FEMINIST ECONOMICS
Female headed households spend less and save more in Kerala

 October 27, 2022
By Sancy K. Jose


The Gulf is the center for Indian expatriates particularly the work force from Kerala. You can hear the Malayalam language amongst the employees if you visit any of the malls and the work places especially hospitals in Gulf countries. Through them India is receiving billions of dollars every year. Economic Times report indicates that India was the highest recipient of remittances at $79 bn in 2018. However, it may be declined during the Covid-19 period.

Moreover, particularly this money which flows in Kerala makes a lot of differences among the households. Some of the houses the male will work in abroad and the female will take care of the house and children. While in some of the houses the female works abroad and the male will take care of the house and the children will be in boarding schools.

Let’s see in this essay the reason behind why female headed households spend less and save more and male headed households spend more and save less.

The remittance causes more implications in Kerala society. Hence, their spending patterns. Building houses, sending their children to good educational institutions, better health care, saving more in LICs, improving their travel expenses, and investing in various ways for the future. In common if we see the way the households spend, you can find massive differences among the men and women. Men will spend more in common. In general women are better at bargaining than men. The other indicator would be the women who always try to keep some money in their purses. They will not make it empty. But men will not bother about emptying their purses.

Various researches show a different opinion about the consumption expenditure pattern of the females in Kerala. In any research the output will be expected based on our assumptions. However, my research shows that in Kerala the female headed households are the most competent in the economic way of spending and savings while compared to the consumption expenditure pattern of male headed households.

Consumption expenditure pattern theory says, “… An individual is assumed to plan a pattern of consumption expenditure based on expected income in their entire lifetime.” Not only in Kerala society but also now a new pattern of consumption is introduced by the new generation. It means, whatever they have in their hands at the moment they will empty it through lavish spending. However, this is also very much suitable to the below 30 men but not to the women.

Those who are working in private sectors, especially in the IT field, and if they are in their 20s and 30s once they spend the money they are simply ready to use the credit cards. I have seen many of them even ready to apply for personal loans for travelling abroad. Here the strategy is once their money in the wallet dried, the option is simply borrowing and spending. This scenario never prevailed in our societies three decades back.

At present the situation has completely changed in the society. If the flow of income is amplified then there will be no second thought about in favor of more consumption. There is no way to talk about priority. Whatever they like they will be busy buying. “Consumer theory is the study of how people decide to spend their money based on their individual preferences and budget constraints.” Moreover, the post-Covid-19 era also changed the pattern of consumption of the households. During the Covid-19 the pattern of consumption was mainly about food and health. Now it is gradually changed in the post-Covid-19.

However, I would say in my research, female households are entirely different from the way they think. But this is not fit to the below 30 female households, especially those who are newly employed in their 20s. However, again this pattern of consumption changed amongst the newly employed females from rural areas. This is true that, “Individuals make choices subject to how much income they have available to spend and the prices of goods and services.”

The female households well managed the family with the received income and tried to save as much as possible. It is true that the inflow of remittance reduces poverty in the recipient country. This will be possible only if the household utilizes the money with the purpose. Otherwise, it will not serve the purpose of the remitter. The male households always prefer to spend more than their requirements. And they won’t worry about savings. Central government’s plan for selling the LIC’s shares to the private sector is also a cause of worry for many females in India.

Whatever it may be, the female households are better in more savings than the male in Kerala. The female will save more and if the male has more money they will spend more than the females. For the question of – if the females in Kerala will save more if their income increases – study suggests that they will save more – even if their income increases while comparing the males in Kerala.

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JUST SAY NO; NUKES

NATO wants to place nuclear missiles on Finland’s Russian border — Finland says yes

October 29, 2022
By Eric Zuesse


According to Newsweek, on October 26th, “Finland Will Allow NATO to Place Nuclear Weapons on Border With Russia”. They cite Finnish media reports. Allegedly, a condition that NATO had placed on Finland to join NATO was to allow America’s nuclear missiles to be positioned on Finland’s Russian border, which is closer to Moscow than any other except Ukraine’s. Whereas Ukraine’s would be 5 minutes from blitz-nuking Moscow so as to preemptively decapitate Russia’s retaliatory command, Finland’s would be 7 minutes — only around 120 seconds longer for Russia to be able to launch its retaliatory strikes. Finland now is to vote on the bill joining NATO, on that basis (i.e., to become America’s spearhead to defeat Russia in WW III). Obviously (assuming that NATO had, indeed, given Finland’s leaders to believe that saying yes to this would increase NATO’s likelihood of expediting Finland’s application to join), NATO is set upon checkmating Russia into capitulation if Finland does join.

Newsweek reports also that “The U.S. already has around 100 nuclear weapons in Europe, positioned in Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Turkey according to the Federation of American Scientists. Britain and France, both NATO members, also maintain their own independent nuclear arsenals.”

None of those countries borders Russia. They’re all much farther away.

During the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, JFK refused to allow the Soviet Union to place its missiles only 1,131 miles away from Washington DC and warned that the U.S. would launch WW III if they did; so, the Soviet Union decided not to.

The Finnish border reaches as close as 507 miles away from Moscow, at the Finnish city of Kotka. The Ukrainian border reaches significantly closer: 317 miles from Shostka to Moscow, and 353 miles from Sumy to Moscow — as being the Russia-bordering nation that would pose the biggest danger to Russia if added to NATO. Finland is #2 — only Ukraine is even worse in a Russian view.

Russia invaded Ukraine in order to be able to move that potential 317 miles back to at least the 1,131 miles that everyone in 1962 agreed would be too close to Washington DC and therefore justification for America to launch WW III to prevent.

The reason why the difference between 317 miles versus 507 miles is only around two minutes, is that the slowest part of the flight is the earliest, while accelerating. Practically speaking, for Washington to position its nuclear-warheaded missiles 507 miles from The Kremlin is virtually the same as to position them at the nearest point on Ukraine’s border. One can already see that Russia actively resists this.

In 1962, missiles were far slower than they are today. So, in order for there to be an equivalency between the 1,131 miles from Cuba in 1962, Russia would need to keep U.S. missiles about 2,000 miles from America’s closest land-based nuclear missiles today. The present situation is considerably more dangerous to Russia than the Cuban Missile Crisis was to America in 1962.

According to leading American scientists who specialize in evaluating such matters, America’s recent nuclear-weapons policy “creates exactly what one would expect to see, if a nuclear-armed state were planning to have the capacity to fight and win a nuclear war by disarming enemies with a surprise first strike.”

Newsweek’s disclosure on October 26th suggests that this is, indeed, what the U.S. Government has been, and is, planning for: “to fight and win a nuclear war by disarming enemies with a surprise first strike.” (That meta-strategy is called “Nuclear Primacy,” and in America it replaced the “M.A.D.” or Mutually Assured Destruction meta-strategy in around 2006.)

During WW II, Finland was on the Nazi side and participated with the Germans in their “Operation Barbarossa invasion of the Soviet Union.” If it joins NATO, Finland would be repeating that now, but only against Russia.

All U.S. foreign polices, in both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party, are “neocon,” and that means funded by and for U.S.-and-allied billionaires and centi-millionaires — not for ANY public — in order to increase yet further the scope of their global empire.

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FAIR AND BALANCED 

Dare to Question Support for Ukraine

AMERICAN RIGHT WING CRITIC

October 29, 2022
By Rich Berdan



Question the billions of dollars being sunk into Ukraine that has resulted in a devastating loss of life, an ensuing energy crisis, and a real threat of nuclear war; and you are politically canceled as a Putin ally.

To be clear, asking questions about the reasons and costs to this conflict is not agreeing with Russia’s invasion into Ukraine. To see the bigger picture, the financing of Ukraine is not simply advocating for the virtues of democracy, but rather peeling back the layers of history in the region, revealing Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky’s regimes crack down on opposing voices, and questioning the media’s narrative that glorifies Zelensky and vilifies Putin.

The real question that should be asked is whether the West is truly fighting for democracy or hell-bent on crushing Russia and whatever it takes to purge Russian President Vladimir Putin from existence. If US President Joe Biden is asked this question, the answer is clear. Putin is the scapegoat for everything wrong in America, whether it be claims of Putin’s inflation, Putin’s gas prices, or for aiding President Trump’s win in 2016. Biden told the world from Warsaw on March 26 that Putin “cannot remain in power”. When the White House attempted to downplay Biden’s remarks, noting his statements were not calling for regime change in Moscow, Biden stated that he was “not walking back anything”.

Americans, and perhaps Europeans feeling the greatest pain, need to ask if they have become tired of the Putin rant and are they being led down the “democracy at risk’ path for a country that is corrupt and far from democratic. Are you prepared to suffer hardship and even die for the politics of this war?

First, it is important to understand the recently annexed Donbas regions in eastern Ukraine and the Crimea are just as much the historical homelands to Russians as Ukrainians over centuries of war, political upheaval, and shifting control. Nomadic tribes such as the Scythians, Huns, and Tartars once roamed the territory; followed by Ukrainian Cossacks and the Russian Empire populating the Donbas in the mid 18th century with the discovery of coal reserves. By 1897, Russians made up most of the industrial workforce in the cities while Ukrainians dominated the rural areas. In 1918, troops loyal to the Ukrainian People’s Republic took control of parts of the Donbas with the help of its German ally. Then in 1932, millions of Ukrainians died of starvation when Soviet leader Joseph Stalin confiscated their land.

WW II witness further upheaval when Germany occupied the region for resources and forced labor until the Red Army offensive in 1943 returned the Donbas to the Soviet Union. By 1959, there was 2.5 million Russians living in the Donbas; resulting in educational reforms and attempts to eliminate the Ukrainian language. More recently the economy has collapsed through the 1990’s where divisions have since escalated with Ukrainians seeking closer ties to the West and Russian separatists taking over key government buildings and declaring a republic.

The history behind the annexation of Crimea by Russia is not short of its own upheavals. With NATO threatening to expand into Ukraine following missile systems set up in Poland and Romania within striking distance of Russian cities, Putin made a national security decision to annex Crimea. Sevastopol, the Crimean port city where the Russian Black Sea Fleet calls home is a strategic harbor patrolling the shipping routes from Russia and the Don River to Turkey and Southeastern Europe. After losing the Crimean War in 1854, Russia reclaimed Crimea from the Nazis in 1944; and a decade afterwards in 1954; the Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev handed over Crimea to Ukraine on the 300-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine. Understandably, Putin reclaimed Crimea and its Russian speaking population; and could not permit the Sevastopol Naval base to fall into the control of NATO.

Since 2014, thousands of people have been killed in the Donbas. Unfortunately, this current war in Ukraine is yet another pivotal moment in a lengthy and tumultuous history in the area that will be added to a long list of regional conflict that now has the West injecting itself to pin Russia in a corner.

Western governments and most media outlets have championed Zelensky as the standard bearer of democracy. Let’s take a closer look at what the West are spending billions of unaccounted funding on for this democracy. Ukraine’s Ministry of Justice suspended the main opposition party, The Opposition Platform for Life and arrested the leader, Victor Medvedchuk. This is the second largest political party, and it would be akin to the Democrat Party in the US directing the DOJ to dissolve the GOP. Zelensky signed a law that bans parties in Ukraine that oppose the government’s approach to the conflict with Russia; essentially removing democracy in the country.

In a further crackdown on opposing voices, the Zelensky regime is seeking to shut down and extradite critics. Anatoly Shariy, a journalist and blogger with nearly 3 million YouTube followers, has been charged with treason for allegedly acting on behalf of foreign forces. Shariy was arrested in a joint takedown by Spanish law enforcement and Ukraine’s Prosecutor General. Ukraine’s courts have also seized television channels in a further effort to silence opposition to Zelensky’s rule.

Can you imagine these actions taking place in America where Trump is arrested and jailed, Fox News is taken off the air, the assets of the New York Post seized, FBI raids on the homes of dissenting protestors, the DOJ issues a warrant for the arrest of Tucker Carlson, and a media that humiliates and smears opposing voices into submission.

Ukraine’s actions to subvert the long history of Communist parties did not raise its head when Russia invaded. The Communist Party of Ukraine (KPU) was founded in 1993 and was represented in parliament until the party and communist symbols were banned through a EU-backed decommunization law in 2015. The KPU emerged as the largest political force after each parliamentary election until the Orange Revolution in 2004. The KPU maintained an anti-NATO position and sought a resolution to the conflict in the Donbas region.

While far from agreeing with communism, the resolution banning political parties can be rightly branded as an undemocratic power grab. When a dictator or rogue regimes silence political opposition, America and the West were known to call it out, yet Ukraine is given a pass. It is becoming more common and perhaps normalized for a party in power to subvert their constitution and use the courts to criminalize ideologies and restrict people’s movements and financial means.

Supporters in America and the EU funding this proxy war against Russia should not be blinded to the very serious democratic deficits in Ukraine; knowing a there is long history of territorial shifts in the region. Does Biden really care if Ukraine is destroyed at a great cost to life if Putin is removed? Do the people in the West want their taxes going to this war when they cannot afford to heat their homes, buy groceries for their families, and find ourselves edging closer to nuclear annihilation.

We know that when political parties are banned, then conformity of the press and social media soon follows, and democracy is suppressed. We have seen this play out last century in Europe. This is precisely what is happening now in Ukraine. Are we to ignore the evidence, trust what you are told and be classed into a subservient citizen that is unwilling to ask why Zelensky’s undemocratic regime continues to reap billions of dollars of weapons to fight this war?

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The British Economic Collapse – A Harbinger of Economic Doom for America?

October 30, 2022
By Syed Zain Abbas Rizvi


Britain’s politico-economic fiasco of the past six weeks culminated in a tragicomic anticlimax. The 45-day Prime Minister Liz Truss resigned, as many had predicted before she even took high office last month. Rishi Sunak, the incumbent Prime Minister (Britain’s third in two months), had vociferously criticized Truss’ flamboyant yet idiotic fiscal plan during the summer run-up campaign to replace Boris Johnson. In hindsight, while she successfully managed to woo the ultra-right Tories with her anti-immigrant and pro-Brexit rhetoric, her inane economic policies failed to enchant the financial markets. And in mere weeks, as Great Britain nudged normalcy after grieving its longest reigning monarch, Truss’ ill-timed tax cuts and brazen borrowing plans wreaked havoc. The British pound tanked to record low; mortgage rates shot to stratospheric levels – forcing the Bank of England (BoE) to intercede to soothe the markets and safeguard the vulnerable pension funds from collapse.

Admittedly, the United States is witnessing relative political stability – at least compared to the Trump tenure. The American economy is heading toward a recession piecemeal. However, the Federal Reserve shows no sign of panic or loss of control. And the investors are patently not losing confidence in the US government, unlike the jitters on display across the Atlantic. Nonetheless, there are a few concerning parallels between the Western duo.

To recap and analyze in-depth, we should first ask ourselves: Why did the British economic plan backfire? It is a well-known fact that Britain is one of the most pivotal Western industrialized economies – 6th largest in the world. Yet an inflationary mini-budget still earned it a rare public rebuke from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over fiscal imprudence. Such remarks are usually reserved for emerging economies with a notoriety for fiscal irresponsibility. It was not because of the £45 billion in unfunded tax cuts – Britain’s biggest tax package in over five decades. But it was a reaction to the contradiction sketched by the Truss regime between Britain’s conservative monetary policy and quasi-liberal fiscal strategies. The IMF unerringly realized that this tussle would only exacerbate the economic uncertainty already looming in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

In a period when the Western world alongside the Bank of England (BoE) tightened policy to wrestle with energy-fueled inflation, the British government tabled a plan – sans any independent assessment of potential fiscal impact – to borrow funds to finance utopian tax cuts and eliminate limits on Bankers’ bonuses. In a span when the working class witnessed ballooning energy bills, the Truss government planned to kickstart economic growth via primitive trickle-down economics without any substantive agenda to invite foreign investments.

Naturally, the financial markets revolted by dumping UK debt causing interest rates to spiral; mortgages to skyrocket; pound to drop to almost parity with the US dollar. The new Chancellor of the Exchequer immediately reversed most of her policies before she even egressed the office, while forewarning of painful spending cuts to come. Still, the markets shadowed the announcement of the UK’s next Prime Minister with an ambiguous reaction as sterling slipped 0.17% against the greenback – erasing the earlier gains – while bonds rallied to pre-budget levels.

Thankfully, the United States is not even remotely in the same shoes. But political uncertainty is brewing in the US Congress as well.

The Biden administration has somewhat restored the lost stability totemic to the American political scene. The Make America Great Again (MAGA) tendencies have receded if not completely effaced. And the United States is seemingly back to its classical balance of diplomacy and deterrence that was noticeably missing since 2017. Yet, not all is sunshine in the domestic and international dynamics. The Democrats welcomed this year with a thin majority in both houses. Their mid-term election prospects gradually improved with collective success in Europe against Russia. The Republican blunders like the reversal of Roe v. Wade further favored Biden’s case.

However, the short-sightedness of the Group of Seven’s (G7) ambitious price cap on Russian energy supplies and China’s force posturing in the Indo-Pacific region disillusioned the American patriots. Iran’s bold collusion with Russia by allegedly supplying military drones in Ukraine has further weakened the American illusion of power. The recent slap in the face has been the Saudi betrayal leading OPEC+ to cut global oil supply by 2 million barrels/day, even after Biden bumped fists with crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman (MBS) during his domestically criticized visit to Saudi Arabia in July.

As the gasoline prices have picked up in the last few weeks and inflation is increasingly proving obdurate, the Democrats could lose both houses – or at least the Senate – which could plausibly trigger a Britain-like bedlam. The trigger point is somewhat apparent: The contentious US debt ceiling.

According to the IMF estimates, the US and the UK are two of the most highly industrialized economies running huge deficits in both their budgets and current accounts. According to data from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook (WEO) database, Britain’s current account deficit this year would be about 4.8% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP); 3.9% for the United States. Both nations have borrowed over 4% of their respective GDPs to fund these gaps. Such huge deficits imply a continual need for capital inflow. Now I admit that advanced economies like Japan and France also run huge government deficits. But no member of the G7 has a deficit on their current account quite like that of Britain and the US register. And while I unequivocally agree that the US treasuries are currently running in the opposite trajectory of UK gilts, a crisis could ensnare the American economy if the Republicans gain control of either of the houses of Congress and enforces a debt limit on government borrowing.

While theoretically, it could push the US government to default on its debt and plunge the global economy into chaos, the more likely outcome is a compromise in the form of spending cuts – a repeat of Obama’s begrudging submission to Republican pressure in 2013 in hopes of a long-term deficit-reduction deal. Nonetheless, this impending political browbeating could spook the already febrile bond markets, courtesy of the aggressive tightening schedule of the Federal Reserve. Remember, investors’ doubt in the British government’s fiscal plan caused the current market meltdown, not any actual sign of imminent default. It illustrates that in the sensitive market environment today, all it takes is market skepticism that gradually snowballs into a formidable economic nightmare – even for an advanced economy.

Another risk is the bustling value of the US dollar. This year alone, the greenback has gained more than 18% against a basket of key currencies, according to the benchmark ICE U.S. Dollar Index. The Fed’s accelerating rate hikes have pushed the dollar to a multi-decade high – even against the currencies of its major trading partners. Consequently, American exports have turned expensive; imports have turned cheaper. Thus, US exports are in line to fall while imports gain, further widening the current account deficit. I fear that a sell-off in the US treasury market could invoke a financial crisis dwarfing the Great Recession of 2008. Fortunately, US securities are a staple for risk-averse investors seeking an economic haven. And virtually every major global transaction – from the oil market to commodities – is settled in the US dollar. Thus, I reckon that the US markets are far more stable than their British counterparts.

Ultimately, the ubiquity of the US economic presence does pose some challenges. The economic pain exported globally by the United States due to a straightening dollar could lead to financial turmoil in one of its major trading partners. Japan is a perfect example. The rate hikes by the Federal Reserve have plummeted the Japanese yen to a 32-year low against the US dollar. Yet the Bank of Japan (BOJ) is persistent in keeping interest rates low to allow its historically moribund inflation to liven up.

My apprehension, however, lies in the perception of inflation. Japan’s inflation of 3% is not demand-driven but imported from abroad, on the back of inflated fuel and food prices. Recent history suggests that Japan would not resort to rate hikes, which would pinch local businesses and dent public sentiment without actually lowering inflation. However, Japan could stop buying or even partly liquidate its immense holdings of US treasury securities totaling about $1.23 trillion to service its staggering debt – circa 260% of its GDP – without cutting public spending. This scenario is just one example of many that could spark a crisis. The frightening reality is that unlike the contained financial debacle of Britain, a panic run in the US capital markets would devastate the global economy. And hence, Britain’s fiscal blunder should be an omen to the US policymakers to address its chronic budget and current account deficits, and mitigate its prohibitive borrowing sprees before it is too late to redress.



Syed Zain Abbas Rizvi
The author is a political and economic analyst. He focuses on geopolitical policymaking and international affairs. Syed has written extensively on fintech economy, foreign policy, and economic decision making of the Indo-Pacific and Asian region.

Waymo Set for Self-Driving Launch in Los Angeles

The service will begin with safety drivers in the cars and later with Waymo employees as riders.


 Techland: When Great Power Competition Meets a Digital World 

by Stephen Silver

Self-driving cars, looked upon five or ten years ago as the wave of the immediate future, have somewhat stalled out of late, driven by concerns about safety, and the technology’s lack of scalability, at least up to this point. However, one major player in the tech world is readying for a major launch.

Waymo, the self-driving company that’s part of Alphabet (parent company of Google), announced Wednesday that it is readying to launch Waymo One, its taxi service, in Los Angeles.

The service, per CNBC, will begin with safety drivers in the cars, and later with “Waymo employees as riders.” It’s not clear what the timetable is for the launch.

“Los Angeles will be Waymo’s next ride-hailing city, joining Phoenix and San Francisco as we expand to more locations,” Waymo said in a blog post. “We’ve gotten to know many LA neighborhoods, including Downtown and Miracle Mile, Koreatown, Santa Monica, Westwood, and West Hollywood, and we’ll begin driving autonomously in several central districts over the coming months as we prepare to serve Angelenos,”

Waymo is offering what it calls a “round-the-clock service,” offering what it calls “more accessible and dependable mobility options to all residents of LA.”

“When we think about our next cities, Los Angeles jumps out,” Waymo’s co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in the post. “LA is a remarkable, vibrant place – and Waymo’s experience leaves us best positioned to tackle its driving complexity. We’re working closely with Angelenos to ensure we’re addressing the transportation needs and priorities of their communities as we bring the Waymo Driver to LA.”

The deal has the support of Los Angeles’ mayor.

"If we want to change the car culture in Los Angeles, we need to give Angelenos real alternatives to owning their own vehicle – including a world-class public transportation network, a range of active transportation options, and the convenience of mobility as a service across our City,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said in the announcement. “By adding Waymo to our growing list of ways to get around, we’re making good on our commitment to ease congestion on our streets, clean our air, and give people a better way to get where they need to go.”

Waymo was founded in 2009, when it was known as “the Google self-driving car project,” and has been called Waymo since 2016.

Its founder, Anthony Levandowski, left in 2015 and later joined Uber’s own self-driving car initiative, leading to a lawsuit by Google and Levandowski’s subsequent criminal prosecution and conviction for trade secret theft. Then-President Donald Trump eventually pardoned Levandowski on his last day in office in 2021.

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver.

Why does Bangladesh need Saudi Arabia’s investment in the power and energy sector urgently?




October 24, 2022
By Samina Akhter


With the aim of increasing bilateral trade and mutual economic cooperation, special attention must be paid to the ‘Middle East’. Bangladesh seeks cooperation in at least 12 sectors from the top ten countries of the Arab world or the Middle East to overcome the ongoing power and energy crisis, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war and the financial loss of the epidemic corona. One of these is the power and energy sector.

Maximum emphasis has been placed on easy terms of investment and energy imports from the Middle East in this sector. In addition to this, the government is interested in new manpower exports and product exports to collect remittances, one of the sources of foreign exchange. A meeting of Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia Joint Commission (JC) has been called in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia by the end of this month.

Looking ahead to that meeting, Saudi Arabia wanted to know what kind of cooperation Bangladesh wants to increase bilateral trade. The Economic Relations Department (ERD) will present an outline of economic cooperation and investment at the JC meeting itself.

It is known that assistance will be sought from the Middle East to resolve the ongoing power and energy crisis. Frequent load-shedding and rising prices of all types of fuel have increased the cost of production in the country. Its biggest impact is noticeable in inflation. In addition to this, the majority of remittances come from Middle Eastern countries. Due to this reason, the stakeholders have urged to increase mutual economic cooperation and bilateral trade with the Middle East. More than 80 percent of the fuel oil used in Bangladesh is imported from some countries in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia.

Similarly, most remittances are being extracted by exporting unskilled manpower to Middle Eastern countries. Most of the fertilizers used in agricultural production are imported from the Middle East. But the economy of Bangladesh is under pressure due to the ongoing global crisis and the increase in dollar prices. Inflation is increasing.

In this situation, the dollar crisis and the increase in the price of all types of fuel are making it more difficult to maintain the continuity of production. As a result, there is increasing load shedding and disruption of production. Initiatives have been taken to increase mutual cooperation with Middle East countries to overcome the current situation. Bangladesh is dreaming of developing economic relations with the Middle East.

The government is preparing to attend the 14th JC meeting to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 30-31. Bangladesh will be represented in that meeting by high-level representatives of the Economic Relations Department of the Ministry of Finance. Before attending the meeting, ERD held several inter-ministerial meetings on the initiative of the Ministry of Finance.

In these meetings, economic relations with other countries of the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia, have been urged to be strengthened and bilateral trade increased. Besides, cooperation in 12 sectors will be sought from the Middle East. These include development of bilateral economic and trade relations, manpower, employment and consular, private aviation, tourism and cultural, investment, Abu Dhabi Development Fund, electricity, energy and mineral resources, information and communication technology sector, education, science and technology sector, marine environment. Cooperation in development, agriculture, healthcare and health education sectors and humanitarian and charitable assistance is one of them.

Saudi Arabia has already expressed its positive attitude towards increasing cooperation with Bangladesh. Not only that, Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia has signed several agreements and memoranda of understanding to increase bilateral trade and investment. In addition, bilateral trade and economic cooperation with Saudi Arabia will be increased with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Egypt and Turkey.

An official letter has been given to these countries by the Commercial Counselor of Bangladesh Embassy abroad to increase bilateral trade and manpower export. Besides, the government has taken a special initiative from the Middle East Branch-1 of the Economic Relations Department (ERD). An outline in this regard will also be presented in the JC meeting to be held with Saudi Arabia. Bangladesh Investment Development Authority (BIDA) has a separate program around the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia has already been informed about ensuring one-stop service from the bidder’s side. ERD believes that if mutual economic cooperation with Saudi Arabia, the top country of the Arab world, increases, bilateral trade with other countries in the Middle East will also increase.

And for this reason, preparations are being made vigorously in front of the 14th JC meeting. A high-level delegation from Bangladesh is expected to participate in the meeting. In this regard, Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said that currently there is an excellent environment for investment in Bangladesh. There is considerable potential for investment on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) basis, particularly in major infrastructure, information technology, communication, agriculture, power and energy, medical sectors.

Middle East entrepreneurs including Saudi Arabia can take investment opportunities in those sectors if they wish. Professional, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled manpower is still in great demand in the Arab world. Middle East countries can take huge manpower from Bangladesh if they want. He said that the country’s electricity and energy sector needs investment and cooperation from the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia. To deal with the ongoing crisis, the government will take the cooperation of Saudi Arabia and other countries in the power and energy sector.

According to Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation or BPC data, the country imports 6.5 million tons of fuel oil annually. Of that, 4 million tons of diesel is imported annually. More than 90 percent of vehicles in the transport sector in the country are dependent on fuel oil. Again, 34 percent of the power generation capacity depends on fuel oil.

For these fuels, we have to depend on Saudi Arabia and other countries in the Middle East. Bangladesh imports refined and crude fuel oil. The foreign companies supplying oil are Saudi Arabian Oil Company (Saudi Aramco) of Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Limited (ADNOC) of the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) of Kuwait, Petco Trading Labuan Company Limited (PTCL) of Malaysia, Emirates National Oil of the United Arab Emirates. Company (Inc), China’s PetroChina (Singapore) Pte Ltd and Unipec (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Indonesia’s PT Bumi Siak Pusaku (BSP), Thailand’s PTT International Trading Pte Ltd, India’s Numaligarh Refinery Limited (NRL).

Apart from this, BPC also buys fuel oil through open tender. In other words, more than 80 percent of fuel oil is imported from Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia. Earlier in 2019, two agreements and four memorandums of understanding were signed with Saudi Arabia for the development of various sectors of Bangladesh, including the power and industrial sectors. These agreements and agreements were made in the presence of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a ceremony organized at her office.

If these agreements are implemented, the country’s bilateral trade and investment with Bangladesh will increase. It is believed that both countries will benefit economically. Especially the ongoing crisis in the power and energy sector of the country will be removed. Besides, bilateral trade with Saudi Arabia also has great opportunities and possibilities.

In addition, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company Aramco has already shown interest in building, operating and maintaining an oil refinery. It will cost 1.5 to 2 billion dollars. Saudi firm Engineering Dimension LLC is very enthusiastic about investing in Bangladesh.

The company is interested in investing in 7 projects and has pledged to invest around 1.685 billion dollars during the International Investment Conference held in Dhaka in November last year. Saudi Arabia’s investment in the power and energy sector is urgently needed at the moment. This issue should be given maximum emphasis in any forum discussion with the country.

Engineering Dimension is one of the companies that have shown interest in the construction of Dhaka East-West Elevated Expressway. Some Saudi investments are already in the pipeline. These include the development of Patenga Container Terminal with Red Sea Gateway Terminal in Public Private Partnership. Further Saudi investment will largely depend on how successfully the projects in the pipeline can be managed.

ACWA Power, an internationally renowned energy company, has expressed interest in investing around $600 million to build a 730 MW combined cycle power plant in Chittagong. Al-Fanar plans to invest $100 million to build a 100 MW IPP solar project in a joint venture. Al-Bawani is interested in investing about $10 million in the employment of skilled human resources for construction and engineering projects.

Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia joint commission meeting preparation.

Preparations for the 14th meeting of the Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia Joint Commission have started in full swing. The Economic Relations Department (ERD) of the Ministry of Finance prepared the working paper on behalf of Bangladesh. In the meeting to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on October 30-31, the cooperation of Saudi Arabia will be sought in the export of electricity, manpower, increasing the export of manufactured goods, export of halal products, especially fish and meat, export of agricultural processed products and fertilizer production.

Besides, Bangladesh has the opportunity to export clothes to other Middle East countries including Saudi Arabia. The entrepreneurs of the country’s garment sector have expressed their interest in this regard. Saudi Arabia will be requested to speedily implement the agreements made with Saudi Arabia at various times. In this context, Bangladesh has prepared for the Bangladesh-Saudi Arabia joint commission meeting.

Bangladesh has several bilateral trade investment agreements with Saudi Arabia. These agreements must be implemented now. It is reported that talks are going on between Petrobangla and Aramco regarding a liquefied natural gas (LNG) deal. This will solve the country’s LNG crisis. Besides, Eastern Refinery Unit-2 has sought Saudi Arabia’s cooperation in processing 3 million tons of crude palm oil per day.

If it is implemented, 68 thousand barrels of refined petroleum will be available. MoU will be signed between Bangladesh Power Development Board and world renowned ACWO Power. It is expected to make great progress in the renewable energy sector in the country. It has an agreement with Saudi Arabia to build a 100 MW Solar Independent Power Plant (IPP) and manufacture transformers and electrical components.

These agreements need to be implemented quickly. Meanwhile, 20 more Saudi Arabian companies have shown interest in investing in Bangladesh, said Foreign Minister Dr. AK Abdul Momen recently. After a recent meeting with a delegation of Saudi Arabia, he added, “We will give them all the facilities they need.” Both countries have much more to do in terms of trade and investment cooperation.

Besides, the country is also interested in investment on the basis of public-private partnership or PPP. Saudi Arabia will mainly invest in Bangladesh’s infrastructure, medical, tourism and other sectors. A memorandum of understanding has been signed with Saudi Arabia. Salman F Rahman, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Private Industry and Investment on behalf of Bangladesh, signed one such MoU a few months ago. However, countries of the Middle east especially Saudi Arabia’s investment in the power and energy sector is urgently needed at the moment.

TYPICAL YANKEE CHAUVINISM

Why Don’t Rich Muslim States Give More Aid To Afghanistan? – Analysis

 October 29, 2022

By Akmal Dawi

More than 10 months after the United Nations launched its largest ever single-country appeal to mitigate the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan, less than half of the appeal has been funded, with Muslim governments conspicuously missing on the list of major donors.

“Afghanistan is facing a harsh winter,” Tomas Niklasson, European Union special envoy for Afghanistan, warned in a Twitter thread after his visit to Afghanistan in early October. “I urge China, Russia and the OIC [Organization of Islamic Cooperation] to follow the example of the U.K., the U.S., the EU and others by significantly stepping up humanitarian assistance.”

While it has been one of the poorest countries in the world for decades, Afghanistan has fallen deeper into poverty since the country’s U.S.-backed government collapsed last year and the de facto Taliban regime was met with crippling international economic sanctions.

Nearly all Afghans now live below the poverty line, according to the U.N.

“There has certainly been a lot of competition over humanitarian resources in the last year, with the war in Ukraine taking a lot of attention and finances from the West. There is some concern that Afghanistan will become a neglected crisis in the future,” Neil Turner, director of the Norwegian Refugee Council in Afghanistan, told VOA.

Last week, Saudi Arabia announced it was giving $400 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine. The announcement, while welcomed by aid agencies, stands in contrast with the $11 million the oil-rich Muslim kingdom has pledged in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan this year.

Other relatively wealthy Muslim countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Turkey are also either absent or lagging in the list of donors to the Afghanistan humanitarian appeal.

So far this year, the UAE has given more than $309 million in response to U.N. humanitarian appeals in 23 countries, of which $171 is to Ethiopia and only $1.9 million to Afghanistan.

Qatar, which has one of the highest GDP per capita rates in the world, has given less than $1 million to the U.N. global humanitarian appeals system in 2022, of which about $500,000 was for Cameroon.

In December 2021, foreign ministers attending an OIC conference in Islamabad agreed to set up a special humanitarian trust fund at the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) in response to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

In August, the IsDB announced giving $525,000 to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to spend on immediate humanitarian activities in Afghanistan.

Spokespersons at both the OIC and the IsDB did not respond to queries about what additional funding the trust fund has delivered since August.

Several calls and emails from VOA to the embassies of Saudi Arabia and the UAE received no reply.

Donors’ geopolitical interests

“Most humanitarian response plans and appeals are underfunded,” Maryam Z. Deloffre, an associate professor of international affairs at the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, told VOA.

The $4.29 billion humanitarian appeal for Ukraine, second only to that for Afghanistan by about $200 million, has received 68% of the required funding.

The Afghanistan appeal has a 55% funding gap in which a lack of major contributions from Muslim donors is noticeable.

“Geopolitically, Saudi Arabia, since 9/11, has cut off ties with the Taliban, has accused them of defaming Islam and harboring terrorists … so there’s some concerns of running afoul of U.N. sanctions, U.S. sanctions, U.S. laws,” Deloffre said.

While imposing sanctions on Taliban leaders and institutions, the United States has offered waivers for humanitarian funding for the Afghan people. The U.S. and some other countries have also frozen about $9 billion of Afghanistan central bank assets on the premise that de facto Taliban rulers might use the money to sponsor terrorism.

There is also some criticism of the U.N.-led humanitarian response system for not categorizing the most urgent needs where more funding should be channeled.

“We have a system which is a bit like having the beggars lining up outside the door of the mosque and the worshipper goes in and can choose which beggar he or she will give a coin to, thinking one beggar is more worthy than others,” Alex de Waal, executive director of the World Peace Foundation at Tufts University, told VOA.

The U.N. system, de Waal said, has traditionally been funded mostly by Western donors while Muslim donors have acted selectively.

“It’s entirely a transaction that depends upon the whim of the donor,” he said.

Skepticism of the U.N.-led aid system is not limited to majority-Muslim countries that have no permanent seat at the Security Council. Powerful countries China and Russia, both permanent members of the Security Council, have also criticized the U.N. system as ineffective and manipulated.

“Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States are generally wary of the U.N.-led system. There is a perception that the U.N. and international nongovernmental organizations are more interested in organizational survival than helping. There’s also a perception that most of the funds go to staff costs and consultants who are from Western countries rather than to local economies,” Deloffre said.

Bleak prospects

For almost two decades, development and humanitarian activities in Afghanistan have been bankrolled mostly by the U.S. and European countries.

“As the war in Ukraine continues and other humanitarian crises evolve across the globe, we may find donors less and less willing to commit funding to Afghanistan, particularly in the backdrop of domestic economic crises amongst many long-standing donors,” said the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Turner.

For the estimated 1.8 billion Muslims in the world, Afghanistan is not the only humanitarian emergency in need of assistance. From Yemen to Syria to Somalia, many majority Muslim countries face natural and/or human-caused disasters requiring urgent humanitarian responses.

The U.N. and other international aid organizations are more effective in asking for funds in the Western countries than in countries where the civil society is restricted or controlled by the state, according to Jens Rudbeck, a professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs.

“It’s easier for Western countries to provide funds because they already have organizational infrastructure in place, so they can direct the money into that,” Rudbeck told VOA, adding that despite the existence of some international Islamic relief organizations, their funding and infrastructural resources are limited.

The shortage of funding in response to the needs in Afghanistan is likely to compound human suffering there. Out of desperation, some Afghans have reportedly sold their organs and even their children.

VOA

The VOA is the Voice of America

 

Ukrainian firefighters battle a blaze following a Russia air strike on an energy facility in Rivne on October 22. Photo Credit: State Emergency Service of Ukraine, RFE/RL

‘Wide-Scale’ Russian Attacks Target Ukraine’s Energy Grid, Leaving Millions Without Electricity

 October 24, 2022  RFE RL  0 Comments

By RFE RL

(RFE/RL) — Russia has launched new, “wide scale” missile strikes on Ukraine’s civilian energy sites, causing power outages nationwide, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said in his regular video address late on October 22.

Moscow says its forces continued to launch attacks against Ukraine’s energy and military infrastructure over the last 24 hours.

Ukrainian authorities say nearly 1.5 million households across the country have been left without electricity.

But Zelenskiy said most of the Russian missiles and drones were being shot down, reiterating an earlier statement by the Ukrainian military that it had downed 18 out of 33 cruise missiles launched from the air and sea on October 22.

“Of course we don’t yet have the technical ability to knock down 100 percent of the Russian missiles and strike drones. I am sure that, gradually, we will achieve that, with help from our partners,” Zelenskiy said.

Russia has intensified its strikes on Ukraine’s power stations, water supply systems, and other key infrastructure over the past two weeks.

The areas targeted by the latest strikes include Khmelnytskiy and Lutsk in the country’s west and the central city of Uman.

Khmelnytskiy, which was home to some 275,000 people before the war, was left with no electricity, shortly after local media reported several loud explosions on October 22, regional officials said.

Uman, which had some 100,000 residents before the war, was also plunged into darkness after a rocket hit a nearby power station.

In Lutsk, a city of 215,000, electricity had been partially knocked out after Russian missiles slammed into local energy facilities, according to local officials.

Authorities in Khmelnytskiy and Lutsk urged residents to store water, “in case it’s also gone.”

Air strikes and power disruptions were also reported from Odesa in the south, the central city of Dnipro, and Zaporizhzhya in the country’s southeast.

The national energy company, Ukrenerho, continued to urge all Ukrainians to conserve energy.

In his address later on October 22, Zelenskiy said authorities had managed to restore power in multiple regions where electricity had been cut off as a result of the attack.

“The main target of the terrorists is energy,” he said.

In the capital, Kyiv, and surrounding regions rolling blackouts came into effect on October 22 in response to the reduced power supplies.

Ukrainian officials said about 40 percent of the country’s electric power system has been severely damaged since Russia increased attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure.

Zelenskiy had earlier said 30 percent of Ukraine’s power stations have been destroyed by Russian strikes since October 10.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal warned that the intensifying missile and drone strikes will create a new wave of refugees from Ukraine.

“If there is no more electricity, no more heating, no more water in Ukraine, this can trigger a new migration tsunami,” he told the October 23 edition of Germany’s broadsheet Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said on October 23 that it destroyed a large ammunition depot in Ukraine’s central Cherkasy region that according to the ministry was storing over 100,000 tons of aviation fuel for the Ukrainian Air Force.

The ministry also said in a daily briefing that Russian forces had repelled Ukrainian counteroffensives along the frontlines in southern and eastern Ukraine. 

The claims cannot be independently verified. 

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Moscow had concerns Ukraine could use a “dirty bomb” in the conflict, without providing evidence to support his suggestion.

Shoigu made the comment during a phone conversation with his French counterpart, Sebastien Lecornu, on October 23, according to Russian news agencies. 

Shoigu was quoted as saying that the situation in Ukraine was rapidly deteriorating and trending toward “uncontrolled escalation.”