Sunday, October 22, 2023

Contaminants in cannabis and hemp flowers create potential for health risks

Team of researchers urges further study and evaluation of standards for medical use

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE

Cannabis use, even for medical purposes, could make some people sick due to harmful fungi that contaminate the plants.

That is the finding of a recently published peer-reviewed journal article, whose authors recommend further study and consideration of changes to regulations to protect consumers, especially those who are immunocompromised. They examined data, previous studies, and U.S. and international regulations related to the cannabis and hemp industry.

The article was published in Frontiers in Microbiology. It was researched and written by Kimberly Gwinn, professor of entomology and plant pathology at the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture: Maxwell Leung, assistant professor, and Ariell Stephens, graduate student, both from the School of Mathematical and Natural Sciences at Arizona State University; and Zamir Punja, professor of plant pathology/biotechnology at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada.

“Hemp and cannabis are new crops, and we are in the early stages of understanding relationships with their pathogens. Several pathogens produce mycotoxins, compounds that negatively impact human health and are regulated in other crops. In this review, we summarize the current literature on mycotoxins in hemp and cannabis products, identify research gaps in potential mycotoxin contamination in hemp and cannabis, and identify potential developments based on research in other crop systems,” Gwinn said.

Cannabis research has mostly focused on the substance and medical uses of the plant, but with the increased legalization of cannabis for various uses, this article addresses the need for more study of potential health risks.

“Although fungi and mycotoxins are common and well-studied contaminants in many agricultural crop species, they have been generally under-studied in cannabis and hemp. This is partly because human health risk assessment methodologies used to regulate food and pharmaceuticals have yet to become standard for the emerging cannabis and hemp industries. Additionally, the wide range of consumer uses of cannabis and hemp flowers, including for medical use by patients with susceptible conditions, makes it uniquely challenging to assess and manage human health risk of these contaminants,” according to the article.

The authors discuss Aspergillus, Penicillium, Fusarium, Mucor, and other fungi that can infect the plants and can produce mycotoxins; review the regulations and assessment methods of the contaminants; and offer recommendations to produce safer products for all consumers. Environmental factors such as where the plants are grown, whether indoors or outdoors, and in soil or soilless media, may impact the kinds of contaminants and ensuing health risks.

Studies reviewed by the authors show some fungi may cause infection on lung and skin tissues, and these infections were most common when smoked and less common in edibles. They also found cancer patients using cannabis to help with nausea and appetite as well as transplant patients and consumers with HIV and type 1 diabetes may be particularly susceptible to infection. Studies also show workers harvesting cannabis could also be at risk. The authors encouraged consumers who are immunocompromised to use products that have been sterilized until better data are obtained.

The authors studied international and U.S. standards for these contaminants, but there is a lack of data on the prevalence of the contaminants and their health impacts. Another issue for consumers is the varying levels of legalization of cannabis products from state to state, which has resulted in each state creating its own regulations. Fusarium mycotoxins, a prevalent class of fungal contaminants in agricultural commodities that can result in vomiting, are not currently regulated.

Assessing and testing for pathogens can be problematic, as the authors found when they studied various methods including culture-based assays, immuno-based technologies, and emerging technologies. The article also examines management of the possible toxins before harvest and after harvest. “A major hurdle faced by cannabis and hemp industries is addressing the disconnect between production-related issues and human safety issues,” the article states. Recreational use of hemp and cannabis is common in many areas and all case studies linking cannabis use and fungal infections, except one, involved patients who were immunocompromised. The authors suggest a potential solution is “to reduce potential harm to medical users of cannabis from toxigenic fungi is to develop a two-tier system that distinguishes products intended for medical and recreational use.”

“We wrote this article to bring these issues to the attention of the scientific, medical, and regulatory communities. We hope to encourage further research in this area, particularly in the areas of mycotoxins in product. Better data and public access to data will allow us to fully evaluate these risks and subsequently ensure safe products for consumers,” Gwinn said.

The University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture is composed of UT AgResearch, UT College of Veterinary Medicine, UT Extension, and the Herbert College of Agriculture. Through its land-grant mission of research, teaching and extension, the Institute touches lives and provides Real. Life. Solutions. utia.tennessee.edu.

mycelium (IMAGE)

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE INSTITUTE OF AGRICULTURE

Proliferation of mycelium of a *Fusarium* species within cannabis inflorescence tissues under conditions of high humidity.
CREDIT
Photo from Frontiers in Microbiology, courtesy of Z. Punja.

JOURNAL

Frontiers in Microbiology

ARTICLE TITLE

Fungal and mycotoxin contaminants in cannabis and hemp flowers: implications for consumer health and directions for further research

ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE

19-Oct-2023

CANADA

Cannabis industry calls for regulatory changes five years after legislation

Daniel Johnson , BNN Bloomberg
Oct 17, 2023

Five years after cannabis was legalized in Canada, experts and industry players say regulatory issues have weighed on the success of the industry.
Nawan Butt, a portfolio manager who oversees a cannabis ETF, told BNNBloomberg.ca that regulation is the biggest challenge to Canada’s cannabis industry, and a main reason why things have been slow ever since legalization in October 2018.
“They came up with a set of rules and directives, which then moved very slowly and evolved very slowly to keep up with what were the actual demands of the consumer,” Butt, also head of capital markets at Purpose Investments, said in an interview. “We've seen Canada just under-serve its consumers, to some extent.”
According to Butt, the industry’s underperformance is due largely to the limitations of regulators. Slow progress in that area has led to the cannabis sector having the “highest proportion of all bankruptcies in Canada” in 2022, he argued.
“Regulators have done a disservice of sorts to the investors and operators in the space that really were sitting on an industry that was net new, could generate a lot of taxes (and) could generate a lot of jobs,” Butt said.

LEGALIZATION ANNIVERSARY
On Oct. 17, 2018, the federal Liberal government changed prohibition laws on the recreational use and sale of cannabis that had been in place for about a century.
Since then, it’s been a rocky path for operators in the industry navigating the legal market in Canada.
A review of the Cannabis Act published last week found that retailers in the industry were struggling with financial viability, due in part to the costs associated with regulatory compliance like taxes and fees. The review was launched last year by the federal government.
Omar Khan, public affairs officer at cannabis business High Tide, called for attention to regulatory issues within the cannabis industry, warning these could have political consequences for the federal government if left unaddressed.
“What started off as a political and economic boom for the federal Liberals risks becoming an albatross come the next election, because for whatever reason the current federal government just doesn't seem to be taking this sector as seriously as it's taking other comparable sectors,” Khan said in an interview with BNNBloomberg.ca.
EXCISE TAXES
Khan said the excise tax is causing problems for retailers. The tax in its current form was based on assumptions made in 2015 that the average price per gram of cannabis would be $10, Khan explained, and that price point is “much lower” today.
“Currently, cannabis producers have to affix a unique excise stamp for each province or territory. That creates a bit of a mess for companies and it adds a certain level of cost onto consumers,” he said.
According to Khan, the regulatory framework for the excise tax should be updated, but industry players have had difficulty engaging with federal officials on the issue – a theme that applies to engagement on other priorities for the industry, he added.
INDUSTRY PERFORMANCE: "EBBS AND FLOWS"
As the industry faces frustrations at the five-year mark, Khan noted that the first three years of legalization were “quite successful” from an economic perspective.
A joint report by the Ontario Cannabis Store and Deloitte released in February 2022 found that the cannabis industry contributed $43.5 billion to Canada’s gross domestic product between 2018 and 2021. During that same time, Khan said, the industry sustained about 151,000 jobs across the country.
Butt said the development of cannabis capital markets in Canada was “the first of its kind in the world,” and a “new playbook” was needed to determine the best way to invest in the industry.
Since then, he said, the industry has gone through “ebbs and flows.”
“What the industry did was make very, very large promises that were very difficult to keep. And therefore valuations have been very volatile over time,” Butt said.
Butt manages the Purpose Marijuana Opportunities Fund, the nation's first actively managed cannabis fund which was launched in February 2018.
At one point, Butt said his fund hit $50 million in assets. It now has about $7 million in assets under management.
“Part of those assets have dwindled because the market capitalization in the space has come down significantly,” Butt said.
“The other part is the challenges of the space have made themselves very clear to investors and investors are now more careful of the space overall, rather than being very embracive of it.”
LOOKING AHEAD
Emily Riehl, a regional sales director for Western Canada at Greentone, told BNNBloomberg.ca that while the industry has experienced volatility, some firms have been able to improve fiscal performance and could continue to do so.
Despite improvements, some companies “continue to make big mistakes,” she said. Instances like that have given the industry a bad reputation and have “scared” people away from participating or investing in the legal cannabis market, she said.
Five years is not enough time to judge the performance of a new industry, Riehl argued, but to date, “there’s been more failures than there have been successes.”
“Obviously many (cannabis firms) have made billion-dollar mistakes, it feels like at this point. But I do think that there's hope and we're seeing companies that are turning around their balance sheets,” she said in an interview.
Riehl said producers are now “starting to get their feet under themselves” and make better choices, which in some cases unfortunately involves reducing employee headcounts.
Over the next six to eight months, she said people could be “pleasantly surprised with how much better everybody’s doing” in Canada’s cannabis industry.
“We're finally at a point now where we're, I hate to say it so bluntly, moving away from hiring the cool stoner next door and moving towards more professional people coming in to teach the rest of the industry how to operate and work more professionally and efficiently,” she said.

Cannabis Act review finds companies struggling to profit, health experts supportive

A review of the federal legislation that paved the way for the legal recreational use and sale of cannabis says companies in the legal market report struggling to realize profits and maintain financial viability.
Retailers cite the burden of taxes, markups, fees, and regulatory compliance costs as barriers to the industry's viability, which they say is a necessary precondition to maintaining a safe and legal source of supply and to combat the illicit market.
The statutory review was launched by the federal government last year to analyze the Cannabis Act, which in 2018 set purchase and possession limits at 30 grams of dried pot or the equivalent, restricted youth access to marijuana and established safety requirements for growing, selling and transporting the substance.
The report says public health experts remain supportive of the legislation's precautionary approach, including THC limits for edible cannabis products and restrictions on promotion, while some suggest considering stricter age limits on who can possess, distribute and buy cannabis.
While the panel that conducted the review says it heard progress has been made on deterring criminal activity and displacing the illicit market, many public safety stakeholders remain concerned about unauthorized retail stores and illegal online channels.
Panellists heard varying viewpoints on whether consumer demand was being met, with consumers still seeking products unavailable in the legal market such as higher-potency edibles, along with limited access in some rural and remote regions

From high flying to burnout, pot industry faces

downturn five years post-legalization

Tara Deschamps,

When Abi Roach thinks about the 20 years she spent fighting for Canada to legalize cannabis, she says pot legislation is like a clenched fist.

The analogy, which Roach first heard from a former Toronto councillor, represents the tight grip on the cannabis market that legislators held for centuries. It meant Roach had to exploit a grey area of the law to run her popular cannabis consumption space HotBox, which opened in 2000, and its customers were accustomed to looking over their shoulders for cops before walking through the door.

Roach has been a stalwart in Canada’s cannabis industry as a longtime advocate for legalization and queen of an empire that eventually spanned 15 different businesses, including a magazine, a tour company and lines of pot accessories and apparel.

While regulations and attitudes have loosened since Canada legalized recreational cannabis five years ago, Roach said policy constraints and industry response mean there is still "a ton of room to go” before the industry reaches general acceptance.

"It's the closed fist that slowly opens as we prove ourselves to society as being just a normal part of everyday life," she said, as the fifth anniversary of cannabis legalization approaches on Oct. 17. "The world isn't exploding, the chickens aren't going to fall from the sky, if people are consuming cannabis.

“Five years into it, you're really seeing that cannabis is an industry that is viable."

The signs of that viability are everywhere. Cannabis shops dot some of the most coveted strips in Canadian real estate. Alberta- and Ontario-based giants have expanded their medical pot businesses into Europe. The domestic recreational market is valued in the billions.

Cannabis legalization has had wide-reaching effects and made its use more accessible and acceptable.

Yet the razzle-dazzle days where money was no object and sky-high demand was expected are gone, replaced by a sobering reality: legalization has fallen well short of expectations.

The biggest companies – Canopy Growth Corp., Aurora Cannabis Inc. and Tilray Brands Inc. – have shrunk their footprints, laid off thousands and grappled with balance sheets that reflect a turbulent market and a longer march to profitability than many once imagined.

Others weren’t so lucky. They sold their business at bargain prices to a bigger rival, folded or declared bankruptcy.

And Roach worries the carnage isn’t over.

"Until there's a real regulatory reform in all of the main pain points of the industry, we're going to continue to see companies go bankrupt ... and a lot of consolidation in the market," Roach predicted.

"It's becoming much harder and harder, not only to raise capital to get out of trouble, but also to sell your company. I know people that were trying to sell their cannabis stores. Nobody wanted it."

Many cannabis businesses were doomed from the start. They spent fast and furiously in anticipation of legalization, scrambled to produce the right amount of pot — first there was not enough, then too much — and discovered catering to consumers wasn’t easy.

Canadians wanted more potent products in packaging that wasn’t dull. Others couldn't shake relationships with longtime dispensaries and dealers who could supply pot at a fraction of the price of the legal market.

Cannabis companies wanted governments and police to go after illicit sellers more aggressively, but felt authorities never put their full might behind the cause, so pot producers took an “If you can't beat them, join them” approach.

"The only way to convince an illicit market consumer to migrate into the regulated market is to have a comparably priced product," said Vivien Azer, a managing director and senior research analyst at TD Cowen who specializes in the cannabis sector.

Hexo Corp. paved the way, she said, when it launched 28-gram packages of Original Stash dried cannabis flower in 2019 (Hexo was acquired by Tilray in April). It sold for $140, or roughly $5 per gram in Ontario, and slightly less in Quebec. Then-chief executive Sebastien St-Louis marketed it as disrupting the black market.

"Everyone else followed, and so you saw this massive price deflation in the legal cannabis market," Azer said.

In November 2021, a report from Deloitte Canada and cannabis research firms Hifyre and BDSA said the average price for dried cannabis was $7.50, down from $11.78 per gram at the start of 2019.

By last month, most of the dried flower products selling in the Ontario Cannabis Store were priced around $3.50 per gram, with a few more selling for around $5 or $6 per gram.

"With that price deflation, you could kiss profit aspirations goodbye," Azer said.

The excise taxes the federal government and provinces charge to licensed producers only made matters worse.

For dried and fresh cannabis, plants and seeds, the taxes amount to the higher of $1 per gram or a 10-per-cent per gram fee.

For edibles, extracts and topicals, the duty is set at one cent per milligram of tetrahydrocannabinol, cannabis' active ingredient, in the product.

While these rates were palatable at the time of legalization, when people predicted cannabis would sell for $10 per gram and taxes would thus be low, pot companies are now almost universally railing against the rates.

A May 2022 analysis from the Cannabis Council of Canada found a package with 28 grams of flower selling with HST for $124.78 would carry excise duties of $29.13, or 23 per cent of the purchase price.

Roach realized the tax “is absolutely unrealistic,” after she sold her beloved HotBox to the Friendly Stranger pot firm in 2020. It later turned the business over to Fire & Flower Holdings Corp., which has since filed for creditor protection.

Following a stint at the Ontario Cannabis Store, Roach became a head of product marketing at St. Thomas, Ont., business Mera Cannabis Corp., where staff recently calculated manufacturing costs for a 14-gram flower product were $15, but taxes amounted to $16.50.

And many of those are going unpaid. Roughly $200 million in excise taxes are outstanding from the cannabis sector, Canada Revenue Agency spokesperson Nina Ioussoupova said in an email.

Until the regulations are reformed, Roach maintains there’s going to be a “continued mess” in the industry while the illicit market maintains its strength.

“We’ve been through a lot and I did 20 years fighting for legalization, but I always say I didn't fight for legalization to purchase cannabis in the unregulated market,” Roach said.

“My dream ... maybe not in the next five years, but in the next decade, is that we can continue to move people from the unregulated market into the legal market to a point where the legal market is the only market.”

Cannabis producers want the same thing.

The morning of legalization five years ago, a share in Canopy traded for about $68 and Aurora opened at $195. Their average stock prices over the past three months have been below $1.

As they watched valuations dwindle, companies argued that the widespread presence of unlicensed dispensaries and other underground sellers was still a problem. To this day, Health Canada estimates they have a hold over 40 per cent of the market.

"The illicit market is why the legal industry isn't as healthy as everybody would like to see it," said David Klein, Canopy’s chief executive.

"It probably is the single biggest challenge because if the illicit market would have gone away, as people predicted, you wouldn't have seen the dramatic shutdown of facilities and layoff of employees,” he said.

“Those sales would have been available for the legal players."

Thousands of cannabis workers have received pink slips over the last five years and many of the greenhouses and offices where they worked are in the hands of new owners.

Canopy has sold seven properties, including the iconic Smiths Falls, Ont., factory it bought from chocolate giant Hershey's, since April alone.

"It's been a volatile five years for sure," Klein acknowledged, saying up until nine months ago Canopy was still hoping to get more overall market growth out of the industry.

Since then, Canopy realized "the concept that you needed to be everywhere and you needed to be everything for everyone was flawed," he said.

It sold its Tokyo Smoke retail business to the owners of the Edmonton Oilers hockey team, rethought how many facilities it needed and took a more realistic approach to the possibility of the U.S. legalizing cannabis on a national level — a development pot executives have long sold to investors as their ticket to profitability but has yet to happen.

"We decided the right size is the size we are today, so we don't have to rely on incremental growth" Klein said.

"Let's make sure that business can be profitable, and then once we build that really solid foundation, which we now have, then we can look at opportunities to grow."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 13, 2023.

PAKISTAN
Reach the masses

Zubeida Mustafa

Published October

RECENTLY, I attended the Urban Resource Centre’s Forum on the urban poor and land use management in Karachi. NED University’s Prof Noman Ahmed spoke on the subject. This was followed by observations from the audience comprising mainly young and intelligent university and college students fully engaged with public issues. The URC was set up in 1989 and is the brainchild of architect and town planner Arif Hasan.

The URC is not the only institution educating the people on issues that have a bearing on their lives. The Irtiqa Institute of Social Sciences, a think tank founded in 1993 by progressive academics, is doing the same. Of late, social activist Kaleem Durrani has revived it, attracting young and old alike to its fold.

Yet another group is the newly founded Concerned Citizens Alliance, which was set up in response to the economic and political crisis that has gripped the country since 2021. Its objective is to mobilise experts from various walks of life to discuss the country’s multifarious problems and suggest solutions they hope the rulers will adopt. Azhar Jameel, a co-founder, was a political activist but the Alliance has no political agenda.

There are a number of other similar groups working to educate people and create public awareness. Such bodies are rendering a useful service in a society where the free dissemination of information on sensitive and controversial issues is not encouraged. The establishment is on the defensive if it is criticised and its knee-jerk reaction is to clamp down on the free expression of opinion. The media has always been in chains in Pakistan even in the days when the country supposedly was democratic. As for the academia and the publishing industry, who hasn’t heard of teachers and writers meeting a sorry end because of their liberal views? The banning of books is still a phenomenon not unheard of in Pakistan.

Think tanks can only have a limited audience.

Political parties whose job it is to educate the people politically and tell them about their problems and how they can be resolved do not take this function seriously. They are devoid of statesmanship and lack an intelligent understanding of national issues. It is beyond them to study these issues and look for solutions. Being power-hungry, they seek to get into office by hook or by crook.

Hence issues such as the history of the Freedom Movement, the emergence of Bangladesh, the role of the army in Pakistan’s politics, the use of religion to promote political interests and our ties with India are hardly open to an objective and non-partisan discussion in academia. This gives an open field to the pulpit that has made matters worse by spreading obscurantist views in the garb of faith. Any criticism of the founder of the nation, the defence forces and faith-related matters makes one liable to punishment. In such an environment, the organisations mentioned enable a sane and sensible debate on otherwise ‘taboo’ subjects.

The problem is that these institutions can reach only a limited audience. Given Pakistan’s low rate of education and high level of poverty, such think tanks will have to reach out to the masses to make knowledge and information widely accessible. Hence events such as the URC Forum will have to become a regular exercise that go beyond converting the already converted. The need is to be inclusive and widen the reach of their activities by going to the masses who are handicapped by illiteracy and poverty. People may be open to intelligent discourse but lack the resources to come to their hosts. Their interest in such matters is evident from their participation in Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc.

Is it not possible to mobilise the youth who attend the URC Forum and organise and train them to form study circles in low-income localities? By holding interactive meetings with their counterparts in various areas, privileged youth will also gain knowledge of the other half. They would be paying back to society what they have gained over the years. In the process, many of the uneducated will be learning something.

The URC can go further, Following the dictum of Paulo Freire, the author of Pedagogy of the Oppressed, these study circles can provide the youth an opportunity to acquire literacy skills as well. Freire used such occasions to impart literacy to adults with whom he interacted. He observed that they were so keen to learn while discussing their problems that their progress was phenomenal. He described his pedagogical method as “dialogical”.

Such an exercise would benefit the youth from the URC too. Learning is a two-way process and both sides would benefit. While the underprivileged youth would gain access to information, URC educators would win the goodwill of the huge majority we call the masses.

www.zubeida-mustafa.com

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2023

PAKISTAN

Waste not the crises

Zafar Mirza

Published October 20, 2023

LAST month, the World Bank and the Pakistan Institute of Development Economics convened a two-day national dialogue titled ‘Reforms for a Brighter Future: Time to Decide — A Conversation on Pakistan’s Development Priorities’.

It can be deciphered as: things are not right and reforms are badly needed; if appropriate reforms are undertaken now, they can lead to a better future, but if they are not implemented then the future is bleak; this should be decided now, before it is too late.

The World Bank’s Matthew Verghis made a simple, though not simplistic, keynote address. The message in a nutshell is threefold: Pakistan’s economic model is no more sustainable; still, economic and development progress is possible — provided we make fundamental shifts in our economic and development policies.

Why is our economic model no more sustainable? Because it has resulted in a huge, ever-growing macroeconomic imbalance. Simply put, our income is far less than our spending. To plug the deficit, we must regularly borrow loans. We are in a vicious cycle, where we borrow more to return earlier loans and their interest. Covid-19, the global slump, floods, political instability and rupee depreciation have also caused a deep dent in recent years, although our economic mismanagement goes far beyond these catastrophes.

The chronicity of this phenomenon has landed us in a situation where our debt and debt servicing have risen to 82.3 per cent of GDP in 2023. All this hits people very hard. High inflation and, once again, growing poverty are taking their toll.

Human development is sliding further. Our abysmal health and education indices are a stark testimony to an economic model which isn’t working. Our infant mortality rate (over 60 per 1,000 live births) and stunting (40pc of children under five years) are the highest in South Asia and our literacy rate among adults (above 15 years) is the lowest in South Asia, even lower than that of sub-Saharan Africa.

So why is economic and development progress still possible? There are examples of countries that have managed such crises and bounced back. They fastened their belts, put their house in order and turned around their economies.

Indonesia, India and Vietnam emerged from their respective crises, introduced and sustained deep economic reforms and followed positive trajectories. Incremental economic growth rates have resulted in improvements in living standards, and human development indicators have improved.

In 1965, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea and Pakistan were very close to each other in terms of GDP per capita. Today, South Korea’s per capita income is close to $35,000, Indonesia’s is more than $14,000, Malaysia’s is close to $14,000, China’s is over $11,000 while Pakistan’s is only $1,568.

Fundamental shifts are needed in our economic and development policies.

Sri Lanka was also marred by misgovernance, economic mismanagement and political instability. Ultimately, it defaulted by announcing a debt repayment moratorium in April 2022, amidst unsustainable debt and critically low reserves. The images of people rioting inside the presidential residence are still fresh.

Sri Lanka had no option but to initiate wholesale economic and governance reforms. Early indications are promising. Inflation peaked to an unprecedented 69.8pc during the crisis last year, more than double that of Pakistan, but, today, it has come down to single digits. Indeed, it’s too early to form an opinion about what trajectory Sri Lanka will take, but there is a great opportunity in the crisis if Sri Lanka does not waste it.

Every country has its own context and problems, but the fact remains that there are countries that have experienced economic crises but have successfully emerged from them by reshaping their economic and development policies. Our situation is dire but not an exception. We must develop the resolve to proactively address it rather than shutting our eyes and waiting for Allah before the worst hits us.

What fundamental shifts are required in our economic and development policies? While there is no single cookie-cutter solution, lessons from other countries are useful. The principles of good economic policies are well laid out. We need to, first and foremost, set our priorities right. Investing in people should be our first economic priority as this brings the highest rate of return.

Apart from being a moral argument, it is also good economics. Our youth bulge can be our greatest resource. Exploiting the globalised world and the huge elastic global demand for ideas, knowledge, technology, commodities, and human resource, we should reorganise internally to enhance our abysmally low exports. We need to address the structural drivers of fiscal deficits and must expand our revenue base and improve our expenditure quality.

We need to enhance our savings and stop channelling private savings into financing unproductive government consumption. We need to improve our business environment to encourage investments and increase public capital investments rather than providing huge, poorly targeted subsidies. This is a broad but by no means exhaustive list.

Last but not least, economic and political crises are two sides of the same coin. Nothing is possible without democratic political stability and a credible government. We have been at a loss on all these counts — for too long. We need broad-based national consensus among all stakeholders to effectively address our existential challenges.

Former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has been calling for reimagining Pakistan through a grand national consensus as our problems have become so deep and complicated that no one political party or section of the establishment can resolve them. In the last three years, almost all important political parties have been in power but our downward spiral has continued.

Can our powerful stakeholders transcend their know-it-all approach and self-interest and reach out to each other to develop a national consensus on Pakistan’s future?

Economic experts say that if Pakistan leverages its young population, natural resources, and location within a vibrant region, it can achieve growth rates of 7-8pc per annum, reaching middle-income status by 2047. “This may be Pakistan’s moment in making policy shifts,” said Najy Benhassine, World Bank head in Pakistan, while making the opening speech at the national dialogue.

The writer is a former SAPM on health, professor of health systems at Shifa Tameer-i-Millat University, and WHO adviser on UHC.

zedefar@gmail.com

Not worth it?

Nazir A. Jogezai

Published October 20, 2023

The writer is an educationist.

THE appointment of caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar from Balochistan kindled hope for some measure of equity for the largest, rich-in-natural-resources, but most cash-strapped province. It has also revived the debate around the creation of smaller provinces, a realisation rooted in the Baloch feeling abandoned, helpless and perpetually on the receiving end of injustice.

The stark reality of Balochistan’s marginalisation is visible in its sparse population, dismal literacy rate and an inadequate administrative infrastructure. As a result, this vast land is marginally developed. However, its situation does not make it insignificant; such an interpretation reflects a subjective orientation in denial of established global parameters. In the modern era, the size of a country or its population do not determine its worth. A region’s value is defined by resources, human capital and productivity.

Singapore, a small country with 728 square kilometres of land and a population of 5.6 million, attained the status of a rich nation in 2011 and has since ranked among the world’s high-income economies. In 1957, South Korean income levels were comparable to newly independent Ghana and development economists believed that Ghana had brighter prospects. Today, South Korea is among the top-performing economies in the world. We consider population to be the primary criterion for wealth distribution, which is an impediment in the pursuit of prosperity. We are unable to provide basic amenities, education and skills in a country where a baby is born every seven seconds. There are 17,726 births and 4,351 deaths, along with 454 migrations per day, resulting in a net daily change of 12,920. Pakistan is also expected to surpass Indonesia as the most populated Muslim country in 2048.

Population-based resource distribution has stimulated population growth and raised vested interests in voter pool and new constituencies. Considering this, the voices of most of Balochistan’s political leadership are audible in the recent census. But they were silent on education which, despite the provincial constitutional mandate, is a federal issue. Also, the province possesses mineral reserves estimated to be worth $1 trillion, yet it is unable to contribute to the economic well-being of its populace.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2023

Eyes wide open

Muna Khan

Published October 22, 2023

WHILE at college in the early 1990s, I had the pleasure of attending a guest lecture by Edward Said. As a teenager whose schooling was through a Western lens with little exposure to scholars from the Global South, I was thrilled to hear him. He spoke about how he wrote Orientalism because he didn’t find realistic representations of the East in the media. He said he wrote Covering Islam in response to how Palestine was seen in the media as terrorists wanting to kill Jews and how little is done to a) counter that or b) report on what Israel’s role is in the displacement of millions of Palestinians. The media’s focus is just on violence and terrorism in that region and if that is all the audience sees, it equates people from there as extremist, threatening, etc.

I wonder how Mr Said would have reacted to the news last week of the backlash to a letter written by 34 student organisations at Harvard, holding Israel “entirely responsible for all unfolding violence” in Gaza. The reaction to the letter has been furious — from alums to former US officials condemning the statement. CEOs have reportedly asked for the signatories to be identified so they can be ‘blacklisted’ for jobs. On Wednesday, NBC reported the law firm Davis Polk has rescinded job offers for three law students at Harvard and Columbia “who signed on to organisational statements about Israel”.

It doesn’t end there.

The British perfumer Jo Malone’s son, Josh Wilcox, has been reported as being an organiser of the letter, a claim he denied, saying he hasn’t even been on campus this semester. But because Wilcox has written strong editorials in the school paper about “the brutal oppression of Palestinians” by “an apartheid regime” and criticised Harvard for giving a fellowship to an ex-Israeli army officer Amos Yadlin, his role remains unclear, says the media. I chose to write about a white, rich man to illustrate how the silencing, doxxing, attacks spare no one.

Students hold the power to drive change.

The conservative non-profit, Accuracy in Media, organised a van to drive through Harvard featuring the names and faces of some of the signatories and labelled them as anti-Semites. “No one who supports terrorist groups like Hamas should be able to hide in the shadows,” AIM said. Some students have withdrawn their names from the letter following the backlash while others have expressed fear for their safety and insist none of them are siding with terrorists by signing that letter.

Harvard isn’t the only university in the US feeling the heat for not “condemning anti-Semitism” on their campuses, a reference ostensibly to students’ protests denouncing Israel’s attack on Gaza. Columbia University — where Mr Said taught from 1963 to 2003 — shut its doors to the public on Oct 12 as pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian student groups clashed. Students of colour said they were spat on by classmates.

My own alma mater, SOAS, where I learned what solidarity for Palestine should look like, temporarily suspended some students on Oct 9 “for their conduct at a pro-Gaza rally”. It appears videos of students chanting “resistance is justified when people are colonised” and “there is only one solution, Intifada revolution” goes against “venue protocols”.

These are just a few examples of the silencing taking place on campuses in the West which is supposedly a bastion of freedom of speech. My disappointment remains in the media coverage of these as ‘anti-Semitic’ or ‘pro-Hamas’ rallies.

Student demonstrations have led to larger civil rights movements like the demonstrations at segregated lunch counters in the US in the 1960s. Benazir Bhutto wrote about attending anti-Vietnam war protests when she was at Harvard. Students in South Africa organised anti-apartheid protests and were joined by students around the world. Students in China led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Students in Thailand led protests demanding reforms in the monarchy in 2020. Our students also protest across campuses but their issues do not interest the media.

Students have proven they hold the power to drive change. Pro-Palestine demonstrators are showing up on campuses across the world, despite the consequences. Any media that participates in silencing their voices to make space for the oppressors’ will soon have no audience left. People recognise who gets killed and who is reported dead in headlines. They’re trying to outwit shadowbanning attempts, too.

People will look back at this moment and ask who stood by the side of the oppressed and who shilled for their employers’ corporate or military interests. Profit-driven media are failing the public’s right to know. We need public media to tell stories fairly and accurately if we want journalism to stay relevant. Al Jazeera may provide many answers to how it can be done right.

The writer is an instructor in journalism.
X (formerly Twitter): @LedeingLady

Published in Dawn, October 22th, 2023

Taliban ‘indirectly benefits’ from US education funding, SIGAR report says

By Amu TV

FILE PHOTO

A new report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) sheds light on distressing developments within Afghanistan’s education sector. The findings indicate a substantial deterioration in both access to and the quality of education following the Taliban’s takeover, posing severe consequences for the nation’s future.

One of the revelations in the report is the indirect benefit the Taliban is gaining from U.S.-funded education assistance through various channels. These channels include the establishment of deceptive non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to receive donor aid and the infiltration and extortion of existing Afghan NGOs engaged in educational support.

Notably, the report points out that this assistance inadvertently generates tax revenues for the Taliban. These funds come from personal income taxes imposed on Afghans employed by U.S.-funded programs and sales tax income from goods acquired from landlords, contractors, and vendors, as highlighted in the report titled Status of Education in Afghanistan: Taliban Policies Have Resulted in Restricted Access to Education and a Decline in Quality.

Decline in Education Access and Quality

The report underscores that the Taliban’s ascent has triggered a significant decline in education access and quality across Afghanistan. Taliban-issued education policies, which involve barring girls from secondary education, imposing gender segregation in schools, and confining women teachers to girls’ primary schools, have led to a notable drop in secondary school student enrollments since August 2021.

A survey conducted by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) found that girls’ attendance in secondary schools had decreased in all provinces, including Kabul, since August 2021. Moreover, boys’ attendance in secondary schools experienced a decline of over 10 percent in eight provinces. The higher education sector has also been adversely affected, with a private university reporting a 50 percent reduction in enrolled students and the discontinuation of most women’s educational programs due to Taliban policies.

Impact on Education Quality

The report underscores that the decline in education access is mirrored by a drop in the overall quality of education in Afghanistan. The impact is especially severe on female teachers, who are now limited to gender-segregated classrooms, resulting in staffing shortages. The deteriorating economic conditions in Afghanistan have also forced households to withdraw children from school to work or arrange early marriages for their daughters to manage household expenses.

Furthermore, the report highlights the diminishing quality of teachers, with previously qualified educators being replaced by untrained community members or Taliban officials. The secular curriculum has been replaced by religious studies, curtailing the breadth of education. Many teachers are resigning for personal safety, given the Taliban’s punitive measures and restrictions on female employment and travel.

Shift Towards Private Schools

As a response to Taliban policies, international donors, including USAID, have redirected their funding towards private schools. These include community-based education schools (CBEs) and distance learning initiatives designed to enhance primary-level education accessibility, particularly in areas with limited public school facilities and marginalized populations like girls and internally displaced children.

Concerns Over Madrassas and Narrowed Curricula

The report highlights concerns regarding the increasing number of madrassas infiltrating the public school system. This poses issues due to the lack of secular education, particularly in technology, science, mathematics, reading, and writing. The absence of these essential skills could hinder students from securing sustainable income and impede Afghanistan’s economic growth.

The Taliban’s education policies further diminish the quality of education by narrowing curricula and eliminating secular subjects in favor of their interpretation of Islamic studies.

Continued Support from State Department and USAID

Despite the cessation of on-budget education assistance following the Taliban’s takeover, both the U.S. State Department and USAID continue to support the education sector. Currently, they are overseeing six programs with an estimated cost of $1.9 million and $183.3 million, respectively.

These findings underscore the urgent need for ongoing efforts to address the educational crisis in Afghanistan. The repercussions extend beyond the present to the nation’s future prospects.

Saturday, October 21, 2023

Pakistan deports 1,700 Afghan nationals among 2,371 undocumented migrants

By Amu TV

Pakistani police forces. File photo.

Pakistani authorities have announced the deportation of a total of 2,371 undocumented migrants, including 1,700 Afghan nationals, as part of a nationwide initiative aimed at expelling over 1.7 million immigrants who lack the necessary documents to reside in the country.

Haris Nawaz, the Acting Interior Minister for Sindh, Pakistan, provided this update during a press conference, emphasizing that the deportation of illegal immigrants was being executed impartially. He clarified that this action was not exclusively targeting Afghan immigrants but was equally applicable to all foreign nationals living in the province without proper legal documentation.

Nawaz underlined that comprehensive crackdowns were underway across Pakistan to address the issue of illegal immigration, and this approach reflected a unanimous policy adhered to by the Sindh province. He further noted that due processes were being observed throughout the deportation procedures.

As of now, Nawaz disclosed that there were 1,218 pending cases of illegal immigrants detained in various jails across the province. He pointed out that a higher concentration of illegal immigrants resided in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan, compared to the Sindh province.

Over the past few months, Pakistan has detained hundreds of Afghan nationals for lacking the requisite stay documents. While some have been released, a significant number remain in custody.

The Pakistani government has established a deadline of November 1 for over 1.7 million migrants to leave the country voluntarily; otherwise, they will face deportation.

AFGHANISTAN

Herat earthquakes: Over 21,500 residences demolished, new UN figures reveal

By Siyar Sirat

New data from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) sheds light on the devastating impact of recent earthquakes in the western province of Herat, as thousands of residents grapple with the aftermath.

According to the statistics, approximately 21,500 residences have been demolished in the wake of the recent earthquakes. These seismic events have taken a toll on over 154,000 individuals, with 114,000 of them classified as the most vulnerable members of the affected population.

Temporary shelters and humanitarian aid have been provided to those impacted by the earthquakes. However, concerns are mounting as the harsh Afghan winter approaches, potentially doubling the needs of these vulnerable families in the face of plummeting temperatures.

The Taliban, acknowledging the extent of the disaster, reported over 2,400 deaths and more than 2,000 injuries caused by the earthquake.

Video footage captured by Amu reveals the complete devastation of Siah Aab village in Zindajan district, where roughly 3,000 families resided prior to the October 7 earthquake.

Alif Baluch, who was in Iran during the earthquake, tragically lost his entire family, which included his wife, three daughters, and son.

He tearfully stated, “No one saw the martyrs. These clothes are from my children, from my loved ones, this is all that’s left of them. The entire family has perished; it is only me and my God.”

Baluch shared his heart-wrenching experience of being able to locate his daughters’ bodies but still searching for the graves of his wife and sons. He now spends most of his time at the graves of his family members and faces the daunting task of finding a new home. He remarked, “I am forced to find a new home, either to live with my father and brothers or just continue as it is.”

Alaa AbouZeid, World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Team Lead in Afghanistan issued a warning regarding the escalating needs of earthquake-affected individuals as winter approaches, emphasizing that thousands of them are struggling with a lack of shelter and access to adequate food and water.

AbouZeid further noted that a dedicated surveillance team has been working tirelessly to detect and prevent the outbreak of diseases stemming from the ongoing challenges in the area.

In addition to those directly affected by the earthquakes, thousands of Herat residents have been forced to live outside their homes, seeking refuge in parks and streets. They fear the aftershocks of the earthquake, as their residences lack the resilience required to withstand the impact of such seismic events.

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment