India: Kerala residents face ongoing impact of floods

Arun Kumar 

Millions of residents face an ongoing struggle to survive following the worst floods in the south Indian state of Kerala in nearly a century. According to government estimates, 10,000 kilometres of roads and hundreds of bridges have been destroyed, about 100,000 homes and residential buildings seriously damaged, and millions of hectares agricultural crops lost.

More than one million people remain in over 2,700 relief camps, with no hope of returning to normal life in the near future. Flood survivors are continuing to arrive at the camps. Most had returned to their homes only to find them uninhabitable and they could not afford to repair or rebuild them.

At Kothad, in Ernakulam district, a 68-year-old man committed suicide on seeing his wrecked house and a 19-year-old boy killed himself after seeing his school certificates had been destroyed by the floods. These are just a few immediate indications of the trauma affecting hundreds of thousands people.

The official death toll is now over 480. This could rise further as a result of water-borne diseases, such as cholera, diarrhea, dysentery, typhoid, and leptospirosis, as well as fatal bites from poisonous reptiles. According to state authorities, more than 5,100 people have acute diarrhea.

Leptospirosis, known as rat fever, had reportedly taken 26 lives by September 2 in the Kozhikode, Malappuram, Palakkad and Thiruvananthapuram districts. The health ministry said the number of suspected leptospirosis cases had risen to 800 since mid-August. They are also facing shortages in Kerala of the drugs used to fight leptospirosis and similar diseases.

According to the media, there were at least 60 leptospirosis cases in Kozhikode district, one of the state’s worst-hit areas. The Kozhikode Municipal Corporation is reported to have only about 500,000 preventive tablets in stock.

The corporation’s health officer, R.S. Gopakumar, told the media that the district needs about 3 million tablets in the next two months. In an attempt to downplay the crisis, Kerala’s director of health service, R.L. Saritha said: “Supply shortages are being replenished. Of course, the demand has shot up, but we are monitoring daily.”

Huge losses have been suffered by industries in Kerala. Food processing, timber, plywood, healthcare units, chemical plants, rice mills and plantations, including coffee, rubber, tea, ginger, black pepper, cardamom and nutmeg, are among those most heavily-hit.

Hundreds of thousands of workers attached to mostly small- and medium-scale industries that have been unable to resume production and have lost their jobs. The wage loss in the month of August alone is estimated at 40 billion rupees ($US552 million), with over 3.3 million workers stood down or sacked in Idukki, Ernakulam, Alappuzha, and Kottayam.

Dalit and tribal communities, already the most socially and economically oppressed layers, are severely affected. Assistant Professor T. Abhilash from the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram told the media: “In terms of numbers and data, their losses may not count much, but considering the fact that most of them will have to rely solely on government aid to rebuild devastated houses and property, and given the slow pace with which such funds flow in, they will have to wait for a long time till their life is sorted out.”

Kerala’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) claims it is providing necessary assistance to flood victims. But its meagre 10,000-rupee ($US140) urgent relief grants have been denied to the vast majority of flood victims on the pretext that they have failed to provide bank account details. Tens of thousands of flood victims lost this information in the deluge. Less than 5,000 of the 391,494 families who can claim this relief have received it.

In a clear indictment of the arrogance and indifference of the entire Indian ruling class, including the LDF government in Kerala, authorities failed to address the recommendations of ecological experts for flood prevention in the wake of the disaster to organise urgently needed relief and rehabilitation measures.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan covered up for the right-wing Bharatiya Janatha Party (BJP)-led Indian government, which gave just 6 billion rupees in initial financial assistance to the state. The Kerala state government had requested 20 billion rupees.

Vijayan apologised for the BJP administration, telling the Hindu newspaper: “Central aid never comes in one disbursal; it comes in phases. What the Centre has announced is only advance assistance, and it’s a good amount. When the Union home minister visited the state, he announced Rs. 100 crore [1 billion rupees]. Later the prime minister announced Rs. 500 crore [5 billion rupees]. That’s different from normal assistance, and it shows how supportive the Centre has been towards Kerala.”

Duterte deepens economic ties with China

Joseph Santolan

In late August, a team of high level Philippine officials visited Beijing to discuss expanded Chinese infrastructural investment in the country. Among the delegation were Philippine Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez, Budget Secretary Benjamin Diokno, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia, Transportation Secretary Arthur Tugade, Public Works and Highways Secretary Mark Villar, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, and Philippine Ambassador to China Chito Sta. Romana.

At stake in the negotiations were a range of major projects, which are being funded through Chinese loans provided by the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), the Export-Import Bank of China, and the newly created government agency, the China International Development Cooperation Agency (CIDCA).

CIDCA was established in April 2018 as a central organizational apparatus for coordinating the functions of the Ministries of Commerce and Foreign Affairs in keeping with Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt Road Initiative (BRI). The Philippine delegation was the first major foreign delegation to meet with CIDCA since its creation.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has placed the development of infrastructure, particular that of the provinces, at the center of his executive agenda, calling his campaign to construct bridges, dams, expressways, railroad lines, airports, and irrigation projects, “Build Build Build.” Duterte has projected that his Build Build Build program will cost a total of $US155 billion by 2022. Funding for this does not exist within the Philippines and Duterte is looking to secure loans and direct investment, relying above all on Beijing.

At the center of the Duterte construction agenda is the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), headed by Mark Villar, the son of real estate billionaire and former presidential candidate, Manny Villar. In 2017, Duterte increased the budget of the DPWH by 40 percent to $US11 billion.

Duterte’s mammoth drive to create new infrastructure and his crusade of mass murder targeting the poor in the name of the war on drugs are two sides of the same coin. Duterte is seeking to expand foreign investment by transforming the entire archipelago, not simply its handful of Economic Processing Zones (EPZ) located near major cities, into a cheap labor platform. This requires major new infrastructure and a policed and disciplined workforce.

The last Philippine administration to attempt an ambitious development of infrastructure was that of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who, like Duterte, sought to secure Chinese investment to carry out her plans. She did so, however, in a manner far less aggressive than that of the current president. Over the course of eight years, the Arroyo administration’s DPWH bidded out 27,535 civil-works contracts. By contrast, the Duterte administration has bidded out 44,000 in the space of just two years.

Construction is underway on a South Long Haul Manila-Bicol Railway and on a Clark-Subic Railway. Manila has signed a $US76 million loan for the Chico River Pump Irrigation project, which the China CAMC Engineering Co. began work on last month. Another $US75 million loan is being used to build several bridges in Manila.

The Philippine delegation discussed the possible funding of a number of big ticket construction items, including a Mindanao Railway Project, several large new dams, a port in Cagayan, and a series of inter-island bridges. These include the Luzon-Samar (Matnog-Alen) Bridge, Dinagat (Leyte)-Surigao Link Bridge, Camarines Sur-Catanduanes Friendship Bridge, Bohol-Leyte Link Bridge, Cebu-Bohol Link Bridge and the Negros-Cebu Link Bridge.

China’s CIDCA committed over $20 million to fund feasibility studies for the proposals. Finance Secretary Dominguez told the press that projects under the Duterte administration “have already been moving quite fast ahead” with the aid of Chinese funding. He declared on Twitter, “Our visit to Beijing was extremely productive. We are confident we can henceforth move forward at a faster pace on the projects we are implementing in cooperation with China.” Manila and Beijing, he stated, had grown “very close.”

It was announced at the end of the delegation’s visit that Chinese President Xi Jinping would visit the Philippines in November as a “follow up” to the recently concluded discussions.

Upon his election in 2016, Duterte moved to establish close economic and political ties with China. Washington had, under his predecessor Benigno Aquino, been tightening a military and diplomatic noose around Beijing, escalating tensions in the South China Sea and undermining Chinese investment with corruption allegations. Duterte, however, sought to diminish tensions between the two countries, ignoring the freshly passed ruling in The Hague against China’s territorial claim in the South China Sea.

Washington, which had initially sought to secure Duterte’s loyalty by funding his murderous war on drugs, responded angrily, criticizing Duterte for human rights violations, and seeking to pressure him back into the fold of opposition to China. Duterte pushed back and relations have soured between Manila and Washington.

In this context, Xi pledged $US9 billion in overseas development assistance in late 2016. The August 2018 negotiations over infrastructure spending are a part of this commitment.

Under Aquino, Manila had served as the leading voice pushing for anti-China measures during meetings of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Under Duterte, the Philippines has been made the ASEAN-China coordinator to promote ASEAN-China Dialogue relations.

Manila, representing ASEAN, and Beijing have drawn up a draft Code of Conduct (COC) for the South China Sea, which includes regular joint military exercises between the various claimants—China, Malaysia, Vietnam, Brunei, Taiwan, and the Philippines. It would, however, exclude any country outside the region, notably the US, “unless the parties concerned are notified beforehand and express no objection.”

US Deputy Assistant Secretary State Waler Douglas responded to the news of the draft COC, declaring, “The United States has been part of this region for 200 years. We’re not going to change that. We’re not going away, so what’s important is that our role be recognized that we’re here.”

Washington is closely tied to the opposition in Philippine ruling circles to the Duterte administration that revolves around a host of political figures tied to the Liberal Party, former President Aquino and current Vice President Leni Robredo. The opposition, doubtless with the support of Washington, is seeking to channel mass discontent behind racist, anti-Chinese sentiments.

Over the past half year substantial inflation in the prices of basic commodities, and in particular, the soaring price of the staple rice, has produced an immense level of social anger. In July alone, the price of vegetables rose by 16 percent, corn by 13 and fish by 11. Rice prices have risen so high that the populous Zamboanga City was compelled to declare a state of calamity.

Vicious media rumors began to circulate that round scad (galunggong), a cheap protein consumed by poor families, was expensive because the Chinese were occupying Philippine fisheries, and that the fish in the market were supplied by the Chinese who had poisoned the fish with formaldehyde. In a similar fashion, the high prices of rice were attributed to the hoarding practices of greedy rice dealers—long a trade associated with the Chinese in the Philippines.

The front organizations of the Maoist Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), which until last year had endorsed the Duterte administration and only left his cabinet last month, have played a leading role in the promotion of these lurid claims. Reactionary anti-Chinese racism has long been exploited by the ruling class in the Philippines as a means of dividing the working class and rural masses.

Wonga payday loans collapse shows extent of UK poverty

Dennis Moore

The announcement that Britain’s biggest payday loan company, Wonga, has gone into administration will not be mourned by the thousands of people whose lives have been made a misery by its nefarious practises.

Payday loans are a short-term loan, developed by firms such as Wonga as a way of being able to access money quickly, with a short-term repayment period. They are aimed at the vast numbers of people in low paid work who run out of money before the end of a month, leaving them struggling to pay for essential items. The loans come with extortionate rates of interest.

In a form of “legal loan sharking”, Wonga at one stage was able to charge interest at up to 5,853 percent before rates were capped by legislation in 2015. The new limit was set at a still massive 1,500 percent.

Last week, Wonga stopped taking new loan applications, with the company’s loan book believed to be valued at £400 million owed by more than 220,000 borrowers.

One of the main reasons for Wonga’s crisis was the large increase in the number of compensation claims against it for mis-selling its product. Many people were granted loans by Wonga and other payday firms who were in no financial position to ever pay it back. Under Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) regulations, they are now able to make compensation claims on the basis that payday lenders failed in their duty of care to check that borrowers could afford the repayments.

The UK payday loan industry grew rapidly from 2008-2012, coinciding with the global financial crash and the pauperisation of millions of people in the UK. The numbers of loans issued in this period were 10.2 million per year, with a value of £2.8 billion.

In 2014, after growing public anger at Wonga’s operations, the FCA found its debt collection practices unfair and ordered the company to pay 45,000 customers a total of £2.6 million in compensation. It ruled that fees and interest could in future never exceed the original loan amount.

As a result, the payday loan market retracted by 27 percent between January and September 2014, with four out of the eleven major payday lenders stopping offering loans.

The market has not recovered since the introduction of Price Cap Regulation in January 2015, with more payday lenders going out of business. Wonga’s posted pre-tax profit losses in 2016 of nearly £65 million, after recording huge profits just a few years before.

In its 2014 review of the payday loans industry, the FCA found that the average income of a payday lender was £16,500 a year, far below the UK’s median wage of £26,500 at that time.

In 2017, the Competition Market Authority (CMA) carried out an investigation into payday lending revealing that the average lender takes out as many as six loans every year. The numbers of borrowers who are able to repay their loans in full has decreased over time.

The CMA found most recipients (52 percent) of payday loans have experienced financial problems in the recent past, with 38 percent of all customers having a bad core/credit rating and 10 percent of customers having had a bailiff or debt collector visit to their home. Over half (53 percent) use payday loans to pay for living expenses, food, utility bills—with 7 percent having to use these loans to pay for general shopping such as clothes and household items.

Most payday loans are taken out on a Friday, at the beginning or end of the month, with borrowers experiencing financial pressure and having no access to other credit alternatives.

Many of those taking out loans take them out with multiple companies because of problems not being able to meet previous repayments on loans or making late repayments.

These loans were often advertised to the public as a way of dealing with an emergency expense that has arisen, such as a boiler breaking down, or an unforeseen car repair. The reality, as the CMA investigation found, is that only 52 percent of customers used the loans to pay for an emergency related expense.

The Jubilee Debt Campaign reported that three million households in the UK are now stuck in a debt trap, paying more than a quarter of their income on debt repayments, with poorest families hit hardest.

There are countless stories of people being driven into a spiral of increasing debt.

The practices in the payday loans industry were graphically highlighted in the case of Kane Sparham-Price.

Sparham-Price, an 18-year-old from Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester committed suicide in February 2013. This took place hours after Wonga took payments for the debts he owed, leaving his bank account empty. He took out loans through Wonga’s website, after turning 18 and leaving local authority care. Sparham-Price had a history of mental health problems.

At the inquest following Kane’s death, it was not suggested that Wonga had acted unlawfully or was aware it had left Sparham-Price penniless. However, a coroner’s report called for a change to payday loans rules to prevent similar deaths.

Austerity measures since 2008 have all but destroyed the social safety net. The roll out of £14 billion of welfare cuts has had a devastating impact on eight million low and middle-income households, and the introduction of Universal Credit will increase the debt crisis for many more of the poorest families.

Since 2008, workers in the UK have suffered the longest period of wage stagnation in two centuries, with one million people in part-time work who want a full-time job, and the number of people on zero hours contracts having increased by 400 percent.

Figures published by the Office for National Statistics showed that British households spent an estimated £900 more on average than they received in income during 2017.

Under conditions of deeper austerity and growing financial insecurity, the collapse of Wonga will not spell the end of the payday lending crisis. Commenting after emergency talks with the firm, the FCA insisted, “Customers should continue to make any outstanding payments in the normal way. All existing agreements remain in place and will not be affected by the proposed administration.”

It is expected that Wonga’s loan book will be taken on by another firm with the Financial Times noting, “It is not unusual for consumer loans to be parcelled up and sold on to privately owned debt-buying companies, many of whom specialise in the subprime sector. They can buy bad debts for as little as 5 pence in the pound, meaning a £1,000 loan where the borrower has defaulted could be purchased for just £50. Then, the new owner of the debt can legally chase the borrower for repayment and may use more aggressive recovery tactics, such as sending in the bailiffs.”

The collapse of Wonga and the larger payday loans firms will see many desperate people turning to local loan sharks, with these thugs routinely exposed for engaging in brutal, criminal practises.

According to estimates by debt charity StepChange, one in seven people borrowed money to meet a household need last year, with an estimated 1.4 million resorting to high cost credit. StepChange head of policy Peter Tutton said the market for payday loans was not “done and dusted” in the wake of Wonga’s collapse. “There is a constant stream of people having to use high cost credit for essentials.”

Huge rise in deaths of homeless people in the UK

Dennis Moore

Aaron French-Willcox, aged just 19, was found dead in a tent in Cardiff in the early hours of February this year. Aaron had type one diabetes and he died from diabetic ketoacidosis.

Just three weeks before his death, he had to leave a homeless shelter because he had been caught taking Spice, the synthetic cannabinoid.

Aaron’s tragic death typifies the terrible plight that many of those who sleep rough across the UK face each night as they try to find a place to sleep. He was one of the many people who have been forced to live in temporary and semi-permanent tented encampments across the UK, an increasing number of whom are dying on the streets.

Across Britain, it is common to see tents and encampments set up in cleared wooded areas, underneath bridges, underpasses, or the less noisy areas of city centres.

The reaction of the local authorities to these encampments has been mainly to break them up, and move them on, utilising Public Space Protection Orders (PSPOs) and enforcement orders.

In July, 10 police officers broke up an encampment on the banks of the Severn river near Worcester Cathedral, where six rough sleepers had been living. Only days later, some of those who had been forced to leave were seen sleeping out in Worcester town centre.

Data on those living in tents and encampments is not formally collated. However the homeless charity Crisis said that last Christmas it was estimated that more than 9,000 people would have been sleeping out in tents, cars, trains and buses.

This figure is on top of the many thousands who are already sleeping out across Britain and represents an increase of 57 percent since 2011.

The official figures as to how many people are sleeping out in England are calculated based on a “head count” of rough sleepers carried out on a given night. The count itself is guided by strict rules, including what constitutes a rough sleeper. Those sleeping in what are defined as encampments, including tents, and cars are not necessarily included in the total figure of the 4,751 who were accepted as bedding down outside overnight in 2017.

The official rough sleeper counts are considered a vast underestimation of the true scale of rough sleeping in England.

In response to last year’s count of rough sleepers in Manchester, where 278 people were recorded, Mike Wright, the strategic lead on Homelessness in Greater Manchester, said the official figures failed to take into account the true number of rough sleepers, whose status fluctuates. Some 500 long-term rough sleepers were referred by Manchester council staff, GPs, and charities to a scheme working to find long-term accommodation for the most entrenched rough sleepers.

The numbers of those dying on the streets or in temporary accommodation has more than doubled in the UK in the last five years, with many being found dead in church graveyards, supermarket car parks and crowded hostels.

Many of these have been attributed to rising rents, welfare cuts and a lack of social housing, which have led to some of the most vulnerable ending up dying on the streets.

Matthew Downie from Crisis said, “These figures are a devastating reminder that rough sleeping is beyond dangerous, it’s deadly, and it’s claiming more and more lives each year.”

There is an increase in the numbers who have died on the streets who have mental health problems, rising from 29 to 80 percent in the same five-year period.

Figures compiled by the Guardian earlier this year showed that in 2017 one person a week was dying. It is likely that these figures are an underestimation, because homeless deaths are not recorded at a national level and local authorities are not required to record rough sleeper deaths.

A recent investigation carried out by Manchester Evening News (MEN) journalist Jennifer Williams found that many deaths of homeless people are not only not investigated in the UK, but are not properly counted.

Donn Morgan, a 30-year-old man from the working-class Wythenshawe district of south Manchester, was found dead last month on Whitworth Street West in the city centre. His death only came to light because a member of the public rang the MEN to say the road was shut early Sunday morning.

By the time a reporter called the police about it, the road had been reopened and Morgan’s death had been declared non-suspicious. One of Williams’ colleagues went out the following day to ask other rough sleepers about what had happened to Morgan. They told him of another rough sleeper, a man named Luke Urmston, who had died only a few yards away from where Morgan had died just days earlier. Both died within just yards of some of the dozens of cranes that are constructing luxury apartments for the wealthy throughout the city centre.

An inquiry made to the city coroner into deaths of homeless people found that in the last five years it has investigated 50 deaths of people with no fixed abode, with this number increasing over that period. Of the 50 deaths, 48 were men, with the youngest being 28 and the oldest 90.

The report “Dying On The Streets,” carried out by the St. Mungo’s charity that works with rough sleepers, points to increasing problems with a lack of services and a marked increase in the numbers of rough sleepers dying.

The report was based on a survey carried out earlier this year that included St. Mungo’s and 71 other providers of services across all regions of England. The number of people dying in London between 2010 and 2017 was counted at 158. In the first four months of this year the number of people who have died that have been recorded is 40—a figure that exceeds deaths for the whole of 2013.

Some of the survey’s findings point to only a minority of deaths of people sleeping rough being reviewed, with 63 percent of respondents saying they had seen a death locally, but only 23 percent saying they had any experience of a review being carried out following the death of a rough sleeper.

Sixty-four percent of respondents said that access to emergency accommodation for rough sleepers had gotten harder compared to five years ago. Some 70 percent of respondents said access to mental health services for rough sleepers had gotten harder in the last five years.

Respondents reported that only 30 percent of services had staff with specialist training in mental health, substance use, or social care and immigration. The lack of specialist training in these areas significantly impacts services in London, where the migrant population is higher, yet only 23 percent of services have workers with specialist training, and 77 percent none at all.

In the last five years in England there has been a 97 percent increase in rough sleeping, whilst 31 percent of street outreach services reported they had seen a decrease in funding.

It is not surprising that with access to specialist services and accommodation becoming harder to obtain, increasing numbers of homeless people are dying on the streets. The average age for a homeless person dying is 47 for a man, 43 for a woman.

Much fanfare surrounded the government’s recent announcement that a £100 million fund would be granted to eradicate rough sleeping within a decade.

This is a vastly inadequate response to the social catastrophe that is forcing more and more people out on the streets. Official statistics show that rough sleeping in England has gone up for the seventh consecutive year—an increase of 169 percent since 2010, when the Conservative-Liberal Democrat government came to power. Tory Housing Secretary James Brokenshire admitted that there is no new money in the fund and that this money will be spent over the coming decade.

Swedish election results in gridlock and growth of the far-right

Gabriel Black 

Sweden’s national parliamentary elections were held Sunday amid widespread fear of the growth of the neo-fascist Swedish Democrats combined with contempt for the mainstream political parties, particularly the Social Democrats.

The election resulted in a state of political gridlock between the two major coalitions. The “center-left” bloc, an alliance between the Social Democrats, the Left Party and the Greens, won 40.6 percent of the vote, while the “center-right” bloc, called the “Alliance,” composed of the Moderates, the Centre Party, the Christian Democrats and the Liberals, won 40.2 percent of the vote.

Neither coalition has a sufficient number of deputies in the Swedish Riksdag (parliament) to form a government on its own. In the coming two weeks, before the parliament opens, the two coalitions will attempt to cut deals with sections of the opposing coalition or seek a deal with the Swedish Democrats.

Swedish Democrat leader Jimmy Akesson has made clear that his party will seek to force the entirety of Swedish politics to the right by playing the “kingmaker” in this political crisis. He stated at an election rally, “We will increase our seats in parliament and we will gain huge influence over what happens in Sweden during the coming weeks, months and years.”

The Swedish Democrats, which emerged out of the neo-Nazi and white supremacist movement, won 17.6 percent of the vote and 63 seats in the 349-seat Riksdag, making it the third largest single party after the Social Democrats and the Moderates. The Swedish Democrats’ share of the vote increased from 2014, when it won 12.9 percent, however, the party’s electoral result was lower than polls had anticipated. During the summer, some polls predicted it would win almost 25 percent of the vote.

To the extent that the Swedish Democrats have been able to win a hearing, it is because of the bankruptcy of the traditional ruling parties in Sweden. The Social Democrats, working in alliance with, at different times, the Moderates, the Green Party, the Left Party, the liberals and the Christian Democrats, have overseen decades of growing inequality and deteriorating social services, particularly education and healthcare. Years of scandals, incompetence and deception have eroded the support sections of workers and youth once gave to the Social Democrats.

The Social Democrats, who have ruled Sweden for most of the past 100 years, received their lowest vote in over a century. The Moderates, traditionally the second largest party, also experienced a sharp decline in support, losing 14 parliamentary seats.

What is taking place in Sweden follows the general political pattern seen throughout Europe and much of the world under conditions of the global crisis of the capitalist system.

In France, the Socialist Party has essentially collapsed, with the far-right feeding on the void. In Germany, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) has emerged as the official opposition as a result of a similar climate of disgust with the mainstream parties—and support from the military-intelligence apparatus and sections of the ruling class for the neo-fascists.

While Sweden is often placed on a pedestal by reformist groups in the United States and Europe due to its comparatively extensive welfare state, the reality is that it, like every other capitalist country, is heading deeper into economic and political crisis.

A January 2015 Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) report found that between 1985 and the early 2010s, inequality grew in Sweden faster than in any other country in the organization, including the United States.

In 2014, the top 10 percent of the population held over 68 percent of the total wealth, according to Credit Suisse’s Global Wealth Report. This level of wealth concentration is higher than that of every other country in Europe except Switzerland, and it is significantly higher than many countries with similar levels of development such as the UK (53 percent), Australia (50 percent) and Canada (57 percent).

The ballooning wealth of the top 10 percent of Swedish society, bound up with financialization and the rise of stock values, contrasts sharply with the experience of millions of Swedes, who have seen years of cuts to social services, including healthcare, pensions and education, along with rising living costs, particularly housing, and a loss of decent-paying manufacturing jobs.

It is in this social climate that the far-right is able to gain a hearing and use immigrants as a scapegoat. In 2015, Sweden, relative to its size, admitted the largest number of refugees in Europe. The overwhelming majority of the population expressed warmth and sympathy for the hundreds of thousands who fled regions destroyed by the US-led war drive in the Middle East (wars, such as Libya and Afghanistan, in which Sweden has been involved).

Since 2015, all of the political parties, from the Left Party on down, have moved sharply to the right on immigration, adapting to the racist policies of the Swedish Democrats and bolstering their political status. Now there is only a trickle of new immigrants coming in.

Meanwhile, the Swedish ruling class is stepping up its role in the anticipated war between the United States and Russia. The Swedish press, increasingly filled with sensationalist stories about Russian Baltic expansion, produced several articles on alleged Russian involvement in the Swedish election. While social services are on the chopping block, the Social Democratic-Green coalition concluded an agreement last year with the Moderates and Centre Party to hike military spending by over 8 billion kronor ($1 billion) between 2018 and 2020.

It is notable that the Swedish Democrats’ vote fell well short of the media predictions. This reflects the widespread left-wing and pro-immigrant sentiments of broad masses of Swedish workers and youth. Many people voted out of a deeply felt conviction that this fascistic party needed to be stopped in its tracks.

The growth of support for the Stalinist Left Party, from 5.7 percent to 7.9 percent, likewise reflects this politically unclarified leftward sentiment. The Left Party actually increased at a slightly faster rate (38 percent) than the Swedish Democrats (36 percent).

However, the Left Party plays a politically reactionary role, working to channel working class anger behind the Social Democrats and block the development of an independent working class political movement. Stopping the growth of the far-right in Scandinavia and Europe as a whole requires the creation of a genuine socialist movement of the European and international working class.

Trump administration threatens sanctions against International Criminal Court

Patrick Martin

The Trump administration announced Monday that it would retaliate against the International Criminal Court (ICC), a judicial panel established under the auspices of the United Nations, if the ICC took any action against US military or civilian officials over charges of war crimes in Afghanistan.

The announcement was made by National Security Advisor John Bolton in a speech to the Federalist Society, the corporate-financed association of ultra-right lawyers and judges that has vetted President Trump’s two nominations to the US Supreme Court.

Bolton took the occasion of an appearance before a group of lawyers to declare the US government’s defiance of any constraint on its actions under international law, which he characterized as an attack on American sovereignty. His main concern was not so much for front-line soldiers, as for the decision-makers, from military commanders on the battlefield to war planners and strategists in Washington, right up to the White House itself, who he said were in danger of being “intimidated” by the threat of war crimes charges.

In rejecting the ICC the Trump administration has not adopted a new policy. When the body was first created in 2002 under an accord signed in Rome, the Bush administration repudiated it, and Congress quickly passed legislation by huge bipartisan margins. The new law, the American Service-Members’ Protection Act, had as its goal “to protect United States military personnel and other elected and appointed officials of the United States government against criminal prosecution by an international criminal court to which the United States is not a party.”

Subsequent events demonstrated why the Bush Administration repudiated the ICC. In 2003, the United States invaded Iraq in a criminal war of aggression launched on the basis of lies. As a direct consequence of the invasion, over a million Iraqis were killed, and the United Sates military engaged in sadistic torture and murder on a massive scale.

The Obama administration upheld this law as well, and Bolton hailed it, joking that it had been widely dubbed The Hague Invasion Authorization Act, since it approved in advance the use of military force to free any US citizens facing charges before the ICC, which sits in The Hague, Netherlands.

The national security advisor outlined further actions that the Trump administration was prepared to carry out in the event the ICC decided to act on a request filed in November 2017 for an investigation into war crimes in Afghanistan committed by Afghan government and outside forces, including American. The ICC has been collecting evidence on torture in US, NATO and Afghan government detention centers since 2007, without taking any action thus far, an indication of the impotence of such bodies when faced with opposition by the major imperialist powers.

These actions would include denying entry to the United States for members and employees of the ICC, financial sanctions against ICC judges and staff if they have assets in the US financial system, and the bringing of criminal charges under US law. In other words, anyone who would dare to investigate US war crimes overseas could find themselves sitting in a US jail, or even in a detention center like Guantanamo Bay, treated like a “terrorist.”

In perhaps the most revealing passage of his 30-minute speech, Bolton outlined what he said were five fundamental defects of the International Criminal Court. The second “defect” was that crimes of aggression were defined too vaguely. If the ICC had been in existence during World War II, he declared, it would have found the Allies guilty of war crimes for the bombing of Germany and Japan—the deliberate creation of firestorms in Dresden, Hamburg, Tokyo and other cities, in which hundreds of thousands died, and the nuclear incineration of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Bolton objects to such methods being called by their right names—war crimes—because he represents a government that has already tested out such methods, in Mosul, Raqqa and other cities, and is preparing to do so on a much vaster scale, including giant metropolises like Tehran, Moscow and Beijing.

Bolton paired the declaration of war on the ICC with a directive to close the Washington office of the Palestine Liberation Organization because the Palestinian Authority has brought charges before the ICC over Israel’s building of illegal settlements on the West Bank on land seized from Palestinian farmers.

While Bolton ridiculed the ICC as an illegitimate body that was grossly exceeding its authority, he was silent on the real target of the Trump administration’s wrath: the 123 member states that participate in the ICC and accept its jurisdiction. This includes every nation in Latin America except Nicaragua, every Caribbean state except Cuba and Haiti, every European country except Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, and Pacific states like Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea.

Bolton asserted that states comprising two-thirds of the world’s population and 70 percent of the world’s military force were outside the ICC, without mentioning that this consists mainly of the United States, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, the countries of southeast Asia (most under military or Stalinist dictatorship) and nearly all the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (including Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Israel).

This list includes an array of savage US-backed dictatorships, which engage in everyday violations of human rights on a mass scale, through torture, imprisonment and executions.

In threatening the ICC, the Trump administration is not merely defying an international tribunal initially sanctioned by Washington. It is effectively laying down the law to what once were the closest allies or client states of American imperialism: the NATO countries, the Latin American countries, and the countries of the Pacific Rim. If they cross the United States, they will be dealt with savagely.

In the person of Trump, Bolton & Co., American imperialism is dropping the pretense of the United States as the leader of the free world and the advocate of international law, a political posture that, however false, was of enormous significance in the historical period following World War II.

Instead, Trump’s America is a nakedly predatory imperialist power, openly seeking domination over all others, flouting international law and democratic scruples whenever the interests of “America First” require it to do so.

And despite their occasional protests, there is no significant dissent from the Democratic Party against this stance of defiance of international law and any accountability for US troops and operatives for their actions around the world.

On the contrary, the Democratic Party’s main criticism of Trump is that he has been insufficiently aggressive and unconstrained in the use of American military power, particularly in Syria, as well as on the periphery of Russia, in areas like Georgia, Ukraine and the Baltic states.

ICAO Young Aviation Professionals Program (Fully-paid Internship at Montréal, Canada) 2019

Application Deadline: 30th September 2018

Eligible Countries: All

To be taken at (country): Montréal, Canada.

About the Programme: The selected Young Aviation Professional Officers will be expected to contribute to ICAO, IATA and ACI work programmes related to aviation safety, air navigation capacity and efficiency, or to economic development of air transport, aviation facilitation, or environmental protection, focusing on inter-relationships between regulatory activities of ICAO and those in the airline and airport industries in IATA and ACI.

Type: Internship

Eligibility: 

• Commitment to continuous learning: The willingness and ability to engage in self-development, keep up-todate with new developments, help others to learn and learn from others.
• Planning and Organizing: Ability to set clear goals, prioritize, anticipate problems or risks, and have effective time management skills.
• Communication: Ability to write in a clear, concise and accurate manner. Ability to communicate verbally and with diplomacy.
• Client Orientation: Ability to see from the clients’ perspective, anticipate client needs and concerns; find appropriate solutions for clients, and keep clients informed.
• Teamwork: Ability to work collaboratively with others and maintain harmonious working relationships in a multicultural environment.
• Technological awareness: Ability to use contemporary software such as MS Office Suite (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), SharePoint, or equivalent and demonstrate a willingness to learn and use new technology.

Selection Criteria: 

• Level of educations: a) Master’s degree (or equivalent, to be demonstrated by the applicant); or b) Bachelor degree, supplemented with a Commercial Pilot License or an Air Traffic Control License.
• Experience: Minimum of two years’ professional working experience in aviation-related regulatory activities and/or in the aviation industry.
• Language skills: Fluent reading, writing and speaking abilities in English. Working knowledge of a second language commonly used in international organizations (French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian or Arabic) would be an asset; and
• Age criteria: Aged 32 years or less on the closing date of this announcement.
• Note: Preference will be given to candidates who are not currently serving, or who have not previously served, as an intern with either ICAO, IATA and ACI.

Number of Awardees: 3

Value of Programme: 

• Living Costs: All living costs and expenses will be borne by the Young Aviation Professional Officer.
• Financial Support: A fixed amount of CAD $4 000 per month will be provided to each selected Young Aviation Professional Officer to assist with living costs.
• Annual leave will be provided at the rate of one and a half days per month.
• Sick leave will be provided at the rate of one day per month.
• Medical insurance will be provided at the single rate for prescription/medical/dental coverage within Canada. The selected candidates will be required to pay the employee portion of the premium, which is estimated to be approximately CAD $ 122.66 per month.
• Occupational accident insurance will be provided (at no cost to the selected candidates).
• Non-occupational accident insurance will be available to the selected candidates, at their own cost.
• Travel: Where required, travel costs to and from Montreal at the beginning and at the end of the Programme will be provided at the lowest available applicable fare. The cost for one excess baggage (i.e. baggage in excess of the weight or volume carried without charge by transportation companies) will be covered up to a maximum of 25 kilograms.
• Visa: ICAO will provide a letter of support to assist in obtaining the required visa.

Duration of Programme: Each Young Aviation Professional Officer position will be filled for twelve months.

How to Apply: Interested candidates who meet the selection criteria are requested to submit their candidature by the closing date of 30 September 2018 by completing the online application form available at https://careers.icao.int. They must also attach a motivation letter summarizing: their professional achievements to date; their suitability for the Programme; their career aspirations in regulatory activities and/or the aviation industry; and the field of work for which they wish to be considered. Candidates should also indicate their preferred task(s) from the lists provided in Appendix A and Appendix B and explain why they have this interest.
It is important to visit the Programme Webpage before applying for this Internship

Visit Programme Webpage for details

Award Provider: The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)

Important Notes: Candidates who do not complete the online application and the motivation letter will not be given consideration.

British Council Alumni Awards 2019

Application Deadlines: 28th October 2018

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: All countries except the UK

Eligible Field of Study: All

About the Award: The Alumni Awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of alumni and showcase the impact and value of a UK higher education. Award winners and finalists are leaders in their fields who have used their experience of studying at a UK university to make a positive contribution to their communities, professions and countries.
If you, or someone you know, studied in the UK and have gone on to achieve exceptional success, apply yourself or nominate someone today.

Type: Award

Eligibility: 

• Alumni must be currently residing in one of the 14 countries participating in the Alumni Awards 2018
• Alumni must have studied in the UK at degree level or above:
  • within the last 15 years (i.e. 2003 or later)
  • for a minimum of one term or semester
  • enrolled at an officially recognised (160 institutions) or listed (650 institutions) UK higher education institution

Selection Criteria: All eligible applications will be assessed on the extent to which they meet the following four criteria:

1. IMPACT: evidence of tangible impact, and scale of impact, of your work (inspired by your UK education) in your profession/community/society.
2. UK INFLUENCE: evidence of how your UK education has played a key influence in your success and impact.
3. MEDIA TRACTION: Extent to which your success story is likely to resonate with local/regional/national media in your country of entry, or beyond (global media).
4. POTENTIAL TO INFLUENCE AND INSPIRE: Extent to which (including capacity and willingness) you and your story are likely to influence and inspire the next generation of prospective internationally mobile students in your country of entry to choose the UK as their study destination.

If you are applying yourself, you will need to answer three short questions on the application form to explain how your UK higher education has contributed to your success and why you think you should be considered for an Alumni Award 2017.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: Finalists and winners at all levels (national, regional and global) will benefit from their global profile being made more visible through press and publicity opportunities, and building their professional networks. The three Global Alumni Award winners will be invited to the UK for a professional networking opportunity in Summer 2019.

How to Apply:  How to prepare to apply yourself, or nominate someone, for an Alumni Award 2019:

• Check the eligibility criteria and read the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
• Choose the award category
• Prepare a statement
• Gather supporting documents
• Apply or nominate here

Visit Program Webpage for details

Award Provider: British Council

Freedom of Expression Awards Fellowship (Fully-funded to London, UK) 2018

Application Deadline: 17th September 2018.

Eligible Countries: All

To Be Taken At (Country): London, UK

About the Award: Index helps fellows build key partnerships, troubleshoot and receive expert support in multiple areas including personal safety, finance, PR and mental health. Fellows work with Index and partners to identify and realise key strategic goals. Index promotes news and regional developments through our magazine, website and social media.

Categories:

• Arts: for artists and arts producers whose work challenges repression and injustice and celebrates artistic free expression
• Campaigning: for activists and campaigners who have had a marked impact in fighting censorship and promoting freedom of expression
• Digital Activism: for innovative uses of technology to circumvent censorship and enable free and independent exchange of information
• Journalism: for courageous, high-impact and determined journalism that exposes censorship and threats to free expression

Type: Fellowship

Eligibility: 

• The 2019 Freedom of Expression Awards Fellowship is open to any individual or organisation involved in tackling free expression threats.
• Four fellowships will be offered, one in each of the following categories: journalism, campaigning, arts and digital activism.
• Anyone can nominate or self-nominate.
• Nominees must have had a recognisable impact in the past 12 months.

Selection Criteria: 

• Timeliness: A significant contribution within the past 12 months.
• Resilience: Courage to speak out, persisting in the face of adversity.
• Innovation: Creative ways of promoting free expression or circumventing censorship.
• Impact: Evidence of shifting perceptions, influencing public or government opinion, contributing to legislative change.

Need: Those cases where the 2019 Awards Fellowship can potentially add the most value.

Number of Awards: 4 Fellowships in each of the categories above.

Value of Award: Fellows receive 12 months of direct assistance, starting with an all-expenses-paid training week in London in April 2019.

How to Apply: Submit your nomination

Visit Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Index on Censorship

Government of Ireland Masters and PhD Scholarships for International Students 2019

Application Deadline: 16:00 (Irish time) 1st November 2018

Eligible Countries: National and International

To Be Taken At (Country): Ireland

About the Award: The aim of the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, hereinafter referred to as the Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship, is to support suitably qualified research master’s and doctoral candidates pursuing, or intending to pursue, full-time research in any discipline.
A number of targeted scholarships are offered in collaboration with strategic funding partners.

Type: Masters, PhD

Eligibility:

• Applicants must fulfil the following criteria:
  
  
  • have a first class or upper second-class honours bachelor’s, or the equivalent, degree. If undergraduate examination results are not known at the time of application, the Council may make a provisional offer of a scholarship on condition that the scholar’s bachelor’s, or the equivalent degree result is a first class or upper second-class honours. If a scholar does not have a first class or upper second-class honours bachelor’s, or the equivalent, degree, they must possess a master’s degree. The Council’s determination of an applicant’s eligibility on these criteria is final;
  • must not have had two previous unsuccessful applications to the programme, including strategic partner themes. This includes applications since 2009 to the EMBARK Scheme previously run by the Irish Research Council for Science, Engineering and Technology, and the Government of Ireland Scholarship Scheme previously run by the Irish Council for Humanities and Social Sciences;
  • in the case of applications for a research master’s scholarship, applicants must not currently hold, or have previously held, a Council Postgraduate Scholarship;
  • in the case of applications for a doctoral degree scholarship, applicants must not currently hold, or have previously held, any Council Postgraduate Scholarship other than those which would enable them to obtain a research master’s degree
• Applicants will fall under one of two categories based on nationality and residency. For category one, applicants must meet BOTH of the following criteria:
  • be a national of a European Union member state, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland
    AND
  • have been ordinarily resident in a European Union member state, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland for a continuous period of three of the five years preceding 1 October 2019.

All other applicants will fall under category two.
While the majority of scholarships will be awarded to applicants who fall under category one, a proportion of awards will also be made to exceptional applicants who fall under category two. Please note that the Council may request documented evidence of an applicant’s nationality and residence.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: 

• a stipend of €16,000 per annum
• a contribution to fees, including non-EU fees, up to a maximum of €5,750 per annum
• eligible direct research expenses of €2,250 per annum

Duration of Program:

• Research master’s degree: 12 months
• Structured research master’s degree: 24 months
• Traditional doctoral degree: 36 months
• Structured doctoral degree: 48 months

How to Apply: Potential applicants should read the 2019 Terms and Conditions carefully to ascertain whether or not they are eligible to apply. Indicative versions of the applicant, supervisor and referee forms are provided for information purposes only. All participants must create and submit their forms via the online system.

Apply here

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: Government of Ireland

Important Notes: 

• Please note that the timings provided here are indicative and may be subject to change.
• All scholarships must commence on 1 October 2019.

The scourge of internet gagging in Kashmir

Abid Ahmad Shah

The world of today is altogether in contradiction to the times of the previous ages. Technology has taken the global order by a major revolutionary storm and made the world a knowledge driven global network. Internet forms the mainstay of the current times and is in fact a boon companion of man in the modern times. Internet is the constitutive element of the current times, sans which life seems to be a dead wood and bereft of technological assimilation.

Over the world, there are today a multitude of problems and a plethora of issues which really pose a serious and a grave challenge to the peace and order of the societal organisations. Kashmir is not a different case. It is in fact a looming imbroglio amuck with political crisis prior to the partition of the sub-continent, thence after and as of now with a renewed impetus and inroads of chaos and uncertainty. Every other day, the situations take a u-turn of additions and alterations with the passage of time and pose a serious challenge for the system to contain the problems at hand.

Since, the eruption of Amarnath land transfer controversy, through the tumultuous phases of 2010 and 2016 till date, the situations have achieved great uncertain proportions and reflect the growing tendencies of political waywardness in Kashmir. Whether we call it destiny, manoeuvring or inroads of tragic phases of political uncertainty, the situations are of enormous gravity as of now.

Net is the major requirement of the masses all over the world, particularly for the students and business fraternity in the contemporary times. Next day, a cordon and search operation (CASO) is undertaken in the valley by the security agencies during anti-militancy operations, the major thrust of the government is driven towards the choking and muzzling of internet space in Kashmir. In a place dogged with an overridden unhealthy political atmosphere with a restive nature, one cannot expect a peaceful scenario on the day-to-day basis.

The constitution of India as a guiding principle of rights and duties guarantees right to freedom of expression to the citizens of the country .People in Kashmir voice their dissent over the social media once an unfortunate and gory episode recurs in Vale. The gagging and censuring of media and net in Kashmir has become a new normal in Kashmir. By denying the people, particularly students, the access to information regarding the day-today happenings and latest information about the world situations and information influx, the government is in fact committing a major wrong in Kashmir.

The policy of net gagging in Kashmir might serve as a deterrent in the short term to keep the situation at control in tense Kashmir, but the aftershocks of the situations cannot be negated. This is an illogical and irrational step in the far-sighted strategy. Since, 2008, Kashmir has been witness to internet blockades, e-curfews and blocking of Pakistani channels at the behest of the government. Situations have arisen and gone, but the scars of the tragic episodes are there and every day the social media is abuzz with the narratives of the gory tales of the masses which the people have undergone in the long run.

It is a bizarre fact that a coin has two sides. Likewise, Net usage has rights and wrongs associated with it. Internet is the major requirement of people as of now. By choking the net space in Kashmir day-in and out, the government is doing wrong and it may resurface as backlash in the long run.

Instead of taking recourse to banning channels and choking net space in Kashmir, the major thrust of the government should be to take route towards betterment of good governance in J&K and dialogue with all the stakeholders which will serve as a better trigger to better the fragile  situation in Kashmir which has unfortunately manifested into a dynamic malignancy and snatched the peace and order of the people’s lives, with an ensuing disorder and chaos looming large over the Asian sub-continent.

Since ceasefire to current political crisis, all is not well in Kashmir and the situations are turning from bad to worse with the passage of time. Today, the alienation among the masses is much more as was in the previous years.

What is therefore the required broad strategy of the government in the current times is to create a consensus and environment for dialogue on the Kashmir issue and restore the faith of people in the political order for the sake of peace which Kashmir is yearning for. There cannot be something divine intervention so far as issue at stake is in consideration; rather a strong political will to better the situation in Kashmir is the vital need of the hour.

Being in New Delhi for over four years as a student from 2011 to 2014, never have i obseved the media gag and net muzzling in mainland India..Why only in Kashmir? This question haunts my mind and is a great disgusting factor.

By resorting to media gagging and net muzzling, the government is committing a wrong step in contravention to the good governance principles which only dents the compassionate mainstreaming of the masses and creates a gory tale of otherness within the psyche of the people as a countermeasure in the long run. The government in J&K ought to understand the gravity of current political instability. Today’s media gag and tomorrow’s liberation will never serve the purpose. After all it is the question of collective pain and unified political approach within the purview of logical approach of political dealing.

Today Kashmir is in search of a dialogue and that is the sine-qua-non condition to rectify the errors and solidify the peace in the hinterland of idyllic setting in the world. Kashmir through the decades-old political alienation has ultimately pushed the masses to the wall.

The emphatic dealing after understanding the macroscopic dimensions of the Kashmir problem, people’s suffering, oppressive tactics and substitution with an ethic of care and concern within the purview of humane approach and entangled through the ropes of good governance can act as a best remedy to the political ailment and its remedy thereof.