The Minority Africa Fellowship, a project by Minority Africa — a digital publication using data-driven multimedia journalism to tell African minority stories — targets journalists and storytellers from minority groups across Africa providing them with the platform, skill, and mentorship to report stories from and about their communities.
Through an intensive six-month paid program, fellows will polish their existing reporting abilities both from a skill and thematic perspective but will also be trained on the intersecting areas and groups of focus for the fellowship. This means that fellows are taught and leave the fellowship knowing how to cover groups outside of the immediate communities they belong to.
These groups include women,sexual, gender, ethnic, and religious minorities, persons with disabilities, migrants, asylum seekers, as well as refugees. We nonetheless acknowledge that all minorities across the continent do not fall under these broad categories and also focus on groups that exist outside of these general definitions.
Fellows will be trained by journalists from the Minority Africa newsroom as well as a network of journalists who work for or have worked across the continent with the Associated Press, Agence France Presse, Reuters, RFI, CNN, The Guardian, Time, and began legacy media companies tackling present media problems including one praised by former US President Barack Obama.
This training program includes modules on solutions journalism, data journalism, interrogating the scope of inclusive futures within the metaverse, as NFTs and AI adoption grow, and the geopolitics of climate change among others.
What Type of Scholarship is this?
Fellowship
Who can apply for Minority Africa Fellowship?
Fellows have to be at least 18 years of age, they have to be from and living in an African country and belong to at least one of the minority groups highlighted in the focus areas above. They can be writers, photographers, filmmakers, journalists, or a combination of all and have relevant and provable work experience in their chosen areas.
Which Countries are Eligible?
African countries
Where will Award be Taken?
Online
How Many Fellowships will be Given?
Not specified
What is the Benefit of Minority Africa Fellowship?
Fellows will be paid a monthly allowance, receive an internet stipend, and intra-country travel related to the coverage of stories will be covered by Minority Africa.
During the fellowship, fellows will be familiarized with editorial guidelines of Minority Africa and will work and report on stories for the publication. They are paired with external mentors, work with editors in the newsroom, and are required to produce at least two stories every month.
By the end of the program, each fellow would have published 12 stories on Minority Africa. These stories will be a blend of reported multimedia features as well as opinions and analysis. The program is entirely virtual and the first cohort runs from May to October 2023.
How Long will the Program Last?
6 months
How to Apply for Minority Africa Fellowship:
All applications have to be submitted online and through our secure application form on this website. Applications received over email will not be considered. Applications for the second cohort open on the 17th of January 2023 and close on the 30th of January 2023.
The Organising Committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games and the French Development Agency (AFD) are launching the fourth and last session of the Impact 2024 International call for projects to promote sport as a tool for development in Africa.
General Presentation
The purpose of the Impact 2024 International call for projects is to finance sports micro-projects dedicated to young people and equitably for girls, focused on equality and inclusion, citizenship and living together, the protection of childhood, education, health, environmental protection and vocational training and integration.
These micro-projects will use sport as a means to achieve their goals, while transmitting the values of Olympism, civic engagement and social ties conveyed by sport. They should respond to local demand and seek a lasting improvement in living conditions and the empowerment of vulnerable populations.
Who is Eligible?
The call for projects is open to African structures (associations, foundations, local authorities, associative sports clubs, federations, CIG/ EIG, cooperatives, state structures, public structures, other declared groups) as well as French associations and foundations;
The candidate structure must have been registered for at least 2 years and the requested amount must be between €10,000 and €40,000;
The remaining amount must be already acquired during the application and the structure’s annual resources must not exceed €500,000;
Any candidate French association or foundation must deploy its project in partnership with a local structure in Africa;
The project is to take place in Africa. The 54 countries are eligible, excluding red zones defined by the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs;
The project must have an implementation period of between 1 and 3 years;
The project must use sport as a tool for development;
The funding granted must not exceed 75% of the overall project budget excluding valuation.
Do you meet the eligibility criteria and wish to apply for Phase 1 of the call for projects? Consult the full rules of this call for projects.
How many Awards?
Not specified
What is Value of Award?
Funding of € 10,000 to € 40,000 per project (in the form of a grant);
Continuous support via personalized advice on the project methodology and the funding request;
Global training in the management of a development micro-project or specific to the sport and development theme;
Monitoring and evaluation of funded projects;
Connecting with players in the world of sport and development.
How to Apply?
Each candidate structure can only submit one funding request to the “Impact 2024 International” call for projects, which will take place in two phases: – Phase 1: Submission of initiative – Phase 2: Project submission
Phase 1 – Submission of initiative Any structure wishing to apply for the call for projects must first register on the Sport en Commun platform and complete the eligibility request form there by February 13th, 2023 – 8 p.m. (GMT) at the latest. Only applications preselected during Phase 1 will be able to access Phase 2 of the call for projects.
Phase 2 – Project submission Shortlisted candidates will be invited to continue phase 2 of the call for projects by completing the project submission form. Complete funding requests must be submitted on the application submission platform www.sportencommun.portailsolidaire.org after notification of admission to Phase 2 of the call for projects.
Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) is offering scholarship program for students from developing countries to undertake full-time postgraduate study at participating Korean universities.
Which Fields are Eligible?
The fields of study are targeted to address agreed development needs of partner countries, such as International Development, Women and Development, Public Policy, Fishery Science, Agriculture and Rural Development, etc., in line with Korea’s bilateral aid program.
What Type of Scholarship is this?
Graduate (Master, PhD)
Who can apply for KOICA Scholarship Program?
Applicants must:
(Preferably) Be under age 40 as of February 1, 2023.
Be a citizen of the Scholarship Program target country
Be a government official, an employee in the public sector, or a researcher in a state institute working in his/her home country with a bachelor’s degree or higher.
Be nominated by his or her government.
Have sufficient command of both spoken & written English to take classes conducted entirely in English and to write academic reports and a thesis in English.
Have a positive attitude and a strong will to get adjusted to a multicultural environment and to understand the hosting country’s culture.
Have good moral characteristics to endure student life on campus.
Be in good health, both physically and mentally, to undergo the program.
Pregnancy is regarded as a disqualifying condition for participating in this program.
Having tuberculosis or any kind of contagious disease is regarded as a disqualifying condition for participation in this program.
Have not previously received a scholarship or participated in a scholarship program, including a KOICA Scholarship Program, from the Korean government.
In addition to the above general eligibility criteria, applicants must also meet specific eligibility criteria imposed by each course. (Please refer to the “Program Information” of each program.
For example, only women can apply for the course of “Capacity Development of Women Leadership” at Ewha Womans University).
How are Applicants Selected?
There are usually two selection rounds annually.
There are two rounds for each selection: the document review and the telephone interview (an “essay test” may be included in some cases).
After being nominated by his/her government, the applicant should submit the application package to the KOICA office or the Embassy of Korea in his/her country.
Which Countries are Eligible?
Students from
Asia (Laos, Vietnam, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Mongolia, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Nepal, East Timor, Pakistan, Afghanistan);
Africa (Sudan, Madagascar, Morocco, Algeria, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Tunisia, Cote d’Ivoire, DR Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Egypt, Rwanda, Uganda, Libya, Gabon and Mozambique);
Americas (Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Nicaragua, Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Colombia, Haiti, Costa Rica, Panama, Uruguay and Venezuela);
Middle East (Yemen, Jordan, Iran, Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon);
Oceania (Solomon Islands, Fiji and Papua New Guinea) and Eastern Europe
Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tadzhikistan, Belarus and Serbia)
can apply for the KOICA Scholarship Program.
Where will Award be Taken?
Scholarships are available for pursuing masters studies at participating South Korean universities.
How Many Scholarships will be Given?
Numerous
What is the Benefit of KOICA Scholarship Program?
Air travel fare: Economy class, round-trip airfare via the most direct route to and from Korea
Full tuition fees
Accommodation (mainly the dormitory of a training institute)Living allowance
Meals
Textbooks and materials
Study visits, field trips, etc. during the program
A medical check up after entry into the program
Overseas traveler’s health insurance: Expenses for medical treatments and hospital care due to diseases or accidents within the scope and limit of insurance coverage.
How to Apply for KOICA Scholarship Program:
KOICA Headquarters receives applications only through diplomatic channels, which means that one cannot send application documents directly to KOICA Headquarters or universities.
For further information, please consult with the KOICA office or the Embassy of Korea in your country.
It is important to go through all application requirements before applying.
Application Deadline: 8th March 2023 at 11.59pm GMT.
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: Developing countries
To be taken at (country): London, UK
About the Award: World’s leading green energy awards, seeks to reward innovative enterprises and programmes that deliver, or play a key part in enabling the delivery of sustainable energy systems and through this bring social, economic and environmental benefits.
This year, the Awards will help power up inclusive innovation creating a fairer low carbon world – tackling inequality and empowering communities on the frontline of the climate crisis through jobs, skills and training. Ashden winners come in all shapes and sizes. We don’t reward the biggest organisations or slickest marketing pitches – we’re looking for passion, potential and commitment to our values. We’ve put winners on stage at the COP climate talks and in global media.
Type: Entrepreneurship, Contest
Who can apply for an Ashden International Award?
Businesses, NGOs, social enterprises and government organisations are all eligible.
The work must be delivered in at least one of the UN’s developing regions of Africa, Caribbean, Central America, South America, Asia (excluding Japan) and Oceania (excluding Australia and New Zealand) and can be in rural or urban areas. High-income countries in these regions, as defined by the World Bank, are not eligible to apply
What happens if you win an Award As an Ashden Award winner? You will:
Be invited to London at Ashden’s expense to take part in the Awards Ceremony as well as other events during that week. Winning an Ashden Award is contingent on taking part in Awards Week activities.
Participate in media interviews that we may be able to arrange.
Agree with Ashden what you will spend the prize fund on and any business support you may receive.
Provide and update monitoring data about the progress of your work after one year, two years and three years
Number of Awardees: 10
Value of Contest:
The winners will receive prize funds of £20,000 each
As well as this cash fund, winning an Ashden Award brings many other benefits, such as:
Local, national and international publicity, through the work of our specialist media team.
Support to grow or replicate your work: this can include professional mentoring, training and introductions to investment and other finance providers.
Opportunities to present your work to large and influential audiences at the Ashden Awards Ceremony, International Conference and other Ashden events.
Membership of the Ashden Alumni network of Ashden Award-winners, which facilitates opportunities to create productive partnerships and learning.
The acclaim of winning a prestigious Ashden Award. Our application and assessment process is known for being rigorous.
Russian women have the reputation of being strong and demanding, but they can be sweet and caring when they want to be. Nationalistic by nature, Russian women have long been patriotic and willing to send their husbands and sons off to war. But this has come at a steep price to the country. Today, with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine failing dismally, the women of Russia are turning their backs on him and are calling for their male family members to be returned home from the front lines.
Russian men have died in large numbers in many wars since the time of the Cossacks, due to a variety of factors. The Cossacks, who were a semi-nomadic warrior class, were heavily involved in conflicts with neighboring powers, such as the Ottoman Empire and Poland. In the more recent history, during World War I and II, the Soviet Union suffered staggering losses, with an estimated 10 million military deaths and an additional 8-13 million civilian deaths. In addition to the devastating human toll, these conflicts also had a significant impact on the country’s economy and infrastructure. Furthermore, during the Cold War, the Soviet Union was involved in several armed conflicts, such as the Afghanistan war, which also caused many deaths of Russian men.
With this history in mind, it is easy to understand why females in Russia make up 54% of the population, while males only make up 46%. The problem is only getting worse. In 2022, roughly a million Russians left the country to escape the ravages of wartime living. More than 500,000 Russian citizens are estimated to have left Russia by the end of August 2022, and an additional 400,000 by early October. This number includes political refugees and economic migrants.
Unlike the case with Ukraine, where millions of women and children escaped to neighboring countries, most Russians who fled their country are men. Experts on global migration are calling the current mass exodus from Russia the largest since the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution when millions of intellectuals and economic elites fled the rise of the Soviet Union.
If Russia’s military operations continue in 2023, as is likely, Russia may see its lowest birthrate in modern history. In addition, total deaths in Russia average close to two million annually, though the number increased during the pandemic and approached 2.5 million last year. Now, that death toll has risen drastically and will continue to do so as real numbers are released.
A 2015 Pew Research Center article explains that “This region has been predominantly female since at least World War II, when many Soviet men died in battle or left the country to fight. In 1950, there were just 76.6 men per 100 women in the territory that is now Russia. That number rose steadily in subsequent decades, climbing to 88.4 by 1995 before declining again.”
The Pew research also shows that the population in Russia and the former USSR as a whole is older than that of the world. Most of these nations, including the most populous, also have low fertility rates compared with the global average. This skews the population’s gender ratio because older people are more likely to be female, while more younger people are male.
Younger men in the former Soviet Union also have an unusually high mortality rate, which has deepened the population’s gender imbalance. One way to see this is to look at the life expectancy of men and women and the differences between those numbers. Russian women born from 2010 to 2015 are expected to live to age 75.6, while Russian men are expected to live to age 64.2 – a significant gap of 11.4 years.
Furthermore, alcoholism has long been a problem in the former USSR, especially for young men. A 2014 study in The Lancet medical journal found evidence that excess vodka use is a top killer in Russia, responsible for a disproportionate amount of deaths among Russian men.
A female activist affiliated with the feminist group Feminist Anti-War Resistance (FAR), said in an interview recently that angry women “can do anything.”
“Mobilisation [in Russia] currently resembles ethnic cleansing,” she lamented. “This is not new and not an idea I have come up with. There are lots of villages that have been completely emptied. Not a single man remains.”
Another organization, the Council of Soldiers’ Wives and Mothers, has partnered with FAR to combat the Russian government and fight for the men being sent to Ukraine where they are dying by the thousands.
Today, Russia’s women know they are paying the price for the war in Ukraine. For one, they are losing their husbands and sons. And two, they are the ones out protesting against the war since men are too worried about being arrested and then drafted. They have made an emotional appeal to Putin to cease sending their family members to the slaughter, and are demanding that the authorities return their underequipped and undertrained men.
But to no avail.
Dr. Jade McGlynn, a specialist in Russian memory and foreign policy at the Monterey Initiative in Russian Studies, notes that before September, the visible lack of such protests had led many to question why women were reacting differently to Russia’s war on Ukraine, as compared with the wars in Chechnya and Afghanistan. While factors such as the comparative weakness of civil society should not be overlooked, the key difference was that conscripts were sent to those conflicts, while until September contractors were sent to Ukraine.
McGlynn also points out that mothers of conscripts “hold a different moral authority to that of a contractor in Russian society. Many mothers of the contractors, rather than calling for peace, spent the early months of the war fomenting pro-war sentiment, touring schools, organising online and offline meetings with students to ‘form in their minds the correct picture of the world’. They urged children to show support to the soldiers and officers of the Russian armed forces and ‘separatists’ of the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics who ‘fight fascism and Nazism in Ukraine.’”
The question today is how the Russian government will react to the protests. Russian wives and mothers have played a destabilizing role in other wars and they are now working to destabilize the current war against Ukraine. While many supported Putin’s initial moves, today they realize they are losing their sons and brothers for no reason other than to fulfill Putin’s maniacal desire to conquer Ukraine. Putin and his henchmen will attempt to assuage the women – while working to silence them as soon as possible. Putin needs their men to fight his ego war – even if it means he must destroy Russia’s entire male population once and for all.
Following a sham trial, an Egyptian court sentenced 38 people to life imprisonment for taking part in anti-government protests in September 2019.
Twenty-three people, including self-exiled businessman and actor Mohamed Ali, whose social media posts helped to spark the protests, were tried in absentia. Forty-four others, including 22 children, received prison sentences ranging from five to 15 years. Twenty-two people were acquitted.
Protesters chant slogans against the regime in Cairo, Egypt, early Saturday, September 21, 2019. Dozens of people held a rare protest in Cairo during which they called on Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi to quit. Security forces dispersed the protesters and no casualties were reported. [AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty]
Its purpose was to make an example of them and ensure no one else challenges the brutal dictatorship of General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, who overthrew the elected government of President Mohammed Morsi in a bloody military coup in July 2013. Since then, he has defended Egypt’s financial elite and the military chiefs who control much of the economy, maintaining a rule of terror.
Those sentenced were convicted in a mass trial of 104 people by the first terrorism circuit of the Cairo Criminal Court under the draconian anti-terrorism laws. The charges included posting videos on YouTube calling for the protests, sharing these videos on Facebook and WhatsApp, disrupting traffic and using violence against civil servants, including the police.
The nationwide demonstrations were sparked by a series of videos released by Mohamed Ali, who lives in Spain, accusing Egypt’s dictator el-Sisi of embezzling public money for his own use and building extravagant palaces for his family while forcing most of Egypt’s 104 million people to live in abject poverty. Demonstrators chanted slogans, denouncing el-Sisi, poverty and social inequality.
Police arrested more than 2,000 people in the first week of the protests, the largest number in a single week since el-Sisi’s bloody coup, according to human rights groups. Most were arbitrary and carried out without a warrant. The victims were often tortured until they confessed to false charges.
The regime itself admitted to detaining and interrogating 1,000 people. While most were under 25 years of age, prominent lawyers—detained for defending other detainees journalists, professors and political figures, including some who had explicitly disassociated themselves from the protests, were also arrested. They were charged with spreading false information and aiding “terrorist” organisations.
They are now part of an estimated 65,000 political prisoners languishing in el-Sisi’s jails, according to Human Rights First. The organisation describes them as “places of humiliation, torture, and abuse” that “make ideal recruitment centers for violent extremists,” including ISIS, and “helps in the radicalization of angry prisoners looking for revenge against the authorities.” Several thousand have been sentenced to death and many have been executed.
This state clampdown has proceeded with the tacit support of the United States and the European imperialist powers. The jail sentences were barely reported in the western corporate media.
President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (left) with US President Joe Biden at the GCC+3 summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, July 16 2022 [Photo: The White House]
The trial comes when Egypt, having implemented the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) demand to float its currency, has witnessed a dramatic fall in the value of the Egyptian pound against the US dollar that is devastating living standards. Some 30 percent of the population live below the poverty line with another 30 percent marginally above it.
The pound’s value has halved in value in the last year, sinking from E£16 to the dollar to E£32 after Egypt agreed to end its fixed currency regime tying it to the US dollar and move to a flexible currency regime—leaving the pound at the mercy of international currency speculators. The black-market rate, upon which many depend, is even lower. The move was one of the many conditions the IMF imposed in return for a $3 billion loan in October, the fourth in six years, that comes nowhere near meeting a financing gap estimated at between $17 and $70 billion.
This latest loan is to relieve the severe foreign currency shortage that has left importers unable to access foreign currency to pay for the $9.5 billion of goods stacking up at the ports. The IMF had earlier demanded a raft of economic reforms including the slashing of subsidies for gas, water and bread, the privatisation of state assets, opening up public procurement to the private sector and transferring ever greater wealth from the masses to the tiny elite. But with many of the state’s assets in the hands of companies controlled by the military or former military chiefs, el-Sisi has prevaricated while placing the entire burden on the working class.
Egypt’s economy was badly affected by the pandemic that halted a tourism industry accounting for around 12 percent of GDP, 15 percent of foreign currency and 10 percent of jobs, and the return of workers from the Gulf—and the loss of their remittances—swelling the ranks of those without work.
The situation confronting workers has been compounded by the outbreak of the US/NATO war against Russia in Ukraine that led to an outflow of $20 billion—more than half of all the hot money invested in the country—of speculative capital seeking a higher rate of interest. Foreign currency has remained in desperately short supply despite efforts by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia and Qatar to bolster its economy with $13 billion in loans and $3.3 billion in return for state-owned assets; the Central Bank’s restrictions on imports and interest rates’ hike to a massive 16.25 percent to shore up the pound; and limits on foreign currency withdrawals.
Energy, grain and fertiliser prices have soared, with Egypt the world’s biggest importer of wheat. Food prices rose by 40 percent, with the cheapest foods doubling and tripling in price, and urban consumer inflation hitting 24 percent in December. Last year saw consumer finance rise by 7 percent to $374 million in the second quarter of last year, according to the state-run Financial Regulatory Authority.
The World Bank estimated that despite a 6.6 percent growth in 2020-21, Egypt’s economy will grow by only 4.8 percent to June 2023. About 54 percent of the government budget goes into paying interest on its debts, 13 percent on wages and 12 percent on subsidies—whose costs are rising with devaluation and inflation—and other welfare payments, leaving little room for anything else.
Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly has ordered ministers to cut their budgets and put a stop to all “new projects that have a clear dollar component”, as Egypt comes close to defaulting on its foreign debt—$158 billion debt falls due in the coming period. As the IMF’s second largest debtor after Argentina, Cairo has become increasingly dependent on the petro-monarchs of Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar.
Under such conditions, despite his police-state measures, el-Sisi is sitting atop a volcano. It poses, as the regime foresees, a renewal of the revolutionary upsurge of the masses that began in 2011 and resumed in 2019, not just in Egypt but across the Middle East.
Last month, the Indonesian parliament unanimously passed a new revision of the country’s criminal code. The code, which would replace legislation dating back to the period of Dutch colonial rule, signifies a major assault on the democratic rights of working people.
Indonesian President Joko Widodo with newly appointed Armed Forces Chief Adm. Yudo Margono at the State Palace in Jakarta, Indonesia, Dec. 19, 2022. [AP Photo/Achmad Ibrahim]
Much of the attention in the Western corporate media has centred on articles in the code that criminalise sexual relations and cohabitation outside marriage—in particular, the impact this will have on tourism and foreign investment in Indonesia.
The new law, however, includes over 624 articles and contains a broad range of sweeping attacks on the basic rights of Indonesian workers and their ability to express political opposition, under conditions of growing social tensions.
Among these are bans on “insulting” the president, vice president, the government, or state institutions, punishable by up to four years in prison. Those holding demonstrations in public spaces without an official permit from authorities could be fined or imprisoned for six months.
Individuals accused of spreading “disinformation” or “fake news” that may result in public unrest can face a prison sentence of six years.
Significantly, the provision outlining the most severe penalty outlaws the teaching or spreading of Marxism and communism—10 years’ imprisonment. It also prohibits any perceived deviation from the state ideology of Pancasila, which enshrines belief in a divinity, nationalism, and bourgeois democracy.
Abid Al Akbar, a university student from capital city Jakarta, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, “[If] we, as students, want to hold a discussion or a scientific study on communism and Marxism, this could potentially be reported too and we could be hit [by the law].”
The first attempt by President Joko Widodo’s government to introduce this new code in September 2019 sparked mass protests across the archipelago, led mainly by students in the major cities. These were among the largest student demonstrations since the mass movement of workers and youth that toppled the Suharto military dictatorship in 1998.
Three years after nervously postponing a parliamentary vote on the code, it was approved on December 6 by every member of the lower house, including so-called “democratic” parties. The new law will take effect on January 2026, after Widodo’s last term ends next year.
Thousands reportedly protested around the country in the week following the announcement. Protests are expected to continue and grow over the coming period, as objections are to be filed to the Constitutional Court for a judicial review.
The far-reaching character of the new law provoked an uproar on social media, through circulation of the hashtags #SemuaBisaKena (“Everyone can be charged”) and #TibaTibaDipenjara (“Suddenly imprisoned”).
The new code contains numerous reactionary measures aimed at appeasing Islamic fundamentalist forces, whose political influence has grown over recent years.
Extramarital sex can be punished by one year in prison, based on police complaints made by relatives of the individual. Couples living together without being married can be imprisoned for six months. This will affect tens of millions of Indonesians who do not legally marry for financial or religious reasons, as well as LGBT people who cannot get married under Indonesian law.
Abortion, assisting an abortion, and distributing information about contraception are all criminalised and carry jail terms of up to five years. The code’s blasphemy chapter has been expanded: not only blasphemy, but apostasy and attempted conversion to atheism are now also outlawed.
Additionally, under the new law the government will formally recognise “living laws” – i.e., customary laws at local level such as Sharia regulations or regional customs. These include curfews for women, female genital mutilation, and mandatory hijab dress codes.
The passage of the code has been condemned by global human rights and press freedom groups. Amnesty International identified at least 88 articles that are broadly defined and “could be misused and misinterpreted” by authorities. The UN published a statement that “certain provisions” of the new code are “incompatible” with international conventions to which Indonesia is a signatory.
Sasmito Madrim, chairman of Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists, stressed that the new articles on “fake news,” criticism of government, deviation from Pancasila, and defamation of the dead will prevent the “basic work” of reporting and have “the potential to send journalists to prison,” Reuters reported.
The Indonesian government has rammed through the repressive new code at a time of rising social anger among workers and rural masses towards the conditions they confront, which have drastically worsened since 2019.
The Widodo government’s profit-driven response to the COVID-19 pandemic has economically and physically devastated millions. A recent report by the World Health Organisation estimated that the real death toll in Indonesia during the first two years of the pandemic, based on excess deaths, could have been over one million, when officially recorded deaths stood at 140,000.
Global inflation has sent the costs of basic commodities soaring. Three months before the new code was approved, widespread protests and strikes erupted after a fuel price hike. Social inequality in Indonesia, ranked among the highest in the world, has only deepened.
The unanimous passage of the criminal code demonstrates that there is no constituency for basic democratic rights in the country’s political establishment. Every political faction of the capitalist class fears the emerging opposition of the working class, which they are seeking to head off and suppress.
Widodo, once promoted among the international media and rights groups as a “reformer,” is presiding over the abolition of democratic norms. The code exposes the bankruptcy of reformasi, the charade of democratic reform supposedly opened up after the ousting of Suharto in 1998.
Since then, elections have maintained an increasingly thin democratic façade behind which the apparatus of the military junta apparatus remains intact. Successive governments sought to cultivate and legitimise far-right Islamist groups, a process now accelerating under the pressures of an historic crisis of global capitalism and the re-emergence of the international working class.
“Extreme” wealth and poverty have increased simultaneously in Australia over the past year, as they have globally, according to this week’s latest annual inequality report by the Oxfam charity.
Unemployed workers registering to receive social welfare outside Centrelink office in Sydney in 2020. [Photo: WSWS]
The widening social gulf has been intensified by corporate profiteering on the most basic human necessities—food and energy. Oxfam’s report shows that “95 food and energy corporations more than doubled their profits in 2022, driving major inflation in Australia and around the globe and leaving millions struggling to feed themselves and their families.”
The direct connection between these super profits and the worsening impoverishment of millions of people by the cost-of-living crisis is another damning indictment of the entire economic and social order based on private profit and wealth accumulation.
The profit-gouging by food and energy conglomerates, exploiting the US-NATO proxy war against Russia in Ukraine, comes on top of the inflationary spiral caused by years of governments and central banks pumping trillions of dollars into the financial markets, and the ongoing global supply chain problems created by governments letting the COVID-19 pandemic rip for the sake of profit.
Far from being an exceptional “lucky country,” Australia’s mining billionaires are among those benefitting most spectacularly, while working-class households suffer sky-rocketing prices and housing costs, falling real wages and sub-poverty welfare payments. Just one mining magnate, Chris Ellison of Mineral Resources, increased his worth by $600 million in 2022, climbing to $2.25 billion.
By Oxfam’s calculations, based on the Forbes Rich List, Australian billionaire wealth is 61 percent higher than it was before the pandemic began. There were 11 more billionaires last November than there were in 2020—up from 31 to 42. These billionaires now had a combined wealth of close to $236 billion.
That may be an underestimate of a deepening process. As of January 13, there were 45 Australian billionaires, the Australian Financial Review reported.
While the gulf between the rich and poor has accelerated this decade, it is a longer-term trend. Oxfam said the richest 1 percent of Australians had accumulated 10 times more wealth than the bottom 50 percent in the past decade.
Oxfam estimated that the top 1 percent had collectively garnered more than $2,500 a second (or $150,000 per minute) throughout that 10-year period, matching the super-wealthy internationally. The fortunes of billionaires around the globe increased by $3.6 billion a day while more than 1.7 billion workers lived in countries where “inflation is now outpacing wages.”
Oxfam Australia director of programs Anthea Spinks said the enormous gains seen by the world’s richest people were stark evidence of a broken system. “While ordinary people in Australia and around the world are making daily sacrifices on essentials like food, the super-rich have outdone even their wildest dreams. Just two years in, this decade is shaping up to be the best yet for billionaires—a roaring 20s boom for the world’s richest.”
Yet, Oxfam’s response, as it has been in every such annual report for many years, is to seek to mend, and maintain, the “broken system” of capitalism, in order to fend off threatening social unrest. Oxfam called on the Australian government to abandon its planned “stage three” income tax cuts and introduce limited wealth and windfall profits taxes.
But the Albanese Labor government has repeatedly refused to drop the income tax cuts, for which Labor voted under the previous Liberal-National government. These will directly benefit high-income households by more than $23,000 a year and cost $252 billion over a decade. Combined with higher interest payments on the near-$1 trillion in government debt, mainly caused by business handouts during the first two years of the pandemic and soaring military spending, that will mean deeper cuts to health, education, housing, welfare and other essential social programs.
Oxfam said a wealth tax of 2 percent on those with wealth above $7 million, 3 percent with wealth above $67 million and 5 percent on Australian billionaires would raise $29.1 billion annually.
“This would be enough to increase the foreign aid budget by seven times, or dramatically reduce poverty in Australia by raising income support payments to $88 a day [the unofficial “Henderson” poverty line] for 1.44 million adults (benefiting 840,000 children); building 36,000 social housing homes annually; and investing in grants to get millions of homes off gas, which could save households up to $1,900 off their energy bills each year.”
But these goals, similar to those proposed by Oxfam’s call for a 5 percent wealth tax globally, would barely scratch the surface of social need. They would leave millions at constant danger of poverty and homelessness, while allowing the giant corporations and the rich to continue to plunder and exploit the population and the natural resources.
In any case, there is not the slightest chance of the Labor government, or any other capitalist government, adopting such taxes. Oxfam has made similar appeals for years, only to be met by the opposite reaction. Its own report, the Survival of the Richest, shows that governments worldwide have dramatically reduced corporate, wealth and high-income taxes since the 1960s to satisfy the demands of the financial markets, fueling the billionaire bonanza.
While assuring the corporate elite of the promised tax cuts, the Labor government has also refused to increase the starvation rates of Jobseeker unemployment and youth allowance payments—about $47 a day and $38 a day respectively.
The result, combined with a decade of falling real wages, is rising social stress and outright hunger. Oxfam cited recent research from Foodbank, another charity, which found more than two million Australian households (21 percent) had experienced severe food insecurity in the previous 12 months, meaning they could not afford to eat.
Foodbank itself said it was providing 1 million meals per month, but struggling to keep up with soaring demand. Sponsored by governments and corporate giants, Foodbank depends heavily on agri-businesses, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers to donate “waste” produce, which is then distributed to a network of other charities that run handout centres or soup kitchens.
This week Foodbank issued a new call for the Labor government to provide a “food waste tax incentive” for businesses that donate produce. This would allow businesses to reduce the amount of tax they paid, via a refundable tax offset or a non-refundable tax credit, by sending “food waste” to charities instead of landfill.
Based on calculations by international accounting and tax advisory network KPMG, Foodbank said this could provide an additional 100 million meals a year.
