Yemen’s cholera outbreak surpasses 600,000

Bill Van Auken

The humanitarian crisis unfolding in Yemen—the worst in the world—is an “entirely man-made catastrophe,” the product of a the two-and-a-half-year-old Saudi-led and US-backed war of aggression, the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights stated in a report issued on Tuesday.

The war, which has increasingly assumed near-genocidal proportions, has killed at least 14,000 civilians, maimed many thousands more, displaced 2 million and left at least 7.3 million on the brink of famine.

Meanwhile, the country is confronting the worst cholera epidemic on record, with the World Health Organization and Yemen’s health ministry reporting 612,703 people infected and 2,048 of them dying from the disease since April. While the spread of the epidemic has slowed over the past two months, there are still 3,000 new cases reported daily.

Shortly after the outbreak of the epidemic, the WHO predicted a worst-case scenario of 300,000 cases within six months. That this estimate has been more than doubled is testimony to the merciless destruction wrought by a massive Saudi bombing campaign, described by the UN as the “leading cause” of death in Yemen, as well as the effects of a sea and air blockade imposed upon the country with the indispensable support of the US Navy.

The Saudi regime has dramatically escalated its bombardment of Yemen, staging 5,767 airstrikes in the first six months of this year alone, compared to 3,936 for all of 2016.

Bombs and missiles, supplied by the United States and delivered by US-made warplanes that are aerially refueled by American tanker planes and guided by US intelligence, have struck, as the UN reported Tuesday, “markets, residential areas, hospitals, schools, funeral gatherings and even fishermen and small civilian boats at sea.”

Airstrikes have demolished the country’s infrastructure, leaving 15.7 million people without access to either clean water or sanitation, creating the objective conditions for the spread of cholera.

This was also the conclusion reached by a study conducted by researchers at London’s Queen Mary University last month, which found that eight out of ten cholera deaths in Yemen were in Saudi-besieged areas controlled by the Houthi rebels. “Saudi-led airstrikes have destroyed vital infrastructure, including hospitals and public water systems, hit civilian areas, and displaced people into crowded and unsanitary conditions,” the study stated.

The Saudi war is aimed at restoring to power Yemen’s fugitive president Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a stooge of Riyadh who was first installed in a 2012 election in which he was the only candidate for a two-year transitional period that has long since expired. He was forced to flee the country by an alliance of Houthi rebels and forces loyal to the former dictator, Ali Abdullah Saleh, who seized much of the country, including the capital of Sanaa.

The main concern of the Saudi monarchy is that any Yemeni regime not under its control could establish closer ties to Iran, Saudi Arabia’s regional rival. Both Riyadh and Washington have charged, without any substantive evidence, that Iran is arming and supporting the Houthis.

The Saudi war enjoyed the support of the Obama administration, which set up a joint command center between the Pentagon and the Saudi military to oversee the war and signed hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of arms deals with the monarchy.

This support has only been escalated under Trump, who staged a visit to Riyadh in May in which he went out of his way to praise Riyadh for its “strong actions against Houthi militants in Yemen” and signed a $110 billion arms deal that includes an option for the Saudis to purchase $350 billion worth of US weapons over the next 10 years.

US Defense Secretary James Mattis likewise issued a memo last March calling for stepped-up support for the criminal war against Yemen, which is seen by the Pentagon as part of the preparation for a US military confrontation with Iran.

Tuesday’s UN report called upon the Human Rights Council, the UN body authorized to order major international investigations, to mount such a probe of human rights violations in Yemen when it convenes later this month. The council has repeatedly rejected calls to investigate the war, leaving the matter in the hands of a Yemeni government panel that is an instrument of the Saudi monarchy.

“I have repeatedly called on the international community to take action to set up an independent, international investigation into the allegations of very serious violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in Yemen,” said Zeid bin Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN’s high commissioner for human rights, in issuing Tuesday’s report. He added, “The reticence of the international community in demanding justice for the victims of the conflict in Yemen is shameful, and in many ways contributing to the continuing horror.”

Saudi Arabia, whose ruling monarchy regularly tortures and beheads its political opponents, is a member of the Human Rights Council, where it and the United States have been able to block any critical examination of the Yemen war.

Meanwhile, the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) also indicted Riyadh for the catastrophe in Yemen. “Saudi Arabia should fund 100 percent of the needs of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen,” the WFP’s executive director, David Beasley, said Tuesday. “Either stop the war or fund the crisis. Option three is, do both of them.”

The WFP director said that the Saudi blockade of the Red Sea port of al-Hudaidah, through which 80 percent of Yemen’s food imports arrived before the war, along with the Saudi bombing of the port’s cranes, had “substantially reduced our capacity to bring food in.”

The conditions spelled out by the UN agencies constitute war crimes inflicted by the wealthy and reactionary hereditary monarchies of Saudi Arabia and the Gulf oil sheikdoms together with their principal backers, the United States and Britain, against the most impoverished country in the Arab world.

The same capitalist politicians, corporate media, and various pseudo-left proponents of “human rights” imperialism who regularly denounce the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad and its Russian and Iranian allies for war crimes largely ignore the mass slaughter in Yemen, where an entire population is being subjected to bombardment, disease and starvation.

UN head warns Korean crisis could spiral into world war

James Cogan

United Nations Secretary-general Antonio Guterres warned on Tuesday that the conflicts being provoked by the bellicose US stance toward North Korea’s nuclear weapons’ program could lead to “unintended consequences.”

Guterres invoked the years leading up to the outbreak of World War I, when rival responses to international incidents aggravated great power antagonisms culminating in all-out war. “Wars usually do not start by a decision taken in a moment by the parties to go to war,” he stated. “If you look at the history of the First World War, it was on a step-by-step basis, one party doing one thing, the other party doing another, and then an escalation taking place… This is the risk we need to avoid in relation to the situation of North Korea.”

The UN head issued the warning as sharp divisions emerged between the US, China and Russia over Washington’s latest demands that the UN Security Council impose a total trade embargo on North Korea, including the supply of oil and gas.

US strategic think tanks have discussed the aim of such an embargo—itself an act of war—for more than 25 years. It would seek to collapse the country’s already crisis-stricken economy, provoke starvation and social upheaval, and create conditions for a US and South Korean intervention to install a client state in Pyongyang.

The Trump administration has ruled out any negotiations on the terms being advanced by North Korea. Pyongyang has signalled it would be prepared to begin talks on ending its nuclear program only if the US and South Korea ceased their constant military rehearsals for an attack. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is well aware of the fate of the Iraqi and Libyan regimes after they bowed down to American imperialist dictates. Both were attacked, the countries devastated and their leaders murdered.

Washington has answered the Pyongyang regime with provocative rhetoric, including President Donald Trump’s tweet last week, declaring: “Talking is not the answer.” Echoing Trump, US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley issued an ultimatum to China and Russia on Monday “that the time has come for us to exhaust all of our diplomatic means before it’s too late.”

The implication is unmistakable. If the Security Council does not vote for harsher sanctions against North Korea, the US and its allies will launch a catastrophic war that could involve the first combat use of nuclear weapons since 1945.

Beijing and Moscow have both signaled they will not support such an economic blockade. Speaking yesterday during an economic summit in the far eastern Russian city of Vladivostok, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated: “We should not act out of emotions and push North Korea into a dead end. We must act with calm and avoid steps that could raise tensions.”

The economic and strategic interests of the Chinese and Russian ruling elites would be severely compromised by either scenario being threatened by Washington. A blockade that led to the collapse of the Pyongyang regime and its replacement by a pro-US puppet state would mean American military forces operating on their borders with Korea. A war, on the other hand, would not only devastate the Korean Peninsula, but profoundly destabilise East Asia. Among the consequences could be the nuclear fall-out and contamination of northern China and the Russian Far East as well as a flood of millions of refugees over the borders.

Beijing and Moscow are desperately seeking to close off the possibility of a US attack. Both have bent over backwards to accommodate to Washington’s demands that they increase pressure on Pyongyang to end its nuclear weapons and long-range missile programs. They have voted in the UN Security Council for ever-harsher sanctions and claim they are enforcing them. At the same time, they have repeatedly called on Washington to accept North Korea’s position that it will not cease its efforts to acquire a nuclear arsenal while it is permanently threatened with attack and invasion by the US and South Korea.

Putin signalled yesterday in a meeting with South Korean President Moon Jae-in that he is seeking to win Seoul away from the US stance and toward opening negotiations with Pyongyang.

Against Washington’s demands for an economic embargo of North Korea, Putin advocated massive investment into the besieged and isolated country. He told a press conference: “We could deliver Russian pipeline gas to Korea and integrate the power lines and railway systems of Russia, the Republic of Korea [South Korea] and North Korea. The implementation of these initiatives will be not only economically beneficial, but will also help build up trust and stability on the Korean Peninsula.”

Moon Jae-in responded favourably. He told Putin at the joint press conference: “The development of the Far East will promote the prosperity of our two countries and will also help change North Korea and create the basis for the implementation of the trilateral agreements. We will be working hard on this.”

These “trilateral agreements” have been struck between China, Japan and South Korea since 2005 to strengthen their investment and trade relations. Putin’s proposal is also in line with South Korea’s “Sunshine Policy” in the 1990s to open up the North for investment and dovetails with China’s “One Belt One Road” plans to develop energy and transport links across the Eurasian landmass to Western Europe.

Newsweek magazine noted yesterday that Putin had proposed to Moon a “vision for peace in the Korean Peninsula that marginalises the US.”

Successive American administrations—Clinton, Bush, Obama and now Trump—have aggressively intervened to disrupt any such prospect. Washington has repeatedly exploited North Korea’s “weapons of mass destruction” to ratchet up tensions in East Asia and block South Korea and Japan from developing an economic and strategic orientation to China, Russia and Europe.

The war danger today is the outcome of decades of imperialist intrigue and provocation. The warnings by Guterres serve only to underscore that in the corridors of power around the world, the real dangers posed by the aggressive drive by the American capitalist class are well understood. Washington is seeking to preserve US global dominance against the challenges it faces, above all from the ambitions of the Chinese ruling elite to place Beijing at the centre of an integrated Eurasian economic bloc that largely excludes the United States.

As in the years prior to 1914, the competing interests of rival capitalist nation-states threaten to drag humanity into a catastrophic global war, fought this time with nuclear weapons.

Hurricane Irma slams into Puerto Rico and other Caribbean islands

Jerry White

Less than two weeks after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas, leading to record flooding and damage in Houston and other areas of the state, an even more powerful hurricane has plowed through a chain of small islands in the northern Caribbean and Puerto Rico and is heading towards the Dominican Republic, Haiti, the Bahamas and Cuba. Densely populated south Florida, which includes Miami, could be hit Sunday, and the Georgia and South Carolina border by Monday afternoon.

Hurricane Irma is a Category 5 storm with 185 mile per hour winds, making it the most powerful Atlantic Ocean hurricane ever measured. In the early morning hours on Wednesday, Irma smashed into the Lesser Antilles islands of Antigua and Barbuda (population 82,000 and 1,700), Saint Barthélemy (9,000), Anguilla (15,000) and Saint Martin/Sint Maarten (77,000).

Hurricane Irma over the island of Barbuda [Credit: NASA/NOAA/UWM-CIMSS, William Straka III]

At least seven people are confirmed dead, though this number is expected to rise quickly.

The eye of the hurricane passed directly over the island of Barbuda around 2 a.m. Wednesday, with reports of sustained winds of 118 mph, gusting to 155 mph, before meteorological instruments failed. Charles Fernandez, minister of foreign affairs and international trade for Antigua and Barbuda, said the destruction on Barbuda was “upwards of 90 percent.”

High winds and storm surges destroyed government buildings, tore roofs from houses and left islands without power or communication. Both the Dutch and the British dispatched naval ships and military personnel to their island possessions, while French President Emmanuel Macron, who was monitoring conditions in the French West Indies from an Interior Ministry crisis center in Paris, said the “toll would be harsh and cruel.”

Hurricane Irma began battering the US territory of Puerto Rico, with a population of 3.4 million US citizens, Wednesday afternoon. As of this writing, the eye of Hurricane Irma was 35 miles (56 kilometers) north of the capital city of San Juan and hovering above the Atlantic Ocean. Authorities say wind gusts of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) could hit the capital of 355,000 people.

More than one million people, or nearly a third of the population, are currently without power, and nearly 50,000 are without water. Fourteen hospitals are using generators after losing power, and trees and light posts are strewn across many roads.

The island has not been hit by a Category 5 hurricane since Hurricane San Felipe in 1928. Hurricane Hugo in 1989 struck Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, leaving 72 dead and doing $3 billion in damage. The National Weather Service predicts “extreme” danger and warns that roads are likely to become impassible, and structurally sound buildings are likely to be damaged. Rock and mudslides, particularly in rural areas, are also predicted.

The historic La Perla shantytown in San Juan

Harvey and Irma are being followed by tropical storms Jose and Katia, which could develop into hurricanes threatening the northern Leeward Islands in the West Indies—including some of the same islands hit Wednesday—and Mexico, respectively.

The water in the Caribbean is warmer than usual, and this provides fuel for such hurricanes. The intensity of the storms and their frequency only underscore the impact of global warming, which is denied by President Donald Trump and only paid lip service by other capitalist governments around the world.

In response to Hurricane Irma, Trump has declared states of emergency in Florida, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to begin relief efforts. Puerto Rican Governor Ricardo Rosselló announced that the government was operating 456 shelters to accommodate 63,229 people.

As in Houston, however, the human cost of the new hurricane has been far worsened by the lack of any serious government preparations and the decay of physical and social infrastructure. In the case of Puerto Rico, the island and its people have been left ever more vulnerable by the looting operation carried out by Wall Street to extract some $70 billion in debt payments, or $12,000 from each resident of the island.

Last May, a financial oversight board appointed by the Obama administration filed for Title III bankruptcy to pave the way for Greek-style austerity measures, including slashing public-sector jobs and pensions on an island that already suffers from an official poverty rate of 45 percent and 14.2 percent jobless rate. The Puerto Rican government has hired advisors who oversaw the bankruptcy of Detroit and the sell-off of public assets to pay off wealthy bondholders.

The budget proposed by Rosselló cuts the departments of education, natural resources, housing and agriculture, including a $200 million cut for Puerto Rico’s public university that provoked a two-month-long student strike. The budget also eliminates millions of dollars in annual subsidies to 78 municipalities of Puerto Rico, forcing the mayors to find funding in other areas.

The flooding of water and sewerage systems by the hurricane threatens to create a humanitarian disaster on an island that is already supplied with water from systems that violate the US Safe Drinking Water Act, due to contaminants ranging from lead to coliform bacteria. The water system has been privatized twice, resulting in skyrocketing utility bills.

Before the hurricane hit, Ricardo Ramos Rodríguez, the executive director of the Puerto Rico Power Authority, warned that the island’s electrical system was vulnerable to a catastrophic failure from high winds because it had not been adequately maintained for years. “If we are [slammed] by this hurricane as is being outlined in the forecasts, there are certainly going to be blackouts, and certainly there will be areas that are going to spend three, four months without electricity service,” Rodríguez said in a radio interview with WIPR.

“For many years there has been no maintenance or replacement of damaged equipment,” he said, adding that the public corporation has lost about 5,000 employees in recent years, of which 86 percent were operational—linemen, plant operators or mechanics.

The power company, which is saddled with $9 billion in debt, has been a prime target for privatization by Citigroup and other vulture capitalists squeezing the lifeblood out of the island’s people.

On Wednesday evening, the World Socialist Web Site spoke with Carmen Merrill, a retired New York City sanitation worker who was born in Puerto Rico and now lives in the southeast of the island. As the interview was conducted, the electricity was cut off in the home in Guayama she was sheltering in with a friend.

“My concern is how long we will be without power. There was a news segment on television a while ago and they interviewed retired workers from the Palo Seco Power Plant in Cataño, just outside of San Juan. They said any winds above 50 miles per hour could shut the plant because maintenance never got done. A worker who complained that the plant was too dangerous was killed in an explosion. The government is not doing anything about it.

“They use the word ‘Commonwealth,’ but businesses come here and get tax breaks, and that money is not available for public services. The schools are maintained and politicians like Rosselló just talk and take no action.”

Most Puerto Ricans, she said, could not afford emergency generators. And while many homes were built with concrete to resist storms, low-income families in isolated areas and in neighborhoods like La Perla in Old San Juan live in structures that are susceptible to massive damage.

“The rising of the rivers is the most dangerous,” Carmen said. Like Houston, she said, working-class residents were helping each other put metal racks on their windows to protect their homes. “We saw what happened in Houston. It was devastating. We had a small group of people volunteering from Puerto Rico to help rescue people in Houston. People are asking here how a modern state like Texas could flood so quickly and people get washed away in unsanitary water.”

Before retiring to Puerto Rico, Carmen said, she was involved in the clean up of Superstorm Sandy in New York City in 2012. “The worst was in Rockaway in Queens, where we saw all the furniture and belongings destroyed and piled up in front of their homes. Houston reminded me of Sandy. Every house and car was flooded. An older lady came up in tears, saying, ‘I don’t care about the furniture but I want my family pictures.’ I found a black and white photo of her grandchildren and gave it to her. After that I couldn’t work, I just cried.”

North Korea: Testing the Limits of US-South Korea Relations

Sandip Kumar Mishra

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un must be the happiest to see the state of South Korea-US relations. One of his fundamental desires is to create a rift between the US and South Korea, and he has been trying to achieve it consistently for years. In the last few months, he has found a very helpful friend in President Donald Trump. It seems that Trump has been contributing more than Kim himself to realise North Korea’s foreign policy objective. After calculated provocations by North Korea, the Trump administration resorted to mindless and inconsistent responses, like "fire and fury" and "ready locked and loaded." It led to serious discomfort in South Korea, which wanted to engage North Korea and resolve the nuclear and missile problems through negotiations. To restrain the US, in an extraordinary assertion, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on 15 August 2017 that “no one can make a decision on military action on the Korean peninsula without our agreement.” The statement was meant as a warning to US President Donald Trump.

Trust between the US and South Korea lowered when the US tried to install the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) system in South Korea, at a time when South Korea did not have an elected leader in command in the interim period after the tenure of the previous President Park Geun-hye. During his presidential campaign, Moo Jae-in identified several problems in the process of installation of the THAAD in South Korea, but the US had taken the process to an irreversible stage. After taking oath as president in May 2017, Jae-in did not have much choice but to accept the THAAD system in South Korea.

When Washington, DC’s demand that Seoul bear the cost of the THAAD was met with resentment in South Korea, the US clarified that it would go by the initial agreed terms on the matter. However, the incident definitely raised suspicion within South Korea about the Trump administration’s intent. Similarly, when the US unilaterally deliberated reinstalling tactical nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula, it was again refuted strongly by Jae-in.

Trump's unpredictability and inconsistency have created more concerns in South Korea than in North Korea. In a recent episodes, the Trump administration threatened to scrap the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with South Korea because it favours the latter. Given such incidents, the Jae-in administration is not sure about the reliability of US responses in any serious security and economic crises in South Korea. South Korea, which seeks dialogue with North Korea, is also worried that if an armed conflict initiated by the US occurs on the peninsula, Seoul will have to bear most of the costs. In spite of North Korean rhetoric, Pyongyang still does not have reliable capacity to hit US territories, and ultimately it would target Japan and South Korea where a substantial number of US troops are present.

North Korea’s Sixth Nuclear Test
Dissonance in US-South Korea perceptions and methods also became obvious after North Korea's sixth nuclear test on 3 September 2017. South Korea held National Security Council (NSC) meeting where it was expressed that it "will ratchet up pressure on North Korea until Kim Jong-un agrees to talk.” It is important to note South Korea’s insistence on talks with North Korea. In response, President Trump tweeted, “South Korea is finding, as I have told them, that their talk of appeasement with North Korea will not work, they (North Korea) only understand one thing.”

To resolve the North Korean issue, it is urgent to have a coordinated approach, at least among US allies. North Korea’s sixth test has been the biggest till date, of around 100-150 kilotons of yield. The North Korean state media claimed that this was a thermonuclear device, now ready to be used with inter-continental ballistic missiles (ICBM). North Korea also tested the Hyosung-12 and Hyosung-14 in July and August respectively, the latter being supposedly an ICBM with the capacity to reach the US mainland. 

Unfortunately, Trump seems more interested in blaming South Korea’s ‘appeasement’ and making provocative ‘irresponsible statements’. After the North Korean test, the White House announced another warning, of a "massive military response" by the US against North Korean provocation. US Defence Secretary James Mattis said that the US does not seek the “total annihilation” of North Korea, but threatened that it has “many options to do so,” emphasising that the US response would be “both effective and overwhelming.” When reporters asked Trump whether he had plans to attack North Korea, he answered, “we’ll see.”

Provocative statements from the Trump administration have been so oft-repeated that they appear to be empty and simply irresponsible. In yet another tweet,  Trump said that "the United States is considering, in addition to other options, stopping all trade with any country doing business with North Korea." President Trump seems to be unaware that some of these countries would include China, India, Philippines, Taiwan, France, Russia, Brazil, Germany, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

In the heightened crisis on the Korean peninsula, it would be a challenge for the South Korean administration to deal with the US and the North Korean leaders simultaneously, but it would definitely have to do so. Left up to Kim Jong-un or Donald Trump, the consequences would be disastrous.

Pakistan: Census Complexities

Rana Banerji


After a hiatus of 19 years, Pakistan has been able to undertake its sixth census enumeration only with the help of the army, which guaranteed security not only in difficult terrorism-hit areas of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) but also in areas of endemic sectarian and ethnic conflict like Karachi.

Preliminary census findings reveal that Pakistan’s population has surged to a staggering 207.8 million (207,774,520), showing an increase of 75.4 million people from 1998, when the population was just over 130 million. When the census operation kept getting deferred due to security and political considerations, the World Bank and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) had arrived at rough estimates, assessing Pakistan’s population being somewhere close to 197 million. The results have taken many by surprise, indicating an increase in population at an annual rate of 2.4 per cent annual growth rate (a.g.r.). This abnormally high growth rate should be a matter of concern for all serious population planners.

The census figures do not include any data for Gilgit Baltistan (earlier known as Northern Areas) or Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK; referred to in Pakistan as Azad Jammu & Kashmir). Though the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) did conduct enumeration there, the data has not been made public, ostensibly due to their special (read 'disputed') status.

Rural-Urban Divide
The summary results show that the country’s predominant majority – 132.189 million or 63.6 per cent – still lives in rural areas. This ratio was 65.6 per cent in 1998. The urban population now stands at 75.58 million, which is roughly 36.4 per cent of the country’s population. In 1998, the share of the urban population was 32.52 per cent. The urban population may grow to 40 per cent by 2050 if existing growth rates continue. 30 million people were added to the urban population. Another 112 million would be added by 2050. The growing urbanisation reflects a world-wide trend.

Gender Ratio and Literacy
The male-female ratio was found to be close to the world average of 51:49, coming down slightly from 52:48 in 1998. Literacy data has not been made public so far. In 1998, for males it stood at 54.8  per cent and for females, at 43.02 per cent.

Provinces
Punjab now has 52.9 per cent (down from 55 per cent in 1998) of Pakistan’s total population (110,012,442; a.g.r.: 2.13 per cent). Sind remains unchanged with 23 per cent (47,886,051; a.g.r.: 2.4 per cent). Population growth has been highest in Balochistan (12,344,408; a.g.r.: 3.37 per cent), followed by Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (30,523,371; a.g.r.: 2.89 per cent).The lowest population growth (1.81 per cent) was witnessed in rural Punjab - urbanisation might have had a greater role to play here. FATA is now shown to have 5,001,676 persons (not clear if currently displaced; in camps elsewhere in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa enumerated under FATA, the a.g.r. was 2.41 per cent). Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) has 2,006,572 people now (a.g.r.: 4.91 per cent).

These changes will have important repercussions in the distribution of resources and allocation of national assembly seats. Article 51(3) of the constitution will have to be amended in light of Article 51(5), which mandates the allocation of seats on the basis of population in accordance with the last preceding census officially published. This would mean up to eight fewer seats for Punjab in the 342-member National Assembly with 5-6 more seats for Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and almost 3 more for Balochistan.

The next National Finance Commission (NFC) award will have to be announced, with Punjab having to compromise slightly (a 3.3 per cent reduction of its share) in favour of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan.

Internally displaced tribals and Afghan refugees have added huge numbers in both Balochistan and Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa. Quetta division alone has shown an almost tripling of the population, from 1.72 million to 4.2 million. Pashtuns may now exceed Baloch in Balochistan, making them numerical losers in their own province. Census data shows a phenomenal decease in their (Baloch) proportion in  northern parts of the province - 2.1 per cent decrease in Zhob and Nasirabad, 1.6 per cent in Kalat division, 1.6 per cent in Sibi, and 0.6 per cent in Makran. In Punjab, Lahore and several other satellite towns like Gujranwala have shown phenomenal growth. There was a lower growth in the Seraiki belt due to out-migration.

Though its overall population share has not changed, Sindh is in a special quandary. It is the most urbanised province with 52.2 per cent of the population in urban areas – this result could disturb the rural-urban quotas of provincial assembly seats and jobs. More resources, jobs, and representation would have to be provided for urban areas. Rural Sindh is going to lose some representation. Urban Sindh is increasingly becoming non-Urdu speaking, with settlers’ onslaught of both Pashtuns from Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA, as also the natural influx of Sindhis from rural areas of the province. 68 per cent of Sind’s total population is concentrated in three major cities – Karachi, Hyderabad and Sukkur. 

Though Karachi’s population growth has been stymied by bloody ethnic politics, lawlessness and the prolonged Rangers’ operations, its overall population increased by 60 per cent. The greater the growth of population in Karachi, the worse will be the loss of the numerical strength of Mohajirs. The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), which represents mainly Sindhi rights, will fight against the perceived ‘bias’ of under-representing Sindhis. The Mohajir Qaumi Movement (MQM), now split into several factions, will be reluctant to concede ground to Pashtuns or Sindhis in greater Karachi urban agglomeration. The Awami National Party (ANP) led by Shahi Syed, and Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) will contest support from new Pashtun settlers.

The preliminary census figures have been referred to the Council for Common Interests (CCI), a statutory body under the 1973 constitution. The CCI has now decided that the figures will be further debated in the Inter-Provincial Coordination Committee (IPCC) to devise a strategy about future policy on job quotas, fund allocation and the Election Commission of Pakistan’s (ECP) plan of action to adjust/delimit constituencies afresh. The ECP had earlier informed the government that it may hold the next general election on the basis of the new census results if they are finalised in time. The million dollar question now is, when will these changes happen?

Global Youth Leadership Scholarship in Canada for Youths from Developing Countries 2018

Application Deadline: 30th April 2018

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Developing countries

To be taken at (country): Coady Institute, Canada

Eligible Field of Study: Programme participants engage in learning grounded in real world experiences and focused on Coady’s core thematic areas.

About Scholarship: The Global Youth Leaders Certificate is a three-week education program offered at Coady Institute. This program enables young development practitioners from developing countries to strengthen their leadership capacities in order to contribute to innovation and change in their organizations and communities. Participants engage in learning that is grounded in real-world experiences and focused on Coady’s core thematic areas. Through a shared learning environment with others from around the world, participants are exposed to a range of experiences and the beginnings of a potentially lifelong network of support.

Offered Since: 2011

Type: Leadership and Mentorship training

Selection Criteria and Eligibility: This program is targeted to young leaders (20-30 years old) from developing countries who are working on development issues. Priority is given to people who:

• Possess a minimum of two years of demonstrated experience in social, environmental or economic development in sectors such as livelihoods or inclusive economic development, food security, environment, access to education and health care, governance, and the rights of girls and women;
• Have great drive and passion for their work, demonstrated through their outstanding contributions in their organizations and communities;
• Are practitioners in civil society organizations including community-based organizations and not-for-profits, or active in public or private institutions, donor/philanthropic agencies, social movements or in a social enterprise/business; AND
• Have strong oral and written English language competencies.

Value of Program:

• The Global Youth Leadership program provides successful candidates with a full scholarship that includes tuition, travel, accommodation, and meals.
• Program participants also benefit from the guidance and mentorship of accomplished leaders from around the world.

Duration of Program: three-week education program. September 17 – October 5, 2018

How to Apply

Visit Scholarship Webpage for More Details

Scholarship Provider: COADY International Institute

University of Alberta Centenary Scholarships for Undergraduate International Students 2018/2019 – Canada

Application Deadline: 11:59 pm MST 18th December, 2017.

Eligible Countries: International

To Be Taken At (Country): Canada

Type: Undergraduate

Eligibility: Awarded to students on a Study Permit with superior academic achievement entering the first year of an undergraduate degree program at the University of Alberta. Selection based on academic standing and demonstrated leadership qualities based on involvement in extracurricular and community activities. Renewal of funding for the second, third, and fourth years is contingent upon achieving a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a full normal course load at the University of Alberta while studying on a Study Permit. Students must have less than 24 IB, AP or A-level credits. Transfer students are not eligible for this scholarship.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: Variable from $20,000; payable over four years

How to Apply: Apply online through the International Major Scholarships in Bear Tracks under Undergraduate Awards.

At the time of application, students must have applied for admission to a degree program at the University of Alberta. You will receive a CCID and password when you apply for admission and must use this to access the awards application.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: University of Alberta

Important Notes: University of Alberta Centenary Scholarship offers will be made starting in March 2018.

230 Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme for International Students 2017/2018

Application Deadline: 1st December 2017

Offered Annually? Yes

About the Award: The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS), established in 2009 by the Research Grants Council (RGC), aims at attracting the best and brightest students in the world to pursue their PhD programmes in Hong Kong’s institutions. About 200 PhD Fellowships will be awarded each academic year. For awardees who need more than three years to complete the PhD degree, additional support may be provided by the chosen institutions. The financial aid is available for any field of study.

Fellowship Worth

The Hong Kong PhD Fellowship provides an annual stipend of HK$240,000 (approximately US$30,000) and a conference and research-related travel allowance of HK$10,000 (approximately US$1,300) per year to each awardee for a period of up to three years. More than 230 PhD Fellowships will be awarded in the 2017/18 academic year*. For awardees who need more than three years to complete their PhD studies, additional support may be provided by the chosen institutions. For details, please contact the institutions concerned directly.

* Institutions in Hong Kong normally start their academic year in September.

Eligibility: Candidates who are seeking admission as new full time PhD students in the following eight institutions, irrespective of their country of origin, prior work experience, and ethnic background, should be eligible to apply.

• City University of Hong Kong
• Hong Kong Baptist University
• Lingnan University
• The Chinese University of Hong Kong
• The Hong Kong Institute of Education
• The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
• The University of Hong Kong

Applicants should demonstrate outstanding qualities of academic performance, research ability / potential, communication and interpersonal skills, and leadership abilities.

Selection Criteria: While candidates’ academic excellence is the primary consideration, the Selection Panels will take into account factors as follows:

• Academic excellence;
• Research ability and potential;
• Communication and interpersonal skills; and
• Leadership abilities.

Number of Scholarships: More than 230 PhD Fellowships will be awarded in the 2015/17 academic year

Selection Panel: Shortlisted applications, subject to their areas of studies, will be reviewed by one of the following two Selection Panels comprising experts in the relevant board areas:

• sciences, medicine, engineering and technology

• humanities, social sciences and business studies

Application Process: Eligible candidates should first make an Initial Application online through the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme Electronic System (HKPFSES) to obtain an HKPFS Reference Number by 1 December 2017 at Hong Kong Time 12:00:00 before submitting applications for PhD admission to their desired universities.

Applicants may choose up to two programmes / departments at one or two universities for PhD study under HKPFS 2018/19. They should comply with the admission requirements of their selected universities and programmes.

As the deadlines for applications to some of the universities may immediately follow that of the Initial Application, candidates should submit initial applications as early as possible to ensure that they have sufficient time to submit applications to universities.

Visit Scholarship webpage for more details

Africa-China Reporting Workshop & Fieldwork Project for African Journalists 2017

Application Deadline: 29th September 2017

Eligible Countries: African countries

To be taken at (country): Johannesburg/Gauteng, South Africa

About the Award: This will be a practical skills and training Workshop at Wits Journalism in Johannesburg, and a Fieldwork Project where participants will be given time, support and mentoring by working professional journalists to undertake an Africa-China reporting investigation in Johannesburg/Gauteng.

The premise of this Workshop is that African and Chinese journalists can work together for better results in reporting and investigating important Africa-China issues. The Project will select five African and five Chinese journalists, and will pair them together in five teams of two each based on proposals submitted by the journalists and the theme selected by each (see below). The Project will pair participants well in advance of the Workshop and give them time to communicate and familiarise with each other; the objective is for them to learn as much as possible from each other and work well together.

Workshop delegates will arrive in Johannesburg on 6 Nov. The Workshop will consist of two stages: training and skills development Workshop (around three days, 7-9 Nov.), and the Fieldwork Project (around ten days, 10-19 Nov.). During the training and skills development stage, all the workshop participants will undergo practical training as well as refine and align the investigation they will do

Themes: The Project has selected the following options for applicants to select Africa-China reporting themes for the investigations to be undertaken as part of this Workshop (the following is a guideline that applicants can use for additional themes/ideas):

• Industrialisation & development (e.g. implementation of the 2015 FOCAC action plan on industrialisation; special economic zones; impact of Chinese imports on Africa’s manufacturing sector; Chinese support for African industrialisation; joint programmes, projects and activities; specific cases of cooperation or successes and failures; the link between Chinese policy banks and investment in the manufacturing sector, etc.)
• Business, the economy & trade (Africa-China business interactions; business deals and money flows; training and skills transfers; balance of trade between Africa and China; actors such as state-owned enterprises and individual enterprises and their partnership with the African corporate sector; role of financial institutions; corporate social responsibility, etc.)
• Agriculture & food security (e.g. impact of Chinese agricultural demonstration centres in Africa; private Chinese investors in the African agricultural sector; link between China and the UN in the food and agricultural sector; Chinese support for African agriculture; joint programmes, projects and activities; specific cases of cooperation or successes and failures; training and support for African farmers and workers, etc.)
• The environment (e.g. Africa-China cooperation on UN-led climate initiatives; wildlife poaching, trafficking and illicit trades; impact of Chinese investments on African ecologies, etc.)
• Culture, language & education (e.g. people-to-people interactions and mechanisms; migration from China to Africa and from Africa to China; cultural assimilation and barriers; Chinese language in African schools and universities; soft power, etc.)

Type: Training, Workshop

Eligibility: Journalists participating in this Investigation must be available to travel to Hong Kong once their African investigations have been completed

Number of Awardees: five African and five Chinese journalists

Value of Scholarship: The Project will provide airfares, accommodation, reporting stipends and other related expenses for each participant. As this is a Reporting Workshop, applicants will be expected to include a specific Africa-China research proposal in their applications as well as select a theme from the list below. It is essential that applicants provide a reporting proposal for a topic that can practically be investigated in Johannesburg/Gauteng during the time of the Workshop and is an important Africa-China issue.

Duration of Program: 2 weeks

How to Apply: African and Chinese journalists are invited to send applications addressing the requirements below in an email entitled “APPLICATION: AFRICA-CHINA REPORTING WORKSHOP 2017” to africa-china@journalism.co.za BY NO LATER THAN 29 SEPTEMBER 2017. Applications should contain the following:

• Applicant CV and short personal bio (no more than 250 words)
• List of applicant’s previous published reporting on Africa and/or Africa-China, including online links where available
• Clear indication of which theme is preferred based on the five suggested above
• Proposal for a relevant and specific Africa-China topic to be pursued during fieldwork/reporting stage of the Workshop. This proposal must be practical and not too broad in scope (see the Project’s guidelines [中文] for reporting grant applications that call for proposals with a relatively narrow focus around specific projects or issues)

Visit Program Webpage for details

Award Provider: Africa-China Reporting Project (the Project) in collaboration with the Hong Kong-based news organisations HK01 and Initium Media.

Important Notes: Please take note of the following when preparing proposals:

• Applications should be submitted in English; only MS Word or PDF formats will be accepted
• Due to the nature of this Workshop applicants must have a reasonable English ability

Oxford-Weidenfeld and Hoffmann Scholarships and Leadership Program for Developing Countries 2018/2019

Application Deadline: 5th or 19th January 2018

Offered annually?  Yes

Accepted Subject Areas: The complete list of eligible courses:

MSc in African Studies, Bachelor of Civil Law (BCL), MSc in Comparative Social Policy, MSc in Computer Science, MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies, MSc in Economics for Development, MPhil in Environmental Change and Management, MSc in Environmental Change and Management, MPhil in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation, MSc in Evidence-Based Social Intervention and Policy Evaluation, MSc in Financial Economics, MSc in Global Governance and Diplomacy, MSc in Global Health Science, MSc in International Health and Tropical Medicine, MSc in Latin American Studies, MSc in Law and Finance, Magister Juris (MJur), Master of Business Administration (MBA), MSc in Mathematical and Computational Finance, MSc in Mathematical Modelling and Scientific Computing, MSc in Mathematics and Foundations of Computer Science, MSc in Migration Studies, MSc in Modern South Asian Studies, MSc in Nature, Society and Environmental Governance, MSc in Politics Research,Master of Public Policy (MPP), MSc in Refugee and Forced Migration Studies, MSc in Social Science of the Internet, MSc in Statistical Science, MSc in Water Science, Policy and Management

About the Award: This scholarship is part of the Oxford Graduate Scholarships, which were established through a ground-breaking new matched funding initiative to enable the creation of fully-funded scholarships for graduate students of the highest calibre from across the world. The University contributes 40% of the funds for these scholarships, together with 60% from generous donations provided by supporters of the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust, including Fondation Hoffmann. Fondation Hoffmann is a Swiss-based grant making institution supporting the emergence and expansion of concrete projects which address global problems in today’s societies.

Type: Masters

Who is qualified to apply?

• You should be intending to return to your country of ordinary residence once your course is completed. Students currently at Oxford are not eligible to apply unless they are already Weidenfeld scholars.
• You should be able to demonstrate a connection between your subject of study and your longer-term career objectives, explaining how you see your professional work contributing to the improvement of public life in your country of origin or at a wider regional or international level.
• The above qualities will be assessed during the selection process, including using your graduate application form, your Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarships Questionnaire and (if relevant) your interview.
• Candidates who hold deferred offers to start in 2017-18 are not eligible to be considered for these scholarships.

Number of Scholarships: 12

What are the benefits? The scholarship will cover 100% of University and college fees and a grant for living costs (of at least £14,553). Awards are made for the full duration of your fee liability for the agreed course.

Duration of Scholarship: Awards are made for the full duration of a student’s fee liability for the agreed course. If your scholarship is offered for a course lasting more than one year, the continuation of your scholarship each year is subject to an annual renewal process based on satisfactory academic progress.

Eligible Countries: Eligible candidates must have an undergraduate degree and be an ordinary resident of one of the following countries:

Afghanistan, Albania, Algeria, Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Australia, Bahamas, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Barbados,  Belarus,  Belize,  Benin,  Bhutan, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Brunei, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia,  Cameroon Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Chile, China, China Tibet, China, Hong Kong SAR, China, Macau SAR, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Dem. Rep. (Kinshasa), Congo, Rep. (Brazzaville), Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Djibouti, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Estonia, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, The, Georgia, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Kiribati, Korea (North), Korea (South), Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lao PDR, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liberia, Libya, Lithuania, FYR Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Marshall Islands, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Morocco, Mozambique, Myanmar (Burma), Namibia, Nauru, New Zealand – New, Nepal, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palau, Palestine, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russian Federation, Rwanda, Samoa, São Tomé and Príncipe, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Serbia, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Sudan, Suriname, Swaziland, Syria, Taiwan (Republic of China), Tajikistan, Tanzania, Thailand, Timor-Leste (East Timor), Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United States, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Vietnam, Western Sahara, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe

To be taken at (country): University of Oxford, UK

How to Apply

In order to be considered for this scholarship, you must select the Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Scholarship and Leadership Programme in the Funding section of the University’s graduate application form and submit your application for graduate study by the relevant January deadline for your course (22 January 2016).

Apply at the same time as you apply to Oxford by selecting Weidenfeld Scholarships and Leadership Programme in the Funding Section of the University’s Graduate Application Form.

You must also complete a Weidenfeld Scholarship Questionnaire and upload it together with your Graduate Application Form by the application deadline in order for your application to be complete.

Award Sponsors: The Weidenfeld-Hoffmann Trust

Visit the Scholarship Webpage for details

African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence (AUKNASE) Continental Award 2017

Application Deadline: 10th November 2017 (at 17:00 hours Addis Ababa time)

Offered Annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: African countries

To Be Taken At (Country): Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

About the Award: The AUKNASE programme is implemented at national level for young researchers, regional level for women scientists and continental level open to all scientists. The Continental level is the highest level of the programme. The objective is to give out scientific awards to top African scientists for their scientific achievements and valuable discoveries and findings.

Under this programme prizes are awarded to top African scientists in each of the following two sectors

• Life and Earth Science and innovation; and
• Basic Science, Technology and Innovation at the national, regional and continental levels.

Type: Contests/Awards

Eligibility: To be eligible for the African Union Scientific Awards nominees shall be African scientists who:

• have made remarkable achievements, demonstrated by number and quality of their publications, number of trained research graduate students, applicability of the scientific work to Africa’s challenges, and its patentability. The award is intended to recognize those who demonstrate excellence in research of relevance to the developmental needs of the continent.
• Only nationals of the African Union (AU) Member States are eligible to participate in these Awards;
• Nominees shall be Africans residing in any of the AU member states and can be nominated only for achievements based on work conducted in an African country.
• APPLICATION for the CONTINENTAL PRIZE: Applicants should have nominees with a PhD degree, if the nominee is an Academic in a university must at least have a rank of Associate Professor. There is no age limit for this award. The nominee should meet at least four of the following:
  • Must have published in journals (at least 20 articles with impact factor greater than 1.0)
  • Must appear as senior/corresponding author in at least 15 of the 25 articles
  • Must have a minimum H-index of 25
  • Must have at least two international or four national patents registered
  • Must have supervised or co-supervised at least 10 PhD students
  • Must have won an international grant as a principal investigator
  • Must have written a review article in his/her field of specialization

Nomination Criteria:  Online Nominations will be invited from any institution in the continent, from universities, research institutions, professional bodies, academies, industrial establishments, and so on. Nominations may be received from:

• individuals who may be senior individuals of the same or higher rank than the nominee;
• Heads of institutions who may have their own formalized procedure for nomination, chairpersons of committees who review the achievements of scientists in their institutions;
• The nominator is required to show the importance and impact of the research. The focus will be on the quality of the work and not necessarily the number of publications. The nominator should provide a narrative presentation (up to five pages) of the importance, relevance, quality and impact of the work. A full CV as well as 5-10 copies of best publications are to be submitted together with the nomination form.
• All successfully completed nominations on the on-line system will be automatically acknowledged

Value of Award: The African Union Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence Programme (AUKNASE) shall be organized at three levels:

• Two Continental awards receiving each USD 100,000 of for pioneer scientists
• Regional award for women scientists two per each of the five regions and each award amounting to USD 20,000 and
• National awards for young researchers two per country and each award amounting to USD 2,000

How to Apply: The Nomination Form with all the supporting documents should be posted via physical courier to the following address (NOT by Fax or E-mail):

To:
The Officer in Charge
AU Kwame Nkrumah Awards for Scientific Excellence 2017 Edition,
Department of Human Resources, Science and Technology
African Union Commission
Roosevelt Street
P. O. Box 3243
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

NB: On the right back side of the envelope, please insert the following information:

[From: Full Name, Contact and E-Mail Addresses of the Applicant] and “add the Following Note” [“AUKNASE /Not to be opened before the Opening Session”]

Nomination form

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: African Union

Important Notes: Note that the above criteria are oriented to academics in a teaching or research institution. However, individuals or groups from non-academic establishments, such as industry, technical and vocational institutions where a patent or other trade secret may have been the basis for developing a product or service that has clearly made impact on society or have contributed in a significant way may be nominated even though many of the criteria above have not been fulfilled.