Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts

Monday, September 27, 2021

News: September 27

The World Is at War With Covid. Covid Is Winning. the race to vaccinate the world against Covid has unfolded like a symphony without a conductor ...... More than 80 percent of the four billion vaccine doses that had been distributed as of early August went to high- and upper-middle-income countries. ........... The People’s Vaccine Alliance estimated in June that

at the current pace, it would take 57 years for low-income countries to vaccinate their entire populations

. High-income countries will do so within the next six months (hesitancy notwithstanding). ............ This month, the global vaccine-sharing initiative known as Covax cut its projections by nearly 30 percent, saying it would have available only 1.4 billion doses by the end of this year. (The initiative has delivered just 271 million doses so far.) Later, President Biden reassured Americans that the United States had enough shots on hand to offer boosters to all its residents. The World Health Organization has been pleading with wealthy nations to hold off on boosters — and to forgo some of their planned vaccine purchases — until the rest of the world has a chance to secure more first doses. ...........

“We were promised a war effort, and instead we got a pillow fight.”

........... While the world dithers, the virus is evolving.

Given enough time and enough unvaccinated people, it could mutate its way past our best defenses, potentially sending the world — vaccinated and unvaccinated alike — back to square one.

......... “rich countries behaved worse than anyone’s worst nightmare.” They bypassed Covax — either completely or by slow-walking their financial contributions — cut multiple deals directly with vaccine manufacturers and bought up many more shots than they would need, long before any had been authorized for use. As a result, not only did Covax never amass the purchasing power at the heart of its plan, but also by the time the initiative secured enough funds to start buying shots, it was at the end of a long queue. ...........

Group of 7 countries are entitled to more Covax doses by the end of this year than they have pledged to donate to the initiative

. ........... the vast majority of doses pledged by Group of 7 countries in July have yet to be delivered. Also, the shots are only one item on a roster of needs that must be met for vaccination to succeed. Transportation, electricity for cold storage, trained health workers for vaccine administration and campaigns to combat hesitancy all need to be bolstered. .......... regional facilities would make it possible to create shots within 100 days of dangerous diseases emerging and to stop outbreaks before they mushroom into pandemics. Public Citizen estimated that it would take $25 billion, and about six months, to establish a network of such hubs around the world and that if officials started today, the world could have billions more doses by this time next year. .......

the biggest hurdle, by far, appears to be the obstinacy of the world’s leading vaccine makers, which have largely refused to share their technology, even when it was developed with public money.

............... Russia, for example, managed to transfer its technology to scores of smaller companies, including in the global south, in a matter of months ........ The country’s strategy was to not only license its intellectual property but also to send its experts to those companies to show them what to do. ........... a recombinant protein vaccine. It can be grown efficiently in yeast cells, has no onerous storage requirements and should be easy to mass-produce anywhere .......... a vaccine manufacturing facility that can fit inside a shipping container and could theoretically be deployed almost anywhere in the world .......... simpler technology for making mRNA vaccines: Rather than produce the necessary components through a complicated string of in vitro processes, the company grows them in E. coli bacteria ........... To resolve a collective action conundrum, she said, you need two things: a concrete goal and a convincing sales pitch. ......... Vaccinating the world against Covid will cost a lot of money, but almost any amount of money will be worth it.

The pandemic has caused the global economy to contract by trillions of dollars and will cost the world trillions more if it’s allowed to fester.

........ The president should also support

the NOVID Act, a bill that would authorize spending some $34 billion on the global vaccination effort, and direct his administration to spend the $16 billion or so that Congress has already allocated for that purpose

. Only a tiny fraction of that money has been put to use so far, an unconscionable missed opportunity. ........ The United States has untapped leverage with Moderna. The government helped pay to develop the company’s intellectual property and holds a patent on and contractual rights to it. The United States also has leverage with Johnson & Johnson, which the government paid more than $1 billion for advance purchases and research support. One idea, reported on by Nature: Nudge Johnson & Johnson to make use of factories that are currently making the Sputnik V shot, which is similar to the Johnson & Johnson shot but has run into manufacturing troubles. ........... set aside geopolitics and work with China and perhaps Russia to validate their vaccines for broader use ........ China’s vaccine producers Sinovac and Sinopharm have pledged to export two billion doses by the end of this year ......... “But the United States is supposed to stand for something bigger than just taking care of its own citizens.”






Rich Countries Worry About Booster Shots. They Should Be Worried About Africa. there’s no conclusive evidence to justify giving boosters to fit, healthy people. Third doses should be given only to the small number of people facing a high risk of severe illness and death, despite being fully vaccinated, including those with compromised immune systems. ......... Nine months after the arrival of the first vaccine, just 20 percent of people in low- and lower-middle-income countries have received a first dose — compared with 80 percent in many high- and upper-middle-income countries. .......... Today, just 51 million people — or 3.6 percent — of Africa’s population are fully vaccinated, compared with over 60 percent in the United Kingdom and the European Union and almost 55 percent in the United States. ......... Just 15 percent of the more than one billion doses pledged by high-income countries have arrived in Africa so far.

Wealthy countries must let go of reserved doses and cede their place in the queue, allowing Covax and the African Union to buy the vaccines the continent seeks and stands ready to finance.

..........

giving boosters to fully vaccinated individuals goes against rich countries’ own interests. Countries with low vaccination rates could act as variant incubators, increasing the risk that more dangerous variants will emerge and enter international travel networks.

................ We have already seen the havoc caused by the Delta variant. Now present in 180 countries, this highly transmissible variant is leading to rising deaths in many rich nations. ......... Global economic losses due to delayed vaccinations may, according to one estimate, run into the trillions of dollars in the coming years if low- and middle-income countries cannot quickly vaccinate most of their people. The International Monetary Fund recently cited access to vaccines as the “principal fault line” along which the global economic recovery is diverging. If vaccine inequity persists, growth rates in poorer countries may not return to prepandemic levels until 2024.




Can Beto Turn Texas Blue?

Friday, September 17, 2021

News: September 17



आन्तरिक प्रशिक्षणमा सीके राउतले सुनाए मधेस कब्जाको रणनीति सीके राउतले मधेसमा अरु कुनै पनि दललाई प्रवेश गर्न दिन नहुने भन्दै चुनावमार्फत जनमत पार्टीलाई एक नम्बरको पार्टी बनाउनुपर्ने र पूरै मधेसमाथि कब्जा गर्नुपर्ने धारणा प्रशिक्षणमा राखेका थिए । ‘हामी स्वतन्त्र मधेसका लागि लडेर आएका थियौं, त्यो अहिलेलाई छाडेका छौं तर पार्टीमार्फत अहिले पनि मधेसमाथि कब्जा गर्न सकिन्छ,’ सीके राउतलाई उद्धृत गर्दै ती नेताले भने, ‘पूरै मधेसलाई नियन्त्रणमा लिन सकिन्छ ।’ ........ मधेसको करिब २६ सय वडामा हाल १६ सयभन्दा बढी वडास्तरमा जनमत पार्टीको संगठन विस्तार भएको तथ्याङ्क प्रस्तुत गर्दै अध्यक्ष राउतले बाँकी एक हजार वडामा ३ महिनाभित्र संगठन निर्माण गर्न निर्देशन दिएका छन् । उनले वडास्तरमा संगठन विस्तार गर्नका लागि केन्द्रीय सदस्यहरुलाई फरक फरक जिल्लामा तीन महिनासम्म खटाउने भएका छन् । ....... ​‘संगठन माथिल्लो कमिटीले बलियो हुँदैन, तल्लो कमिटीले बलियो हुन्छ, सबभन्दा तल्लो कमिटी वडा कमिटी हो, वडा कमिटी जति बलियो हुन्छ, पार्टी त्यति नै बलियो हुन्छ,’ ती नेताले सीके राउतको भनाइ उद्धृत गर्दै भने । मधेसका हरेक जिल्लाका वडामा वडा स्तरीय कमिटी बनाउने र सोही कमिटीमार्फत तलदेखि नै कार्यक्रमहरु गर्दै आएपछि विस्तारै मधेसमाथि आफ्नो पार्टीको कब्जा हुने धारणा राखेको ती नेताले सुनाए । मधेस कब्जाका लागि उनले पहिलो चरणमा ‘कभरेज अभियान’ सञ्चालन गर्ने, त्यसपछि अर्को अभियान सञ्चालन गर्ने योजना सुनाए । तर दोस्रो चरणको अभियानको बारेमा उनले नखुलाएको स्रोतको भनाइ छ ।



One country, two systems healthier than ever To decide whether our constitutional arrangement is still intact, you need to look at the system in its totality, not just particular aspects of it ........ Critics, both foreign and domestic, like to claim that the old Hong Kong or the “real” Hong Kong is dead. Usually, they mean local democracy is being undermined. But since real democratisation started only after the 1997 handover of sovereignty, the current situation can more accurately be described as a reversal to the old or colonial Hong Kong under the Brits. ........... the city continues to be represented as a separate entity at international bodies such as the United Nations, and the world trade and world health organisations.

China’s dollar diplomacy preferable to West’s military interventions France, the European Union and the US are withdrawing their failed military interventions from the African Sahel region and Afghanistan. China is stepping up, but it’s doing so with capital investment and developmental aid – and in the case of the Taliban, even diplomatic recognition – rather than bullets and bombs ......... For years, I have left my shares in Chalco for dead. Then suddenly, in recent weeks, stocks of the Aluminum Corporation of China have started going through the roof. It turns out the military coup in Guinea has a lot to do with it. Who would have guessed? It has been a most educational experience. .......... when you have skin in the game, the connections between economics, corporate actions and geopolitics become so much more vivid .........

Don’t believe the international media about China in Africa; you just get the wrong impression while your information is usually put out of context.

........ The problem with France is that it still thinks the West African region, its former imperialist glory, is still its own backyard. To understand this geopolitical fetish, you will have to go back to Charles de Gaulle during the post-war years. A comparison of France’s and the European Union’s doomed efforts in the region with America’s in Afghanistan has been made, and it’s not idle. ........... Rising troop casualties and resentment, and dwindling public support at home have made any multi-year military campaign unsustainable. ........

as France, the EU and the United States are withdrawing from their imperial or liberal-interventionist ventures or whatever you care to call them, China is stepping into the vacuum. But it’s doing so with capital and developmental aid and investment, rather than bullets and bombs.

........... Some of those projects will pan out; others will fail. Some may benefit the locals, others or perhaps the same ones will end up lining the pockets of corrupt local political bosses or fanatical Islamic militants. Who knows? But it’s only money. And if I were a dirt-poor local, it’s a lot better than having unmanned drones dropping bombs on my home and wiping out my wife and children.

What’s the point of democracy when you can’t vote because you and your whole family are dead?



Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Madagascar

भारत ले नेपालको आतंरिक राजनीति मा चासो लियो भनेर काठमाण्डु मा शिकायत गरिन्छ।

एउटा देश छ म्याडगास्कर। हिन्द महासागर मैं हो त्यो पनि। त्यो देशलाई नेपालको आतंरिक राजनीति मा मतलब नभएको मात्र होइन। उसलाई नेपाल भन्ने देश छ एउटा भन्ने पनि थाहा छैन। अत्तोपत्तो छैन।

जाओ म्याडगास्कर को बेस्ट फ्रेंड बनाओ।


Saturday, December 26, 2015

2016: The Year For Barack Obama's Revolution From The Top

2016: The Year For Barack Obama's Revolution From The Top



Barack Obama’s autobiography Dreams From My Father is full of little references to what Nelson Mandela in his autobiography called “a thousand little indignities.” But one was talking mostly about America, the other about apartheid South Africa. Can one black man’s ascension to the top make up for racist snarls at the highest levels of government like in the US Senate?

It is time we faced the fact the United Nations is not a world government. It is time to call a spade a spade. It is time to see this institution designed by the World War II victors no longer works. This is not a world government by the far stretches of the imagination. Often when we talk of civil rights movements, we think in terms of ordinary people marching out in the streets. But now is the time for a civil rights movement in which the heads of state march.

What we have is essentially apartheid. The leading country remains fundamentally racist, nowhere more evident than in the country’s criminal justice system. There is no world government. There is a need for one. The thorniest global problems, the loftiest trade deals are worked on outside the UN framework.

America itself needs to be reimagined if it is to fulfill its original mission of a total spread of democracy. It needs to become a country where African immigrants are as at home as European immigrants. White is black is white.

In a democracy you get to vote because you are a human being, not because you are literate or rich. But in the community of nations, there are countries that are rich and have guns, and most have neither. The entire continent of Africa stands disenfranchised. This landmass that is the most central of all, from where we all originated, is still in the clutches of a contemporary incarnation of colonization, slavery and apartheid. We don’t have a name for it yet, but the affliction is very real. Its poverty and disease stem from that disempowerment, not the other way round. And so, any voice that seeks to address its poverty and disease without taking stock of its disenfranchisement is shedding crocodile tears.

What is Barack Obama going to do? Leave the White House and do paid speeches? Write books? Launch a foundation? Raise money for AIDS? Share a stage or two with Bono and George Clooney? The guy is still young. This guy who has cleared up half century old cobwebs every year he has been in office is best suited to lead this revolution from the top. And this is not a cry for Africa, although Africa could use some empowerment. This is a cry for the world. Right now we are a species looking down a sinkhole of uncontrolled weather patterns that just might wipe out life and civilization as we know it. We still have immense poverty and disease that Bill Gates says “only a world government can solve,” and Gates is a guy who has thrown the kitchen sink at the problem, one of the leading entrepreneurs of the era in whose wake many billionaires have given money to fight basic poverty. We face security threats that no one government can solve. Globalization continues to move at breakneck speeds speeding up as the Internet takes deeper roots everywhere, but we have not done the task of institution building that that globalization requires.

Let’s open our eyes and take a look at the elephant in the room. Yes, what we need is a world government, and there is no person better than Barack Obama to take the lead on it. We are lucky we have a George Washington precisely when we need one. And lucky us that the guy is almost done with his current job where he has been stellar every year. Heads of state across the world should join in this chorus and shape this revolution from the top. Lucky us that our thorniest global problems have solutions in political concepts we have already designed, like one person one vote taken to its logical, global conclusion.

There is always inertia. Every monumental political change that in hindsight looks so obviously positive has faced inertia. And this likely will be no different. But the blueprint has to be made, and it has to be presented to ordinary peoples on all continents, so a groundswell of support can build around it.

We want to live in a world where human beings can feel equal everywhere. We want to live in a world with abundant clean energy. We want to live in a world with abundant water, and food and green space. We want clean air. We want to create the industries of tomorrow. We seek unprecedented rises in productivity, as well equitable distribution. We want people to be happy.

It is time the heads of state across the world came together and created the world’s first world government in the leadership of Barack Obama. In his birth as well as personality and outlook, he bridges the world. In his person the world has a chance to come together to reach new heights. This century can not only be the best ever, it can also be one where we have gone past our existential worries, where we have created a truly global civilization, one grand village where everyone can feel a sense of belonging everywhere, where people can take pride in their heritage and claim the common future at the same time, without hassle.

This is in essence a political struggle, where all you start with is a voice. Ordinary people have done it many times before. Heads of state can do it this one time.

It is still about Hope. It is still about Change.

We need a world government because it is time we established rule of law between nations. That is the civilized way.



राजेंद्र महतो लाई ICU पुर्याउने सरकार राजीनामा दे, काठमाण्डु छोड़, देश छोड़, ये धरती हमारी, ये मुल्क हमारा
E for Education, E for Entrepreneurship, E for Energy
Barack Obama: George Washington
आर्थिक क्रांतिका पाँच पाण्डव: सुशासन, शिक्षा, स्वास्थ्य, संरचना, (उद्योगव्यापार) सुलभता
Barack Obama Is Biologically Superior

Saturday, November 07, 2015

आत्म निर्भरता भनेको उल्लु कुरा हो

Trade Not Aid -------- गरीब देश हरुले धनी देश हरुलाई भन्दै आएका छन, हामीलाई फॉरेन ऐड पर्दैन, बरु हाम्रा सामान आयात गरिदेउ। हुन पनि अहिले दुनिया भरि नै remittance ले चमत्कार गरेको समय छ। Remittance को अगाडि Foreign Aid भनेको सुर्य को अगाडि दीपक।

नेपाल लाई अगाडि बढ्नु छ भने सकेसम्म धेरै देश हरु सँग व्यापार गर्ने सोँच्नु पर्छ। भारत सँग व्यापार बंद गरेर चीन सँग बरु व्यापार गर्ने सोंच ले चीन लाई हँसाउँछ। यत्रो सानो देश छ। दुनिया हल्लाएको देश चीन। अमेरिका सँग व्यापारिक प्रतिस्प्रधा गर्ने देश चीन। नेपाल को व्यापारिक volume नै कति छ र! Plus, it has to make economic sense. उत्तर को बाटो विकट छ। त्यसै कारण चीन बाट आउने अधिकांश सामान कोलकाता र वीरगंज को बाटो नै आउँछ। समुन्द्र को बाटो सस्तो हो।

नेपाल बाट मान्छे काम गर्न विदेश जान्छन्। त्यसरी बाहिर जानु अगाडि नै शिक्षित भएर, सीप सिकेर गए बढ़ी कमाउँछ। अनि पछि देश मैं व्यवसाय गर्ने वातावरण बनेछ भने फर्केर पनि आउँछ। जब अमेरिका लाई २००८ को मंदी ले हिरकार्यो, थुप्रै चिनिया चीन फर्के, थुप्रै भारतीय भारत फर्के। चीन र भारत मैं बढ़ी कमाई हुने देखे।

मलेशिया कतार गएर महिना को १०-२० हजार कमाउने नेपाली ले नेपाल मा ८-१२ हजार कमाउने उपाय पाए नेपाल नै फर्किन्छ होला।

भारत सँग को व्यापार बंद गरेर त्यो व्यापार चीन लाई दिएर चीन लाई हँसाउने होइन कि भारत सँग व्यापार पनि बढाउने र चीन सँग को व्यापार पनि बढाउने। तरिका त्यो हो। चीन को पूँजी तानेर नेपालमा जलविद्युत विकास गर्ने अनि त्यो बिजली भारत लाई बेचने। भारत खुद तेल र ग्यास बाट बिजुली तर्फ जान चाहन्छ।










Monday, June 15, 2015

Foreign Aid कि Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)

राम शरण महत र सुशील कोइराला लाई एक ठाउँ मा राखदिने हो भने उनीहरूले एक पछि अर्को गल्ती गर्दै जान्छन् -- जस्तो कि अहिले गरेका छन। चीनले मलाई पेल्यो, गुहार गुहार भन्दै मोदी को मा जापान आउने जमाना मा राम शरणले दिल्ली होइन टोक्यो मा सम्मेलन गर्ने भन्दै छ। यी बाहुन हरुको racism को ओर अन्त छैन। मोदी ले जे गर्न सक्छ त्यो जापानले गर्न सक्दैन।

भ्रष्टाचार गल्ती हो भने राम शरण ले समाचारपत्र हरु छताछुल्ल पारेको छ। तर भ्रष्टाचार गल्ती होइन, भ्रष्टाचार त संस्कार हो। अर्को गल्ती बामे को भाइ रामे ले गर्दैछ --- अर्को दुई वटा गल्ती। के भने (१) विदेशी सहयोग सकेसम्म Foreign Aid को रुपमा माग्ने अनि (२) एक एक गर्दै जे जे भत्किएको छ त्यो बनाउँदै जाने। He wants to go back to the same old, same old. Whereas this earthquake should be seen as an opportunity to give a new departure to the country.

तर उसको फोर्मुला नबुझ्नेले नबुझला, मैले त बुझ्छु: small budget, small corruption, big budget, big corruption. त्यहाँ कुनै कन्फ्यूजन छैन।

मैले propose गरेको
नेपाल सरकारले आफुले केही मैनेज गर्नै परेन। त्यसले भ्रष्टाचार को संभावना न्युन बनाउँछ अनि पैसा पनि बढ़ी आउँछ। नत्र भने नेपालको जुन इमेज छ जुन सारा दुनिया लाई थाहा छ, त्यो इमेज मेकओवर अहिले भइ हाल्ने भन्ने हुँदैन ----- especially when the actors are the same. 

Every big crisis is an opportunity भनिन्छ ------- नेपालमा त्यो lost opportunity बन्ने क्रममा छ।