Haiti's Political Crisis: 'Uncertainty Is The Only Thing We Know For Sure' Political scientist Robert Fatton Jr. explains the deep-rooted challenges Haiti's next leader will face. Haiti's controversial president, Michel Martelly, agreed to step down on Feb. 7 amid grisly protests demanding his resignation. The celebrity-musician-turned-president, also known as "Sweet Micky," was elected in 2011 as the Caribbean nation reeled from a deadly earthquake. Despite his lack of political experience, Martelly vowed to rebuild the country. His legacy, however, is one of turmoil and instability. He faced accusations of corruption and bribery, and twice postponed votes to elect his successor. With Martelly's resignation, Haiti's fragile democracy has returned to a state of uncertainty. Members of the Haitian National Assembly will choose a provisional leader on Sunday, but a new president won't be elected until April 24. Prime Minister Evans Paul will maintain limited power until an interim government is established. The power vacuum comes at a time when Haiti is facing tremendous challenges. It remains the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, with three-quarters of the population living on less than $2 per day. The catastrophic earthquake that devastated the nation in 2010 left hundreds of thousands of Haitians dead or injured and forced some 1.3 million to leave their homes. Efforts to restore the crippled country have been thwarted by new disasters. The world's largest cholera outbreak in recent history has claimed thousands of Haitian lives, while a three-year drought is starving millions more. The WorldPost spoke to Robert Fatton Jr., a political scientist at the University of Virginia who has studied Haitian politics for two decades, about Haiti's efforts to rebuild in a time of political crisis. The deal for President Michel Martelly to leave office has been credited with averting worse violence. Do you think it was an important move for Haiti? I don't think the deal has resolved all the issues. My personal feeling is that the deal managed to do two things. One is to compel Mr. Martelly to exit power, which is quite important given the configuration of the political system at this moment. The other thing is that the electoral council, which was a real problem, has also disappeared. So those two things have been done, but the problems aren't going to stop right now. The departure of Mr. Martelly does not resolve the Haitian crisis. There is serious doubt about the procedures that are currently being discussed about the nomination and ultimately election of a provisional president. The National Assembly doesn't agree with the procedures that were agreed upon with the agreement. So you have a series of serious problems. Who's going to be the next president? Who's going to be the next prime minister? All of that is supposed to be done on a consensus basis, but there is no consensus. The consensus has to be created, so we are back, to some extent, to the very situation that led to the crisis, minus the presence of President Martelly. I don't think the deal has resolved some of the key questions. Are we going to have a second round? What would be the substance of that second round? Are the results that were so contested going to be accepted? That's not clear at all. It may well be that the commission which is supposed to look into the results of the second round and the first election also, could come up and say, "Well, these elections are so bad that they should be cancelled." If that is the case, we don't know where we are going in Haiti, because you would need a completely new set of rules and new presidential candidates. It's a very fluid situation, and uncertainty is the only thing we know for sure. What are the risks for the country's fragile democracy in the 'power vacuum' that Martelly left behind? The situation is very much like it was before. I don't exactly know what will happen. There is a power vacuum,
but President Martelly was president for five years, and we never had elections. This has been a crisis that has been growing for a long time. It is clear that since you do not have any real legitimate authority in the country, the crisis could escalate. There is no president, and the National Assembly itself is a problematic assembly because while it is criticizing the presidential elections, the Assembly is the product of those very elections that were supposedly so bad. You have a very delicate situation and the political system is in the process of being completely reconfigured. Old alliances may disappear [and] new alliances may reappear. The opposition was united to a large degree on one thing: the departure of Mr. Martelly, and the elimination as it were of the electoral council. That is done. Now the question is: do they have any degree of unity given the current situation? That's extremely difficult to tell at the moment. Haiti faces a severe food crisis. Are you concerned about the humanitarian impact of the current political issues? It can't help, obviously. There's a food security emergency, which tells you that the country has not really dealt with its agricultural problem at all. That's an issue that has been exacerbated by the current crisis. [On Thursday] there was a significant rain in the northeast of the country. It is flooded, and it's clear that the government can't do much about it because there is a paralysis at the top. The National Assembly has requested that [the] prime minister do something about it, but the prime minister is very worried that he could step out of the agreement and be perceived as being too involved in the day-to-day management of Haitian politics. The food crisis is going to be exacerbated, but it has a very long history. To a large degree, the food crisis is the product of certain policies that were implemented in the late 1980s and 1990s, with the complete lifting of tariffs, for instance, on the production of rice, which contributed to a real disaster. [Haiti] used to be more or less independent in terms of its food production, in particular, rice, which is so fundamental to the Haitian diet. Well, that is no longer the case. The new policies that have been implemented have really undermined food production. What are the main factors behind the country's struggles to establish a functioning democracy in the three decades since the dictatorship of Jean-Claude Duvalier? First there is the nature of the political system itself, that is the political class. Secondly, there is the significant resistance of the traditional economic elite in Haiti, who control to some extent the financial banking sector. They are totally reluctant to see any fundamental change in the distribution of power and the distribution of wealth. You have this bloc that is very much opposed to any fundamental transformation of the Haitian economy or Haitian political system. Whether you're on the left or on the right in the political class, there is that reality of taking power, and as we say in Haiti, of eating power, and growing fat on power, at the expense of the general population. Then you have the international community, which has been interfering in Haitian affairs for a very, very long time, without really generating any type of positive success. The economic plans that have been elaborated are plans, in my mind, that can only contribute to the exacerbation of the political crisis. We have an open economy. What that means is that local production is literally destroyed. What we do is basically export certain things, mangoes and coffee, and whatever investments we have in the country tend to be rooted in ultra-cheap labor areas. That was the model under Duvalier. It led to an acute crisis and I don't see why this model, which is the same, would lead to anything but an acute crisis. What lessons can Haiti learn form Martelly's time in office as the country prepares to elect a new leader? The election of Mr. Martelly was very controversial. There was a first round where Mr. Martelly didn't come in the second position, and then the U.S. and the Organization of American States essentially forced the issue and compelled the then-president [René] Préval to accept some sort of a deal whereby his handpicked candidate, Jude Célestin, should step down from his second position. The election in 2010 in the first round stopped literally after five hours. All the candidates except Jude Célestin declared that the elections were so fraudulent that they should be cancelled. And yet, the international community intervened and told Mirlande Manigat and Mr. Martelly that the results would probably be such that they would be number one and number two. So after saying that the elections should be cancelled, 24 hours afterwards, both of them said, "Oh the elections were not that bad." And then we know the rest of the story, so that election was really farcical. What we've had in the last few months is more or
less of the same vein. If you're going to have elections, do have good elections, at least that are perceived as legitimate. This is not the case. The second thing is, clearly, on the one hand, the international community, which I think has really continuously interfered in the Haitian political process with very significantly negative consequences, wants to be in solidarity with the Haitian people. That's fine, but the perception in Haiti is that when it takes charge of the electoral process itself on who should be the president of Haiti, that leads to significant problems. The other problem is the Haitian political class. It's not just the international community. The Haitian political class is totally interested in its corporate interests, period. There is such a thing as the absolute desire on the part of that political class to keep power, and not to relinquish power. That cuts across the political spectrum. It's part of the right wing and the left wing. We have a problem about the very nature of politics in Haiti. Most politicians are people coming from the middle classes, and the middle classes have been in fact disappearing in Haiti because of the economic crisis. That means that if you want to acquire some amount of wealth, politics becomes a business. Once you get in a position of power, you are not going to want to relinquish that power because it's a source of wealth -- corrupt wealth -- but nonetheless, it allows you to improve not only yourself, but also your family and extended family to improve your financial lot. What are some of the most pressing challenges Haiti's new leader will have to address upon taking office? If the elections are perceived by the vast majority of Haitians as legitimate and fair, the first thing the leader has to do is try to consolidate whatever we have in terms of institutions. Whether it's a legislative branch or an executive branch or a judicial branch, they are really in agony. There's no other way of putting it. From an economic perspective, this is where the issue of foreign economic dependence comes in. If you really want to change the nature of the Haitian system, I think that you need to concentrate on agricultural production and on food production. This is clearly not the model that the international community wants to see in Haiti. There is a real constraint on whoever becomes president of Haiti to move in that direction. The other aspect is really, how do you manage the conflicts in Haiti? Haiti is extremely poor, and there is an absolute division between a very small elite, which is doing very well, and the vast majority of Haitians, who are doing extremely poorly. How do you in some ways build the bridge between those two sectors? That is probably beyond the capacity of any one individual. It would require compromise on the part of the business community -- compromises that have never really [been] contemplated -- and that would require assistance from the international community to push the business community in that direction, which is also a very difficult thing to see. Haiti is really facing a Catch-22 situation. I'm not quite sure how to extricate the country from its predicament, but whoever [becomes] president, it's clear that that person will have a really amazingly complicated task.
What the Defeat of Iran's Hard-Liners Means Muhammad Sahimi Two important nationwide elections were held in Iran on Feb. 26. One was for the Majlis, or parliament, while the second was for the Assembly of Experts, a constitutional body that appoints the supreme leader and can, at least theoretically, fire him. To be sure, the elections were neither democratic nor fair. Thousands of candidates were disqualified from running by the Guardian Council, another constitutional body that vets all candidates for elections. The elections are also not fair because the hard-liners, who control many important national organs, use the nation's resources for their own campaign and propaganda. The Majlis has 290 seats, five of which are reserved for religious minorities such as Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians. Given that the vast majority of their candidates for the Majlis were disqualified by the Guardian Council, with the excuse that they supported the 2009-2011 Green Movement, the reformists put together a coalition with the supporters of President Hassan Rouhani and moderate conservatives. A similar coalition was formed for the Assembly of Experts' elections that included supporters of former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who has allied himself with the moderates and reformists, and called on the people to vote in order to block hard-line candidates. The list became known as the "Rafsanjani list." The results have been a resounding defeat for the hard-liners. The greater Tehran district, the political heart of the nation, elects 30 representatives to the Majlis, and according to the final results by the Interior Ministry, all the top 30 vote-getters that have been elected belong to the list supported by the reformist-moderate coalition. The results have been a resounding defeat for the hard-liners. About a month before the elections, Iranian investigative journalist and human rights advocate Akbar Ganji published an article in which he suggested that people should try to block the election to the assembly of three powerful and reactionary ayatollahs who have always opposed democratic and fair elections. He proposed the acronym "JYM" for the trio, namely, Ahmad Jannati, secretary-general of the Guardian Council, Mohammad Yazdi, former judiciary chief and current chairman of the assembly, and Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi, the ultra-conservative cleric who is often considered as the spiritual leader of the vigilante groups that attack peaceful gatherings of the opposition. Ganji's proposal quickly gathered steam. His original article, followed by several more, were widely circulated, taken up by the reformists and moderates in Iran and played an important role in organizing people to reject the hard-liner candidates. I also published two articles in which I strongly supported Ganji's suggestion and explained why it will have a positive effect on the elections. Several other Iranian exiles did the same. The Tehran province elects 16 representatives to the assembly. The coalition of the reformists and moderates, together with Rafsanjani, announced a list of 16 candidates that it supported in which the JYM triangle was absent. Results of the elections indicate that 15 of 16 candidates of the Rafsanjani list have defeated their rivals, with Rafsanjani and Rouhani receiving some of the highest numbers of votes. The only exception to the list is apparently Jannati, who is 16th in the list of top vote-getters. Many credible sources within Iran have reported that Jannati has also been defeated, but the Interior Ministry has not published the true results. There were, it seems, behindthe-scenes maneuverings to manipulate the vote so Jannati can be "elected." Since the votes were counted by the Interior Ministry, which is controlled by President Rouhani, this seemed unlikely, but apparently it was forced to include him as the last person elected from Tehran province. The call to reject the JYM triangles had deeply angered the hard-liners and Khamenei. He was forced to publicly defend the trio. Many hard-liners also claimed that rejection of the trio had been instigated by the BBC, and dubbed the Rafsanjani list the "British list" that would be voted for only by the supporters and agents of the British government. Thus, accepting the defeat of the trio will be deeply embarrassing for the hard-liners because the people have seemingly voted for the list of candidates that was supported by Rafsanjani and the reformist-moderate coalition -- a list that had also been declared by the hard-liners as one the BBC, a media entity of a foreign power, was in
favor of. What This Means for Iran's Future The results will have important implications for Iran and the Middle East, as well as Iran's relations with the West. Domestically, the election of a moderate-reformist Majlis will give the Rouhani administration a freer hand to implement its program and try to open up the political space. Since August 2013, when the Rouhani administration took office, the Majlis hard-liners have repeatedly questioned his cabinet, summoning many of its members to the parliament for interrogation, impeached one minister and tried to impeach several others. A moderate Majlis will strengthen Rouhani's position regarding the release from house arrest of the leaders of the Green Movement, former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Dr. Zahra Rahnavard and former Speaker of the Majlis Mehdi Karroubi. Rouhani also wants to expand commercial relations with the European Union and create a political and social atmosphere in Iran that is conducive to foreign investments in the country, as well as attracting foreign tourists to Iran that can generate billions of dollars in income for the nation. The hard-liners have opposed this, and have used the Majlis to block Rouhani's attempts. In the Middle East, and particularly the war in Syria, the Rouhani administration is pursuing a more moderate policy. Specifically, Rouhani and his foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, have been trying to de-escalate the rising tension with Saudi Arabia. They took a moderate stance in the Vienna conference on peace in Syria, and have apparently convinced Khamenei to withdraw some of Iran's military forces from Syria, as acknowledged last week by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. This is in contrast to the harsh rhetoric uttered by the hard-liners against Saudi Arabia, and in particular by the high command of the Revolutionary Guards. Zarif has declared Iran's readiness to negotiate with Saudi Arabia, and it is clear that the war in Syria will not end unless the cessation of hostilities is supported by both Iran and Russia. The results will have important implications for Iran and the Middle East, as well as Iran's relations with the West. Likewise, Rouhani and Zarif want to improve relations with the United States. Zarif and Kerry have developed close working relations whose usefulness was recently demonstrated when 10 U.S. sailors were captured by the IRGC navy in the Persian Gulf, after they had strayed into Iran's territorial waters. After a few phone conversations between Kerry and Zarif, the sailors were released less than 24 hours after their arrest. Thus, a more moderate Majlis will be supportive of Rouhani's efforts in the foreign policy arena as well. In the same manner, the election of a more moderate Assembly of Experts will have positive effects. It is widely believed that the next elected Assembly of Experts will elect Khamenei's successor. Khamenei is 76 years old. Persistent and years-old rumors about his health became more credible when he underwent prostate surgery in 2014. They became even more convincing when in a speech to the IRGC officer corps in September of 2015 Khamenei said, "Iran's enemies are waiting for a time when the nation and system fall asleep, for example in 10 years when I may not be here, to realize their objectives." Thus, the question of Khamenei's successor grows more relevant each year. Election of a more moderate assembly will influence the selection of the next supreme leader and can possibly block the rise to power of some extremist potential successors, such as Mojtaba Khamenei, the judiciary chief Sadegh Larijani or Tehran Friday prayer imam Ahmad Khatami. A clear path for hope in the future has been opened up by these elections. The hard-liners that have isolated Iran and repressed its people are on the wane.
Former Nazi SS Paramedic Hubert Zafke Set To Stand Trial At 95
Hubert Zafke is accused of being an accomplice to thousands of murders at the Auschwitz death camp. BERLIN (Reuters) - A 95-year-old former Nazi SS paramedic at the Auschwitz death camp, accused of being an accomplice to the murder of thousands, is to stand trial in Germany on Monday, one in a series of such recent cases. Hubert Zafke was serving as a medic in the SS at the biggest death camp in occupied Poland where he was deployed in 1943. During the trial, he will be faced with the accounts of at least two witnesses. Prosecutors in the northern German city of Schwerin say that Zafke, in his function as a medic, supported the slaughter at Auschwitz, where over 1.2 million people, most of them Jews, were killed. Zafke was responsible for treating SS members in case of sickness, not any of the inmates, but prosecutors say he was stationed directly on the path leading to the gas chambers. According to initial investigations, Zafke did not deny having been an SS member at Auschwitz but he maintains not to have witnessed anything about the killings. The prosecutors say that, among being a witness to these gas chambers walks, he also must have been aware of the constant smoke arising from the crematoriums. A precedent for such cases was set in 2011, when former Nazi guard John Demjanjuk was sentenced for being an accessory to the Nazis' mass murder during the Holocaust. Demjanjuk's conviction, allowing the pursuit of those involved in the death camp apparatus even if no individual murder could be proven, paved the way for late Nazitrials, with at least four Auschwitz cases scheduled this year alone. Germany's Nazi past has weighed heavily on the country and even today forms the backdrop to national debates on issues such as how to deal with refugees of war. These latest Nazi trials, among the last as that generation dies out, may help draw a line under this chapter in the country's history. Trials are kept short on health grounds because the age of the accused. Zafke's charges focus on a month-long period between August and September 1944, when 14 deportation trains from Poland, Slovenia, Greece, Germany and the Netherlands arrived at the camp. One carried Anne Frank, the German-born Jewish writer, whose "Diary of a young girl" became one of the most widely known witness accounts of the Holocaust, documenting her life in hiding during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Anne Frank and her sister Margot were eventually transferred westwards to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they died shortly before its liberation in April 1945. Zafke has already been charged abroad for his role at Auschwitz. In 1946, a Polish court sentenced him to four years in prison. Afterwards, Zafke returned to Germany, where he worked as an agricultural salesman. Reporting By Tina Bellon; editing by John O'Donnell)
Mexico Has Yet To Convict ‘El Chapo’ For Drug Trafficking Cases brought against the kingpin have had a way of falling apart. Roque Planas
More than two decades after first locking up one of the most powerful organized crime bosses in a maximum security prison, Mexican authorities have yet to convict recently recaptured Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera for the crime of drug trafficking, according to a new report that highlights the Mexican government's difficulties with prosecuting the drug lord. Despite Guzmán's notoriety as one of the leaders of the largest drug-trafficking empire in the Americas, Mexican authorities have only convicted him for three less serious offenses, according to court records obtained by the Mexican magazine Proceso. Moreover, prosecutors have repeatedly seen their cases against Guzmán fall apart. Guzmán’s lawyers have succeeded in dismissing or overturning some 20 charges for crimes including murder, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping and drug trafficking, the report says. The cases have unraveled either because of a lack of evidence or because the defense exploited procedural errors committed by Mexican law enforcement. The Mexican government has brought dozens of criminal charges against Guzmán since the 1990s. But there have also been years-long lulls when authorities appeared to show little interest in going after the drug lord, the report says. Authorities’ spotty record in securing convictions for Guzmán contrasts sharply with the confidence expressed by former Mexican Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam. Last year, Murillo Karam said he would only extradite Guzmán to the United States once he'd had finished serving sentences for crimes committed in Mexico, something Murillo Karam bragged would take "300 or 400 years." That prediction was premature. For the moment, Guzmán is only serving the remainder of the sentencing he received in the 1990s for organized crime charges, before he broke out of prison the first time in 2001. He is serving those sentences consecutively. One of the sentences was originally for 12 years, but was reduced to seven. Another organized crime conviction carried a six-year sentence, while a third conviction for the same offense along with bribery added seven years and nine months to his jail time, for a total of 20 years and nine months. Guzmán currently faces 10 other charges, including charges of drug trafficking, according to his attorney José Refugio Rodríguez. Under Mexican law, escaping from prison is not considered a crime, so Guzmán is not expected to face additional jail time for breaking out of captivity twice. While U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch says she hopes the Enrique Peña Nieto administration will send Guzmán to the United States soon to face drug trafficking and other charges, Mexican media reports say legal challenges could delay the process by as long as six years.
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Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. Ralph Waldo Emerson Fantasia Veneziana Artist Designer Creation
Move Over Facebook: WeChat Is Set to Become the Only App African Internet Users Need Claire van den Heever CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- As technology hubs from Silicon Valley to Bangalore work hard at devising digital approaches to finance that could alter the global banking landscape, mobile banking penetration in China has already exceeded 390 million people. And for Chinese-owned Tencent Holdings, the world's fifth largest Internet company, China's 1.3 billion-strong market is just the beginning. The tech giant's best-known social network, WeChat, is fast gaining traction in Africa, and mobile banking is one area in which its influence is spreading. Outside China, WeChat is largely misunderstood. Referred to as "Twitter on steroids" as often as WhatsApp's "rival messaging service," the mobile app has arguably outgrown even its Chinese name, Weixin, which translates as "tiny message." Five-year-old WeChat is far more than a social network or messaging service. The mobile app can perhaps be more accurately described as a gamified WhatsApp-Facebook hybrid, with all the social applications of both, along with a Tinder-like dating feature, voice and video calls and a multi-functional digital wallet, all rolled into one. The African market is a logical next step in WeChat's growth trajectory. The majority of Africans will first gain access to the Internet through mobile devices, and acquiring market share during the relatively early stages of Internet adoption on the continent is key. The African market is a logical next step in WeChat's growth trajectory. "They've missed the entire desktop, PC, laptop, whatever thing, and because of that, I think we're seeing innovation come out of Africa from a mobile perspective that is just leagues ahead of anywhere else on earth really," said Brett Loubser, the head of WeChat Africa. The local insight that is steering Tencent's expansion into African markets -- and South Africa's in particular -stems from a longstanding partnership between the Chinese firm and Naspers, Africa's biggest media company. Naspers acquired a 46.5 percent stake in the Chinese startup in 2001 for $32 million. Fast-forward to the present, and Naspers' stake (now diluted to 34 percent) is worth approximately $65 billion, a staggering 95 percent of its market capitalization on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. Despite accusations that Naspers is riding on Tencent's coattails, South Africa's biggest media group's experience in Internet services, print media and the continent's biggest pay-TV business is invaluable to Tencent. The two firms have formed the joint venture, WeChat Africa, to focus their efforts on continent-wide expansion. WeChat is already estimated to have some 5 million registered users in South Africa. By contrast, U.S.-based WhatsApp, which was acquired by Facebook in February 2014, gained its over 10 million-strong South African user base over a period of seven years. WeChat's success at home will no doubt be difficult to replicate outside China, but much of its experience in a developing market with no revenue model can be applied to Africa, too. WeChat's success at home will no doubt be difficult to replicate outside China, but much of its experience in a developing market with no revenue model can be applied to Africa, too. When Tencent launched its original instant messaging service QQ in 1998, just 0.2 percent of China's population were Internet users, according to World Bank data. Today, digital banking, investing and lending have gone mainstream in China, with millions of consumers skipping straight from cash to mobile finance. The African market shows similar potential. "If you look at the landscape in Africa from a mobile money perspective, Africa is leading the charge globally, we are way ahead," Loubser told Memeburn. South Africa's launch of the WeChat Wallet in November 2015 may well be the point of no return. The mobile wallet service operates in partnership with Standard Bank, Africa's largest lender by assets, which is also partowned by China's ICBC bank. It facilitates peer-to-peer money transfers, prepaid electricity and mobile phone credit purchases, as well as in-store payments at merchants supporting the popular Standard Bank-owned mobile payments platform, SnapScan. WeChat Wallet's users don't even need to have a bank account, which
opens up access to a separate segment of the market. It also puts WeChat one step closer to being the one-stop platform for a whole new generation of Internet users.
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China's Mobile Payment Revolution Is Going to Africa Claire van den Heever CAPE TOWN, South Africa -- With the launch of Apple Pay in mainland China on Feb. 18, Apple has become the first foreign player to secure a place at the table for China's enormous mobile payment market. The company will be battling for market share with e-commerce giant Alibaba's Alipay and Tencent's WeChat Wallet, which dominate China's mobile payment arena. By the end of last year, a staggering 358 million Chinese were using mobile phones to purchase goods and services, according to research from the China Internet Network Information Center. Outside of China, financial institutions are eagerly looking for ways to build entire ecosystems around their users, following the success of digital leaders like Tencent and Alibaba, Beijing-based managing director of Accenture Albert Chan told Bloomberg. Africa's largest lender by assets, Standard Bank, has opted for a more direct route: joining forces with WeChat to secure a piece of Africa's growing mobile payment market. The Standard Bank-backed WeChat Wallet was launched in November 2015 in the continent's most industrialized nation, South Africa, and gives users access to a variety of the Chinese version's most popular offerings, including peer-to-peer money transfers and in-app payments for taxis and other services. The fact that mobile money services like M-Pesa and WeChat Wallet do not require customers to have bank accounts is key. Mobile money hasn't taken off in South Africa to the extent that it has in Kenya, where M-Pesa has transformed the way that Kenyans spend, move and borrow money. Launched in 2007 by leading mobile network operator Vodafone and Safaricom, the service allows users to deposit money into an account stored on their mobile phones, and to send and receive balances using PIN-secured text messages. "If you look at the landscape in Africa from a mobile money perspective, Africa is leading the charge globally," WeChat's head of South Africa Brett Loubser told Memeburn. M-Pesa sprung from a need to transport money quickly and safely, in a part of the world where most consumers still pay with cash. Sub-Saharan Africa's relatively high number of unbanked individuals is one reason for this trend, and the fact that mobile money services like M-Pesa and WeChat Wallet do not require customers to have bank accounts is key. WeChat Africa is not just a replica of the platform's offerings in China or other markets. The company understands the importance of localization. It is difficult to say why M-Pesa hasn't enjoyed much success in South Africa when 25 percent of people were still unbanked in 2014, but the country's rigid regulatory framework is often blamed. In this respect, WeChat's smartest move in Africa yet may be partnering with Standard Bank. Among other benefits, the partnership allows WeChat to piggyback on the infrastructure of Standard Bank-owned payment network, SnapScan. Integration with the region's predominant in-store payment system means that merchants supporting SnapScan can automatically accept WeChat Wallet payments. It also gives WeChat access to South Africa's growing e-commerce space, in which an increasing number of websites accept SnapScan as a payment method. WeChat's widespread adoption is often attributed to integration with third party apps, of which it has literally millions. The company recently opened a $3.5 million venture capital fund specifically to invest in young tech outfits that demonstrate potential for partnerships, according to the Financial Times. South African micro-jobbing service, Money for Jam, or M4JAM, became the recipient of such an investment in early 2015. But WeChat Africa is not just a replica of the platform's offerings in China or other markets. The company understands the importance of localization, a fact which its joint venture with South African media giant Naspers makes especially clear. Indeed, adapting to China's unique market needs has been central to Tencent's success from day one. Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu's red envelope rivalry may remain limited to China for now, but a battle for access
to Africa's burgeoning mobile Internet market could be on the horizon, too. WeChat first went digital with China's age-old tradition of giving gifts of cash in red envelopes during Chinese Lunar New Year in 2014, using virtual red envelopes, or hong bao, to entice people into trying its payments platform. It wasn't an entirely original approach. Alibaba had already succeeded in generating an enormous amount of hype by offering discounts on its e-commerce platform during the Chinese holiday Singles Day in 2009. Today, digital red envelopes are an immensely popular way of buying customers, with Alibaba and Tencent engaging in what the Financial Times called "red envelope wars" as coupons, discounts and giveaways became ammunition in the battle for users' loyalty. Search engine Baidu's relatively less successful Baidu Wallet promised to part with some 6 billion yuan -- around $900 million -- in coupons to attract users during the holiday. Gaining market share in Africa is a very different kettle of fish. Although, in some respects, the latent potential of its 1.1 billion-strong market may resemble China's 40 years ago, attracting customers within each of the continent's 54 nations will require local expertise and composite approaches to match. WeChat's physical presence in Africa is currently limited to Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, where it is focusing most of its energy. Tencent, Alibaba and Baidu's red envelope rivalry may remain limited to China for now, but a battle for access to Africa's burgeoning mobile Internet market could be on the horizon, too. When it comes to Africa, China's digital leaders' most valuable experience, perhaps, is in spurring growth in underserved markets. But regardless of how nuanced the efforts made by the WeChat-Standard Bank partnership are, and what strategies other players -- Chinese or otherwise -- adopt, the challenges of doing business in Africa remain very real. For now, payment platforms that only require basic mobile devices have access to a larger share of a market that is comprised mostly of non-smartphone users. A lack of infrastructure can mean that mobile signal all but disappears less than an hour's drive from South Africa's third-largest city. When it comes to Africa, China's digital leaders' most valuable experience, perhaps, is in spurring growth in underserved markets. But they didn't reach this point without a revolution.
Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Ann Landers Fantasia Veneziana Artist Designer Creation
China Plans To Lay Off Millions Of State Workers: Report The country has earmarked $23 billion to cover the layoffs in the coal and steel sectors over the next few years. Benjamin Kang Lim, Matthew Miller and David Stanway BEIJING (Reuters) - China aims to lay off 5-6 million state workers over the next two to three years as part of efforts to curb industrial overcapacity and pollution, two reliable sources said, Beijing's boldest retrenchment program in almost two decades. China's leadership, obsessed with maintaining stability and making sure redundancies do not lead to unrest, will spend nearly 150 billion yuan ($23 billion) to cover layoffs in just the coal and steel sectors in the next 2-3 years. The overall figure is likely to rise as closures spread to other industries and even more funding will be required to handle the debt left behind by "zombie" state firms. The term refers to companies that have shut down some of their operations but keep staff on their rolls since local governments are worried about the social and economic impact of bankruptcies and unemployment. Shutting down "zombie firms" has been identified as one of the government's priorities this year, with China's Premier Li Keqiang promising in December that they would soon "go under the knife." The government plans to lay off five million workers in industries suffering from a supply glut, one source with ties to the leadership said. A second source with leadership ties put the number of layoffs at six million. Both sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media about the politically sensitive subject for fear of sparking social unrest. The ministry of industry did not immediately respond when asked for comment on the reports. The hugely inefficient state sector employed around 37 million people in 2013 and accounts for about 40 percent of the country's industrial output and nearly half of its bank lending. It is China's most significant nationwide retrenchment since the restructuring of state-owned enterprises from 1998 to 2003 led to around 28 million redundancies and cost the central government about 73.1 billion yuan ($11.2 billion) in resettlement funds. On Monday, Yin Weimin, the minister for human resources and social security, said China expects to lay off 1.8 million workers in the coal and steel industries, but he did not give a timeframe. China aims to cut capacity gluts in as many as seven sectors, including cement, glassmaking and shipbuilding, but the oversupplied solar power industry is likely to be spared any large-scale restructuring because it still has growth potential, the
first source said. DEBT OVERHANG The government has already drawn up plans to cut as much as 150 million tonnes of crude steel capacity and 500 million tonnes of surplus coal production in the next three to five years. It has earmarked 100 billion yuan in central government funds to deal directly with the layoffs from steel and coal over the next two years, vice-industry minister Feng Fei said last week. The Ministry of Finance said in January it would also collect 46 billion yuan from surcharges on coal-fired power over the coming three years in order to resettle workers. In addition, an assortment of local government matching funds will also be made available. However, the funds currently being offered will do little to resolve the problems of debts held by zombie firms, which could overwhelm local banks if they are not handled correctly. "They have proposed this dedicated fund only to pay the workers, but there is no money for the bad debts, and if the bad debts are too big the banks will have problems and there will be panic," said Xu Zhongbo, head of Beijing Metal Consulting, who advises Chinese steel mills. Factories shut down would have to repay bank loans to avoid saddling state banks with a mountain of non-performing loans, the sources said. "Triangular debt", or money owed by firms to other enterprises, would also have to be resolved, they added. Although China has promised to help local banks transfer the bad debts of zombie steel mills to asset management firms, local governments are not expected to gain access to the worker lay-off funds until the zombie firms have actually been shut down and debt issues settled. (Additional reporting by Ruby Lian in Shanghai; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
Chinese Investment in Latin Chalice? By Rafael Salazar
Move over Europe and North America, here comes China! Europe, Latin America's second largest trading partner and the U.S., the first, are set to be overtaken by China in the near future. It is predicted that in one year China will have surpassed the EU and in 12 it will have done the same to America. This year, China committed to a $250 billion investment program in Latin America to be dolled out over the next ten years. This major promise along with the 71 percent increase in investments in Latin America by Chinese banks last year points to the long-term plans China has for its growing influence in the region. But should Latin Americans rejoice? Not really, because as faulty as Washington's approach to Latin America has been over the last century, Chinese investment could turn out to be a poisoned chalice. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang toured the continent in May, wallet wide open, signing deals left and right. In Brazil, the Premier proposed "investments and loans that could total up to $103 billion", including a controversial 3,300 miles transcontinental railroad to from the country's Atlantic coast to Peru's Pacific coast and across some of the world's most environmentally fragile areas. But money wasn't the
only course in the menu. In Chile, after signing a currency swap arrangement worth $3.6 billion, the Premier laid out a new vision for Latin America, based on four pillars: "cementing traditional friendship and mutual trust, upgrading winwin cooperation, expanding people-to-people exchanges and improving overall cooperation mechanisms." In short, expect more of the same, as China is here to stay. Li's visit followed hot on the heels of a January 8 conclave of the leaders of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), made up of 33 states - not including the U.S. or Canada - and high level Chinese officials in Beijing. After the forum, President Xi Jinping said that it "gives the world a positive signal about deepening cooperation between China and Latin America and have an important and far-reaching impact on promoting South-South cooperation and prosperity for the world". This signals that the Chinese are obviously not only increasing their economic presence but also ensuring a diplomatic foothold within the region. Take the Nicaraguan canal for example. Some 10,000 campesinos gathered over the weekend in the country to march against
the $50 billion scheme that will connect the Atlantic and Pacific. Owned by unknown Chinese billionaire Wang Jing, the project is billed to be the largest infrastructure project in history. However, it doesn't mean the country will be actually reaping the benefits. Indeed, the 100 year concession, known as the Master Concession Agreement (MCA), allows the Chinese to have the sole rights to ''plan design, construct, and thereafter operate and manage the Nicaragua Grand Canal and other related projects, including ports, a free trade zone, an international airport and other infrastructure development projects''. For this concession, Nicaragua will be given a mere $10 million per year for the first ten years of the Canal's operation, followed by a 10 percent increase in government ownership every decade. Furthermore, the scheme is expected to leave a massive environmental footprint as ecosystems throughout the continent will also be threatened, creating ''an environmental disaster in Nicaragua and beyond'' according to Jorge Huete-PĂŠrez, the foreign secretary of the Nicaraguan Academy of Sciences.
America: A Poisoned
African lessons If Beijing's similar rise in Africa is any indication, Latin America should have serious cause for concern. There, most investment has been done solely with Chinese capital, companies and workers, leaving locals disenfranchised and unemployed. Indeed, more than a million Chinese workers have moved to Africa to take up high-skilled jobs, leaving the "menial tasks" to Africans. Moreover, Africa offers a sobering lesson on how Beijing has managed to camouflage a military expansion under the seemingly benign cover of development aid. The May 10 announcement, by Djibouti's President Ismail Omar Guelleh, that talks with China are progressing on the creation of a Chinese military base in the country have spurred international fears, as the small African country had so far built a purely commercial bilateral relation with Beijing worth billions. Worse, as the influence of the U.S declines in favor of more lucrative ties with Beijing, Djibouti's move entrenches in power a President that has countless human rights abuses to his name. Could this pattern be followed in Latin America as well? Sadly, yes. This type of deals, signed by China with unsavory political leaders, was dubbed by Foreign Affairs "dictatorship diplomacy". In exchange for access to the strategic resources of a country, Beijing offers the ruling strongman protection from the wrath of the international community by, say, blocking UNSC sanctions or by giving an embattled regime the financial lifeline to cling to power. For example, on June 17th, Venezuela announced it has secured a $5 billion loan from China for crude oil projects, that comes on top of the more than $46 billion loaned by Beijing to Caracas over the past decade. By propping up the Maduro government, China has significantly helped its ability to weather raging popular discontent. As commercial ties with China expand, Latin America could therefore halt its political development in certain key states. Furthermore, with its plans to build the Nicaraguan canal, the Chinese are now getting their military foot-in-the-door. Foreign Policy wrote that there have been some reports claiming that the Canal is planned to be 28 meters deep, which would allow Chinese submarines to pass between the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans undetected. So far, Latin American leaders are enthusiastic and more than happy to accommodate a new player on the scene, one that could balance Washington. But if Africa is any indication, the continent might end up switching one neo-colonial paymaster with another.
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Why It's Time to Legalize Drugs Kofi Annan
Chair of the Kofi Annan Foundation and The Elders; Secretary-General of the United Nations, 1997-2006
In my experience, good public policy is best shaped by the dispassionate analysis of what in practice has worked, or not. Policy based on common assumptions and popular sentiments can become a recipe for mistaken prescriptions and misguided interventions. Nowhere is this divorce between rhetoric and reality more evident than in the formulation of global drug policies, where too often emotions and ideology rather than evidence have prevailed. Take the case of the medical use of cannabis. By looking carefully at the evidence from the United States, we now know that legalizing the use of cannabis for medical purposes has not, as opponents argued, led to an increase in its use by teenagers. By contrast, there has been a near tripling of American deaths from heroin overdoses between 2010 and 2013, even though the law and its severe punishments remain unchanged. This year, between April 19 and 21, the United Nations General Assembly will hold a special session on drugs and the world will have a chance to change course. As we approach that event, we need to ask ourselves if we are on the right policy path. More specifically, how do we deal with what the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has called the "unintended consequences" of the policies of the last 50 years, which have helped, among other things, to create a vast, international criminal market in drugs that fuels violence, corruption and instability? Just think of the 16,000 murders in Mexico in 2013, many of which are directly linked to drug trafficking. A War on People Globally, the "war on drugs" has not succeeded. Some estimate that enforcing global prohibition costs at least $100 billion (â‚Ź90.7 billion) a year, but as many as 300 million people now use drugs worldwide, contributing to a global illicit market with a turnover of $330 billion a year, one of the largest commodity markets in the world. Prohibition has had little impact on the supply of or demand for drugs. When law enforcement succeeds in one area, drug production simply moves to another region or country, drug trafficking moves to another route and drug users switch to a different drug. Nor has prohibition significantly reduced use. Studies have consistently failed to establish the existence of a link between the harshness of a country's drug laws and its levels of drug use. The widespread criminalization and punishment of people who use drugs, the over-crowded prisons, mean that the war on drugs is, to a significant degree, a war on drug users -- a war on people. Africa is sadly an example of these problems. The West Africa Commission on Drugs, which my foundation convened, reported last year that the region has now become not only a major transit point between producers in Latin America and consumers in Europe, but an area where consumption is increasing. Drug money, and the criminality associated with it, is fostering corruption and violence. The stability of countries and the region as a whole is under threat. I believe that drugs have destroyed many lives, but wrong government policies have destroyed many more. We all want to protect our families from the potential harm of drugs. But if our children do develop a drug problem, surely we will want them cared for as patients in need of treatment and not branded as criminals. Stop Stigmatizing and Start Helping The tendency in many parts of the world to stigmatize and incarcerate drug users has prevented many from seeking medical treatment. In what other areas of public health do we criminalize patients in need of help? Punitive measures have sent many people to prison, where their drug use has worsened. A criminal record for a young person for a minor drug offence can be a far greater threat to their well-being than occasional drug use. The original intent of drug policy, according to the UN Convention on Narcotic Drugs, was to protect the "health and welfare of mankind." We need to refocus international and national policy on this key objective. This requires us to take four critical steps.
First, we must decriminalize personal drug use. The use of drugs is harmful and reducing those harms is a task for the public health system, not the courts. This must be coupled with the strengthening of treatment services, especially in middle and low-income countries. Second, we need to accept that a drug-free world is an illusion. We must focus instead on ensuring that drugs cause the least possible harm. Harm reduction measures, such as needle exchange programs, can make a real difference. Germany adopted such measures early on and the level of HIV infections among injecting drug users is close to 5 percent, compared to over 40 percent in some countries which resist this pragmatic approach. Third, we have to look at regulation and public education rather than the total suppression of drugs, which we know will not work. The steps taken successfully to reduce tobacco consumption (a very powerful and damaging addiction) show what can be achieved. It is regulation and education, not the threat of prison, which has cut the number of smokers in many countries. Higher taxes, restrictions on sale and effective anti-smoking campaigns have delivered the right results. The legal sale of cannabis is a reality that started with California legalizing the sale of cannabis for medical use in 1996. Since then, 22 US states and some European countries have followed suit. Others have gone further still. A voter initiative which gained a majority at the ballot box has caused Colorado to legalize the sale of cannabis for recreational use. Last year, Colorado collected around $135 million in taxes and license fees related to legal cannabis sales. Others have taken less commercial routes. Users of Spain's cannabis social clubs can grow and buy cannabis through small non-commercial organizations. And Canada looks likely to become the first G7 country to regulate the sale of cannabis next year. Legal Regulation Protects Health Initial trends show us that where cannabis has been legalized, there has been no explosion in drug use or drug-related crime. The size of the black market has been reduced and thousands of young people have been spared criminal records. But a regulated market is not a free market. We need to carefully think through what needs regulating, and what does not. While most cannabis use is occasional, moderate and not associated with significant problems, it is nonetheless precisely because of its potential risks that it needs to be regulated. And therefore, the fourth and final step is to recognize that drugs must be regulated precisely because they are risky. It is time to acknowledge that drugs are infinitely more dangerous if they are left solely in the hands of criminals who have no concerns about health and safety. Legal regulation protects health. Consumers need to be aware of what they are taking and have clear information on health risks and how to minimize them. Governments need to be able to regulate vendors and outlets according to how much harm a drug can cause. The most risky drugs should never be available "over the counter" but only via medical prescription for people registered as dependent users, as is already happening in Switzerland. Scientific evidence and our concern for health and human rights must shape drug policy. This means making sure that fewer people die from drug overdoses and that small-time offenders do not end up in jail where their drug problems get worse. It is time for a smarter, health-based approach to drug policy. It is time for countries, such as Germany, which have adopted better policies at home, to strongly advocate for policy change abroad. The United Nations General Assembly special session on the world drug problem would be a good place to start. This piece first appeared on Spiegel. Kofi Annan, 77, served as secretary-general of the United Nations from 1997 to 2006. In 2001, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Today, Annan lives in Geneva, where he heads the Kofi Annan Foundation, working towards a more peaceful and secure world. He is also a member of the Global Commission on Drug Policy.
oth h c is ea eet e smile er m th h ys lwa e, for t ve. Mo a s l u i o Let ith sm ng of l i er w n er sign gin e e b D t the sa rtis A e a r Te ian nez e V a tasi n a n F atio e r C
Fantasia Veneziana Artist Designer Creation
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage. Lao Tzu
Here's what Beyoncé haters get wrong about her Black Panther homage at Super Bowl 50 BY CANDACE AMOS It may be time for America to tweak its fundamental tagline because "The land of the free, the home of the brave," no longer fits. In the face of the mounting criticism of Beyoncé's Super Bowl performance on Sunday, it sure seems like America has become "The land of the Amnesia Patients." On the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (its original name), Beyoncé crashed Coldplay's rainbow-lit stage to deliver a message: People of color are tired of being killed; tired of being shortchanged; tired of having their feelings being mocked by the very demographic that continues to hold them back. uper Bowl 50 halftime show The picked-out afros, the all-black attire, the militant garb (and song to match) had some viewers asking why the NFL allowed Beyoncé to make the radical chic. How quickly we all have forgotten the pain this country has inflicted on people of color and continues to do so today. The land of the shortened memories empowered police to sic dogs on innocent people and spray them down with powerful water hoses simply for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. This great America barred its deep-complexioned citizens from riding in the front of the bus and using the same water fountain as others — among countless other outlandish inequities and indecencies. The revolutionary group born in Oakland, Calif., in 1966 by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, provided demands for the improvement of life for black people, a “radical” list that included: 1. Freedom 2. Full employment for black people 3. Decent housing 4. Education 5. End police brutality Beyoncé and other public figures have remained silent on this issue for far too long. But now that she has a child who could easily become the next hashtag victim, Mrs. Carter has chosen to speak up. And for that, she’s being called a racist and anti-police. But ignoring the points of her halftime show and the video for her new song, “Formation,” is its own form of racism. And racism comes from fear of the unknown — which should be expected in a country where even something as simple as Black History Month lessons in schools is under fire. People fear what they don’t know. And they don’t want to learn, so the fear grows. It is a grave misconception that Black Panthers promoted the killings of police, just as it is so that Black Lives Matter means every other life doesn't. Black pride — the message Beyoncé was trying to convey — means being proud of who your are, what you look like and where you come from. Black people — with our full lips, kinky hair, and dark skin — have been called ugly, ignorant and uneducated for so long, that there wasn’t a better stage for this type of moment. The symbolism of Queen Bey’s efforts missed some people — and that’s because the message wasn’t for them.
Kendrick Lamar Calls Out Fox News With A Passionate Defense Of Hip-Hop
BY SCOTT HEINS
For many that watched Kendrick Lamar perform his To Pimp A Butterfly single “Alright” from atop of a police cruiser at the BET Awards last weekend, the moment was one of affirmation–a young, brilliant black man putting on for hip-hop, using what for many is a sign of state-mandated injustice as a kind of podium. And so perhaps it’s a sign of just how great an impact that one performance (and the brilliant music video for “Alright”) has made to read that Fox News has now taken aim at Lamar, calling out his music, along with hip-hop in general is “not helpful” and that it has, in the warped view of pundit Geraldo Rivera “done more damage to young African-Americans than racism in recent years.” It’s crucial to remember that what’s at stake here is the fundamental narrative through which America phrases, and attempts to assuage its deep racial issues. On the one hand is Lamar and other engaged black artists (names like Talib Kweli, Killer Mike and Lauryn Hill come to mind), artists who seek a more just and humanistic world and devote their craft and airtime to speaking truths to power. On the other hand is Rivera, O’Reilly and other conservative media figures who seem intensely committed to glossing over police brutality and isolating racist beliefs from the brutal, deadly acts they often engender. Lamar fired back at Fox News and other conservative critics of hiphop today in a new, brief interview with TMZ. Referring directly to “Alright”–the song that put Fox into such a tizzy–the MC opined “How can you take a song that’s about hope and turn it into hatred. The overall message is we’re gonna be alright.” Kendrick slammed Rivera for “diluting the real problem, which is the senseless acts, of killings, of these young boys out here…it’s reality. This is my world.” Lamar spoke directly to his choreographed BET performance, asserting “Me being on the cop car, that’s a performance piece after these senseless acts.” In measured, eloquent tones Kendrick once again defended hip-hop and his motivation for speaking out. Watch the entire interview below, and wen that’s through, give yourself another viewing of his “Alright” video, which is, quite frankly, essential.
STAND FOR SOMETHING
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies. Aristotle
Fantasia Veneziana Artist Designer Creation
To love and be loved is to feel the sun from both sides. David Viscott Fantasia Veneziana Artist Designer Creation
THE LOOK IN YOUR EYE That look in your eye, lets me know everything will be ok. That look in your eye, that passes all my troubles away. That look that you give me right between my eyes, that look of looks that leads me between your thighs. Full moon, or half baked your eyes flow through me, inspiring me to be the best I can be. Eyes of passion, eyes of grace, eyes of wonder that light up the darkest place. One look into your eyes, and I won't change to salt, because the glow of your eyes is what every man wants. So please continue to keep an eye on me, and knock on heavens door, because you have the only look that can tame this lion's roar. By Saadiq Busby
T
TRUE DAT
The truth that I seek, stands right in front of you. A power to devour those whose struggle -won't allow them to see through. The portal of justice, with spinning bladed wheels, positioned to do what they do. That one love truth, that can elevate you and your whole crew. That truth that has to be right, with nothing left behind; that overwhelming truth that allows you to wake up and shine. Truth uneqivical, truth with no chase, the only type of truth that can un-corrupt this place. See the truth, I seek can not be bought; it has no begining, but was born in thoth (thought). A precious light she is , oh justice naked and fine, for the love of justice, I wish she would be mines. Just a part of the truth-will never stand for me, cuz can't no half of nothing ever be totally free. Give me that truth with no chaser at all, that raw dog truth, I can feel deep in my balls. That truth ready to be shot from the bottom of my sack, that truth everlasting - swollen and fat. BY Saadiq Busby