Armenia Abandoned By Allies, Says Pashinian

DID RUSSIA MAKE A SECRET DEAL WITH TURKEY

Armenia - Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian visits Armenian army positions on the border with Azerbaijan, December 31, 2022.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinian has again criticized Russia and other ex-Soviet allies of Armenia for not defending it against what Yerevan regards as Azerbaijani military aggression.

“The aggression against the sovereign territory of Armenia from May 2021 to September 13, 2022 was doubly painful because our security allies abandoned us, preferring to remain in passive observer status or offering active observer status as an alternative,” Pashinian said in his New Year’s address to the nation.

“But we were not alone in the world and I want to thank those countries and international organizations that were not indifferent to this situation and, having no obligation to our country, took unprecedented decisions to support the establishment of security and stability in our region,” he said in an apparent reference to Western powers.

Armenia appealed to Russia and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) for support during the September clashes along its border with Azerbaijan which left at least 224 Armenian soldiers dead. Armenian leaders afterwards accused the Russian-led alliance of ignoring the appeal in breach of its statutes.

The CSTO proposed what its outgoing Secretary General Stanislav Zas called a set of “measures to assist Armenia in this difficult situation” during a summit held in Yerevan in November. However, Pashinian vetoed a corresponding decision by the leaders of Russia, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, citing the absence of any language condemning Azerbaijan.

Zas said in December that the proposed measures included “military-technical assistance.” He declined to specify the types of weapons which other CSTO member states were prepared to send to Armenia.

Pashinian renewed his criticism of the CSTO amid growing friction between Moscow and Yerevan caused by Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockade of Nagorno-Karabakh’s sole land link with Armenia.

Pashinian charged last week that Russian peacekeepers have become a “silent witness” to Baku’s efforts to “depopulate” Karabakh through the blockade. He said Moscow should come up with a plan to unblock the corridor or seek a larger and multinational peacekeeping mission in Karabakh.

Russian officials rejected the criticism. They also denounced some Armenian officials’ claims that Moscow is using the three-week blockade to try to force Armenia to join the “union state” of Russia and Belarus and open an “exterritorial corridor” to Azerbaijan’s Nakhichevan exclave.

Peru’s Oil Industry Is An Environmental Disaster

Editor OilPrice.com

Fri, December 30, 2022 

As an intense political crisis engulfs Peru, the country’s beleaguered oil industry continues to suffer from conflict with local communities. For nearly three decades a swath of environmentally damaging oil spills, pipeline leaks, and other contaminating discharges have wreaked havoc on Peru’s Amazon Basin and coastline. This is driving anti-petroleum industry protests in Peru’s Amazon, many of which have turned violent, over the last decade leaving the industry in crisis. Those demonstrations are responsible for production outages, dwindling energy investment, and foreign energy companies withdrawing from Peru. The social license of Peru’s crisis-torn petroleum industry continues to deteriorate despite efforts by the national government in Lima to gain greater community cooperation and reboot operations. The latest political crisis, where tensions have boiled over into days-long violent anti-government demonstrations, since leftist President Pedro Castillo was arrested after attempting to dissolve congress, will sharply impact the petroleum industry which has long been an environmental disaster.

Oil spills remain a hazard in a country where environmental protection, especially of the Amazon, has not been a significant government priority for decades. Those spills and other environmentally damaging incidents are fueling community anger with Indigenous peoples claiming they are wreaking damage to their ancestral lands. According to a report from (Spanish) Oxfam and Peru’s National Coordinator for Human Rights (CNDDHH – Spanish initials), between 1997 and 2021 there have been 1002 oil spills in Peru with 566 in the Amazon and 404 on the coast. It is the 200,000 barrel-per-day Northern Peruvian Pipeline (ONP – Spanish initials), used to ship oil from the Amazon to the Pacific port city of Bayovar, that is drawing considerable negative attention. The Oxfam report shows that the ONP alone was responsible for 111 oil spills for the 24-year period starting in 1997.

The ONP’s latest oil spill occurred (Spanish) on 16 September 2022, when the pipeline spewed an estimated 2,500 barrels of crude into the Cuninico River a tributary of the Marañon, which is a river that eventually flows into the Amazon River. The crucial industry pipeline is owned by state-controlled Petroperu which in a statement (Spanish) claimed that the spill was the result of intentional damage or sabotage of the pipeline. The energy company asserts that the spill occurred because of a 21-centimeter cut that was made to the pipe. The ONP, which is the only effective means of transporting oil from the Amazon to the coast, has long been the target of sabotage. Peru’s National Society of Mining, Petroleum, and Energy claims the pipeline has suffered 29 such acts over the last nine years and various industry participants are blaming local Indigenous communities. Those spills have disrupted local water and food supplies including damaging regional fisheries as well as crops.

Such events are fueling considerable community anger and distrust which is being fanned by the perception that Lima is unwilling to address many of the deep-seated social and economic inequalities that exist in Peru’s Amazon. This is creating a tinderbox that regularly ignites unrest that includes anti-oil industry demonstrations, road blockades, seizures of pipeline pumphouses, and oilfield invasions. In response to the September 2022 spill, a river blockade was mobilized by the Asociacion Indigena de Desarrollo y Conservacion de Bajo Puinahua, a civil society and environmental protection coalition. That saw a boatload of tourists detained on 3 November 2022 only to be released the following day. Then on 25 November 2022, a barge traveling to Brazil carrying crude oil purchased from Canadian small-cap driller PetroTal was seized and the crew taken hostage, only to be released 48 hours later.

While the blockade was lifted on 14 December 2022 it sharply impacted operations at PetroTal’s Block 95, which contains the company’s flagship Bretana oilfield. The blockade forced PetroTal to sharply reduce production which from the end of November 2022 plunged to around 4,500 to 5,000 barrels per day, or roughly a third of the 14,000 barrels per day being pumped prior to the blockade. This event will impact Peru’s overall oil production because PetroTal, despite being a small-cap intermediate driller, is the Andean country’s largest oil producer. The region containing Block 95 has long been at the center of violent demonstrations against Peru’s oil industry. Some of the worst protests occurred in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic magnified many of the key issues and inequalities being experienced by Indigenous communities in Peru’s oil-rich Amazon. During August 2020, PetroTal was forced to shutter operations at the Bretana field after protestors attacked the ONP’s number 5 pump station and then violently clashed with police near the oilfield. The intensity of the skirmish left dozens injured among the police and demonstrators with three protestors later dying from their injuries. It wasn’t until 30 September 2020 that PetroTal was able to restart the Bretana field, while it took until 29 December for the ONP to restore full operations allowing PetroTal to recommence oil deliveries for sale in the pipeline.

The river blockade and earlier violent protests occurred because local Indigenous communities are seeking to pressure Lima into recognizing the severity of the oil spills and declaring a state of emergency. It is claimed that for many incidents the oil spills are not fully cleaned, and slicks linger contaminating water supplies and nearby land as well as damaging fisheries. The unraveling of the social license for Peru’s oil industry and the intensity of the community conflict in the Amazon saw energy companies abandon various blocks in the area. Canadian intermediate oil producer Frontera Energy abandoned Block 192 because of recurrent community blockades, while Chilean driller GeoPark handed Block 64 back to Peru’s government.

It is not only Peru’s Amazon that is being affected by oil spills and other industry-related environmental incidents. In January 2022, a pipeline being used for a routine tanker discharge at the Repsol-owned La Pampilla refinery, on Peru’s coast near Lima, ruptured spilling an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 barrels of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean. The spill, which is classified as Peru’s worst-ever coastal environmental disaster, left a deep slick on 25 beaches and polluted three marine reserves. This further tarnished the reputation of Peru’s already troubled oil industry leading to further community dissent and weighing heavily on its social license. For these reasons there is little respite ahead for Peru’s oil industry which has a long history of oil spills and environmental degradation which typically impact the Andean country’s poorest and most vulnerable communities.

By Matthew Smith for Oilprice.com

Pelé was ensnared by ‘Brazilian-style racism’ but stood firm as dictatorship tried to keep him playing

THE CONVERSATION
Published: January 2, 2023 

Pelé inspired millions with his exploits on the soccer pitch, but also had to confront power to extract himself from the sport’s social constraints. 

Pictorial Parade/Archive Photos/Getty Images

As arguably the greatest soccer player of all time is laid to rest, Prof José Paulo Florenzano of the Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo considers Pelé’s incredible legacy off the field. This article was originally written in Portuguese.

Pelé occupies a central, albeit problematic, place in the construction and affirmation of Brazil’s national identity. His role in helping forge the identity of modern Brazil has roots in helping the country win the World Cup in Sweden in 1958 and in the global role taken on soon after by his club team, Santos.

Santos in the Pelé era travelled the planet as sporting diplomats, crossing ideological divides between communism and capitalism and celebrating the political emancipation of nations emerging from colonialism.

There is no doubt that the main achievements of the teams led by Pelé were encouraging the playing of soccer in countries where the sport was rarely played, and, conversely, to have transformed the way the game was played in traditional soccer nations. In doing so, Pelé transcended the role of “national idol.” He became something much more significant: a symbol of the Black diaspora, a pan-African reference point and a cosmopolitan icon.

It was no coincidence that Bob Marley – who similarly was held up as a hero to the Global South – made a point of wearing Pelé’s number 10 shirt during the singer’s brief visit to Brazil in 1980. To Marley and others, Pelé embodied the aesthetic of soccer as art and an expression of freedom.

Outside Brazil, nowhere was Pele’s presence as an icon of Black achievement felt more than in a decolonising Africa.

The Mozambican footballing great Eusébio – who represented colonial masters Portugal on the international stage – first found his soccer identity playing for “Os Brasileiros” (The Brazilians), a team created in the suburbs of what is now the capital Maputo, in homage to 1958 World Cup winners.

Indeed, countless African players from the capital of Mozambique were given the nicknames of “Pelé”, “Garrincha”, or “Didi” – three Black heroes of the Brazilian national team, and an inspiration for millions across the African continent.

Global inspiration, domestic force

Pelé’s professional career, falling between the years 1956 to 1974, coincided with the period in which Brazilian authorities held claim to what was called “racial democracy” – the belief that discrimination against non-white Brazilians did not exist.

But this ideology only served to muffle the very real struggle of Afro-Brazilians and blocked debate over racial inequality. It placed racism as something apparently unthinkable in national society, as the scholar Antonio Sergio Alfredo Guimarães states in his book “Classes, Raças e Democracia”.

These were the conditions under which Pelé’s trajectory took place, and his experiences lay bare how Brazilian-style racism operated.

Shortly after winning the country’s third World Cup in 1970, Pele decided to retire from the national team to dedicate himself to his business ventures and club career. When he did so, the unanimity that had been woven around his image in Brazil quickly fell apart.

Pele faced pressure to continue playing for the national team by a dictatorial regime keen on extracting political dividends from any soccer triumphs on the international stage. At the same time, he was admonished by white elite that sought to limit his role to that of an athlete – and in so doing reiterate the place afforded to Black people in Brazilian society.

Pele’s approach to dealing with the Brazilian dictatorship has been criticised – the implication being he could have been more direct in his opposition to it. But from 1971, when he announced his departure from the national team, until 1974, when he ended his career at Santos, Pelé faced coercion, threats and blackmail in attempts to make make him bow to the converging interests of the military dictatorship and structural racism.

Such intimidation included the cancellation of two farewell games that were due to be held in mid-1971 in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro to honor his achievements.

Pelé would not back down in the face of severe criticism from certain quarters made in the name of an exacerbated nationalism that cast him as a mercenary or traitor.

Greatest political legacy

The contested nature of his farewell from the pitch in effect, closed one of the most fascinating chapters of the unsubmissive will of a Black player in the face of the power structures of Brazilian society.

Pele’s stance was informed not only by his disgust at the torture that had been carried out by the Brazilian dictatorship, but also a personal desire to be able to be rewarded for his fame and soccer. Nonetheless, Pelé’s determination to stand up to a military dictatorship and structural racism represents the greatest political legacy of his life.

Pelé demonstrated that sport and entertainment did not constitute the “natural place” for the Afro-Brazilian as it had been conceived in racist discourse. He went on to acquire a university education, become a businessman and even held the role of minister of sport in the 1990s.

Brazil’s president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva talks with Pele.

  Joedson Alves/AFP via Getty Images)

Pelé’s trajectory reveals that soccer can be transformed into a space for the anti-racist struggle. In steadfastly refusing to be seen as simply a soccer player and in pursuing a career away from the pitch, Pele exerted a right that Afro-Brazilians not be excluded from activities historically monopolised by the more privileged white groups.

The historical significance of Pelé chimes with the present context Brazil finds itself in. After four years of an extreme right-wing government, the return of a government not inclined to diminishing democracy, and committed to the anti-racist struggle, represents the resumption of a trajectory for Brazil that Pelé’s own journey illustrated.

Author

José Paulo Florenzano
Professor of Social Sciences, Pontifical Catholic University of São Paulo

BAKUNINISM IS FEDERALISM

Moscow Allows One Kind of Federalism to Rise while Continuing to Suppress Another, Kolebakina-Uzmanova Says

Paul Goble

Monday, January 2, 2023

            Staunton, Jan. 2 – In its prosecution of the war in Ukraine just as was the case with its efforts to combat the covid pandemic, the Kremlin began by insisting that it could do everything on its own and then decided that it needed the involvement of federal subjects to be able to achieve its goals, Elena Kolebakina-Uzmanova says.

            That pattern, which has occurred even as Putin has sought to destroy the remnants of federalism as outlined in the Russian constitution means that Moscow is intentionally or not opening the way for a new kind of “spontaneous” federalism even as it has broken much of the existing federal system, the Kazan commentator says.

         Indeed, Kolebakina-Uzmanova says, “one can say that spontaneous federalism has been strengthened in the country” [emphasis in the original] because “ life itself has shown again and again that only such an arrangement works, even though by inertia, Moscow has continued to liquidate the former remnants of this very federalism” (business-gazeta.ru/article/578693).

            These two vectors are often at odds. The destruction of the remnants of federalism has attracted the greater attention; but the rise of spontaneous federalism has limited what Moscow can or at least chooses to do. The compromise on the title of president in Tatarstan is a clear example of this, the commentator says.

            Forced to give up the title “president” for the republic leader, Tatarstan forced Moscow to agree to the term “rais,” “a term which in Arab countries designates the head of government” and which highlights among other things the strength Kazan has as the bridge to the Islamic world, Kolebakina-Uzmanova says.

            In this way, both Moscow and Kazan “showed wisdom,” he continues, with each side recognizing the importance of cooperating with the other and not insisting that the other submit to its demands, at a time of military conflict. That may not be the federalism some would like to see; but it is hardly the end of federalism either.

 

Black Eyed Peas anger Polish politicians by wearing rainbow armbands during New Year’s TV concert

One politician condemned the "homopropaganda" while another called it "deviance.” 

However, the band's frontman clapped back with a message of unity.

By Daniel Villarreal 

Monday, January 2, 2023

The Black Eyed Peas wear rainbow armbands during a Polish New Year's Eve broadcastPhoto: Twitter screenshot


All four members of the pop group The Black Eyed Peas angered anti-LGBTQ+ politicians in Poland by wearing rainbow armbands during a live TV New Year’s Eve performance broadcast throughout the country.

While performing on the TVP channel’s “New Year’s of Dreams” show, the group’s frontman Will.i.am spoke against discrimination faced by the LGBTQ+ community and other groups. The band’s performance was seen by an estimated 8.3 million viewers.

“We dedicate this next song to those who have experienced hate throughout this year,” Will.i.am said. “The Jewish community, we love you. People of African descent around the world, we love you. The LGBTQ community, we love you. This song that we’re going to do is called ‘Where’s the Love?’ and it’s dedicated to unity.”

During the broadcast, TVP presenter Tomasz Kammel said onstage that every aspect of the event was pre-planned and approved by broadcasters, “including every element of [performers’] outfits.”

The display angered deputy agriculture minister Janusz Kowalski. He wrote via Twitter, “Homopropaganda on TVP for $1 million,” mentioning the event’s production cost.

Marcin Warchol, a member of Poland’s anti-LGBTQ+ Law and Justice Party (PiS) was also angered.

“LGBT promotion in TVP2. DISGRACE!” Warchol tweeted. “It’s not a New Year’s Eve of Dreams but a New Year’s Eve of Deviance.”

At the start of 2020, PiS began a push to declare regions across the country as “LGBT-free zones” in an attempt to remove LGBTQ+ “propaganda” from the public as a form of “Western decadence” that “threaten[s] our identity, threaten[s] our nation, threaten[s] the Polish state.” Both the U.S. and the European Union condemned the zones as violations of human rights.

Will.i.am responded to Warchol’s tweet, writing, “#WHEREStheLOVE??? Unity, tolerance, understanding, oneness, respect, diversity & inclusion…THATS LOVE…people are people & we should all practice to honor & love all the different types of people on earth & learn from them…I LOVE YOU your country…”

Warchol responded by asking the performer why he didn’t “boycott the Qatar World Cup over [the] country’s treatment of women, migrants, and the LGBTQ+ community?”

“You sold principles for profit,” he wrote. “Hypocrisy.”

Will.i.am responded, “We went to these places to spread LOVE…why boycott when you can go directly to the source that needs to be inspired and try your hardest to inspire them and spread LOVE…it’s called #LOVE.”

Will.i.am simultaneously live-streamed his New Year’s Eve performance through his social media, holding his cameraphone while speaking and singing to the audience, his rainbow armband clearly in view. He even continued speaking to his live-stream viewers after he went backstage.

“We stand for unity, love, tolerance, oneness. Listen to our music,” he said on his live-stream. “And sometimes you gotta go to where people don’t have the same views to inspire them on difference, to inspire them on what tolerance looks like.”

“Poland is an awesome country,” he continued. “Never forget your heart, purpose, and standing together when people need a voice, when people can’t be there to speak for themselves…. Let’s pray for them, send them positivity, uplift them as we get ready to enter into this new year 2023.”

Former Spice Girls star and LGBTQ+ ally Melanie Chisholm had initially planned to perform for Poland’s New Year’s Eve broadcast, but declined, citing “issues that do not align with the communities I support.”

In November 2022, the Supreme Administrative Court of Poland ruled that the country could potentially recognize same-sex marriages of Polish citizens that were performed in other countries, even though the country itself still doesn’t perform marriages between two people of the same sex.

Protect Komodo dragons and punish the slayers

INDONESIA
Sunday, 01 Jan 2023


Tourism and conservation: A plan to charge visitors to Komodo RM1,000 has been scrapped over an outcry by tourism operators. — AFP

RESPONSIBLE, enlightened wildlife tourists, and hefty fines for irresponsible ones – that’s my wish for 2023.

As a huge animal lover, seeing wildlife in their natural habitats is always a treat.

On one of my many treks to national parks, a Sumatran orangutan trotted out its entire family, suckling babies. On another trek, the elusive Javan rhino would show only its footprint.

A Komodo dragon gave me a scare when it crept up behind me, swishing its muscular tail and flicking its forked tongue.



A ranger handed me a long, double-branched stick and told me to raise it in the air. Thinking I was another predator, the reptile retreated.

Earlier this year, the Indonesia government announced a plan to raise Komodo National Park’s entrance fee by 25 times, from 150,000 rupiah (RM42) to 3.75 million rupiah (RM1,060), starting in January 2023.

The aim was to protect against mass tourism, but tour operators went on strike, saying the move would kill their livelihoods. Tourists complained the fee was too high.

On Dec 15, Tourism and Creative Economy Minister Sandiaga Uno said the plan had been scrapped.

Some years ago, Indonesian authorities busted a smuggling ring that confessed to stealing 41 Komodo dragons and selling them.

During my visits to safari parks and zoos, I have seen tourists throwing trash at animals to get their attention. All for a selfie.

Perhaps, instead of charging responsible tourists expensive fees, the government should fine those who endanger wildlife, and channel the proceeds towards conservation. — The Straits Times/ANN

IMPERIALI$M THE HIGHEST FORM OF CAPITALI$M

Export ban means Chinese firms will have to build plants in Zimbabwe to process lithium

Harare has barred exports of the metal – used in electric-vehicle batteries – in its raw form as part of efforts to have it processed locally.

Harare has barred exports of the metal – used in electric-vehicle batteries – in its raw form as part of efforts to have it processed locally

Observer says facilities will cost hundreds of millions of dollars and it could take two to three years before they can get up and running


Bikita Minerals’ lithium mine in Masvingo province, Zimbabwe. Chinese firm Sinomine Resource Group acquired Bikita Minerals in January. Photo: Handout

2.1.2023
by South China Morning Post

Chinese companies that have made multimillion-dollar acquisitions in Zimbabwe will have to build lithium processing plants after the southern African nation banned the export of the metal in its raw form.

Companies must either set up local processing plants or provide proof of exceptional circumstances – and receive written permission from the government – before lithium can leave the country.

Zimbabwe is estimated to have the largest unexploited reserve of lithium in Africa and is the sixth-largest producer in the world. It imposed the export ban last week, as part of efforts to have lithium – the key raw material in electric-vehicle batteries – processed locally.

The government also wants to stop artisanal miners who reportedly dig up and take the mineral across borders. Harare says it has lost US$1.8 billion in mineral revenues due to smuggling, artisanal mining and externalisation to South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.

Chris Berry, president of commodities advisory firm House Mountain Partners in New York, said the export ban was a textbook example of resource nationalism.

“We saw the same example with Indonesia with nickel and Chile even tried to build a deeper lithium supply chain several years ago, though those circumstances were different and the country didn’t attempt to ban lithium exports, but instead levied huge royalties on lithium producers in the country,” Berry said.

Chinese firms that had made recent lithium investments in Zimbabwe would need to build processing facilities there at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars so they can export higher value lithium chemicals, he said.

“There is a great deal of capital required to build chemical conversion facilities outside of China, not to mention the two- or three-year lead time necessary to actually complete construction and commissioning,” he said.

Berry added that if more countries followed suit, it could have wider implications – such as higher prices for lithium and other raw materials such as cobalt.

Lithium prices have surged by about 1,100 per cent to a record in the past two years, with supply struggling to keep up with high demand. Lithium carbonate spot prices in China – the world’s biggest electric-vehicle market – climbed to a record US$84,000 per tonne in November, according to Benchmark Minerals’ lithium price index.

In the past year, three Chinese companies – Zhejiang Huayou Cobalt, Sinomine Resource Group and Chengxin Lithium Group – have acquired lithium projects in Zimbabwe worth a combined US$679 million, amid the worldwide race to go green.

Huayou Cobalt and Chengxin Lithium are already developing processing plants that would mean they are exempt from the export ban.

Huayou Cobalt acquired the Arcadia hard-rock lithium mine outside Harare for US$422 million from Australian company Prospect Resources last year. The battery maker told the South China Morning Post in September that it was investing US$300 million to develop the mine with an aim to expand production for the electric-vehicle market.

When Huayou Cobalt bought Prospect’s stake in the mine, one of the conditions from the Zimbabwean government was that the firm would process the mineral locally to make lithium-ion batteries.

The company said it would process first-line lithium concentrates of spodumene and petalite in the first phase.

“We are not going to export raw ore,” Huayou Cobalt said. “Lithium is one of many inputs needed for the production of batteries – and we do not enjoy access to all others at the same time. In phase two of our work here, we are targeting production of lithium sulphates, and that is as far as we can see feasible under local conditions.”

Meanwhile, Chengxin Lithium spent US$77 million on a deal last year that includes mining rights in the largely unexplored Sabi Star lithium and tantalum mine project in eastern Zimbabwe. A groundbreaking ceremony was held there earlier this month for a US$130 million lithium processing plant.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa during a groundbreaking ceremony for a lithium plant at the Sabi Star mine in Buhera district, Manicaland province on December 14. Photo: Xinhua

Lauren Johnston, a China-Africa researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said that “if African and Chinese interests diverge on minerals, and since Europe wants them [minerals] too, it might be most efficient to do the process at source and then share the fruits across those markets”.

She said this was especially the case if the manufacturing could be done from renewable energy sources in the first instance, like hydrogen.

But she said “if more African countries ban the export of key renewable minerals but are not ready yet to do the processing at home due to governance, infrastructure, energy and labour challenges, then this could impede the development of renewables globally”.

According to Gorden Moyo, director of the Public Policy and Research Institute of Zimbabwe, the export ban was long overdue.

“It makes perfect economic sense for Zimbabwe and all other countries to break the vicious circle of commodity export,” said Moyo, a former Zimbabwean minister for state enterprises.

“Raw materials fetch low prices in the global markets while at the same time exporting commodities is equivalent to exporting jobs.”

He noted that lithium was a key mineral in the clean energy transition. “If well managed, the massive lithium deposits in Zimbabwe may contribute towards public debt settlement, job creation and increased economic activity in the country,” Moyo said.

But he said the export ban would not stop smuggling.

“In reality the ban is meaningless simply because there is no political will to curb illicit mineral trade in Zimbabwe,” Moyo said, adding that it was being carried out by “military businessmen and women, senior government officials and politically exposed persons”.

“The law enforcement agencies have their hands tied by the very fact that the gamekeepers are actually the poachers themselves.”

Post published in: Business

Surviving 20-Hour Daily Power Cuts With An Electric Car In Zimbabwe

2.1.2023

by CleanTechnica

Frank Sinatra, in his iconic song New York, New York, said “If you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere, it’s up to you, New York, New York.” In October 2009, Jay-Z and Alicia Keys released their smash hit “Empire State of mind” where Jay-Z says he feels like the new Sinatra because “Since I made it here (New York), I can make it anywhere.”

---

 

I have been feeling the same way when it comes to EV ownership in Zimbabwe. There is a popular joke in Zimbabwe that living in Zimbabwe is such an extreme sport that it is a skill in a league of its own that one’s CV should just read “Lived in Zimbabwe” on the experience section. That’s because Zimbabwe has been famous for some unbelievable stuff over the past couple of decades, such as world record inflation at times leading to the infamous One Hundred Trillion Dollar Zimbabwe Dollar note around late 2008/early 2009. Yes, they did actually print a One Hundred Trillion Dollar note this century. There are no more trillion dollar notes in Zimbabwe, but inflation is still very high — triple digit high!

These regular cycles of runaway inflation and foreign currency shortages lead to periodic petrol and diesel shortages. They also lead to periods of insane electricity rationing. That’s because when there is a drought (like now), the country’s largest generation station, the 1,050 MW Kariba hydropower plant, has to throttle generation. Recently, Kariba has had to throttle generation to a maximum of 300 MW due to low water levels. Then there is the aging coal power plants that break down quite often, leaving a large deficit, hence the utility company has to implement load-shedding. 

There is the Southern African Power Pool, where Zimbabwe gets some imports from its neighbors, but that also presents some problems.

1. Some of the member states in the region such as South Africa are also having their own issues and are implementing heavy load-shedding cycles. 2. Zimbabwe’s foreign currency drama and Zimbabwe dollar currency chaos mean that they can’t always import enough from neighbors to help cover some of the deficit. This meant 18-hour daily load-shedding cycles were implemented in 2019, and now in 2022, Zimbabweans are experiencing 20-hour daily load-shedding cycles. Most Zimbabweans are only getting electricity from midnight to 4 am. 

I am one of them and I drive my electric car every day!

Our family driving pattern has not changed much since before the load-shedding started. We still do the school runs, and the ballet and swimming runs. We live in a rented apartment so we can’t really install solar where we stay. So, we just wait for the electricity to come back after 11pm and then the car will charge while we sleep. Sometimes the utility company switches off the power around 4 am, sometimes 5 am, sometime 6 am. Even when the power goes at 4 am, that 4 hours or so is enough to get our 24 kWh Nissan Leaf to more than 80% or to 100%. Around the world, most people when asked if they want to go full EV will be quick to ask about range and charging infrastructure issues. If I can drive an electric car in Zimbabwe, you can drive one anywhere!

Post published in: Featured

Governing a pandemic: biopower 

and the COVID-19 response in 

Zimbabwe

Abstract

Virus vaccine and flu or coronavirus medical fight disease control as a doctor fighting a group of contagious pathogen cells as health care for researching a cure with 3D illustration elements.

  2.1.2023

Introduction The extraordinary explosion of state power towards the COVID-19 response has attracted scholarly and policy attention in relation to pandemic politics. This paper relies on Foucault’s theoretical differentiation of the political management of epidemics to understand how governmental framing of COVID-19 reflects biopolitical powers and how power was mobilised to control the pandemic in Zimbabwe.

Methods We conducted a scoping review of published literature, cabinet resolutions and statutory instruments related to COVID-19 in Zimbabwe.

Results The COVID-19 response in Zimbabwe was shaped by four discursive frames: ignorance, denialism, securitisation and state sovereignty. A slew of COVID-19-related regulations and decrees were promulgated, including use of special presidential powers, typical of the leprosy model (sovereign power), a protracted and heavily policed lockdown was effected, typical of the plague model (disciplinary power) and throughout the pandemic, there was reference to statistical data to justify the response measures whilst vaccination emerged as a flagship strategy to control the pandemic, typical of the smallpox model (biopower). The securitisation frame had a large influence on the overall pandemic response, leading to an overly punitive application of disciplinary power and cases of infidelity to scientific evidence. On the other hand, a securitised, geopolitically oriented sovereignty model positively shaped a strong, generally well execucted, domestically financed vaccination (biopower) programme.

Conclusions The COVID-19 response in Zimbabwe was not just an exercise in biomedical science, rather it invoked wider governmentality aspects shaped by the country’s own history, (geo) politics and various mechanisms of power. The study concludes that whilst epidemic securitisation by norm-setting institutions such as WHO is critical to stimulate international political action, the transnational diffusion of such charged frames needs to be viewed in relation to how policy makers filter the policy and political consequences of securitisation through the lenses of their ideological stances and its potential to hamper rather than bolster political action.

Read the full report on BMJ.

Op-Ed: US finally notices it’s in a space race with China


ByPaul Wallis
Published January 2, 2023

© NASA/AFP/File Handout.

It’s a testimony to the mindless destructiveness of US politics that the Chinese space program has finally become a topic. Years of brattish ignorance and national insanity completely overlooked the obvious. Now, it’s big news. NASA administrator Bill Nelson says the next two years will be critical.

Actually, the last 7 years were critical. The next two years will simply reflect how comatose America’s strategic comprehension was during that time. China’s space program has been ongoing for many years. Nor is it just the Moon. The first Chinese Mars orbiter was established in orbit in 2021, nearly two years ago.

NASA hasn’t had a clearly stated, outlined, and funded exploration program for decades. Since the end of the shuttle program, it hasn’t had instant access to space for basic needs. The supposedly unchallengeable US technological lead has eroded severely, if not completely.

There’s a lot of depth in the Chinese space program in terms of mission types, scope, and range. Unlike some of China’s more bombastic initiatives, the Chinese space program has been patient, consistent, and objective for decades.

China also lacks the disadvantage of nuts who may or may not admit that America ever landed on the Moon, etc. (It’s amazing how much of that side of politics is based on ignoring or denying American achievements. Defunding science is one of its hallmarks.) The Chinese have simply got on with the job, without the maniacal politics.

NASA isn’t quite playing catchup, yet. Whether the Chinese stole or otherwise acquired the technology is by now irrelevant. The point is that they’re now pretty much on a par with the US for actual capability. They’re funded, they’re focused, and they’re launching on a regular basis.

In the early 1960s, there was a book called Advise and Consent by Allen Drury. In that book, America lost the space race to the USSR while obsessing with politics. In the book, the balance of power changed drastically overnight. That’s what can happen in this case. America could be bypassed entirely. The military advantages and the ability to dominate near-Earth space would pass to China. Space commerce would also be by default a Chinese monopoly.

A much worse case is that Chinese facilities will dominate the transit and logistics options for any other nation in space. That could lead to a war on Earth. Long predicted by many space futurists, the likely options for anyone using “Chinese” space are complex at best.

This is an incredibly high-stakes situation. America’s options are clear; lead or lose.

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Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this Op-Ed are those of the author. They do not purport to reflect the opinions or views of the Digital Journal or its members.

WRITTEN BY Paul Wallis
Editor-at-Large based in Sydney, Australia.