THE PLIGHT OF THE YEMENIS AND NEWS MEDIA BIASNESS

Whenever Yemen is spoken of, it forms an image of bleakness in the mind. But most of the people aren’t aware of the reason for this causation, let alone of existence of this country. Currently, Yemen is facing the worst humanitarian crisis and one of the largest man-induced famines in history. Yet it remains in the shadows. What are the reasons behind the country’s having to thrive under rubbles for years and the plight of the Yemenis? The following article briefly outlines the cause of war before throwing a light onto the horrific conditions the Yemenis (those who make it alive) have to live through every day, which most of the news media would not cover.

The conflict has its roots in the Arab Spring of 2011, when an uprising to demand democracy forced the country’s long time authoritarian president, Ali Abdullah Saleh to hand power over to his deputy, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi. This political transition was supposed to stabilize Yemen, one of the poorest nations in the Middle East. But President Hadi struggled to deal with many problems including militant attacks, corruption, food insecurity and the continuing loyalty of many military officers to Saleh. The Houthi Movement (fighting for the Yemenis) began in 2014. It is a Shia-Muslim rebel movement which took advantage of president Hadi’s weakness by taking control of their northern heartland of Saada Province and the neighbouring areas. In early 2015, the Houthis gradually took over the capital Sanaa. This forced president Hadi to exile abroad.

The conflict dramatically escalated in March 2015, when Saudi Arabia and eight other mostly Sunni Arab states- backed by the US, UK and France- began air strikes against the Houthis, with the declared aim of restoring Hadi’s government. This Saudi-led coalition feared that continued success of the Houthis would give their rival regional power and the Shia-majority state, Iran, a foothold in Yemen. Saudi Arabia claimed that Iran is backing the Houthis with weapons and logistical support, a charge Iran denies.

Fighting continues and the alliance between the Houthis and Ali Abdullah Saleh also collapsed in November 2017, following deadly clashes over control of Sanaa’s biggest mosque. Houthi fighters launched an operation to take full control of the capital and Saleh was killed. For more than five years on, the conflict has remained at a stalemate, with many countries involved. Saudi Arabia continues heavily bombing Yemen with the help of coalition. More than 100,000 have died since then.

Yemen is facing the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, with more than 24 million people – some 80 percent of the population – in need of humanitarian assistance, including more than 12 million children. The US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED) said in October 2019 that it had recorded more than 100,000 fatalities, including 12,000 civilians killed in direct attacks, making it the second most lethal year of the war so far. Thousands more civilians have died from preventable causes, including malnutrition, disease and poor health. About 80% of the population - 24 million people - needs humanitarian assistance and protection. Some 20 million people need help securing food, according to the UN. An estimated 2 million children are acutely malnourished, including almost 360,000 children under five years old who are struggling to survive. With only half of the country's 3,500 medical facilities fully functioning, almost 20 million people lack access to adequate healthcare , enough clean water and sanitation. Consequently, medics have struggled to deal with the largest cholera outbreak ever recorded, which has resulted in more than 2.2 million suspected cases and 3,895 related deaths since October 2016. The war has displaced more than 3.65 million from their homes

The United Nations has warned that the death toll from the coronavirus pandemic could "exceed the combined toll of war, disease, and hunger over the last five years.” With COVID-19 now being rampant, Yemen is facing “an emergency within an emergency”. Sanitation and clean water are in short supply. Only half of health facilities are functioning, and many that remain operational lack basic equipment like masks and gloves, let alone oxygen and other essential supplies to treat the coronavirus. Many health workers are receiving no salaries or incentives, and 10.2 million children don't have access to basic healthcare. Children continue to be killed and maimed in the conflict, while the damages and shutdowns of schools and hospitals have disrupted access to education and health services, leaving children even more vulnerable and robbed of their futures. Before COVID-19, around 2 million children were out of school and now with schools closed all around the country, it renders some 7.8 million children unable to access education. As the coronavirus spreads, tens of thousands more children could develop life-threatening severe acute malnutrition over the next several months, while the overall number of malnourished children under the age of five could increase to a total of 2.4 million.

Who will answer for such ghastly statistics? A child under the age of 5 dies every 10 minutes due to preventable causes. This includes starvation, malnutrition and those killed by bombs and guns. There have been attacks on schools, heath facilities, markets, roads, bridges and even water points. Over two thirds of the damage to public infrastructure, is as a result of airstrikes. Who pays for that? The Yemenis. Gender based violence has increased 63% since the war started. This implies more rapes, more forced marriages, child brides and more acts of violence against women and young boys and girls. Who bears the brunt? The Yemenis. The Yemen health care system has collapsed. Physical, psychological and mental support is unavailable. Millions of children are suffering from trauma from the conflict and the UN suggests many of these children who will luckily survive will carry heavy emotional burdens into their adulthood with far-reaching consequences. Who will take accountability for such deplorable ordeals suffered by innocent Yemeni lives? 

When all this information surfaced, the expectation was that the news would be picked up by international news outlets. But barring a few, including Al Jazeera and DW, the news did not get global prominence. With such alarming statistics from the result of a war involving regional superpowers, with the backing of the US and UK, how does this event not make headline news?

The reason primarily being that news outlets tend to focus on the 'Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia versus the Shia Iran proxy war' narrative, which overlooks the country's deepening humanitarian crisis. When western news outlets cover Yemen it's often 'parachute journalism.' This is mainly because it is hard to access Yemen and requires permission from the Saudis and the Houthis. In its latest report, the Yemeni Journalist Syndicate said that more than 100 press violations were committed in the first six months of 2016, including 10 cases of attempted murder, 24 abductions and disappearances, and 12 cases of assaults on journalists and their offices. The situation for foreign journalists isn't any better, amid reports that those who get access can be subject to harassment and kidnappings. Yemeni activists and journalists point to one other major factor as to why the country is kept low on news agendas: many of the people attempting to get to Europe are from Syria and Iraq, so western news audiences are more affected by what is happening in those countries than what's happening in Yemen.

The calamity in Syria serves as an example of global ignorance like this, until it turned into a catastrophic war. Everyone, as citizens of the world and as a human, has a responsibility to pressure countries to stop engaging in Yemen's war and to stop selling the arms that fuel it. People suffering in faraway places do not make the rest of the world immune from it. People everywhere should care, stand up for righteousness and against injustice and inhumanity. Signing donations and petitions are small steps towards fighting back, which has the potential to gradually develop into a concerted movement to achieve the impossible, before Yemen becomes extinct, as some reports portray. But that is media- sensationalism, isn’t it?

Impact of Global REIT on the Economy

REIT or Real Estate Investment Fund is a company which owns, finances and operates income generating real estates. It accumulates a pool of money to develop the assets and sell them eventually. REITs are generally modelled after mutual funds, it gives an opportunity to all the investors to own a real estate The REIT allows the investors to invest in portfolios of real estates through a mutual fund or exchange traded funds. The investors get the share of income from the real estates they have invested in. It also helps in getting a fair amount of return from the investment. 

REIT was created by the Congress in 1960 for the Americans to earn from income generating real estates. REIT of all types currently own about 3 trillion dollars in gross assets across US. The market capitalization of the U.S. listed REIT are about 1 trillion dollars. 

 

**capitalisation in million dollars.

There are a few problems with the traditional form of REIT. 

It is that the properties cannot be valued adequately by the investors which can cause then huge amount of losses. Managers who are skilled enough to do the valuation correctly require a huge amount of fees which eventually makes investing difficult. In addition, there may be restrictions on the type of property that an investor may like to invest in. The FDI inflows which plays a crucial part of the real estate sector is dynamic and can change because of macroeconomic and microeconomic factors. Distribution in REIT is mainly being paid out either annually or semi-annually which makes it less liquid. 

GLOBAL REIT

Global REIT or GRET resolves the problem by making investment easier and any investor with any amount of income can easily start investing it. It aims at creating a global real estate portfolio from which the investors can get a profitable amount of return.  It uses Etherum blockchain when it functions. It is the first blockchain-based Sharia compliant REIT that is launched in the market. It facilitates cross-investment potential along with opportunities worldwide. Existing REIT members would like to take the advantage and be a part of the crypto domain. This is to shape the real estate sector worldwide. 

The platform components or the core components of Global REIT are the Asset Management Module, Compliance and Security Module and the Transaction Module. The Asset Management Module views for the asset managers and the investors are different. This module also helps the GRET token to execute which has the smart contracts. The Transaction Module is responsible for executing instructions from all the participants in the network.  The Compliance and Service Module gives 24/7 security and also keeps a check on the frauds that can take place.

The blockchain technology was used because of its security and anonymous transactions. It is a public ledger where the investments are not centralised or concentrated to one or a few numbers of investors. It also facilitates in Fund management income. It also gives future access to all its AUM or Asset Under Management. The need for such a blockchain-based model arises because of geographic concentration of real estates. It also resolves the problem of financial barriers in investing. 

How will it benefit the economy? 

As financial barriers are removed, more capital flows would be expected. FDI and FPI would gradually increase. The Global REIT is connected with real estates and therefore, making investment more decentralized.  The investors can use free funds to get a higher level of return from these real estates. As a large portion of the investors would be confident to invest in the country, this would lead to economic growth and enhance stability. The key factor of such a motive is to induce more and more people to the organised financial sector. Financial inclusion would be benefitted as many people would have to access their bank accounts to invest in such financial instruments. The different Fund Managers can bring in assets which could be given out for the investors to invest in.  On the other side, the real estates would bring in more profits by increasing its liquidity. This would in turn bring in an organised market for trading on Real estates. All these factors would lead into good governance and eventually will lead to economic development for the economy. 

China-Australia trade tensions amid Covid-19

The Coronavirus global pandemic has badly hit every economy in the world, irrespective of its strength. With economic powerhouses such as US, Japan, India and many European nations taking major economic hits, the way China and WHO coordinated with each other and their sheer negligence behind the spread of the coronavirus world-wide have outraged these nations along with others. Since, China is a global superpower, there are few nations which can dare to speak against it, US being one. The biggest superpower led by President Donald Trump, questioned the combined role of WHO and China behind the spread of coronavirus from Wuhan, China to the rest of the world. Backing President Trump’s statement was Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison who called for an independent investigation into the matter. This act enraged Chinese officials as they got engaged in an increasingly heated argument with Morrison’s government. China’s ambassador to Australia, Jingye Cheng warned the Australian government of Beijing’s plans of severing the strong trading ties between the two nations if it went forward with its investigations. Quoting Cheng,"Maybe the ordinary people will say 'Why should we drink Australian wine? Eat Australian beef?’,” as he hinted of an increase in tariff of Australian imports in China. This was followed by a call between Frances Adamson, head of Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Jingye Cheng. The international relation between the two countries declined when details of the calls got leaked and Chinese officials denied leaking them, saying "obviously leaked by some Australian officials,” and that  “the Embassy of China doesn’t play petty tricks, this is not our tradition.” They added “But if others do, we have to reciprocate,” though.

As diplomatic battles between nations often hit their trade relations, things were no different in this case. China targeted Australian perishable goods and slapped heavy tariffs on barley and halted some imports of beef. The China-Australia (ChAFTA) enacted between the two countries in 2015 could help soften the blow of the diplomatic spat between the two nations as trade lawyers feel. 

China, acting on their declining relations with Australia, has drawn up a list of potential goods including wine, dairy, seafood, oatmeal and fruit that could be subject to stricter quality checks, anti-dumping probes, tariffs or customs delays, according to Bloomberg. Sources also said that the Chinese state media might be used to push consumer boycotts of Australian imports, depending on how Canberra decides to work on China’s objections to Australia’s diplomatic stance on the coronavirus pandemic. 

Though the trade tensions between the two countries seems clearly to be an aftermath of Australia’s call for an independent investigation of the origins of coronavirus and China’s role behind its global spread, officials at Beijing refuse to publicly acknowledge any relation between the two incidents. 

On the rising tensions, Brett Williams, Principal, Williams Trade Law said that people are missing out on the existing dispute on anti-dumping. He said that importers and exporters should not assume that China would slap on more tariffs since the new barley duties and beef export suspensions were based on ‘existing disputes’. The barley duties were part of a long-running anti-dumping disagreement between the two countries, although the timing of the tariff raised suspicion in Australia that China was using technical requirements to punish Canberra for its political position, as it is suspected of having done to other nations in the past. It’s nothing new between these two nations since China too has been hit by Australian anti-dumping tariffs on steel and aluminium before, with Beijing not choosing to raise a WTO complaint. Instead, it chose to apply pressure on the Australian government by carrying out similar orders and thus the recent trade tensions aren’t due to the coronavirus origins investigation that Canberra vouched for. 

New import data obtained by South China Morning Post reveals that exports of Australian oats and oatmeal, milk powder and almonds ran into import compliance trouble at Chinese ports last year alongside beef shipments. Zhong Shan, Chinese commerce minister defended China’s act by saying that the investigation into the dumping of Australian barley complied with ChAFTA. The recent banning of beef shipments from Australian producers were blamed to be a result of the products failing to meet import labelling and certification standards as the 80.5% tariff on Australian barley has made exporters fear of more tariffs incoming, on Australian imports, by Beijing.

Though the Chinese foreign ministry has refused to answer questions based on the potential list containing perishable products which could be subjected to stricter quality checks, anti-dumping probes, tariffs or customs delays, spokesman Zhao Lijian said that he hoped Australia would cooperate with China to create “actions that are conducive to bilateral relations and mutual trust”.

As mentioned before, China’s move to slap export bans and tariffs on Australian products have raised suspicions, on Beijing using technical requirements to punish Canberra for proposing an independent international inquiry into the coronavirus outbreak by the WHO, while urging China to “allow transparency”. China has used trade as a diplomatic tool to take revenge on other nations in the past with the discovery of ‘harmful pests’ used on agricultural imports from Canada’s largest exporter, Richardson International. This action by Beijing was believed to be in retaliation for the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the CFO of Chinese telecommunications giant, Huawei by the Canadian government. Australian exporters, who have suffered losses due to stricter quality checks by China, refused to comment on the scenario as trade tensions between the nations are growing with each passing day with Australian economy bearing the brunt, being the world’s most China-dependent economy. Simon Birmingham, Australian trade minister said how the decline in trade relations could affect both the economies due to China’s recent moves. He added how the ChAFTA has helped China’s industrial capacity to grow and helped in lifting hundreds of millions pf people out of poverty in China and Southeast Asian nations. Zhong Shan, Chinese minister of commerce, in reply to this mentioned how Australian dumping has severely affected China’s barley sector. He took a dig at Australia about launching hundreds of investigations against China since the ChAFTA whereas China has conducted only one trade investigation against the island nation. Birmingham however hoped that the currently poor trade relations between the nations would improve especially in iron ore after China announced reduction in inspection and quarantine of Australian exports. 

Since the trade war between China and US seems to be everlasting, the reduction in bureaucratic trade barriers that Beijing promised the US seemed to be a softening act in that war which again puts the China-dependent Australian economy at a risk. How? Reports emerged as experts warned US Allies how the deal between Xi Jinping and Donald Trump could massively increase China’s imports of American agricultural goods and energy products, which means imports of Australian goods would drastically fall. In the wake of this scenario, the Morrison government has asked China to grant Australia similar reduction in bureaucratic trade barriers that China offered the US. A former Australian government foreign affairs adviser argued on Thursday that Canberra could not afford to play “a never-ending game of chicken” with China without greater reassurance from the US on shared end goals. The spillover effect that Australia experienced due to the US-China agreement is of utmost concern to the nation following the ongoing of their own trade war with China. The US-China agreement had Beijing make a promise of spending an extra $200bn on American goods and services over the next two years. As Australia seeks for an extension of a range of technical and administrative measures to make trade easier to flow, Birmingham said that Australia had joined other countries in asking for the promised reduction in bureaucracy to be “extended to all exporters, including Australian exporters, and not just those from the US”. It is unclear whether Beijing will look favourably on the request and the ongoing trade tensions between Australia and China makes it unlikely. 

The end of the current tensions between China and Australia will surely be a thing to look forward too and it’s unclear when it would happen. Recent developments indicate that the trade war between the nations won’t be ending anytime soon, as Australia now becomes the victim of a crossfire. As Australian economist, Kym Anderson said, the agreement was “clearly a managed trade deal that is against the spirit of liberal trade in an open multilateral trading system”, a $32bn agricultural imports in two years from US by China will heavily dent an economy which is China dependent. Australia clearly sits at a disadvantage in the scenario as Anderson feels that US imports might even act as substitution for imports from other nations. The US-China agreement also obliges China to increase purchases of American energy products by a whopping $52bn, which also is a major dent for Australian energy exporters. But the chief executive of the Minerals Council of Australia, Tania Constable, said Australian minerals and metals “remain in demand in China and are helping to build cities and power factories as the country recovers from the Covid-19 pandemic”.

Brett Williams on the US-China agreement and the major damage that the Australian economy will thus suffer said that Australia could bring a WTO complaint and establish China had discriminated against imports from countries other than the US – a breach of the “most-favoured nation” rule in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. Collecting evidence may be difficult and slow – especially if the actions included informal guidance from the Chinese government to privately owned enterprises. Williams said WTO agreements were intended to bring about trade on the basis of price competition, “not on the basis of political decisions of powerful governments about the quantities of trade that should flow”. “That two of the most powerful countries in the WTO system can enter jointly into an arrangement to undermine the WTO rules is a worrying development,” he said.

Reports have emerged that China is preparing to ban imports of Australian coal. Being its second-largest buyer, the consequences of the ban would be quite severe at a time when the Australian economy is facing its first major economic downturn in 30 years as the value of AUD is falling heavily. Though the relations between the country might receive a bump over Australian iron ore exports since China offered some relaxation on inspection and quarantine, banning of coal imports might easily be followed by a major ban on iron ore and LNG too (now with importing from US being China’s major preference).  

A big question arises at this point. Would Australia shy away from its recommended independent investigation of China on the origins of coronavirus, the factor which clearly seems to have fuelled the trade war, to save the nation’s economy? 

I don’t think they would. Australia continues to remain an influential nation globally. Being a developed nation, the country’s global image might take a major hit if they shy away from their recommendation. Australia’s call has been supported by many other nations too, though the US-China trade deal has swayed away a major US support on the issue. The Australia-China trade tensions will remain an interesting and important topic of concern for the global economy for the next few years. 

Sources-

1) scmp.com

2) theguardian.com

3) think.ing.com

Author- Suman Majumder

The Locust Plague

COVID-19 and Amphan weren’t enough to shake the economic pillars of India, hence the unexpected intruders came to add up more problems to the list during these difficult times. Already overwhelmed by the Corona Virus, the farmers of India are now concerned about their kharif crops. 

The attack of locust swarms has been the latest matter of concern since the past week. These insects are known as desert locusts and are a species of grass hoppers. They are harmless in normal conditions but during the monsoon or due to heavy cyclones they start to reproduce at a much faster rate. Favourable climate in the nations like Yemen, Ethiopia, Kenya, Iran and Afghanistan have helped in the breeding of the locusts. These swarms cover from 50 km’s to more than 100 km’s in a day depending on the wind speed and they feast on each and every bit of greenery on their way. As per the data available with the Union Agriculture Ministry, the locusts damaged crops worth Rs 10 crore during the 1926-31 cycle. India recorded 25 locust plagues and upsurges between 1964 and 1977. In 1993, 190 locust swarms affected at least 3,10,000 hectares in Jaisalmer, Barmer, Bhuj and Jalore districts. This gives us the rudimentary idea of the effect they may have on our economy. The locust swarms will push the Indian economy into fresh trouble during this time of distress. 

Desert locust swarms are now spreading across seven states;

1. Rajasthan

2. Gujrat

3. Punjab

4. Madhya Pradesh

5. Haryana

6. Uttar Pradesh

7. Maharashtra

The containment measures and sprinkling operations have been conducted in 303 locations spread over 47,000 hectares in 20 districts of Rajasthan, 9 districts of Madhya Pradesh, 2 districts in Gujrat and one in each UP and Punjab.  

Among various states suffering from this problem, Rajasthan was the first state to use a set of customized drones made by the Union Ministry of Agriculture. These drones were handed over to the Agriculture department and were used to clear big swarm of locusts. The drones were designed to spray 10 litres of chemicals at a time and create a noise to disperse the locusts into different areas. Being the worst affected state, Rajasthan has decided to provide farmers (Insured under the PMFBY scheme) with an advance payment of 25% of their likely claims, as of now this will be implemented in the districts of Barmer, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Jalore, Bikaner and Sirohi. 

The wind pattern made the scenario worse as the swarm of locusts are now heading towards Delhi. Around 22% of the area covered under Delhi is green and this will have a huge impact due to the locust attack.                                                                                                                                        Md.Faisal, an entomologist at Yamuna Biodiversity Park is worried about the anticipated impact on the water supply and railway tracks due to the attack, the tracks will become slippery and get clogged while the water will get contaminated.  

The following image shows the route and the area covered by the locusts in the month of May:

 

The World Bank has already approved a $500 million grant at a minimal interest rate to help African and Middle-eastern countries. Where as Pakistan has already declared a national emergency situation due to the outbreak. The plague must be collectively addressed by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Central Government for the interest of the farmers and the agriculturists of India.  

Rahul Sinha

For Ecobuzz

srahul.27501@gmail.com