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  • Africa Taken for Neo-Colonial Ride — Global Issues

    Africa Taken for Neo-Colonial Ride — Global Issues

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    • Opinion by Jomo Kwame Sundaram, Anis Chowdhury (sydney and kuala lumpur)
    • Inter Press Service

    SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Jul 26 (IPS) – Like so many others, Africans have long been misled. Alleged progress under imperialism has long been used to legitimize exploitation. Meanwhile, Western colonial powers have been replaced by neo-colonial governments and international institutions serving their interests.

    ‘Shithole’ pots of gold
    US President Donald Trump’s “shitholes”, mainly in Africa, were and often still are ‘pots of gold’ for Western interests. From 1445 to 1870, Africa was the major source of slave labour, especially for Europe’s ‘New World’ in the Americas.

    Anis ChowdhuryWalter Rodney’s How Europe Underdeveloped Africa noted “colonised Africans, like pre-colonial African chattel slaves, were pushed around into positions which suited European interests and which were damaging to the African continent and its peoples.”

    The ‘scramble for Africa’ from the late nineteenth century saw European powers racing to secure raw materials monopolies through direct colonialism. Western powers all greatly benefited from Africa’s plunder and ruin.

    European divide-and-conquer tactics typically also had pliant African collaborators. Colonial powers imposed taxes and forced labour to build infrastructure to enable raw material extraction.

    Racist ideologies legitimized European imperialism in Africa as a “civilizing mission”. Oxford-trained, former Harvard history professor Niall Ferguson – an unabashed apologist for Western imperialism – insists colonialism laid the foundations for modern progress.

    Richest, but poorest and hungriest!
    A recent blog asks, “Why is the continent with 60% of the world’s arable land unable to feed itself? … And how did Africa go from a relatively self-sufficient food producer in the 1970s to an overly dependent food importer by 2022?”

    Deeper analyses of such uncomfortable African realities seem to be ignored by analysts influenced by the global North, especially the Washington-based international financial institutions. UNCTAD’s 2022 Africa report is the latest to disappoint.

    Jomo Kwame SundaramIt does not guide African governments on how to actually implement its long list of recommendations given their limited policy space, resources and capabilities. Worse, their proposals seem indistinguishable from an Africa-oriented version of the discredited neoliberal Washington Consensus.

    With 30% of the world’s mineral resources and the most precious metal reserves on Earth, Africa has the richest concentration of natural resources – oil, copper, diamonds, bauxite, lithium, gold, tropical hardwood forests and fruits.

    Yet, Africa remains the poorest continent, with the average per capita output of most countries worth less than $1,500 annually! Of 46 least developed countries, 33 are in Africa – more than half the continent’s 54 nations.

    Africa remains the world’s least industrialized region, with only South Africa categorized as industrialized. Incredibly, Africa’s share of global manufacturing fell from about 3% in 1970 to less than 2% in 2013.

    About 60% of the world’s arable land is in Africa. A net food exporter until the 1970s, the continent has become a net importer. Structural adjustment reform conditionalities – requiring trade liberalization – have cut tariff revenue, besides undermining import-substituting manufacturing and food security.

    Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 24% of the world’s hungry. Africa is the only continent where the number of undernourished people has increased over the past four decades. About 27.4% of Africa’s population was ‘severely food insecure’ in 2016.

    In 2020, 281.6 million Africans were undernourished, 82 million more than in 2000! Another 46 million became hungry during the pandemic. Now, Ukraine sanctions on wheat and fertilizer exports most threaten Africa’s food security, in both the short and medium-term.

    Structural adjustment
    Many of Africa’s recent predicaments stem from structural adjustment programs (SAPs) much of Africa and Latin America have been subjected to from the 1980s. The Washington-based international financial institutions, the African Development Bank and all donors support the SAPs.

    SAP advocates promised foreign direct investment and export growth would follow, ensuring growth and prosperity. Now, many admit neoliberalism was oversold, ensuring the 1980s and 1990s were ‘lost decades’, worsened by denial of its painfully obvious consequences.

    Instead, ‘extraordinarily disadvantageous geography’, ‘high ethnic diversity’, the ‘natural resource curse’, ‘bad governance’, corrupt ‘rent-seeking’ and armed conflicts have been blamed. Meanwhile, however, colonial and neo-colonial abuse, exploitation and resource plunder have been denied.

    While World Bank SAPs were officially abandoned in the late 1990s following growing criticism, replacements – such as Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers – have been like “old wine in new bottles”. Although purportedly ‘home-grown’, they typically purvey bespoke versions of SAPs.

    With trade liberalization and greater specialization, many African countries are now more dependent on fewer export commodities. With more growth spurts during commodity booms, African economies have become even more vulnerable to external shocks.

    Can the West be trusted?
    Earlier, G7 countries reneged on their 2005 Gleneagles pledge – to give $25 billion more yearly to Africa to ‘Make Poverty History’ – within the five years they gave themselves. Since then, developed countries have delivered far less than the $100 billion of climate finance annually they had promised developing nations in 2009.

    The Hamburg G20’s 2017 ‘Compact with Africa’ (CwA) promised to combat poverty and climate change effects. In fact, CwA has been used to promote the business interests of donor countries, particularly Germany.

    Primarily managed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, CwA has actually failed to deliver significant foreign investment, instead sowing confusion among participating countries.

    Powerful Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development governments successfully blocked developing countries’ efforts at the 2015 Addis Ababa UN conference on financing for development for inclusive UN-led international tax cooperation and to stem illicit financial outflows.

    Africa lost $1.2–1.4 trillion in illicit financial flows between 1980 and 2009 – about four times its external debt in 2013. This greatly surpasses total official development assistance received over the same period.

    Africa must unite
    Under Nelson Mandela’s leadership, Africa had led the fight for the ‘public health exception’ to international intellectual property law. Although Africa suffers most from ‘vaccine apartheid’, Western lobbyists blocked developing countries’ temporary waiver request to affordably meet pandemic needs.

    African solidarity is vital to withstand pressures from powerful foreign governments and transnational corporations. African nations must also cooperate to build state capabilities to counter the neoliberal ‘good governance’ agenda.

    Africa needs much more policy space and state capabilities, not economic liberalization and privatization. This is necessary to unlock critical development bottlenecks and overcome skill and technical limitations.

    IPS UN Bureau


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    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service



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  • Africa Taken for Neo-Colonial Ride — Global Issues

    Both UK & Congo Think They’re Climate Leaders COP26s Fallout Shows How Far Adrift They Are — Global Issues

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    • Opinion by Irene Wabiwa Betoko (kinshasa)
    • Inter Press Service

    KINSHASA, Jul 26 (IPS) – The writer is the International Project Leader for the Congo Basin Forest, Greenpeace AfricaFrom the fall-out of the pandemic to the interlocking cost of living and energy security crises currently gripping the world, it has been fascinating to see the world’s richest governments bending over backwards to help fossil fuel companies.

    Meanwhile households are battling a cost of living crisis while the climate crisis is raging on, threatening lives and livelihoods everywhere – from north to south.

    After oil demand and prices briefly fell during the lockdowns of 2020, we’re seeing Big Oil enjoying unprecedented war-time profits, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine drives up prices. Recall BP’s boss Bernard Looney crassly comparing his company to a “cash machine”.

    This latest boon for fossil fuel companies makes the pledges from last year’s COP26 climate talks in Glasgow seem like a distant memory. Indeed, a £420m ($500m) deal for the Democratic Republic of Congo has become increasingly useless in protecting its forests, with oil companies set to cash in and eventually paved the way for more forest destruction.

    The DRC, home to most territory of the world’s second largest rainforest, prides itself in being a “solution country” for the climate crisis. However, the country, which already sees deforestation rates second only to Brazil, has already stated last year its intention to lift a 20 year ban on new logging concessions.

    As of April this year, the DRC is set on trashing huge areas of the rainforest and peatland and – as of this week – it’s set to auction no less than 27 oil and three gas blocks.

    Oil exploration and extraction would not only have devastating impacts on the health and livelihoods of local communities, but the oil driven “resource curse” raises the risk of corruption and conflict.

    This auction also is sacrificing at least four parts of a mega-peatland complex, often labelled a carbon bomb, along with at least nine Protected Areas (contrary to denials by the Congolese Oil Ministry).

    Following the enlargement of the auction this week, it also poses a direct threat (https://www.ft.com/content/5ea6f899-bb55-478f-a14a-a6dd37aae724) to the Virunga National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site made famous thanks to a Netflix documentary on a previous campaign to keep the oil industry out of it.

    Instead of steering us into a climate catastrophe,the international community must stop serving as the handmaiden of Big Oil. Instead, let’s see them focus on ending energy poverty by supporting clean, decentralised renewable energies. Whether it’s the cost of living crisis unfolding on our doorsteps or climate destruction sweeping the globe – the solutions are the same.

    Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi must abandon the colonial notion of development through extractivism and look at its legacy in Africa, which has only deepened poverty and hardship for Africans. It has only served to enrich a small and closed circle of local beneficiaries and foreign nations.

    It is telling that Africa’s largest oil producer, Nigeria, is also the one with the highest number of people suffering extreme poverty (just behind India) and with the highest number of people without access to electricity. Instead of following an economic model that hurts both people and nature, the DRC should resist pressures from greedy multinationals and prioritise connecting 72 million of its people to the grid.

    You can bet Big Oil is salivating at the chance to seize yet more profits from climate destruction. Yet shamefully, none of the eight members who are part of the Central African Forest Initiative that is paying £420m of taxpayers’ money to protect DRC’s forests – the UK, the EU, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, South Korea – have uttered one word against this prospective oil auction.

    That’s not surprising, given the “forest protection” deal does nothing to prevent oil activity in peatlands or anywhere else.

    As Boris Johnson approaches his final weeks in office, his own environmental legacy and that of the COP26 risk being all targets, no action. Speeches are made and press releases are disseminated, while the rights of vulnerable people everywhere are being run over by short-sighted extractive industries.

    Instead, I would like to see donor countries like the UK government, as host of the COP26 and one of the chief architects behind the DRC forest protection deal, to work with my country to move beyond the model of destructive extractivism and leapfrog towards a future of renewable and clean energy for all.

    IPS UN Bureau


    Follow IPS News UN Bureau on Instagram

    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service



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  • Issues, concerns over INEC’s Continuous Voter Registration exercise | The Guardian Nigeria News

    Issues, concerns over INEC’s Continuous Voter Registration exercise | The Guardian Nigeria News

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    Get right tools, more personnel, experts urge commission
    Come next Sunday July 31, the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) exercise being undertaken by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) will be rounded off. As the exercise draws to a close, more eligible voters are still trooping to registration centres to beat the deadline.

    The electoral commission recently declared that it has registered more than 10million new voters. At no time in the past 23 years of Nigeria’s fourth republic democracy has the enthusiasm to participate in the electoral process been as high as the current dispensation.

    A lot of factors could explain the surge of new voters, including innovations devised by the electoral commission and the socio-political consciousness among the otherwise lethargic youth population.

    Investigation by The Guardian revealed that many Nigerians of voting age are yet to get registered, even as INEC has pegged the deadline for its ongoing Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) for July 31, 2022.

    Some civil society organisations, particularly Like Mind4 A New Nigeria, are not impressed by the electoral commission’s attempt to stop registration of voters seven months to the 2023 General Elections.

    In a statement by its national coordinator, Benedict Aguele, LikeMinds condemned the July 31 deadline, stressing that it amounts to “an attempt to disenfranchise millions of Nigerians.”

    While insisting that it would be premature to end the CVR on July 31, the group said the exercise is being terminated too early before the country can reap its full benefits, just as they demanded that INEC reverse its decision and continue with it until November 2022, which will be 90 days before the General Election.

    But, knowing the predilection of Nigerians to wait for the last minute, some commentators noted that the CVR should not be endless, especially against the backdrop that INEC had already indicated that those already captured would have to wait till about two months to the election to collect their Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs).

    However, experts and members of the human rights community have called on INEC to deploy the right equipment and engage more ad hoc staff to ensure, not only the smooth registration of voters, but also that no Nigerian is disenfranchised in the 2023 election.

    In the past, the Commission had decried the low number of voter registration since the Continuous Voter Registration exercise commenced in the last election, but with the sudden surge in voter registration, it seems that the electoral umpire was caught off-guard.

    It is possible that INEC did not see it coming, not minding that it had planned for the CVR as part of its activities towards a successful 2023 general election. Nonetheless. The Commission did not envisage the surge in the number of mostly young people eager to participate in the exercise this time around.

    It is based on this surge that Nigerians have urged INEC to deploy additional registration machines and workers to tackle the teeming numbers of prospective voters at some of the congested Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) centres in the country.

    The convener of Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), Comrade Emmanuel Onwubiko, told The Guardian that “The Independent National Electoral Commission has done the right thing by extending the periods of registration of voters.”

    [FILE PHOTO] Emmanuel Onwubiko, National Co-ordinator OF HURIWA

    “However,” he noted, “it is shocking that despite the huge amounts of money released to INEC that it still lacks the basic facilities to capture and register voters; and it is sad that now that prospective voters are ready to be registered and are energised to present themselves to obtain their permanent voter cards that INEC has so far not displayed a fair amount of positive and constructive response to the massive interests being shown by Nigerians who now want to get registered.

    “It is also not a good idea for INEC to have started registration of voters within just a year before such a major election calendar instead of letting prospective voters who wish to be registered to do that at anytime of their chosen.

    “INEC should ensure that the right kind of facilities and personnel are made available and then increase the numbers of their trained staff to carry out these activities including the engagement of ad hoc NYSC members to be involved in this and of course those who are deployed for these jobs must be patriotic and law abiding and must never be used for ethnic or religious agenda of either under registering or over registering prospective Nigerians. Those who are causing undue delay and sabotaging the ongoing registration of voters should be arrested, prosecuted, published, named and shamed.

    “INEC should get the right kind of equipment to do this all important registration of voters because it is clear that INEC is now unable to match the influx of prospective voters that are now turning out to be registered and the complaints are also coming up of some malpractices of not actually carrying out the exercise in some places or that some persons from some ethnicities and religions are not being permitted to present themselves for registration.

    “The law enforcement agents should be drafted and they must ensure that nobody in Nigeria is denied registration based on the person’s ethnic or religious affiliations.  INEC should also look at strategies and ways to keep the registration open till when the elections are to take place, so nobody is disenfranchised.”

    On his part, Public affairs analyst, Mr. Frank Oshanugo urged INEC to engage more efficient hands and set up more registration centres.

    Oshanugo stated: “My take on the snail speed of the voter registration exercise is that INEC should engage more efficient hands and set up more registration centres in areas of large population.  INEC staff should also be regular and punctual in attendance while security personnel should be deployed to engage in crowd control in densely populated registration centres.”

    Also, a human rights crusader, Comrade Akaraka Chinweike Ezeonara, contended that the solution for the snail-pace registration is for INEC to hire some more ad-hoc manpower beyond their present day workers to quickly address the challenge of numerous unregistered eligible voters.

    “INEC should not disenfranchise any Nigerian of voting age his/her civic engagement or responsibilities.  My counsel to INEC regarding this is for it to vigorously defend its integrity as umpire. It should be proactive and objective with the issue of speedy registration/conduct of elections. They should ensure a hitch free, rancor free process so that they can be seen as real independent body established to conduct elections without bias.”

    When The Guardian visited the Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC) INEC registration centre at Diplomats park, Area One, it was observed that prospective registrants were seated orderly for registration with all 10 machines deployed for the exercise in good use.

    Narrating his experience, one Keziah Joseph, said: “I did not spend much time in processing of registration. I came on Friday and registered my name, when I came back on Monday my name was called and I went for the registration; it was very easy for me”.

    Festus Okoye

    Another candidate at the centre, Hassan Mohammed, commended INEC for extending registration date, saying it enabled him to register to vote for his preferred candidates come 2023.

    From Mohammed’s remarks, it is obvious that the socio-economic situation in the country as well as improvements in the electoral system have motivated Nigerians to participate en masse in the electoral process.

    An official of INEC at the centre, who pleaded anonymity, praised citizens for conducting themselves properly in the ongoing registration, adding that 10 registration Machines were made available to tackle the number. He disclosed that six machines were deployed specifically for new registrants, while four others were set aside for those that registered online and transfers.

    It could be recalled that INEC extended the CVR exercise by two weeks following a Federal High Court order.

    The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and 185 other concerned Nigerians had approached the court praying for an order mandating INEC to extend the CVR beyond its earlier fixed June 30 deadline.

    In a statement, the Commission’s spokesman, Festus Okoye, last Friday, disclosed that having run the exercise for almost two weeks after the initial date was fixed, the CVR will officially close on July 31.

    Okoye stated: “The Court has affirmed that INEC is at liberty to appoint a date of its choice to suspend the CVR, provided it is not later than 90 days before the date fixed for the General Election as provided in Sec. 9(6) of the Electoral Act 2022.

    “In compliance with the interim injunction of the Court pending the determination of the substantive suit, and to enable more Nigerians to register, the Commission continued with the CVR beyond 30th June 2022. For this reason, the CVR has already been extended beyond 30th June 2022 for a period of 15 days.”

    He said the extension was expected to last till Sunday July 31, 2022, noting that that would bring the total duration of the extension to 31 days. Okoye explained that to accommodate many of the applicants, INEC made some adjustments in the CVR operation.

    His words: “The exercise has been extended to include Saturdays and Sundays as against only weekdays spanning eight hours daily from 9.00am – 5.00pm instead of the former duration of six hours (9.00am – 3.00pm) daily.”

    “We appreciate that the timeframe may be tight for many prospective registrants, but there is a lot that the Commission is required to do under the electoral legal framework in relation to voter registration and compilation of the register that will require time to accomplish.”

    It is hoped that when the exercise comes to an end in this instance, more voters would have been added to the register.



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  • Africa Taken for Neo-Colonial Ride — Global Issues

    Landmark guidelines aim to protect children uprooted by climate change — Global Issues

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    The Guiding Principles for Children on the Move in the Context of Climate Change contain a set of nine principles that address the unique and layered vulnerabilities of boys and girls who have been uprooted, whether internally or across borders, as a result of the adverse impacts of climate change. 

    They were launched by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Georgetown University in Washington, DC, and the United Nations University (UNU), located in Tokyo, Japan.

    Safeguarding future generations 

    The partners explained that currently, most child-related migration policies do not consider climate and environmental factors, while most climate change policies overlook the unique needs of children. 

    “The climate emergency has and will continue to have profound implications for human mobility. Its impacts will be most severe with particular segments of our communities such as children; we cannot endanger future generations,” said António Vitorino, the IOM Director General.  

    He added that although migrant children are particularly vulnerable when moving in the context of climate change, their needs and aspirations are still overlooked in policy debates.  

    “With these guiding principles we aim to ensure visibility to their needs and rights, both in policy debates and programming. Managing migration and addressing displacement of children in the context of climate change, environmental degradation and disasters, is an immense challenge that we must address now.” 

    Young lives at risk  

    Climate change is intersecting with existing environmental, social, political, economic and demographic conditions that are contributing to people’s decisions to move. 

    Nearly 10 million children were displaced following weather-related shocks in 2020 alone. Additionally, nearly half of the world’s 2.2 billion children, or roughly one billion boys and girls, live in 33 countries at high risk of the impacts of climate change.   

    The partners warn that millions more children could be forced to move in the coming years. 

    “Every day, rising sea levels, hurricanes, wildfires, and failing crops are pushing more and more children and families from their homes,” said Catherine Russell, the UNICEF Executive Director.

    “Displaced children are at greater risk of abuse, trafficking, and exploitation. They are more likely to lose access to education and healthcare. And they are frequently forced into early marriage and child labour.”  

    Children walk through the mud in a displaced persons camp in Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria.

    © UNICEF/KC Nwakalor

    Children walk through the mud in a displaced persons camp in Maiduguri in northeast Nigeria.

    Collaboration with young activists 

    The guiding principles provide national and local governments, international organizations, and civil society groups with a foundation to build policies that protect children’s rights. 

    They were developed in collaboration with young climate and migration activists, academics, experts, policymakers, practitioners, and UN agencies.  The principles are based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and are informed by existing operational guidelines and frameworks. 

    David Passarelli of UNU recalled that the international community has been sounding the alarm on climate change and environmental degradation for years, as well as the likelihood of mass displacement.  

    These predictions have come true as climate-related migration has been observed in all parts of the world, with children increasingly affected. 

    “While these children benefit from a range of international and national protections, the subject matter is highly technical and difficult to access, creating a protection deficit for child migrants,” said Mr. Passarelli, Executive Director of the university’s Centre for Policy Research. 

    He added that the partners have stressed the need for concise guidelines that communicate risks, protections and rights, in clear and accessible language. 

    Protection today and tomorrow 

    The Guiding Principles “were developed with this specific objective in mind. This tool helps navigate the complex nexus of migrant rights, children’s rights, and climate change in order to respond more quickly and effectively to the needs of children on the move in the context of climate change.”  

    Governments, local and regional actors, international organizations, and civil society groups are being urged to embrace the principles. 

    While the new framework does not include new legal obligations, they distill and leverage key principles that have already been affirmed in international law and adopted by governments around the world, said Elizabeth Ferris, Director of Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of International Migration.  

    “We urge all governments to review their policies in light of the guiding principles and take measures now that will ensure children on the move in the face of climate change are protected today and in the future.” 



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  • An Integrated Regional Response for the Sahel Crisis — Global Issues

    An Integrated Regional Response for the Sahel Crisis — Global Issues

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    An Integrated Regional Response for the Sahel Crisis — Global Issues
    Benoit Thierry
    • Opinion by Benoit Thierry (dakar, senegal)
    • Inter Press Service

    DAKAR, Senegal, Jul 25 (IPS) – Benoit Thierry, is Sahel Office Director of International Fund for Agriculture Development, DakarThe current Ukraine-Russia conflict is dominating the global media to the point of overshadowing longer protracted crisis that no longer make headlines, but are still rife. Such is the case with the on-going Sahel crisis, one of the world’s most neglected ones, where acute poverty, the dramatic effects of climate change and rising armed conflicts have become the norm for more than a decade. A situation further exacerbated by the on-going COVID-19 pandemic.

    An Integrated Regional Response for the Sahel Crisis — Global Issues
    Benoit ThierryThe Sahel region, known for its nomadic herders and resilient agriculture systems, spans 6000 km across a dozen of countries south of the Sahara desert, which include Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Chad for a population of approximately 150 million. They share a common geography, a similar climate and way of life, but they are also among the poorest countries in the world, ranking last in the Human Development Index. According to the UN Refugee Agency, the region counts more than 4.6 million people who have lost their home today, including 2.7 million people who are internally displaced and running away from conflict and drought. They no longer have a livelihood and need to rely on humanitarian aid for their survival.

    However, as vital as it is, humanitarian aid cannot provide a long-term solution. More coordinated responses that address the underlying causes of the crisis are required. For this reason, the three UN agencies specialised in food and agriculture, namely the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the World Food Programme (WFP), have joined forces with the G5 Sahel, the regional organisation established in 2014 by the five most affected Sahel countries. Together and with the participation of Senegal, they have launched a US$180 million programme to improve the livelihoods and economic means of rural producers in the region and scale up successful pilot activities. Through it, a common approach is implemented, capitalizing on rural development work of past decades, particularly in supporting farmers and herders’ associations.

    At IFAD we have a long experience working with rural producers in the region, however, until now, we tended to implement programmes nationally, in agreement with national governments. Currently, IFAD is financing 20 programmes and projects in G5 Sahel countries plus Senegal for a total of US$1 billion.

    With the existence of regional Sahel organisations, we can now focus our efforts at regional level, knowing that many of the issues cut across national borders, and work in partnership with all the governments and international agencies concerned. This is for the benefit of the poorest, which is the purpose of the joint Sahel programme, known as the Regional Joint Programme Sahel in Response to the Challenges of COVID-19, Conflict and Climate Change (SD3C). In addition to financing, IFAD is contributing its long experience in implementing agricultural projects at local level, FAO is bringing its in-depth knowledge and research in agriculture, and WFP its expertise working in conflict areas.

    An estimated 25 million people in the Sahel are nomadic pastoralists who are increasingly more desperate to find grazing areas for their cattle herds because of the effect of climate change. As they expand grazing areas into farming land, conflicts with sedentary farmers are on the rise leading to a decline in food production, when at the same time the population is increasing. According to UN forecast, population in the Sahel should more than double to 330 million people by 2050. How will they eat if the issue of food production and productivity is not addressed today through agriculture investment and adequate planning?

    The programme looks to increase food production and yields through climate-resilient agricultural practices, a key aspect in a region where 80 percent of agriculture is estimated to be affected by climate change. With climate experts forecasting temperatures in the region, currently averaging 35 degrees Celsius, to rise by at least 3 degrees by 2050, there is even more urgency to implement climate resilient measures today.

    Beyond the key issue of agriculture, the programme is also focussing on promoting cross-border trade and transactions and peace building at community level. Women, who typically have limited access to land and finance, are making up to 50 per cent of the programme’s participants. About 40 per cent are young people, who face high rates of unemployment and receive help in launching productive activities to create jobs and generate decent incomes. Landless people and transhumant pastoralists also benefit. The overall strategy is designed to meet the challenges of emergency, development and peace following a rapid intervention approach based on the scaling up of existing and efficient responses and approaches. Under implementation since 2021, the program will continue up to 2027 and expand to other countries in the Sahel region.

    IPS UN Bureau


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    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service



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  • Sri Lanka’s new president quickly issues sweeping crackdown on protests

    Sri Lanka’s new president quickly issues sweeping crackdown on protests

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    Ranil Wickremesinghe is the interim president of Sri Lanka per a parliamentary vote, after an unprecedented popular protest brought down former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s administration. But while naming an interim president may help the country manage some of its staggering debt, it’s unlikely to bring about the kinds of change protesters demand.

    Gotabaya appointed Wickremesinghe prime minister in May after his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned from the post during the protests. Now, Wickremesinghe — who served as prime minister five previous times and was also finance minister during his most recent term — will serve as president until the country holds a popular vote in 2024.

    Wickremesinghe’s closeness with the Rajapaksa clan — Gotabaya and Mahinda, who was president from 2005 to 2015; their brother Basil, the former finance minister; their brother Chamal, who has held multiple posts; and Mahinda’s son Namal, who served as sports minister under Gotabaya — has made him unpopular with protesters.

    That’s with good reason; on Friday, just two days after Wickremesinghe secured the presidency, police and security forces conducted a violent pre-dawn raid on the main protest encampment in Galle Face, as Amnesty International reported.

    According to the report, the police, special forces, and military staged “a massive joint operation” on the GotaGoGama camp at the Presidential Secretariat — the office of the President of Sri Lanka. Protesters have been staying in tents there since April and were due to vacate parts of the encampment Friday; however, around 1 am local time, security forces descended on the camp with no warning, after having blocked off the encampment’s egresses.

    “There were about 200-300 demonstrators at that time, I would say,” one eyewitness told Amnesty. “Suddenly [the forces] came out from [behind] the barricades and totally destroyed and broke down the tents. There were enough police and military to swamp the area. The police and especially the army beat up peaceful protesters.”

    Amnesty reported at least 50 injured and nine arrested, although activist and attorney Swasthika Arulingam, who’s been involved in the protests in Colombo since March, told Vox that only eight were arrested, all of whom had been bailed out as of noon Eastern time Saturday.

    “We need to reorganize the struggle,” Arulingam told Vox. “People are shaken.”

    Though protesters achieved the unthinkable — getting the Rajapaksas out of leadership despite nearly two decades in power — concerns remain about Wickremesinghe’s ties to the previous administration.

    Financial stability requires political stability

    Wickremesinghe is a longtime political actor who’s held many positions in Sri Lanka’s government. Although he is the head of the United National Party (UNP), the Rajapaksas’ Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) backed him in the parliamentary election to secure his position as the interim president of Sri Lanka.

    Wickremesinghe’s main priority as president is — or should be — helping the country refinance its massive, unsustainable debt and secure loans from the International Monetary Fund, as well as implementing crucial economic reforms to ensure that the economy remains stable in the decades to come. “These are reforms Sri Lanka has been talking about for decades, has been unable to execute, but will have to be now implemented,” Constantino Xavier, a fellow with the Foreign Policy and Security at the Centre for Social and Economic Progress in New Delhi and a nonresident fellow with the India Project at the Brookings Institution told the Brookings Institution’s podcast The Current on Friday. “Reforms in terms of the labor sector, in terms of the public sector companies that still have monopolies in various sectors, from the energy [to] the port sector in Sri Lanka.”

    Wickremesinghe, Xavier said, is “the only individual that has emerged as satisfying different actors” including the IMF and Sri Lanka’s Western creditors who are critical to helping Sri Lanka refinance its debt. “Ranil Wickremesinghe is generally seen as a technocrat that is quite popular in particular with the Western countries that play an influential role here,” Xavier said, although he acknowledged that Wickremesinghe is deeply unpopular with protesters.

    Despite his unpopularity, though, Sri Lanka needs a measure of political stability to continue negotiations with the IMF, the previous session of which concluded in late June, while Gotabaya was still in charge. “I think getting a president in place means you restart the process right away; I think that will be top of the list,” Tamanna Salikuddin, director of South Asia programs at the US Institute of Peace, told Vox in an interview last week.

    On Monday, before he was elected interim president and just after he declared a state of emergency, Wickremesinghe announced that IMF talks were near their conclusion and that “discussions for assistance with foreign countries were also progressing,” Reuters reported last week, quoting a press release from Wickremesinghe’s office.

    The protest movement started over disastrous financial policy under the Rajapaksas, built on the back of their rapacious consolidation of power and dismantling of democratic institutions, as Xavier explained on Friday’s podcast. “They have centralized power politically that has come with some benefits: obviously, that the country has been led with a strong, for some people, authoritarian streak and very decisive governance, but at the same time also the weakening of critical institutions like the Central Bank of Sri Lanka,” he told The Current host Adrianna Pitta. “So therefore when you are progressively over 10, 20 years weakening those governance structures, and the Central Bank of Sri Lanka I mentioned […] because it is really the heart of the financial crisis of the country that has taken on loans without much scrutiny on the sustainability of refinancing mechanisms.”

    Though tackling the approximately $51 billion in debt that Sri Lanka owes is the first priority for its government, looking forward it’s not clear how Sri Lanka can build a sustainable economy when its tourism industry is decimated due to Covid-19, and its agriculture sector due to failed policies.

    “There’s been one body blow after another,” Salikuddin said, referring not only to Covid-19 but also to a 2019 series of bombings at churches celebrating Easter and Russia’s war on Ukraine. “Now, with the collapse, you have countries all over the world issuing safety travel notices, so I don’t see tourism coming back any time, at the same rates that they’re hoping for.”

    Will the Rajapaksas face justice?

    Despite the turmoil Sri Lankans have endured under Gotabaya and his family — chiefly the lack of medicine, basic food supplies, and fuel as well as a disastrous ban on importing chemical fertilizers, which decimated Sri Lanka’s agricultural sector — the Rajapaksas and their cronies might never be held to account.

    They have thus far evaded culpability for alleged human rights abuses during the end of the 30-year civil war between ethnic Tamil militants fighting for a homeland in the north of Sri Lanka and the country’s Sinhalese majority. Mahinda was president in 2009 when the war ended, and Gotabaya was his defense minister; during his time in that role, in the final months of the war, according to a UN panel report, the Sri Lankan military was alleged to have committed atrocities including sexual violence, forced disappearances, and killing of Tamil civilians, claims that the Sri Lankan government denied at the time.

    “I think it’s really interesting to think how the Rajapaksas came to power,” Salikuddin told Vox. “They crushed — with a lot of allegations of human rights violations and war crimes — crushed the Tamils, and that led them to power on this Sinhalese nationalism, Buddhist nationalism wave. So they could tell the majority Buddhist nationalists, ‘Look, we ended this 30-year civil war. We won.’ And the Sinhalese, Buddhist nationalists were okay looking the other way.”

    However, for Tamil and other sidelined minorities, “I think the wounds are still existent,” Salikuddin told Vox. “There’s never been any truth and reconciliation, there’s never been any [addressing] of all the missing persons, or of the war crimes of the Rajapaksas.”

    As of now, Gotabaya is in Singapore, but only on a temporary basis. Thus far, he hasn’t asked for or been granted asylum, the Straits Times reports, so it’s unclear how long he plans to stay.

    Mahinda and his son Namal, the former sports minister who Bloomberg reports is being groomed for a future in political leadership, will not leave Sri Lanka, an unnamed aide told Al Jazeera last week. Meanwhile, Basil, the former finance minister and the brother of Mahinda and Gotabaya, was reportedly turned back at the airport by officials, according to Bloomberg.

    In the immediate term, though the protests have been significant and sustained, and have brought about some victories, “much of what we’ve seen in terms of the protests in Colombo and international media is actually a very urban progressive elite that is on the streets, that is asking for a fundamental reset of the country,” Xavier said, adding that “the majority of the Sri Lankan electorate, I would risk, is still behind the Rajapaksas. This is the conservative, rural, southern vote of the majority ethnic group called the Sinhala group. So therefore, no solution in Sri Lanka can happen without that popular support, particularly when the very painful reforms period will begin in a few months.”

    Furthermore, the fact that crackdowns have already begun two days into Wickremesinghe’s tenure, despite the fact that the protests have been largely peaceful, doesn’t bode well for the future. When asked if she thought the Rajapaksa dynasty would face justice for the downfall of the Sri Lankan economy, Arulingam said, “Not anytime soon.”

    Correction, 8:20 pm: A previous version of this article misstated Ranil Wickremesinghe’s political affiliation. He is the head of the United National Party.

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  • Africa Taken for Neo-Colonial Ride — Global Issues

    Guterres condemns missile strikes in Ukranian Black Sea port of Odesa — Global Issues

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    “Yesterday, all parties made clear commitments on the global stage to ensure the safe movement of Ukrainian grain and related products to global markets. These products are desperately needed to address the global food crisis and ease the suffering of millions of people in need around the globe. Full implementation by the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Turkey is imperative”, António Guterres said in a statement published by his spokesperson.

    In Instabul, Russian and Ukrainian Ministers signed on Friday the Black Sea Grain Initiative to resume Ukranian grain exports via the Black Sea amid the ongoing war. The agreement is meant to secure the transit of millions of tons of grain.

    The Russian invasion, which began on 24 February, has sparked record food and fuel prices, as well as supply chain issues, with mountains of grain stocks stuck in silos. 

    According to media reports, at least six explosions were heard in Odesa on Saturday morning, and so far is unclear what the strikes were targeting and whether any grain infraestructure was hit. 

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  • East African Countries Seek Cross-border Cooperation to Combat Wildlife Trafficking — Global Issues

    East African Countries Seek Cross-border Cooperation to Combat Wildlife Trafficking — Global Issues

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    East African Countries Seek Cross-border Cooperation to Combat Wildlife Trafficking — Global Issues
    The Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC), the first-ever continent-wide gathering of African leaders, citizens, and interest groups, gathered in Kigali from Monday, Jul 18 to Jul 23 to discuss the role of protected areas in conserving nature. Rwanda hosted the conference in partnership with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the African Wildlife Foundation (AWF). CREDIT: Aimable Twahirwa/IPS
    • by Aimable Twahirwa (kigali)
    • Inter Press Service

    Kigali, Jul 21 (IPS) – For many years, East African countries were considered wildlife trafficking hotspots. Now conservation organisations have started to mobilise all stakeholders to combat the illegal trade that targets animals – some to the edge of extinction.

    “A slight progress has been made in combatting the illicit trade of wildlife and their products, but Governments from the region still face grave challenges posed by the fact that they are mostly single-species focused on their conservation efforts,” Andrew McVey, climate advisor at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) from East African region told IPS.

    According to experts, while countries are committed to cooperation and collaboration to combat poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking within the shared ecosystems, organised criminal networks are cashing in on elephant poaching. Trafficking ivory has reached unprecedented volumes, and syndicates are operating with impunity and little fear of prosecution.

    Delegates at the first Africa Protected Areas Congress (APAC) noted the lack of strict sanctions and penalties for illegal activities and limited disincentives to prevent poaching, trafficking or illicit trade impacted efforts to counter wildlife trafficking across the region. The gathering in Kigali was organised by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

    Fidele Ruzigandekwe, the Deputy Executive Secretary for Programs at the Rwandan-based Greater Virunga Transboundary Collaboration (GVTC), told IPS that sharing information, community empowerment and enforcing laws and judiciary system were among crucial factors needed to slow the illegal trade of wildlife. The GVTC is a conservation NGO working in Greater Virunga Landscape across transborder zones between Rwanda, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

    “There is also a need to rely on technology such as high-tech surveillance devices to combat wildlife poachers and traffickers,” Ruzigandekwe added.

    Elephant tusks are of high value in the Far East, particularly in China, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia, where many use them for ornamentation and religious purposes. Both scientists and activists believe that despite current mobilisation, the demand is still increasing as transnational syndicates involved in wildlife crime are exploiting new technologies and networks to escape from arrests, prosecutions, or convictions

    Although some experts were delighted to note that countries had made some progress in cooperating to fight trans-border wildlife trafficking, estimates by NGO TRAFFIC indicate that about 55 African Elephants are poached on the continent every day.

    INTERPOL has identified East Africa as one of several priority regions for enhanced law enforcement responses to ivory trafficking.

    Reports by the INTERPOL indicate that law enforcement officials recently discovered an illegal shipment of ivory inside shipping containers, primarily from Tanzania. It was to be transported to Asian maritime transit hubs.

    Both scientists and decision-makers unanimously agreed on the need to mobilise more funding to support measures to tackle ivory trafficking.

    “Duplication of conservation efforts and inadequate collaboration among countries has been one of the greatest challenges to implementation,” Simon Kiarie, Principal Tourism Officer at the East African Community (EAC) Secretariat, told IPS.

    To cope with these challenges, member countries of the EAC, including Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Burundi, South Sudan, and Rwanda, have jointly developed a Regional Strategy to Combat Poaching and Illegal Trade and Tra­cking of Wildlife and Wildlife Products which is being implemented at the regional and national levels.

    The strategy revolves around six key pillars, including strengthening policy framework, enhancing law enforcement capacity, research and development, involvement of local communities and supporting regional and international collaboration.

    During a session on the sidelines of the congress, many delegates expressed strong feelings that when the elephant population is threatened by poaching, local communities suffer too.

    “Through the illegal trade in wildlife, local communities lose socially and economically important resources (…) the benefits from illegal wildlife trade are not shared among communities,” Telesphore Ngoga, a conservation analyst at Rwanda Development Board (RDB), a government body with conservation in its mandate told IPS.

    The Rwandan Government introduced a Tourism Revenue Sharing programme in 2005 to share a percentage (currently 10%) of the total tourism park revenues with the communities living around the parks.

    The major purpose of this community initiative is to encourage environmental and wildlife conservation and give back to the communities living near parks, who are socially and economically impacted by wildlife and other touristic endeavours.

    Manasseh Karambizi, a former elephant poacher from Kayonza, a district in Eastern Rwanda, who became a park ranger, told IPS that after being sensitised about the dangers of wildlife hunting, he is now aware of the benefits of wildlife conservation.

    “Thanks to the income generated from tourism activities from the neighbouring national park, communities are benefiting a lot. I am now able to feed my family, and my children are going to school,” the 46-year-old father of five said.

    IPS UN Bureau Report


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    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service



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  • Celsius Had Serious Internal Issues Years Before Bankruptcy, Ex-Executives Say

    Celsius Had Serious Internal Issues Years Before Bankruptcy, Ex-Executives Say

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    Celsius Had Serious Internal Issues Years Before Bankruptcy, Ex-Executives Say

    Former Celsius senior executives have revealed the crypto lending company had been struggling internally for years before going bankrupt, contrary to the firm’s claims that its problems stemmed from the recent market crash.

    Poor Risk Management and Disorganization

    According to the employees, Celsius was disorganized and lacked proper risk management. Internal documents reviewed by CNBC showed that the crypto lender would invest in high-risk crypto projects and borrow money to hedge funds in return for higher yields. The firm would then share the profits with customers.

    Unfortunately, the model failed during the recent market bloodbath induced by Terra’s crash and news about the Fed hiking interest rates.

    “The biggest issue was a failure of risk management. I think Celsius had a good idea, they were providing a service that people really needed, but they weren’t managing risk very well,” Timothy Cradle, Celsius’ former director of financial crimes compliance, said in an interview with CNBC.

    He also claimed that the company also failed to invest in compliance. The former director said he was part of a three-person compliance team at the firm between 2019 and 2021, and the division lacked enough resources to function properly.

    CEL Token Manipulation

    Cradle further revealed that the crypto lender manipulated the price of its native token CEL by “actively trading and increasing the price” of the asset. The “pumping up” of the token was carried out by the company’s executives, who openly discussed it at a Christmas party in 2019.

    “They weren’t shy about it. They were absolutely trading the token to manipulate the price. It came up in two completely different conversations for two completely different reasons,” he said.

    Another Celsius employee who wished to remain anonymous alleged that while Celsius was incentivizing customers to buy CEL, the company’s CEO, Alex Mashinsky, was secretly selling off his tokens.

    The allegations from former Celsius employees align with those of the company’s former money manager Jason Stone, who sued the crypto lender for fraud, lack of proper risk management, and market manipulation.

    Meanwhile, a document from Celsius’s first bankruptcy hearing revealed that about 77% of the crypto assets deposited on the platform belong to the company and not customers.

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  • Africa Taken for Neo-Colonial Ride — Global Issues

    Why a Feudal Culture & Absence of Meritocracy Bankrupted a Nation — Global Issues

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    • Opinion by Charles Seevali Abeysekera (bromley, uk)
    • Inter Press Service

    BROMLEY, UK, Jul 19 (IPS) – Sri Lanka is officially bankrupt and a failed state in all but name. How did a country of 22 million people with a level of literacy on par with most of the developed world end up in such a dire position where the state coffers did not have the measly sum of 20 million dollars to purchase fuel to keep the country functioning beyond the next working day?

    Whilst the vast majority of the population have concluded that the blame for this economic armageddon is due to the gluttony of corruption and greed, instigated and enabled by the Rajapaksa family , its acolytes and sycophantic nodding dogs, my own assessment is different.

    It is a fact that vast sums , amounting to billions of dollars, were indeed stolen and moved overseas through various illegal networks by the Rajapaksa clan and their accomplices.

    Many billions were also squandered on gargantuan white elephant vanity projects in order to glorify the Rajapaksa legacy. However, the seeds for the bankruptcy were sown when the country attained its independence from Great Britain in 1948.

    Sri Lanka proudly proclaims itself as one of the oldest democracies in Asia which has had a functioning democracy since 1948. The democratic process has functioned like it should do and parliamentarians elected as they should be and the leaders who represent the aspirations and values of the people appointed as they should be.

    Why then has the country reached this abyss?

    For democracy to enrich the lives of the people and bring about economic prosperity, two essential and fundamental criteria have to be satisfied. The election of individuals based on merit and the adherence to a universal justice system.

    In the absence of meritocracy and a universal justice system, democracy becomes meaningless – an utterly futile process which will not achieve what it is intended for.

    Meritocracy is however an alien concept in Sri Lanka!

    A universal justice system does not exist in Sri Lanka!

    Meritocracy does not exist in Sri Lanka because the cultural DNA is that of a feudal society. Sri Lankan culture promotes race, religion, nepotism, old school connections, social connections, social influences, political influences and servitude (where one class of people are held in perpetual bondage or servants for life ) over and above the attributes and qualities of the individual.

    That is a primitive mindset and a recipe for disaster.

    In Sri Lanka, people are judged not by the content of their character but by their race, their religion, their socio-economic background, their family connections, the schools they attended, where they live, and who they know. (with apologies to the Rev Martin Luther King for using his words in a manner he did not intend)

    When a society functions in such a feudal manner, such values permeate throughout and has a direct correlation with the workings of the justice system. The justice system replicates the culture and ultimately ends up being not fit for purpose.

    If a justice system is unable to function based on facts and objectivity, the fabric of society slowly starts to tear apart because the checks and balances needed for a society to progress and for nations to grow, slowly start to dissipate.

    Since 1948, Sri Lankan democracy has existed on the basis of nepotism, feudal, racial and religious criteria.

    The feudal culture masquerading as democracy has elected the Senanayake family, the Bandaranaike family, the Premadasa family and the Rajapaksa family into the highest offices of the land.

    The singular qualification that Prime Minister Dudley Senanayake had was that he was the son of the father.

    The singular qualification Prime Minister Mrs Bandaranaike had was that she was the wife of the husband

    The singular qualification President Chandrika B had was that she was the daughter of the father and the mother

    The singular qualification that Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe (now acting President) has is that he is the nephew of President JR Jayewardene.

    The singular qualification that Sajith Premadasa has is that he is the son of the father

    The singular qualification Gotabaya Rajapaksa has is that he is the brother of Mahinda

    The singular qualification Namal has is that he is the son of the father

    The singular qualification Basil has is that he is the brother of Mahinda and Gotabaya.

    The singular qualification Thondaman had was that that he was the son of the father.

    And this is called Democracy?

    This is a banana republic in all but name where Nepotism is the ultimate passport to success – and all done through the ballot box !

    This is a culture of entitlement masquerading as democracy , which in turn has given birth to a nation whose leaders are elected not by the content of their character but by their name and association.

    It is the equivalent of death by a thousand cuts for what has been spawned is a society where quality has been superseded by mediocrity at best and incompetence at worst.

    The end result is the economic armageddon that has destroyed the country.

    When leaders of a nation are elected in such a manner, those who serve them and the very fabric of society itself replicates the structural fault line that promotes feudal nepotistic values. It becomes self-fulfilling, promotes mediocrity, encourages malpractice, and creates a culture of corruption.

    The legal system, which on paper is there to oversee the rule of law, sadly becomes an extension of the structural fault line which then ensures that impunity and immunity against corruption , theft or even murder, becomes standard operating procedure.

    Einstein’s definition of “insanity” is where he states that if we do the same thing over and over again, we end up with the same result. Sri Lanka’s sham democracy since 1948 has been exactly that. A culture based on feudal nepotistic values which enables the same results over and over again.

    The people of Sri Lanka must break this vicious cycle if they are ever to escape from the death spiral they have created for themselves.

    The critical mass of people who have recently demonstrated for structural change and the complete transformation of government and governance, have achieved more in the last few months than most of the corrupt incompetent deluded half-wits in parliament ever will.

    A fundamental new approach to governance based on competence and the rule of law is a pre-requisite to stop Sri Lanka disintegrating into anarchy and chaos.

    Does real democracy exist in Sri Lanka ? No !

    Real democracy in Sri Lanka doesn’t exist because the culture prevents those with real ability and competence from being elected on merit alone. The vast majority of the electorate simply doesn’t understand that real democracy that provides a positive outcome is based on merit, first, second and last.

    It is also unlikely that the majority of the electorate will understand this any time soon.

    Can the country find a leader that replicates Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew ? It is imperative that it does find such a leader who leads by example and who creates a structural transformation of society itself where honesty, integrity and the adherence to the rule of law becomes sacrosanct .

    However, does such a leader exists within the current crop of parliamentarians? If not within in parliament , then where ?

    A leader who will also ensure that all those who have been culpable in this bringing about this catastrophe are forced to change their ways as well as bringing to justice those who have systematically looted and stolen the countries’ wealth – politicians and non-politicians .

    Does a universal justice system exist in Sri Lanka – No !

    A justice system in a secular democracy has to be independent of parliament. The justice system is meant to be independent of state machinery and should not be influenced by state operatives.

    However, in Sri Lanka the parliament overrules and effectively instructs how the justice system should act which in turn makes the whole system corrupt and not fit for purpose.

    The country has huge numbers of legal eagles with more qualifications than they have had hot dinners and who know the finer points of the law better than most in the world.

    However, they are rendered impotent and toothless because they are beholden to the political masters they serve – either through choice or otherwise.

    The corrosive and toxic nature of a feudal culture which promotes false values over merit and the rule of law ensures even the greatest minds of the land are reduced to corrupt sycophantic nodding ponies.

    The legal system in Sri Lanka is also an organised money printing racket where the ordinary citizen or client is entirely at the mercy of the corrupt and dysfunctional bureaucracy.

    Those who operate within the system make the equivalent of monopoly money by effectively fleecing the unsuspecting and manipulating a system that is not fit for purpose.

    As I write this , the elected leader of the country whose policies and incompetence were the catalyst for the economic meltdown, has fled overseas – the ultimate ” runner viruwa ” !

    The man appointed as the acting leader of the nation is one whose party has a single seat in parliament – his own ! And that too not due to electoral votes but due to a corrupt system which enables ” grace and favour ” appointments to parliament.

    Such is the abyss that Sri Lanka is in.

    What truly beggars belief is that there are millions in the country who still believe that this corrupt rotten s–t show of a system can still be tweaked here and there and made to work.

    It cannot and the saddest reality of all this is that millions of Sri Lankans will still cling to their delusional sense of self-importance and righteousness and even at this point where mass starvation is a real possibility, carry on repeating the same mistakes over and over again.

    A country whose majority population follows the teachings of one of the greatest philosophers the world has known, is simply incapable of understanding some of the most basic lessons the great sage from Lumbini taught – honesty, integrity, introspection, reflection and truth !

    If however, a NEW set of leaders with competence, honesty and integrity, whose primary purpose is to serve the people, can be found within parliament, within the Aragalaya movement , within the commercial sector or a combination of individuals from all three , there is still hope for Sri Lanka.

    If however the same corrupt incompetent rotten thieves who still occupy positions of huge powers are allowed to maintain the status quo , the failed state that is Sri Lanka will descent into complete anarchy and bloodshed.

    At the end of all that, arising out of the ashes, there will be a breakaway part of the country ………called Eelam !!!!!!!!

    Charles Seevali Abeysekera, a semi-retired sales and marketing professional, has worked in the UK mailing industry for over 35 years. He also scribes a blog on current affairs as well as reflections and thoughts on his own life journey “

    IPS UN Bureau


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    © Inter Press Service (2022) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service



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