Eligible Countries: Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Senegal.
About the Award: Calling all tech start-ups in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Senegal!
Pre-seed to seed stage technology startups in Ghana, Nigeria, Senegal, Kenya, and South Africa are invited to apply to participate in the regional competitions to be held in these countries in October this year. Two finalists will be selected from each country to participate in the final Demo Day Pitch event to be held in Accra, Ghana for the ultimate prize of $50,000 in equity.
The competition has received thousands of applications from around the continent since its inception. It has spotlighted and impacted the growth of winning startups such as Tanzania’s Kilimo Fresh, Ghana’s OZE, South Africa’s Snode Technologies, Kenya’s Waya Waya, and Nigeria’s Accounteer.
Type: Entrepreneurship
Eligibility:
Pre-seed or seed-stage (have raised $100k total or less cumulatively since inception)
Currently generating revenue
Can demonstrate traction in one or more of the five MAC Markets (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal)
Has been in operation for 2 years or less
Tech-enabled (software company)
Industry agnostic
Any business model (B2B, B2C, B2B2C, B2G etc…)
Number of Awards: 10
Value of Award:
Funding of up to $50,000
Perk prizes from MEST Strategic Partners
Global visibility
Build your networks
Professional coaching
Mentorship from experts
Join the global MEST Community for lifetime benefits
How to Apply: Entries will be accepted till 30th August 2022 through the competition’s online application portal.
It is important to go through all application requirements on the Programme Webpage see link below) before applying
On Thursday, the Commerce Department reported that the US economy shrank for the second quarter in a row, bringing it into a “technical recession.”
The economic contraction is being accompanied by a series of layoffs that threatens to become a torrent as the economy slows further. This month, more than 30,000 layoffs occurred in the technology sector alone. Last week, Ford announced 8,000 layoffs, heralding a further bloodbath in the auto industry.
Amid the swirl of economic data, it is always necessary to understand that these numbers are the abstract expression of underlying social and class forces, that “the economy” is not some kind of machine but is based on definite social relations and operates through them. This is particularly necessary when considering the latest economic data.
A debate has now broken out in the media and financial commentary circles as to whether this “technical recession”—defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction—is a real one or not.
The key issue here is not one of definitions but what are the essential class interests at work, particularly with regard to the policies of the U.S. Federal Reserve, the key financial institution of the capitalist state.
Fed policies are always couched in various forms of jargon that cover up the real agenda through a series of mystifications aimed at making it appear the central bank somehow stands above class interests, regulating economic life in the interests of the population.
Amid the flurry of words, the essence of the present situation is this: The central bank, the guardian of the interests of the corporations and finance capital, has set out to engineer a marked slowdown and, if necessary, a major economic contraction. The aim is to suppress the wage demands of the working class under conditions where inflation has risen to the highest level in four decades.
This assault is being waged through the mechanism of higher interest rates, which are being lifted at the fastest rate in decades under the banner of the fight against inflation. But interest hikes will not bring down gas prices or untangle supply chains. The objective is to bring about an economic contraction so that pay demands are suppressed.
The present policy agenda reprises that of Fed Chair Paul Volcker in the 1980s when interest rates were lifted to record heights inducing the deepest recession to that point since the Great Depression. Today’s Fed Chair Jerome Powell has expressed his admiration for Volcker on numerous occasions, making clear he is more than prepared to follow the same path.
Former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has insisted that containing inflation means inducing higher jobless levels for five years or a 10 percent unemployment rate for at least a year.
As with every other economic issue and statistic, inflation is embedded in the class structure of society, a historical examination of which reveals the origins of the present US and global spiral.
The global financial crisis of 2008, set off by the more than two decades of increasing financial speculation preceding it, led to the largest corporate and financial bailout in history. The government handed out hundreds of billions of dollars in rescue packages, and the Fed began the policy of “quantitative easing”—injecting money into the financial system so that the speculation on Wall Street that had precipitated the crisis could continue.
And continue it did. After reaching a nadir in March 2009, the stock market went on a spectacular bull run. But it was based on a continuous supply of cheap money by the Fed.
In March 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Wall Street and financial markets went into a meltdown fearing that the imposition of necessary public health safety measures would impinge on the flow of profits extracted from the working class, and the stock market bubble would collapse.
Two key policies resulted. Under the banner of the “cure cannot be worse than the disease,” the necessary policy of COVID-19 elimination was rejected in the US and by governments around the world. At the same time trillions more dollars were pumped into the financial system. In the US the Fed, doubled its holdings of financial assets from $4 trillion to $8 trillion, virtually overnight, at one point spending a million dollars a second.
Herein are the origins of the global inflationary spiral. The refusal to undertake a global policy of COVID-19 elimination because of its potential impact on the stock markets had major consequences in the real economy, as the spread of COVID-19 led to a supply chain crisis.
The monetary system was expanded by the central banks, leading to still further asset speculation in 2020 and 2021. Another factor is the endless increases in military spending as billions are funneled into the proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.
In their drive to increase interest rates, Fed Chair Jerome Powell, along with other central bankers, continually refer to what they call the “tight labour” market in which demand must be brought into balance with supply.
Under conditions where the deaths inflicted by COVID-19, ongoing infections and the growing impact of Long COVID have led to the withdrawal of millions from the workforce, the only way to lift the increase of the supply of labour above demand is through the imposition of unemployment.
And that process is already underway as a result of the interest rate hikes initiated by the Fed so far. The auto industry has indicated new hirings are at a standstill, and layoffs are set to follow. In the interest-rate sensitive sectors of high-tech, layoffs have already started with more to come.
In the face of the daily cuts in their standard of living resulting from the highest inflation in more than four decades, workers are compelled to undertake a struggle for necessary wage increases. But as they are driven into this fight, it necessary to understand what is at stake in order to better conduct the battle at hand.
Workers are not just in a conflict with individual employers but are engaged in a political struggle in which the union bureaucracy functions as the chief enforcer of the demands of the capitalist state and its agencies.
Moreover, the fight for wage increases, necessary as that is, is a struggle against the effects of much deeper going problems. A review of the economic history of the past period shows that every measure taken by the ruling class to deal with an economic crisis led inevitably to its eruption in a new and more malignant form.
Thus the “solution” to the financial crisis of 2008 set up the conditions where in 2020 rational scientific measures to deal with COVID-19 were rejected lest their implementation would lead to a financial market collapse. But the “let it rip policy” that ensued has now led to an inflationary spiral which the leading agencies of finance capital are determined “resolve” by making the working class pay, if necessary through mass unemployment.
According to media reports, Germany’s federal government has approved the delivery of 100 self-propelled howitzer 2000s to Ukraine. Berlin will thereby increase its already massive weapons deployments many times over. A spokesman for the Ministry of Economic Affairs estimated the cost of the howitzers at €1.7 billion. So far, Berlin has supplied arms worth €600 million to Kiev.
A self-propelled howitzer
The massive deal was concluded behind the scenes two weeks ago. According to information provided by Der Spiegel, the Ministry of Economic Affairs, headed by Robert Habeck (Green Party), granted the German armaments group Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW) a permit for the production of the howitzers on July 13. Only two days earlier, KMW submitted the relevant permit request. At KMW, “the production of the weapon systems should now be started immediately.”
The immediate aim of the delivery of howitzers is to escalate the NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine and to ensure it continues over a long period of time. “The production of the howitzers is expected to last for several years, so it is primarily a question of strengthening the Ukrainian army in the long term,” commented Der Spiegel. However, the units already delivered are now playing a role on the front.
A report on the official website of the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr) praised the effectiveness of howitzers. “Where they are deployed regionally, they increase the combat worthiness of the Ukrainian armed forces by their range, by their combat power, by their tactical capabilities and also by modern ammunition,” stated Colonel Dietmar Felber, who trains Ukrainian soldiers in Idar-Oberstein on howitzers.
The entire report underscores the central and active role of the Bundeswehr in the war in Ukraine. The training of the Ukrainian soldiers has been “continuing at full throttle,” and the Ukrainian artillery soldiers trained by him are now on the front line, Felber boasted. “We have connections to this battalion. They were in combat from the beginning, and they are successful in combat,” he remarked. This creates “a feeling of satisfaction and above all of pride.”
Statements such as these make clear the militaristic and criminal tradition the ruling class is reconnecting with. Eighty-one years after the Wehrmacht’s war of annihilation against the Soviet Union, German soldiers and politicians rejoice in the deaths of Russian and Ukrainian soldiers. According to media reports, hundreds die every day in the artillery fire at the front. And yet the ruling class continues to expand its military support for the pro-Western regime in Kiev.
On Wednesday, the Ministry of Defense announced on Twitter that it would “support Ukraine with the delivery of more heavy weaponry, ammunition and training in Germany.” Ten self-propelled howitzer 2000s, three Mars II multiple rocket launchers and five Cheetah anti-aircraft guns have already arrived in Ukraine. “Further materiel will follow shortly,” the ministry wrote.
According to the ever-increasing overview of the federal government “on German lethal and non-lethal military support provided to Ukraine,” in recent days there has also been a delivery of “33 M113 armored troop transporters with munition.” In the section “Support services in preparation/implementation,” the following items have been added since the beginning of the week:
21 M113 armored troop transporters with munition
25 Cheetah anti-aircraft guns including approximately 6,000 rounds of anti-aircraft ammunition
The war aims associated with these arms shipments are clear. NATO and Berlin are pursuing the goal of continuing the war until Russia’s military defeat. “We support Ukraine—as long as it needs this support: economically, on the humanitarian front, financially and through the supply of weapons,” wrote Chancellor Olaf Scholz in a recent guest article for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
Already in the First and Second World Wars, the German ruling class pursued the goal of subjugating Russia and also controlling Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union during World War II. Now it wants to be at the forefront once again when it comes to the division and looting of the resource-rich and geostrategically critical regions of Eurasia.
To this end, Berlin is not only flooding Ukraine with weapons, but is systematically working to expand its military influence throughout Eastern Europe. Earlier this week, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) visited the Czech Republic and Slovakia. In Bratislava, she promised her Slovak counterpart Ivan Korcok a long-term deployment of German soldiers and anti-aircraft missiles. “The Patriots will stay as long as you need them here,” she said. The presence of the German military in Eastern Europe is “not a flash in the pan.”
In the Czech capital Prague, Baerbock announced that the negotiations between Germany and the Czech Republic on a so-called tank circular swap to support Ukraine were about to be concluded. Berlin already agreed with Prague in May to provide the Czech army with 15 German “Leopard 2” tanks so that the Czech government can deliver 20 Soviet-produced tanks to Kiev.
According to information from the Air Force, four Eurofighters from the Tactical Air Force Squadron 71 “Richthofen” from Wittmund and one Eurofighter from the Tactical Air Force Squadron 31 “Boelke” from Nörvenich transferred to the Estonian Aemari Air Force Base on Wednesday. From August 1, they will take over the so-called Baltic Air Policing, i.e., the surveillance of NATO airspace in the Baltic States, for nine months. For the Bundeswehr, it is the first such operation since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
The German military presence in Eastern Europe—additional combat troops are stationed in Lithuania and Romania—increases the risk of a direct war with the nuclear-armed power Russia. At the same time, the Bundeswehr is primarily using arms deliveries to Kiev to boost Germany’s own arms industry. The same companies that were centrally involved in the war economy of the Nazis and upgraded the Wehrmacht within a very short time for the Second World War are once again rubbing their bloody hands.
KMW, which builds the howitzers, operated under the name Krauss-Maffei during the Nazi era. According to Wikipedia, during the Nazi dictatorship, prisoners of war and concentration camp prisoners from the more than 400 camps and shelters in the greater Munich area were committed to forced labor in addition to so-called “Eastern Workers.” In 1938, the 60-hectare Munich-Allach site was expanded. The company headquarters are still located there today.
The armament giant Rheinmetall, which is supposed to supply KMW with parts such as the chassis of the self-propelled howitzers, also exploited thousands of forced laborers during the Third Reich and played a key role in rearmament. Under the name Rheinmetall-Borsig, the company was part of the state-owned company Reichswerke Hermann Göring and thus directly integrated into the planned preparation for war.
The German government has used Putin’s reactionary invasion of Ukraine, provoked by NATO’s encirclement of Russia, to initiate the largest rearmament programme since Hitler. Only three days after the beginning of the war, Scholz announced in parliament (Bundestag) the “Bundeswehr Special Fund” in the amount of €100 billion. The fund is mainly being used to implement “major national projects.”
Since the announcement, the armaments companies have been massively strengthened with one armaments deal following on the heels of another. The decision to procure dozens of nuclear-weapon-ready F-35 stealth bombers—the purchase price of $8.4 billion was approved by the US government yesterday—was followed by the plan to set up a national missile defence system. Tanks and warships are also on their way.
In mid-July, Rheinmetall announced that the Ministry of Defense would order 111 Puma tanks. The contract, which is to be finalized in September, is part of the comprehensive rearmament of Germany’s ground forces. In the end, the number of Puma tanks could be even higher, said Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD). The final number of units will be decided “only when the structure of the army is finalised.”
Also in July, the German government acquired the insolvent shipyard MV Werft in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. “For the Ministry of Defence and the German Armed Forces, this is a major step towards improving the material readiness of the navy,” said the official press release of the Ministry of Defence on July 7.
Lambrecht spoke of an “historic day.” With the purchase of the shipyard, the “Federal Republic is entering new territory,” the “challenges” of which are known. But she stressed that she had already said at the beginning of her term that there were “big barriers to overcome.” And one of them was “the poor material readiness of the Bundeswehr. Especially in the navy.” But now, “lack of capacity and long delays should be a thing of the past.”
Exxon Mobil and Chevron reported record profits in the second quarter of 2022, as the two largest US oil monopolies cashed in on unprecedented year-over-year increases in oil and gas prices during the months of April through June.
Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, earned $17.9 billion in the quarter, more than three times what it earned in 2021, while Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, tripled its profits to $11.6 billion. Both companies nearly doubled year-over-year quarterly sales, with Exxon going from $67.7 billion to $115.6 billion and Chevron from $36 billion to $65 billion.
When added to the earnings of UK-based Shell, which announced record profits of $11.4 billion on Thursday, the three largest Western oil corporations raked in a collective $46 billion in the quarter. Industry analysts expect that when British Petroleum and the French oil company Total report quarterly earnings in the coming days, the five largest Western oil companies will have chalked up a combined quarterly record of $60 billion in profits.
There is perhaps no better demonstration of the deliberate policy of the ruling elite to attack the economic position of the working class than the price gouging of the oil companies—a major factor in the four-decade record inflation rate of more than 9 percent—combined with the Federal Reserve’s raising of interest rates to bring on a recession, drive up unemployment and undermine growing wage demands.
As the Wall Street Journal freely admitted, the historic profits are the result of oil companies and their investors exploiting both the economic downturn at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 and the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine that began last February.
The Journal reported on Friday following the Exxon and Chevron announcements: “Oil and gas demand has roared back as countries have lifted pandemic quarantine measures. Western sanctions against Russian energy have pushed commodity prices even higher. Now, as the US economy is contracting, the oil industry’s lofty earnings have become a rare bright spot for investors.”
The oil companies seized on the pandemic slowdown to cut more than 3 million barrels per day of oil refining capacity, while no new investment has been committed to update and expand the conversion of crude oil and other raw hydrocarbons into gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other energy products.
The oil monopolies intend to ride this wave of massive profits derived from chiseling the public for as long as possible. As Exxon Chief Executive Darren Woods told the Journal, although refining margins have fallen off recently, it could take years to bring more capacity online. “Demand recovers, and we don’t have the capacity to meet that, which has led to record, record refining margins. This will be a few-year price environment,” Woods said.
It is the nexus of a tripling of the global price of oil—driven primarily by the US-NATO elimination of Russia as a supplier to the world market—and the return of demand for gasoline that has driven up prices at the pump to record levels.
Between April and June, the average American crude oil benchmark was about $109 a barrel, an increase of 64 percent over the same period a year ago, according to Bloomberg. Although the cost of a barrel of oil has fallen somewhat since then, the price as of Friday was still around $100.
Meanwhile, the price of a gallon of gas in the US reached a national average record of just over $5 on June 14. On Friday, the national average for gas was $4.26, which is more than 35 percent higher than it was at the beginning of August 2021.
Record industry profits have lifted the Wall Street performance of the oil giants during a period of downturn in the investment markets. The S&P 500 Energy index is up 35 percent since the beginning of the year, while the broader index has fallen by 15 percent since January. Shares of Exxon Mobil have shot up by 46 percent, while those of Chevron have risen by 26 percent.
Mark Stoeckle, chief executive and senior portfolio manager at Adams Funds, expressed energy investor euphoria to the Wall Street Journal, saying, “If you ignored energy for the last seven or eight years, you were paid handsomely for doing so. Now, the landscape has changed.”
The New York Times reported that shareholders are demanding that oil companies not spend money on expansion. Faisal A. Hersi, an energy analyst at Edward Jones, told the Times, “After years of overspending, these companies have found religion and are focused on capital spending discipline. They’re going to try to grow production at that 1 to 3 percent rate, which is an acceptable rate for investors as long as they’re able to increase cash returns.”
The Journal also said the oil companies have no plans to invest their record profits in new technologies in “the oil patch” but will stick with policies that “reward investors and strengthen their finances.” The five Western oil monopolies have spent a combined $20 billion in share buybacks since the beginning of the year, with plans to spend even more in the second half of 2022.
Chevron “lifted the upper end of its share-repurchase program this year to as much as $15 billion, up from $10 billion,” the Journal reported.
According to the New York Times, Exxon spent $6 billion on buybacks in the first half of the year and said on Friday it was “on track” with a plan for $30 billion in buybacks in 2022 and 2023, a target that it tripled once the present bonanza got going in the early months of the year.
Democrats in Washington D.C., such as Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have made noises about corporate “manipulation,” denouncing the handing over of billions of dollars to investors through share buyback programs instead of investing those funds in expansion or the hiring of more workers. Warren, who has repeatedly called herself a “capitalist to my bones,” has been working with the Biden administration on toothless legislation to tax share buybacks, which are expected to reach a record $1 trillion in 2022.
Cases of COVID-19 are surging in Japan and South Korea, fueled by the more contagious and vaccine-evading BA.5 Omicron subvariant. Governments in Tokyo and Seoul, however, continue to refuse to implement any serious measures to stop the spread of the deadly virus. Instead, they have made clear that keeping the economy open and extracting profits from the working class trumps saving lives.
Medical workers wait for people at a temporary COVID-19 testing center in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 15, 2022 [Credit: AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon] [AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon]
Japan, in particular, is experiencing its worst surge since the pandemic began. On July 28, the county recorded 233,066 daily cases, more than double the previous record-high set in February. Nearly half of Japan’s 47 prefectures are reporting record-highs, indicating widespread infection throughout the country. In a one-week period from July 22 to 28, Japan recorded 1,283,378 cases, more than any other country in the world.
However, the government of Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has made clear that there will be no return to even the limited mitigation measures put in place during earlier stages in the pandemic. Shigeru Omi, the head of a government panel on COVID-19, reported to Prime Minister Kishida on July 11, that “if everyone does what they can do, there is no need at this point to impose movement restrictions.”
In other words, Tokyo is shifting blame for not halting the deadly pandemic onto individuals, despite the fact that people must still go to work and school, all the while using crowded public transportation systems and being forced to sit in crowded offices and classrooms.
Workers required to interact with large numbers of people, such as those in public transportation, are being subjected to widespread infection, as well as exposing countless others who rely on buses and subways. Some bus companies have started restricting their operating times, not to try to prevent COVID’s spread, but because too many drivers are testing positive.
The government’s refusal to put any health measures in place also exposes claims that Tokyo needs to amend the constitution to include a state-of-emergency clause to deal with situations like the pandemic. In reality, such a clause is not meant to address health crises or other serious threats to people’s lives, but to pave the way for police state measures, with an amendment that would restrict democratic rights.
Predictably, the hospital system is already being overwhelmed by the sharp growth in new cases. Hospital beds are being filled around the country, forcing patients to remain at home. As of July 29, four prefectures had hospital bed occupancy rates at 70 percent or higher, with Okinawa Prefecture, the county’s poorest, standing at 88 percent. In addition, 20 prefectures occupancy rates are over 50 percent, which is impacting normal medical care.
Another record-high for the one-week period through July 24 was that more than 2,600 people suspected of being infected with COVID-19 were unable to access the immediate ambulance transportation that they needed.
Health authorities in Seoul have similarly lifted nearly all mitigation measures with no intention of implementing new ones, even as daily cases climbed above 100,000 for the first time in three months on July 27, with a total of 100,285. The seven-day average through July 29 stood at 77,571 cases per day. In addition, several cases of the new BA.2.75 subvariant have also been discovered in addition to the surge in BA.5 cases.
Dozens of people continue to die each day, with the official total death toll passing 25,000 on Saturday. Most of those who have passed away did so this year, following the lifting of mitigation measures by the previous administration of Democrat Moon Jae-in.
In an indication of what could be in store, during the last Omicron surge in March, excess deaths for the month stood at 18,818, of which 9,034 people officially passed away from COVID-19. Among the others included in the excess death total were undoubtedly many who were unable to be tested and receive treatment, or who did not receive the necessary medical care needed for other ailments.
The only requirement still in place is a mask mandate indoors. In a token move, the government of President Yoon Suk-yeol stated recently that it would send officials to indoor facilities to ensure people continued to wear masks.
The government also made the empty suggestion that facilities like after-school academies, known as hagwon, close and only offer classes online. However, without any support from the government, nearly every academy remains open, and students are regularly infected.
A teacher at a hagwon in the densely populated Seoul metropolitan area told the World Socialist Web Site, “Nearly every day a student, or one of their family members, reports being infected. It’s impossible to ventilate classrooms properly in our building as most have no windows. We also can’t go to Zoom classes because the South Korean education system is so competitive that parents are afraid their children will fall behind. The government knows this.”
The real considerations for Tokyo and Seoul are ensuring enormous profits continue to flow into the pockets of big business. In May, Japan’s SMBC Nikko Securities reported that 1,323 major companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange had taken in 33.5 trillion yen ($US249 billion) in net profits for the 2021 fiscal year, surpassing the 30 trillion yen ($US223 billion) record posted in 2018.
In South Korea, the country’s four national banking groups—KB, Shinhan, Woori, and Hana—all enjoyed record profits during the April–June period, bringing in a total of 9 trillion won ($US6.9 billion). This easily surpassed the previous record of 4.63 trillion won ($US3.6 billion), set in the first quarter of the year.
Workers, however, are facing a fall in real wages as inflation soars. Japanese workers have suffered from stagnant wages for more than 20 years. Their real wages fell 1.8 percent in May. South Korean workers similarly are experiencing a fall in real wages, as consumer prices rose 6 percent in June.
The resumption of schooling in Australia after the mid-year break has seen a further escalation in COVID-19 infections, with governments refusing outright to implement basic mitigation strategies, including mask mandates.
Students sitting the HSC in 2019 [Credit: ABC News]
No state or federal government, Labor or Liberal, has mandated mask wearing, including in schools. Earlier this month it emerged that the Victorian Labor government had rejected official advice that it do so, issued by its own chief health officer, Ben Cowie.
In a statement that explained nothing, Victorian Health Minister Mary-Anne Thomas said on July 12 that “the chief health officer has provided his advice and I have accepted his advice, except that I have chosen not to extend mandates for mask wearing in some of the settings that were recommended to me.” Thomas said that she made the decision after discussion with “industry,” i.e., big business.
A farcical situation has emerged within the state’s school system, following the July 18 issuing of a co-signed letter from the heads of the Department of Education, the Catholic Education sector, and Independent Schools (Victoria). This outlined that wearing masks for all school staff and students aged eight and over was an “expectation,” yet not a requirement, with no penalties or consequences for non-compliance.
Similarly in Queensland, Labor Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk has said she “strongly encourages” mask wearing in schools but would not make this a requirement due to respect for “personal responsibility.”
Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was asked on July 20 why he rejected mask mandates. He absurdly replied: “One [factor] is mental health considerations… the imposition of controls on people’s behaviours has an impact on people’s health. And particularly young people, we’re seeing a really problematic increase in incidents of severe consequences when it comes to young people’s health, but others as well.”
There is no evidence whatsoever of any adverse mental health effects from being required to wear masks in schools and other indoor areas. Albanese’s comments are cover for the real agenda of the entire political establishment—refusing to enact any basic safety measures that potentially impinge on the accumulation of profit by corporate and finance capital.
Numerous epidemiologists and medical professionals have issued public statements of concern and opposition to the lifting of virtually all public health measures.
University of Melbourne Epidemiologist professor Nancy Baxter told the Age on July 11 that schools were helping drive COVID-19 transmission. “I don’t think it’s going to be better [than term 2] in fact, I think it’s going to be worse,” she said. “I think people should prepare themselves for there being closures and [teacher] shortages.”
That is now happening across Australia. Accurate and up to do date data on the situation in the schools is not being publicly released—this is part of official efforts to downplay the disaster that has emerged. Numerous local reports have nevertheless emerged of schools having to switch back to remote and online learning due to widespread staff illness.
For example, in the last two weeks reports emerged of one working class school in the western suburbs of Melbourne, Manor Lakes P-12 College, that had 60–70 of its 320 staff absent with illness. This forced the cancellation and merging of multiple senior classes.
There is a nation-wide shortage of relief teachers, resulting in sick teachers going unreplaced and their students often supervised together in large groups in halls.
In New South Wales, the state Liberal government of Premier Dominic Perrotet is reportedly preparing to fast-track university students into classrooms. The Australian reported on July 21: “University students would assist teachers in classrooms just six months into an education degree, under radical reforms to plug the national shortage of school teachers.”
The World Socialist Web Site spoke with several public school teachers on conditions in their workplaces.
A primary school teacher in a northern working class suburb of Melbourne said: “The department notice that there was an ‘expectation’ for children over 8 to wear masks was ridiculous. Many staff aren’t wearing masks, thinking that there isn’t a requirement to do so, so kids aren’t wearing them either. The wearing of masks needs to be mandated! We continue to see increased transmission with increased disruptions over what we already have.”
A secondary school teacher from a Victorian regional school reported: “We continue to have considerable staff and students absent with the virus. In the first week back in Term 3, there have been 73 year VCE [senior student] classes cancelled. A single ES [education support] member has had to supervise in excess of 120 students, amounting to a baby-sitting exercise.
“Some staff and fewer students are using masks, even though we have experienced a huge growth of the virus. Unless mandated, without masks, we will continue to see students and staff getting third and fourth doses of COVID.”
Another secondary school teacher in Melbourne said: “Even though the letter [recommending mask wearing] has gone home, there is no uptake from the kids.
“Student illnesses are still occurring and classes are severely disrupted. The pressure to catch up on work and assessments from students being away is insane. This has been the hardest six months of teaching I’ve ever had. I hate what is going on and now dread going into work.”
An entirely preventable spate of serious illnesses and deaths are now emerging. On July 24, a girl died of COVID-19, just two weeks before her second birthday. The death again exposed the lie that young people are unaffected by the virus.
The tragic loss is part of the worst spate of mass COVID deaths in Australia to date. In the seven-days including 30 July, 535 coronavirus fatalities were recorded, an average of more than 76 every day, up from around 40 a month ago. Yesterday’s 157 deaths were comfortably the highest reported on any day of the pandemic.
The wave of mass infection has broader implications. Several studies have found that 10–20 percent of people who are infected with the virus may suffer some form of Long COVID. This includes countless children now contracting the virus in their classrooms.
Across Australia, the Australian Education Union and its state affiliates are working as the active accomplices of state and federal governments. Throughout the pandemic, the unions have insisted that teachers and school workers comply with every official edict, and take no independent measures whatsoever to protect their safety and that of their students.
Papua New Guinea’s Governor-General, Sir Bob Dadae, last week intervened to prevent the failure of the country’s national election. Widely disrupted polling and violence has marred the vote in the drawn-out election. Dadae allowed an extra two weeks until August 12 to allow vote counting to be completed.
Sir Bob Dadae [Source: Wikimedia Commons]
There had been warnings that a constitutional crisis could result if the election writs were not all handed in by the due date, July 29. Dadae declared he would allow the extra time on the recommendation of Electoral Commissioner Simon Sinai.
Only 20 writs from 118 electorates had been declared by the official deadline. On Friday the Post Courier cited former Chief Justice Arnold Armet, who said there were “no Constitutional provisions for any extension of writs.” The newspaper noted there was no formal Gazette notice legalising the extension of the writs, which it warned would portend “a troubling future.”
Highlighting the extremely unstable situation, incumbent Prime Minister James Marape called a press briefing late Friday to announce the writs would now be due on August 5, with parliament returning on August 9. A Gazette notice was posted accordingly. Peter O’Neill, the main opposition leader declared: “I think the whole [electoral] system has collapsed,” setting the stage for ongoing legal wrangling over the results.
The poll has been mired in bribery and corruption, ballot rigging and omission of names from the Common Roll. In one high-profile case, the Electoral Commission rejected the declaration of Don Polye as winner of the Kandep Open seat and charged the returning officer with breaching directives concerning the “integrity” of ballot boxes. Polye is leader of the opposition Triumph Heritage Empowerment Party.
In a desperate bid to stem popular distrust, Marape was forced last week to issue a statement that his Pangu Pati was “not rigging” the process. None of the 25 parties and 3,499 candidates, however, has any intention of addressing the social gulf that separates the political elite from the masses, a fact that is not lost on ordinary people.
The governor-general’s intervention came after escalating violence erupted in the capital, Port Moresby, on July 24. Rival supporters wielding bush knives turned the streets into what the National described as “a battlefield” when one group chased and slashed people indiscriminately as votes were being tallied for the Moresby East electorate.
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported that the rampage started with a dispute over the counting of two ballot boxes, quickly escalating into a full-blown confrontation. Supporters had been camping outside counting centres with weapons, including knives and stones, hidden in their camp sites. Some electoral officials had been escorted in by police amid scrutineer complaints about incorrect tallying of votes. Four officials were last week charged with inflating the tally.
According to the ABC, the attack and violent incidents on subsequent days “fed fear and tension in the city,” and forced the capital into a near lockdown. Troops with armoured vehicles were deployed to patrol the streets and the count was suspended.
While the violence in Port Moresby provoked particular alarm, it was only the latest outrage to hit the chaotic election. A major source of popular frustration is the incomplete election rolls, which have not been updated since the last election in 2017. Within days of the polls opening, angry voters in East Sepik and Hela districts in the Highlands destroyed ballot boxes and set fire to ballot papers after discovering their names were missing.
A Commonwealth Observer Group monitoring the election reported that in some areas as many as half of those eligible to vote were not on the register. By one estimate, 1 million out of a potential voting population of 6 million have been affected.
Competing candidates are accused of inciting their supporters to try to influence outcomes. Dozens of attacks have taken place with election-related deaths officially reaching 49 since May 20.
The first occurred in early May in Western Highlands, when an election officer was shot. The incident followed a delay in the publication of a list of appointed election officers. False lists were then being circulated, prompting violence between rival candidates over rumoured appointments.
Throughout June and July, most violence occurred in the Highlands. In one incident four men were killed and three critically injured when they were ambushed and shot execution-style in Nebilyer, Western Highlands. The men were allegedly moving illegal ballot boxes when they encountered a roadblock and were gunned down by vigilantes with high-powered firearms.
In another tragedy, 25 people were killed in a massacre in Enga Province on 20 July, near the site of the currently idled Porgera gold mine. A police commander told the Post Courier the slaughter appeared to be the work of a “deranged mob” who had carried out an hour of “wanton destruction.”
Soldiers who had been stationed in the area reportedly left Porgera after polling finished, when the killings then erupted. A state of emergency has since been declared, with 150 police and army personnel in the township.
Authorities denied that the killings were directly linked to the elections but were part of a tribal battle that has been raging over a land dispute, causing 70 deaths. While tribal fighting is a regular occurrence in the remote Highlands, heightened social tensions surrounding elections inevitably intensify popular anger and frustration. The 2017 poll saw more than 200 people killed in clashes.
The lack of security has prevailed despite 8,000 police and army personnel, including 140 Australian Defence Force troops, being dispatched across the country, prompting calls from some quarters for harsher crackdowns. PNG Think Tank Group spokesman Samson Komati said that a force of anything less than 20,000 is “insufficient to contain any form of strategic violence.”
In fact, following decades of social deprivation and growing inequality, buttressed by authoritarian military-police measures, trust in the entire parliamentary system has disintegrated. The unbridgeable gulf that separates the poverty-stricken PNG masses from the country’s corrupt and venal political establishment has seen a series of strikes and protests by nurses, doctors and students in recent years.
The tiny ruling elite reaps enormous personal wealth through services rendered to giant transnational corporations. Successive governments have conducted decades-long attacks on living standards and basic rights. Tax cuts for the wealthy and private companies have accompanied harsh labour market deregulation and cuts to the minimum wage.
PNG remains among the poorest countries in the world. Some 85 percent of people live in rural areas, many on the margins of the modern economy, eking out an existence on semi-subsistence agriculture. Most have only limited or non-existent health care, education, and other social services and infrastructure amid widespread social distress. COVID-19 has caused further devastation, with escalating unemployment, inadequate social support and a disintegrating health system.
Behind the explosive situation is the legacy of economic backwardness produced by decades of colonial rule and the continued subordination of PNG’s economy to the interests of the banks and transnational corporations. Culpability lies with the former colonial power Australia which, since ceding nominal independence in 1975, has used its position to protect its business and geo-strategic interests while doing nothing to address the plight of the PNG masses.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who is due to visit PNG in September, has so far remained silent on the chaos surrounding the election. Whatever the outcome, Canberra’s central concern is to maintain its hegemony over the country, and to push back against China’s growing economic and diplomatic influence.
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