Slovenia election: liberal newcomer Robert Golob defeats populist PM

Golob’s Freedom Movement wins 34.5% of the vote over Trump-admirer Janez Janša’s populist party in election billed as a ‘referendum on democracy’

Robert Golob, leader of the newly founded liberal Freedom Movement party, during the pre-election convention in Ljubljana on 19 March. His party won a landslide victory in Slovenia’s elections on Sunday. 

Photograph: Jure Makovec/AFP/Getty Images

Agence France-PresseSun 24 Apr 2022 20.34 BST

Political newcomer liberal Robert Golob has defeated Slovenia’s three-time prime minister, populist conservative Janez Janša, in elections in a country split by bitter political divisions over the rule of law.

Golob’s Freedom Movement (GS), which he launched only in January, has built on anger with Janša’s regime in the former Yugoslav state.

The opposition accuses Janša of having tried to undermine democratic institutions and press freedoms since he returned to power in 2020.

With almost all the votes counted on Sunday in the country of around two million people, GS stood at 34.5% of the vote compared with 23.6% for Janša’s Slovenian Democratic party.

“Our objective has been reached: a victory that will enable us to take the country back to freedom,” Golob told jubilant supporters late Sunday.

“People want changes and have expressed their confidence in us as the only ones who can bring those changes,” he said earlier via a livestream from his home where he was in isolation after contracting Covid-19.

The 55-year-old former power company manager has promised to restore “normality”, having billed the elections as a “referendum on democracy”.

Robert Golob speaks via videocall due to isolating with Covid, saying his party’s election victory ‘will enable us to take the country back to freedom’. 

Photograph: Jure Makovec/AFP/Getty Images

Political analyst Miha Kovac said civil society and younger voters in particular had been mobilised. Analysts had expected an increased turnout and for voters to turn against Janša’s style

Turnout stood at some 70% of the 1.7 million electorate – significantly higher than the 52% in the last parliamentary elections in 2018.

“The vote was a vote against Janša,” said Kovac. “Against Slovenia on the Hungarian path, against an illiberal democracy in Slovenia, against the government taking over the public television, against the control of judiciary.”

But he warned that GS had no government experience – even though it could partner with the more experienced Social Democrats (SD), who have 6.7% of the vote with almost all ballots counted.

“It’s like a company that abruptly grows,” Kovac added. “It has no infrastructure, no know-how, no people that know how to work in parliamentary bodies.”

Janša, 63, an admirer of US ex-president Donald Trump, had campaigned on promises of stability.

“Ahead of the new government there are many challenges, but during our mandate we have set a solid ground for a peaceful navigation,” he said late Sunday.

“It is easy to pay billboards, to have the backing of all media and the so-called civil society,” he said. “But then hard work and challenges come, and there nothing of that can help you.”

Uroš Esih, a columnist at one of Slovenia’s leading dailies Delo, told Agence France-Presse ahead of the elections that they represented a “breaking point” with “liberal and illiberal political forces clashing” in Slovenia.

The rise of Golob began when he took over a small Green party without parliamentary seats in January, renaming it Freedom Movement.

He tapped into the protests that had developed since Janša took power, as tens of thousands of people regularly attended anti-government rallies.

“I hope the situation will change ... It is obvious that most of the people are not satisfied with this government and the way it’s governing,” Sara Rigler, a 21-year-old psychology student, told AFP at a polling station in the capital Ljubljana earlier Sunday.
  

Janez Janša delivers a speech after Slovenia’s parliamentary elections on Sunday. Photograph: Jure Makovec/AFP/Getty Images

Janša’s image has been hurt by rows with Brussels over his moves to suspend funding to the national news agency, and to drag out the appointment of prosecutors to the bloc’s new anti-graft body.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine did not take centre stage in Slovenia’s election campaign, although Janša was among the first foreign leaders to travel to Kyiv, on 15 March.

Janša already served as prime minister between 2004 and 2008, and 2012-2013.

Only a year into his second term as premier however, he was forced out by a corruption scandal.

Exxon Bans Outside Flags, Like the Pride Banner, From Company Flagpoles

Workers can display the banner on other areas of the company’s properties, including on lawns. The company is allowing a flag representing an L.G.B.T. employee group.

Exxon Mobil employees at the Pride parade in Houston in 2015, the first time the company participated in the parade.

Credit...Michael Stravato for The New York Times


By Ivan Penn
April 23, 2022

Exxon Mobil will no longer allow banners of outside organizations on its flagpoles, angering some employees who in the past had flown a rainbow pride flag.

The new policy allows only government flags and those representing Exxon Mobil and its employee resource groups, which are employee-led affinity organizations that are generally blessed by employers. Workers can display the pride flag and representations of other groups like Black Lives Matter on other areas of the company’s properties, including on lawns or in digital spaces.

“It is a longstanding practice at our facilities around the world that E.R.G. flags can be flown during signature months,” Tracey Gunnlaugsson, vice president of human resources at Exxon Mobil, said in a statement. “The flags are directly related to our business and company support of our E.R.G.s.”

The logo for the company’s employee resource group for L.G.B.T. employees includes bubbles filled with several colors around the word PRIDE. That logo has been flown at offices and is used on T-shirts that employees wear at Pride parades.

Current Exxon employees declined to comment. J. Chris Martin, a former employee who used to head the resource group, said that a different flag featuring the Exxon logo on a rainbow background “was flown at many company locations last year without question” but that he had been told that approval to display that flag had been revoked “without explanation.”

“I’m also told that the employee resource groups were consulted only in a perfunctory way regarding this matter, based on momentary discomfort with displaying a symbol of open-mindedness and support for long-suppressed voices,” he said.

“While they may say nobody has lost anything, the symbolism is unmistakable,” he added.

The Human Rights Campaign, an organization that works to end discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, criticized the company for the policy, saying on Twitter: “There’s no such thing as ‘neutrality’ when it comes to our rights. Our flag isn’t just a visual representation of our identities. It is also a staple of allyship.”

The decision, first reported by Bloomberg News, came as corporations have increasingly been pressed to be more outspoken on cultural and political issues. Disney, long quiet on such matters, has been in a fight with Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida over a new state law, officially known as “Parental Rights in Education” — or, to its critics, “Don’t Say Gay.” The measure prohibits classroom instruction about sexual orientation and gender identity in some elementary school grades. Disney opposed the law, leading Mr. DeSantis and state lawmakers to revoke a special tax designation Disney enjoyed in the state.

Exxon was long considered a foe of gay rights, particularly after it merged with Mobil and eliminated that company’s policies that barred discrimination based on sexual orientation and provided benefits to same-sex couples. Exxon has since reinstituted those policies, and its rating in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index has risen to 85 out of 100 in 2022, from negative 25.

Clifford Krauss contributed reporting.

Exxon Lumbers Along to Catch Up With Gay Rights
July 1, 2015

Ivan Penn is a Los Angeles-based reporter covering alternative energy. Before coming to The Times in 2018 he covered utility and energy issues at The Tampa Bay Times and The Los Angeles Times. @ivanlpenn

A version of this article appears in print on April 25, 2022, Section B, Page 4 of the New York edition with the headline: Exxon Bans Outside Flags From Its Flagpoles.

Military spending reaches record levels: report


PUBLISHED : 25 APR 2022 
WRITER: AFP

Military spending worldwide

STOCKHOLM: Global military spending rose again in 2021, setting new records as Russia continued to beef up its military prior to its invasion of Ukraine, researchers said Monday, predicting the trend would continue in Europe in particular.

Despite the economic fallout of the global Covid pandemic, countries around the world increased their arsenals, with global military spending rising by 0.7% last year, according to a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).

"In 2021 military spending rose for the seventh consecutive time to reach $2.1 trillion. That is the highest figure we have ever had," Diego Lopes da Silva, senior researcher at Sipri, told AFP.

Russia's spending grew by 2.9% -- the third year of consecutive growth -- to $65.9 billion.

Defence spending accounted for 4.1% of Russia's gross domestic product (GDP), "much higher than the world average", and making Moscow the fifth largest spender in the world, Lopes da Silva said.

High oil and gas revenues helped the country boost military expenditure. Lopes da Silva noted that Russia saw a sharp uptick in spending towards the end of the year.

"That happened as Russia amassed troops alongside the Ukrainian border preceding of course the invasion of Ukraine in February," the researcher said.

Whether Russia would be able to sustain its spending was difficult to predict, Lopes da Silva said, due to the wave of sanctions imposed by the West in response to the aggression in Ukraine.

In 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea, the country was also targeted with sanctions at the same time as energy prices fell, making it difficult to gauge how effective sanctions were on their own.

"Now... we have even tougher sanctions, that's for sure, but we have higher energy prices which can help Russia afford to maintain military spending at that level," Lopes da Silva said.

On the other side, Ukraine's military spending has risen by 72%F since the annexation of Crimea. While spending declined by over 8% in 2021 to $5.9 billion, it still accounted for 3.2% of Ukraine's GDP.

As tensions have increased in Europe, more NATO countries have stepped up spending.

Eight members countries last year reached the targeted 2% of GDP for spending, one fewer than the year before but up from only two in 2014, Sipri said.

Lopes da Silva said he expected spending in Europe to continue to grow.

The US, which far outspent any other nation with $801 billion, actually went against the global trend and decreased its spending by 1.4% in 2021.

Over the past decade, US spending on research and development has risen by 24% while arms procurement has gone down by 6.4%.

While both decreased in 2021, the drop in research was not as pronounced, highlighting the country's focus "on next-generation technologies."

"The US government has repeatedly stressed the need to preserve the US military's technological edge over strategic competitors," Alexandra Marksteiner, another researcher at Sipri, said in a statement.

China, the world's second largest military spender at an estimated $293 billion, boosted its expenditure by 4.7%, marking the 27th straight year of increased spending.

The country's military buildup has in turn caused its regional neighbours to beef up their military budgets, with Japan adding $7 billion, an increase of 7.3% -- the highest annual increase since 1972.

Australia also spent 4% more on its military, reaching $31.8 billion in 2021.

India, the world's third largest spender at $76.6 billion, also increased funding in 2021, but by a more modest 0.9%.

The UK took over the number four spot, with a 3% increase in military spending to $68.4 billion, replacing Saudi Arabia which instead decreased spending by 17% to an estimated $55.6 billion.

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

Protesters Amass at White House, Demanding Action on Climate

In Washington, D.C., as well as Phoenix, Atlanta and scores of other cities across the country, demonstrators called on the government to enact bold climate action.

“Fight for Our Future” demonstrators gathered at Lafayette Park near the White House on Saturday to protest government inaction on climate change.

Credit...Jason Andrew for The New York Times


By Coral Davenport

NEW YORK TIMES
April 23, 2022


WASHINGTON — Environmental activists, distraught by the government’s slow pace of action on climate change, amassed in front of the White House Saturday afternoon, calling on President Biden and Congress to swiftly pass a climate bill that has been stalled in the Senate since December.

The White House demonstration was one of dozens of “Fight for Our Future” rallies held across the country to press the government to cut the pollution that is dangerously heating the planet, capping a week of events timed to coincide with Earth Day.

“We’re here because in North Carolina we keep getting hit by hurricanes back to back, and we ain’t got nothing fixed,” said Willett Simpkins, 68, a retired nursing home maintenance director from Wallace, N.C. “And it’s getting worse every year. It’s time for them to stop talking about it and do something about it.”

The event, which drew several hundred people under the pale green trees in Lafayette Park, was emceed by Rev. Lennox Yearwood of the Hip Hop Caucus, a nonpartisan group that tries to engage young voters.

Many in the crowd work for environmental organizations, but sprinkled among them were voters who wanted Mr. Biden to know that failure to enact climate legislation could cost him their vote.

Mr. Biden, who came into office promising urgent action on what he called the existential threat of climate change, has seen his ambitious plans pass the House but get watered down and stuck in the Senate because of unified opposition from Republicans as well as Senator Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, a powerful swing vote in an evenly divided chamber.

Several hundred people attended the rally in Washington, D.C., which included a mix of activists and voters who wanted President Biden to know that failure to do more on climate change could cost him their vote.

Credit...Jason Andrew for The New York Times

Ava Bones, 10, at the Atlanta rally on Saturday. She made her own placard, which read, “No more pollution” and “Treat plants right.”Credit...Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

Wisdom Cole, 28, National Director of the N.A.A.C.P. Youth and College Divison, urged the crowd at the D.C. rally to hold politicians accountable for their promises to act on climate.Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times

Spiking gas prices because of the war in Ukraine have led Mr. Biden to take steps that are anathema to climate activists. He released a record amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and pleaded with oil and gas companies to step up drilling. In keeping with an order from a federal judge, Mr. Biden said he would open more public lands to drilling, despite a campaign promise to stop new oil and gas extraction.

Gracie Chaney, 27, a doctoral candidate in physics at the University of Maryland, said those actions felt like betrayal. “I’m pretty disappointed,” she said. “There were a lot of promises that he broke. It feels like we’re going back to the 19th century or something.”

The events come at a moment when scientists say the window is rapidly narrowing for nations to avoid tipping the planet into an irreversible future of more deadly storms, wildfires, floods, drought, food scarcity and mass migration.

Willett Simpkins Jr. at the D.C. rally: “It’s getting worse every year. It’s time for them to stop talking about it and do something about it.”Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times

Grace Chaney: “It feels like we’re going back to the 19th century or something.”

Credit...Kenny Holston for The New York Times

Mr. Biden has pledged to cut greenhouse gases in half by 2050, a goal that is in line with what scientists say is needed from the United States to avert such catastrophes.

But if Democrats, who hold a razor-thin majority in Congress, do not enact major climate legislation within the next few months, many analysts say that window to meet that goal will slam shut. Republicans are favored to win control of at least one chamber of Congress in this fall’s midterm elections, and their steadfast opposition to climate action would likely doom the prospects for new legislation anytime soon.

Scientists have been declaring with increasing urgency that nations need to act now to avert a harrowing future. A major scientific report released earlier this month concluded that countries must immediately and drastically pivot away from the fossil fuels that have underpinned major economies for more than a century.

Max Reitzes, 10 months old, attended with his mother, Caroline, in Atlanta.

Credit...Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

Speakers at the Atlanta rally included the city’s mayor, Andre Dickens.

Credit...Kendrick Brinson for The New York Times

Brenda Mallory, the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, reminded the crowd that “Congress must act, too.”Credit...Jason Andrew for The New York Times

The Earth has warmed an average of 1.1 degrees Celsius (1.9 degrees Fahrenheit) since the Industrial Age largely because of human activity, namely the burning of oil, gas and coal. Scientists say that every fraction of a degree of heating translates into more frequent droughts, more violent storms, more species extinction — impacts that are already being felt in every corner of the globe. Once the Earth passes a threshold of 1.5 degrees of warming (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), the likelihood of devastating heat waves, drought, wildfires and storms rises significantly, scientists say.

Brenda Mallory, the chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, reminded the crowd about steps the Biden administration has taken to cut pollution. But she emphasized the need to pass his stalled legislation, which would provide more than $500 billion in tax credits designed to speed the country’s transition to wind and solar power as well as to electric cars.

“President Biden will use every lever, use every tool, and push every resource to tackle climate change,” she said. “But Congress must act, too.”

Mr. Simpkins has followed Mr. Biden’s actions, including a crackdown on planet-warming methane that leaks from oil and gas wells and a ban on hydrofluorocarbons, a greenhouse gas produced by refrigerator coolants.

“That stuff on the gas emissions, that was good,” he said. “The stuff on the Freon and air-conditioner stuff, that was good. But they need even more. Those trees that are getting burned down every year, they’re not getting replanted. The houses that are getting hit are not coming back.”

Mr. Simpkins voted for Mr. Biden in 2020, but he said that if Mr. Biden fails to deliver strong climate laws, he will sit out the 2024 election. “I hate to say that, but I wouldn’t vote,” he said.

Coral Davenport covers energy and environmental policy for the climate desk from Washington. She was part of a Times team that was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished public service journalism in 2020, and part of a Times team that received Columbia University’s John B. Oakes award for distinguished environmental journalism in 2018. @CoralMDavenport • Facebook

 

When Capitalism and Indigenous Rights Collide in Africa

A legal dispute involving retail giant Amazon and Indigenous South Africans has highlighted a global dilemma: Are sacred sites more important than job creation? Indigenous groups have been fighting back, writes Silja Fröhlich for Deutsche Welle.

Indigenous Khoi and San people went to court to block the construction of the planned African headquarters for online retail giant Amazon. Opponents say the project will ruin a historically significant riverside site in Cape Town and harm the environment. The development was under construction on sacred land, the spiritual home to the Khoi and San ethnic groups. 

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has been seeking to woo foreign investment to create job opportunities. However, Genevieve Rose, head of the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR) has said that it "should not happen at the expense of Indigenous peoples." The only thing Indigenous peoples would ask for, Rose said, is for their rights to the land where the development is taking place to be recognized and that they are given proper consideration.

Similar scenarios have happened elsewhere in Africa. For example, in the 1970s, the Kenyan government evicted hundreds of Endorois families from their land to create a wildlife sanctuary for tourists.

In a historic ruling in 2021, the Kenyan Environment and Land Court in Meru declared the title deeds to the land on which the LTWP stands "irregular and unlawful." Indigenous people had complained that the wind energy project did not obtain consent, did not pay adequate compensation and violated applicable land laws.

Batwa land has also been converted into national parks and forest reserves against their will in Burundi and Uganda. And in Ethiopia, pastoralist peoples were forced off their land so foreign and national companies could lease it. 

Boko Haram Not About Religion Or Ethnicity - Nigeria President

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President Muhammadu Buhari has said that the Boko Haram insurgency has neither religious nor ethnic underpinning, and with adequate education, the majority of Nigerians now know the truth. 

The president was speaking at State House in Abuja, as he hosted the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court, Karin Khan.

Buhari also warned of tougher security measures in restive parts of the country, with a review of operations and strategy. He assured Nigerians that the efforts that resulted in relative peace in the south-south and rescuing of the north-east from the hold of terrorists, will be ramped up.

The ICC's Khan said extremism was like cancer, which spreads and can also recede, noting that what Boko Haram does in collaboration with the Islamic State of West African Province, "is a perversion of religion." Khan urged Nigeria, in concert with other Sahel/Lake Chad basin countries, to get the UN Security Council to refer the atrocities committed by the terrorist groups operating in the region to the ICC for investigation and trial.

Buhari took office in 2015 after making several promises, one of which was to tackle insecurity. Since then, the security situation in the north-east has worsened due to the activities of Boko Haram and has spread to all parts of the country. There has also been an increase in kidnapping incidents across the country, daily.

Nigeria's Pristine Freshwater Ecosystems Need Protection Before They Are Lost

Prosper/Wikimedia
Arinta Waterfall in Ekiti State.

ANALYSIS

By Emmanuel O. Akindele
21 APRIL 2022
The Conversation Africa (Johannesburg)

As human populations grow, pure freshwater systems are becoming rare around the world. Urbanisation and infrastructure development have had an impact on the natural environment in African countries, as elsewhere. Many species have become extinct.

In Nigeria, various environmental pressures have jeopardised freshwater biodiversity in recent years. Undisturbed freshwater systems have become scarce, as human activity has destroyed many rivers, lakes and streams.

Cutting down trees, using water for domestic and industrial purposes, farming on river banks, dumping garbage and washing are some of the activities that contribute to reducing freshwater biodiversity.

Studies have found that the animals in Nigeria's freshwater ecosystems are mostly species that indicate low or moderate water quality. In the waters studied, there are fewer species that indicate excellent water quality. Larvae of non-biting midges, soldier flies and hover flies are examples of species that indicate poor water quality. But biological indicators of excellent water quality, such as mayflies, stoneflies and caddisflies, are frequently underrepresented.

My research group recently conducted an ecological study of the freshwater systems of three waterfalls in Nigeria's remote regions. They are all far from human settlement and are situated in Nigeria's different vegetation and geographical zones. Our findings revealed that the streams had exceptional biological water quality, which is unusual in Nigeria.

It's important to protect these places because pristine freshwater ecosystems are becoming rarer globally.

Freshwater systems in Nigeria

Three insect orders are frequently employed as indicators of high-quality freshwater habitats.

Ephemeroptera (commonly known as mayflies), Plecoptera (stoneflies), and Trichoptera (caddisflies) make up the indicator. In most cases globally, pristine freshwater systems have no fewer than 10 species of the three insect groups. The three insect groups are used as the benchmark for identifying top-quality sites. Such sites should support a wide range of species of the three insect orders. The higher the indicator value, the richer a freshwater system is in terms of biological diversity.

At Arinta Waterfalls in Ekiti State, southwest Nigeria, we discovered 19 species indicating excellent water quality. At Ekor Waterfalls in Cross River State, southern Nigeria we found 13. We discovered 29 indicator species at Oowu Waterfalls in Kwara State, north-central Nigeria. These records exceeded the benchmark for freshwater systems with excellent ecological integrity. In Nigeria it's rare to exceed this benchmark.

Our findings also revealed that the three sites had very high conservation value. An index value of not less than 20 is the standard. At all three locations, the index was greater than 20. The conservation index has been applied in Britain and Ireland for identifying freshwater systems of conservation importance. Its application has been recommended for international use. This study is the first application of the index in tropical Africa.

Freshwater environments with high conservation value have great promise for both terrestrial and freshwater biological diversity. They also bode well for human survival. Many insects require clean water to survive as larvae before maturing into adults and moving to forested areas near water. They become part of the food chain in these forests, passing their chemical energy to other animals. The larval insects are also essential food for fishes.

When present in significant numbers, the indicator group is a clear signal of natural freshwater with preserved riparian forests - little altered by human activity. Such freshwater systems imply a high level of naturalness and make an excellent ecotourism destination.

Potential for ecotourism

Apart from their biodiversity value, the three locations we studied have the potential to become ecotourism destinations in Nigeria. At present, ecotourists under-appreciate the sites, and ecologists under-report them. Only the Arinta Waterfalls site is under the close supervision of Ekiti State Tourism Board. The Abia village community in Cross River State is responsible for managing the Ekor Waterfalls site. Though the Kwara State Government recognises the Oowu Waterfalls as an ecotourism site, poor management and a poor road network leading to the site indicate that it is neglected.

Among the three, Oowu Waterfalls is remarkable for being the steepest and one of the highest waterfalls in West Africa.

The absence of well-organised management at the locations foreshadows a serious threat to these exceptional freshwater systems. There are already symptoms of uncontrolled human activity such as deforestation and tourist garbage dumping, albeit on a small scale.

Concerned governments should devise ways to protect and conserve these excellent streams. The goal is to identify freshwater habitats of high ecological integrity for conservation before they are spoilt by human activities. Protecting biodiversity will also meet other human needs like tourism, agriculture and mining.

The authorities need plant and animal ecologists to take an inventory of the sites' terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity. This baseline data is critical to draw up conservation plans, monitor naturalness and protect sites during future infrastructure developments.

Emmanuel O. Akindele, Senior Lecturer, Obafemi Awolowo University

This article is republished from The Conversation Africa under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Congo-Kinshasa: President's Dodgy Mining Deal With Mining Magnate Likely to Be a Costly Miscalculation

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22 APRIL 2022

Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)

ANALYSISBy Peter Fabricius

Questions mount over president Félix Tshisekedi withholding details of the deal to recover assets from the controversial mining magnate.

Many clues about what the enigmatic president Félix Tshisekedi is really about seem hidden in the secret deal his government signed on 24 February with notorious Israeli mining magnate Dan Gertler.

Gertler was former Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) president Joseph Kabila's closest business crony. The memorandum of understanding between Tshisekedi and Gertler would allow the DRC to "recover the disputed mining and oil assets" of Gertler's company Ventura, worth more than $2-billion, the DRC said.

"This is a historic first for the country, which is thus reclaiming assets whose sale had been called into question. The Congolese State will therefore revalue these assets for the exclusive benefit of the population," the DRC Presidency said in Twitter posts.

But the failure to publish the details of the deal so far has raised many questions about its merits. The DRC anti-corruption watchdog Le Congo n'est pas à vendre (CNPAV) (Congo is not for sale) is one of many civil society voices demanding that the full agreement be made public. This would allay fears that Tshisekedi hasn't simply launched "a new cycle...

Read the full story on Daily Maverick.

Africa: Austerity Is Not the Answer to Africa's Colliding Challenges

Columbus Mavhunga / VOA

A farmer in Harare about to start tilling his land in preparation for the rainy season, November 8, 2021.

22 APRIL 2022

African Arguments

ANALYSISBy Anthony Kamande

Countries are cutting billions in spending at a time when they should be investing massively in public services and decent jobs.

In a continent where 1.1 billion people live under $5.50 a day, a slew of connected, damaging events - climate change, ballooning external debt, a sharp spike in food and commodity prices - are making things worse, accelerating inequality and vulnerability. At a time when governments should be tackling this extraordinary combination of crises, a new report launched on 19 April by Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI) tells a story of inaction. The few governments who are doing a little better at fighting poverty and inequality are still grossly under-performing in comparison with the global top performers.

The new report, Africa's extreme inequality crisis: building back fairer after COVID-19, is a continental briefing that draws on insights from the Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index developed by Oxfam and Development Finance International (DFI). The index scores and ranks 158 global governments on three areas - public services, tax and labour rights - that are pivotal to reducing inequality. It sets out a comprehensive plan for African governments, the African Union and the international community, including the EU, to significantly reduce inequality, eradicate poverty, accelerate growth, and reduce insecurity throughout Africa.

The economic impact of the pandemic

While Africa has largely avoided severe Covid-19 deaths and infections recorded in other parts of the world, it has not avoided economic costs. African governments - like others around the world - found themselves in a tight fiscal spot in responding to the pandemic as revenue dwindled while pandemic related expenditure ballooned.

The pandemic pushed close to 40 million people in Africa into extreme poverty as millions lost jobs and income reduced. Weak social safety nets in most countries worsened the situation. Inequality, which was already at an extreme level pre-pandemic, has increased, too. The richest 1% of the African population now owns 33% of the African wealth, while just six richest African billionaires own more wealth than the bottom 50%, some 650 million people. Gender, racial and spatial inequality persist.

Overall, low-income countries in the continent spent 3.1% of GDP on COVID-19 related fiscal measures while developing countries spent 5.3%, largely on increased health spending and social safety nets. Most of this spending has been clawed back by African countries.

Although the IMF and the World Bank stepped up financial support to the continent, this has been inadequate compared with the magnitude of the pandemic. (The Bank committed $39bn while the Fund has provided close to $38bn through loans, $710 million through debt cancellation and $33bn worth of Special Drawing Rights.)

The pandemic vs. low health care investment

The impact of the pandemic and multiple crises has been made much worse by the fact that most health care systems across the continent are poorly funded. Spending on essential services like health and social protection has historically been dismal (see table below), with less than a half of the population having primary healthcare coverage. Only a third of the elderly people have access to old age pension. Tax collection is wanting, averaging 29% of what could be collected in each country. Before the pandemic, about 67% of workers were in precarious employment, meaning that they were not enjoying the existing labour rights.

Source: Commitment to Reducing Inequality 2020. 

The burden of debt and looming austerity

Such inadequate support amid a fiscal squeeze from the pandemic has exacerbated the debt situation in the continent. Spending on essential public services has been hit as governments prioritise debt repayment. Debt servicing for African nations is now an extraordinary six times spending in healthcare, and accounts for 51% of all tax revenue. And as local currencies depreciate against major currencies because of higher inflation rates and hiking of interest rates by central banks in wealthier countries, debt servicing is becoming even costlier.

To reduce the fiscal deficit and address the debt burden, African governments are introducing austerity measures, some with the encouragement of the IMF. Our estimate shows that 43 Africa countries will cut expenditure by $183bn cumulatively for the next five years to 2026. During the first year of the pandemic, the Fund encouraged 33 African countries to pursue austerity policies. We see the impact of austerity in our everyday lives across the continent, for example in Kenya: cooking gas prices have doubled after the IMF agreed on $2.3bn loan in 2021, which has led to taxes on cooking gas.

Food insecurity

Food insecurity is on the rise due to the worst droughts in 40 years triggered by climate change. On top of this, the war inUkraine has disrupted food supply chains and led to a spike in commodity and food prices, worsening the situation. In East and West Africa, 48 million people are experiencing a severe hunger crisis, with 18 million more on the verge of extreme hunger in the next few months. In Kenya, 2.8 million people are facing starvation. Across the world, food prices could also push about 40 million more people into extreme poverty. Most of them can be expected to come from Africa, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where 40% of income is spent on food.

So what can be done? Start by building resilience and vaccinations

So what can governments and the international community do? Well, an urgent priority must be to build resilience and strong societies that can withstand future shocks. That means overturning the planned austerity investing in quality, affordable and accessible universal health, education, and social protection, and scaling up investment in small-scale agriculture, while raising domestic revenue through progressive taxation.

Another top priority is vaccine inequality. There is an urgent need to fight the pandemic by vaccinating 70% of the region's population by June 2022. This would prevent another collapse of the economies as a result of lockdowns and reduced mobility and crumbling of the healthcare system if a more virulent virus like omicron were to emerge.

To enhance comprehensive continental effort to fight inequality, the African Union should develop a joint continental action plan to set clear targets and accelerate measures to reduce inequality and poverty. The recent AU protocol to the African Charter on Human and People's Rights on the Rights of Citizens to Social Protection and Social Security agreed to at the last AU summit is a good starting point and will require member states ratifying and implementing it at national level.

The international community also has a crucial role. First, they should help address the debt crisis in the region, including through debt cancellation and restructuring and increased aid to the continent to build back better. Second, they should mandate the IMF and World Bank to ensure that all AU country strategies, programmes and policy advice focus on reducing inequality, and contain specific measures to achieve this.

Such debt cancellation can help African nations reject the policies of austerity that can only increase the misery, poverty and hunger of millions. It's time to reverse course and instead invest massively for an inclusive recovery and a fairer future for people across the continent.

Anthony Kamande is the inequality research coordinator at Oxfam International.

Read the original of this report, including embedded links and illustrations, on the African Arguments site.

 

Stoney Nakoda Nation says traditional knowledge key to success for Banff bison

REINTRODUCING BANFF BISON

The Canadian Press - Apr 24, 2022 /  | Story: 366896

Photo: The Canadian Press

Bison are seen in Banff National Park in Alberta 

An Indigenous-led report says relying on traditional knowledge could help to ensure the success of bison that have been reintroduced in Banff National Park.

In 2017, Parks Canada released 16 bison in the northeast section of the park in Alberta as part of a five-year pilot project. The herd has since grown to more than 60 animals roaming over 1,200 square kilometres of the park's backcountry.

Banff biologists are monitoring how the reintroduction has affected the environment, but the nearby Stoney Nakoda Nation decided it was also important to do a cultural assessment.

"We are dealing with a culturally important species within the Stoney traditional lands and that's a big piece that's missing from the reporting that was happening," Bill Snow of the Stoney Tribal Administration said in an interview Friday.

The report was released earlier this month. It was funded by the Canadian Mountain Network, a non-profit that supports research on the resilience and health of Canada's mountain people and places.

Snow, who's the lead investigator, said a team from the Stoney Nakoda Nation worked with elders, knowledge keepers and youth to get a better understanding of bison habitat, behaviour, and practices from an Indigenous perspective.

"It was not only a learning process about bison, it was a learning process about ourselves as Indigenous people returning and going back to the traditional lands," he said. "Being able to travel and to experience some of these areas has been really important ... for our own cultural well-being."

Snow said it has helped the Stoney Nakoda reconnect to their traditional lands, migration routes, camping sites, and hunting and gathering areas within Mînî Rhpa Mâkoche, now known as Banff National Park.

The report, which has been shared with park officials, includes 11 recommendations to ensure the continued success of the reintroduction and for co-operative management of the bison herd.

The suggestions include continuing the program once the pilot project is finished, holding a ceremony with First Nations at the start of each new phase and allowing cultural monitoring fieldwork to continue. They also urge expansion of the reintroduction zone to include the rest of the park and allowing First Nations to harvest animals once the herd grows too large.

The project is to be reviewed this year.

Wild bison disappeared from Banff National Park before it was created in 1885. They were reintroduced to determine whether bison could be a long-term fixture in the park.

Parks Canada said in a statement that it recognizes the connection between Indigenous culture and bison.

"During the project, Indigenous Peoples have shared their traditional knowledge of plains bison and participated in stewardship, management and celebration opportunities," says the statement. "Parks Canada has also collaborated with Indigenous communities and organizations in various on-the-ground conservation activities."

The statement said Parks Canada supported the Stoney Nakoda study and will consider it in the pilot project's final report.

"Results from all engagement have and will inform future decisions regarding the feasibility of managing a wild bison herd in Banff National Park over the long term."

The Stoney Nakoda report noted that projects such as the bison reintroduction are an important part of truth and reconciliation. It suggested traditional ecological knowledge can be used alongside western science for a more holistic approach to park management.

"At the end of the day, we are not just writing a report to write a report," said Snow. "We want to change how bison management is done."