The Pain of Russia Going Against the Grain

IRGC’s Final Warning – “Today is Last Day of Riots”

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Progressive Congressional Democrats, Mostly Women Say, “End Ukraine War!”

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The Pain of Russia Going Against the Grain www.majalla.com

Editorial Russian President Vladimir Putin went against the grain last week to halt the ships of his Western opponents. He unexpectedly withdrew from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is brokered by the United Nations and facilitated by the Turkish military, only nine days before the completion of the Initiative’s first phase of 120 days.

In the same breath, Putin reiterated the unrealistic proposal to turn the Turkish Thrace region into a hub for storing and selling Russian gas to the European countries that may desire to go around the sanctions imposed on the Russian gas exports in order to solve their energy crises. The message that Putin has been trying to voice here is that Russia can do without the West by aligning with one of the most powerful members of NATO, namely, Turkey.

In the cover story, Dalia Ziada talked about how playbook of the Russian President is full of interesting tricks that he cleverly uses to manipulate opponents and allies to serve his goals and interests.

One of these tricks is to purposefully go against the grain of pacts convened with Western parties, even if it creates a situation that may temporarily hurt Russia’s interests.

That is particularly true in times of large-scale conflicts similar to the ongoing economic standoff between Russia and Western powers.

By doing so he emphasizes Russia’s importance as an indispensable actor on the world stage while confusing his opponents and forcing them to sail their ships his way, Ziada said.

In the politics section, Mohamed Ali Salih writes about last week’s report that 30 progressive Democrats in Congress, mostly women, sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to change his policy towards Ukraine.

The letter said to seek a diplomatic solution with Russia instead of sending billions of dollars and heaps of weapons to Ukraine to face the Russian invasion.

Salih said, “Never mind that those who signed the letter withdrew it on the day it became public, it has become clear that the progressive Democrats, and other liberals in the Democratic party have been gradually doubting, then opposing Biden’s aggressive policy in Ukraine.”

In the politics section, Suzan Quitaz writes about the developments in Iran particularly the statements of the Commander of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Hossein Salami on Saturday, 29 October who issued a threatening warning to protesters, “Do not come to the streets! Today is the last day of riots,” Salami said.

Hours after Salami’s threat of unleashing a harsher crackdown, people continued pouring into the streets in a show of defiance and act of bravery. People were chanting “Death to the Dictator” and “From Zahedan to Shiraz, I sacrifice my life for Iran.”

In the culture section, Maryam Raafat writes about the Shawahid Misr initiative which aims to preserve Egypt›s heritage, especially neglected sites.

In doing so, the founder is driven by his passion for ancient places and monuments and his knowledge of them.

Meanwhile, with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar rapidly approaching, Sara Gamal writes about the young talents that the sport has produced in recent years.

In contrast to the previous decade, dozens of new players have emerged, with the potential to write a golden history within a few years. This would reassure football fans about the level of competition as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo approach retirement.

Read these articles and more on our website eng.majalla.com. As always, we welcome and value our readers’ feedback and we invite you to take the opportunity to leave your comments on our website.

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Breathing New Life into

40 Ancient Sites

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Dazzle the World in Qatar 2022 5

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Lights on the Dock festival

A visitor experiments with a selection of immersive, interactive or contemplative artistic installations, in Toulouse, southwestern France, on November 1, 2022. - For its 8th edition, the “Quai des Savoirs”, a center for the dissemination and sharing of scientific culture, organizes )a “Lumieres sur le Quai” (Lights on the Dock) festival. / AFP

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Female Camel Racing in Dubai Linda Krockenberger holds a trophy after winning the C1 Championship Female Camel Racing Series in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, October 29, 2022. REUTERS

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LEBANON

EGYPT Egypt's foreign minister Wednesday urged world leaders and negotiators to deliver on previously made pledges to battle climate change ahead of this month's U.N. summit.

Sameh Shoukry, the president of the COP27 climate change conference to be held in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh on Nov. 6-18, said participants should aim to take “meaningful and tangible steps" to implement the 2015 Paris climate accord.

The Paris Agreement aims to keep global temperatures from rising another degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) between now and 2100, a key demand of poor countries ravaged by rising sea levels and other effects of climate change. Last year’s summit in Glasgow produced a compromise deal aimed at keeping that key global warming target alive.

Lebanon is unable to put its new exchange rate into effect after its outgoing president declared the state budget unconstitutional and refused to sign off on it, officials said Thursday.

The Finance Ministry in late September announced that Lebanon would change its pegged exchange rate to the dollar from 1,500 pounds to 15,000 starting Nov. 1, which they called a “necessary corrective action." Parliament passed the cash-strapped country's 2022 national budget in September, which included the amended rate. However, it took at least another week of bureaucracy before reaching President Michel Aoun's office.

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Saudi Arab American o preparing f kingdom, t The heighte attack on S administrat crackdown condemnin — as well a use in its w “We are con and we rem military and Saudis,” the statement.

UDI ARABIA

bia has shared intelligence with officials that suggests Iran could be for an imminent attack on the three US officials said Tuesday. tened concerns about a potential Saudi Arabia come as the Biden tion is criticizing Tehran for its n on widespread protests and ng it for sending hundreds of drones as technical support — to Russia for war in Ukraine. ncerned about the threat picture, main in constant contact through d intelligence channels with the e National Security Council said in a

UAE An ancient Christian monastery possibly dating as far back as the years before Islam spread across the Arabian Peninsula has been discovered on an island off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, officials announced Thursday.

The monastery on Siniyah Island, part of the sand-dune sheikhdom of Umm al-Quwain, sheds new light on the history of early Christianity along the shores of the Persian Gulf.

IRAQ Iraq's new Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said Tuesday that he hopes to continue hosting talks in Iraq between regional arch-enemies Saudi Arabia and Iran during his tenure.

Speaking at his first press conference since his government received the parliament's vote of confidence on Thursday, al-Sudani said his administration had received signs of interest in Iraq continuing to facilitate a dialogue between the two countries.

"We were asked to continue,” he said, without elaborating.

Iraq has hosted several rounds of direct talks between officials from the two regional rivals since last year, though the talks have so far produced few results.

IRAN Iran will hold public trials of about 1,000 people charged in Tehran over unrest, a semi-official news agency said on Monday, as authorities step up efforts to crush more than six weeks of protests ignited by Mahsa Amini's death in police custody.

One of the boldest challenges to Iran's clerical leaders since the 1979 revolution, the protests have continued despite increasingly severe warnings: the Revolutionary Guards on Saturday bluntly told protesters to stay off the streets.

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A WEEK ACROS MEXICO.

U.S. A small number of U.S. military forces inside Ukraine have recently begun doing onsite inspections to ensure that Ukrainian troops are properly accounting for the Western-provided weapons they receive, a senior U.S. defense official told Pentagon reporters Monday.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to provide a military update, would not say where the inspections are taking place or how close to the battlefronts the U.S. troops are getting. The official said U.S. personnel can’t do inspections “close to the front lines,” but said they are going where security conditions allow.

Tropical Depression Lisa moved into southern Mexico on Thursday, a day after making landfall as a hurricane near Belize City in the Central American nation of Belize and heading inland over northern Guatemala.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center said Lisa had maximum sustained winds of 35 mph (55 kph). The storm's center was about 65 miles (110 kilometers) southeast of Ciudad del Carmen, on Mexico’s Gulf coast.

Lisa was moving west at 10 mph (17 kph) and was expected to cross into the Gulf of Mexico by Friday.

Belize's National Emergency Management Organization said the storm came ashore between the beach town of Dangriga and Belize City.

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U.K.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will attend the COP27 summit in Egypt next week, he said on Wednesday, reversing a much-criticised decision to skip the annual climate gathering in order to work on pressing economic issues at home.

"There is no long-term prosperity without action on climate change There is no energy security without investing in renewables," Sunak wrote on Twitter.

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UKRAINE CHINA.

Ukraine said on Thursday it had made no commitments to Russia that go beyond the terms of the Black Sea Grains Initiative agreed in July to persuade Moscow to resume its participation in the deal.

Russia suspended participation in the U.N.-brokered deal on Saturday after what it said was an attack on vessels from its Black Sea fleet.

Moscow resumed its participation on Wednesday, with the Russian defense ministry saying it had received guarantees from Ukraine that it would not use the Black Sea grain corridor for military operations against Russia.

INDIA. Seven members of the Jadeja family were returning from a temple in the Indian town of Morbi on Sunday when the children asked to be taken to a suspension bridge, a local tourist attraction that had reopened after repairs.

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China will seek high-tech solutions to resolve its complex environmental challenges and make use of innovations in big data, biotech and artificial intelligence to tackle pollution, habitat loss and climate change, it said on Wednesday.

In a new action plan, the Chinese government said it would build a "green technology innovation system" over the 2021-2025 period to tackle air, soil and groundwater pollution, reduce waste and protect ecosystems, noting that current technologies were not mature enough to serve the country's long-term needs.

The system will be backed by tax incentives and new "green technology banks", and China will also encourage enterprises and financial institutions to provide more support to innovative green technologies, the plan said.

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The Pain of Russia Going Against the Grain

Russian Bid to Survive the Economic Battle Against the West The playbook of the Russian President is full of interesting tricks that he cleverly uses to manipulate opponents and allies to serve his goals and interests.

By Dalia Ziada

One of these tricks is to purposefully go against the grain of pacts convened with Western parties, even if it creates a situation that may temporarily hurt Russia’s interests. That is particularly true in times

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The Russian withdrawal from the grain deal created a state of panic about food security, especially among the economically vulnerable countries in Asia and Africa. the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which is brokered by the United Nations and facilitated by the Turkish military, only nine days before the completion of the Initiative’s first phase of 120 days.

A farmer shows his grain in the village of Ptyche in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine in June 2022.

Russian hostilities in Ukraine are preventing grain from leaving the “breadbasket of the world” and making food more expensive across the globe. AP/ Efrem Lukatsky

of large-scale conflicts similar to the ongoing economic standoff between Russia and Western powers. By doing so he emphasizes Russia’s importance as an indispensable actor on the world stage while confusing his opponents and forcing them to sail their ships his way.

Another interesting trick is offering empty promises about unrealistic collaborations to his allies, turning them into proxies ready to take the risk and the guilt of jumping up the forbidden tree to pick the edible fruits that Putin cannot reach. The recent evolution of the relationship between Russia and Turkey, in the shadow of the ongoing war in Ukraine, is an embodiment of this.

AGAINST THE GRAIN In a literal sense of the word, Russian President Vladimir Putin went against the grain last week to halt the ships of his Western opponents. He unexpectedly withdrew from

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In the same breath, Putin reiterated the unrealistic proposal to turn the Turkish Thrace region into a hub for storing and selling Russian gas to the European countries that may desire to go around the sanctions imposed on the Russian gas exports in order to solve their energy crises. The message that Putin has been trying to voice here is that Russia can do without the West by aligning with one of the most powerful members of NATO, namely, Turkey.

On the evening of October 29th, the Telegram channel affiliated with the Russian Ministry of Defense published a statement accusing Keiv of launching a “terrorist attack” on the Russian Black Sea fleet and civilian ships that were landing at the shores of the occupied Crimea Island. The statement claimed that the damaged vessels at Sevastopol Port were responsible for “ensuring the security of the grain corridor,” although the grain corridor starts in Odessa, about 200 kilometers away from Sevastopol. Upon this unfounded allegation, Russia decided to “stop its participation in the implementation of agreements on the export of agricultural products from Ukrainian ports.”

The Russian Defense Ministry’s statement claimed that the attacks were implemented

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by UAV drones and accused military “specialists from the United Kingdom” of being involved. Moscow had previously accused the UK army of sabotaging the Nord Stream pipeline. The UK and Ukraine disputed Russia’s accusations and labeled them as a pretext to justify halting the Black Sea Grain Initiative. The United States responded by accusing Russia of “weaponizing food” in a way that is hurting the well-being of humans worldwide.

Russia requested “actual guarantees from Kiev of strict observance of the grain agreements, in particular on the non-use of the humanitarian corridor for military purposes.”

BENEFICIARIES OF THE CRISIS Indeed, the Russian withdrawal from the grain deal created a state of panic about food security, especially among the economically vulnerable countries in Asia and Africa.

Sharp rises in the prices of grain products hit the market immediately after the Russian announcement. The Chicago Board of Trade recorded a rise of 5.9% in December futures contracts of wheat, 1.2% in corn contracts, and 1.3% in soybean futures, as a direct result of the threats facing the Black Sea grain corridor after Russia’s withdrawal.

To avoid a backlash, especially from the Arab and Asian countries that are keeping a neutral stance toward Ukraine, the Russian Minister of Agriculture said that his country harvested 150 million tons of grain this year. He offered to ship 500 thousand tons of grain to the poorest countries for free over the next four months, in addition to selling the rest to low-income countries, and to whomever else is interested for an affordable price. On the next day of Russia’s withdrawal from the grain corridor deal, the

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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar attend a signing ceremony in Istanbul, Turkey July 22, 2022. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with parliamentary leaders in Moscow, Russia July 7, 2022. Reuters/ Aleksey Nikolskyi

Lebanese Minister of Public Works and Transport wrote on Twitter that the Russian Ambassador to Lebanon told him that “President Putin has decided to send 25 thousand tons of wheat and 10 thousand tons of fuel to Lebanon, to be delivered in the next two or three days.”

The UN estimates that Black Sea Grain Initiative has “indirectly prevented some 100 million people from falling into extreme poverty.” However, the data shown on the United Nations website dedicated to monitoring the vessel movements in the Black Sea grain corridor show that the poorest countries are the least to benefit from the foodstuffs shipped from Ukraine in the past three months under the UN-led initiative.

For example, Egypt, which is struggling with a severe economic crisis as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, comes in the 6th position as a beneficiary of the grain corridor, after Spain, Turkey, China, Italy, and the Netherlands. While Egypt received 4.28 hundred thousand tons, Spain and Turkey took 1.8 million tons and 1.3 million tons, respectively, out of the 9.8 million tons of

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The poorest countries are the least to benefit from the foodstuffs shipped from Ukraine in the past three months under the UN-led initiative.

Ukrainian foodstuffs shipped so far via the grain corridor.

TURKEY IN THE MIDDLE The Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar, whose troops monitor and facilitate the grain ships movement at the Joint Cooperation Center (JCC) in Istanbul, told the press on November 1st that the ten billion tons of grains and foodstuffs which have been shipped from Ukraine to countries worldwide over the past three months have participated in relieving the prices and expected shortages of essential food supplies.

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“We all know that if the grain transportation stops, serious hunger problems in developing countries will happen, leading to an increase in prices of food commodities that may result in popular protests and political instability,” Hulusi Akar stressed, promising that Turkey will exert every effort possible to convince Russia to continue with implementing the deal.

Russia’s sudden withdrawal from the grain deal and teaming with Turkey to circumvent the European sanctions on its gas exportations are only means to an end for saving Putin’s face.

On the same day, Putin had a phone call with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in which he said that Russia may consider returning to the grain deal after receiving security guarantees. A readout of the call by the Kremlin highlighted Russia’s demand for “a detailed investigation into the circumstances of this incident,” as a prerequisite to resuming its involvement in the grain corridor. In addition, Russia requested “actual guarantees from Kiev of strict observance of the grain agreements, in particular on the non-use of the humanitarian corridor for military purposes.”

Turkey has been playing a commendable role in mediating talks between the Russian and the Ukrainian leaders, and keeping food and humanitarian aid supplies flowing across the Black Sea since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February. However, Turkey needs to be careful not to lose the crucial point of balance in

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Workers storage grain at a terminal during barley harvesting in Odesa region, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, Ukraine June 23, 2022. REUTERS/Igor Tkachenko

Russian Black Sea fleet ships are anchored in one of the bays of Sevastopol, Crimea, on March 31, 2014. Credit: AP

its relationships with the West and Russia – that is, the equilibrium of being a reliable NATO ally and at the same time a trusted partner of Russia. Falling easy prey to Putin’s gaslighting promises of turning Turkey into a natural gas hub may cost Turkey more than it is expected to gain.

SAVING PUTIN’S FACE

Turkey needs to be careful not to lose the crucial point of balance in its relationships with the West and Russia.

tic Sea ports due to the economic boycott However, security guarantees are not all applied by European countries in solidarthat Russia is looking for by breaking the ity with Ukraine. That caused Russia to Black Sea grain deal. In the phone call with lose a huge market for its food exports. At Erdogan, Putin complained about the failure the same time, the destruction of the Nord of the involved parties to “fulfill the second Stream pipeline and the insistence of Eupart of the agreement, related to unblocking ropean countries to seek alternative gas the exportation of Russian agricultural prod- resources in the eastern Mediterranean are making Russia lose its economic leverage ucts and fertilizers to world markets.” over Europe. Russia’s sudden withdrawal In other words, Putin is trying to save from the grain deal and teaming with Turhimself from losing the economic bat- key to circumvent the European sanctions tle against the West in the coming few on its gas exportations are only means to months. Russia has lost access to the Bal- an end for saving Putin’s face.

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IRGC’s Final Warning – “Today is Last Day of Riots”

Iran’s Uprising Enters Eighth Week; Ruthless Measures to End Protests

By Suzan Quitaz On Saturday, 29 October, Hossein Salami, the Commander of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), issued a threatening warning to protesters, “Do not come to the streets! Today is the last day of riots,” Salami said.

Hours after Salami’s threat of unleashing a harsher crackdown, people continued pouring into the streets in a show of defiance and act of bravery. People were chanting “Death to the Dictator” and “From Zahedan to Shiraz, I sacrifice my life for Iran.” In the

Kurdish region, people were chanting at the burial of Sarina, a recent victim in Sanandaj, “Martyrs do not die.” On 1 November, all across Iran’s Kurdish province of Rojhalat, people were woken up in the morning with Kurdish patriotic anthems.

The People’s Uprising enters its eighth week with more than 300 civilians having been killed, thousands injured and over 20,000 being arrested. The Islamic Republic of Iran has also unleashed ruthless measures in a bid to end the protest movement, from opening fire on unarmed demonstrators, conducting raids on funerals, universities and dormitories, to carrying out abductions.

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In this photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, Iranians protests the death of -22year-old Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police last month, in Tehran, October 2022 ,27.

(AP Photo/Middle East Images, File)

Khalil Kani Sanani, the spokesperson of Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), explained to Majalla the significance of the timing of Salami’s warning. He told us, “Because everything they have done to suppress the voice of the uprising people has not succeeded. Now, with this threat, Salami wanted to exert a psychological pressure on the rebels. (…)Yes, the demonstrations continue and the regime’s systematic crimes are continuing also,” said Sanani.

The Hengaw Organisation for Human Rights, has reported on mass arrest of children during protests. “At least four kids from Bahonar Middle School in Sanandaj were abducted by regime forces at one in the afternoon on 1 November 2022, on Mobarak Abad Street. Mardin Parak, is one of those students,” said Hengaw. The Bahnor Middle School is not an isolated case, the regime is carrying abduction missions in all cities across Iran including Tehran. Many of the abductees’ whereabouts and fates are unknown.

Mr Sanani explained to Majalla the issue of abduction and its prevalence in Iran, “For the past 50 days, every day, the Ministry of Intelligence and the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence sent out its gestapo in groups of 8-9 people, dressed in civilian clothes, into houses and to the streets where they stopped people’s cars and killed at least 2,000 people in Kurdistan, with more in Baluchistan and other regions. These war criminals have detained and ‘disappeared’ thousands throughout Iran. Through their surveillance and spy cameras, the intelligence agencies identify and track demonstrators and later arrest them while camouflaged as civilians. In Kurdistan, doctors and nurses who treat the wounded at home are also arrested. In addition, a number of relatives of the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) Peshmerga have been arrested.”

The Islamic regime’s unprecedented level of oppression and inhumanity reached its peak when, on 26 October, it’s security forces opened fire on mourners marking 40 days since Zhina Amini’s death. Nearly 10,000 people gathered in Saqqez (Amini’s hometown) defiantly chanting, “Women, Life, Freedom” and “Death to the Dictator.” The barbaric crackdown resulted in the death of 16 Kurdish civilians and wounding of hundreds more. According to the Hengaw report, “14 victims, equivalent to 88% of all cases, were killed by direct fire from the Iranian security forces.

A 16 year-old girl was killed by baton beatings to her head, and a man was suffocated by tear gas (…) among the victims, 3 were women, and 3 teenagers under the age of 18.”

The IRGC commander’s message is clear and strong as Salami explicitly indicated that his forces will intensify their already bestial crackdown on the protesters, and indeed he is delivering on what he ‘promised.’ His warning comes at a time when two people were killed after the IRGC opened fire on protesters in the city of Zahedan, located in Baluchistan province, which, along with the Kurdish province, has seen the deadliest violence since the protests broke out on 16 September.

Majalla spoke to Mr Rudam Azad Baloch, a human rights activist. He told us “unseen atrocities had been committed by Iranian occupational forces in Iran’s occupied Baluchistan.” Activists estimate that over 95 Baloch have been killed, and more than 200 seriously injured in Zahedan alone since a rally on 30 September

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Hours after Salami’s threat of unleashing a harsher crackdown, people continued pouring into the streets in a show of defiance and act of bravery. in Zahedan set off a brutal police response.

The protesters in Zahedan “erupted after an Iranian Major General raped a teenage Baloch girl namely Maho Baloch,” said Rudam Azad Baloch. He continued to explain that the “Baloch people are fed up with Iranian slavery and mass executions, and took to the streets of Zahedan, Zabul, and other Baloch cities and protested against Iranian forces (…). Baloch eyewitnesses say IRGC sniper shooters were deliberately targeting Baloch protesters, most of the dead were shot in the head or chest.

Mr Rudam Azad Baloch told Majalla that Baluchistan has a very long history of a struggle for freedom. “The Iranian occupation of Baluchistan began when the British Empire at that time drew an artificial line called ‘Goldsmith line’ in 1871 by dividing the then united Baluchistan state and joining part of it with Iran. In 1895 the British drew a similar line further subdividing Baluchistan into Afghanistan. However, the good thing is that both the countries of Afghanistan and Baluchistan never accepted this imaginary line. In 27 March 1948, Pakistan invaded Baluchistan and arrested at gunpoint the Khan of Kalat, Mir Ahmed Yar Khan, the King of Baluchistan.”

Majalla asked Rudam Azad Baloch about the recent warnings issued by the IRGC chief. Rudam explained that Iranian regime brutality and discriminatory policies against the Baloch people is nothing new as it has been gone on for more than a century.

The Baluchistan Liberation Movement, a political party which is led by Hyrbyair Marri, is demanding an end to Iranian and Pakistani occupation of Baluchistan. Mr Marri has “condemned Iran’s use of force against peaceful protestors and urged the UN to hold Iran accountable for its war crimes against the Baloch nation.”

Rudam Azad Baloch said that the protests will continue as the “Baloch people’s collective demand is for the restoration of sovereignty of Baluchistan.” He added that, “Baloch people are getting united and there is a clear sign of a stronger movement in Baloch, as we are reaching out to our Al Ahwaz Arab nationals as well as the Kurds who are also facing an Iranian invasion. We are also optimistic that the regional powers will listen our voices.”

On Friday, 28 October, the United Nations issued a statement condemning “all incidents that have resulted in death or serious injury to protesters” in Iran and reiterated “that security forces must avoid all unnecessary or disproportionate use of force against peaceful protesters.” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said: “Those responsible must be held to account,” adding that the UN was urging Tehran “to address the legitimate grievances of

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the population, including with respect to women’s rights.”

But the UN’s condemnations fell on deaf ears, as just one day later Hossein Salami, Commander of Iran’s elite force, the IRGC, issued one of the toughest warnings yet and rights groups continued reporting on more bloodshed across cities in Iran.

Salami’s words should be taken seriously when he says “Do not come to the streets! Today is the last day of the riots. This sinister plan, is a plan hatched in the White House and the Zionist regime (…). Don’t sell your honor to America and don’t slap the security forces who are defending you in the face,” said Salami.

“From Zahedan to Shiraz, I sacrifice my life for Iran” The largest gathering was at the central Tehran branch of Islamic Azad University, but other protests occurred on the University’s North Tehran campus. Security forces responded by using teargas and firing pellet guns.

As protests persist, Iranian leaders are continuing with their baseless and brainless propaganda that Iran’s foreign enemies are behind the protests that have engulfed the entire nation. There were reports of bloodshed and renewed protests even after Salami’s warnings. Various human rights groups and activists’ posts on

The IRGC commander’s message is clear and strong as Salami explicitly indicated that his forces will intensify their already bestial crackdown on the protesters.

Twitter and other social media platforms show a rapid rise in attacks on university campuses and dormitories.

Human rights group Hengaw, among others, reported that the security forces opened fire on students at a girls’ school in the city of Saqqez (the birthplace of Zhina Amini) and at a medical university in Sanandaj, the capital of Kurdistan province. Several students were injured, with one of them shot in the head.

Similar scenes were reported at Tehran University’s Faculty of Engineering. Students at Qazvin International University chanted the slogan: “From Zahedan to Shiraz, I sacrifice my life for Iran.”

At Mazandaran University, the crowds chanted: “If we do not stand together, we are killed one by one.” At some universities, students had dismantled partition walls in canteens which were put there to separate men and women.

A university in Mashhad was stormed by plainclothes forces, who repelled outsiders attempting to rescue the students. In what appeared to be violent raids on dormitories in Ahvaz, Sanandaj, Mashhad and Tehran, IRGC operatives were tasering and dragging students on floors before brutally forcing them into security vehicles.

Majalla approached Hengaw on 31 October and we were issued with the following statement “More than 45 days have passed since the uprisings started in Kurdistan. On the 40th day after Zhina’s burial, tens of thousands of people gathered in Aichi cemetery, where Zhina Amini’s grave is. They chanted “Jin, Jiyan, Azadî” and sang the Kurdish anthem “Ay Reqib.” This number of people hasn’t been seen since the start of uprisings in Iran to protest against the regime. At least 16 Kurdish civilians were killed by regime forces following the ceremony marking the 40th day since Zhina’s burial, bringing the total number of people murdered in the uprisings to 57.”

Rights groups including Amnesty International have estimated

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In this photo taken by an individual not employed by the Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran, Iranians protest the September death of -22yearold Mahsa Amini after she was detained by the morality police in Tehran, October 2022 ,27. (Middle East Images/AP)

Several thousand people express their solidarity with the protesters in Iran at a demonstration in Cologne, Germany, Saturday, Oct. 2022 ,29.Henning Kaiser/ dpa via AP

that Iran’s Stormtroopers have killed between 255 and 300 protesters, including 45 minors. However, the Iranian leaders deny the charges and nonsensically claim that some of those deaths were down to suicides, road incidents and health issues unrelated to the protests.

Intensifying Crackdown on Journalists and Rights Activists The crackdown is widening and, according to rights groups, up to 20,000 arrests have been made. The first trial took place in Tehran on 29 October, when five detained protesters were formally charged with “corruption on earth” and “waging war on God,” both of which are punishable by the death penalty under Iran’s judicial laws.

The semi-official Tasnim news agency, citing the Chief Justice of Tehran, said that the trials of about 1,000 people “who have carried out acts of sabotage in recent events, including assaulting or martyring security guards, and setting fire to public property” would take place in a Revolutionary Court. The trials will take place in public this week, the statement adds.

A number of journalists are also among the detainees, including Niloufar Hamedi, the journalist who published the photo of the murdered Kurdish woman Zhina Amini on a hospital bed. Hamedi, along with another female journalist Elahe Mohammadi, have been arrested and accused of being “CIA agents.” A statement released by the Islamic Republic’s Intelligence Ministry and the Intelligence Organization of IRGC alleged that two female journalists were on a mission called “Iran’s Destruction Project.” The statement reads “using the cover of a journalist, she (Hamedi) was one of the first people to arrive at the hospital and provoked the relatives of the deceased [referring to Amini] and published

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The crackdown is widening and, according to rights groups, up to 20,000 arrests have been made. targeted news.”

In the case of Elahe Mohammadi, the IRGC and the Intelligence Ministry also accused her as being a CIA agent. “She [Mohammadi] immediately attended the funeral ceremony of Mahsa Amini in her birthplace Saqqez to provoke her relatives by circulating the news and images of the funeral ceremony and burial,” adds the statement.

Mehdi Rahmanian, the editor of the Shargh Reformist Daily for which Hamedi worked as a journalist, has strongly denied that Hamedi was working as a “foreign agent.”

The Tehran Journalists’ Association has demanded the release of Hamedi and Mohammadi, the two journalists to whom we should be grateful for making known the killing of Amini.

Before ending the interview with PAK spokesperson Sanani, Majalla asked “What does the future hold for Iran as a Republic and for the Kurds?’ He gave an optimistic reply – “Eventually, conditions must be created in which people can exercise their right to do what they want. No one should make decisions for anyone. The Kurds hope to decide their own destiny through the ballot box. The Kurds are for freedom. Freedom means the will of man to make decisions.” For the sake of all those innocent people who have lost their lives and for those who will continue to die in the struggle for freedom and dignity, we can only hope that he is correct.

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Pramila Jayapal Chair

Cori Bush

Progressive Congressional Democrats, Mostly Women Say, “End Ukraine War!”

Letter Reveals That US Support of Ukraine War Is Not Monolithic Washington, Mohammad Ali Salih

Never mind that those who signed the letter withdrew it on the day it became public, it has become clear that the progressive Democrats, and other liberals in the DemoLast week, it was reported that 30 progressive Demo- cratic party have been gradually doubting, then opposcrats in Congress, mostly women, sent a letter to Presi- ing Biden’s aggressive policy in Ukraine. dent Joe Biden asking him to change his policy towards Ukraine. The letter said to seek a diplomatic solution At first, it was thought that this change of heart hapwith Russia instead of sending billions of dollars and pened last week with the publication of the news about heaps of weapons to Ukraine to face the Russian inva- sending the letter, but those who signed the letter said it had been written four months ago, and was sent to Biden sion. (Excerpts from the letter are below)

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Sara Jacobs

Barbara Lee

soon after that. Which means that the change of heart happened a few months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February.

Because the Republicans have been divided over the extent of the US support of Ukraine, and because the Republican Party has been, since the days of the Cold War, tougher towards Russia and communism than the Democratic Party, the news that the Democrats had started opposing the US’ strong support of Ukraine came as a surprise to many.

Since the Cold War years, the liberals have been generally moderate towards communism and Russia as compared to the conservatives. That was why the historic steps toward rapprochement by the US with the communist bloc were mostly initiated by the Republicans. A major example was the opening to China – it was none other than a Republican president, Richard Nixon, who sent his chief advisor, Henry Kissinger, to China to start the rapprochement.

Since the Cold War years, the liberals have been generally moderate towards communism and Russia as compared to the conservatives Enter the Vietnam War (1963-1973).

The US military intervention in Vietnam was started and continued for many years by Democratic presidents. John Kennedy sent the first group of military advisors to defend the government of South Vietnam against the communist Viet Cong fighters who were supported by communist North Vietnam.

Republicans cheered as President Lyndon Johnson, God forbid if it was a Democratic president, like Jim- following the steps of Kennedy, expanded US milimy Carter, who had opened the road to China. True, tary intervention. There was further expansion when it was Carter who established the first diplomatic rela- Republican Nixon became president in 1973. Howtions with China, but it was obvious that he did that ever, it was Nixon who started the negotiations with the Viet Cong. after the initial steps of Nixon.

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Rashida Tlaib

Nydia M. Velázquez

Curiously enough, liberal, not conservative, Americans demonstrated in the streets and on campuses against the US military intervention in Vietnam. That dichotomy inside the Democratic Party was a major reason for Johnson’s decision in 1968 to quit politics and not to run for a second term – against Nixon.

Fast forward for about 50 years, from the Vietnam War to the Ukraine War. Again, as the letter by the Democrats in the Congress showed, the young Democrats started the movement against this war, with two distinct differences: First, this time the movement came from the top, from members of Congress, not from campuses and street demonstrations.

Second, the movement was led by the progressives,

In the case of Ukraine, obviously, the Pentagon generals did not send American soldiers to Ukraine, but weapons that were worth billions of dollars.

i.e., the more leftist liberals.

Why? Liberals have always been suspicious of, if not opposed to, US military adventures overseas, even in the name of stopping the spread of communism. They opposed, even ridiculed, the Domino Theory of South East Asia: if communism were not stopped in Vietnam, it would spread to other neighboring countries, one country after the other.

That liberal opposition to the US military intervention in Vietnam increased when it became clear that the generals in the Pentagon failed to win but continued fighting, killing thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of the native Vietnamese.

In the case of Ukraine, obviously, the Pentagon generals did not send American soldiers to Ukraine, but weapons that were worth billions of dollars. Because Ukraine has not been able to expel the Russian invaders, and does not seem to be able to, the war seems to be endless – so is the Pentagon’s help.

Whether the progressive representative withdrew their letter to Biden or not is beside the point here – they have started a movement.

Granted that young liberals, and particularly in campuses, have not been engaged in politics recently, a

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Chellie Pingree

Marie Newman

movement against a faraway war has started.

Excerpts from the progressive Congressional members’ letter to President Biden: “We write with appreciation for your commitment to Ukraine’s legitimate struggle against Russia’s war of aggression. Your support for the self-defense of an independent, sovereign, and democratic state has been supported by Congress, including through various appropriations of military, economic and humanitarian aid in furtherance of this cause …”

The US military intervention in Vietnam was started and continued for many years by Democratic presidents.

the United States, and the world to avoid a prolonged conflict …”

“For this reason, we urge you to pair the military and “Crucially, you achieved this while also maintaining economic support the United States has provided to that it is imperative to avoid direct military conflict Ukraine with a proactive diplomatic push, redoubling with Russia, which would lead to ‘World War III, efforts to seek a realistic framework for a ceasefire. something we must strive to prevent’ (Biden’s words) This is consistent with your recognition that “there’s going to have to be a negotiated settlement here’, and …”

“The risk of nuclear weapons being used has been your concern that Vladimir Putin ‘doesn’t have a way estimated to be higher now than at any time since out right now, and I’m trying to figure out what we do the height of the Cold War. Given the catastrophic about that’ (Biden’s words)…” possibilities of nuclear escalation and miscalculation, which will only increase the longer this war “As legislators responsible for the expenditure of tens of billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars in military assiscontinues …”

“Given the destruction created by this war for Ukraine tance in the conflict, we believe such involvement in and the world, as well as the risk of catastrophic esca- this war also creates a responsibility for the United lation, we also believe it is in the interests of Ukraine, States to seriously explore all possible avenues, including direct engagement with Russia …”

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Supporting Small Businesses in UK UK Labour Party Celebrating SMEs 28

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“The Labour Party is the party of workers – the clue is in the name.” get up early and do a hard day’s work, and fights to ensure they get a fair day’s pay,” he added.

He also said that his party includes “people who know that thriving businesses make our society stronger, and enable us to provide decent public services for all.”

Dogus also said that small and medium-sized enterprises are the backbone of the community and the engine of the economy.

“SMEs create the jobs, generate the wealth, deliver the goods and services, and provide the glue that holds communities together,” he added.

Small firms account for 99.3 per cent of all private sector businesses in the UK, nearly half of all private sector jobs and a third of private sector turnover.

Small and medium sized businesses employed nearly 16 million people with a combined turnover of £1.8 trillion in 2021.

Leader of the UK Labour Party Keir Starmer (2nd L), Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader of Labour Party, (3rd L) and Ibrahim Dogus, founder of SME4Labour (2nd R) during the 5th SME4Labour Awards ceremony

According to Dogus, the truth about SMEs is that they are often family run.

Majalla Staff The UK’s Labour Party is showing unprecedented support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), believing in their major role as boosting the economy.

“The Labour Party is the party of workers – the clue is in the name,” Ibrahim Dogus, founder of SME4Labour, said in his speech during the 5th SME4Labour Awards which was held this week.

It is “a Party which represents people who

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“They are often founded by immigrants who want to be model citizens and build a better life. They want their businesses to serve society, not simply take from it. And they are a source of immense pride for those who own and work in them,” he said.

The SME4Labour Awards celebrates and recognizes the success of both individuals and organizations within the Labour Party, and represents an important opportunity for all parts of the Party to celebrate the contri-

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bution of small businesses to the UK economy.

The winner of the Shadow Cabinet Member of the Year Award was Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting with the Labour MP of the Year being jointly awarded to Siobhain McDonagh and Carolyn Harris.

Attending the event were Rachel Reeves, Shadow Chancellor, together with almost all of the other Shadow cabinet ministers, Angela Rayner, Deputy leader of the Labour Par- Leader of the UK Labour Party Keir Starmer ty, Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, as well as said that small and medium-sized enterprises with many members of the UK Parliament will thrive under his party. among the 1200 guests.

“As Labour leader, I am committed to making this the most pro-business Labour Party ever. I’m making the argument for a new partnership between an active state and enterprising business,” Starmer said during the awards ceremony.

Dogus also said that small and mediumsized enterprises are the backbone of the community and the engine of the economy.

Starmer said that the next Labour government will be focused on tackling the deep inequalities and injustices across the country.

“We’ll ensure that business can thrive and create the jobs of the future, and help every region and nation prosper.”

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Mayor of London Sadiq Khan during the 5th SME4Labour Awards ceremony.

Leader of the UK Labour Party Keir Starmer during the 5th SME4Labour Awards ceremony.

Small and medium sized businesses employed nearly 16 million people with a combined turnover of £ 1.8 trillion in 2021.

MP Yvette Cooper

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The Age of Inflation Easy Money, Hard Choices

By Kenneth S. Rogoff Coming on the heels of the pandemic-induced economic slowdown, the inflation crisis of the past two years seemed to catch much of the world by surprise. After three decades in which prices grew slowly across the world’s advanced economies, suddenly the United Kingdom, the United States, and the eurozone were contending with near or above doubledigit inflation. Prices across many emerging markets and developing economies have risen even faster, for example, with inflation exceeding 80 percent in Turkey and nearing 100 percent in Argentina.

True, the worldwide inflation of the 2020s does not yet rival the worst inflation crises of past decades. In the 1970s, annual price increases in the United States stayed above six percent for ten years, reaching 14 percent in 1980; inflation in Japan and the United Kingdom peaked at over 20 percent. For low- and middle-income countries, the early 1990s were even worse: more than 40 such countries had inflation rates above 40 percent, with some reaching 1,000 percent or more. Still, in 2021 and 2022, the global economy moved in a deeply worrisome direction as governments and policymakers belatedly discovered they were facing runaway price increases amid a war in Ukraine and other large-scale shocks.

Voters do not like inflation or recessions. In an August 2022 Pew Research Center poll, more than three out of four Americans surveyed—77

percent—said that the economy was their number one election issue.

Even in September, when prices in the United States had stabilized somewhat, a poll led by Marist College found that inflation continued to be voters’ top issue, ahead of both abortion and health care. As with many elections, the 2022 midterms may ultimately hinge on noneconomic issues; nevertheless, the state of the economy has significant predictive power over voter preferences, and politicians know it.

Although much of the debate about the new inflation has focused on politics and world events, just as crucial is the question of central banks’ policies and the forces that shape them. For years, many economists have assumed that inflation had been permanently tamed, thanks to the advent of independent central banks. Beginning in the 1990s, central bankers in many countries began setting targets for the level of inflation; a two percent goal became an explicit part of U.S. Federal Reserve Bank policy in 2012. Indeed, well into the COVID-19 pandemic, most regarded a return to the high inflation of the 1970s as implausible. Fearing a pandemic-driven recession, governments and central banks were instead preoccupied with jump-starting their economies; they discounted the inflationary risks posed by combining large-scale spending programs with sustained ultralow interest rates. Few economists saw the dangers of the enormous stimulus packages signed by U.S. Presidents Donald Trump, in December 2020, and Joe Biden, in March 2021, which pumped trillions of dollars into the economy. Nor did they anticipate how long it

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Container ships near the port of Los Angeles, September 2021. Mario Tama / Getty Images

would take for supply chain problems to sort themselves out after the pandemic or how vulnerable the global economy would be to sustained high inflation in the event of a major geopolitical shock, as happened when Russia invaded Ukraine. Having waited too long to raise interest rates as inflation built up, central banks are scrambling to control it without tipping their economies, and indeed the world, into deep recession.

In addition to suffering the consequences of myopic economic thinking, central banks have also been buffeted by dramatic political and economic changes. The 2020s are shaping up to be the most difficult era in central banking since the 1970s, when the global economy was contending with both the Arab oil embargo and the collapse of the postwar Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates. Today, large-scale global shocks such as war, pandemic, and drought seem to be coming one after another or even at the same time. Meanwhile, the forces of globalization that for much of the past 20 years have helped sustain long-term growth have instead turned into headwinds, both because China is rapidly aging and because of growing geopolitical frictions between China and the United States. None of these changes is good for productivity and growth, but they are all contributing to higher inflation now and will into the future.

By their nature, supply shocks are difficult for central banks to address. In the case of a simple demand shock—too much stimulus, for example—central banks can use interest rates to stabilize both growth and inflation. With supply shocks, however, central banks must weigh difficult tradeoffs between bringing down inflation and the costs to businesses and workers of lower growth and higher unemployment. Even if central banks are prepared to raise interest rates as needed to tackle inflation, they have far less independence than they did two decades ago. The 2008 financial crisis weakened central banks’ political legitimacy by undermining the idea that their policies ultimately work to the benefit of all; many people lost their homes and their jobs in the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. As central banks today deliberate how far to tamp down on demand, they have to consider whether they are willing to risk causing yet another deep recession. If during a recession the government’s social safety net is inadequate, doesn’t the central bank need to take that into account? Those who dismiss such concerns as external to monetary policy have not been reading central bankers’ speeches over the past decade.

Amid an unending series of supply shocks, central banks may also be confronting a long-term shift that neither policymakers nor financial markets have yet taken into account. Although many of the immediate drivers of the extraordinary rise in prices in 2021 and 2022 will eventually dissipate, the era of perpetual ultralow inflation will not come back anytime soon. Instead, thanks to a host of factors including deglobalization, rising political pressures, and ongoing supply shocks such as the green energy transition, the world may very well be entering an extended period in which elevated and volatile inflation is likely to be persistent, not in the double digits but significantly above two percent. Most central bankers insist that they can make no bigger mistake than

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In addition to suffering the consequences of myopic economic thinking, central banks have also been buffeted by dramatic political and economic changes. allowing high inflation to linger so long that it starts pushing expectations of long-term inflation by any noticeable amount, and it is probably fair to say that the majority of Wall Street economists buy that argument. But they may be facing more painful choices over the next decade, and certainly in the immediate future. The social and political implications of a central-bank-induced deep downturn—coming after the two worst recessions since the Great Depression (2008 and 2020)—are profound.

PASSING THE BUCKS

Ever since U.S. monthly inflation began to rise sharply in the spring of 2021, Washington has been divided between those who blame it on excessive stimulus spending by the Biden administration and those who maintain that it is mostly caused by global factors beyond Washington’s control. Neither argument is terribly convincing. The stimulus view is clearly overblown: countries across the world today have been experiencing high inflation, despite vast differences in the extent to which they stimulated their economies. Although their stimulus packages were considerably smaller, the United Kingdom and the eurozone have had even higher inflation than the United States, with Australia, Canada, and New Zealand only slightly lower. Some have also pointed to the Biden administration’s clampdown on fossil fuel pipelines and exploration as a contributor to inflation, though the main effects on production and output probably lie in the future.

Yet blaming inflation mostly on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s war on COVID-19, or post-pandemic supply chain breakdowns is also wrong. For one thing, prices were already ramping up in the United States in 2021, long before Putin invaded Ukraine. And inflation initially manifested itself in different countries in very different ways. In much of the world, higher food and energy costs were the main driving factors, but in the United States, the most pronounced price increases came in rents, vehicles, clothing, and recreation. At this point, second- and third-round effects are working their way through the economy, and price increases are radiating even more broadly across many sectors.

Many economists think the real culprit was the Federal Reserve, which did not begin hiking interest rates until March 2022, at which point inflation had been rising sharply for a year. That delay was a huge mistake, although more easily seen as such in hindsight, knowing that the worst effects of the pandemic could

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have quickly been brought under control. And the root of the mistake lies not just with the Fed and its staff but also with a broad consensus within the economics profession, which had become heavily wedded to the view that, most of the time, it is far better to have too much macroeconomic stimulus—high deficits, very low interest rates—than too little.

Almost no one has questioned the massive spending programs implemented around the world in the early stages of the pandemic. The point of having governments preserve fiscal capacity is precisely so they have the resources to take large-scale actions to protect the vulnerable in the event of a deep recession or catastrophe. The issue is when to stop.

Inevitably, stimulus spending is political, and those who promote large rescue packages are often also motivated by the opportunity to expand social programs whose approval in Congress might in ordinary times be impossible. This is one reason why there tends to be far less talk about reducing stimulus once a crisis is over.

As a candidate, Biden pledged that he would expand government spending if elected, partly with the aim of facilitating the post-COVID economic recovery but mainly to share the benefits of growth more equally and to put significant resources into the national response to climate change. As a lame-duck president, Trump attempted to frustrate his winning opponent’s ambitions by passing his own $900 billion COVID-19 relief package in December 2020, even though the economy was already rebounding strongly. Just three months later, although the economy was continuing to recover, Democrats under Biden passed a new $1.9 trillion stimulus package, with a number of prominent economists, including New York Times columnist and Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, cheering them on. Krugman and others argued that the package would enhance the recovery and provide insurance against another wave of the pandemic and that it carried minimal risks of igniting inflation.

LET THEM SPEND

Already in early 2021, there were reasons to question the prevailing wisdom about the Biden stimulus. Most notably, Harvard economist and former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers began warning that the bill being contemplated could lead to inflation. Although serious inflation had not occurred in decades, Summers had a simple and

Central bankers today seem confident when they say they know how to bring inflation back to two percent, but they are less convincing when they insist that they will not rest until inflation returns to that target.

compelling insight. Throwing trillions of dollars into an economy with severe supply constraints and only a modest demand shortage had to be inflationary. If too many people are trying to buy cars at the same time and have the cash to do so, car prices will rise.

A key element of Summers’s logic was that the stimulus-fueled consumption binge would not be satisfied by foreign suppliers, including China. Normally, when U.S. consumers go on a spending spree, the U.S. trade deficit supplies at least a partial outlet from internal price pressures: if U.S. demand exceeds U.S. production, Americans can still buy from abroad. But in the spring of 2021, with the U.S. economy emerging from the pandemic faster than most and with global supply lines in even greater disarray than domestic U.S. supply lines, the availability of foreign goods was limited. Although economists have differed over the precise figure, a reasonable guess is that excess demand accounted for as much as half the cumulative rise in prices in the United States immediately after the pandemic.

Faced with this vast gap between demand and available supply, the Fed could have stepped in and taken action. The Fed cannot change how the government chooses to allocate stimulus funds or negate any inefficiencies it might entail. But it does have a powerful instrument to prevent excess demand from creating high inflation, namely the short-term interest rate, which it effectively controls. By raising interest rates, the Fed makes it more expensive to borrow money, which in turn lowers the price of all long-term assets, from equities to art. The most important example of this phenomenon is the housing market, which is by far the largest component of most Americans’ personal wealth. Higher mortgage rates make it more expensive to buy houses, which ultimately pushes down home values. The resulting fall in wealth reduces consumption.

More generally, higher interest rates discourage borrowing and encourage savings, damping consumer demand. Higher interest rates also cause firms to reevaluate long-term investment projects, directly and indirectly lowering their demand for workers.

But before it decided on a series of rate hikes, the Fed had to be confident that high inflation was a serious risk. Despite Summers’s towering stature, his views made him an outlier. Although a few respected economists, including former IMF Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard, agreed with his warnings, Wall Street and most academics discounted them.

After all, inflation had not risen above four percent for several decades, and many of the progressives that dominated Biden’s economic team believed that the inflation effects of their stimulus would be minor. What right did the Fed have to push back on a signature policy of an administration that had come to office promising to help ordinary Americans and that had the support of many progressive economists? Had the Fed started hiking interest rates in spring 2021 and had a recession then occurred for any reason—such as a bad turn in the COVID-19 pandemic—the Fed would have been subject to withering criticism and could potentially have compromised its future independence. Given these considerations, it was hardly surprising that the Fed was hesitant to act.

Yet the Fed delayed taking action even after it became clear that inflation was rising. By the fall of 2021—six months after the Biden stimulus—the economy was rapidly heating up, yet the Fed left interest rates

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Credit: Getty/JLGutierrez

untouched. It is hard to escape the fact that Jerome Powell’s term as Fed chair was set to expire at the end of the year and Biden had not yet announced his reappointment. If Powell had chosen to initiate a cycle of interest-rate hikes, it is entirely possible, indeed likely, that Biden would have replaced him with a different chair, perhaps Lael Brainard. A well-respected economist and prominent former treasury official in the Obama administration, Brainard was viewed by financial markets as more dovish on interest rates, more willing to risk inflation to sustain growth. In the event, the Fed held back on raising rates, and Biden eventually reappointed Powell. Only then, with Powell comfortably in his new term, did the Fed finally raise interest rates in the spring of 2022. If the administration had wanted the Fed to raise interest rates sooner, as some later argued it did, the right move would have been to reappoint Powell in the summer of 2021, giving him a clear mandate to act as the Fed saw fit.

MAGICAL MONETARY THINKING

Amid these pressures from Washington, the Fed was also influenced by an increasingly dominant strand of Keynesian economic theory that argued that there was considerable scope for using macroeconomic stimulus more aggressively. Long before the start of the pandemic, many economists had concluded that it was possible to significantly increase government spending (and/ or lower taxes) without having to raise interest rates and without causing inflation. After nearly a decade of ultralow interest rates and low inflation, some thought that upward price pressures could be avoided even if the entire spending increase was financed by “printing money”—having the central bank pump money into the economy by buying up government debt. “Modern monetary theory” is perhaps the best known version of this approach, although more moderate versions had already become mainstream.

One prominent idea was that running the economy “hot,” through

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high government spending and ultralow interest rates, could be an effective tool for reducing inequality. As low-wage workers were brought into the labor force, they would gain skills that would translate into higher lifetime earnings. Strong temporary stimulus could thus result in permanent gains, or so many assumed. Support for this approach was not limited to left-leaning policymakers. Trump’s economic team often touted the effect of the strong, tax-cut-driven economy on incomes for low-wage workers and minorities.

By 2019, when the Fed gathered policy perspectives from leading academics as part of a review of its fundamental monetary framework, many economists were studying how to stimulate an economy stubbornly resistant to inflation and monetary stimulus, even after interest rates had been taken to zero. Within the profession, there were growing concerns about “lowflation”—inflation well below two percent—a fear that became a major reason for the Fed’s inaction two years later. Along with many academic economists, the Fed concluded that rapid price increases were no longer a serious concern, since it could always raise interest rates to quell them, forgetting the difficulty of getting the timing right and the political challenges that might ensue. In August 2020, the Fed announced the results of its policy review, making clear that it would no longer act preemptively to fight inflation just because labor markets were getting tight but would wait until the economy showed clear signs that inflation was actually taking root.

Despite its concerns about lowflation, however, the Fed failed to embrace one innovation that might have helped in the subsequent crisis: negative-interest-rate policy. That is, it could have allowed very-short-term interest rates to go below zero in order to push up inflation expectations and longer-term interest rates in a deflationary economy. It may seem counterintuitive that such a tool could help deal with inflation as well. But if the Fed in 2021 had had such a “bazooka” in its arsenal, to paraphrase former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, it could have been more proactive

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in raising interest rates, knowing that if it overshot, it could cut them as much as needed without running into the dreaded “zero bound.”

Admittedly, for negative-interest-rate policy to be fully effective, a number of legal, institutional, and tax changes would have to be implemented, and the Fed would need the cooperation of the Treasury and Congress. The most important single challenge is how to prevent significantly negative rates—say minus two percent or lower—from causing investors to switch from bank accounts and Treasury bills to paper currency, which has a zero interest rate. So far, even Japan and Europe, which have tiptoed into negative rates, have avoided this issue, but there are two solutions that would prevent arbitrage into paper currency. One involves establishing an exchange rate between paper currency and central bank reserves (which are digital) that depreciates over time just enough to offset the fact that, storage and insurance costs aside, paper currency might otherwise look good in a negative-interest-rate world. The other, of course, is to eliminate paper currency entirely, while ensuring that free basic banking services were available to all, either by introducing a central bank digital currency or by requiring banks to offer free basic accounts to unbanked individuals (as, say, Japan does). Between these two alternatives, it is likely possible to implement negative rates as low as perhaps minus three percent, simply by phasing out large denomination notes (hundreds and fifties) and taking other regulatory steps to make large-scale currency hoarding, in the billions of dollars, impractical.

In the event, the adoption of negative-interest-rate policy was deliberately taken off the table in the Fed’s 2019 review out of fear of political repercussions, although if used effectively, it would help power the economy out of a deep recession. (Indeed, greater short-term stimulus would actually push up longer-term rates because of higher growth and inflation expectations.) When the Fed next reconsiders its policy framework, one hopes that it will consider what legal and institutional changes might be necessary to allow it to use such tools.

In short, the Fed’s failure to respond to inflation in 2021 illustrates how much central bank independence is often affected by

The changes in the political and economic landscape have become so profound that it seems unlikely for the foreseeable future that the Fed will choose to bring inflation down to prepandemic levels.

both political and intellectual undercurrents—particularly during elections but also when the government in power is subject to populist pressures. But it also shows that in today’s environment, the Fed needs to expand its toolkit for stimulating the economy in a severe downturn if it wants to strengthen its resolve to fight inflation when the economy overheats.

UNMOVING TARGET

One of the recurring questions about the 2021–22 inflation has been whether the current trajectory resembles the Great Inflation of the 1970s. How bad can it get? Central bankers insist they will never allow the kind of complicity and complacency in economic management that characterized that era. At the start of the 1970s, the chair of the Fed at the time, Arthur Burns, recklessly expanded the money supply in what many viewed as an effort to help President Richard Nixon get reelected. Then, in 1978, Burns was succeeded by G. William Miller, who was so focused on printing money to keep short-term interest rates low that he failed to recognize that expectations of rising inflation were driving up long-term interest rates as lenders demanded higher payments to keep up with inflation. Under Miller, inflation in the United States rose to double digits.

Only with the appointment of Paul Volcker, who succeeded Miller after a year and a half, did the Fed begin to conquer the problem. Volcker is remembered for having raised the Fed’s short-term policy rate above 19 percent, eventually bringing down inflation from its peak of 14 percent in 1980. Far less noted, however, is that the Volcker Fed initially held back, worried that causing a recession would affect the 1980 presidential election; instead, it allowed inflation to rise initially, possibly causing the later recession to be even larger. By 1982, the Volcker Fed had brought annual inflation down to the three to 4.5 percent range, where it remained until Alan Greenspan took over as Fed chair in 1987. Notably, although Greenspan is famous for having masterfully steered the economy while lowering inflation even further, it took the Fed a while to get it to two percent. Measured by the Consumer Price Index, annual inflation rose during Greenspan’s first few years, reaching more than five percent before falling decisively in the mid-1990s. True, it was arguably a much more difficult task back then when high inflation expectations were deeply ingrained. In the current crisis, so far, inflation expectations have risen relatively modestly, though central bankers remain concerned that they might rise much more.

At the time of the Great Inflation, central banks also faced very different challenges. The breakup of the Bretton Woods fixed exchange rate system in the early 1970s removed any remaining link between currency and gold. Yet the United States was among only a few countries that had independent central banks for which maintaining stable prices was an important part of their mandate.

Over time, this mandate has proven invaluable as a counterweight to political pressures to hold down interest-rate increases, pres-

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sures that central bankers again find themselves fighting today; politicians more often push central bankers to take it easy on interest-rate hikes than beg for more, especially in the year before an election.

Still, the current inflation crisis and its predecessor have some remarkable similarities. Above all, both eras were catalyzed by new kinds of supply shocks. The OPEC oil embargo of 1973–74 was the biggest shock the global economy had seen since World War II, and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has likewise shaken the foundations of the global economic system, hugely exacerbating problems in global supply chains, which were already frayed by the pandemic. And in both episodes, Keynesian-oriented stimulus policies were in high fashion among academic economists and policy commentators, with supply-side economics all but forgotten.

Central bankers today seem confident when they say they know how to bring inflation back to two percent, but they are less convincing when they insist that they will not rest until inflation returns to that target. They must realize that pushing up interest rates risks creating a deep recession. And central bankers know that a deep recession is going to fall particularly hard on lowincome people, the young, and workers from historically disadvantaged groups. These are precisely the groups that the Fed, in its new policy framework, expressly aims to help. In light of recent events, the Fed will need to reconsider this shift in emphasis, but helping disadvantaged groups will certainly remain a priority.

Some economists argue that central banks should never have formed a consensus around a two percent inflation target in the first place and that a three or even four percent target would be better. According to this view, by building higher expected inflation into interest rates, central banks would have more room to cut rates in a crisis. It is a complex debate with many nuances; in essence, raising the target rate could provide an alternative to negative-interest-rate policy. For central bankers, the drawback of such a move is that having sworn up and down that they are absolutely committed to a long-run inflation target of two percent, any change—particularly from a position of weakness—might undercut their credibility, suggesting that the target could be pushed even higher in the future. For this reason, if the economy stabilizes at a higher rate of inflation for several years, central bankers are likely to say that although they are tolerating moderately higher inflation for the moment, they still intend to return to two percent in the future and will look for opportune ways to smoothly achieve it without causing a prolonged downturn. There are other drawbacks to having permanently higher inflation—wages and prices will eventually adjust more often, making monetary policy less powerful—and in a severe recession the extra room to cut rates might still not be enough.

THE PRICE OF STABILITY

For all their complaints about inflation, one wonders how prepared voters are for yet another deep recession. The Fed is surely concerned about such an outcome. Another risk is that long-term real interest rates—that is, inflation-adjusted rates, which col-

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lapsed after the 2008 financial crisis—could continue moving back up toward the very long-term trend, which tilts down at about 1.6 percent per century, but nothing like the nearly three percent drop that occurred just a few years after the financial crisis. This would make it more expensive for governments to borrow money and put more pressure on central banks to keep interest rates low and devalue government debt through inflation.

Indeed, the changes in the political and economic landscape have become so profound that it seems unlikely for the foreseeable future that the Fed will choose to bring inflation down to prepandemic levels and keep it there.

Monetary policy has a big effect on politics; the economic cycle is a strong predictor of elections almost everywhere in the world. But as the current crisis has made clear, politics also affects monetary policy. The European Central Bank was doing cartwheels to explain why it had to keep buying large quantities of debt from countries on Europe’s periphery, most notably from Italy. It originally marketed this policy as necessary for fighting deflation, but it has now rebranded the program while raising interest rates to fight inflation. The real reason for the policy, of course, has always been to demonstrate the commitment of northern eurozone countries to backstopping southern eurozone government debt, a profoundly political goal. In the United Kingdom, Liz Truss, who became prime minister in September 2022, has openly advocated reining in the Bank of England, just at the moment when her fiscal policies are likely to place upward pressure on long-term inflation.

The economist Milton Friedman once opined that inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon. That is, of course, a polemic overstatement. As the world is now witnessing, many factors affect inflation, including government spending stimulus and global supply shocks. It is true that central banks can bend long-term inflation rates to their will if they are patient enough and independent enough. But it is unclear how far they can go if the global economy continues to suffer seismic shocks.

One upside of this episode of high inflation is that it may increasingly force politicians to once again recognize that low and stable inflation cannot be taken for granted and that central banks must be allowed the freedom and focus necessary to achieve their core mandate. Central bankers, for their part, should be more open to using new tools such as unrestricted negative-interest-rate policy to fight severe recessions, tools that could provide crucial help in resisting political pressures to hold rates down in an overheating economy. Whether or not the Fed manages to engineer a “soft landing” in the current crisis, the challenges it will face in the coming decade are likely to be considerably more difficult than what it confronted in the pre-pandemic world.

KENNETH S. ROGOFF is Professor of Economics at Harvard University and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He was Chief Economist at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2003.

This article was originally published in Foreign Affairs.

A Weekly Political News Magazine

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Issue 1929- November- 04/11/2022

Brazil’s First Working Class President www.majalla.com

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ulture

Breathing New Life into Ancient Sites

Shawahid Misr Initiative Preserves Egypt’s Neglected Heritage

By Maryam Raafat Hossam Abdel Azeem has founded the Shawahid Misr initiative to preserve Egypt’s heritage, especially neglected sites.

In doing so, he is driven by his passion for ancient places and monuments and his knowledge of them.

Abdel Azeem began his heritage preservation career in 2020, when he started working on the 900-year-old Fatimid dome, known as the Al-Haswati Dome, located in the graveyard of Imam el-Shafi’I in southern Cairo.

“With help from a group of my colleagues interested in Egyptian heritage, I was able to remove piles of rubbish from the place within 7 hours only,” Abdel Azeem told Majalla.

He and his colleagues took many paths to fulfil their goal of breathing new life into archaeological sites which had been neglected for years.

Some of the sites had been neglected and turned into rubbish dumps, which obscured their historical identity and value.

Abdel Azeem and his colleagues filed a request to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to clean archaeological sites on a voluntary basis.

They hoped the same sites would be reopened to the members of the public and tourists after being cleaned.

To their utter surprise, the Ministry approved their request and gave them permission to work on a number of neglected sites.

Abdel Azeem and his colleagues brooked no delay in acting.

They immediately started working on some of the sites as part of their campaign.

“We formulated a time plan for cleaning each of the sites in 24 hours,” Abdel Azeem said.

This opened a new chapter in Abdel Azeem’s life, one in which he pursued his passion to the full.

He launched the Cairo Biography initiative to preserve an-

Photo shows construction works as part of the Shawahid Misr initiative which aims to preserve Egypt’s heritage, .especially neglected sites

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Photo shows construction works as part of the Shawahid Misr initiative which aims to preserve Egypt’s heritage, especially neglected sites.

cient sites in Cairo.

Four sites have already been cleaned following the initiative, which brought these sites back to life.

The initiative also cleaned a large number of other sites, including Al-Hasawati Dome in the graveyard of Imam Al-Shafi’i, the Sabil of Prince Sheikho AlOmari in Al-Hataba, the Sabil of Prince Hassan Agha Arzincan in Taht al-Raba’ Street, Zawiya (small mosque) of Sheikh Hassan Al-Roumi in Al-Hataba (the first to be built in the Ottoman era), Dome of Arkmas al-Ashrafy, which was constructed during the reign of Sultan Qansuh Abu Said (opposite to Zawiya of Hassan al-Roumi).

Abdel Azeem described Shawahid Misr initiative as a ‘complementary step’ to the Cairo Biography initiative.

“All those operating within these initiatives are volunteers who are deeply interested in antiquities,” Abdel Azeem said.

He said his initiatives welcome new volunteers who want to participate in the cleaning of ancient sites.

The initiatives, he said, train newcomers in dealing with archaeological sites and historical collectibles.

Apart from cleaning ancient sites, Shawahid Misr initiative educates the members of the public about the importance of protecting these sites.

After finalizing its work in the different sites, the initiative

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Abdel Azeem and his colleagues filed a request to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities to clean archaeological sites on a voluntary basis. also submits a full report to the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities about the condition of these sites after the cleaning process.

The initiative then submits a request to the Ministry to reopen the cleaned sites for the members of the public and tourists.

“Sometimes we ask the Ministry to restore certain sites that need a restoration process,” Abdel Azeem said.

The initiative did this in the case of the Sabil Agha Mustafsan. It said that the site needs urgent restoration before it is reopened to the public.

Two of the sites sponsored by Shawahid Misr initiative, namely the Sabil of Prince Shekho in Al-Hataba and the Dome of Qansuh Abu Said, were reopened after their restoration by the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities.

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Saint Lucian

How A Satyr Became a Christian Martyr Bryn Haworth

the camera is trained on the artist while a sheepish interviewer is heard, when he dares to speak, off-camera throughout. The result, unsurprisingly, is not the garrulous raconteur his sitters described, but a stilted performer who only fleetingly relaxes enough to impart anything illuminating. He says ‘um’ a lot. Amid the strain, however, there are some moments of clarity. His comments on selfportraiture are one such moment: “I try to avoid any expression on my part,” he says, or “viewing oneself in a pleasant or conciliatory light.” He complains that painters have a tendency to “give themselves a certain grandeur.”

Grand Old Man?

Michelangelo self portrait

Very few interviews with Lucian Freud have been captured on film. In one, which was done for the Omnibus programme, a fairly high brow cultural review,

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The exhibition at the national Gallery is worth seeing for many reasons, but perhaps the single most powerful incentive – Painter Working, Reflection, from 1993 – has a grandeur about it that seems at first glance to contradict Freud’s best intentions. Martin Gayford, one of Freud’s sitters, detects ‘something triumphant about the pose, brush (sic) upraised like a victorious general’s baton.’

Another commentator describes the pose as ‘gladiatorial,’ claiming that he holds ‘…his brush (sic) like a broadsword as though in combat with himself, though the plain background and lack of perspective make him seem unbalanced in his 04/11/22

unlaced slippers.’

This gives us a jarringly melodramatic image of someone who claimed he didn’t wish to dramatise himself, as if we’re seeing a doddery combatant addressing an emperor with the words “We who are about to portray ourselves, salute you!’

All this may be there for those who want to find it. The problem, however, is the way grandiosity so completely dissolves into its opposite, to the exclusion of any dignity. Very soon the whole exercise dwindles to the self-portrayal of a senex who, given his state of undress, hasn’t a hope of embodying wisdom.

Yet there is grandeur in the painting, which stems primarily from its monumentality. There are a handful of self-portraits in this exhibition, but none of them full-length and none of them naked, which is the case here were it not for the somewhat ridiculous slippers he is wearing. The body is lean, wrinkled, sprightly for its age. Freud was in his early seventies by this time. He stands in his studio, still steady on his feet, just as he has stood to paint over the years, having given up sitting at an easel back around the time he met Bacon. He looks at us – and, by implication, himself – with the same pitiless eye that he has trained on his sitters. The face is a version of Auden’s wedding cake left out in the rain, a scumbled mess of overlaid paint, and so is the crotch, to the extent that he manages to muddy the issue (brought up by Dr Willi Hoffer) of whether he was circumcised. That amount of scumbling bespeaks a great deal of application.

The paint is so thick, it stands proud of the plane of the canvas. In the right hand of this half-ruined figure is a palette knife – easily mistaken for a paint brush – and in the left hand, a palette. It came as something of an epiphany to me when the curator, Daniel Herrmann, pointed out how the studio, with its floorboards and bed, are painted with a smooth technique that resembles the earlier work, but that the body is overpainted, thickened, in common with the globs of paint on the palette. Flesh and paint are one and the same, though paint is the longer lasting.

A small digression here. In another picture, a double portrait, we see a woman’s squeezing a tube of paint. While a man lies naked on the bed nearby, the woman stands, fully-dressed. This is Celia Paul, a fellow artist, but also a woman by whom Lucian had children. Is it my imagination that this represents Paul’s continued sexual sway over the artist and her ability, even in an act of stamping, to turn him on? The flesh being paint, this is a masochistic portrait of the artist

To return to the large selfportrait, we can see the effect of his dedicated layering of paint. The surface is roughened, paint blisters as if insufficiently lubricated when applied. as a spurting tube of the stuff, and a foretaste of the symbolism of martyrdom in the full-length picture. There may even be a measure of retribution here. No one could mistake Freud for a family man, and the foot comes straight from the Counter-Reformation, with the abandoned lover treading on the neck (or some other body part) of the Fiend.

One is reminded of the way Christ could be represented by the stigmata – the nail holes in his feet and hands, the sponge, the sacred heart – in a summarised account of the Passion. Thus, the whole event could be itemised without the need to represent the entire body in torment, as can be observed on the façade of Bath Abbey. It seems Freud could be equally concise.

To return to the large self-portrait, we can see the effect of his dedicated layering of paint. The surface is roughened, paint blisters as if insufficiently lubricated when applied. The effect is to make the flesh stand out in the three-dimensional manner of a crucifix. That would be to go further than Freud intended, however.

There is no element of self-identification with Christ, such as we see in Dürer.

If there is a Christian forerunner to the image, it is St Bartholomew, one of the disciples, and his representation on the walls of the Sistine Chapel, as part of Michelangelo’s Last Judgment.

Saint Bartholomew

Celia Paul foot detail

As one expects in Michelangelo’s work, the saint may be elderly, but he is also muscular. It is a similar figure to his statue of Moses. There were various traditions concerning Bartholomew’s death, but in the end the one that caught the collective imagination of Christendom was that he had been skinned alive, then

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beheaded. He was often depicted in lavish manuscripts which were themselves composed of vellum, or skin. Thus, not only was Bartholomew, in the rather literal mediaeval way, associated with the leather trade, but with book production.

For Michelangelo, something more self-deprecating seems to be going on. In the saint’s right hand is the curved flaying knife, while the skin held so nonchalantly in his left hand is commonly assumed to be a self-portrait of the great artist. As we shall see, the association of flaying with selfhood already had a long tradition even at the time of Bartholomew’s agonies. In Michelangelo’s case, he has done himself no favours. There is a profound self-loathing in the image of this sagging pelt, the mouth a hollow gash, the eyes empty loops. He has even been unflinching in the rendering of his nose, broken by the envious Torrigiano. But there is a redemptive dimension here too. In a poem, the great artist had compared his hope of salvation to a snake shedding its skin, and Michelangelo has already shed his imperfect skin by the time we see this, the world having come to an end.

There is one aspect in which Lucian Freud’s version of the pose differs drastically from its Renaissance model: Saint Lucian did not furnish himself with a cloud to sit on. As the title suggests, this is Freud at work, and standing was an essential part of his practice. The key similarities are in the objects Saint Lucian holds, which symbolise the manner of his self-revelation: the palette knife

St Lucian palette knife

There is one aspect in which Lucian Freud’s version of the pose differs drastically from its Renaissance model: Saint Lucian did not furnish himself with a cloud to sit on.

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…and the palette: As can be seen in this last detail, the slippers the artist wears make him appear somewhat absurd. It seems that, in a way analogous to Michelangelo, he is not pleased by what he sees.

More poignantly still, he appears to be sending himself up. This has not prevented one critic from accusing him of vanity nonetheless. Sarah Kent has written that, because ‘…he strips naked to portray his scrawny, 71-yearold body with the same dispassion as he views everyone else, one can forSt Lucian palette give his eagle-eyed analysis. Far from being an act of humility, though, the painting is a vanitas … Freud is comparing himself, unashamedly, with the Renaissance master’ (The Arts Desk).

How very dare he? I suppose with the same hubris (as we shall see, this is a defect lurking in the back story of the painting) as the Renaissance master displayed in comparing himself with, say, the sculptor of the Laocoön.

But there is far more going on here than a reference to a great predecessor. In both cases, there is a reckoning with age. Michelangelo is in his sixties when he begins and the work takes five years. The ceiling above him had been painted in his prime. Freud is a decade or so older. Sprightly as he may be, he is no longer the boisterous satyr that he was.

There is an understandable reluctance among art historians to dwell on Lucian Freud’s private life. This was a view shared sometimes by Freud himself, who said the artist should appear in his work “no more than God in nature. The man is nothing; the work is everything.” Though I don’t feel the need to speculate on just how many children he sired – enough for the most well-attested guesses to feel like conservative estimates – or to relay the scabrous tales told by William Feaver, the decorous avoidance of gossip can result in its own kind of distortion.

Freud’s was a very singular lifestyle. The present exhibition avoids dwelling too much on the lurid details that Feaver (among others) has given us of a man who appears to have got around on a bike when he was at his most promiscuous, which must have played havoc with his work ethic. Herrmann even imagines the painter entering the National Gallery with his golden ticket to avoid the ’commotion’ of his private life, a delightfully understated description of the emotional chaos that must have reigned beyond those hallowed rooms.

The fact is, we cannot pretend to ignore the sexuality of so corporeal a personality as Freud. The paintings themselves, and his stated aesthetic principles, would be nigh on impossible to comprehend without considering the biographical maelstrom from which they sprang. Herrmann has striven, gamely, to forgo the ways we have always spoken (since Vasari and, well, his Life of Michelangelo) 04/11/22

about artists, describing the hero’s journey, how he leaves the family and has to “fight travails and be criticised and have a rough time until he gets rediscovered and then ascends to the firmament of art”. He points out that Lucian wanted to edit his own story; in a sense, to do his own curating. Crucially, the naked portrait of himself, wielding palette and palette knife, is part of his determination to secure a position in that firmament.

In ‘Lucian and Freud’ I looked at his debt to Titian and speculated that he might even have self-identified as a satyr. If this seems far-fetched, we would have to be coy to the point of delusional not to admit that Freud exhibited satyriasis, the male equivalent of nymphomania. Otherwise known as Don Juanism, this is a non-medical condition, but a condition nonetheless, and one he undoubtedly exemplified, though to say he suffered from it reminds me of Shelley’s description of Byron ‘morosely’ climbing a lover’s balcony in Venice. There may have been morose moments for Freud too, but most of the time one imagines he revelled in it.

That said, unlike his fellow half-goat, Picasso, he was not given to mythological representations of himself. The libidinous Spaniard was forever churning out grinning fauns:

Another grinning satyr

Even his Minotaur could be the life and soul of any bacchanal: You just had to catch him in the right mood Such improbable beasts are thin on the ground in Freud’s work.

There are horses and a seemingly limitless pack of dogs, but they are represented with as much fidelity to their everyday appearance as a horse by Stubbs or a

greyhound by Millais. There are no goats, and though he was willing to send himself up, it is rare for Freud to engage in self-caricature.

Freud’s psycho-analytic grandfather cannot help us much with whatever it was ‘afflicted’ his grandson. There do not seem to have been many neurotics among the Don Juans of Viennese society. In a sense, this is hardly surprising; they were all too busy getting horizontal with their various sexual consorts to waste time lying about on a therapist’s couch. Carl Jung, however, did take an interest in the condition. He saw it as an unconscious desire of a man to seek his mother in every woman he encountered. However, he did not see the trait as entirely negative; Jung felt that positive aspects of Don Juanism included heroism, perseverance and strength of will. Now, brace yourself for some psychobabble, because Jung argues that, related to the mother-complex, ‘…are homosexuality and Don Juanism, and sometimes also impotence. In homosexuality, the son›s entire heterosexuality is tied to the mother in an unconscious form; in Don Juanism, he unconsciously seeks his mother in every woman he meets.... Because of the difference in sex, a son›s mother-complex does not appear in pure form. This is the reason why in every masculine mothercomplex, side by side with the mother archetype, a significant role is played by the image of the man›s sexual counterpart, the anima.’

There, that wasn’t so bad, was it? We may never know if such a profusion of lovers – estimates are in the hundreds – had anything to do with a mother-complex.

It is worth stressing, however, that Lucie Freud was an art historian, and that her son drew her likeness many times, not least when she was on her death bed. One day a Jungian will stumble on this case and successfully account for the inner drives of the Holland Park lothario.

While the satyrs in Picasso are often jolly enough, the Dionysian forces they represent are potentially dark, cruel, even murderous. Now, no one accuses Freud of being a murderer. ‘Selfish’ is about the worst charge brought against him. It was a word he used of himself. But the shunning of family ties, and of his own children while they were growing Mother dead up, was complemented by a coldness in his appraisal of the body. Tenderness exists, but never sentimentality. It was inevitable that what Herrmann calls a ‘lexicon of cruelty’ would grow up around Freud’s cold-eyed depictions of the human form. As for the sheer number of nymphs he got through, this was perhaps nothing more than a question of quotas in what Otto Fenichel called his ‘narcissistic supply’, though the resulting progeny have not always seen it that way. Freud’s amorous life reads a little like the Frenchman’s fantasy of coming back in the next life as a female prostitute. No wonder he bewildered the psychoanalyst in his youth. Though he refashioned himself as a womaniser, he never quite managed to kick the cottaging habit.

Like his fellow satyr in Paris, Freud could rely on a steady flow of attractive sitters, and he would also use teaching as a means of making their acquaintance.

If teaching seems at first an unlikely calling for a satyr, there is nothing in the

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mythological rules to say they have to be stupid. Marsyas was considered very wise, just as Chiron (teacher of Achilles) was a wise centaur. Still, much of any teacher’s success derives, not from what they know, but from the charm they use to instil it. In Plato’s Symposium, Alcibiades initially compares Socrates to Marsyas in his demeanour: “You yourself will not deny, Socrates, that your face is like that of a satyr. Aye, and there is a resemblance in other points too. For example, you are a bully, as I can prove by witnesses, if you will not confess.”

But his comparison ultimately depends on the philosopher’s gift of the gab: “…are you not a flute-player? […] and a performer far more wonderful than Marsyas. He indeed with instruments used to charm the souls of men by the power of his breath […] This Marsyas has often brought me to such a pass, that I have felt as if I could hardly endure the life which I am leading […] and I am conscious that if I did not shut my ears against him, and fly as from the voice of the siren, my fate would be like that of others: he would transfix me, and I should grow old sitting at his feet.”

One only has to look at a rather self-indulgent picture entitled ‘The Painter is Surprised by a Naked Admirer’, completed more than a decade after the image of Saint Lucian, to see how similar Freud’s effects on women could be. He was very solicitous towards his sitters, making sure they were warm to the point of drowsy, feeding them exotic fowl and entertaining them with witty stories. He oozes charm in the interview given alongside his old friend John Richardson.

The problem with ‘The Painter Surprised’ is a rare need to crow about his powers of seduction. Somehow, the vaguely ridiculous scene gives the game away, and confirms what Sarah Kent intuited, though she couched her criticism in terms of artistic hubris: the sheer screaming vanity of the man.

Like Socrates, Marsyas demonstrated that one can only take wisdom and charm so far, before something like ressentiment rears its head, or else a reassertion of the proper order of things. Being foolhardy enough to challenge Apollo to a musical contest, Marsyas was judged – according to some versions, by an audience of nymphs – and found wanting. The god played his lyre and sang so sweetly that he wowed his audience and won the contest. The penalty that resulted from the satyr’s defeat was depicted by Titian, also in his eighties, though it would appear that he had aged more graciously than his own biggest admirer: When the ‘Flaying of Marsyas’ was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1983, it was new to most visitors and ‘was greeted with astonished admiration’. Beginning an extended analysis, Sir Lawrence Gowing wrote that ‘All these months – it is not too much to say – London Titian: The Flaying of Marsyas has been half under the spell of this masterpiece, in which the tragic sense that overtook Titian’s poesie in his seventies reached its cruel and solemn extreme. At most hours on most days there is a knot of visitors riveted and fairly perplexed in front of it... At the Academy people still ask, and on the radio well-meaning critics debate, how it is possible that a horribly painful subject should be the occasion of beauty or greatness in art.’

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It›s fair to say that, if he lacked a special pass for the Academy, Freud would have gladly stood among the knot of visitors, though maybe not as horrified as those around him. A devout fan of the old Venetian, he would have been alive to the painting’s beauty. There is also a lack of smoothness to the brush work. The ‘Venus of Urbino’, for example, with its lucidity and fidelity to everyday perceptions, is so much in contrast that the ‘Flaying’ seems to come from the hand of a different artist altogether. This lack of smoothness in the brush work would have chimed with the self-portraiture of the modern painter.

At the centre of the picture hangs Marsyas, helpless, his legs splayed above him as if he’s in a slaughterhouse, while around him the employees of this improvised abattoir get on with their grisly tasks, or else simply witness his pain.

Apollo, kneeling to one side, calmly removes a flap of skin while a violinist plays and a man in a black cap flays a leg as if he was slicing ham. On the other side of Marsyas, the classic satyr brings a bucket for the blood which is already dripping onto the ground beneath, licked up by one of Titian’s spaniels. We see King Midas, melancholic, thought to be a self-portrait of Titian, and then, restraining a larger dog, perhaps a wolfhound, the only character that looks out at us, the same character as we saw in ‘Bacchus and Ariadne,’ the half-boyhalf-goat toddler who so gaily dragged a deer’s head on a string. This time, the expression on his face is not so readily legible.

When Titian drew on this myth, he was joining a long tradition. Marsyas was often sculpted, though usually with his hands pinioned above him, rather than his feet/hooves: The figure of Marsyas was associated by the Romans with two remarkable things, the skills of augury and freedom of speech. A statue of him stood near the entrance to the Forum and an ancient coin offers evidence of what this statue might have looked like.

The Torment of Marsyas, the Louvre

On one day in every year, when liberty was celebrated, people posted satirical verses nearby.

He was depicted as a silen [i.e., an old satyr, like Silenus], carrying a wineskin on his left shoulder. The raised right arm

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is similar to Saint Lucian’s. Freud actually painted with his left hand, but the painting is (as its title states) a mirror image. The satyr is a naked old man with the Phrygian cap of Liberty on his head. The wineskin over his shoulder acts as a sign of his martyrdom, since it would have been made of his own skin. It’s possible it has actually been made into bagpipes, though he was normally associated with another wind instrument, the aulos or a double flute, with which he had got the nymphs on their feet.

The freedom that the ecstasies of Dionysian worship represented took on a political meaning in Rome as the libertas that distinguished the free from the enslaved. The Liberalia, celebrated on 17 March in honour of Liber, was a time of speaking freely and the statue, as symbol of liberty, was associated with demonstrations by the plebs. It often served as a sort of kiosk upon which invective verse was posted. Yet again, perhaps coincidentally, we see the connection with the original Lucian of classical times and his influential lampoons. There is a parallel here with Freud’s lack of reverence for authority figures, notably his potato-headed portrait of the Queen, but also a rich financier sat beside a heap of rags.

This exhibition also includes the portrait of a middle-aged brigadier, Andrew Parker-Bowles (former husband of Camilla), hiding a pot belly under a uniform he last wore in his twenties. As David Kamp explains, Freud dispensed: ‘…with his usual propensity for exposed flesh to do a Reynolds- or Gainsborough-style painting of a distinguished British gentleman in uniform—albeit with a characteristically lumpy, earthy, Freudian twist. “Lucian asked to paint me in the uniform I wore when I was a commander of the HouseBaron Thyssen-Bornemisza hold Cavalry… But it had been twenty years since I’d worn it, and I’d got fatter. So, I undid my tunic and my stomach came out.”

Kamp continues ‘The painting is magnificent—melancholy and funny at the same time: a military man resplendent in his beribboned coat with a gold-braid collar and his smart dark trousers with wide red stripes down the side, but with his face lost in thought (nostalgia? regret? ennui?) and his midsection asserting itself as the picture’s focal point. The placket down the middle of Parker Bowles’s white shirt divides his gut into two testicular bulges. “When I look in the mirror, I think, not bad, but then I see the painting and hear people say things like ‘It shows the decline of the British Empire.’ Well, so be it!”’ (Vanity Fair, February 2012).

It seems remarkably sporting of Parker-Bowles, to consent to personifying Dean Acheson’s famous remark that Britain had lost an empire and not yet found a role. Freud moved in very exalted circles, though he also cultivated friendships with crooks and gangsters. In the end, his irreverence towards the powerful may simply have been a function of his piercing eye, against which no amount of pomp, or clothing, was sufficient protection.

Finally, along with augury and political subversion, Marsyas was a devotee of the ancient Mother Goddess, Cybele. Jung would have every reason to feel vindicated.

But aside from these lesser-known associations, it is for the flaying incident

that Marsyas is chiefly remembered.

Indeed, his cruel end is more familiar than Saint Bartholomew’s fate.

The question of how to interpret it remains. If this is an enactment of the Apollonian versus the Dionysian, then the willing cooperation of Titian’s satyr with the bucket is chilling. Edgar Wind’s comment on this has the effect of deepening the mystery. For him, the musical contest determined ‘…the relative powers of Dionysian darkness and Apollonian clarity; and The Brigadier if the contest ended with the flaying of Marsyas, it was because flaying was itself a Dionysian rite, a tragic ordeal of purification by which the ugliness of the outward man was thrown off and the beauty of his inward self revealed.’

This brings us back to the shedding of the snake’s skin in Michelangelo’s poem and the idea of his self-portrait being a blessed release from mortal ugliness and suffering. The moral precedent existed in Dante, who began his Paradiso with an invocation of ‘benign’ Apollo, requesting that the god aid his ‘remaining enterprise’: ‘Do thou Enter into my bosom and there breathe, As when Marsyas by thy hand was dragged Forth from his limbs unsheathed’ (Paradiso, Canto 1).

Apollo is being very cruel to be kind. In some Renaissance treatments of the myth, the satyr’s furry legs appear human once flayed, signifying that he is redeemed from the animality that condemned him to this fate. There is an inevitable admixture of Christian guilt here. But would that guilt reappear in Lucian Freud’s final judgment? I doubt it. One of his children reported: ‘I once apologised to Dad for something I did, and he replied, “That’s nice of you to say, but it doesn’t work like that. There is no such thing as free will.

People just have to do what they have to do.”’

This idea of the repentant satyr standing before us sounds phony. Freud lived his life with far more conviction than that, and I suspect he looked on his own failings as unflinchingly as he looked at the naked people who sat for him.

No, the last words of Marsyas, as reported by Ovid, are full of pain, but not of repentance. Even as the skin is stripped from him like a butchered animal, and even as he endures the martyrdom that will make him immortal, Marsyas laments the loss of his identity. He cries out “Why do you tear me from myself?” Freud, surprised by infirmity, seems to be asking himself the same horrified question.

Titian Head of Marsyas

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Lucian Freud: New Perspectives, curated by Daniel Herrmann, is at the National Gallery in London until 22 January 2023.

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Rising Teenage Stars Who Could Dazzle the World in Qatar 2022

England, Germany, Ghana, Mexico, Spain, and the United States are represented by young stars

By Sarah Gamal With the 2022 World Cup in Qatar rapidly approaching, football fans around the world are eager to see the young talents that the sport has produced in recent years. In contrast to the previous decade, dozens of new players have emerged, with the potential to write a golden history within a few years. This would reassure football fans about the level of competition as Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo approach retirement.

Majalla will shine a light on the young stars expected to dazzle in the World Cup.

PEDRI GONZÁLEZ (Spain)

Pedri was, without a doubt, the hottest teenager in football.

His incredible dribbling and passing, particularly his heeled pass through defenders, helped to revitalize Barcelona and Spain.

Pedri’s ability to hold the ball when it appears to be lost is frequently compared to that of Lionel Messi, though this Canary Islands player is often likened to Andres Iniesta.

Nevertheless, if people currently disagree on whether Juan Roman Riquelme, Ronaldinho, Luis Suarez, or Messi is the king of nutmeg in the twenty-first century, there may be a rare consensus in football on Pedri after this player retires.

The youngster arrived at the Camp Nou from UD Las Palmas without much fanfare in 2020, but he dazzled for FC Barcelona in his first and second seasons.

Pedro González López, better known as ‘Pedri,’ joined FC Barcelona in the summer of 2020 from LaLiga SmartBank side UD Las Palmas and immediately made an impact.

Nobody in the Catalan club’s squad played in more LaLiga Santander matches last season than the Canary Islander, hailed

as a prodigious talent but perhaps a little young to be a breakout star on arrival.

He started 28 of the 37 games he played for his new club.

The only game he didn’t play in was the season finale against SD Eibar, when Ronald Koeman decided there was nothing to play for.

“He’s someone who looks like he is a different age from his real age, someone who comes across as if he’s older,” Juventud Laguna President Julio Hernández explained in an interview. “I think Pedri is a blessing for Spanish football,” was coach Pepe Mel’s take, speaking at a UD Las Palmas press conference.

Pedri broke Wayne Rooney’s record by appearing in a European Championship knockout match at the age of 18 years and 215 days in the round of 16 against Croatia.

Pedri’s talent, efficiency, and coaches’ faith in his abilities led to him being relied on primarily by the first teams in the European Nations League and the Euro Championship, and then by the Olympic team in the Olympics, when the issue arose that he did not receive a summer vacation like the rest of the first-graders.

Pedri believes Luis Enrique’s Spain are among the favorites to win the upcoming FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Since winning the World Cup in 2010, La Roja has had two disappointing World Cup campaigns, losing in the group stage in 2014 and then losing in the last-16 penalty shootout to host Russia four years later.

FELIX AFENA-GYAN (Ghana)

Afena-Gyan, 19, was leading the Berikum Presbyterian High School team in his hometown of Sonyame just 18 months ago.

After a meteoric rise, the star is now playing for FC Roma and

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Spain’s Pedri Gonzalez, left, and Brazil’s Matheus Cunha battle for the ball during the men’s final soccer match at the 2020 Summer Olympics, Saturday, Aug. 7, 2021, in Yokohama, Japan. (AP)

will represent Ghana at the World Cup. Afena-Gyan has come a long way in a short time, from the Sunyani district of Ghana to Mourinho’s buying him trainers in the Eternal City.

Until 2018, the youngster’s only real competitive football came for his school team before joining the EurAfrica FC academy, a youth football project that was only established in 2018.

It was there that he continued to impress scouts, including Roma’s Morgan De Sanctis and Simone Lo Schiavo. In January 2021, despite never having played in any of Ghana’s league sides or for the country as a youth international, he became the subject of a transfer tug-of-war between Roma and AC Milan.

A 100-meter sprinter in high school, Afena Gyan’s speed has given him an advantage since moving to Italy, but his finishing ability and movement off the ball are also encouraging for a striker who can play anywhere across the forward line.

Despite his small stature, his strength and balance allow him to catch balls aimed at others, face challenges, and stand firmly on his feet. He is quick and skilled, and he can score goals from close and far, as well as from seemingly impossible angles.

Ghana is proud to have Asamoah Gyan, the greatest African goalscorer in World Cup history, as well as other legendary strikers such as Karim Abdul Razak, Abedi Pele, and Tony Yeboah. Afena-Gyan has the talent and the time to follow in their footsteps.

JUDE BELLINGHAM (England)

Until Jude Bellingham played the full 90 minutes for England against Austria last year, it had been nearly 140 years since a

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“In contrast to the previous decade, dozens of new players have emerged, with the potential to write a golden history within a few years.”

17-year-old had done so. He went on to become the youngest player in UEFA EURO history, a record that Poland’s Kacper Kozlowski broke six days later.

Bellingham, who is both physically and technically strong, has been compared to two of the greatest midfielders of the last 30 years: Patrick Vieira and Steven Gerrard. Roy Keane, a third great player who is known for not easily admiring other players, has praised this Borussia Dortmund midfielder on numerous occasions.

Bellingham’s popularity is growing. It appears that the most prestigious clubs are attempting to entice the player who Gareth Southgate believes can play at No. 6, No. 8, or No. 10.

“Jude is phenomenal. Just in training in the last couple of days, to have a 17-year-old, who wants to compete with senior players, not only has the technique, but the competitiveness and maturity… he’s a hugely exciting player. He’s going to be an important player for England. We’re not just taking him for the experience.” - Southgate on why he called up

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Reyna points to the heavens after scoring against Stuttgart. (IMAGO)

Bellingham for Euro 2020.

Although he spent only one season with Birmingham City’s first team, where he was the club’s youngest player ever at the age of 16, the club kept Bellingham’s No. 22 shirt when he left for Dortmund in 2019.

In August 2019, he made his senior debut for the Blues in an English League Cup match against Portsmouth, becoming the club’s youngest player ever. He broke Trevor Francis’s 49-year-old record at the age of 16 years and 38 days.

Bellingham had played 31 league matches in England’s toughas-nails second-tier Championship by the beginning of March 2020, starting 24 of them, scoring four goals and registering two assists. As a result of his performances, he was named the English Football League’s Young Player of the Month for November.

Bellingham became the youngest Englishman to score away in the Champions League in September 2021, at the age of 18

“Pedri’s ability to hold the ball when it appears to be lost is frequently compared to that of Lionel Messi, though this Canary Islands player is often likened to Andres Iniesta.”

years and 78 days, with a goal and an assist against Besiktas.

He was named Bundesliga Goal of the Month in October 2021 for a slaloming run and delightful finish in a win over Arminia Bielefeld, and he became the Bundesliga’s secondyoungest player to reach 50 appearances in February 2022.

The Borussia Dortmund midfielder makes a strong case for a key role for England at the World Cup in Qatar.

JAMAL MUSIALA (Germany)

Jamal Musiala is a new talent in German football that is not often seen. Lothar Matthäus compares him to Maradona and Messi in their youth, while Thomas Muller, his Bayern Munich teammate, believes the young star is extremely intelligent and that what he offers is simply a reflection of his abilities and skills.

It has been an exceptional season for the 19-year-old Jamal Musiala, the young player of Bayern Munich and the German national team, who is steadily stepping into becoming the hope of Bayern and Germany this year and in the years to come.

The attacking midfielder spent four months with Southampton before being spotted by Chelsea and signed to a scholarship just one year after arriving in the country. Musiala made his league debut for Chelsea’s U18 team at the age of 15 years, two months, and thirteen days.

Musiala was attracting attention throughout the Chelsea academy while also making waves on the international stage.

He made his England U15 debut at the age of 13 and went on to represent the country at the U16 level. In October 2018, he made two appearances for his birth country, Germany, and their U16 team. Musiala went on to make eight appearances for England’s U17 side, scoring twice in his first two games,

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England’s Jude Bellingham/ REUTERS

Ghana striker Felix Afena-Gyan (Via AFP).

Jamal Musiala (Photo credit: Getty Images).

and is now capped up to U21 level for the Three Lions.

He became the Bavarian club’s all-time youngest goalscorer, breaking the record set by an 18-year-old Roque Santa Cruz, with the eighth goal in an 8-0 win over Schalke on the first day of the 2020/21 season, at the age of 17 years and 205 days.

During the September break, ex-Bayern head coach Hansi Flick gave his protégé a full Germany debut in 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifying. He contributed an assist in that game before becoming the second-youngest goalscorer in Germany national team history against North Macedonia, at 18 years and 227 days.

GIOVANNI REYNA (United States)

Claudio Reyna, the son of former US captain Claudio Reyna, never saw his father play for the national team. That’s because Gio was too young when Claudio last played for Italy in a World Cup defeat to Ghana in 2006. Danielle Egan Reyna, his mother, also briefly represented the United States in 2003.

The younger Reyna, an attacking midfielder or winger, is back in form after an injury-plagued 2021-22 season. Last month, he curled a strike inside the far post for Borussia Dortmund in a German league win over Stuttgart.

Everyone would have preferred more time. Reyna was back in a BVB starting lineup for the first time since last April, and he celebrated last weekend’s big win against Stuttgart with almost childlike glee.

A silky first-half strike put his team 3-0 up, followed by a long run and celebratory knee slide in front of the jubilant BVB fans, Reyna’s face a picture of relief and release.

RICARDO PEPI (United States)

The USMNT appears to have finally found its spearhead. Ricardo Pepi, the striker, is strong and good at catching the ball and getting others to play; he dribbles and shoots towards goal.

His recent transfer to Augsburg in the Bundesliga will undoubtedly help his rise.

Pepi, 19, has now scored four goals in the Dutch club’s last three games. According to Opta, he is also the first player this century to have been directly involved in five goals in his first four Eredivisie matches, with one assist.

Pepi’s first goal for Groningen last month brought an end to a 30-match scoreless streak for both club and country that had lasted nearly a year.

He was called up to the most recent US roster last September,

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but he did not score after starting in a 0-0 draw against Saudi Arabia.

Pepi is competing against Jesus Ferreira, Josh Sargent, Jordan Pefok, and others for a spot on coach Gregg Berhalter’s World Cup roster this month.

Can this young man, nicknamed “the train” and inspired by Cristiano Ronaldo and Gabriel Jesus, wreak havoc on Qatar’s defence lines?

PABLO GAVI (Spain)

At the age of 18, the Blaugrana starlet has been named the world’s best young player as he received the Kopa Trophy and the Golden Boy award.

With 61 appearances for Barcelona and 12 for Spain, he has made an impressive impact on the senior stage, and his name is quickly becoming one of the most recognizable in European football.

Gavi became Spain’s youngest player ever, breaking the previous record of Angel Zubieta, who played against Czechoslovakia in April 1936. Zubieta was 17 years and 284 days old when he last played.

Barcelona starlet Gavi, who has claimed the prestigious Golden Boy award for 2022, made his debut for Spain when he was 17 years, 62 days old. He had only recently played his first game for Barcelona when he was called up. “In the three or four spells I’ve seen him, and it’s only three or four,” Luis Enrique said, “he has left me in no doubt that he can be a very important player for the future not only for Barcelona but also for the national team.”

Gavi was promoted to the senior squad for pre-season friendlies with the first team ahead of the start of the new season after appearing twice for Barcelona B in the 2020-21 season.

Gavi was reported to have pushed ahead of Riqui Puig in Ronald Koeman’s squad selection after strong performances against Gimnàstic de Tarragona and Girona.

He continued his good form with a 3-0 win over VfB Stuttgart

“Gavi was promoted to the senior squad for pre-season friendlies with the first team ahead of the start of the new season after appearing twice for Barcelona B in the 21-2020 season.”

Gavi /NurPhoto via Getty Images

in Germany, drawing comparisons to Barcelona legend Xavi.

On August 29, 2021, he made his debut for Barcelona’s first team in a 2-1 La Liga win over Getafe, replacing Sergi Roberto in the 73rd minute. On December 18, he scored his first goal for the club and assisted on another in a 3-2 home win over Elche.

YUNUS MUSAH (United States)

Gareth Southgate personally pleaded with Musah to commit to a future with England, but the New York City native chose to be part of the most exciting American generation in history.

Yunus Musah was born on November 29, 2002, in New York, while his mother was on vacation. He is of Ghanaian descent, but grew up in Italy, where he began his youth career with local club Giorgione. He spent seven years at Arsenal FC after moving to London, graduating from their Hale End academy.

Musah is eligible to play for England, Ghana, Italy, or the United States at the international level. He most recently represented England at the Under-18 level, having previously captained the U15, U16, and U17 sides.

The Valencia midfielder made his first team debut for Valencia on September 13, 2020, almost a year after joining the club. He is the first Englishman to play competitively for Los Che. The USMNT and Valencia star, who frequently plays on the right side of the third midfield, possesses strength, sprinting speed, and impressive dribbling.

“Going to the World Cup with such a young team is a huge accomplishment. Many of our players are top-tier, and we are not afraid of any team in the World Cup. We’re getting there, one game at a time. And to give it our all. We can truly astound the world in Qatar 2022,” the USMNT midfielder

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Ricardo Pepi is relishing his start to life at Groningen. (ANP via Getty Images)

Yunus Musah (Getty Images)

told “LaLiga Spotlight,”

MARCELO FLORES (Mexico)

Marcelo Flores (Twitter @10marceloflores)

Flores, who has three Mexico national team appearances, impressed for Arsenal Under-21s/23s last season, scoring five goals in 12 games after stepping up from under-18s football in January.

The ex-Arsenal teenager, who turned 19 in October, was the star of the show as Mexico Under-20s won the inaugural 2021 Revelations Cup after winning two of three games last November.

Marcelo Flores, the Arsenal jewel, announced the most impor-

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Flores, who has three Mexico national team appearances, impressed for Arsenal Under21s/23s last season, scoring five goals in 12 games.” tant decision of his life. The player turned down national teams from Canada and England in order to play for Mexico.

The 18-year-old Mexican international joined the La Liga 2 side on loan this summer, but has only appeared in two games.

Canadian-born Flores told The Athletic about his playing style this summer: “I prefer playing in a No. 10/left-wing position in a freer role. I enjoy getting the ball to my feet, being isolated on the wing, and beating a man in one-on-one situations to score goals.”

Flores, who was born in Canada, moved to England in 2017 to join Ipswich Town. Ipswich coach Steve Foley spotted him while running a coaching camp in the Cayman Islands and signed him. The attacking midfielder spent two years at Portman Road before joining the Gunners in 2019 at the age of 15.

“I’m a fairly adaptable player; I don’t mind playing as a No. 9 or on either wing, even as a No. 8, and I’ve always been an energetic person, so I enjoy pressing.”

Flores, nicknamed “Mexican Messi” and who grew up watching “La Pulga Atomica,” is enamored with Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain and has lofty goals. “I want to be the best player in the world and play in the World Cup,” he said.

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Brazil’s First Working Class President

By Majalla Illustrated by Jeannette Khouri Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva has been elected as Brazil’s next president, following a close run-off election last Sunday. Lula’s victory marks a political reversal for Latin America’s largest country after four years of far-right rule.

This will be Lula’s third term as President of Brazil, having previously served two consecutive terms between 2003 and 2010. In this election, Lula da Silva received the most votes in Brazilian history, breaking his own record set in 2006.

Despite his supporters’ large turnout, his victory was narrow - Lula da Silva received 50.90% of the vote, while Bolsonaro received 49.10%, according to Brazil’s electoral authority.

The 76-year-old leftist’s victory represents the return of the left to power in Brazil, and it caps a triumphant personal comeback for Lula da Silva, who was imprisoned for 580 days following a series of corruption allegations. The Supreme Court later overturned the sentences, allowing him to run for reelection.

“They tried to bury me alive, and I’m here,” he declared in a jubilant speech to supporters and journalists on Sunday evening, referring to his victory as his political “resurrection.”

“Starting on January 1, 2023, I will govern for the 215 million Brazilians, not just the ones who voted for me. There are not two Brazils. We are one country, one people, one great nation,” Lula da Silva also said.

Lula da Silva is one of Latin America’s most powerful and enduring politicians, a silver-tongued states-

man dubbed “the most popular president on Earth”

by Barack Obama for lifting the poor of Brazil out of poverty and accomplishing much in his country during his two terms as president from 2003 to 2010. He is regarded as one of the people since he belongs to the working class.

Lula was born in Pernambuco and moved to So Paulo with his family as a child. He started out as a metalworker and trade unionist. During Brazil’s military dictatorship, he led major workers’ strikes between 1978 and 1980, and he helped found the Workers’ Party in 1980, during the country’s political opening.

Lula was a key figure in the Diretas Já movement, which advocated for democratic elections. He was elected as the most popular federal deputy in the state of So Paulo in 1986.

He ran for president for the first time in 1989, but was defeated in the second round by Fernando Collor de Mello. He ran for president again in 1994 and 1998, both times losing in the first round to Fernando Henrique Cardoso. Lula defeated José Serra in the second round of the 2002 presidential election.

In 2006, he was re-elected, defeating Geraldo Alckmin in the second round.

Lula remained active in politics after his term as president, and he began giving lectures in Brazil and abroad. He was appointed as Rousseff’s Chief of Staff in 2016, but the Supreme Court suspended his appointment.

In a contentious trial in July 2017, Lula was found guilty of money laundering and corruption and sentenced to nine and a half years in prison. Sergio Moro, the case’s federal judge, later became Minister of Justice and Public Security in Jair Bolsonaro’s government.

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Lula was arrested in April 2018 after an unsuccessful appeal and spent 580 days in jail. Lula attempted to run for president in 2018, but was disqualified

by Brazil’s “Clean Slate” law. The Supreme Federal Court ruled in November 2019 that incarcerations with pending appeals were illegal, and Lula was released as a result.

During the campaign and after the election, Lula prioritized social programs. From the beginning, his leading program was to eradicate hunger, building on projects already implemented by the Fernando Henrique Cardoso administration and expanded by the new Fome Zero (“Zero Hunger”) program.

The program combined a number of programs aimed at ending hunger in Brazil, including the construction of water cisterns in Brazil’s semi-arid Serto region, the prevention of teenage pregnancy, the strengthening of family agriculture, the distribution of a minimum amount of cash to the poor, and many other measures.

Lula also launched a housing assistance program that was far more comprehensive than previous policies. More than 15 billion euros were invested in water purification and favela urbanization, with more than 40 billion invested in housing.

As a first priority, the government proposes relocating poor populations who live in “risk zones” prone to flooding or landslides, followed by expanding the electricity network, launching work to relocate streets, and improving precarious housing.

Bolsa Famlia (Family Allowance), based on the previous Bolsa Escola (School Allowance), which was conditional on school attendance, was the largest assistance program, first introduced in the city of Campinas by then mayor José Roberto Magalhes Teixeira.

Other municipalities and states quickly adopted similar programs. In 2001, President Fernando Henrique Cardoso federalized the program. Lula created Bolsa Famlia in 2003 by combining Bolsa Escola with additional allowances for food and kitchen gas.

This was preceded by the establishment of a new ministry, the Ministry of Social Development and Hunger Eradication.

Lula has had three marriages. He married Maria de Lourdes in 1969, who died of hepatitis in 1971

while she was pregnant with their first son, who also died. In 1974 he married the widow Marisa Letcia Rocco Casa and they had three sons.

Lula will take over in a country riven by extreme inequality and still struggling to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. Between 2019 and 2021, approximately 9.6 million people fell into poverty, and literacy and school attendance rates have declined.

Meanwhile, environmentalists will be keeping a

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close eye on Lula da Silva’s administration as it takes over not only the Brazilian nation but also the world’s largest forest reserves. With deforestation in the vast Amazon rainforest at an all-time high under Bolsonaro’s presidency, Lula da Silva repeatedly stated during his campaign that he would work to reduce deforestation. He has argued that conserving the forest could generate some revenue, citing the beauty and pharmaceutical industries as potential beneficiaries of biodiversity.

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In the Subscription Era, Paying for Apps Has Gotten Really Confusing

We Need Clearer Explanations of How Much Software Really Costs

By Ross Rubin Whether you see it as a convenient way to pay for software only when you need it–and fund its further development–or a nuisance that inflates the cost of apps, the subscription model for mobile apps has boomed in popularity. Indeed, when it comes to

productivity apps, the subscription shift has come so quickly that app store descriptions haven’t kept up.

They’re stuck in a time when developers sought to upsell features, usually for a few bucks at a time or with an all-in bundle.

Now, though, apps are moving toward providing

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a set of premium features for a recurring fee that is not reflected in their app store listings. This is particularly prevalent on Google Play. For example Android video editing apps such as Cyberlink’s PowerDirector, Wondershare’s Filmora Go, Kinemaster, Splice, and InShot all boast over a million downloads (most have tens of millions) and -+4star ratings.

Most of their Google Play descriptions, though, make no mention of the subscriptions needed to make full use of the app. Instead, they all list in-app purchases that don’t seem to apply to the current versions. For example, Filmora Go’s Google Play app description says it offers in-app purchases that range from 1.99$ to 57.99$ per item, That extends up to 89.99$ per item for Splice, 199.99$ per item for InShot, and 249.99$ per item for PowerDirector.

What items might those include? Open the app, and they’re hard to find if they still exist at all.

PowerDirector costs 34.99$ a year and also offers quarterly and monthly billing options. After launching the app for the first time, the app fills the screen with a special offer valid for 24 hours– complete with countdown clock–offering a firstyear discount of 27.99$ for the year. PowerDirector also offers a range of gamified rewards, such as downloading another app to get two premium days for free.

Credit: iStock

After a one-week trial, InShot offers its pro features for 9.99$ a year with a monthly billing option. (You can also purchase the app outright for 29.99$.)

After a three-day trial, paying for Filmora Go Pro, which removes ads and a watermark on the output, costs 20.99$ a year, although the app also allows an outright purchase for 29.99$. After a one-week trial, Splice offers its pro features for 69.99$ a year as well as monthly and weekly billing options. And Kinemaster Premium, which removes a watermark from the output and offers access to premium content, recently increased its price to 119.99$ per year with a monthly option.

Apps are moving toward providing a set of premium features for a recurring fee that is not reflected in their app store listings. one video app in Google Play that clearly shows its subscription option prior to download. As its Google Play listing plainly shows, VivaCut Pro costs 59.99$ per year after a three-day free trial. There’s no free tier available after that. Also unusually, VivaCut Pro has the same price on Android and iPadOS. In addition to the apps mentioned that have outright purchase options as well as subscription options, both Android and iPadOS have apps that offer only outright purchase. Fogosoft’s AndroVid Pro video editor costs 16.99$ (but still lists unspecified in-app purchases) and VideoShow Pro costs 29.99$. Both are included in Google’s Play Pass app access service. iPad users can purchase the excellent LumaFusion video editor for 29.99$. While it also lists an in-app purchase, that is for additional content.

Google Play productivity app developers that monetize via subscription should update their listings to more clearly convey that the full features of their apps are available via that model and not the implied one-time charges of in-app purchases. Beyond that, though, developers, app stores, and consumers all have an interest in clearly communicating how an app is purchased and what access to it includes.

Subscription pricing is far easier to find in the Apple App Store, where many of these apps’ iOS/iPadOS version listings include a dedicated “Subscription” section. Tapping on the info in that section presents an offer card that lets you install and subscribe in one swoop. However, app pricing is often higher for the iPadOS than Android version.

While Apple is ahead here, there is still room for improvement. App listings should clearly convey what is available in the free version (if one is available without a subscription), the length of the trial, and what is added (or removed, in the case of elements such as ads and watermarks) in the pro version. They should specify the least expensive (usually annual) “all-in” subscription option, with a note that other payment frequencies are available, and list the price to purchase an app outright if that option is available. This will provide the most accurate price for an app’s full value before you click the download button.

The lack of clarity in Google Play app subscription pricing isn’t due to a listing limitation. There’s at least

This article was originally published by Fast Company.

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Tracking Blood Pressure at Home

Here’s Why You Should Regularly Monitor Your Numbers

By Matthew Solan Do you know your blood pressure numbers? The odds are you don’t.

Nearly half of U.S. adults have high blood pressure, also known as hypertension, yet estimates suggest only one-third of those with high blood pressure are aware of it. Left untreated, high blood pressure can injure blood vessels, causing them to thicken and stiffen, which can damage the heart, brain, and kidneys.

People are often unaware of their blood pressure because they only have it checked at doctor visits. “So, they don’t know if

their numbers are high or borderline high, and if so, whether this is a sudden change or something that has been constant for some time,” says Dr. Katherine Sakmar, a specialist in hypertension management at Harvard-affiliated Massachusetts General Hospital. “This means that many people don’t get the treatment they may need.”

A simple way to correct this problem is to check your own blood pressure at home. (See “How to choose a home blood pressure monitor.”) Home monitors are inexpensive and easy to use, and they can help identify changes that require medical attention. “Home monitoring also is often more accurate than

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readings done in doctor’s offices, as the stress and nervousness of medical appointments can cause blood pressure to rise,” says Dr. Sakmar.

A CALL TO ARMS Following certain protocols can help ensure an accurate reading. At least 30 minutes before taking a measurement, avoid consuming caffeine, using tobacco, or exercising. Use the restroom (a full bladder can raise blood pressure), and avoid stimuli like watching TV or conversation. When using your home monitor, follow these steps: - Use your nondominant arm (your left arm if you are righthanded) unless your doctor suggests using the other arm.

- Support your forearm by resting it on a table with your elbow around heart height.

- Place the monitor’s cuff on your bare arm one inch above the bend of your elbow.

- Pull the end of the cuff tight enough that only two fingertips can fit under the cuff’s top edge.

- Sit with your feet flat on the floor, and don’t cross your ankles, as that can interfere with normal blood flow.

- Push the device’s start button, and then remain still during the measurement. The cuff will inflate and then slowly deflate.

When the reading is completed, the monitor displays your blood pressure and pulse on the digital panel.

- Wait five minutes and then repeat.

- Average the two readings and record that number.

Credit: TNS

Dr. Sakmar suggests taking measurements twice daily, morning and evening, for several days to get a baseline reading. (Blood pressure should be lowest when you first wake up and typically rises in the late afternoon and evening.)

After that, depending on your blood pressure goal and doctor’s recommendation, you might measure it at least once or twice a week, as well as any time your blood pressure might suddenly change -- say, if you feel dizzy or lightheaded or get a sudden headache.

HOW TO CHOOSE A HOME BLOOD PRESSURE MONITOR You can buy home blood pressure monitors for 40$ to 60$ on Amazon or at most drugstores. Look for one with a cuff that automatically inflates. Avoid devices with a wrist cuff or fingertip sensors, as they are not as accurate.

The cuff is the right size if the inflatable part completely covers at least %80 of your bare upper arm. Cuffs that are too small can give a false reading. Many models store readings for up to two weeks. Pricier ones can send the data to an app on your smartphone, which makes it easier to keep track of changes

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Home monitors are inexpensive and easy to use, and they can help identify changes that require medical attention. and to share the information with your doctor. But you also can easily note your readings with a pencil in a notebook, or take a picture of the reading with your smartphone.

Be aware that many home devices are not adequately validated for accuracy, according to a study published online Feb. 2022 ,15,

by JAMA. Go online to the American Medical Association’s ratings site at www.validatebp.org for a list of certified home brands.

You also can check your monitor’s accuracy by bringing it to your next doctor’s visit and comparing its readout with a measurement taken in the doctor’s office. An accurate home monitor reading should vary by less than %10.

WATCHING YOUR NUMBERS Normal blood pressure is now defined as a blood pressure of less than 120 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) for the systolic reading (the top number) and less than 80 mm Hg for the diastolic reading (the bottom number). Blood pressure is considered high if the systolic number is 130 mm Hg or higher or the diastolic is 80 mm Hg or higher.

Most older adults should aim for blood pressure that is less than 80/120 mm Hg, according to Dr. Sakmar. “But some people may be fine with slightly higher or lower numbers. Your doctor can help you determine your ideal blood pressure range.”

In general, you should alert your doctor to any changes outside this range that last longer than a few days, even if you take blood pressure medication. “Monitoring your blood pressure also can reveal if your medication needs adjusting, or if you should take it at particular times during the day,” says Dr. Sakmar.

Keep in mind that certain behaviors can affect blood pressure and may alter your readings. Examples include drinking too much alcohol; overusing over-the-counter pain relievers, such as ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) or naproxen (Aleve); or using decongestants like pseudoephedrine (Sudafed) or oxymetazoline (Afrin). Too much sodium also can cause blood pressure to spike.

This article was originally published by Harvard Men’s Health Watch.