the mid-1970s.

Second, low wages – due to labour market deregulation and ‘off-shoring’, i.e., relocating production abroad – have meant less productive activities have survived. Very low interest rates – due to ‘unconventional’ monetary policies since the 2008-09 global financial crisis – have allowed unviable ‘zombie’ enterprises to stay alive.

Third, the declining labour income share has increased income inequalities, lowering aggregate demand. But demand has been sustained by rising household debt. Low, if not negative real interest rates have also encouraged more corporate debt, but with less used for productive new investments.

Fourth, the pandemic has raised all types of debt – household, corporate and government – to record levels. Fifth, countries, especially smaller ones, are now far more internationally integrated – via trade and finance – than in the 1970s.

Therefore, small interest rate increases can have devastatingly large impacts on household, corporate and government finances. Advanced countries are thus likely to see severe economic contractions and rising unemployment.

Meanwhile, more racism and intolerance in recent decades show little sign of receding. Worse, these are likely to worsen as political elites compete in the ethno-populist league to blame Others for their problems. The recent European decision to privilege Ukrainian refugees is a poignant reminder of what is in store.

But impacts on developing countries are likely to be far worse due to capital outflows, declining development finance and aid, as well as slowing world trade after decades of globalization. Increasing inequality since the 1980s and declining growth since 2014 – now worsened by the pandemic – will not help.

Thus, instead of striving to ensure sustainable peace, necessary to improve conditions for all, the world seems set for sustained conflict. This has involved easy resort to sanctions, namely war by economic siege, hurting all. We all thus risk the prospect of mutual destruction instead of shared prosperity for all.

IPS UN Bureau

Biggest Arab Economies Escape Stagflation Despite Price Shocks

Abeer Abu Omar, Bloomberg News

Residential and commercial buildings in Dubai. Photographer: Christopher Pike/Bloomberg , Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- The two largest Arab economies are powering ahead despite coming under pressure from a sharp acceleration in global energy and commodity prices after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Concern is building worldwide that the crisis in eastern Europe will result in stagflation, or rapidly rising prices and weak economic growth. But for now, non-oil output gains were intact in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to March surveys of purchasing managers by S&P Global that offered a first glimpse at the conflict’s spillover effects in the region.

A Purchasing Managers’ Index compiled for Saudi Arabia rose to 56.8 from 56.2 in February, with output growing at the fastest in over four years. A similar gauge for the neighboring UAE remained at 54.8, well above the 50 mark that separates expansion from contraction, even as input cost inflation reached a 40-month record.

“Cost pressures escalated during March as commodity prices turned volatile in response to the Russia-Ukraine war,” said David Owen, economist at S&P Global. “Rising petrol and raw material prices greatly added to firms’ expenses sheets.”

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent already high crude prices soaring and affected global exports of grains, of which the Middle East region is a major importer.

In Saudi Arabia, higher energy and material prices translated into the sharpest uplift in both costs and selling charges since August 2020. Input prices accelerated at the fastest in just over a year and a half.

Other highlights from the PMI reports:

Saudi Arabia saw its first drop in employment in a year after a slight drop in backlogs
Saudi companies were overall upbeat about future activity, but sentiment remained weak compared with the historical trend
The pace of job creation in the UAE was “only marginal” as some firms tried to cut employee costs
UAE companies were confident activity would rise over the coming year, citing improvements in overall economic conditions

Myanmar Financial Holdings and U.S.-Singapore Contention

Given its financial ties to Myanmar, Singapore’s cooperation is vital if the world is to choke off the military junta’s revenue streams.

By Drake Tien
April 05, 2022

A view of Singapore’s financial district by night.

Credit: Flickr/Andrew

On February 3, U.S. Department of State Counselor Derek Chollet spoke at a virtual event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Southeast Asia Program to mark one year since the military coup in Myanmar. During the event, Chollet announced that the United States had sanctioned 65 individuals and 26 businesses with “close regime ties” to the military junta.

The same day, the Straits Times – Singapore’s most-read newspaper – printed an op-ed written by Chollet in which he spoke of Washington’s commitment to “ratcheting up pressure on the regime through targeted sanctions and by limiting the regime’s access to arms.” Although the article does not explicitly reference Singapore, its placement in the Straits Times was a clear message to Singapore’s foreign policy establishment.

This is not the first time Chollet has requested that the Singaporean government help restrict the Myanmar junta’s access to foreign funds. Last October, Chollet, along with senior officials from the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, met with Singaporean counterparts to stress the critical role Singapore’s “significant financial leverage” could play in pressuring the junta to make “better decisions on behalf of the Burmese people.”

Since the military, or Tatmadaw, launched a coup against the democratically elected government of Myanmar on February 1, 2021, there has been bipartisan support from Congress and the Biden administration to cut off remaining revenue streams, financial flows, and other assets to the Tatmadaw, in addition to enforcing sanctions. This included freezing nearly $1 billion in Myanmar government funds held in the United States and targeting holding companies linked to coup leader Min Aung Hlaing and other top generals. However, the military still has access to funds in other countries, most notably in Singapore.

Singapore became a financial hub for the Asia-Pacific by providing security and anonymity to clients. Under section 47 of Singapore’s Banking Act, banks and wealth management funds located in Singapore cannot disclose their clients’ personal information without their express consent. Like Switzerland, the opacity of its banking institutions makes Singapore an attractive investment destination for those seeking to avoid scrutiny.

Over the past decade, Singapore and Myanmar’s economic ties have flourished. In 2019, Singapore surpassed China as Myanmar’s biggest investor, bringing in an estimated $24 billion of capital through real estate, banking, shipping, and construction. Firms located in Myanmar often have offices in Singapore and will place their financial holdings in Singaporean banks, including companies with direct ties to the Tatmadaw. Owners of these companies include the son of air force chief Maung Maung Kyaw – a key member of the junta – and U Tun Hlaing, whose firm STE Global Trading was linked by a U.N. Panel of Experts to weapons procurement between Myanmar and North Korea. These companies give Singapore more influence in Myanmar than most of its ASEAN neighbors. The degree of cooperation from the Singaporean banking system will have a considerable impact on the effectiveness of international sanctions on the Myanmar junta.

In previous statements, the Monetary Authority of Singapore has told financial firms to be “vigilant to any suspicious transactions… between the city-state and Myanmar.” But the authority has also said it has not found “significant funds from Myanmar companies and individuals in banks in Singapore.” The Singaporean Stock Exchange, meanwhile, opened investigations into listed firms with close ties to the Tatmadaw. And Singaporean business leaders such as Razer co-founder Lim Kaling have pulled out of investments in Myanmar. But firms with links to the junta, including some which procured arms for the Tatmadaw in the years before the coup, continue to operate in Singapore.

While the U.S. government is likely to continue pressing the city-state to embrace international sanctions on Myanmar, Singapore will remain cautious, preferring that sanctions come either from the United Nations or through consensus within ASEAN. But Singapore’s attempt to balance calls for further pressure on the Tatmadaw with engagement in the name of ASEAN’s efforts to mediate the conflict will become more tenuous as the junta refuses to change course.

This article was originally published on New Perspectives on Asia from the Center for Strategic and International Studies

U.S. Approves Sale Of Fighter Jets To Bulgaria Amid Speculation About Supply Of MiGs To Ukraine

A U.S. Boeing B-52 bomber (top) flies with a Ukrainian

MiG-29 over Ukraine in August 2020.

The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of up to eight F-16 fighter jets to Bulgaria, the Defense Department has said.

"The proposed sale will improve Bulgaria's capability to meet current and future threats by enabling the Bulgarian Air Force to deploy modern fighter aircraft routinely in the Black Sea region," the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said.

U.S. officials said the $1.673 billion agreement was not directly related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which comes amid continuing speculation that a NATO ally could provide Ukraine with Russian-made MiG-29 aircraft to fight Russian forces and that such a move would involve the United States "backfilling" that ally's fleet of jets with U.S. aircraft in exchange.

Bulgaria is one of the three NATO members that have MIG-29s, which Ukrainian pilots are capable of flying. The others are Poland and Slovakia.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby, asked about the F-16 sale, downplayed the suggestion it could be tied to Bulgaria providing MIG-29s to Ukraine. Kirby said he would not characterize the sale as "backfilling" but did not provide further details.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov said last month there was no deal to provide MIG-29s to Ukraine.

Even though Bulgaria is close to the conflict, Petkov said, "Currently we will not be able to send military assistance to Ukraine." He added that any such assistance would have to be approved by the Bulgarian parliament.

The United States announced during U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austins visit to Sofia on March 19 that Washington would deploy a Stryker armored-vehicle infantry company for a NATO battle group being established in Bulgaria.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Best Children’s Music Album: These songs won Indian American Falguni Shah aka Falu her first Grammy

Falguni Shah won for her album ‘A Colorful World’.

Scroll Staff

Apr 05, 2022 ·

S'pore must not shy away from dealing with daily battles that women face: Josephine Teo

Society must always see the progress of women as a journey

without end, said Mrs Josephine Teo.

PHOTO: GOV.SG

Goh Yan Han
Political Correspondent

PUBLISHED
APR 5, 2022

SINGAPORE - To help women advance, Singapore must not shy away from dealing with various daily challenges that they face, Minister for Communications and Information Josephine Teo told Parliament on Tuesday (April 5).

Women face daily battles, she said, such as the battle with time to fulfil multiple roles and responsibilities.

They battle for recognition of the challenges women and girls face, much more than men and boys, she added.

They also "battle with sexual predators who, having been tamed in analogue Singapore, now rear their ugly heads in our digital world", and "battle with social expectations on what work we do, what chores we share, what words we say, and even what clothes we wear".

Lastly, women also "battle within ourselves as to how much of 'us' to give and how much to save for self-care", said Mrs Teo.

She was speaking at the start of the debate on the White Paper on Singapore Women's Development, which was presented to Parliament on March 28.

The document is a 10-year road map to nudge society further towards gender equality that will see greater support for flexible work arrangements, more help for caregivers and swifter intervention in cases of violence.

Mrs Teo said society must always see the progress of women as a journey without end, where every achievement is a foundation to aim for new highs.

"In every generation, we have a duty to find new ways to uplift women. If half of humanity does not progress, how can the rest of humanity?" she said.

The weight of efforts to do so should now lie in further catalysing collective actions, and further promoting equal partnership between women and men, said Mrs Teo.

"In all likelihood, these two lines of effort are the most challenging. Yet they are also where we have the best hope to really move the needle for women."

In her speech at the start of the debate, she acknowledged the significant progress that Singapore women have already made, such as in education and in the workforce.

Women are also now better protected against harms and sexual offences, through the Protection from Harassment Act and Penal Code, and are better recognised for their contributions in the economy, with a narrowing adjusted gender pay gap

Caregivers of the elderly and children, the majority of whom are women, are now better supported with available facilities and subsidies, said Mrs Teo.

The White Paper is meant to be a clarion call for everyone to take action, she added, rather than just a comprehensive plan of action by the Government.

She said: "We can put in place legislation on workplace fairness. But the lived experiences of working women depend on the understanding and support of employers and colleagues.

"While many Singapore women are empowered by caregiver support, some will continue to be constrained by cultural preferences held by society and even themselves."

Speaking after Mrs Teo, Minister for Social and Family Development Masagos Zulkifli appealed to men to step up and do more to make a difference.

He said: "As fathers, it is our responsibility to teach our sons what it means to respect all women, starting from a young age. Instil in them the right values and be role models ourselves through our actions, for them to grow to be gentlemen."

Men can also play a bigger role in sharing the weight of caregiving, he added.

Mr Masagos said that pushing for equal partnership between men and women is not a zero-sum game.

"From time to time, such beliefs or misperceptions come up. These perceptions come up whenever we talk about advancing women's progress. This is not our way. Our approach is not about asserting the rights of one over another," he said.

He added: "Respecting our fellow women is a natural evolution from our values, because we have been nurtured to honour, love and respect the most important woman of our lives - our mothers."

Mr Masagos also announced that Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong will be launching a travelling exhibition on April 22, titled Celebrating Singapore Women.

The exhibition aims to build awareness and ownership of the action plans from the White Paper among all Singaporeans.

Closing out the debate after 40 MPs had spoken, Mrs Teo said the session had highlighted the core values of equality, partnership and mutual respect that must endure with every step Singapore takes in advancing women’s interest.

“It is now up to us to put our values once again into action,” she said.

She added that at its core, respect means that women should not be exploited, sidelined or stereotyped. Rather, women deserve to be recognised for their contributions, empowered to succeed and respected as equal partners in society.

“More than anything else, this White Paper is about honouring Singapore women, recognising their place in society, and committing to achieve further progress for women,” she said.

#KASHMIR IS #INDIA'S #GAZA

Kashmir conflict

"An entire people is traumatised"

Twenty-eight-year-old photojournalist Masrat Zahra documents the situation in India-administered Kashmir with her camera. In this interview with Elisa Rheinheimer, she talks about life in a state of emergency, conservative Kashmiri society and her own family's reservations about what she does

Above all, you take portraits of women and children in your homeland. Why?

Masrat Zahra: I want to give a voice and a face to those who are not heard. Every woman in Kashmir knows the feeling of saying good-bye to a father, son or husband in the morning and not knowing whether she will ever see him again. Women in Kashmir suffer the most. They lose their sons, are raped without the perpetrators have to fear repercussions, and if their men are abducted and never reappear, they are condemned to wait – for the rest of their lives.

They own nothing, cannot inherit anything and are not allowed to re-marry. Many women suffer from post-traumatic stress – as I myself do. I have seen too much blood, too many dead bodies, crying mothers and children.

You are the first female photojournalist in Kashmir. What hurdles did you have to overcome to get where you are?

Zahra: I had to break through a glass ceiling when I began working in 2016. At the time, there were no women working as photographers and journalists in Kashmir, documenting the battles between Indian soldiers and rebels. People in the villages stared at me. Initially, I pretended not to understand the local dialect, that I came from somewhere else – so that I could do my work in peace and would not have to answer so many questions. But it was particularly hard to take this path against my parents' will.

Why did your parents want to stop you?

Zahra: I come from a conservative family. My mother would have preferred to see me married. If anything, she wanted me to study medicine. In her eyes, it is far too dangerous to be a journalist. I read books about photography in secret and didn't tell them that I was doing the entrance exam for university. Luckily, I had a professor who came to our home and tried to change my parents' minds. It still took them years to accept my work.

My mother has repeatedly claimed that it is too dangerous and my brother complains that journalism is not an honourable profession for a woman because I am out and about after dark. My parents have confiscated my camera and my laptop more than once. On one occasion, we had such a huge fight that I ran away from home in the middle of the night – barefoot. I went to stay with an aunt for a while. After that, I just carried on doing what I do.

Protesters in Kashmir (photo: Masrat Zahra)

Protests in Kashmir against Indian occupation. A photo by Masrat Zahra, Kashmir's first female photojournalist, who faces considerable opposition in her work. "I had to break through a glass ceiling when I began working in 2016," says Zahra. "At the time, there were no women working as photographers and journalists in Kashmir, documenting the battles between Indian soldiers and rebels. People in the villages stared at me. Initially, I pretended not to understand the local dialect, that I came from somewhere else – so that I could do my work in peace and would not have to answer so many questions. But it was particularly hard to take this path against my parents' will"

An entire population under house arrest

In August 2019, the Indian government revoked the region's autonomous status and cut off Kashmir from the outside world for three-quarters of a year. What was life like for you during these months of lockdown?

Zahra: It was as if the entire population was under house arrest. It was a total blackout: no telephone network, no television, no internet – for eight months. Can you imagine what that meant for me as a journalist? We didn't even know where the next demonstration would be taking place; we just found out by chance. Information was passed on by word of mouth; there was no other way. While the Indian government did set up a media centre, there were just four computers for all journalists from Kashmir.

One was reserved for Indian government propaganda, two for male journalists and one for women journalists. We had just 15 minutes a day each to check e-mails and send articles or photos to editorial departments. Every day, we stood in long queues outside the building – whatever the weather. And because parts of the public transport network were out of service, anyone who didn't have a motorbike or a moped had to walk there.

You were granted a scholarship by the Hamburg Foundation for Politically Persecuted People and lived in Hamburg for a year. What surprised you most about Germany?

Zahra: I was not accustomed to seeing no soldiers in the streets. Kashmir is the most densely militarised region in the world: there is one armed soldier for every seven people in Kashmir. As a child, I touched the barrels of the soldiers' guns. It was only much later that I realised how dangerous that was. Before I came to Germany, this was the only life I knew; it was normal for me. Prior to that, I had never been outside Kashmir and India.

Here in Germany, you can walk the streets and breathe freely, without having to be afraid. In Hamburg, I once parked my bicycle in the wrong place and had to go to the police to get it back. I was really nervous. But they were friendly and polite, smiled at me and even asked me to take a seat. I had to show them my identification card; then I got my bicycle back.

During your time in Hamburg, you exhibited photos and told of the suffering in Kashmir.

Zahra: Yes, I had an exhibition at the Bucerius Law School in Hamburg and was there for the opening. On the same day, the police in Kashmir stopped a car and shot the three young men that were inside. They were unarmed. Things like that happen almost every day; people send me the news, photos and videos on Twitter and Instagram. An entire people is traumatised, but the world is just not interested. You Germans know 'cashmere', but you know nothing of the Kashmir conflict.

Tough times for journalists in Kashmir (photo: Masrat Zahra)

Tough times for journalists in Kashmir, who are repeatedly hindered in their work: "I post my photos on social media so that the whole world can see them," says Masrat Zahra. "The Indians don't like that. They want to silence us journalists so that no one will report on the atrocities that are committed in Kashmir on a daily basis. Anyone who is active on Twitter is watched very closely. In April 2020, I was summoned by the police. They told me to stop posting my photos online. I nodded. The next day I just carried on doing what I had been doing. I didn't want to allow myself to be intimidated"

"There was a time when I wanted to stop"

Two years ago, you almost ended up in prison because of your work. What happened?

Zahra: I also post my photos on social media so that the whole world can see them. The Indians don't like that. They want to silence us journalists so that no one will report on the atrocities that are committed in Kashmir on a daily basis. Anyone who is active on Twitter is watched very closely. In April 2020, I was summoned by the police. They told me to stop posting my photos online. I nodded. The next day I just carried on doing what I had been doing. I didn't want to allow myself to be intimidated.

After that, your name appeared on a list that usually contains the names of terrorists ...

Zahra: Yes, the Indian government claimed that I was violating Indian sovereignty and integrity. According to the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act, this is punishable by several years in prison. I had to go to the police again. When I said goodbye to my mother, I hugged her and said "see you soon". I didn't tell her where I was going. It took all my strength not to cry; I thought I would never see her again. I was sure they were going to arrest me. I was very scared.

What happened next?

Zahra: The Association of Journalists in my homeland supported me. Suddenly I had 24,000 new followers on Twitter. This is how I came to the attention of Amnesty International, which worked on my behalf. A few weeks later I was nominated for the Anja Niedringhaus Courage In Photojournalism Award (an award given annually to a woman photojournalist whose work reflects courage and dedication – ed.), which I won in 2020. The international recognition helped me in that the Indian government dropped the charges. It was then that my parents finally understood that what I am doing is important. During this time, my mother said to me: "You are no longer my daughter. You are the daughter of all of Kashmir."

Nevertheless, you still face considerable danger. Have you ever considered stopping?

Zahra: Yes, I did at one time. Because my family and I are Shia Muslims, which means we belong to a minority. Most people in Kashmir are Sunnis. The Indian government spread a rumour that Shias are opposed to the Kashmiris' liberation struggle. There was also a rumour that I was an Indian police informer. I received awful threats from normal people, mostly via the Internet. "You'll be raped. You're a whore. Your family's house will be burned down." That kind of thing.

I found that very traumatic. It was at that point I thought about stopping. My brother supported me and went with me to the police so that I could file charges. In the end, I dropped them because I know what they do to people in prison. They are severely mistreated. And I thought to myself: if that man goes to jail, there will be a mother at home, crying.

Indian soldiers in Kashmir (photo: AFP/R.Bakshi)

The most densely militarised region in the world: "There is one armed soldier for every seven people in Kashmir," says Masrat Zahra. She thought that was normal until she visited Hamburg and found there were no soldiers on the streets. Since the ceasefire agreed between India and Pakistan in 2019, the situation has worsened for Kashmir's population. "Even before 2019, the Indian occupiers killed people, but at least the families were able to give them a dignified funeral. Today, not even the bodies of their loved ones are returned to the families"

No detente for Kashmir

In March of last year, India and Pakistan surprised the world by agreeing a ceasefire. Did this lead to a period of detente?

Zahra: Not at all! The situation has worsened since the summer of 2019. People are abducted or arbitrarily shot by Indian soldiers almost every day. A growing number of journalists and human rights activists are being put in prison, like an acquaintance of mine, Khurram Parvez. I'll never see him again. Even before 2019, the daily lives of us Kashmiris were characterised by terror. But now the conflict has reached a level where it is no longer about justice, but about at least getting back the bodies of loved ones. Before 2019, the Indian occupiers killed people, but at least the families were able to give them a dignified funeral. Today, not even the bodies of their loved ones are returned to the families.

You talk a lot about India. But what is Pakistan's role in all this?

Zahra: I don't want to talk about that. Yes, I also receive threats from the Pakistani side. A photo of me was posted on the social media profile of a Pakistani terrorist group – together with a death threat. However, the Islamists informed me that it was a fake. They told me that the Indian government was probably behind it and wanted to blame it on the Pakistanis. They told me I should take care.

The Indian police have offered you protection ...

Zahra: ... which I turned down. I live in a minefield. Indian bodyguards would simply call my independence into question. Then everyone would think I was on India's side.

What do you think has to happen for the political situation to improve?

Zahra: The international community has to exert more pressure on the Indian government so that the human rights violations against us Kashmiris stop. There should at last be a referendum, just like the United Nations promised us. We've been waiting for a referendum for over 70 years. We demand our right to self-determination. It's not just about the land. It's about identity. I have an Indian passport, because otherwise I would be stateless, but I don't feel like an Indian. I am a Muslim Kashmiri. I dream of a Kashmir that belongs neither to India nor to Pakistan, but is independent.

Interview conducted by Elisa Rheinheimer.

Masrat Zahra is a photojournalist in Indian-controlled Kashmir. She received the International Women's Media Foundation's Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award in 2020 and the Peter Mackler Award for Courageous and Ethical Journalism, also in 2020, for her images of the consequences of the conflict, especially for women and children. Her work has appeared in the Washington Post, Al Jazeera and The New Humanitarian, among others.