Tech Oligarchy-Driven US Revivalism

Bappa Sinha | 15 Mar 2025

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Trump 2.0 represents a radical and highly unpredictable experiment in reshaping US power - one that carries profound risks and an uncertain future for the US empire.

Trump 2.0 has got off to a tumultuous start. The early days of Donald Trump’s second term as US president have been marked by a whirlwind of policy shifts, diplomatic upheavals, and economic manoeuvres, leaving both domestic and international observers struggling to keep pace.

While Trump has always been erratic and almost deliberately unpredictable, the scope and magnitude of changes being ushered in this Trump 2.0 administration are qualitatively different. Almost daily announcements of new tariffs, including against their closest partners, Canada and Mexico, and their subsequent withdrawals, controversial foreign policy decisions, and radical restructuring of the US government, indicate an ambitious attempt to restructure the US State, Military and its relations with the rest of the world.

One of the most striking developments has been the administration’s aggressive tariff policies. Trump initially imposed a 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico, only to suspend and reinstate them intermittently. Meanwhile, tariffs on Chinese goods have been increased by 20%, with additional threats of tariffs against the European Union and India. The administration appears intent on using economic leverage to force trade concessions, even at the risk of retaliatory measures from affected nations, igniting a full-fledged trade war.

In an unexpected turn of events, Trump’s envoy, Steve Witcoff, brokered a ceasefire in Gaza, only for the administration to unveil an unprecedented redevelopment plan that includes ethnic cleansing the Gazans and transforming the territory into a luxury real estate hub, dubbed the "Riviera of the Middle East." This proposal has drawn widespread condemnation and remains logistically and politically contentious.

Trump has also revived discussions about acquiring Greenland from Denmark and has floated the idea of incorporating Canada into the United States as a hypothetical 51st state, further straining international relations.

Perhaps most consequential is Trump’s approach to the war in Ukraine. His administration has initiated direct peace talks with Russia, sidelining European allies and leading to a public fallout with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. This about- turn in American foreign policy, coupled with Trump’s threats of steep tariffs on European nations, has sent shockwaves through NATO and European allies, raising concerns about US commitment to traditional alliances.

The Trump administration is also seeking to revamp US military doctrine. A key element of Trump’s strategy involves leveraging Silicon Valley’s expertise, with prominent tech billionaires, such as Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, and their companies playing direct roles in developing AI-based futuristic weapons and shaping future defence initiatives.

Domestically, Trump has launched an all-out assault on the federal bureaucracy. Key departments, including the Department of Education, are being targeted for elimination. Musk has been tasked with leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has already implemented deep cuts in various agencies, relying on technological solutions and use of AI (artificial intelligence) to determine alleged fraud and waste. This is driven by the libertarian ideology of Trump’s tech industry allies, who advocate minimal government intervention in economic affairs.

Additionally, the administration has slashed funding for USAID, an agency historically used for propagating American propaganda and regime-change operations. The move perhaps signals a shift away from soft power strategies in favour of economic coercion and projection of military strength.

While Trump’s erratic decision-making is often attributed to his personality, a broader strategy appears to underpin these moves: a section of the US bourgeoisie has concluded that American total global dominance with control over global institutions, international trade and endless wars, which has existed since the fall of the Soviet Union, is no longer viable.

Instead, they are pushing for reviving America’s declining economic, technological, and military strength while settling for a ‘Cold War’ with China. The US has long relied on its technological supremacy to maintain economic and military dominance, but rising competition from China has challenged that advantage. The Tech Oligarchy - the big Tech monopolies and their billionaire owners -- are at the front and centre of this ambitious effort.

Tech monopolies have come to play an increasingly important role in the American economy, and are now starting to flex their political muscle. The who’s who of tech from Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai, Apple’s Tim Cook to Tesla’s Elon Musk had front row seats in Trump’s inauguration, showcasing their importance. Tech billionaires, such as Musk, Thiel, David Sacks and Marc Andreessen are central characters in the Trump administration, taking on key roles and advisory positions.

Under both Trump and Joe Biden, Washington sought to curb China’s technological rise through stringent sanctions, particularly in semiconductor manufacturing. The Biden administration passed the CHIPS Act, allocating $52 billion in incentives to bring semiconductor production back to the US. However, China has made significant strides in chip design and manufacturing, undermining the intended impact of these policies. China’s breakthroughs in producing Huawei’s mobile phones with advanced 7nm chips and Deepseek, an AI model competitive with the leading US AI Models, have come as shocks - “Sputnik Moments” - to the US tech industry. Meanwhile, efforts to relocate chip production domestically have faced setbacks.

Read Also: DeepSeek's Deep Shock to the US AI Behemoths

Trump administration now appears to favour a more aggressive economic policy, using tariffs and corporate pressure to force foreign firms—such as Taiwan’s TSMC, the world’s most cutting-edge chip manufacturer — to establish factories within US borders. The underlying belief is that economic coercion, rather than subsidies, will restore American manufacturing strength.

Along with tariffs is a deep commitment to deregulation, especially regarding AI safety and environmental concerns. The belief is that spectacular advances in AI on the back of massive investments in datacentre hardware, cheap energy and crippling China’s tech capabilities using sanctions would enable the US to extend its technological edge and maintain its economic pole position.

The Ukraine war has also reshaped US military strategy. Initial expectations that Russia would collapse under Western sanctions have proven unfounded, with Moscow emerging more resilient, both economically and militarily. Furthermore, Russia and China have demonstrated superior military technology in areas such as hypersonic missiles, highly sophisticated air defence systems, 6th generation fighter planes and autonomous drone warfare.

The Russian demonstration of the most advanced Oreshnik missile, which is estimated to be capable of reaching of speeds of Mach 10 or 12000 Km/hr, and the Chinese demonstration of their 6th generation J36 stealth fighter jets acted as another set of “Sputnik moments” for the US in the military sphere. Even Yemeni Houthi rebels have managed to disrupt Red Sea shipping despite the presence of US naval forces, raising concerns about the effectiveness of American military assets.

The Ukraine war has shown that the backbone of the US Military, with its reliance on expensive “gamechangers” such as aircraft carriers and battleships, nuclear submarines, B-52 bombers, Abrams tanks and Patriot anti-aircraft missile systems, to be largely ineffective or of little use. Modern warfare has evolved to use swarms of cheap drones which can overwhelm weapons which are orders of magnitude more expensive. Next generation systems have proved far more effective.

Musk’s StarLink systems have kept the command-and-control communications of the Ukrainian Military running despite much of the ground telecommunication system being knocked off by the Russians. Thiel’s company Palantir has played a pivotal role in Ukraine’s war efforts. Palantir’s software, which uses AI to analyse satellite imagery, open-source data, drone footage, and reports from the ground to present commanders with military options, is responsible for most of the weapons targeting, including artillery and anti-tank missiles, in Ukraine. Hence, automated drone armies using advanced artificial intelligence figure centrally to this administration’s vision of the future of warfare.

A newly established cryptocurrency sovereign fund further underscores the administration’s libertarian bent as far as domestic economic policies are concerned. Several billionaires within Trump’s circle such as Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, David Sacks and Marc Andreessen, hold significant crypto investments, stand to benefit. Moreover, elements within the administration have called for an audit of the Federal Reserve, with some even questioning its necessity—an extreme libertarian stance that reflects the entrenched influence of these ideological trends within the administration’s economic policy.

The overarching theme of Trump’s second term appears to be a rapid and radical attempt to revive US strength in the face of mounting economic and military challenges. The administration’s approach suggests a transition from a unipolar world order to a new Cold War, with China as the primary rival. The peace initiatives with Russia may also be prompted with an expectation of trying to pull Russia away from its “friendship without limits” relationship with China in hopes of isolating China.

However, Trump’s policies are riddled with contradictions and ideological blind spots. Without first building the necessary Industrial capacity and technical know-how to run modern industry hollowed out by decades of outsourcing, the aggressive use of tariffs in the hope of regaining economic self-sufficiency may backfire, while alienating allies could weaken the US position on the global stage. Ultimately, Trump 2.0 represents a radical and highly unpredictable experiment in reshaping US power - one that carries profound risks and an uncertain future for the US empire.

The writer is a veteran technologist interested in the impact of technology on society and politics. The views expressed are personal.

 

Fearing Cartel, Retd.Top Bureaucrat Urges DoT to Review Allowing StarLink to Usurp Spectrum

Newsclick Report | 15 Mar 2025

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Elon Musk’s StarLink forming cartel with two domestic telecom majors “detrimental to national interests”, says EAS Sarma.

New Delhi: Opposing the reported collaboration of two domestic telecom majors – Reliance Jio and Airtel India – with Elon Musk’s Starlink for providing hi-speed internet access in India, former Government of India Secretary, EAS Sarma, has demanded a review of the decision by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to safeguard national security.

In a letter to DoT Secretary, Neeraj Mittal, Sarma said satellite spectrum instead should be reserved exclusively for strategic uses, such by defence services and Indian Space Research Organisation.

The former top bureaucrat, who has been flagging the issue for some times and has earlier written to the DoT secretary as well, flagged latest reports about the US threatening to “shut off” StarLink in Ukraine, “unless Ukraine allows a lion’s share in its mineral resources in favour of the US”, adding that “your Department should tighten safeguards against StarLink.”

“Moreover, StarLink is known to work in close collaboration with the US defence services and it will gain an undue strategic advantage in the Indian skies, if India allots satellite spectrum to it” Sarma wrote.

He also highlighted that if reports of collaboration were true, “it implies that Jio, Airtel and StarLink will together form a cartel to dominate satellite spectrum use at the cost of millions of telecom customers in India, in outright violation of the directions issued by the Supreme Court in the 2G spectrum case.”

 

Read the full letter below: 

To

Dr. Neeraj Mittal

Secretary

Dept of Telecommunications (DOT)

Govt of India

Dear Dr Mittal,

I refer to my letter of 23rd February 2025 pointing out that, in view of the latest reports about the US threatening to “shut off” StarLink in Ukraine, unless Ukraine allows a lion’s share in its mineral resources in favour of the US, your Department should tighten safeguards against StarLink. 

In my letter of 19th December 2024 addressed to the Cabinet Secretary (https://countercurrents.org/2024/12/satellite-spectrum-should-be-exclusively-reserved-for-strategic-uses-do-not-compromise-national-security-to-accommodate-foreign-telecom-players/) and in my earlier correspondence with your Department (https://countercurrents.org/2024/11/reserve-satellite-spectrum-for-isro-defence-applications-imprudent-and-illegal-to-allot-it-to-elon-musks-starlink/), 

I had proposed that satellite spectrum be reserved for defence and other stratehgic uses in India.

I am surprised that DOT should go out of the way to accommodate Elon Musk’s StarLink by allotting it strategic satellite spectrum, in outright violation of the Supreme Court’s stipulation that it should be allotted only through a transparent auction process. 

Moreover, StarLink is known to work in close collaboration with the US defence services and it will gain an undue strategic advantage in the Indian skies, if India allots satellite spectrum to it.

While the DOT, evidently for extraneous reasons, has chosen to ignore these serious public concerns, the latest reports (https://www.livemint.com/companies/news/airtel-starlink-jio-starlink-partnership-airtel-and-jios-agreements-and-disagreements-with-elon-musk-starlink-ambani-11741752470119.html) suggest that the two domestic telecom operators,namely, Jio and Airtel, who in the past had appropriated domestic 5G spectrum without any competition worth its name, have since entered into agreements with Elon Musk’s StarLink to offer Starlink’s broadband and other internet services to its customers in India.  

If this is true, it implies that Jio, Airtel and StarLink will together form a cartel to dominate satellite spectrum use at the cost of millions of telecom customers in India, in outright violation of the directions issued by the Supreme Court in the 2G spectrum case. 

How is it being permitted by DOT and TRAI? 

I understand that StarLink has demanded that DOT should relax some security clauses in the license being given to it for satellite spectrum use. If it is so, it is detrimental to the national interest.If DOT allows such a regressive cartelisation to materialise, I am afraid that it is wading into a scam far worse and more egregious than the  2G spectrum scam of the earlier UPA days! 

It is unfortunate that the DOT, perhaps fully supported by the political leadership at the Centre, should allow a cartel of domestic and overseas telecom operators to appropriate highly strategic satellite spectrum, permitting them to compromise the interests of millions of mobile and broadband users in the country. 

I demand that the DOT review its decision to permit StarLink to appropriate satellite spectrum, stop its machinations to form a cartel with domestic telecom operators and allot satellite spectrum exclusively for strategic uses such by defence services and ISRO.

Yours sincerely,

E A S Sarma

Former Secretary to the Government of India

Visakhapatnam

Courtesy: Countercurrents.org

 REST IN POWER

Delcat Idinco: The Voice of Congolese People

Kate Janse van Rensburg | 15 Mar 2025

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Congolese musician Delcat Idinco had just produced a song about the atrocities taking place amid the M23 onslaught in his home region when he was assassinated in Goma, North Kivu.

Delcat Idinco in his music video ‘Kizalendo’, based in Beni, North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“Bunduki za Kwetu” [Our Guns] was the last song released by Congolese musician Delphin Katembo Vinywasiki, popularly known as Delcat Idinco or Idengo (31). Hours later, he was shot dead while filming the song’s music video on February 13, 2025 in Goma, the capital of North Kivu Province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Significance of his songs

Known as “the voice of the people”, this young, dynamic artist produced songs that exposed the rot of those – both internal and external actors – scrambling for the Congo’s wealth in the pursuit of profit over people’s lives. With lyrics that strongly condemn the occupation of Goma by the Rwandan Defense Forces (RDF – backed by the United States, United Kingdom, France and European Union) and their proxy M23, “Bunduki za Kwetu” paints a clear picture of those responsible for the city of Goma being under siege.

“The song for which Delcat was killed is the most significant. Bunduki za Kwetu sent a loud and direct message to the occupier,” says Kambale Musavuli, an analyst from the Centre for Research on the Congo-Kinshasa. “His songs addressed very specific issues. Whenever he witnessed injustice, he created music. It was his way of expressing frustration with what was happening. Through his art, he gave voice to the concerns of his country,” adds Musavuli. “Delcat witnessed young girls being abducted and raped by the M23. He saw people being shot. Deeply affected by what was happening in Goma, he decided to write a song about it—an act of remarkable courage.”

“Bunduki za Kwetu” falls part of a long line of songs that lay bare the brutal reality of life inflicted on the people of the DRC. From “Ebola Business Cop” which tackles the 2018–2020 Ebola crisis in Kivu to his 2021 track “Politiciens Escrocs” [Crooked Politicians], which ultimately got him arrested, to using music to openly criticize current DRC President Felix Tshisekedi for bowing to the West’s imperialist interests, Delcat’s music left no stone unturned in challenging the power structure oppressing the Congolese people. Anytime he witnessed injustice, he amplified what he saw through song. “His voice was so powerful that they had to silence it. He wielded his voice as a weapon, and those who recognized its power felt compelled to shut it down,” Musavuli adds.

Born, lived, and died in conflict

Delcat’s assassination took place within the context of an ongoing escalating conflict in North Kivu province. Since January, more than 9,000 people have lost their lives in the M23 offensive, with hundreds of thousands of people being displaced and livelihoods destroyed. Central to the continued conflict and imperialist plunder is the scramble for the country’s land and resources. Delcat knew and understood this. “His assassination sent a clear warning to any Congolese who dare to speak out: what happened to Delcat could happen to them, too,” explains Musavuli.

The city of Beni in North Kivu, Delcat’s birthplace, lies part of the oil reserves around Lake Albert bordering Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In 2024, Uganda announced a project to use the crude oil found under Lake Albert for the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) project. Here, French oil giant Total Energies (one of several multinationals involved in the plunder of the DRC) and the governments of Uganda and Tanzania aim to extract oil from the lake and transport it to Tanzania’s coastline to the Chongoleani Peninsula near Tanga Port for export.

“Because of Beni’s vast natural wealth, and the relentless greed it attracts, Delcat was born into conflict in a region that has never known peace. For decades, the struggle to control these resources has fueled a low-intensity war across Beni,” says Musavuli. Delcat wrote many songs elaborating on this such as “La Guerre” [The War] for example. “It is not easy for an artist in the DRC to challenge the status quo. Delcat’s death stands as a testament to the courage of the Congolese people who rise against injustice, confronting the oppressor without fear of death,” emphasizes Musavuli.

A voice of the people

Protests and calls for justice have filled the streets of North Kivu since his death, particularly in Beni. Ultimately, Delcat understood the true enemy of the people. He recognized exactly who profits from the decades-long war of destabilization—waged by proxy rebel groups backed by Rwanda and Uganda, as documented by the UN Group of Experts. These two nations, in turn, receive financial, military, and political support from the United States, United Kingdom, France, and the European Union.

He understood his role as an artist was to unveil the truth and always take the side of the Congolese people. For Delcat, music had to carry a message. His voice forms part of the many waves of popular discontent and thousands of Congolese people who protest and reject their continued subjugation to the profit seeking logic of international capital. Musavuli adds, “His music gave confidence to the Congolese people. He had a consistent message, that the Congolese people will rise up!”

Congo’s unfolding humanitarian catastrophe is simultaneously a decades-long crisis, where the Congo has been a feeding trough for imperialist powers, rather than a sovereign country producing prosperity for its people. Genuinely ending the conflict and violent forms of dehumanization requires people’s organizations and international solidarity.

In a similar way to how culture was weaponized through organized resistance in the struggle to end apartheid in Southern Africa, the songs, theater, paint and poems will help to cleanse the Congo of a culture of silence. While art gives dignity to a people in struggle, it also articulates the future we collectively imagine. Delcat was assassinated because he was a successful communicator whose ideas resonated with and inspired hope in the Congolese people.

Seven days after Delcat’s assassination, a group of Congolese artists released a song called “Free Congo” keeping up with the legacy of Congolese cultural workers using art to agitate and mobilize the masses for transformational change.

To free Africa from the talons of a neo-colonial deadlock, the Congo remains central to the pan-African emancipatory project. We must heed the call of our revolutionary ancestors. As Ghanaian Pan Africanist Kwame Nkrumah declared, “The Congo is the heart of Africa, any wound inflicted upon the Congo is a wound to the whole of Africa”.

While Delcat’s assassination is a painful wound, his death has not killed his ideas.

Kate Janse Van Rensburg is part of the Pan Africanism Today Secretariat, the regional articulation of the International Peoples’ Assembly for Sub Saharan Africa.

Courtesy: Peoples Dispatch

Alleged tensions between pro-Palestine Rachel Zegler and Israeli Gal Gadot put Disney in a tight spot

Reports of the strained dynamic between Snow White’s leads are adding a new layer of controversy to Disney’s long-troubled remake.


pro-Palestine Rachel Zegler and pro-Israel Gal Gadot


Images Staff
15 Mar, 2025
DAWN

The highly anticipated live-action remake of Disney’s Snow White is generating more buzz for its off-screen drama than its fairytale plot line, with tensions reportedly simmering between its leading stars — pro-Palestine Rachel Zegler and pro-Israel Gal Gadot.

Directed by Marc Webb and featuring original music by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, Snow White stars Zegler, 23, as the iconic princess, and Israeli actor Gadot, 39, as the Evil Queen.

While the project has faced scrutiny for months — from fan backlash over Zegler’s commentary on the original 1937 animated film to boycott calls from BDS over Gadot’s casting — recent reports suggest a much deeper discord between the film’s leading women.

According to multiple sources cited by PEOPLE, Zegler and Gadot “have nothing in common,” with a clear divide stemming from their clashing political ideologies. While Zegler has voiced her support for Palestine and used her platform to decry violence against children in Gaza, Gadot, a former Israel Defence Forces (IDF) member, has continued to publicly support Israel and advocate for the release of Israeli hostages.

“Gal’s attitude is that you don’t criticise and cause drama for a project you signed on to do. She just doesn’t get it,” said one insider. Another source added, “Gal is annoyed by the movie drama… She was fine with Rachel but they are not friends.”

The drama has reportedly affected the film’s promotional campaign, prompting Disney to make unusual decisions around press appearances.

In what appears to be a damage control strategy, the studio has opted for a carefully choreographed, “celebratory, family-friendly” premiere in Los Angeles on March 15 — notably without traditional red carpet press access, per The Hollywood Reporter.

While Disney maintains that the decision is simply to match the film’s tone and target audience, industry insiders view it as a way to avoid politically charged questions that could reignite controversy.

A similar approach was taken by Warner Bros. during the premiere of The Flash with restricted press access amid lead actor Ezra Miller’s legal troubles. But while Miller was accused of several criminal acts, Zegler’s crime is speaking up about Palestine while starring opposite an Israeli superstar like Gadot.

Gadot’s position has drawn its own share of criticism online. Her social media posts supporting Israel have sparked backlash. Most recently, a rumour surfaced alleging that Gadot refused to present the Best Documentary award at the Oscars to the Palestinian film No Other Land — a claim her team has denied, insisting she was never asked.

Meanwhile, Zegler has continued to speak out. “I can’t watch children die,” she previously stated while expressing solidarity with Palestinians. She has also been accused by critics of politicising a children’s film, although she is one of the few voices in Hollywood willing to speak up against Israel’s killing of over 48,515 Palestinians since October 7.

The BDS movement has called for a boycott of the film specifically due to Gadot’s involvement. In a statement, BDS labelled Gadot “a proud supporter of Israel’s genocidal war,” arguing that her casting reflects “Hollywood’s long tradition of whitewashing and promoting Israeli apartheid.”

Despite the ongoing tensions and strategic manoeuvring around the press rollout, Snow White is still tracking fairly well for its domestic release. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film is expected to open between $50 million and $56 million, with optimistic projections likening its potential to 2015’s Cinderella, which debuted at $67 million.

Yet, the film’s global promotional plans appear fractured. Rather than a traditional UK premiere, Disney is staging a musical performance by Zegler in Segovia, Spain before flying her back to Los Angeles for the premiere.

While Zegler and Gadot have made select appearances together, such as at Disney’s D23 Expo in 2022 and more recently presenting at the Oscars, it’s evident that their onscreen fairy tale is unfolding against the backdrop of very real, and very sharp, political divides.

Snow White is set to hit theatres on March 21.

Nourishing the future

Coco Ushiyama 

Published March 15, 2025 

DAWN

The writer is country director and representative World Food Programme.


EVERY year, International School Meals Day is celebrated on the second Thursday of March, bringing attention to the importance of nutritious school meals in promoting child health, well-being, and learning.

This is especially crucial in Pakistan, where 26 million children aged five to 16 are out of school, contributing to the global crisis of 251m children worldwide without access to education. Worldwide, barriers such as poverty, food insecurity, gaps in school infrastructure, including classrooms, supplies, water, and sanitation, continue to prevent children from receiving an education.

Even among those enrolled, many children attend classes without breakfast, hindering their ability to concentrate, learn and thrive. A school meal programme implemented in government schools in Pakistan could be a transformative solution, encouraging the poorest families to send their children, especially daughters, to school. Once in the classroom, school meals ensure children are well-nourished and ready to learn.

School meals programmes are a multisectoral game changer that improve children’s education, health and nutrition. More broadly, they support the whole community by providing an important safety net, and by strengthening food systems and economies.


School meals are a strategic investment priority.

Global evidence shows school meals yield $7 to 35 in returns for every dollar spent. Studies show that these school meals programmes can be effective in improving nutrition and health, improving education outcomes, alleviating poverty, and strengthening gender equality by limiting school dropout among girls.

Global momentum is growing. The School Meals Coalition, a network of 100 governments and over 130 partners, is supporting countries expand policies and financing to ensure all children have access to nutritious meals by 2030.

The governments of Benin, Brazil, France, Germany, Honduras, Indonesia, Kenya, Nigeria, Paraguay, Philippines, Sierra Leone and Tajikistan are leading the push to expand school meals provision. As part of these efforts, Brazil will host the next Global School Meals Coalition Summit this September to share best practices and further drive action. Among measures announced ahead of the G20 leaders’ summit a few months ago were the following:

— Indonesia to launch its Free Nutritious Meal Programme in January 2025, positioning it among the largest school meal initiatives globally, reaching around 78m schoolchildren by 2029.

— The Philippines to double its investment to massively expand its school meals programme from 120 days to a full academic year, alongside a pilot rollout for universal feeding, reaching over 3m students and providing over 360m meals.

— Nigeria to relaunch its Renewed Hope National Home Grown School Feeding Programme feeding 20m children annually; launch school farms that will contribute 10 per cent of food items to school feeding, engage 250,000 smallholder farmers and aggregators in school feeding, and improve school attendance and reduce out-of-school children by 30pc by 2026.

Momentum is building in Pakistan since 2021, when the government of Pakistan endorsed the Global School Meals Coalition, committing to integrating school meals into national education and social protection plans.

Last year when Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared an education emergency, saying, “Education is not an expenditure, it is the most profitable investment”, the Ministry of Federal Education and Professional Training also launched a school meals programme that targets 55,000 schoolchildren from 207 schools at the federal level.


Meanwhile, the World Food Prog­ramme partnered with the Balo­chis­tan Education De­­partment to start a school meals programme, and over the first four months reached more than 13,000 children across 39 schools. This year, the initiative will expand to a total of 20,000 children in 65 schools. Discussions on how to start, scale and sustain school meal programmes are ongoing in other provinces.

With several South Asian countries recently establishing national legislation on school meals, Pakistan has a valuable opportunity to develop a similar framework. A strong legal foundation can ensure sustainable support and dedicated funding, ultimately benefiting students from the poorest families across the country.

As Pakistan is projected to become the world’s third most populous country by 2050, investing in human capital development through education, health and nutrition is more crucial than ever. Ensuring that children receive meals at school will not only improve their health but also boost their learning outcomes, paving the way for a healthier and more prosperous future for the next generation.

Published in Dawn, March 15th, 2025

SMOKERS’ CORNER: YEAR ZERO IDEOLOGY

Nadeem F. Paracha 

Published March 16, 2025

EOS , DAWN

Illustration by Abro


There is a perception about young supporters of Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) that their knowledge of political history is extremely weak. That’s why, to them, everything done by or to their leader is a ‘first’, even though the country’s history is full of the same things done by, and to, many other Pakistani politicians.

I was in the US last November and, in my discussions there with dozens of young Indian-Americans — most of whom tried to convince me that Modi was the best thing that had ever happened to India — I noticed a similar tendency in them. The Hungarian sociologist Frank Furedi refers to this tendency as the product of “Year Zero Ideology” (YZI).

Furedi describes YZI as an outlook that seeks a radical break from the past. It is derived from the ‘Year Zero’ evocations of revolutionary movements that (after coming to power) wanted to start anew by erasing all ‘evil’ memories and structures of the past. They wanted to divorce history and marry a new epoch.

Some examples in this regard include the American Revolution (1776), the French Revolution (1789), the Chinese Revolution (1949) and the Khmer Rouge revolution in Cambodia (1975).

In an age where historical narratives are increasingly weaponised and distorted to serve contemporary agendas, are we erasing the past instead of learning from it?

To Furedi, the ZYI in these cases — although often brutal in its application — at least came with (albeit Utopian) plans for a “better future.” In his book War Against The Past, Furedi differentiates this strand of ZYI with its more contemporary strand. The latter strand, he laments, comes with no plans whatsoever, except to attack the past to enforce the “moral superiority of the present”, through which it can influence present-day affairs.

According to Furedi, contemporary YZI is only interested in extracting bleak episodes from history to bolster narratives of victimhood of one community or the other. This alone is its plan. This leads to a highly politicised reading of history and the possibility of history’s complete erasure.

Bringing down physical historical structures which ‘offend’ contemporary values; suppressing memories of a past that don’t fit certain ideological frameworks; renaming streets or cities whose historical names remind one of a subjugated past etc — all this is not really about starting anew. It is about erasing parts of history one is uncomfortable with.

Nation-states deal with this by modifying/ altering/ distorting certain portions of their respective histories. Indeed, some have even tried to create their Year Zeroes, but they all did this with a plan in mind, no matter how fancy, utopian or ambitious. There are serious issues in this that have produced problematic outcomes. Yet, alarmingly, these are still not as troubling as the contemporary strands of YZI.

Contemporary YZI is not a state project, unless, for example, one is talking about India, where a Hindu nationalist government is trying to impose a Year Zero scenario from which, apparently, will begin a pure “Hindu state” inspired by a largely imagined Hindu past, but one which will have no memory of Muslim rule in the region.

The Pakistani state tried to do the same when it lost its eastern wing in a civil war in 1971. It tried to create a Year Zero scenario from where it looked to enact an ‘Islamic republic’ whose history was uprooted from South Asia and brazenly transported to Arabia. Even the more modern memory of a pre-1971 Pakistan was systematically erased.

YZI today is largely a project of academics who are influencing the creation of (postmodern) liberal, left-wing and right-wing narratives. History is being used to extract episodes of violence, tyranny and repression from it, as if this is all history is ever about. What’s more, to do this, events and people who lived dozens, hundreds, even thousands of years ago, are being decontextualised from their eras and put in contemporary contexts, as if they were exposed to values similar to the ones held by societies today.

The bleak episodes extracted from history are being used to bolster ideologically driven agendas. This is happening on the left as well as on the right. So, what’s the plan? To produce cliques/tribes of baby fascists, tiny communists and little liberals by feeding the youth selective bits of history, and treating the other bits as irrelevant? There is no plan.

Contemporary YZI leads to “presentism” which, according to the American historian David Hackett Fischer, means the study and writing of history in a way that uses the past to validate present-day political beliefs. So Year Zero, in the context of contemporary YZI, gets frozen in the present. Battles are raging between all sides as they continue to weaponise certain historical events to one-up their equally frozen opponents — not really to build a case for a better future, but to win present battles.

According to Furedi, the line between the present and the past has blurred, as the present continues to understand the past in the context of the present. This is a case of value-anachronism or the projection and placing of a present-day value in a past in which it was never present.

Slavery was entirely acceptable in the distant past, so can one judge an ancient slave-owner of being a monster? Can one call those who died during the bubonic plague in mediaeval times fools for believing that it was caused by rats that materialised out of thin air in garbage dumps?

It would be presentism’s arrogance to call them that. But this arrogance forgets that, in its own time, thousands of smarter, much more educated men and women refused to get a simple shot of the Covid-19 vaccine because they believed it contained nano-computer chips. Every epoch of history needs to be studied in the political, cultural, social and economic context that it existed in.

History is perhaps the greatest of teachers. One may fear it or feel uncomfortable by it, but will always manage to learn something from it. Distorting it, demonising it or erasing it are all reactionary acts born from fear or arrogance. It is always there.

In 1945, the Italian fascist Benito Mussolini’s statues were smashed, posters of him set on fire, and his executed body hung upside down in Milan. A little over 80 years later, a party rooted in his legacy has come to power.

History doesn’t begin from the bits one likes or dislikes. No lessons can be learned from it if its study is selective, done through a ‘presentist’ bias or, worse, erased. Because when it returns in any form, as it often does, those who thought it was irrelevant will have no knowledge of how to deal with it.

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 16th, 2025

PAKISTAN

GDP and the quality of life

Shahid Mehmood

DAWN

March 14th, 2025

The writer is an economist.

IT is that time again — the usual boom-and-bust cycle of Pakistan’s endless eco when we begin to hear increasing murmurs of higher GDP growth. The monks in the power halls of the country zealously sing hymns of ‘high growth’ and ‘stability’, and those who govern us promise dizzying heights for the umpteenth time.

Did past instances of GDP growth solve our pressing matters? Let us contemplate.

Pakistan’s economic growth trajectory contains numerous instances of a high growth rate. In the 21st century, we’ve had several touching six and eight per cent. Between fiscal years 2000 and 2024, the gross national income increased from Rs17 trillion to Rs45tr (State Bank)), respectable by any standard. Additionally, the federal and provincial governments have been expanding their footprint under the guise of ‘welfare’ and enhancing economic growth, estimated to be around 67pc or more of the aggregate economic activity (‘Size of government footprint in the economy’ by Nadeem Haq & Raja Rafi).

In FY00-01, the total expense of the federal government stood at Rs732 billion and 511 milli­on (including transfers to provinces) of which development spending stood at Rs72bn. At the end of the first half of FY2024-25 (December 2024), the total expense had leapfrogged to Rs11tr and 301bn (set to cross Rs17tr by the fiscal year’s end), of which development spending stood at Rs743bn.

Any way you look at it, these are quantum leaps in expenses. Yet, despite all this, we observe something strange going on. The denizens of this country are leaving in droves, even the ones who enjoy a decent quality of life thanks to their wealth. Across the length and breadth of the country, whether in cities or far-flung areas, there is palpable despair and hopelessness, captured aptly by the BASICS Survey led by my senior colleague, Dr Durre Nayab.

Across the length and breadth of the country there is palpable despair and hopelessness.

How does one reconcile all this? To understand this conundrum, it would perhaps be wise to look beyond chosen macro statistics and peer into other, lesser discussed numbers that matter.

How about property rights, a fundamental component of economic growth and human rights, and the justice system that upholds these rights? Both are almost non-existent. Clean air? Cities like Lahore and Peshawar now frequently top the list of the most polluted cities, decreasing the life expectancy of their denizens. Intellectual discourse, freedom of expression and religious tolerance? Non-existent, to the extent that citizens vanish without a trace, minorities fear for their lives, and organised gangs now openly conduct business in the name of blasphemy, murdering citizens and extorting money from their families.

Equal opportunity and a dynamic economy creating jobs? You wish. The level of basic services like water, gas, electricity, sewerage, libraries, etc? Poor and mediocre. Quality of education? Poor, with over 200 universities failing to produce anything that can compete with the top-tier universities around the globe, and all the while being cesspools of politics, intrigues and factionalism.

Security of life and property? The whole country, especially cities, are rife with crime and criminal activity. Even the capital, Islamabad, merely 906 square kilometres, and with 2,200 security cameras, 72 pickets at entry and exit points, 23 mobile cars with cameras, and the Dolphin Squad (besides the regular police and other security presence), is now infested with crime (there were 900 abductions in 2024). And of course, two provinces are in the throes of a full-blown insurgency.

Last, but not the least, any chance of accountability of those who did this to Pakistan and enacting a turnaround for good? Zero.

Before some folks accuse me of ‘spreading negativity’, whether they like it or not, what I have stated here is the reality, and only a small fraction of the circumstances that citizens have to endure every day.

The gist is that merely counting on GDP growth as an end in itself is illogical and counterproductive. Growth brings challenges of its own, which if not handled properly, can become a binding constraint upon our lives, making it more cumbersome and challenging than before, a fact that flies in the face of the ‘paisa phaink, tamasha dekh’ (throw money at a problem and it will be solved) philosophy of our economic managers. The ongoing concretisation of Islamabad at an unprecedented pace via overpasses, underpasses and signal-free corridors serves as an apt example. It is a recipe for environmental disaster (just like Lahore), yet it would register as an increase in GDP in national accounts.


Our economic managers — politicians, bureaucracy and the military establishment — are still stuck in a growth time warp in which there is room for only a single, outdated philosophy: pour more steel, bricks and cement into the ground, and that will do the trick (also called brick-and-mortar growth). They get their fair share in between, but at the expense of the hapless citizens who are left with more bills to foot.

The needed shift involves consideration of quality over quantity. Life and the economic health of a nation are more than taxpayer finance-cemented monstrosities. The GDP can even be, say, 10pc or more, but if citizens still feel insecure and that their life, hard work and contributions have little meaning, and where they are not stakeholders, then all growth would come to naught.

Let me leave you with a stunning remark posted by a resident of Karachi, replying to criticism of why fans did not fill the Karachi cricket stadium for the opening match of the Champions Trophy: “I think people … really have no clue about how bad Karachi has gotten. The constant rejection of the residents of this city comes down to the dire situation of the actual metropolitan area. The road blocks, traffic, crime, generally extreme dissatisfaction, feeling of being forgotten as a city … all this and more makes any entertainment like cricket feel like a circus that people will rather avoid.”

If a resident can understand the dissatisfaction at hand, why can’t those in the high pulpit of governance?

The writer is an economist. His current research focuses upon cost-benefit analysis of foreign funded PSDP projects, economic reforms and the history of economic thought.

shahid.mohmand@gmail.com

X: @ShahidMohmand79

Vlog: Café Iqtisaad

Published in Dawn, March 14th, 2025

CLIMATE CHANGE  AND  PAKISTAN'S SOCIAL PROTECTION SYSTEM

Ali Tauqeer Sheikh

Published March 13, 2025

DAWN

The writer is a climate change and sustainable development expert.

PAKISTAN’S social protection system is at a cr­­o­s­­sroads. Traditional social protection systems, while providing critical support for poverty reduction, are not designed to address the compounding challenges of climate-triggered disasters. The cou­n­try’s flagship Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) needs to integrate an adaptive social protection system that can respond to climate risks and shocks while maintaining its core poverty alleviation function. This transition can be spearheaded by the pr­­ovinces, where provincial BISP set-ups are sear­ch­ing for province-specific priorities and innovations.

BISP has emerged as the cornerstone of Pakistan’s poverty alleviation strategy. It operates largely in isolation from the country’s disaster risk management and climate adaptation efforts, resulting in inefficient resource utilisation and inadequate protection when disasters strike as has been the case in the recent floods, heatwaves, droughts, and glacial outbreaks.

Pakistan’s social protection policy has evolved from welfare state approaches to targeted social assistance programmes, with BISP launched in 2008 as a globally pioneering initiative. It has successfully delivered financial assistance to millions of households with advanced beneficiary identification and sophisticated payment systems. However, it lacks mechanisms for scaling up assistance during climate-triggered disasters, integration with early warning systems and anticipatory actions to mitigate pre-disaster impacts.

Government responses to emergencies have been largely reactive rather than systematic. Critical gaps in climate response include institutional fragmentation, limited coverage, vulnerable households outside safety nets during disasters, focus on post-disaster response rather than risk reduction, inadequate data integration and predominantly reactive financing.

The 18th Amendment, 2010, has devolved many social protection responsibilities from federal to provincial governments, creating coordination challenges and gaps in comprehensive social security coverage. The overall landscape has become incoherent, fragmented and inadequately responsive to growing vulnerabilities.

Globally, several social protection programmes have evolved to integrate anticipatory social protection and environmental conservation. Pakistan needs a systematic transformation of BISP that encompasses institutional reforms, governance realignments, and innovative financing mechanisms. This will hinge on expanding BISP’s mandate through legislative amendments, building robust early warning integration, developing anticipatory action protocols, and establishing multi-layered financing that combines domestic resources and international climate finance. It is a tall order but an important one, which is necessary to address the fragmentation of social protection responsibilities between the federal and provincial governments, which is hampering a coordinated response to cross-jurisdictional climate disasters.

Adaptive social protection offers a promising integrated approach that combines social protection, disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation to create more responsive safety nets. ASP acknowledges the interconnectedness of soc­ial, economic and environmental vulnerabilities rather than treating poverty and climate risks separately. By enhancing the resilience of vulnerable households to various shocks, ASP creates safety nets that respond dynamically to emerging threats while building long-term resilience. This integration is particularly important for Pakistan, where climate hazards disproportionately affect the poor and threaten to undermine development gains.

Pakistan needs to significantly improve its Social Protection Index ranking while building resilience among vulnerable communities facing escalating climate risks. In comparative regional terms, its social protection expenditure (0.5 to 1.4 per cent of GDP) lags significantly behind regional counterparts. The country’s Social Protection Index is about 0.07, lower than Bangladesh (0.33), India (0.46) and Sri Lanka (0.47). Coverage rates are similarly concerning, with only 9.2pc of the population receiving benefits compared to 53pc in Bangladesh and nearly 100pc eligibility in India.


Pakistan needs a systematic transformation of BISP.

In the climate change context, the increasing frequency and intensity of climate-triggered disasters exacerbate existing socioeconomic vulnerabilities, creating a cycle of crisis and recovery that traditional systems struggle to address. India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and Bangladesh’s National Social Security Strategy (NSSS) offer fascinating regional case studies.

MGNREGA offers a compelling model of integrating environmental conservation with social protection. It guarantees 100 days of unskilled wage employment yearly to rural households, with significant work focused on natural resource management activities that enhance climate resilience while providing income support. MGNREGA reaches approximately 140m beneficiaries across 270m rural households, contrasting sharply with Pakistan’s more limited BISP reach of 4pc of the population, reaching upto 8.5m households.

MGNREGA has created water harvesting structures that improve agricultural productivity and reduce vulnerability to droughts. In Rajasthan, it has constructed over 125,000 water conservation structures, benefiting 1.8m farmers. Some studies indicate MGNREGA has sequestered around 102m tonnes of carbon through various environmental initiatives, creating prospects of carbon credits.

MGNREGA and BISP represent fundamentally different approaches. MGNREGA’s demand-driven employment guarantee programme creates direct mechanisms for environmental intervention through public works, while BISP’s cash transfer approach disburses cash without a built-in environmental dimension. Approximately 60pc of MGNREGA works focus on biodiversity and natural resource management. BISP has no comparable environmental intervention mechanisms.

Bangladesh’s NSSS has pioneered climate-respo­nsive social protection by targeting vulnerable reg­ions and integrating a disaster response with long-term resilience building. The social protection system reaches about 28pc of the population, including over 9m beneficiaries in climate-vulnerable coa­stal areas, achieving greater coverage in at-risk zones than Pakistan’s limited presence in similar regions.

There is a case for Pakistan to adapt elements of regional success stories, potentially through a hybrid model combining BISP’s cash transfers with optional public works in environmentally vulnerable areas. To achieve regional parity in social protection coverage, Pakistan would need to dramatically expand its safety net. Achieving even a modest target of 40pc coverage by 2047 would require Pakistan to extend protection to some 140m people — more than six times the current coverage.

Sustainable financing needs domestic resource mobilisation, innovative risk transfer mechanisms, international climate finance, and private sector engagement. Climate risk financing instruments need to complement budgetary resources through a layered strategy combining contingency funds for frequent events with insurance mechanisms. Like others, Pakistan can explore international climate finance to advance adaptive social protection.

Transforming BISP into an adaptive social protection system requires expanding its scope beyond cash transfers while maintaining its core poverty alleviation function. This vision encompasses BISP evolving into a responsive mechanism that can scale assistance during climate shocks, incorporate anticipatory actions, and build long-term community resilience.

The writer is a climate change and sustainable development expert. This column is based on his keynote address at the Second National Social Protection Conference, organised by the German Agency for International Cooperation, Karachi.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2025

Anchoring the news

Muna Khan 

Published March 16, 2025

DAWN

The writer is a journalism instructor.



WHEN I began teaching eight years ago I would ask students to tell me which journalist they most wanted to hear from. That list was always varied; students were interested in hearing from newspaper reporters to editors to TV anchors. I inevitably had a guest lecturer every week of the first semester and I’m grateful all my guests spoke candidly to my students. I’m equally proud my students asked difficult questions like why salaries are delayed when media owners are clearly wealthy.

But I noticed a shift in the winter of 2019, a waning in interest among both undergrad and postgrad students. It’s not that they didn’t know journalists, it’s that they didn’t really care to hear from them. I began to hear more complaints of the ‘I don’t feel represented’ in the media variety. There was a lot of resentment at how the Aurat March had been covered a year earlier. The anger at the misogyny has grown every year I’ve taught and, as the kids say, I’m here for it. Newsroom managers reading this must take note.

Then, in 2023, when I began teaching news media literacy to liberal arts students not on any journalism or news media track, I was surprised at their lack of interest in meeting journalists. The only two names that featured were Waseem Badami and Iqrarul Hasan, both on the same channel. My students weren’t all supporters of a particular party but their families were so they were the two names these students were most familiar with. This year too, Waseem Badami has topped the list. It is because they like his style of journalism which they say is non-combative. He seems like a nice guy, one student said.

Eight years doesn’t seem like a long time to witness such a decline in interest but then, maybe it mirrors the decline in what’s passing as news these days. When journalists are laid off, and others have to step in and take the extra load, with no extra compensation or when they have to work without getting salaries for two months, it seems unfair to expect quality journalism. Yet many of my colleagues are producing stellar work under impossible, circumstances. They deserve the recognition for their work, which isn’t getting the eyeballs it deserves. Because the screaming heads on TV and YouTube consume too much space.


One noticed declining interest among the students.

Loathsome as they may be, some anchors have been taken off air in the past few weeks and this should cause everyone a great deal of concern. My students weren’t that pushed because they don’t relate to TV, let alone TV anchors.

I turned to a friend and journalism instructor in the US to get his thoughts. Why can’t I get my students to care about these anchors being taken off air in Pakistan, I asked. How can I get them to see that this censorship will impact them too.

He said he was struggling to get his students to connect with the big story about Netflix cancelling Ezra Edelman’s six-part documentary on Prince because the late artist’s estate complained the film had “dramatic” inaccuracies and “sensationalised” certain events. I have followed this story with interest as I’m a huge Prince fan; the issue provides so many points of discussion for media students — censorship, whose job it is to protect a subject’s legacy — but my friend said he couldn’t get his students to engage because “they couldn’t relate to Prince”. And they felt the film should be canned because Prince didn’t sound like a likeable person.

Maybe this is a generational issue both of us need to come to terms with — we need to evolve with our students instead of pushing issues they don’t care about, as tragic as that may feel.

My students do en­­gage with the news. It’s just not the way I want them to. They consume news ac­­r­oss platforms like TikTok, news outlets apps and check for updates several times a day. They are bombarded with information — and conspiracy theories — and often struggle to sift fact from fiction but this doesn’t mean they don’t care. They are cynical. I tell them they have the traits of a good journalist and they say they want quality journalism but struggle to find that too.

Although my friend and I are far away, we found this similarity among our students: Gaza features high on the list of things they care about along with climate change, health and money. They were closely following the arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian activist who led pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University. They are deeply impacted by police brutality and injustice.

News organisations should take heed and quench this generation’s thirst for reliable, fair information. I am guilty of stereotyping them and must step up and do right by them. We all must.


X: @LedeingLady

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2025