22 Sept 2017

Woodrow Wilson Residential Fellowship for International Researchers 2018/2019

Application Deadline: 2nd October 2017
Eligible Countries: International
To Be Taken At (Country): USA
About the Award: Through an international competition, the Center offers 9-month residential fellowships. The Wilson Center invites scholars, practitioners, journalists and public intellectuals to take part in its flagship international Fellowship Program. Fellows conduct research and write in their areas of interest, while interacting with policymakers in Washington and Wilson Center staff and other scholars in residence.  The Center accepts policy-relevant, non-advocacy fellowship proposals that address key challenges confronting the United States and the world.
Type: Career Fellowship
Eligibility: 
  • Citizens or permanent residents from any country (applicants from countries outside the United States must hold a valid passport and be able to obtain a J-1 visa even if they are currently in the United States)
  • Men and women with outstanding capabilities and experience from a wide variety of backgrounds (including academia, business, government, journalism, and other professions)
  • Academic candidates holding a Ph.D. (Ph.D. must be received by the application deadline of October 2)
  • Academic candidates demonstrating scholarly achievement by publications beyond their doctoral dissertations
  • Practitioners or policymakers with an equivalent level of professional achievement
  • English proficiency as the Center is designed to encourage the exchange of ideas among its fellows
Selection Criteria: The basic criteria for selection are:
  • significance of the proposed research, including the importance and originality of the project;
  • the relevance of the project to contemporary policy issues;
  • the relevance of the project to the programmatic work of the Center;
  • quality of the proposal in definition, organization, clarity, and scope;
  • capabilities and achievements of the applicant and the likelihood that the applicant will accomplish the proposed project;
  • potential of a candidate to actively contribute to the life, priorities and mission of the Center by making expert research accessible to a broader audience.
The Center welcomes in particular those projects that transcend narrow specialties and methodological issues of interest only within a specific academic discipline. Projects should involve fresh research-—in terms of both the overall field and the author’s previous work. It is essential that projects have relevance to public policy, and fellows should want, and be prepared, to interact with policymakers in Washington and with Wilson Center staff and other scholars who are working on similar issues.
Number of Awards: 15-20
Value of Award: 
  • Each fellow is assigned a furnished office around the clock.
  • The Center is located in the heart of Washington, D.C., and includes conference rooms, a reference library, and a dining room.
  • The Wilson Center Library provides loan privileges with the Library of Congress and access to digital resources, its book and journal collections, and to university and special libraries in the area, and other research facilities.
  • Windows-based personal computers are provided, and each fellow is offered a part-time research assistant.
  • Although fellows are responsible for locating their own housing in the Washington, D.C. area, the Center provides written materials to help facilitate the search process.
  • The Center tries to ensure that the fellowship award, when combined with the recipient’s other sources of income (e.g. other grants and sabbatical allowances), approximates an individual’s current level of income.
  • Awards will also include round trip travel for fellows.
  • If spouses and/or dependent children will reside with the fellow for the entire fellowship period, money for their travel will also be included.
  • In addition to stipends and travel allowances, the Center provides 75 percent of health insurance premiums for fellows who elect Center coverage and for their accompanying family members.
Duration of Program: Fellows are expected to be in residence for the entire U.S. academic year (early September through May). Occasionally, fellowships are awarded for shorter periods, with a minimum of four months. Fellowships may not be deferred.
How to Apply: Applicants may submit their applications online here
A complete application must include the following:
  1. the Fellowship Application Form;
  2. a current CV (Optional; not to exceed three pages); The Center will only accept the first three pages; please list your publications separately.
  3. a list of your publications that includes exact titles, names of publishers, dates of publication and status of forthcoming publications (not to exceed three pages);
  4. a Project Proposal (not to exceed five single-spaced typed pages, using 12-point type); The Center reserves the right to omit from review applications that are longer than the requested page length;
  5. a bibliography for the project that includes primary sources and relevant secondary sources (not to exceed three pages);
  6. the Financial Information Form.
  7. Two letters of reference
All application materials must be submitted in English.
Award Providers: Woodrow Wilson Centre
Important Notes: Applicants are notified of the results of the selection process in March of the following year.

Makerere University/Norwegian University of Life Sciences/University of Dar es Salaam Masters Fellowship in Climate Change 2018

Application Deadline: 29th September 2017 at 4:00 pm.
To Be Taken At (Country):  University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
About the Award: Makerere University, in conjunction with the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU) and University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM,) is implementing a Capacity Building Project on REDD+.  The project is supported by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) under the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED).
The goal of the project is to contribute to reduced greenhouse gas emissions and improved ecosystem health for sustainable livelihoods in Eastern Africa. The intended outcome is to strengthen capacity of Central Government, Local Government, Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), and community institutions to plan and implement Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation, ‘plus’ conservation of forests, sustainable management of forests for enhancement of forest carbon stocks (REDD+).
The specific objectives are to strengthen the capacity for education and research on climate change and REDD+ at Makerere University and University of Dar es Salaam through strengthened scientific and institutional capacity to deliver better quality education and research on REDD+
Fields of Study: Interested applicants should understand that upon completion of their Coursework, their research and dissertation will dwell on either of the following themes:
1. Payment for Ecosystem Services in the context of REDD+.
2. Cost-benefit analysis of REDD+.
3. Key drivers of forest cover change.
4. Uptake of mitigation measures towards reduction of carbon emissions.
5. Carbon markets and REDD+ financing mechanism.
6. Ecosystem services, such a pollination, under REDD+.
7. Carbon sequestration and biodiversity in different ecosystems in east Africa.
8. Vegetation dynamics in a changing climate.
9. International debates/politics and their implications on REDD+.
10. Land/Forest/Carbon tenure issues in the context of REDD+.
11. Implications of economic policy on implementation of REDD+.
12. Legal and institutional framework related to REDD+.
13. Performance of previous REDD+ and allied projects.
14. Approaches for forest monitoring, measurement, reporting and verification.
15. Implications of agricultural intensification on forest conservation.
16. Reward/penalty systems on behavioural change in relation to REDD+ policy implementation
Type: Masters
Eligibility: Applicants should be those who have admissions and/or interested to apply for Masters Studies in climate change related programmes at the University of Dar es Salaam.
1. Staff of the University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM).
2. At least 2nd class Bachelors degree in any one of the following disciplines: natural sciences, environmental science, economics, social sciences and law.
3. Highly motivated to develop a scientific career.
4. Good scientific writing skills.
5. Good methodological background in relevant scientific disciplines.
6. Admission for Masters studies in climate change related programmes
Number of Awards: 3
Value of Award: The fellowship will cover tuition, stipend and field costs.
How to Apply: Potential applicants are invited to submit application by email to cccs@udsm.ac.tzby 29th September 2017 at 4:00 pm.
All applicants should submit application letter, which state clearly the need for scholarship, attach CV, academic transcripts and concept note for prospective dissertation. The concept note should contain an outline of the rationale for the proposed study, a list of research questions or hypotheses, and outline of proposed methodological approach, a time schedule, and a list of expected outputs.
Award Providers: The project is supported by Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD) under the Norwegian Programme for Capacity Building in Higher Education and Research for Development (NORHED).

AfyaBora Fellowship in Global Health Leadership for African Medical Practitioners 2018/2019

Application Deadline: 1st December, 2017
  • Interviews Mid-December 2017 – March 2018
    • Select applicants will be contacted for an interview
  • Notification of Acceptance March-April 2018
  • New Trainee Orientation in Botswana June 2018
  • New trainee participants will be brought together for a 3-day orientation. Immediately following the orientation there will be three 1-week course modules that will be held in the same country.
Offered annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda or the US
To be taken at (country): Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda or the US
Eligible Field of Study: Meet ONE of the following education requirements:
  1. Medical applicants with a M.D. or MBChB with a MMed, MPH or Masters degree in related field.
  2. Nursing applicants with a Masters degree in Nursing, Public Health or a related field (PhD or DNP preferred).
  3. Other Public Health professionals with a PhD in Public Health or a related field.
About the Award: The Core Curriculum for the AfyaBora Fellowship is taught at the African partner institutions and brings together each new cohort of African and U.S. trainees. The Core Curriculum consists of eight one-week didactic modules.
Type: Fellowship
Eligibility: In order to be eligible to apply for the AfyaBora Fellowship, all applicants MUST meet the following criteria:
  1. Be a citizen or permanent resident of Botswana, Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda or the US AND
  2. Meet ONE of the following education requirements
  • Medical applicants need to have a M.D. or MBChB with a MMed or Masters degree in related field.
  • Nursing applicants need to have a Masters degree in nursing, public health or a related field (PhD preferred), or substantial work experience.
  • Other public health professionals (those without a clinical degree) must have a Doctoral degree in public health or a related field.
Number of Awardees: 20
Value of Fellowship: 
African trainees
  • Airfare from home to training sites of the AfyaBora Fellowship
  • Monthly stipend equivalent to $1500 per month
  • Evacuation insurance if stationed outside home country
  • Accommodations and per diem up if attending didactic sessions and meetings outside of home country
  • Housing allowance of up to $750 per month if placed outside of home country
  • Reimbursement for other selected fellowship-specific activities in Africa (i.e. travel to rural sites, visa, etc.)
US Trainees
  • Monthly stipend based on NRSA NIH stipend levels (stipend cap is at 2 years post-doctoral level)
  • Roundtrip airfare from home city-Africa
  • Airfare within Africa to attachment site placement and modules
  • Per diem when attending didactic sessions and meetings
  • Housing allowance of up to $750 per month
  • Support request for an NIH loan repayment up to $35,000 for one year (only postdoctoral applicants are eligible to apply)
  • Reimbursement for other selected fellowship-specific activities in Africa (i.e. travel to rural sites, visa, etc.)
Duration of Fellowship: 12 months
How to Apply: Apply here
Award Provider: AfyaBora Fellowship is sponsored by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and the Office of AIDS Research (OAR), a unit of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

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

Application Deadline: Sunday 8 October 2017.
Offered Annually? Yes
Eligible Countries: All
To Be Taken At (Country): London, UK
About the Award: Index helps fellows build key partnerships, troubleshoot and receive expert support in multiple areas including personal safety, finance, PR and mental health. Fellows work with Index and partners to identify and realise key strategic goals. Index promotes news and regional developments through our magazine, website and social media.
Categories:
  • Arts: for artists and arts producers whose work challenges repression and injustice and celebrates artistic free expression
  • Campaigning: for activists and campaigners who have had a marked impact in fighting censorship and promoting freedom of expression
  • Digital Activism: for innovative uses of technology to circumvent censorship and enable free and independent exchange of information
  • Journalism: for courageous, high-impact and determined journalism that exposes censorship and threats to free expression
Type: Fellowship
Eligibility: 
  • The 2018 Freedom of Expression Awards Fellowship is open to any individual or organisation involved in tackling free expression threats.
  • Four fellowships will be offered,, one in each of the following categories: journalism, campaigning, arts and digital activism.
  • Anyone can nominate or self-nominate.
  • Nominees must have had a recognisable impact in the past 12 months.
Selection Criteria: 
  • Timeliness: A significant contribution within the past 12 months.
  • Resilience: Courage to speak out, persisting in the face of adversity.
  • Innovation: Creative ways of promoting free expression or circumventing censorship.
  • Impact: Evidence of shifting perceptions, influencing public or government opinion, contributing to legislative change.
Need: Those cases where the 2018 Awards Fellowship can potentially add the most value.
Number of Awards: 4 Fellowships in each of the categories above.
Value of Award: Fellows receive 12 months of direct assistance, starting with an all-expenses-paid training week in London in April 2018.
How to Apply: Submit your nomination
Award Providers: Index on Censorship

ICAO Young Aviation Professionals Program (Fully-paid Internship at Montréal, Canada) 2018

Application Deadline: 13th October 2017
Eligible Countries: All
To be taken at (country): Montréal, Canada.
About the Programme: The selected Young Aviation Professional Officers will be expected to contribute to ICAO, IATA and ACI work programmes related to aviation safety, air navigation capacity and efficiency, or to economic development of air transport, aviation facilitation, or environmental protection, focusing on inter-relationships between regulatory activities of ICAO and those in the airline and airport industries in IATA and ACI.
Type: Internship
Eligibility: 
  • Commitment to continuous learning: The willingness and ability to engage in self-development, keep up-todate with new developments, help others to learn and learn from others.
  • Planning and Organizing: Ability to set clear goals, prioritize, anticipate problems or risks, and have effective time management skills.
  • Communication: Ability to write in a clear, concise and accurate manner. Ability to communicate verbally and with diplomacy.
  • Client Orientation: Ability to see from the clients’ perspective, anticipate client needs and concerns; find appropriate solutions for clients, and keep clients informed.
  • Teamwork: Ability to work collaboratively with others and maintain harmonious working relationships in a multicultural environment.
  • Technological awareness: Ability to use contemporary software such as MS Office Suite (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), SharePoint, or equivalent and demonstrate a willingness to learn and use new technology.
Selection Criteria: 
  • Level of educations: a) Master’s degree (or equivalent, to be demonstrated by the applicant); or b) Bachelor degree, supplemented with a Commercial Pilot License or an Air Traffic Control License.
  • Experience: Minimum of two years’ professional working experience in aviation-related regulatory activities and/or in the aviation industry.
  • Language skills: Fluent reading, writing and speaking abilities in English. Working knowledge of a second language commonly used in international organizations (French, Spanish, Chinese, Russian or Arabic) would be an asset; and
  • Age criteria: Aged 32 years or less on the closing date of this announcement.
  • Note: Preference will be given to candidates who are not currently serving, or who have not previously served, as an intern with either ICAO, IATA and ACI.
Number of Awardees: 3
Value of Programme: 
  • Living Costs: All living costs and expenses will be borne by the Young Aviation Professional Officer.
  • Financial Support: A fixed amount of CAD $4 000 per month will be provided to each selected Young Aviation Professional Officer to assist with living costs.
  • Annual leave will be provided at the rate of one and a half days per month.
  • Sick leave will be provided at the rate of one day per month.
  • Medical insurance will be provided at the single rate for prescription/medical/dental coverage within Canada. The selected candidates will be required to pay the employee portion of the premium, which is estimated to be approximately CAD $ 117.65 per month.
  • Occupational accident insurance will be provided (at no cost to the selected candidates).
  • Non-occupational accident insurance will be available to the selected candidates, at their own cost.
  • Travel: Where required, travel costs to and from Montreal at the beginning and at the end of the Programme will be provided at the lowest available applicable fare. The cost for one excess baggage (i.e. baggage in excess of the weight or volume carried without charge by transportation companies) will be covered up to a maximum of 25 kilograms.
  • Visa: ICAO will provide a letter of support to assist in obtaining the required visa.
Duration of Programme: Each Young Aviation Professional Officer position will be filled for twelve months.
How to Apply: : Interested candidates who meet the selection criteria are requested to submit their candidature by the closing date of 21 October 2016 by completing the online application form available at https://careers.icao.int. They must also attach a motivation letter summarizing: their professional achievements to date; their suitability for the Programme; their career aspirations in regulatory activities and/or the aviation industry; and the field of work for which they wish to be considered. Candidates should also indicate their preferred task(s) from the lists provided in Appendix A and Appendix B and explain why they have this interest.
It is important to visit the Programme Webpage before applying for this Internship
Award Provider: The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
Important Notes: Candidates who do not complete the online application and the motivation letter will not be given consideration.

Breaking Up Barriers to Peace in the Middle East

Cesar Chelala

Recently in Israel, collaboration among Israeli, Palestinian and American doctors saved the life of a Nablus teen. Jummana, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl, had been suffering from a rare but serious endocrine problem. Her Palestinian Authority doctors referred her to Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, where she was successfully operated. This was part of a new model of treatment called “Bring the Patient, Bring the Surgeon.”
Prof. Dov Tiosano, an Israeli pediatric endocrinologist, had examined Jummana and diagnosed a tumor related to a genetic disease resulting from consanguinity. Dr. Tiosano contacted a colleague in the U.S. National Institutes of Health who confirmed the diagnosis and contacted Prof. John A. van Aalst, director of the plastic surgery division at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital for advice as to the best place to have surgery on the Palestinian teen.
Prof. Van Aalst, who has strong professional connections with both Palestinian and Israeli doctors then suggested that the teen be operated at Rambam Medical Center. He considered that the safest, easiest and overall more convenient place for the operation. The interaction among Palestinian, Israeli and American doctors led to a successful outcome, which can be a learning experience for future similar cases.
While health initiatives alone cannot secure peace, particularly where political, cultural, psychological and religious tensions abound, they often serve as a useful point of contact between conflicting parties. Bi-national health programs have served to expand cooperation between divided peoples, demonstrating the power of citizens’ communication in hostile political environments.
During the 1980s, violent clashes between Nicaragua’s Contras and Sandinistas roused the interest of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO). As a result, PAHO implemented the “Health as a Bridge for Peace” strategy aimed at providing health care to populations living in war-torn areas in Latin America. Their work resulted in so-called “Days of Tranquility” in El Salvador and Peru, during which thousands of children were vaccinated against polio, diphtheria, whooping cough, tetanus and measles. Most notably, PAHO’S activities enjoyed the backing of government officials and rebel guerrilla forces. Concern for public health was a common ground.
The same approach has been used in the Middle East. Since its founding in 1988, the Association of Israeli-Palestinian Physicians for Human Rights has created two funds to address the medical neglect of Palestinian migrant workers’ children: The Palestinian Children’s Medical Care Fund and The Children of Foreign Workers Medical Fund. The organization also conducts training activities for Palestinian health professionals, and has become a leading advocate for health and human rights in the region. Since the 1993 Oslo Accords, several new health groups were created, which provided health services to the Palestinians.
Canada, Israel and Jordan have enjoyed a good amount of academic exchange, and Israelis and Palestinians have worked together on publications and scientific symposiums.
Cooperation is not limited now to the medical field. In music, two orchestras formed by Arab and Israeli musicians have been performing in several countries: one, the Orchestra for Peace, created by the Argentine musician Miguel Angel Estrella, and the other, the West-Eastern Divan orchestra co-founded by Daniel Barenboim, the Argentine born Israeli conductor and Edward Said, the late Palestinian-American professor. In addition, several individuals and small groups have been tirelessly trying through their work to increase the understanding between the two peoples.
One should add the exchange of other artists as well as teachers and students, technical personnel of different disciplines and sports idols playing on mixed teams of Israelis and Palestinians. I am proposing nothing short of a massive effort by both Israelis and Palestinains -which will surely find wide international support- to break down the psychological barriers separating their citizens. So much money has been spent in trying, vainly, to hurt the other side that a smaller effort could be devoted to creating an atmosphere conducive to peace.
Peace between Israelis and Palestinians will not be achieved overnight, but it is only through a massive effort involving the citizenry that reconciliation and cooperation can occur between both peoples. In a region plagued by mistrust, deep-rooted fear and violence, building citizen’s bridges is the best antidote to war. These actions, by themselves, will not bring a permanent solution to the conflict, but they will create the conditions that could make peace inevitable between Israelis and Palestinians.

Climate Change and Conflict

Foday Justice Darboe

As world leaders gather at the United Nations for the 72nd Regular Session of the UN General Assembly, this year’s theme is “Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet.” This theme is in contrast with President Trump’s “America First” policy, which emphasizes isolationism. This was evident in President Trump’s UN speech as well as his decision to leave the Paris Climate Accord, a framework designed to fight “atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases.” In one of his tweets in 2012, Donald Trump wrote, “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” Throughout the international scientific community, there’s widespread unanimity about the existence of anthropogenic climate change. Nevertheless, President Trump’s stance on climate change is obstinately rejecting a carbon consumption driver of rising sea-levels, more intense natural disasters such as forest fires, droughts, hurricanes and other threats.
Violence is a profound threat and it is likely exacerbated by climate chaos. Global warming as an important effect on civil conflicts has been recently debated by many scholars and policymakers. Scholars from backgrounds as diverse as economics, climate science, peace studies, and political science have explored the adverse effects of climate change and ecological changes on civil conflicts.
Undoubtedly, climate change is a problem that all countries have to struggle with, but the costs and benefits of rising global temperatures often differ across countries and regions. From severe floods across South Asia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, parts of the Gambia to hurricanes in the Caribbean, Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico, the effects of climate change, particularly natural disasters, rising sea-levels, and growing resource shortage are often quoted as the cause to loss of livelihood, economic decay, forced migration, and an increased uncertainty in some parts of the world.
Most reports on the effects of climate change imply that poor countries would endure the burden of climate change. For instance, in 2010, the Department of Defense first highlighted the security threat of global warming, as “an accelerant” for conflict. A study entitled, “Warming increases the risk of civil war in Africa,” presentedto the United States National Academy of Sciences suggests that rising temperatures in Africa have corresponded with substantial upturns in the possibility of civil conflict. Also, Ban Ki-moon, former U.N. Secretary-General once termed the conflict in Darfur, Sudan as the “world’s first climate change conflict.” Similarly, a study conducted by the Unites States Institute for Peace recognized a “basic causal mechanism” that “links climate change with violence in Nigeria.” It is believed that severe drought facilitated the instability in Nigeria, which was exploited by Boko Haram. In Syria, climate change is not the reason of the six-year civil war, nonetheless, ISIS is exploiting the country’s worst droughts, which displaced hundreds of thousands into extreme poverty and food insecurity. I am not insinuating that climate change creates terrorists, rather, the conditions in these countries helps terrorist groups to readily recruit and thrive. The supposition is that water scarcity, decreasing crop yields, advancing desertification and resource shortages from rainfall patterns stemming from climate change added to or exacerbated conflict in these countries.
President Trump’s position on climate change is unhelpful. The United States is among the biggest carbon polluters in the world, yet it is resigning from its global leadership position to mitigate the consequences climate change, which demands international cooperation. Without the Unites States’ commitment and global leadership to fight climate change it will unequivocally bring more uncertainty across the world. The “America first” policy, particularly leaving the Paris Climate Accord, could have an overwhelming impact on regions where dependence on farming and other climate sectors for production are way of livelihood. It also controverts the status of the United States in the international community. In cumulative terms, the United States has more to squander if the economic effects of climate change are not addressed. Are these worthy, pragmatic, ethical, or realistic risks?
In order to efficiently address the adverse effects of climate change on societies globally, a thorough approach is needed at both the local and international levels. The UN along with regional organizations must develop a framework for sustainable development and economic growth for communities that are most affected by the impact of climate change.
This framework ought to be centered on a low-carbon economy, that reduces both greenhouse gases and other climate pollutants to mitigate climate change and decrease threats to global security and prosperity.  

NATO’s Decomposing Corpse

Brian Cloughley

The UK’s Guardian newspaper is not supportive of those who advocate war, but is an equitable publication and its strictures on the chaos in Afghanistan have been measured and balanced, as have its comments on the situation in the Korean Peninsula.  It was even-handed about the US-NATO aerial blitz on Libya in a campaign that was ostensibly to protect the Libyan people but had more to do with the fact that the Libyan leader, Gaddafi, wouldn’t play ball with the oil cartels.
The message from the Guardian is that drum-banging war-loonies are a menace to the world and there are better ways to solve international problems than reaching robotically for the bombing option. (On September 19 Lt General Jeffrey Harrigian, commander of US Air Forces Central Command, proudly announced that he had “plussed up” the number of strike aircraft in Afghanistan (that is, incidentally, misspeak for “increased”) and that “our close-air support role continues and, as you look at the strategy coming forward, we’re actually right now working with General John Nicholson’s staff on how to best synchronize his advise-and-assist strategy going forward to optimize the placement of the air assets.” God knows what that gibberish means, but it’s going to involve a lot more bombing.)
The Guardian’s sensible approach makes it all the more surprising that it gave its front page on September 9 to headlining a lengthy interview with the secretary-general of the US-NATO alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, whose mission is to justify at any expense its existence and expansion. For example, he praises NATO’s futile fandangos in Afghanistan which involved troops from 24 of its 29 countries (Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece and Luxembourg wisely stayed out of it, and Iceland doesn’t have an army). The armed forces of these nations suffered over 3,000 killed in the hostile wilderness of Central Asia, but  this hasn’t stopped Poland deciding to send more troops to join its 200 who are there because “the Americans are with us in Poland and throughout NATO’s eastern flank, thus enhancing our security.” That must be real solace to the families of the forty Polish soldiers who died for nothing.
As observed by Canada’s former Chief of Defence Staff, General Rick Hillier, NATO in Afghanistan “started down a road that destroyed much of its credibility and in the end eroded support for the mission in every nation in the alliance . . .  Afghanistan has revealed that NATO has reached the stage where it is a corpse decomposing.” But Stoltenberg continues to fight for its existence and managed to persuade Trump that his initial accurate assessment that the alliance is ‘obsolete’ has suddenly and for absolutely no reason become obsolete.
Stoltenberg declared there are “converging threats as Russia mobilizes estimated 100,000 troops on EU’s borders,” and complained that “Russia has not opened any exercise to open observation since the end of the cold war”.
But then there’s some qualification about the figure of “100,000 troops.” Further down the page it says “an estimated 100,000 soldiers, security personnel and civilian officials, will be active around the Baltic Sea, western Russia, Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad, without the supervision required under international agreement.”  This is based on a report that “some Baltic states estimate that about 100,000 Russian troops will be involved in this year’s exercise and Poland claims the Kremlin has requisitioned more than 4,000 train carriages to move military personnel west.”
It is notable that the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania had a total of fourteen soldiers killed in NATO operations in Afghanistan, but their cooperation continues, and Newsweek reported that in May-June the US-NATO alliance conducted “Baltic Operations (BALTOPS) which gathered 55 aircraft, 50 ships and submarines and about 4,000 personnel from 14 nations, mostly members of NATO, to rehearse military maneuvers in the strategic European region.”
Russia stated there were to be fewer than 13,000 troops taking part in its exercise, which is the figure over which it is internationally agreed that “supervision” — in fact, simply visits to an exercise area by a handful of military observers — should take place.  What is not explained by Stoltenberg or the western media is that there were indeed fewer than 13,000 armed soldiers involved in the exercise itself — while, along the lines of communication, and in the rear areas and bases far from the exercise area there were many support elements which have large numbers of non-combat soldiers and civilians. The proportion of fighting to support troops can be as high as one to ten, when all the cooks and drivers and road-menders and rear area support personnel are counted.
As the Harvard Business Review explains, “In a war zone, some soldiers fight on the front lines. Others maintain supply chains, handle logistics, and otherwise support those front-line troops. Military commanders know they can’t let the tooth-to-tail (or combat-to-support) ratio get too low, or they’ll wind up with a force that costs too much and can’t win the battle.”
So there is a certain credibility in the claim that there were lots of people involved in Exercise Zapad 2017, but for Stoltenberg to claim that “Russia mobilizes estimated 100,000 troops on EU’s borders” is spurious claptrap.  “Mobilization” means the “act of assembling and putting into readiness for war or other emergency,” and Russia’s Exercise Zapad — which the US-NATO alliance is well aware is held every four years — was quite obviously not any where in that league.  Stoltenberg and his public relations empire realize that the public doesn’t know all the details, and they make sure that things stay that way. (Their use of the phrase “EU’s borders” is quite clever, propaganda-wise.)
The US-NATO propaganda organization in Brussels is known as the Public Diplomacy Division, described by one of its members as “a diverse division of nearly 100 people working in a fast-paced and complex environment, serving a wide variety of stakeholders.” It doesn’t let the taxpayers of member countries know the salaries of its officials (see the advertisement in The Economist for a “Director, NATO Information Office Moscow, Russia . . .   Salary not disclosed”), but they are part of the Civil Budget for 2017, amounting to an impressive € 234.4 million ($280 million), which is not part of the annual Military Budget of € 1.29  billion (1.5 billion US dollars), or just a bit less than the cost of the new NATO Headquarters palace in Brussels that attracted Trump’s derision.
Then “Stoltenberg said Nato had always offered up its exercises to scrutiny,” while “Russia has not opened any exercise to open observation since the end of the cold war”, which is a devious play with words.  The Wall Street Journal had already reported that “The North Atlantic Treaty Organization announced Wednesday [August 30] it would send three observers to Russia’s Zapad military exercise but said the invitation fell short of Moscow’s international obligations.”
If Stoltenberg really thinks that any country in the world is going to permit a foreigner — any foreigner at all, even an ally — to be present when, for example, new weapons or series of tactics are tried out, then he is a fool.  And he’s not a fool :  just devious and ambitious and intent on staying on the front pages of Western newspapers while scaremongering about Russia in an energetic and all too successful campaign to expand the obsolete US-NATO alliance and carry on bombing Afghans.
Canada’s military chief had it right when he said that “NATO has reached the stage where it is a corpse decomposing” — but the stink is expensive and dangerous.

Sri Lankan government passes IMF-backed tax bill

Kapila Fernando

The Sri Lankan parliament passed an amended Inland Revenue Bill on September 7, effectively implementing the dictates of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The vote, originally scheduled for August 25, was delayed after the government, fearing opposition from the working class, was forced to make various cosmetic changes.
The new version will become law on October 1 and go into force next April. While it incorporates more than 100 amendments, some members of parliament complained they were not given all the proposed changes. The purpose of the legislation is to extract direct taxes from workers, “self-employed” and small traders, while providing concessionary taxes for big business.
Under the previous version of the bill , non-resident s’ and residents ’ monthly income of 50,000 rupees ( $US328 ) was to be taxed at 4 percent , increasing up to 24 percent for those with a 250,000-rupee monthly income . The first threshold of the tax now has been raised to 100,000 rupees . M onthly interest in come of 125,000 rupees from pensioners ’ savings will be taxed. The previous propose d threshold was 100,000 rupees.
While t hese two changes were made to deflect opposition from workers , professionals and pensioners , o ther taxes impact ing on broader layers of the population remain. Pension funds above a lump sum of 2 million rupees , for example, will be subjected to taxes of between 5 to 10 percent , and taxes are imposed on those involved in drama, cinema and literature.
A low tax rate of 14 percent will be enjoyed by industries involved in agriculture, tourism, information technology and education and exports. Taxes on other business will be just 28 percent. This compares with India and Bangladesh, where the rates are 30 percent and 35 percent respectively.
Speaking to a big business gathering, State Minister of Finance Eran Wickramaratne boasted that Sri Lanka would have “some of the lowest rates, even compared to other Asian countries.”
The government pushed through its new tax law in order to receive $US190 million, the third instalment of an IMF loan.
Speaking in the parliamentary debate, Finance Minister Mangala Samaraweera claimed that “everyone over age of 18 will have a tax file according to the act but it doesn’t mean everyone will pay tax.” His reassurance is duplicitous, however, and implies that the government will target “everyone” in future.
In fact, Wickramaratne explicitly told his business meeting that “the government wants to widen the tax net and take money [levy taxes] from the people in proportion to their capacity to pay.” He continued: “Each citizen and each corporate entity should contribute by paying taxes to help the government’s effort to provide essential and vital services in education, health, transport, agriculture, technology, research and development, etc.”
Wickramaratne’s claims are a fraud. Against the backdrop of deepening global economic turmoil, the government is slashing spending in all these sectors and cutting subsidies to the poor in an attempt to place the burden of Sri Lanka’s growing debt onto the back of workers.
The new taxes, which fall most heavily on the poor, are aimed at boosting corporate profit while slashing the country’s fiscal deficit to 3.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) as demanded by the IMF.
An IMF review on July 27 praised the government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, but noted “high risks.” It demanded that the government speed up its “economic reforms,” including the “restructuring” and privatisation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs).
“The main external downside risk is the resumption of capital outflows in response to a significant further strengthening of the US dollar and higher rates, or due to a weakening of the external position,” the review declared.
One reason for the capital outflow, the IMF said, was the government’s “unproven commitment to exchange rate flexibility.” This is a reference to IMF concerns over the government intervening in the exchange market and selling dollar reserves to defend the rupee’s exchange rate.
Other risks included “further delays in revenue mobilisation and SOE reforms” and “the government’s large gross financing needs of which 40 percent is financed externally.”
The IMF has long demanded the restructuring of the Ceylon Electricity Board, the Petroleum Corporation, the ports and the Water Supply Board.
Successive governments, with muted support from the trade unions, have taken steps to privatise these state corporations by seeking to restructure them along the lines of Singapore’s Temasek “state holding corporation” or “wealth trust” model. Fearful of working-class resistance, these plans, however, have been delayed.
The IMF wants these “reforms” to be expedited, along with “energy pricing reforms”—i.e., increased fuel prices and electricity charges—in order to slash the debts of these corporations.
The international bank also warned that the “public debt is expected to rise slightly to 85 percent of GDP in 2017 due to a still large fiscal deficit and exchange rate depreciation.” It cautioned the government over the increasing trade deficit, which rose to $4.2 billion during the first four months of this year. If this trend continues, this year’s trade deficit could exceed last year’s and hit the $10 billion mark.
Remittances of Sri Lankan employees abroad declined by 7.2 percent during the first half of this year, compared to the same time last year. War tensions in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia-led moves against Qatar, have affected this income. Garment export earnings also declined by 5.32 percent. These are the country’s two main sources of foreign income.
Confronted with this escalating economic crisis and intensifying IMF demands, Colombo is preparing to deepen its attacks on the living and social rights of workers and the poor.
Cabinet ministers were recently briefed on budget allocations for 2018, which will be presented to parliament on November 9. The largest amount in the Appropriations Bill will be for the military. According to the Daily FT, the Ministry of Defence will receive 290 billion rupees (nearly $2 billion), a 6 billion-rupee increase from the last year's allocation of 284 billion.
The increase in military expenditure is no accident. It is in line with the government’s determination to crush all resistance to its class war attacks.

Cambodian government arrests opposition leader on treason charges

John Roberts

Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and his Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) government have intensified an ongoing crackdown against the country’s largest opposition party.
Kem Sokha, president of the right-wing, pro-Western Cambodian National Rescue Party (CNRP), was charged with treason on September 5, after being arrested on September 2.
The treason charge alleges “colluding with foreigners,” in effect with the United States, to destabilise the government. A conviction would mean a jail term of 15 to 30 years.
The government was rattled by the CNRP’s gains in June’s local elections. The arrest aims to weaken the opposition before the national elections set for next July. In the past year, over 20 opposition figures and government critics have been jailed.
The June poll for 1,646 communes saw the CNRP vote increase by 13.3 percentage points to 43.8 percent. The ruling CPP’s vote dropped 10.9 percentage points from previous local elections.
The CNRP won 489 commune chief positions, up from the previous 40, and 5,007 commune councillors, up by 2,052. The CPP’s commune chief posts fell from 1,592 to 1,156 and councillors from 8,292 to 6,505.
In national elections in 2013, the CNRP came close to toppling the Hun Sen government. The CPP had its seats in the 123-member National Assembly reduced from 90 to 68. The CNRP officially won 55 seats but claimed vote rigging deprived it of another eight seats.
While representing different factions of the ruling elites, the CPP and CNRP both support the transformation of Cambodia into a cheap labour platform for foreign investors. If the CNRP took office it would be just as ruthless as the CPP in suppressing the opposition of working people.
The CPP has ruled since it was installed in the wake of the Vietnamese 1979 invasion to oust the Khmer Rouge regime. It has been aligned for two decades with Beijing.
Washington has never accepted Phnom Penh’s pro-China orientation and organised a UN intervention in the country in 1992-1993. The Hun Sen regime was forced to allow in Western organisations and eventually establish trials of surviving Khmer Rouge leaders.
One Western organisation active in Cambodia has been the US-funded National Democratic Institute (NDI), which has been at centre of the treason charges levelled against Sokha. The NDI, which was founded in 1983 via the Congress-created National Endowment for Democracy, operates in 70 countries to promote US interests.
The opposition CNRP represents a section of the ruling elite, oriented toward Washington, that resents its exclusion from political and economic power by the CPP’s authoritarian rule. The US was involved in setting up the party in 2012 and, as Hun Sen had grown closer to Beijing, the CNRP remains Washington’s preferred political instrument.
In January 2016, when US Secretary of State John Kerry visited Phnom Penh, he met CNRP leaders as well as figures from the Cambodian Centre for Human Rights (CCHR), which Sokha founded and the US has supported.
In charging Sokha, the prosecutors have used a video of his address in 2013 to CNRP supporters in Australia. In it, Sokha described US assistance in forming the CCHR in 2002. He told his audience: “The US says that if you want to change the dictatorial leader, you cannot change the top, you need to change the bottom first—this is its democratic strategy.”
The government points to ongoing US intrigues. The NDI has been forced to withdraw its foreign staff from the country and end its programs. This followed a Facebook posting in mid-August that included a leaked NDI training video showing that the NDI was working with the CNRP on tactics to win the scheduled July elections.
On September 4 the government shut down the Cambodia Daily, which has criticised its policies. It also banned 15 radio stations involved with news and programs from the Voice of America (VofA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA), two other US-funded organisations set up to promote US foreign policy.
Hun Sen’s resort to police-state measures to undermine the opposition is bound up with government’s inability to make any appeal to working people on the basis of their democratic aspirations and social needs.
The CPP has cracked down on any opposition to pro-market policies. In 2013 and 2014 it used the security forces to suppress wage struggles involving 700,000 workers in the garment and footwear sectors. In the 2013 election, the CNRP sought to appeal to workers, while hiding its own commitment to the market and foreign investment.
To counter the CNRP last September, Hun Sen granted workers in these industries a 9 percent pay rise, to $US153 a month. This year at an August 27 meeting with 4,000 workers, he promised cheaper water and said employers would pay 100 percent of workers’ health care cover from January.
Hun Sen told the August meeting that just as in 1970 the US used military general Lon Nol to topple King Norodom Sihanouk, “now the Americans do this problem with Kem Sokha.”
Social inequality is continuing to widen. A study cited in the Phnom Penh Poston August 23 shows that $500 million flows annually into the countryside from the garment sector. However, only the better-off villagers benefit.
Some 90 percent of workers send most of their pay home to deal with family debts as the price of farm inputs rises. The workers living in urban areas struggle to survive on the remainder of the pay and many suffer from poor health.
The US backing for the CNRP has nothing to do with the democratic rights and social conditions facing working people in Cambodia. Washington is concerned that far from moving away from Beijing, Hun Sen is forming closer ties.
The Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies warned in May that Hun Sen “has moved to shrink ties with Washington and deepen relations with China.” It noted: “His actions to distance himself from the United States [suspending US military cooperation while increasing that with Beijing] appear intended to give Washington less leverage to voice criticism of his moves in the wake of the [recent] elections.”
China provides Cambodia with more than half of the 75 percent of foreign direct investment originating from outside the Association of South East Asian Nations. The largest Western investor is Britain, which supplies just 3 percent of that total.