Kashmir’s Job Market

Mohammad Ashraf

(The outside workers in Kashmir both skilled and non-skilled result in an outflow of over Rupees 40 crores everyday which could be easily earned by the locals if they were motivated and trained in various jobs!)

Kashmir is facing a typical dichotomy in relation to employment of the local youth. According to reports almost a million youth are without any employment. A large number of these are highly “educated” or in other words possess umpteen degrees but no skills! In fact, acquiring degrees has become an obsession in Kashmir these days! On the other hand almost an equal number of outsiders both skilled and non-skilled from different parts of India are working all over the valley. Unfortunately, the local youth have been deliberately attuned to aim only for government jobs at any level. There is a virtual epidemic among the youth for seeking white collar jobs even at the lowest level regardless of the degrees possessed! The fault lies with the governments we have had right from 1947. Till the first tenure of Sheikh Abdullah there was strict enforcement by government for creating self-sufficiency in all respects. However, after his toppling in 1953 and the installation of Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, the self-sufficiency went for a six. He introduced the culture of subsidy and a Kashmiri became totally dependent on outside dole.

Traditionally, Kashmiris have been very skilled craftsmen not only in regard to the world famous handicrafts but in regard to all other skills like carpentry, masonry and so on. The heritage buildings and historical monuments are a proof of the skills Kashmiris have possessed from the earliest times. In fact, some of the shrines have intricate wood-work with beautiful papier-mache designs on ceilings and walls. Right now most of these arts are dying because of the trend to get easy government jobs. In fact, the entire young generation is being converted into government slaves! The main cause for this destructive wave is the loss of the dignity of manual labour. Instead of dozens of paper degrees, the present youth need vocational training. We have to first restore dignity of manual labour right from the top. People should feel proud to work with their own hands rather than be babus pushing their pens around. This requires not only a revolutionary change in education system but a total overhaul in the mind-set of the planners as well as the leaders of all hues and shades!

Every government has been trying to engage as many youth as they can in unskilled government jobs at the lowest levels. They are creating virtually armies of slaves with zombie like existence. This government job mania is a gift from the British colonials who in their two century rule set up a totally colonial administration in every sphere of life. The freedom given by them was only physical and they continued the slavery of our minds through the systems they had introduced to keep the colony under control. They had kept India united and controlled through various central services which have continued even after their departure with a slight change in nomenclature. The Central Government has replicated the same system in Kashmir. Instead of trying to make the State self-sufficient in different spheres, it has been made totally dependent on dole in every sphere. Unfortunately, the worst misfortune of Kashmir in recent times has been its confused leaders! They have been presenting an abstract goal without bothering about the road map to that goal and the carrying on of proper and neat day to day living till one reaches the ultimate goal. The first requirement is to achieve self-sufficiency and independence in every sphere of living. The worst thing is that people are being made to believe that the government which they claim to be an “installed” one is expected to do everything. No one has been advising people that they too have certain duties towards the society! There cannot be worst hypocrisy than that!

Take for instance the flood protection measures which the government has totally failed to implement. No one bars a local initiative to undertake these leaving the government getting cooked in its own soup! How one wishes we had someone like Hakim Suyya who would make people take the initiative to clean up Jhelum and all other water bodies on their own! There are hundreds of thousands of youth sitting idle. Even one could engage these to manually clean all the water bodies thereby providing them some work! Dal Lake is virtually dead! It may soon turn into a stinking marsh. If local people take initiative on their own, it is not difficult to clean up Dal and all other water bodies. For umpteen years the weeds used to be extracted manually. Why can’t this be done now on a massive scale by the local youth led by a dynamic and a fiery leader? In fact, all environmental measures can be taken on voluntary basis if there are sincere and dynamic youth leaders.

Coming back to the job market, there is an urgent need for the civil society to take the initiative to instil respect for vocational jobs as also to restore the dignity of the manual labour. The whole mind-set of clamouring for government jobs has to be changed. Unless all our leaders take a sincere initiative in regard to this mad rush for government jobs and motivate all locals to take up the jobs presently virtually usurped by outsiders, we are surely doomed! Will someone take the initiative please!

Papua New Guinea prime minister re-installed

John Braddock 

Peter O’Neill, Papua New Guinea’s prime minister, was placed back in office when the country’s parliament reconvened on Wednesday following national elections. O’Neill received 60 votes from newly elected parliamentarians, with 46 voting against. He will now begin a second five-year term, but with a significantly decreased majority.

Parliament was recalled even though results from only 106 of 111 seats had been declared. With the remaining seats still to be confirmed, the final shape of parliament is yet to be determined. A high number of electoral petitions is expected also in the court of disputed returns.

The hasty reconvening of parliament by Governor-General Bob Dadae was undoubtedly designed to legitimise the deeply undemocratic and disputed election, and intended to quash widespread popular anger over its outcome. Dadae had already invited O’Neill to form a new government last Friday, when more than a quarter of official returns were still outstanding.

The parliamentary vote was held despite objections of some legal figures, who said Electoral Commissioner Patilias Gamato did not follow the law during the return of the election writs. Speaker Job Pomat declared that since O’Neill’s Peoples National Congress Party (PNC)—of which Pomat himself is a member—gained the highest number of seats, his nomination met legal requirements.

O’Neill earlier declared that the PNC had negotiated an agreement with the Peoples Progress Party, the United Resources Party and the Social Democratic Party to form a coalition government.

The two-week voting period that ended on July 8 was dominated by vote-rigging, the wholesale omission of names from the electoral roll, ballot box-tampering and bribery. The Electoral Advisory Committee members charged with overseeing the election all resigned, accusing the Electoral Commission of not allowing them access to basic information.

Australian academic and former PNG treasury advisor, Paul Flanagan, told Radio Australia on July 18 that by comparing the electoral rolls with 2011 census figures, he found rolls had been inflated by nearly 300,000 false names. The “ghost” voters were mainly concentrated in electorates controlled by the PNC.

In the weeks following the close of polling, hostility to the conduct of the elections erupted in protests and violent incidents over accusations that vote counting was hijacked. Towns in several Highlands provinces remain in lockdown following shootings between rival factions in which several people were killed.

Protestors in Mt Hagen last week crowded the town’s streets, calling on the Electoral Commission to account for what they said was an illegal early declaration, with dozens of ballot boxes still left to count. The protests sparked fighting and forced the closure of businesses and disruptions to the airport. Demonstrations also have taken place recently in the capital Port Moresby over counting delays in the city’s three electorates.

The turmoil is an expression of the explosive social tensions produced by the austerity policies imposed by the O’Neill government over the past two years. O’Neill seized office in 2011 by ousting his predecessor Michael Somare in an illegal parliamentary coup supported by Canberra, which regarded Somare as too close to Beijing.

O’Neill has clung to power in the face of struggles by students and workers over inequality, corruption and the country’s deepening social crisis. The government has increasingly turned to police-state measures to suppress opposition.

International observer teams criticised the running of the election. The Pacific Islands Forum’s team noted large numbers of citizens were prevented from exercising their constitutional rights to vote despite “high levels of civic awareness and interest in participating in the election.”

The official observers stopped short of supporting calls by opposition leaders to force the Electoral Commission to declare the election officially “failed” and conduct a new one.

Despite the widespread electoral fraud, O’Neill’s government has seen its majority slashed. The PNC has so far won 25 seats—down from 55 in the previous parliament. Prominent government figures, particularly those responsible for massive expenditure cuts, have been ousted. These include Deputy Prime Minister Leo Dion, former parliamentary speaker Theo Zurenuoc, Fisheries Minister Mao Zeming, Health Minister Michael Malabag, Petroleum and Energy Minister Nixon Duban, and Youth and Community Development Minister Delilah Gore.

None of the opposition parties, however, offer any alternative for working people. A coalition headed by the National Alliance (NA) with the second largest number of seats in the parliament, and backed by the Pangu Party and the PNG Party, has attacked O’Neill from the right, accusing him of bankrupting the country and not going far enough in slashing budget spending.

The NA was a coalition partner in the previous O’Neill government and bears responsibility for its savage austerity measures. NA leader Patrick Pruaitch was sacked as treasurer shortly before the election. He had belatedly tried to distance himself from the government by attacking the PNC for “mismanaging” the economy. The NA campaigned as part of the opposition, demanding an end to government borrowing.

The new government will immediately confront a deepening fiscal crisis. The Midyear Economic and Fiscal Outlook from the Treasury is expected to reveal a deficit one billion Kina ($US309 million) larger than that forecast in the budget seven months ago. After five years of the biggest deficits in PNG’s history, public debt has blown out from K21 billion to K25 billion—or from 29 percent of gross domestic product to 34.5 percent.

Like its predecessors, the incoming government will carry out the requirements of the international banks and transnational companies that dominate the country’s economy and dictate terms to the country’s dependent capitalist class. It will intensify the attack on the living standards of working class and rural masses, and the police-military repression of opposition and unrest.

Washington and the regional powers, Australia and New Zealand, will be watching closely. All have vital commercial and strategic interests in the country and are seeking to maintain their hegemony in the southwest Pacific against Beijing’s growing economic and diplomatic influence.

Tens of thousands line up at Amazon job fairs as Dow tops 22,000

Eric London

Two scenes played out across America yesterday, providing a window onto two separate worlds: one occupied by a small, wealthy elite; the other by the working class, who comprise roughly the bottom 90 percent of the population.

Shortly after the opening bell on Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average broke the 22,000 mark for the first time in history, a milestone that was greeted with exuberant headlines in the establishment press and made the lead story on NBC’s evening news program.

The day before, President Trump tweeted: “Corporations have NEVER made as much money as they are making now,” a claim that the fact-checking website Politifact said was partly true, with the caveat that profits were even higher under Barack Obama. From the standpoint of America’s richest 10 percent, who control over 75 percent of the national wealth, Obama’s 2016 claim that “America’s pretty darn great right now” is a statement of fact.

At the very moment the Dow crossed the 22,000 threshold, tens of thousands of workers were lined up waiting to apply for jobs with Amazon in the company’s nationwide job fair, the largest such event in US history.

A line of job seekers at Amazon’s job fair location in New Jersey

If the photos of long lines of job-seeking workers encircling buildings and stretching across parking lots recall scenes from the Great Depression, that’s because the conditions of life for masses of working people increasingly resemble the “hungry thirties.”

The World Socialist Web Site spoke to workers representing a diverse cross-section of society—black and white, immigrant and native-born, young and old—who lined up together in the hope of landing an Amazon warehouse job with no pension, barebones health coverage and no guarantee of either an 8-hour day or 40-hour work week.

Workers told the WSWS that Amazon forced them to take an on-site drug test and undergo a background check just to file an application. Many were disappointed and upset that Amazon refused job offers to those who had not previously filed an application online.

Amazon jobs line in Ohio

It is a testament to the desperate conditions workers confront that so many thousands view Amazon’s average wage of around $12.50 an hour as a step up from the service industry, where many workers make the federal minimum wage of $7.25 per hour. But the average wage of a US Amazon worker is less than the hourly wage in real terms of a coal miner in 1935, according to the US Labor Department’s Handbook of Labor Statistics. Most workers, especially those hired as temps, make even less.

Amazon’s job fairs targeted roughly a dozen particularly distressed regions nationwide. Baltimore, Maryland and Buffalo, New York have been hollowed out by decades of job losses and population decline. Suburban areas like Etna, Ohio; Whitestown, Indiana; Romeoville, Illinois; and Hebron, Kentucky are among the most heavily impacted by an opioid crisis that killed roughly 60,000 people last year.

Former industrial hubs like Fall River, Massachusetts; Robbinsville, New Jersey; and Kenosha, Wisconsin were once home to better-paid manufacturing jobs but are now being transformed into industrial parks for low-pay, low-benefit warehouse work, including the 10,000-job Foxconn plant announced last week.

Workers applying in Wisconsin

For all their diverse experiences and backgrounds, the challenges workers confront in their daily lives and the concerns they share for the well-being of their families and loved ones are fundamentally the same. They worry about their children facing a lifetime of indebtedness and dead-end jobs, or family members slipping into alcohol or chemical dependency to numb their physical and mental pain. They are burdened by the knowledge that a medical emergency or car trouble could leave them broke.

They wonder how they will come up with the money to care for their aging parents or send their children to college. They know veterans who went to war and came back traumatized by the horror of imperialist war, only to be denied access to social assistance by the government that sent them there. They know that their friends and coworkers confront the same basic problems.

Line of workers outside Amazon plant in Robbinsville, NJ

In the world of the wealthy, seemingly so far away and yet grounded in the same social reality, an entirely different set of concerns predominate, driven by the drive to increase their personal wealth, privilege and social position.

The entire political establishment—including both major parties, the corporate media, the universities, the think tanks and the official state institutions—is single-mindedly focused on addressing the needs of the rich. A section of the upper-middle class, upset over the distribution of resources within the wealthiest 10 percent, indulges in a politics of self-obsession, based on categories of personal racial and gender identity that are employed to gain positions of privilege.

While differences exist between and within different strata of the top 10 percent, bourgeois politics is what Obama called “an intramural scrimmage” between groups who are ultimately “on the same team.” This fact is demonstrated by the areas where the Democrats and Republicans agree: permanent war and massive spending on the military, domestic surveillance, cuts to social programs, tax cuts for the rich, and the militarization of the police to suppress working class resistance.

Lucinda, an Ohio grandmother and Amazon applicant, spoke against the ongoing US wars

There is growing opposition in the working class to the increasingly oligarchic character of American society. “I’ve watched a lot of people lose a lot of stuff,” Amazon applicant Eric Childs told a WSWS team in Illinois. Lucinda, a mother of four who also cares for four grandchildren, stood in line to apply for a job in Ohio. She said, “If we spent more on jobs and less on going to war with people we don’t even have anything to do with the country would be much better off.” Andrea, another Ohio job applicant, voiced the frustration many workers felt with both candidates in the 2016 election: “Hillary was all that was wrong with the government,” she said, “and Trump was all that was wrong with society.”

The very economic conditions that cause social inequality also contain its solution. The growth of massive corporations like Amazon, whose supply chains stretch around the world, has united billions of workers internationally in the process of production. New technologies—including mobile phones, the Internet, advanced transportation systems—are revolutionizing social relations and transforming the way in which people of all races and nationalities interact with one another.

Despite the potential created by the development of man’s productive forces to abolish hunger, poverty and disease, under capitalism these advances become weapons in the hands of the capitalist class. They are used to destroy the jobs and living standards of workers around the world while devastating the environment. At the same time that private ownership of the corporations and banks subordinates the economy to the profit greed of capitalist oligarchs, the conflict between the increasingly integrated character of the world economy and the nation-state system erupts in the form of militarism and war, threatening the planet with nuclear annihilation.

The task of the working class is to free the world’s productive forces from the vice-like grip of the corporations and harness the huge advances in science and technology to meet the needs of the human race.

The corporations must be transformed into public utilities and run democratically by the workers themselves. The wealth of these corporations and that of their CEOs and major stock- and bond-holders must be confiscated and used to guarantee good-paying jobs, universal health care, education, housing, drug rehabilitation programs, pensions and other necessary social services. This requires a political struggle to unite workers internationally, in opposition to the political parties of the capitalist class, for the socialist transformation of the world economy.

Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS) International Scholarship 2018 – Iran

Application Deadline: 31st October, 2017 for the February 2018 academic session. Anything later than this date will be considered for the January academic session

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: All countries except Iran

To be taken at (country): Iran

Eligible Field of Study: Scholarship is open for students pursuing studies in the following schools:
Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Advanced Technology in Medicine, Allied Health Sciences, Public Health, Nursing and Midwifery and Rehabilitation

About the Award: The TUMS Scholarship Program is set up by TUMS-IC to facilitate students and scholars from all over the world to conduct their study and research at TUMS-IC. The scholarship aims to increase the mutual understanding and scientific exchange of scholars and students of Iran and scholars and students from the rest of the world. TUMS is the best university in the field of medical sciences in Iran and it is the second best medical university in the Middle East.

Offered Since: 2012

Type: Doctor of Medicine Scholarship

Eligibility: 

• For undergraduate level of studies: The applicant must have finished her or his high school.
• For graduate level of studies: The applicant must have had obtained a degree in the field related to her/his desired field of study
• The teaching language will be in English. The applicant need to have proof of English language ability to write, read, and understand.

Number of Awardees: Not specified

Value of Scholarship: The value of the scholarship varies from 3,000 to 15,000 US$. The scholarship covers students’ first transport from the airport, housing, partial food plans, computer labs, sports and student union membership, library, and internet access.

Duration of Scholarship: Seven (7) years

How to Apply: Applicant must complete an online Application Form.
Once the application has been submitted successfully the Scholarship Coordinator will contact the prospect student to submit further documents.

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Award Provider: Office of Vice Chancellor for Global Strategies and International Affairs, Tehran University of Medical Sciences

Important Notes: Classes during the first 2 years of the program are held in English, but the rest of the M.D. program (the third year onwards) will be held in Persian.

The language of instruction at TUMS for international students is English both at the undergraduate and graduate levels. However, since some of the majors and programs at the undergraduate level require students to have interaction with patients who speak Persian, learning Persian could be obligatory for the students of those majors.

AAUW International Fellowship for Women, Masters & Doctoral program in USA 2018/2019

Application Deadline: 1st December 2017

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: All countries except US citizens

To be taken at (Institution): Accredited U.S. institutions

Accepted Subject Areas? Courses offered at the Universities

About Scholarship AAUW International Fellowships are awarded for full-time study or research in the United States to women who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Both graduate and postgraduate studies at accredited U.S. institutions are supported. Applicants must have earned the equivalent of a U.S. bachelor’s degree by September 30, 2017 and must have applied to their proposed institutions of study by the time of the application.

Recipients are selected for academic achievement and demonstrated commitment to women and girls. Recipients return to their home countries to become leaders in business, government, academia, community activism, the arts, and sciences.

Type: Masters, Doctoral/Postdoctoral, Fellowship

Eligibility: To be eligible for an International Fellowship, applicants must meet the following criteria:

• Have citizenship in a country other than the United States or possession of a nonimmigrant visa if residing in the United States. Women holding dual citizenship in the United States and another country or who are permanent legal residents of the United States are not eligible.
• Hold an academic degree (earned in the United States or abroad) equivalent to a U.S. bachelor’s degree completed by September 30, 2017.
• Intend to devote herself full-time to the proposed academic plan during the fellowship year
• Intend to return to her home country to pursue a professional career
• Be proficient in English. Unless the applicant can verify that her native language is English, that she received her secondary diploma or undergraduate degree from an English-speaking institution, or that she will have completed one semester of full-time study in her discipline at an English-speaking college or university between October 2015 and September 30, 2017 (transcript required for validation), she must upload a recent ETS TOEFL* (Test of English as a Foreign Language) score (no older than December 2015). Institutional TOEFL scores and other English proficiency test scores (such as IELTS) will not be accepted. Minimum score acceptable: 550 for Paper-Based Test (TOEFL PBT); 79 for Internet-Based Test (TOEFL iBT); 60 for Revised TOEFL Paper-Delivered Test.
• Master’s/first professional degree and doctoral applicants must have applied by December 1, 2017, to an accredited institution of study for the period of the fellowship year and must indicate the name of the institution in the International Fellowship application.
• Master’s/first professional degree fellowships are intended for master’s or professional degree-level programs such as J.D., M.F.A., L.L.M., M.Arch., or medical degrees such as M.D., D.D.S., etc.
• Doctoral fellowships are intended for doctorate degrees, such as Ph.D. or Ed.D.
• Postdoctoral applicants must provide proof of their doctorate degree; hold a doctorate classified as a research degree (e.g., Ph.D., Ed.D., D.B.A., D.M.) or an M.F.A. by December 1, 2017; and indicate where they will conduct their research.
• Master’s/first professional degree and doctoral applicants must be enrolled in a U.S. accredited institution located in the United States during the fellowship year.
• A limited number of awards are available to GWI members for study or research in any country other than their own. Note that foreign branches of U.S. institutions are considered outside of the United States.
• Applicants must be conducting a full year of study or research. International Fellowships do not provide funding for a partial year of study or research. Programs ending prior to April of the fellowship year are not eligible.
• Master’s/first professional degree and doctoral fellowships support traditional classroom-based courses of study at colleges or universities. This fellowship program does not provide funding for distance-learning or online programs or for degrees heavily dependent on distance-learning components.Final decisions about what constitutes distance learning under these fellowships will be made by AAUW.

Selection Criteria: The following criteria apply to the selection of International Fellowships:

• Residing in home country at time of application
• Position on return to home country
• Academic and/or professional qualifications
• Applicant’s commitment to the advancement of women and girls in her home country
• Proposed time schedule
• Quality and feasibility of proposed plan of study or research
• Demonstrated evidence of prior community and/or civic service in home country
• Applicant’s country’s need for the specialized knowledge or skill
• Financial need
• Motivation for graduate study or research
• Applicant is from an underrepresented area of the country and/or type of university other than a top-level research institution

Number of Awards: Up to five fellowships are renewable for a second year.

Value of Awards:

• Master’s/First Professional Degree Fellowship: $18,000
• Doctoral Fellowship: $20,000
• Postdoctoral Fellowship: $30,000

How to Apply: Visit the Scholarship Webpage to apply

Sponsors: The American Association of University Women (AAUW)

Important Notes: Applications, supporting documents, and recommendations will be accepted on the following business day if the deadline falls on a weekend. The online application and recommendation will state the actual submission deadline.

UNOY Peacebuilders International Secretariat Internships for Young People 2017 – The Hague, Netherlands

Application Deadline: Ongoing

Eligible Countries: All

To Be Taken At (Country): The Hague, Netherlands

About the Award: We have two internship positions available, starting as soon as possible

1. Advocacy & Communications Officer – analyse global and regional policy processes, support implementation of advocacy and outreach strategies, maintain online communications
2. Network & Fundraising Officer – support management of UNOY Peacebuilders’ membership and regional coordinators, support fundraising efforts including fundraising research and proposal development

UNOY Peacebuilders is a youth-led network of youth organisations working towards peaceful societies. We embrace values of peace, diversity, inclusion and participation. At UNOY, young people have the opportunity to gain work experience in the field of peacebuilding, join an international team, develop new skills and connect with youth and organisations around the world.

Type: Internship

Eligibility: We are looking for somebody who has:

• experience/interest in peacebuilding and youth work
• experience in project management, fundraising, events organisation, communication or working with networks
• a higher education degree (undergraduate or postgraduate) on a topic related to youth, peace, conflict or international relations. We can also accept candidates who are on their last years of undergraduate degree.
• leadership, planning, project writing and intercultural communication skills
• computer skills
• strong written and spoken English – French, Spanish and Arabic are all beneficial
• enthusiasm and commitment
• flexibility and capability to work independently and in a team

Number of Awards: 2

Value of Award: 

• Being full part of a young, dynamic and international team
• Opportunity to work independently and take responsibility
• A great stepping stone for your future career – former interns have moved on to work in international organizations, academia and in the business sector.
• Internal and external training opportunities
• Possibility to travel abroad with projects
• Possibility to use your internship for studies/research

Duration of Program: All internships are:

• 4 days a week (Monday-Thursday)
• 4-6 months long

How to Apply: If you are interested in joining the UNOY team, please apply as soon as possible by sending your CV and a letter stating your motivation to vacancy@unoy.org. Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis.

Visit the Program Webpage for Details

Award Providers: UNOY

University of Warwick Full PhD Scholarships for International Students 2018/2019 -UK

Application Deadline: 2nd February 2018

Offered annually? Yes

Eligible Countries: Candidates of any nationality, including Africa are eligible for the scholarship

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

About Scholarship: The University of Warwick is offering the Chancellor’s International Scholarships for overseas Postgraduate research applications for entry in October 2018. The University Scholarship will offer full fees support and maintenance award to international doctoral students of the highest caliber. The University will offer scholarship to approximately 17 of the most outstanding international PhD applicants. Applicants may be from any discipline at Warwick, and be from any nationality.

The University of Warwick values its increasingly developed reputation as an international university, and the Chancellor’s International Scholarships demonstrate the University’s commitment to fully supporting its most talented students, no matter their national origin.

Offered Since: 2011

Eligibility:

• Applicants for a Chancellor’s International Scholarship must also be applying for a PhD at the University of Warwick to begin in October 2018;
• Applicants must expect to be ‘overseas’ students for fees purposes, but there are no other nationality criteria;
• Applicants may be from any discipline at Warwick.

Selection Criteria: Candidates must have outstanding academic performance from previous education qualifications.

Number of Awards: 25 Scholarships will be awarded

Value of Award: 

• The full payment of overseas tuition fees (worth up to £20,730 at 17/18 rates, this figure is likely to increase with inflation for 2018/19)
• A maintenance stipend in line with RCUK rates (provisional £14,800* for full time award holders in 2018/19)

Duration of Program: 3.5 years unless you are already in your first year of study when you apply then the length of funding will be reduced accordingly

How can I Apply? Candidates should read the guidance notes carefully before completing the application form.

• New candidates can apply for the Chancellor’s International Scholarship by completing the Joint Postgraduate Admissions and Scholarship Application form. If you are eligible for this scholarship you will be asked if you would like to be considered for funding as part of your application to the University. Please select YES at this point and you will be invited to complete further information that will form the basis of your application for this Scholarship.
• If you are in the first year of your PhD or applied before 1st August 2016 and would like to be considered for this Scholarship to fund the remainder of your studies please complete the Single Scholarship Application form.

Sponsors:University of Warwick

Visit the Program Webpage for More Details

Award Providers: University of Warwick

Tunisia’s Incomplete Revolution

Jonathan Fenton-Harvey

Tunisia has a significant claim to fame. Not only did it ignite the revolutionary flames of the Arab Spring, it was the only nation to make a triumphant transition from dictatorship to a flourishing democracy in this series of uprisings.

Prior to travelling to the country, I myself held these same misconceptions – about how successful this transformation really was.

It was over 6 years ago that street vender Mohammad Boazizi’s act of self-immolation inspired other disenfranchised Tunisians to take to the streets, and demand the resignation of autocratic leader Zine al-Abadine Ben Ali. While Tunisia had not suffered the fate that other Arab nations did, such as Libya, Syria and Yemen, profound difficulties still persist. Many Tunisians feel that the revolution is incomplete. Whilst one corrupt regime has been abolished, another has simply replaced it.

In a sense, some positives did occur. The Tunisians prevented a greater Islamist presence from penetrating the nation’s politics. Due to the political Islamic nature of the Ennahda party, which was elected to power in 2011, many feared that Tunisia could follow the same path that Iran did in 1979. Similarities between both cases were stark, after all. Both entailed the toppling of an authoritarian, secular dictatorship at the hands of a popular uprising, with political Islamic forces capitalizing upon the masses’ frustrations.

Yet the Tunisian people were adamant. They made clear that they would not tolerate any such transformations. The uproar against Hamadi Jebali’s initial suggestion that Ennahda would implement Tunisia’s ‘sixth caliphate’ forced him to retract his statement shows this; as do the protests against making Sharia Law the constitution’s primary source. Ennahda has repeatedly been forced to pragmatize, and moderate itself – and was forced into a coalition with the secular Nidaa Tounes party in 2014.

This itself can be considered a successful element of the revolution. The Tunisian populace fought for a government representative of its ideological values.

Yet after speaking to a wide range of range of Tunisians across the country – whether during Ramadan iftars (meal for breaking the fast), in cafes or other social settings, people consistently voiced the same concerns about society.

Job prospects are dismal. Even those with years of experience and appropriate qualifications in their fields struggle to find consistent work that pays substantially. This is evidently more severe among the younger generation, with youth unemployment at a staggeringly high 40% – much worse than under Ben Ali!

Others have become very desperate for employment that they have resorted to paying 2000-3000 dinars (approximately $820-$1230) to officials as a bribe, just to secure employment. As this amounts to several month’s salary in full-time work, one can surely see how people can be stuck in an entrapping situation.

I noticed a sense of hopelessness for many Tunisians. I was told on numerous occasions that there is no future for people in their country. 27 year-old Mohammad shows much entrepreneurial flare and interest in his designing business – but tells me how, like with many other small businesses, it is extremely difficult for it to make progress, as the government does not facilitate much support.

While Mohammad is one of the few still striving to make change, others simply feel defeated. Instead of holding great dreams to accomplish in Tunisia, many instead dream of escaping Tunisia.

Ennahda has often been lambasted for mismanaging the economy. Critics have often cited it as lacking fiscal credibility. Furthermore, social disparity is still an issue, with a considerable rich-poor divide. Tunisians feel that the government is hording wealth, and does not care about them. Since I had heard endless claims that life was actually better under Ben Ali, the revolution has clearly failed to alleviate financial concerns.

To make matters worse, the regime is known to be oppressive, authoritarian, and riddled with corruption. The Tunisian government showed this in response to recent mass protests for better living conditions occurred in Tatoutine – a city disproportionately hit by unemployment. Instead of listening to the public’s concerns, the government allowed protesters to be met with brutality from security forces, leaving one dead and many others injured.

Yet those who are detained face barbaric treatment too, as exposed from numerous reports from organisations such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. There are numerous cases of people suffering torture, arbitrary imprisonments, and many other forms of violence from the authorities.

The government has acted, often illegally, to curtail freedom of speech and individual liberties too. In Ramadan this year, many arrests for eating, drinking and smoking in public were made. This is clearly a violation of the democracy in Tunisia, as such a punishment is not included in the constitution. Anyone prominent trying to criticize the government will be tackled too: journalists and bloggers have often been arrested for ‘offending’ the army and the police force.

It is reasonable to say that the revolution has not been a success. Some believe that the revolution is still not complete. Evidently, they are correct.

Throughout history, other revolutions – genuine strides for progress and change – have been hijacked by self-serving movements, acting on their own interests. Tunisia is seemingly no exception.

The establishment of democratic elections in Tunisia was an outstanding achievement. It shows progress can be made, if enough people push for it. But while people’s attention is diverted with desires to flee the country, or people continue to become disenfranchised with political participation – little will change. Only repeated pressure from below, people making their voices heard, can ensure that lasting change will occur.

Reviving the Cult of Princess Diana

Binoy Kampmark

There is no rational explanation for this, even after searching for the coded meanings culture throws up.  A not very bright, propelled on a wave of the pre-Kardashian phenomenon of celebrity for its own meaning; a youthful flower, gathered by the Grim Reaper while speeding off with her lover in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.  That was the fate of the Princess of Wales.

As Christopher Hitchens was to observe, the orgy of sentimentality and reaction to the death of Princess Diana in 1997 was excruciating, dangerous, and debilitating. It silenced dissent about the late princess, reconstituting Britain, however briefly, as a “one-party state” replete with emotive ridden foot soldiers.

It also supplied the new Prime Minister, Tony Blair, the material of naked publicity, a moment to peak ever higher in the opinion polls by feeding the Cult of Diana.  New Labour, New Britain, New Sentiment.

Jonathan Freedland confessed on cringing in the aftermath of the princess’s death.  “It is our collective moment of madness, a week when somehow we lost our grip.” Outside Buckingham Palace were hundreds of thousands of cellophane protected bouquets, a sort of “floral fascism” made leaf and stem.

The celebrity as pox syndrome persists in the context of the anniversary of Diana’s death, which has been spiced by the debate on whether Channel 4 should release video tape interviews drawn from encounters between the princess and her speech coach and actor Peter Settelen.  (Settelen had been retained by Diana between 1992 and 1993.)  These form the subject of yet another yawn inducing product of the Princess Industry, a documentary titled Diana: In Her Own Words set to be released on the twentieth anniversary of her death.

The Spencer family, led by Earl Spencer, was determined to assert control over the tapes and foil the use of the private conversations.  They had initially found their way into the possession of Scotland Yard in 2001 after a raid on the home of former royal butler, Paul Burrell.

The American broadcaster NBC broadcasted teasing excerpts in 2004, but the BBC, which was considering a commemoration documentary ten years after the event, abandoned the project.  Channel 4’s management felt otherwise, wanting to make some mileage on the insipid nature of the whole matter.  The unconvincing view, nothing more of a sales pitch, was that the tapes “provide a unique insight”.

Aggressive pots have been calling similarly aggressive kettles black.  The original sinner, Burrell, felt that the channel’s decision to broadcast the tapes was a “seedy” gesture akin to “raiding her diary”.

The seediness of his own less than noble history was lost on Burrell, who milked the cash cow of experience after Diana’s death much to the consternation of Princes Harry and William.  A Royal Duty (2003) went into the personal drawers and the details with relish.  Burrell, in the true bravado of one who betrays, labelled his own effort a “tribute to their mother”.

Rosa Monckton, another touted friend of the princess, tweeted that, “Friend of Diana urges Channel 4 to scrap ‘intrusive’ documentary.  If you agree with me, please write to Channel 4.” To The Guardian, Monckton explained that the tapes did not belong to the public domain, featuring those silly confidences that Diana should never have parted with. “It is a betrayal of her privacy and of the family’s privacy.”

The material is hardly incendiary, but accords with the worst tendencies of the pop-fluff market of reality television.  (Diana, indeed, would have been a suitable pioneer in the cannibalising disgrace of a Big Brother Household.)  “He chatted me up – like a bad rash,” notes Diana in describing her soon to be husband, Prince Charles – “he was all over me.”

Charles had just lost his great uncle, Lord Louis Mountbatten, a high calibre casualty of the IRA.  The prince needed companionship, comforting.  The emotional raw spot drew sympathy from the Diana, but she had played a false stroke.  Charles, sensing a chance “leapt upon me and started kissing me and everything”.  How delightful.

The romps and travails of the House of Windsor have become the tabloid link via the people and the monarchy, a trashy reminder that flawed relationships transcend the straightjacket (apt, that) of class.  This is vulgarity in its true meaning: the common, the vernacular, the dirt earthy.  We can call be dysfunctional together.

For a country like Australia, whose head of state remains the Queen, interest piqued by such revelations remains.  Anniversary issues are being released for readers of The Herald and The Courier Mail, if they indeed deserve the name, as issues to keep. Get your copy now!   Expect, however, little by way of substance, critique or self-awareness.

The Cult of Diana may have been subjected to a more trenchant analysis in recent years, leaving aside the conspiracy pedlars at The Express who have blamed everybody from the French to aliens for her demise. But in an age of Trump, a revival is being prodded and fanned.  As former royal spokesman Dickie Arbiter explained to the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire, Channel 4 was “laughing all the way to the bank.”

Bangladesh finance minister to revise country’s budget

Wimal Perera

In late June, the Bangladesh parliament passed the Awami League-led government’s 2017-18 national budget. Three weeks later, Finance Minister A.M.A. Muhith announced that the budget would probably be revised in February, five months ahead of schedule.

Muhith’s decision appears to have been taken in response to criticism from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) over the government’s decision to delay the imposition of a 15 percent uniform Value Added Tax (VAT). Currently the rate varies from 1.5 percent to 15 percent. The IMF and the World Bank have been calling for the higher rate since 2012.

Muhith originally included the 15 percent VAT proposal when he first announced the budget, a decision that the IMF and World Bank publicly welcomed.

However, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, fearful of the popular opposition to her already discredited government, intervened and postponed the VAT increase for another two years. Sections of big business also opposed the tax hike, concerned that the increase would undermine their competitive edge in export markets.

Hasina’s coalition faces national elections at the end of 2018 or early 2019. A July 1 New Age editorial said the government “appears to have suspended” the VAT “not because ordinary people would suffer, but because of the national elections.”

Expressing “regret” over the VAT postponement, the IMF warned that the government would face a 200 billion Takas ($US2.46 billion) shortfall in tax revenue, widening the budget deficit. Both the World Bank and the IMF claimed it would be impossible to achieve the government’s much-hyped estimate of 7.4 percent economic growth without the 15 percent VAT.

The IMF’s concern is not economic growth but lowering the fiscal deficit by pushing up consumption taxes and imposing other austerity measures. According to World Bank figures released in May, Bangladesh’s growth is slowing because of declining exports, falling remittances from workers overseas and food price inflation. Last year’s 7.2 percent growth is expected to fall to 6.7 percent this year and 6.6 percent next year.

It is not clear whether Muhith’s revised budget will impose the postponed VAT or cut social spending to cover the revenue shortfall. Either way, there will be a heavy impact on workers and the poor. Annual inflation stood at 5.4 percent in the past financial year, and food inflation was 6 percent, up from 4.9 percent from the previous year. The food inflation rise is mainly due to price hikes for rice, meat, edible oil, milk and other basic items.

Government expenditure in the current budget will rise to 4 trillion Takas, an increase of almost 25 percent on the previous fiscal year. This, however, will do nothing to ease the poverty and social burdens confronting workers. The funds will be used to expand the military and build infrastructure to attract foreign investment. The budget did not announce any wage rises for government or private sector workers.

During his initial budget speech, Muhith boasted that the government would “expand the scope of education and health systems, making them pro-people, and encourage pro-poor socio-economic activities.”

Education spending is supposed to rise by 14 percent to 504 billion Takas. In reality, education and health spending is only about 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), so this is a cosmetic increase, aimed at hoodwinking the population ahead of the next election. Promised increases in education spending last year, moreover, proved false. The education budget was cut by 10 percent.

Big business is particularly concerned about the declining export growth, which has dropped to a 15-year low. Last fiscal year, exports rose by only 1.7percent, compared to the previous year. Garment exports, which account for 82 percent of total exports, declined by 0.2 percent to $28.14 billion.

Prime Minister Hasina has declared that work on 10 economic zones will commence this year as part of the government’s 14-year plan to build 100 such cheap labour zones.

While the budget offers a 10-year Public Private Partnership income tax exemption on large infrastructure projects, the government is still struggling to attract foreign direct investment (FDI). According to the 2016 World Investment Report, FDI inflows into Bangladesh increased by just 4.3 percent to $2.33 billion, compared to 2015.

The ongoing global economic instability has seen Bangladesh’s balance of payments drop from a surplus of $3.7 billion in 2015-16 to a deficit of $1.8 billion in the first 10 months of the last fiscal year.

Geopolitical tensions in the Middle East have hit remittances from migrant workers. Eight million Bangladeshis are working abroad, but recorded remittances are expected to fall for the second consecutive year, the first time in three decades, according to the Daily Star .

Finance Minister Muhith claimed that poverty and extreme poverty rates have been reduced since 2005-06 from 38.4 and 24.2 percent respectively, to 23.2 and 12.9 percent in the last fiscal year. But a Financial Express editorial noted on June 30, that “at least 40 million people live below the poverty line in Bangladesh. The number may go up to 80–110 million if $US2 a day is taken as the poverty line.”

Muhith has insisted that high GDP growth targets above 7 percent would solve unemployment and “absorb the additional workforce.” However, around 1.6 million workers enter the job market annually. According to a Labour Force Survey cited by the Bangladesh Center for Policy Dialogue, less than half a million people secured jobs annually between 2013 and 2016. This was down from 1.3 million annually between 2010 and 2013 and 1.7 million annually between 2006 and 2010.

These figures underscore the intense economic problems and volatile political situation. Hasina’s government has responded to increasing poverty, unemployment and other social tensions by adopting more autocratic and repressive forms of rule.

Last December and in early January the government used its notorious Special Powers Act to detain dozens of protesting workers calling for higher wages. Police have brutally assaulted garment workers striking for higher salaries and better working conditions.