Fiji government withdraws police powers bill, amid widespread opposition

John Braddock & Tom Peters

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama made the surprise announcement on March 16 that he would stop all public consultations on a Police Bill, which would replace the 1965 Police Act and vastly increase police powers. According to the Fiji Sun, he said the bill “does not represent government policy and will not be presented to parliament.”

Bainimarama said the bill had been “drafted and released unilaterally by the Fijian Police Force” without being cleared by Cabinet, and called it a “backwards step” that would “erode public trust in the Fijian Police Force.”

Fiji Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama

The backdown followed an outpouring of criticism. Civil liberties groups, NGOs, opposition parties, sections of the media and the Fiji Law Society condemned the bill, describing it as another step towards the transformation of Fiji into a police state. At a recent public consultation forum in Levuka, ordinary people also expressed opposition, with one villager asking: “Who will police the police?”

According to the Fiji Times, a forum participant asked whether the government would “send the police to arrest people who spoke against [the] government.” Defence Ministry manager for national security and policing, Joji Washington, replied, “every person has the right to say what they want to say about the government. But… if you abuse, annoy or assault a police officer then it’s an offence.”

The bill was designed to provide legal justification for the repressive actions of the regime, which, despite its veneer of “democracy,” rests directly on the military. Bainimarama was initially installed in a coup in 2006. The proposed law gave police sweeping new powers to secretly or forcefully enter any premises, seize personal property and place tracking devices. They would be able to secretly monitor and record the communications of people whom they suspect are about to commit a crime or have committed one.

Police would have been able to enter any designated “crime scene” and seize electronic devices and other evidence without a warrant. A crime scene is loosely defined as “any place where any offence is alleged or suspected to have been committed and where evidence may be found.”

Police, or “any other person authorised by any Police officer” could search any person or vehicle at, or in the “immediate vicinity” of, a crime scene. Police could use “reasonable force” on anyone who fails to comply, and anyone who resists can be jailed for up to five years.

The bill also contained regulations to protect the identities of informers and undercover police, including in court proceedings. Anyone who revealed the identity of protected informers or officers would face up to 20 years in prison.

Fiji Law Society President William Clark said the Police Bill “potentially affects fundamental human rights set out in the Constitution and international conventions, which Fiji has signed.” The wide scope of the proposed police powers, Clark added, is inconsistent with “values of respect for human rights, freedom and the rule of law.”

Withdrawal of the bill points to significant nervousness about rising anger among workers and rural villagers. It also suggests possible divisions in the government, about how best to deal with the escalating class tensions. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported, on March 18, that “Bainimarama did not explain how the government could be unaware of the draft bill, when Defence Minister Inia Seruiratu was at the launch of the public consultation process for the legislation.”

Bainimarama’s move is purely tactical and does not signal any let-up in the attacks on democratic rights and police brutality in Fiji. It is likely that the Police Bill will be reintroduced following some cosmetic changes. Bainimarama’s regime, like governments elsewhere, is using the coronavirus pandemic and threat of terrorism to ramp up existing authoritarian powers.

Provisions in the Crimes Act and the Public Order Act have previously been used to target journalists, activists and government critics. The Media Act has been used to attack press freedom and prosecute journalists.

Fiji’s police are infamous for their lawlessness and brutality. Last November, a public uproar over the violent death in custody of 46-year-old Mesake Sinu, in the course of an alleged beating, forced the acting police commissioner to condemn indiscipline among his own officers and order an investigation into Sinu’s death.

Figures from Fiji’s director of public prosecutions, obtained last year by the Guardian, revealed that 400 charges of serious violence were laid against police officers between 2015 and 2020. This included 16 charges of rape, two charges of murder and nine of manslaughter. More than 110 charges of assault were brought against officers.

Significantly, a former Fiji government advisor, Shailendra Raju, criticised the involvement of New Zealand’s Labour Party-led government in the Police Bill. Officials from the New Zealand High Commission attended its launch in Suva earlier this month and the NZ government funded the “consultation” process.

The NZ High Commissioner to Fiji, Jonathan Curr, defended Wellington’s involvement, writing on Twitter: “NZ is engaged in a 4-year strengthening programme with @fijipoliceforce, partnering with @UNDP_Pacific & @nzpolice to improve policing, and support Fiji to meet international human rights obligations.”

New Zealand, a minor imperialist power in the Pacific, is heavily involved with the Fiji police, spending $US5.4 million over four years on its operations. NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern signed off on the Bill’s funding deal during her visit to Fiji in February, 2020, which was designed to strengthen relations with the Bainimarama regime and push back against China’s growing influence in the Pacific region.

The prime role of Fiji’s police force, which is under the direct control of the military, is to suppress social opposition to intensifying poverty and inequality. Harsh austerity measures are being accompanied by the intimidation of opposition parties and the working class, while assemblies, protests and strikes are routinely banned.

The working class, meanwhile, is bearing the brunt of the worsening economic crisis. The tourism industry has collapsed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in the loss of 100,000 jobs. Half of the country’s 880,000 population is experiencing extreme financial hardship. Even before the pandemic, the minimum wage was just $FJ2.32 ($US1.12) per hour. An estimated 60,000 people suffer from diabetes, a poverty-related disease, and diabetes-related limb amputations account for 40 percent of all hospital operations.

The Bangladesh refugee camp inferno and capitalism’s global war on migrants

Peter Symonds

The horrific fire that swept through the massive Cox’s Bazar refugee camps in Bangladesh on Monday constitutes an indictment not only of the Bangladeshi authorities, but of capitalist governments around the world. From South Asia and Australia to Europe and the United States, governments, whether nominally “left” or openly right-wing, have subjected tens of millions of desperate and impoverished people fleeing oppression and poverty to barbaric persecution.

The blaze, whose cause remains under investigation, rapidly consumed squalid shanties that house a million Rohingya refugees who fled the murderous operations of the military in neighbouring Myanmar. The fire gutted some 10,000 dwellings as well as community centres, schools and other structures, leaving as many as 60,000 homeless and in need of food, water, shelter and medicine.

Rohingya refugee camp in flames in Balukhali, southern Bangladesh, Monday, March 22, 2021. The fire destroyed hundreds of shelters and left thousands homeless. (AP Photo/ Shafiqur Rahman)

As of this writing, 15 people are confirmed dead, but the number could rapidly rise as at least 400 people, mostly children, are still missing. Another 560 people were injured.

Barbed wire fencing surrounding the camps hindered people fleeing the fire and contributed to the terrible toll. Lack of water enabled the fire to spread unchecked until it was finally brought under control by firefighters some six hours later.

Bangladesh’s refugee commissioner, Shah Rezwan Hayat, had dismissed calls by international humanitarian agencies for the removal of the fences, absurdly claiming that their erection was “to ensure the safety and security of the Rohingya people.” In reality, the barbed wire surrounds what can only be characterized as a huge concentration camp, imprisoning hundreds of thousands of people without access to the most basic services, including clean water and sanitation.

The Bangladeshi government has treated the Rohingya refugees with outright hostility, tarring them as criminals and scapegoating them for the country’s lack of essential services. After attempting to block them from entering the country, then detaining them in shocking conditions in the Cox’s Bazar camps, it is now seeking to force them into permanent accommodation on Bhasan Char Island, an isolated, unstable, flood- and cyclone-prone mud flat, or compel them to return to Myanmar, with no guarantees for their safety.

More than 700,000 of the refugees currently in Bangladesh fled Myanmar in 2017 after the military launched systematic attacks on the Muslim Rohingya minority, carrying out murder, rape and the burning of villages. In 2018, Andrew Gilmour, the UN assistant secretary-general for human rights, characterized the military’s operations as “ethnic cleansing.”

Myanmar’s de-facto government leader at the time, Aung San Suu Kyi, who had been universally hailed in the West as an “icon of democracy,” defended the military’s atrocities, appearing at the International Court of Justice in 2019 to deny the irrefutable evidence of human rights abuses. Suu Kyi and her National League for Democracy, like the military, are mired in Burmese Buddhist chauvinism and brand the Rohingya as illegal immigrants, even though they have lived in the country for centuries.

Unlike the country’s other ethnic groups, the Rohingya have no citizenship rights and are thus reduced to the status of a stateless minority, not welcome in Myanmar, Bangladesh or anywhere else in the world.

The responsibility for this week’s terrible fire rests not just with the ruling elites in Bangladesh and Myanmar, but with the ruling classes around the world, which have shut their borders and vilified refugees and immigrants.

Not surprisingly, the blaze that swept through the Cox’s Bazar detention camps has been all but ignored in the US and international media. No offers of aid have come from Western governments to assist in rehousing, feeding and supplying medical care.

While the brutal treatment of the Rohingya in Myanmar is recognized as a crime against humanity, the victims are treated with indifference and contempt. Should they seek a better life in the advanced capitalist countries, they are met with guns, prison cells and detention camps.

The Rohingya are part of the surging tide of humanity forced to flee war, oppression and poverty produced by the deepening crisis of global capitalism. According to the latest UN statistics, dating from 2019, there are at least 79.5 million stateless people around the world, many of them confined in fetid, crowded refugee camps in economically backward countries like Bangladesh.

The callous treatment of the Rohingya by the Bangladeshi government is paralleled in countries around the world. The Biden administration is just as intent as was Trump in blocking the entry of refugees fleeing oppression and poverty in Latin America produced by more than a century of plunder by US imperialism. Those who reach the border, including some 15,000 unaccompanied children, are treated as criminals and locked up.

The European powers have instituted measures to police their land and sea borders, leading to mass drownings in the Mediterranean.

Australian governments pioneered the use of the Navy to block refugees by sea and indefinitely incarcerate arrivals in offshore detention centres. Thousands have been confined to remote Pacific islands for years, without any possibility of Australian residency even if granted refugee status.

The COVID-19 pandemic has greatly intensified the global crisis of capitalism and all its contradictions, accelerating the drive to war, the resort to police state measures and authoritarian and fascist forms of rule, and the relentless assault on the social position of the working class.

The toxic fumes of nationalism and xenophobia that are being whipped up by every ruling class are intended to turn explosive social tensions outwards—either by scapegoating some of the world’s most vulnerable people as “illegal aliens,” or beating the drums of war against an external enemy.

The failure of governments to recognize the basic democratic right to asylum is another demonstration that there is no constituency in ruling circles in any country for the defence of democratic rights.

The global pandemic, however, is producing an upsurge in the class struggle, as workers oppose the attempts by governments and corporations to force them to work in unsafe and unhealthy workplaces, and to accept deep inroads into their jobs, conditions and wages in order to boost profits.

As the world hurtles towards war and economic disaster, workers need to reject the poison of nationalism and racism, unite their struggles internationally, and defend the rights of every section of working people, including the millions of refugees being persecuted across the globe.

Two deaths in Australia’s floods as poor government planning exposed

Oscar Grenfell

Floods that have swept across Australia’s east coast since the weekend have claimed their first victims, with the tragic death yesterday of a 25-year-old worker in Sydney and the discovery of the body of a 38-year-old man on Queensland’s Gold Coast.

Large swathes of New South Wales (NSW), Australia’s most populous state, and south-eastern Queensland were struck by record rainfalls that began last week and persisted until late Tuesday. Deluges then occurred in Victoria and Tasmania on Wednesday as the storm system shifted south.

A boat is loaded back onto its trailer on a flooded road at Old Pitt Town, north west of Sydney, Australia, Sunday, March 21, 2021. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)

Some 40,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since Sunday. While some have been able to return as waters have subsided, thousands remain in hotels and evacuation centres. With relief operations in early stages, an untold number of properties have been damaged or rendered uninhabitable.

Flood waters from the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers, northwest of Sydney, are not expected to recede until the weekend, meaning areas of the city remain affected. Parts of the NSW mid-north coast remain submerged. Other regional and rural areas continue to be affected by swollen rivers.

It has become clear that the scale of the flooding is not merely a natural phenomenon, but the outcome of government policy, including the encouragement of housing construction on flood plains and a lack of disaster planning.

Troubling questions have emerged about yesterday’s fatality in Sydney. The victim, Ayaz Younus, was a young migrant worker from Pakistan who was travelling to his first day of work for a contract construction company.

Younus was driving along Cattai Ridge Road in the north-western suburb of Glenorie when his car entered floodwaters. Unable to open the door or the windows, potentially because of a failure of the car’s electric system, he called emergency services. Younus was on the phone to them for up to 45 minutes, as the car sank into 10 metres of water, without police or rescuers arriving. When his body was later found, police said the car’s interior showed signs of “someone fighting for their life to get out.”

Information remains scanty, including about why it took emergency services so long to arrive. Police, however, revealed that a floodgate meant to indicate the closure of the road was completely underwater.

Road signs submerged in Penrith, north west of Sydney (Wikipedia)

In comments to Nine News last night, an anonymous local resident said an almost identical incident had taken place on Monday morning. One of his neighbours “was up moving stuff to higher ground in his bobcat” and saw that a ute was trapped in water on the same corner of the road where Younus later perished. The driver of the ute, who had been stuck in the vehicle for around an hour, was rescued by residents using the bobcat.

The apparent absence of basic safety measures on a road in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, points to the shambolic character of the response to natural disasters.

David Hornman, the man who died on the Gold Coast, was also killed after his vehicle was subsumed by floodwaters. Dozens of other cases of motorists being trapped in their cars have been reported in the media.

Residents of Penrith, a major Sydney suburb, were given just half an hour’s notice to evacuate on Sunday, and were told that if they failed to leave they would risk being stranded in floodwaters without electricity or running water. Similar hasty evacuations occurred on the mid-north coast, leaving some residents no time to move their belongings to higher ground. This was days after the authorities were aware that large-scale flooding was likely.

Despite a spate of natural disasters, and promises from state and federal governments, Australia still has no national agency responsible for coordinating the response to such events. The issue came to centre stage after the 2019–20 bushfires, when official inaction amid some of the worst blazes in decades contributed to 30 deaths and the destruction of more than 2,500 homes.

A royal commission, which white-washed the government negligence, recommended the creation of a national disaster relief agency. More than a year on from the fires, however, the federal Liberal-National government’s “National Resilience, Relief and Recovery Agency” exists only in an online statement announcing it would be established sometime in 2021.

As a result, State Emergency Services, overwhelmingly staffed by volunteers, are the primary frontline responders to disasters. As in the bushfire catastrophe, the Australian Defence Force is being mobilised, underscoring the lack of civilian emergency resources and ongoing attempts to normalise the domestic deployment of the military.

The impact of the flooding on the outskirts of Sydney has highlighted the encouragement by successive NSW state governments, Labor and Liberal alike, of housing construction on floodplains.

There are already some 70,000 residents on the flood plain of the Hawkesbury and Nepean rivers. Despite the catastrophe that is still underway, the NSW Liberal government has signaled it will continue with plans for the population there to be increased to 130,000 by 2050.

Hawkesbury River engulfs Windsor Bridge north west of Sydney (Wikipedia)

Government ministers have floated a 17-metre heightening of the walls of Warragamba Dam, Sydney’s main water supply, which overflowed onto the plain this week. Experts said this would not lessen the dangers but only seek to legitimise the building plans.

The government proposal was a “really silly idea,” Professor James Pittock, a waterways expert at the Australian National University (ANU) told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. “I would argue that the best approach is to prevent development on the flood plains … use that land for agriculture, and recreation and nature conservation. But don’t put more houses there.”

The NSW government’s Floodplain Development Manual, distributed to local councils, which are responsible for building approvals, encourages construction on floodplains. “The policy recognises the benefits of use, occupation and development of flood-prone land,” it states. “Flood-prone land is a valuable resource that should not be sterilised by unnecessarily precluding its development.”

This is simply the line of the property developers and construction companies. Its sole purpose is to continue the bonanza for them resulting from government tax incentives, cheap credit and virtually no regulation. This has contributed to soaring housing prices, which have driven many workers and the poor to the furthest reaches of the city, including the floodplains. Annual household insurance premiums in such areas are as high as $30,000, so thousands of flood victims are not insured, and face a financial crisis.

The dangers resulting from this subordination of public safety to profit interests are intensified by the growing frequency of catastrophic weather events. For some of those affected, such as on the mid-north coast, the floods are the fourth natural disaster they have experienced in a year, following two bushfire seasons and a drought.

Experts have warned that such extreme weather events will become more common as a result of climate change. The dangers were spelled out in an article published on the Conversation by Joelle Gergis, an ANU professor who is preparing a report for the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Gergins explained: “The recent flooding in New South Wales is consistent with what we might expect as climate change continues. Australia’s natural rainfall patterns are highly variable. This means the influence climate change has on any single weather event is difficult to determine; the signal is buried in the background of a lot of climatic ‘noise.’ But as our planet warms, the water-holding capacity of the lower atmosphere increases by around 7 percent for every 1 degree of warming. This can cause heavier rainfall, which in turn increases flood risk.”

Every Australian government over the past two decades has rejected calls for a substantial cut to carbon emissions and other measures to tackle global warming, in line with their defence of the capitalist interests responsible for the environmental crisis.

Facebook threatens teachers’ groups opposing unsafe school reopenings

Kevin Reed

On Monday and Tuesday, Facebook threatened two groups—Illinois Refuse to Return and Educators Rank and File Safety Committee—with being shut down for sharing information that is opposed to the unsafe reopening of schools amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

The Facebook threat was sent to administrators of the two groups in the form of a “Group Quality” communication. The message contained “Warnings” about a post by a group member that had been removed because it “goes against our Community Standards on misinformation that could cause physical harm.”

This Oct. 23, 2019, file photo shows Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifying before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)

The warning also stated that the approval of the member’s post by administrators was considered an “Admin violation” and, if further instances occur of such violations, “we may disable your group.”

The group member who posted the comment in the two groups was World Socialist Web Site writer Benjamin Mateus. Mateus was also notified that this post was considered a violation of Facebook’s Community Standards and that it had been removed.

Benjamin Mateus is the pseudonym used by a practicing physician in the US with extensive clinical experience. Over the past year, he has written dozens of articles on the coronavirus pandemic for the World Socialist Web Site and exposed, on the basis of science, the manipulation of data about COVID-19 by corporations and the government to justify the premature and deadly reopening of businesses and schools.

Mateus shared his post on Illinois Refuse to Return on Monday and Educators Rank and File Safety Committee on Tuesday. The post exposed the use by the US Congress and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) of a study coauthored by Brown University economist Emily Oster that justified the loosening of guidelines and claimed that children are not at high risk for COVID-19.

The full text of the post is as follows:

“A person like Emily Oster who has been advocating right wing fashion for schools to open and repeatedly getting it wrong who has no training in public health and infectious diseases should be a red flag for the CDC to use her study. This is no better than the hydroxychloroquine hype promoted by the flawed French researcher to treat COVID-19. Yet, the CDC and congress put on a deadly show for all Americans and teachers. ‘We will manipulate statistics and promote bad data and sell it as sound science to get you back in the classrooms!’”

On Tuesday, when Mateus posted the message to the Educators Rank and File Safety Committee group, he received a message that the comment was removed, and his account had been suspended for 24 hours for two violations of Facebook Community Standards. Suspension of a Facebook account permits a user to log into the social media platform and view content but removes the ability to post comments, share links, “like” other posts or engage with the content in any way.

The administrator of the Educators Rank and File Safety Committee then received a message from Facebook regarding “Benjamin Mateus’s Violation History” saying that a 30-day mandatory “Post Approval” had been turned on for his activity within the group.

A further explanation from Facebook said, “An admin or moderator will have to review anything Benjamin posts during this time.” The options for the admins or moderators included muting, removing or blocking the user.

The actions against Benjamin Mateus are part of a massive operation by Facebook to censor and control the content on its platforms.

On Monday, Facebook announced that it had identified 1.3 billion accounts as “fake” and disabled them between October and December 2020. In a Newsroom blog post from Facebook VP of Integrity Guy Rosen entitled “How We’re Tackling Misinformation Across Our Apps,” the social media corporation provided details about its response to “fake accounts, deceptive behavior, and misleading and harmful content.”

In his blog post—which was published first on the website of the data intelligence company Morning Consult—Rosen writes that Facebook is taking a hard line and blocking “millions of fake accounts each day.” He adds that Facebook also investigates and takes down “covert foreign and domestic influence operations” that are based on fake accounts and that “over the past three years, we’ve removed over 100 networks of coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB) from our platform.”

Rosen says that Facebook has “built teams and systems to detect and enforce against inauthentic behavior tactics.” As part of this infrastructure, Rosen explains that the company has “built a global network of more than 80 independent fact-checkers, who review content in more than 60 languages.” In total, Rosen writes that Facebook has more than 35,000 people addressing “misinformation” on its platforms.

As Rosen indicates, the publication of this information by Facebook is timed to coincide with hearings being held by the House Energy and Commerce Committee on March 25 on the subject of social media’s role in “promoting extremism and disinformation.” Even though his blog post was very much issued as a public relations statement, Rosen never gets around to explaining precisely what is meant by “misinformation,” “inauthentic behavior,” “harmful content” or “fake accounts.” Moreover, he does not elaborate on the nature and activity of the “covert domestic influence operations.”

In any case, if it is true that 1.3 billion user accounts were shut down by Facebook as “fake” over a three-month period in 2020, this is an extraordinary admission. It would mean that the number one social media company in the world has disabled a quantity of user accounts that is equal to one half of its reported worldwide monthly total active users (2.7 billion).

Rosen’s report follows by one week the announcement by Facebook VP of Engineering Tom Alison about “ongoing work to keep Groups safe.” Facebook Groups are a social media arena for friends and acquaintances to gather virtually and share information and content of common interest. Some groups are “public” and can be joined by any Facebook user while others are “private,” and members must be admitted into the space by Group administrators.

Alison says that Facebook has “taken action to curb the spread of harmful content” and to make it harder “for certain groups to operate or be discovered, whether they’re Public or Private. When a group repeatedly breaks our rules, we take it down entirely.”

The action taken by Facebook includes throttling content posted by some groups by changing recommendation algorithms and blocking it from spreading or becoming viral. In line with the announcement by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last January that the company was launching an effort to “depoliticize” its platforms, Alison says that “we recently removed civic and political groups, as well as newly created groups, from recommendations in the US.”

Other techniques being used on Groups, Alison explains, is to impede users from joining groups and limiting the number of member invitations that can be sent. Alison also says that administrators and moderators will be forced to “approve all posts when that group has a substantial number of members who have violated our policies or were part of other groups that were removed for breaking our rules.”

Additionally, “When someone has repeated violations in groups, we will block them from being able to post or comment for a period of time in any group. They also won’t be able to invite others to any groups and won’t be able to create new groups.”

Although Rosen and Alison do not explain it, Facebook has shifted its focus on “misinformation” and “harmful content” from the 2020 US elections to combatting “false claims about COVID-19.” In this, the social media monopoly makes no distinction between right-wing pandemic and vaccine conspiracy theories and the growing opposition within the working class to the push by the financial elite, the corporations and the Democrats and Republicans to reopen schools and force people back into workplaces.

International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) Postdoctoral Fellowship 2021

Application Deadline: 2nd April 2021

About the Award: The Alliance is seeking to employ an early-career researcher to strengthen our social science capacity in the Africa region. His/her research is expected to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the potential for improved forages to be adopted by farmers with different production objectives and of different resource endowment, age and gender. We expect the researcher to establish the most promising scaling pathways in different geographies and policy contexts and identify the overarching elements of these pathways across the region.

Responsibilities

• Review and summarise data and literature on forage piloting, adoption and scaling.
• In a participatory way, formulate a comprehensive theory of change, with impact pathways targeting different actors along the forage value chain (seed producers and traders, different types of livestock keepers and feed producers, extension services, development practitioners, policy actors).
• Design and implement a robust research framework to test scaling hypotheses and assumptions along the different impact pathways.
• Monitor progress towards outcomes and impacts in different countries and (iteratively) refine the theory of change.
• Draw general and country-specific gender-disaggregated lessons for future scaling activities.
• Publish results for different audiences, e.g. as peer-reviewed articles, policy briefs, factsheets, info notes, blogs.

Type: Research

Eligibility:

• Advanced degree in Anthropology, Agricultural Economics, Rural Development or related field
• PhD or MSc with minimum 5 years post-MSc experience in related fields
• Thorough knowledge of quantitative and qualitative research methods in the area of impact assessment and scaling
• Thorough knowledge of experimental design and modern statistical analysis
• Good understanding of smallholder farming systems in the tropics
• Excellent English communication skills, both written and oral, for diverse audiences, knowledge of Swahili is an added advantage.
• Willingness to travel as needed

Eligible Countries: Individuals in the countries below

To be Taken at (Country): This is a nationally recruited position based in Nairobi, Kenya or Kawanda, Uganda.

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value & Duration of Award: The contract will be for a one-year period, subject to a probation period of three (3) months and is renewable depending on performance and availability of resources. The Alliance offers a multicultural,
collegial research environment with competitive salary and excellent benefits; we believe that the diversity of our staff contributes to excellence. The Alliance is an equal opportunity employer, and strives for staff diversity in gender and nationality.

How to Apply: Applicants are invited to visit http://ciat.cgiar.org/ciat-jobs to get full details of the position and to submit their applications. Applications MUST include reference number FR-2839-Postdoctoral Social Scientist as the position applied for. Applications should be saved as one document using the candidate’s lastname, firstname for ease of sorting.

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

UNEP-CTCN Adaptation Fund Climate Innovation Accelerator 2021

Application Deadline: 30th April 2021

About the Award: The primary objective of the AFCIA administrated by UNEP-CTCN is to support developing countries to test, evaluate, roll out and scale up innovative adaptation practices, products and technologies. Based on technical assistance services, 25 micro-grants projects will be implemented for 5 years to enhance climate resilience and adapt to climate change in the countries. Moreover, the AFCIA will facilitate knowledge sharing and the exchange of best practices, strengthening opportunities of South-South and triangular cooperation on innovation in adaptation among the countries.

Eligible Field(s): The following three elements will be considered in identifying and assessing innovation in adaptation technologies.

• A new, existing or improved technology
• A hard or soft technology:
• A scalable technology

* Soft technology: capacity and processes involved in the use of technology, knowledge and skills, etc.

  Innovation in adaptation technology – 3 elements

Type: Contest

Eligibility: The AFCIA will provide small grants to developing countries to support innovation for effective, long-term adaptation to climate change and is part of the Adaptation Fund’s Innovation Facility (please click here for more information). UNEP-CTCN will conduct technical assistance, implementing micro-grants projects in developing countries on a competitive basis.

Eligible Countries: The eligible countries in the AFCIA include developing countries in Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America and Caribbean under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) that do not have National Implementing Entities (NIEs) accredited with the Adaptation Fund (114 countries in total as of 26 June 2020). Among them, priority will be given to Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS). A list of eligible countries including LDCs and SIDS is presented in the Link below

Number of Awards: 25 micro-grants projects

Value of Award: up to USD 250,000 each.

How to Apply:

An applicant (e.g. government, non-governmental organisation, community group, young innovator and other groups) should fill in a Technology Concept Submission Form (English, Spanish  or French  version). The applicant is required to develop an application in close consultation with its national focal points to the Adaptation Fund (Designated Authority) and the CTCN (National Designated Entity, NDE). It is also acceptable to develop an application in which multiple countries engage.

The application should be endorsed by the Designated Authority and the NDE of the country prior to official submission. The Designated Authority of the country needs to confirm the following statement included in the application template by checking a box next to the statement.

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Absa Fellowship Programme 2021

Application Deadline: Not specified

About the Award: The Fellowship aims to:

• Advance education
• Drive transformative collaboration
• Develop capable leadership
• Facilitate progressive thinking

The Absa Fellowship journey will coincide with the duration of a student’s undergraduate studies, with candidates ultimately emerging as private or public sector leaders in their chosen industries; able to actively shape their societies, promote sustainability and bring possibility to life in ways that the world hasn’t seen before.

Type: Undergraduate

Eligibility:

• A catalyst for change
• Brave and ready to embrace possibility
• Ethical and socially conscious
  • Studying towards an undergraduate degree in:
  1. Science
  2. Technology
  3. Engineering
  4. Creative Arts
  5. Mathematics
  6. Humanities (Social Sciences)
  7. Digital/Data Design
• A strong student with a matric average of 65% or more
• Between the age of 18 and 25 years
• Entering the first year of tertiary studies, with provisional or full acceptance from Absa’s pre-selected universities.

Eligible Countries:

Seychelles
• South Africa
• Mozambique
• Tanzania
• Botswana
• Kenya
• Zambia
• Uganda
• Mauritius
• Ghana

To be Taken at (Universities): Provisional or final acceptance from one of the following universities:

• University of Johannesburg
• University of the Witwatersrand
• University of Pretoria
• University of Kwa-ZuluNatal
• University of Cape Town
• University of Stellenbosch

Number of Awards: Not specified

Value of Award: The Absa Fellowship Programme is much more than an ordinary scholarship or bursary initiative. While successful candidates will receive financial support towards their academic studies, they are expected to actively participate in a specially curated leadership development programme created by Absa.

The following will be covered:

Academic costs

• Full tuition
• Accommodation
• Laptop
• Textbooks & Educational equipment
• Monthly stipend
• Meal allowance

Leadership programme

• Travel (if required)
• Learner modules and guides
• Online lectures and assessments
• Emotional wellness check-in sessions, academic tutoring and mentoring 

The Fellowship will provide a platform for participants to “engage the world to change the world” by creating their own content and posing their own questions. The Fellowship will also offer an involved emotional and academic wellness support structure.

How to Apply:

• Applicants need to apply online.
• Applicants need to ensure that the application form is filled out correctly, in full and in English.
• ALL necessary documents are to be uploaded. You will not be able to complete the application process if mandatory documents are not uploaded.

Apply now

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

Mandela Rhodes Scholarships 2022

Application Deadline: 20th April 2021

Eligible Countries: open to citizens of all African countries

To be taken at (country): South African universities or tertiary institutions

About Scholarship: The Mandela Rhodes Scholarships Programme is a combination of financial support for postgraduate studies and a high quality leadership development programme, with the intention to build exceptional leadership capacity in Africa.

A Mandela Rhodes Scholarship enables a Scholar to study at a South African tertiary institution registered with the South African Council on Higher Education for an accredited postgraduate degree programme. The Scholarship is awarded for one or a maximum of two years, currently for an Honours or Masters degree.

Areas of Study: The leadership development programme is made up of the following three components.

• Three residential workshops
• Three regional group pods
• Mentoring

Type: Masters

Eligibility and Selection Criteria

• The Scholarship is open to citizens of all African countries
• The Scholarship is for postgraduate study at South African universities or tertiary institutions
• Full funding is for Honours (maximum one year) or Masters (up to a maximum of two years) or their equivalents (MBA’s excluded)
• Any individual who will be between the ages of 19 and 30 years at the time of taking up the Scholarship may apply
• Applicants must posess a first degree or its equivalent or must be in the process of completing one by 31 January 2021
• Applicants should have a history of well above average academic results
• Individuals that reflect in their character a commitment to the four principles of Education, Reconciliation, Leadership and Entrepreneurship
• The MRF leadership development activities sometimes include weekends. It is a condition of the Scholarship that attendance is compulsory

Number of Scholarships: Several

Value of Scholarship: The Scholarship covers the cost of a Scholar as follows:

• Tuition and registration fees as set by the institution;
• A study materials allowance as set by the MRF;
• Accommodation and meal allowances as set by the MRF;
• A medical aid allowance as set by the MRF;
• Economy-class travel allowance for international Scholars only from the Scholar’s home to their institution at the beginning and back home at the end of their degree programme;
• Personal allowance.

Duration of Scholarship: Full funding is for Honours (maximum one year) or Masters (up to a maximum of two years)

How to Apply: All Mandela Rhodes Scholarship applicants are to apply online via the Embark application system.

• It is important to go through all application requirements on the Programme Webpage (see link below) before applying

Visit Scholarship Webpage for details

Learn Africa Canary Islands Scholarship Program 2021

Application Deadline: Varying

Type: Postgraduate degree & Short course

Eligibility:

• Be a woman and have the nationality of an African country.
• Be enrolled in an African university or have a university degree issued in an African country. The degree required may vary depending on the scholarship requested (see detailed information of each scholarship)
• Have a stable internet connection and the appropriate technical equipment (computer, laptop, tablet …). All courses are online.
• Fulfill the specific requirements and have the technical/technological material required for each scholarship
• Up to three scholarship applications per person are accepted, but you only have to fulfill and submit one application form. On this form you can mark up a maximum of three courses, selected in order of preference.

Selection Criteria: A committee of experts from the “Women for Africa Foundation” and Canarias Islands Government will make a first evaluation of all the candidatures on the basis of all the documents received.

In particular, the following documents will be taken into account:

• CV
• Languages

The final selection will be agreed with each of the participating universities and the results will be personally communicated to each of the selected candidates.

The decision will not be personally communicated to unsuccessful candidates.

Eligible Countries: African countries

To be Taken at (Universities):

• ULPGC – Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canarias
• ULL – Universidad de La Laguna
• ESSSCAN – Escuela de Servicios Sanitarios y Sociales de Canarias
• FGULL – Fundación General de La Laguna
• FULP – Fundación Universidad de las Palmas
• ITC – Instituto Tecnológico Canario

Number of Awards: 66

• 2 Postgraduate courses
• 45 language courses
• 19 specialised short courses

Value of Award: These scholarships of online modality cover registration, tuition fees and issuance of the degree obtained.

How to Apply: To apply for Learn Africa Canarias scholarships you do not have to register on the platform.

You only have to consult the available scholarships and click on the button “Apply”. A form will be opened and you will have to fill in all your details and attach the requested documents. We suggest you read the form in detail and have all the information requested prepared before completing it. All available courses are listed in the form and you can mark up to a maximum of three options, selected in order of preference.

Important: before submitting the application form, please check all the information, because once the application has been sent it cannot be changed.

• It is important to go through all application requirements in the Award Webpage (see Link below) before applying.

Visit Award Webpage for Details

2021: A Global Pandemic, New Wars, and New Refugees

John Clamp

It’s been a tough year for the world’s refugees. The Covid-19 pandemic has hit them hard, and not just because refugees represent a vulnerable, often closely-packed cohort. Governments the world over have pressed the pause button on their societies, imposing lockdowns and strict rules of association that even those with their own homes and stocked larders have found hard to endure Migrants and asylum seekers have all too often been left out in the cold.

For refugees, the crisis has been yet another existential challenge to add to the many they have already endured. Government departments, non-governmental organizations, aid agencies, and all those who support the refugee and migrant populations in their own countries, have inevitably had to curtail their operations to follow pandemic protocols. Asylum seekers labouring to support their families have been unable to work. Vital community help such as winter clothing handouts have been curtailed.

The Mediterranean has been a sea of death and despair, with new and more dangerous routes taking extra lives. Attempts to bypass Greece from Turkey and sail to Italy instead have brought a higher risk to poorly prepared and overloaded vessels. ‘Pushbacks’ at sea are on the rise.

Meanwhile, a new breed of coyotes are exploiting the desperation of many Africans to escape violence and poverty and make something of their lives. The mid-Mediterranean crossing from Libya northwards can be extremely hazardous at this time of year, with frequent and dangerous storms just off the north African coast. 39 people drowned when their boat capsized off Kerkennah Island just a week ago. But for the efforts of the Tunisian coastguard, a further 134 would certainly have perished. An average of three people a day are currently dying on the crossing from North Africa to Europe.

Conflicts in Ethiopia, Central African Republic, Yemen, and elsewhere have flared up in the past twelve months, while ongoing tragedies continue to generate streams of destitute civilians fleeing random violence in Afghanistan, Somalia, Syria, and South Sudan. Refugee emergencies are afflicting Burundi, Nigeria, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Impoverished Venezuelans still stream across the nation’s borders. Rohingya continue to be oppressed in Myanmar, especially since the coup d’état, and there’s no sign of and end to the plight of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.

Refugee reception centres are being set up in Thailand, close to its long, porous border with Myanmar, for people fleeing death and oppression by the China-backed junta. Karenni villagers, members of an ethnic group which had negotiated peace with Aung San Suu Kyi’s government, are once again being shelled, shot, and raped by a now-unrestrained Tatmadaw, Myanmar’s gangsterized military.

In Afghanistan, there’s been a surge in violence as parties jostle for leverage before the Americans’ slated departure on May 1 this year, while in Syria, winter storms and renewed violence in the north have heaped despair on vulnerable refugees unable to cross into Turkey.

We can only hope that 2021 brings some hope and perhaps a little peace to these many war-torn regions.

Berlin Bulletin: Scandals, Elections, Emergencies!

Victor Grossman

Germany, once viewed as an exaggerated model of exactitude and discipline, is currently in a muddle.

Above all it’s the Covid mess. Seen last spring as a model of swift, effective response, Germany is now torn by controversy, with its sixteen states and dozens of politicians squabbling about when to send which kids (if any) back to school, the 1st, 5th or 9th graders, with or without masks, with or without self-testing. Shopkeepers and restaurant owners protest: “When can we open our doors or at least serve outdoor tables?” But if they can open in April, why can’t hotels do the same? What about the tourist trade? At Easter but mostly in the summer huge waves of Germans surge toward the surf at the Baltic and North Sea but especially the warmer waters (and mostly hotter nightlife) along Mediterranean coasts in Spain, Turkey, the Balearics. What about theater people and musicians, solo or in ensemble? Or the sex workers, also solo or in legal establishments known as “Eros Centres”? All are clamoring for more government funds for survival.

All hopes were based on vaccines, first for old folks and medical staffs. But who next? Teachers, cops? Secretive arrangements for vaccine purchases were in turmoil, both financially and medically. Just as Europe seemed to be under control there were unpleasant rumors about AstraZeneca shots. Then the Minister of Health announced an “All clear, (nearly) all safe.” But some of the unvaccinated masses, skeptical anyway, decided against penetration of their arm muscles.

Some people joined motley groups marching on weekends to claim the whole virus story was phony, aimed at curtailing freedoms, increasing world power of Bill and Melinda Gates, or compelling world vaccination. Some threw in QAnon accusations or carried rightist flags. Often rejecting legally-required distancing and masks they occasionally got dragged away and registered by masked (often visored) police. Guesses were on as to where such groups would head politically, right, left, up or down.

A new question arose, hitherto unthinkable: might Germany copy India, Mexico, Hungary, Slovakia and others and resort to Russian vaccines – or even Chinese ones?!

Into this Kuddelmuddel (a nice German word hardly requiring translation) plopped some scandals, nice juicy ones, though without the erotic edges of many in the USA, unless you include pedophilia cover -up scandals now embarrassing the Catholic Church in Cologne, their malodour defying  the fabled eau-de perfumes of that city.

But these scandals, despite their party names, did not rip into the poor church but into its close allies, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister, the Christian Social Union (CSU). Two legislators’ hands were caught deep in the cookie jar – contracts for supplying anti-virus face masks. It seems that they were moved so deeply by early shortages that they used their business connections, cultivated despite public service in the Bunderstag, to arrange very lucrative deals from friendly producers. Friendly enough for little “Thank you” gestures for the sales – 250,000 euros for Nikolas Löbel, 35, CDU, and 660,000 for Georg Nüsslein, 52, CSU.

Of course, party leaders were “totally shocked” at such nefarious doings, almost inconceivable for members of their double party which has been foremost in running Germany for all these years. They hastened to undo the damage, ejecting the two from their Bundestag seats and demanding that all their colleagues swear in writing – by the following Friday – that they were not involved in any such bribery (at least not in Covid connected business). All of them solemnly signed.

But before the ink had quite dried another CSU man, this time in the state legislature (luckily not again in the Bundestag ), was also caught. Alfred Sauter, 71, once Minister of Justice in Bavaria, was unable to account properly for the handy sum of 1,200,000 million – also for overcharged face-masks! As yet unclarified: how much went into his pockets, how much to his party, how much was not paid in taxes. All three gentlemen had to resign from their party and all posts, but will hardly face greater harm than to their reputations – if that.

Scandals were not new to the Federal Republic. But this one had an almost comical side, hitting just days before two important elections, in a year to be studded with elections. Despite almost frantic assurances that only a few “bad apples” had been involved, the CDU got hit hard twice, not only due to the scandals, no doubt, but also to dismay about the Covid mess and growing woes and fears of current and potentially future jobless, moneyless, maybe homeless persons when (and if) the disease has run its course. Then too, in both state elections a key role was played by personalities.

Rheinland-Pfalz (or Rhineland-Palatinate in English) is known for three things. In Mainz, its capital, Johannes Gutenberg printed his famous Bible and initiated printing in Europe. Trier was the birthplace of Karl Marx. And Martin Luther’s epochal refusal to recant, getting the Reformation going against the Catholic Church (thus already under attack way back in 1521) was at a meeting, named for the town, deliciously called the Diet of Worms. In the March election its present-day celebrity, Malu Dreyer – she’s a Social Democrat – is so well-liked by her constituents, less for party policies than for her friendly, down-to-earth way of chatting with them, that in a race with many participants she won with almost 36%, leaving the once-proud CDU with only 27.6%, their worst result in that state’s history, and affording them five years to digest what might be called a new “diet of worms”.  Malu, as she is often called, will almost certainly continue her coalition with the Greens, weak here, and the even more business-friendly Free Democrats. Since their symbol-color is yellow, and Malu’s SPD claims red, this is called a traffic light coalition – red-yellow-green.

In neighboring Baden-Württemberg the leading personality – and only Green premier in Germany – is the elderly Winfried Kretschmann, 72, with bristly white hair and a croaky Swabish-accented speech. On the right edge of his once seemingly radical left, now right-tending Green party, and a close friend of the two auto giants dominating his state, Daimler-Benz and Porsche, his loud aggressivity and relative, auto-based prosperity in his state got him a 32.7% vote , his party’s best result anywhere. And here too the CDU was handed the worst result in its history (24.1%) in a state it had dominated for decades. In the past 10 years they had been humble junior partners to Kretschmann’s Greens. After this fiasco he might ditch them and form a three-party traffic-light coalition like Milu in his neighbor state.

Two other election items need mentioning. The good news first: the faschistic Alternative for Germany (AfD), once an expanding menace, remains a threat but a rather reduced one. Rent by factional strife, it skidded downward, missing its 10% goal in both elections with 9,7 Prozent (2016: 15,1 Prozent) in Rhineland-P. and even less – 8.3% (2016: 12.7%) – in Baden-W.

The bad news: the results for the LINKE were not surprising – but disappointing. A paltry 2.5% in Rheinland-P – even a bit less than five years ago – was hardly balanced in Baden-W by a 3.6% vote – just 0.7% more than five years ago. Both results were far from the 5% needed to gain a single seat in their state legislatures. The national party congress two weeks earlier was unable to give more boost in southwest Germany where the LINKE has always been weakest. Aside from the rent ceiling law in Berlin and a current attempt per referendum to force big real estate blood-suckers out of that city, the party has not been able as yet to lead any popular struggles or catch many crowds’ imagination. Perhaps the new leadership will have more success.

It is badly needed. Understandably, the Covid pandemic worries people immensely; not only the chances of illness or death but the job and financial troubles awaiting so many. But, earnest as these problems are, they are dwarfed by an overriding, far greater menace about which far too few are concerned – in Germany, the USA, everywhere; the danger of war, even atomic war. How many good souls will be marching two weeks from now in Germany’s traditional Easter peace marches? Maybe more than in recent years, maybe less, but certainly far too few – even though about two-thirds of the population favor a policy of peace with Russia (and China). Many others are undecided or disinterested.

But the belligerent remainder is powerful. It includes those who dream again of Germany’s power and glory, of its “proper place in the sun”, of high returns on African cotton, coffee, cocoa for its good chocolate, for coltan, uranium and gold diggings. Maybe even of once German-owned breweries for “coolies” near naval piers for warships in Tsingtao. And some dream of boots and guns like those which once advanced and blasted to within 19 miles of Moscow’s Red Square.

Others with related goals – the Atlanticists – are closely bound up with strongarm power people in Washington; the Boltons and Pompeos but also a wolfspack of Democrats, in politics and the media, orating about “our adversaries” and pushing  their “freedom” campaigns about election meddling, Navalny, or the Uigurs. It is hard not to think of bad past decades – or not to smell names like Raytheon and Rheinmetall, Lockheed-Martin and Krauss-Maffei!

One can approve of Putin and Xi Jinping or hate them, but their policies must basically be supported or opposed by their own people, especially if we wish the same. Denouncing or attacking them on the international stage can invoke far too many fearful memories, unforgotten in the lands where they were felt: 27 million Soviet citizens, mostly civilians, murdered by those whose descendants now join in calling them “adversaries”. Or 200,000-300,000 mostly civilians massacred in 1937 in Nanking. And many in the world still recall the two to three million killed in North Korea, later in Vietnam, mostly civilians, often with flesh-burning napalm. Or and at least half a million who died in Iraq and over 200,000 in Guatemala after a CIA coup in 1954. They come to mind when “freedom and democracy” are cited as our motivation.

“Navalny sentenced” – “Navalny imprisoned”. The poisoning of this right-wing racist filled the German media with angry articles and editorials. How many have there been about new attempts to rescue Mumia Abu-Jamal, 66, a gifted Black journalist and leftist essayist, locked away since 1981 after a frame-up trial – and now fighting death from prison-induced Covid?

When did the mass media report on another political prisoner, Leonard Peltier, 76, arrested in 1975, acquitted, then framed, repeatedly denied either a fair trial or a pardon. We read and hear so much about the Uigurs, always from clearly one-sided sources. Is there an equivalent amount about more than 2 million Americans behind bars – the world’s record – with Blacks still getting locked up five times as easily and often as whites.

What do media consumers know about the prisoners at Guantanamo, many tortured beyond description, never given trials, some only 14 or 15 when imprisoned, many hopeless suicides. Forty are still encaged there. Injustice is always wrong and should be castigated. But hypocrisy and elastic moral standards can also be dangerous sins.

Many elderly people recall their shock at learning the facts about over 100,00 Japanese women, children and seniors incinerated within minutes in 1945, with others suffering the effects until today. How many feel shock that, also until today, fifteen or twenty US atomic bombs are stored near the small German town of Büchel – next to special German planes ready to speed them eastward. Each bomb has an explosive power four to thirteen times as murderous as the Hiroshima bomb.

In a world pocked with 700 or 800 US bases, from Poland and Estonia to the Ukraine and Okinawa, with US aircraft carriers sailing through the Persian Gulf and the South China Sea, where risky “training maneuvers” face threatened borders, with mistakes or accidents all too common, any talk of asserting “American world leadership against its adversaries” would seem to border on insanity. Will Biden’s Cabinet heads and generals choose this path? In Germany, will those hoping for peace or at least mutually advantageous business connections weaken and succumb to those (the loudest, sadly, are often  the strengthening Greens) who angrily denounce pipelines or any other peaceful lines, preferring warplanes, tanks, armed drones instead? Every country is important, but the USA and Germany may well be the most important. That is why the forces of sanity, the  pressure on the Biden government and on whichever forces win out in Berlin next fall are so crucially important. In Germany, the LINKE must always play a forceful role (despite some weakening around its edges). It must learn to grow and reach out in popular ways to all those who desire peace. It still has a voice!

With or without masks and vaccines, with a new government in the USA and one in Germany after September, two things will remain important: vigilance and action!