Ramaphosa says corruption inquiry shedding light on dark period in South Africa

President says he will account for his actions as a senior official under Zuma
Cyril Ramaphosa speaks to reporters in Johannesburg on Thursday. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/EPA

Jason BurkeAfrica -Thu 1 Nov 2018 18.49 GMT

Cyril Ramaphosa, the president of South Africa, has said he will appear before a judicial anti-corruption inquiry to account for his actions as a senior official during what he described as a “very dark period of our recent history”.

Ramaphosa took power in February, three months after winning a close-run internal party election, but has struggled to overcome the legacy of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma.

Zuma has been accused of presiding over an immense system of corruption and patronage that drained billions from the exchequer and damaged the reputation of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) beyond repair. Ramaphosa served as deputy president under Zuma.

Speaking to a small group of reporters in Johannesburg on Thursday Ramaphosa spoke of a “new dawn” for South Africa and for the ANC, which has been in power since the country’s first free elections in 1994.

“There is a new confidence, a new hope in the ANC. The shine that had been tarnished is coming back,” the 65-year-old tycoon and veteran politician said.

However Ramaphosa admitted there were concerns about his years serving under Zuma.

“The question has been raised: ‘You were there, you were deputy president, and many of these things were happening under your nose. Did you know?’,” said Ramaphosa, who has never been accused of any personal wrongdoing. “In time I guess I am going to be required to appear before the [inquiry] to answer certain things … So I will be going to give an account myself of what I knew, what I didn’t know and all that.”

Hearings of the judicial inquiry into the accusations – set up earlier this year on the orders of the powerful public anti-graft watchdog – have already led to revelations that have deeply embarrassed senior officials, and forced the resignation of the respected finance minister.

On Thursday Ramaphosa sacked Tom Moyane, the head of the tax collection agency and Zuma ally, on the recommendation of the judicial inquiry. In a letter to Moyane, Ramaphosa said the investigation had painted “a deeply concerning picture of the current state of [tax revenue authority] SARS and the reckless mismanagement which characterised your tenure”.

Ramaphosa said the judicial inquiry was working in an organised way to “shed light” and “when the moment comes the criminal justice system will kick into action”.

A former trade unionist who was one of the leaders of the struggle against apartheid in the 1980s, Ramaphosa spoke to journalists after addressing a business leadership summit and a conference on gender-based violence.

The South African premier, who appeared tired but determined, faces challenges on every front. The economy is weak, expectations are high and his broadly centrist market-orientated policies face strong opposition from within his own party.

Entrenched networks of government and ANC officials loyal to Zuma are still powerful, while international investors, though interested by South Africa’s undoubted potential, remain wary.

The economy is in recession. Unemployment – already very high – is rising and inflation is hitting poor people’s budgets hard.

Twenty-four years after the end of the racist, repressive apartheid regime, South Africa remains a country with enormous resources and great wealth but also vast inequality.

Much of the focus in recent months has been on the possible redistribution of farmland – largely owned by white people, who constitute less than 10% of the population. Late last year the ANC committed to more effective measures to redistribute land.

This, and a decision to press ahead with a constitutional amendment to allow expropriation without compensation has rattled investors, as well as prompting Donald Trump to tweet an unfounded rightwing claim that white farms were being seized by the government and farmers suffering “large-scale killing”.

Ramaphosa said he had sat next to Trump at a lunch on a recent visit to the US but the issue had not been raised. Instead the two leaders had spoken about golf, with Trump quizzing his counterpart on South African golf champions.

“We exchanged pleasantries … He spoke about [his] golf courses, so that is land, I guess,” Ramaphosa said.

The ANC faces a difficult election next year, which could see its share of the vote dip below 50% for the first time. The leftwing faction within the party, and the populist opposition Economic Freedom Fighters, have pushed for more radical measures to redistribute resources.

The president said he was confident the party would win an “overwhelming victory” in the polls, though admitted it had lost ground in recent years and that party officials continued to commit “misdemeanours” .

“We went through a real period of decline …because many people felt we had departed from our value system but there is a new mood in the country, much as it is tempered by the economic conditions we are going through. We need to do more,” he said.

Though successive ANC governments have made huge efforts to build homes and supply basic services to millions of people, they have been unable to meet expectations. Many people still live without electricity or sanitation. Schooling and healthcare are often rudimentary. One recent survey found eight out of 10 nine-year-olds in South Africa are functionally illiterate.Levels of violent crime are among the highest in the world, with poor South Africans suffering most.

Trump’s hate and lies are failing. Two new studies show why.

(Chuck Burton/AP)

By Greg Sargent-October 31 at 9:43 AM

The closing campaign strategy of President Trump and Republicans is often depicted as mainly an effort to galvanize the GOP’s blue-collar white base through fear-mongering about immigrants and incitement of racial-cultural tensions around imagery of angry Democratic mobs and protesting African American athletes.

But there’s a second piece to the strategy that’s also crucial: Trump and Republicans want college-educated white voters, particularly suburban women, to ignore all that unpleasant racial and cultural demagoguery entirely — and focus only on the economy.

It is widely observed that Democrats are favored to take back the House because of a backlash against Trump’s ugly personal characteristics and verbal displays of racism and misogyny. But it is already discernible in Trump and Republican messaging that the public has turned on the Trump-era GOP’s agenda — that is, its peculiar fusion of xenophobic ethno-nationalism with orthodox GOP regressive and plutocratic economic priorities.

Two new studies help us make sense of all these dynamics. The first one, by the Economic Innovation Group, asks a simple question: Why isn’t the good economy saving GOP incumbents in the suburbs?

As the New York Times reports, this study looks at long-term economic trends in 70 of the most competitive House districts, which are represented almost entirely by Republicans. It finds that most of them are relatively prosperous, which should buoy GOP incumbents. But here’s the rub (emphasis added):

As a group, the 70 most competitive districts have not seen their incomes grow more, or their unemployment rates drop faster, than the rest of the country since Mr. Trump took office. But they began the Trump era in better shape than the rest of the country.

In 2017, the median household income in a typical competitive district was just over $66,000, according to the Census Bureau. For the typical noncompetitive district, it was just under $57,000.

The economic well-being of these districts represents a continuation of trends that predated Trump. What’s more, a number of these districts have more immigrants in them and/or are woven into the globalized economy. As the study’s author notes, these are “dynamic places where the status quo is working rather well,” and where “globalization and immigration aren’t things to be feared.”

The second study, which was overseen by CNN’s Ron Brownstein, underscores these points. It undertook a detailed demographic analysis of all the competitive House districts, and concluded:

Democrats’ top opportunities to capture Republican-held seats are concentrated in well-educated, higher-income and preponderantly white districts. Most of these seats are centered on economically thriving suburbs around major metropolitan areas where Trump faces widespread resistance among white-collar voters, especially women.

Republicans are mostly on defense in districts that are both economically prosperous and are filled with voters who are badly alienated by Trump. Why this disconnect?

It should be no surprise that homemade bombs have been sent to high-profile officials, a news network and a philanthropist, opinion writer Paul Waldman says. (Gillian Brockell/The Washington Post)

Trumpism’s story is based on lies 

One likely answer is that the story Trump has told about the economy — and the country — just isn’t resonating in many of these districts. That narrative is that immigration and globalization pose major threats to the well-being of Americans, and Trump is now acting on those threats, via stepped-up deportations from the interior, efforts to slash legal immigration and refugee flows, and trade wars. 

That, plus his tax cut, has created the supposed “Trump boom,” in stark contrast with the economy under Barack Obama, which is uniformly depicted as a pre-Trumpian hellscape.

At the same time, Trump and Republicans have distilled down Trumpism’s core narratives into a series of ludicrous and menacing cartoons for the GOP base’s consumption. Why? Brownstein’s analysis provides an answer: Because the bulwark against truly large GOP losses in the House is made up of many districts that are competitive but are also heavily populated with blue-collar, rural, small-town, exurban and evangelical whites. Hold off Democrats in all those districts, and if they win the majority, it will be a limited one.

And so, to galvanize those voters, Trump has directed bread-and-circuses belligerence at euro-weenie elites and China. He has employed endless lies and hate-mongering to hype the migrant “caravan” into a national emergency, and will send in troops as props to dramatize the point. Republicans are running ads absurdly depicting immigrants as criminals and invaders alongside many other ones that indulge in naked race-baiting. Trump is vowing an end to birthright citizenship, confirming the ethno-nationalist underpinnings of Trumpism and further fanning the xenophobic flames.

But Trump’s political team recognizes that all this risks a backlash among more-educated white voters. So this is the $6 million ad campaign that his team is running right now, that appears to be targeting those voters:

The split in GOP messaging is notable. While Republicans employ garish race-baiting to galvanize the hard-core white GOP base, this ad’s soft-focus messaging directed at white suburban women features none of that imagery. The spot’s iconic white suburban woman is obviously conflicted over her vote — we aren’t told why, but we know full well why — but finally checks the “Republican” box out of concern over her child’s economic future.

Yet the ad’s core narrative — the contrast of the Obama hellscape with the Trump boom — is an invention, and as the first study noted above suggests, it might not even resonate in these districts. What’s more, the Trump/GOP economic agenda is being dramatically falsified as well: Trump is promising a huge middle-class tax cut that isn’t going to happen, to obscure the truly regressive nature of the actual Trump/GOP tax cut, which lavished a huge windfall on the wealthy and corporations and as such is deeply unpopular.

Republicans are also running ads vowing to protect people with preexisting conditions, yet they have also locked themselves into opposition to Obamacare, which Democrats are now campaigning on protecting. As Ezra Klein explains, this has left Republicans with no alternative but to lie relentlessly to obscure the real GOP health-care agenda, which is to deregulate insurance markets and regressively strip protections and economic assistance from millions. This, too, is deeply unpopular.

Trump and Republicans are closing by lying about health care and taxes to limit losses among suburban and well-educated white voters, and lying about immigration while race-baiting against individual Democratic candidates to keep the downscale white GOP base energized. This probably won’t be enough for Republicans to keep the House. But whatever is to be on this front, the need to lie so relentlessly about all these matters itself constitutes an admission of failure. The public has seen Trump’s fusion of ethno-nationalism and orthodox GOP plutocracy put into governing practice, and is rejecting it.

The Economic Crisis Is Over. Populism Is Forever.

From the United States to Germany, the West is booming—but the public hasn’t regained an appetite for liberalism.

European Council President Donald Tusk (from left), British Prime Minister Theresa May, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and U.S. President Donald Trump prepare for a photo at the G-7 summit in La Malbaie, Canada, on June 7. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)

BY JAMES TRAUB-

 OCTOBER 31, 2018, 1:54 PM

Angela Merkel couldn’t have remained Germany’s chancellor forever. Even Helmut Kohl, who was chairman of the Christian Democratic Union and Germany’s longest-serving postwar chancellor, had to step down after 16 years. Kohl’s tenure ended in the usual way: In 1998, with unemployment and economic dissatisfaction rising, voters chose the left-of-center Gerhard Schröder over the right-of-center Kohl. But today, unemployment is at an almost historic low of 3.4 percent. Both youth unemployment and long-term unemployment, typical drivers of the anti-incumbent spirit, are low (though so is annual growth, at 2 percent).

Yet Merkel announced this week that she is stepping down as party chair, which strongly suggests she will not serve out the remainder of her term. She has been done in, above all, by the refugee crisis, for which a growing number of German voters have blamed her ever since she famously told them, in the late summer of 2015, “Wir schaffen das”(“We can do this”). Many of those voters want to reclaim what they have suddenly come to regard as an endangered identity.

The larger significance of Merkel’s fate is that the materialist assumptions of Western liberalism no longer capture the reality of Western politics and culture. It is in the nature of liberalism, a credo founded on rationalism, secularism, and utilitarian calculation, to regard material interests—i.e., your pocketbook—as real and the realm of values as ephemeral. That is why in What’s The Matter With Kansas?, the economist Thomas Frank could argue that Republicans had hoodwinked working-class Americans into voting against their true interests by seducing them with traditionalist values. That is also what Barack Obama was thinking when he said during the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign that working-class voters “cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”

It is, of course, no coincidence that the wave of populist nationalism now breaking over the West began in the aftermath of the 2008 economic crisis, when millions of working- and middle-class voters lost savings, jobs, and future prospects. But the wave engulfed liberal politics even where economic pillars remained intact. Poland was Eastern Europe’s economic engine—its Germany—when the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party defeated the classically liberal Civic Platform in 2015. Civic Platform Prime Minister Donald Tusk had described his platform as the maintenance of “warm water in the tap.” When I was in Warsaw the following year, Konstanty Gebert, a columnist and former Solidarity leader, said to me, “He thought that was enough, but he was wrong. People wanted history, they wanted glory, they wanted meaning. And PiS offered a meaning. Their meaning was, ‘We’ll make Poland great again.’”

What Poles seemed to want above all was the traditional identity they had, or imagined they had had, in the days before they joined their destiny to that of the secular, progressive, free market West. Different versions of this narrative played out in the wealthy countries of Northern Europe. Dutch politics, like German politics, had long oscillated between economically oriented left-of-center and right-of-center parties. The Dutch economy remained strong, but rising rates of immigration, which brought the population of the country’s four biggest cities close to majority-minority status, provoked an entirely new politics of Dutch identity. In the 2017 election, the right-of-center liberals staved off a challenge from the far-right, xenophobic Party for Freedom, though only by co-opting identity politics. So it went in Sweden, Austria, and elsewhere.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

James Traub is a contributing editor at Foreign Policy, a fellow at the Center on International Cooperation, and author of the book "John Quincy Adams: Militant Spirit." @jamestraub1

It is also no coincidence that hostility to immigrants and refugees runs much hotter in eastern Germany than in the wealthier and more open west. Yet during several visits to Dresden, near the country’s eastern border, I found that economics was not uppermost in the minds of either the officials of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party whom I met nor even among the marchers in the weekly rally of the anti-immigrant group Pegida. The demonstrators were not lumpen; most were small-town folk who had seen a few Muslim refugees—often very few—and concluded that their world was under siege. The nationalist spirit has begun spreading westward: In elections this month in wealthy and worldly Bavaria, the AfD won more than 10 percent of the vote and entered parliament there for the first time. The right of center fell, the left of center collapsed, and both extremes profited.

This is the phenomenon we face today in the United States, where the economy has rebounded more quickly than it has elsewhere in the West yet the forces of nationalism have not abated a whit. Donald Trump has not even campaigned on the economy or the stock market, an utterly bewildering choice by classical political standards. At first the president focused on his nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, which drew attention to his crusade against abortion, the great values issue of the last generation. But recently he has switched to immigration, turning the caravan of mothers and children seeking refuge from the violence and poverty of Central America into a threat to national security and identity.

Steve Bannon has claimed that the American electorate is dividing between “nationalists” and “cosmopolitans.” Trump plainly agrees, and he knows his base. A 2017 survey found that “fears about immigrants and cultural displacement were more powerful factors than economic concerns in predicting support for Trump among white working-class voters.” Almost half of such voters agreed with the statement, “things have changed so much that I often feel like a stranger in my own country”—an echo of the title of Arlie Russell Hochschild’s study of working-class Louisiana whites, Strangers in Their Own Land. Hochschild observes that the stoical, self-reliant code of her Cajun subjects cannot be wholly reduced to racism and xenophobia, even if it contains elements of both.

What this means for liberals is that a program of economic justice will not be enough to reach alienated whites. It means as well that a politics of identity that emphasizes the particularity of every group and subgroup, the right of each to stand apart from the straight white male default, will only further inflame the yearning for an atavistic whites-only identity. Liberals must find a national language that speaks to a national, inclusive identity. French President Emmanuel Macron has very consciously sought to position himself in the tradition of Charles de Gaulle as a patriot and the incarnation of an idea of France, though a far more up-to-date idea than de Gaulle’s 19th-century grandeur. (So far, it must be said, Macron has gained a reputation more for grandeur than for patriotism.) Perhaps the gap between the Democrats’ old New Deal base and the new race- and gender-conscious one is simply too large to be bridged.

Liberals are inclined to regard their own values as universal and self-evident, unlike the so-called subjective ones that arise from religion or custom. The cosmopolitan cherishing of diversity is an intrinsic good, while the yen for the familiar constitutes a repudiation of reality. In fact, both are preferences, though very deep ones that sharply divide those who hold them. The globalization of people, goods, jobs, and ideas has brought out that difference in sharp relief and thus redefined the politics of the West. Liberals can’t abandon their own values, but they must acknowledge them. And they must take seriously the views of those who do not share those values.

Arron Banks: Brexit spending investigated by National Crime Agency

Michael Crick-1 Nov 2018Political Correspondent

Aaron Banks, self-declared “Bad Boy of Brexit” was living it up in Bermuda today.

But the National Crime Agency now wants to know where he got the money for the biggest political gift in British history.

Down the memory lane: The jail killing of 3 November 1975

With thick love and trust, they bivouacked in our hearts as heroes and shall remain as heroes in our hearts in the days to come

by Anwar A Khan- Nov 1, 2018

Nov 1, 2018

( November 1, 2018, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) 43 years have gone by, by this time. I was then a student of the University of Dhaka and lodged in Sergeant Zohurul Hoque Hall. After the brutish slaying of Bangladesh’s Founding Father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman by some pettifogger military Majors on 15 August 1975, the country entered into the dingiest frat house. It was a terrible shock that shook the whole country. Despite being apolitical, I cannot forget that jounce wallop as of today. KhondokarMoshtaque Ahmed usurped power of Bangladesh walking on the blood of his supreme leader, Bangabandhu and became the self-proclaimed President of the country in connivance with those shyster junior army officers. Since then despoiling of the core values on which Bangladesh were grounded in 1971 after a huge bloodbath, started by Moshtaque tam-tam which was vociferously espoused by the shyster military dictators – Gen Zia, Gen Ershad, civilian ignoble politician Begum Zia and their mango-twigs showing arrogantly their banal actions.

In absence of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman who was then internment in Pakistan’s jail, when under the Premiership of a great statesman Tajuddin Ahmad of the Provisional Mujibnagar Government was in the process of attaining of Bangladesh, KhondokarMoshtaque Ahmed was the Foreign Minister. But he was a deft-schemer since our glorified Liberation War of 1971 who constantly was after Tajuddin Ahmad to do impairment to him to gimpy the fight against the bestial Pakistani military regime to gain ground for establishing Bangladesh. This artful character, in fact, cherished for a confederacy with the Pakistani regime instead of an independent and sovereign country for us for which we had then been fighting do-or-die like revolutionaries.

In less than three months of the country’s Founding Father’s bestial killing, the four national leaders – Tajuddin Ahmad, Syed Nazrul Islam, Capt. M. Monsur Ali and AHM Kamaruzzaman, the lambent leaders who maneuvered the Bangladesh Liberation War successfully to attain Bangladesh from the brutal vitellus of Pakistani government were gunned down along with bayonet charges in the wee hour on 3 November 1975. This horrific incident was designedly kept closed book for a long time by the felons, Moshtaque and his bands together.

To change our taste of food, I along with my class-mates and friends – Kajal, Arif, Kashem, Nabendu and Nasir was taking dinner at the Jagannath Hall’s canteen on that November evening time; a one band radio was then tuned on to listen to the BBC news and to our utter shock and outrageousness, we heard that those bright star politicians of our glorious yesteryear history were felled in the safe custody of Dhaka Central Jailhouse. All present in the canteen were dumb-founded momently. There continued heated up discourses amongst us. Some said these malefactors must not go unpunished; some pronounced that they must be sent to the gibbet and some enounced aright that the true inspirits that we achieved through our splendiferous Liberation War would now be sent to limbo to bring back the Pakistani political orientation in Bangladesh. But everybody present there also expressed their potent fret against the malevolent acts by those ruffians. While returning to my abode in the Sergeant Zohurul Hoque Hall, I was so upset that I was only thinking that Bangladesh had entered into a black society where some ghosts and goblins would rapine it with more ferocity.

These four gentlemen like politicians walked many a path for several decades; brought many bridges along the way until their feet became weary. An emphatic glance into their lackadaisical drowsy eyes, revealed hidden sorrows built up through their last drop of blood. Every wrinkle on their sullen faces seemed to be an emblem of pain. They looked tired, worn down by life and defeated by some hands of savage goons belonged to the netherworld. Life is full of emotions, broken dreams, forgotten promises and bleeding hearts!! Regretful memories, of haunting ghosts, whose spirit voices torment my mind!! We want to call back something nostalgic. Walking away in somewhat of a daze instinctively I remember the lamentable song of losing them all.

They were like great speechifiers, writers, fighters, old-timer word rhymers always thought free verse was asinine. They were the queerest, the dearest and the tear in our hearts. They were archaic, prosaic, euphoric, historic and made pentagrams optically divine for Bangladesh. Montages made their artistry torch shine. They were the spiffiest, geekiest, and uniquelymost outré; they were the people’s welfare oriented statesmen over the line; they were the personas of great abilities; and the poets of politics for their motherland.

With thick love and trust, they bivouacked in our hearts as heroes and shall remain as heroes in our hearts in the days to come. I am a reader, a writer, an eternal life seeker; I am a trier, a crier who is drowning in the tears that they groaned before their painful demise. These old sorrowful songs that I sing are not now just a fading memory of the days when they loved us, but them ole’ tears will start to stream with those beautiful notes and melodies knowing they won’t hear a single word that I say.

They were fighters who stood up with their blood dripping down. The steel of their helmets were holding back their scowl with pleasure they saw their just cause was emerging as victorious. The theme of us has been written about for ages. Love missed us, tragedies shared and shaped us. We did our best to live, to survive, different kinds of battles, but battles nonetheless bloodied, and battered. Life taught us how to survive and we have. Our worlds were so much the same like those of our majuscule fallen leaders, but different. They have always been in our hearts, that’s simple to say. Men can be so transparent. And are we not so different.

So, the gardeners when you plant, up your flowers, sow your lawns and baskets you hang. Remember to also put up a feeding table and put out seeds for the starlings that sing.

The harsh winds bite at my very soul. Alone I sit, waiting for the fight to commence. My heart is racing, sweat pours despite the cold. Caution…not of today only! The warrior reaps the spoils and cowards merely pray. Scars are reminders, painful, but not fatal lessons of a fighter. Forward! We march to claim what is ours. Steel rise above our heads; and our swords of truth transcends time. Seize the day! The moment is now not for past heartaches, nor future vows only. Slay the demons, for they must fall. Thrust our sword deep and only then will we hear Victory’s call.

We shall fight a battle every day against discouragement and fear; some foe stands always in our way; and the path ahead is never clear! We must forever be on guard against the doubts that skulk along; we get ahead by fighting hard, but fighting keeps our spirit strong. We hear the croaking of despair; the dark predictions of the weak; we find ourselves pursued by care no matter what the end we seek; our victories are not small and few; it matters not how hard we strive; each day the fight begins anew, but fighting keeps our hopes alive.

Our dreams that we earned in 1971 are spoiled by some rogue politicians. Our upright causes are wrecked by the skullduggeries of those nefarious of people. Some hour, perhaps, will come our chance, but that great hour has never struck; our progress has been slow and hard, we have to climb and crawl and swim, fight for ever stubborn yard; but we have kept in fighting trim. We have to fight our doubts away and be on guard against our fears; the feeble croaking of dismay has been familiar through the years; our dearest actions must keep going right, events combine to thwart our will; but fighting keeps our spirit strong, and are we undefeated still! NO, not, at all!
Arise, our soul, arise; shake off our guilty fears; the bleeding sacrifice in our behalves appears: before the throne our surety stands; their checkered names are written on our hands. They ever live above, for us to intercede; their all-redeeming love, their precious blood to plead; their blood atoned for our entire race, and sprinkles now the throne of grace. Their bleeding wounds they bear received on the jailhouse floors; they pour effectual prayers, they strongly speak for us.

Their spirit answers to the blood, and tells us we were born for loving of our beloved country – Bangladesh. We can no longer fear: with confidence we now draw nigh, and Dear Leaders, we cry for your absence in the soil of Bangladesh that you once created for us. We remember them with all sacrosanct.

If one person awake, awakens another. The second awakens his next-door brother and sister. The three awake can rouse a town by turning the whole place upside down. The many awake can make such abustle; it finally awakens the rest of us. One person up with dawn in his or her eyes, surely then multiplies. We must not forget this!

-The End-

The writer is a senior citizen of Bangladesh, writes on politics, political and human-centred figures, current and international affairs

More than 6 million jobs in Britain now pay less than the real Living Wage - and the number is rising

Just over one in five roles pay below the voluntary rate of £10.20 an hour in London and £8.75 outside the capital

More than six million jobs pay less than the recommended hourly rate in Britain (Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)

BynEmma MunbodhPersonal Finance Correspondent- 27 OCT 2018

The number of jobs that pay below the real Living Wage has hit 6.3 million, marking an increase of more than 300,000 on last year, figures show.

New official numbers released today show that there are now 2.9 million full time jobs and 3.37 million part-time roles that pay workers less than the real Living Wage.

This is the hourly rate a major organisation says workers should be earning, factoring in real term costs such as inflation. It's entirely separate to the Government's minimum wage.

The real Living Wage rate, set by the Living Wage Foundation, is currently £8.75 across the UK and £10.20 in London.

The rate is set to rise on the 5 November, the first day of Living Wage Week 2018.

'An economy that exploits low-wage workers'

 In Redbridge, London, 12,000 of all working women in the area earn below the real Living Wage (Image: Caiaimage)

The data also shows that there is a disproportionate number of women trapped in low-pay.

Currently 3.7 million or 28% of all female employees are paid below the recommended Living Wage.
The area with the highest percentage of women on low pay is Redbridge, London. A total of 12,000 of all working women in the area earn below the real Living Wage.

"An increasing number of people are struggling to keep their heads above water on wages that don't meet the basic costs and pressures of everyday life," explained Tess Lanning, director of the Living Wage Foundation.

"This rising problem of low pay means that it's more important than ever that major employers step up and commit to pay a real living wage, not just the government minimum."

• 7.7 million people trapped in "persistent poverty" - the help they can find
   
  Annual leave for zero-hours workers

Jenny Baskerville, of consultants KPMG, a strong supporter of the real living wage, said: "The latest ONS statistics reveal real cause for concern, with the number of jobs paying below the real living wage significantly up on last year.

"Clearly more needs to be done if we are to make real traction in ensuring that all workers are fairly valued for their contribution to the economy."

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: "This is further evidence that the Tories are creating a deeply unfair economy, one based on exploiting low-wage workers who are trapped in insecure employment."

Frances O’Grady at workers' union the TUC, added: "Millions of workers are living below the breadline. It's time for employers and ministers to wake up to this fact."

 It's high time the Chancellor addressed austerity - and next week's Budget could answer some big questions

Today's figures come ahead of Monday's Autumn Budget when the Chancellor will lay out his financial forecast for the next 12 months - the last before Brexit.

It follows a poll by GMB union which, on Friday, found two-thirds of 1,000 people back a real-term pay rise for millions workers.

General secretary Tim Roache said: "This polling shows people have simply had enough of austerity and now expect the Prime Minister to deliver on her promise to put an end to it.

"The Chancellor must use his Budget to press ahead with proper investment in our crumbling infrastructure and giving our hard-working public sector workers the pay rise they deserve after nearly a decade of real-terms wage cuts," Roache added.

India's environment minister blames state governments as pollution worsens in Delhi

An under-construction building is shrouded in smog in New Delhi, India, November 1, 2018. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India’s environment minister blamed the Delhi government and its neighboring states for failing in their efforts to check air pollution which was six times above the recommended limit on Thursday, posing severe health risks.

The minister, Harsh Vardhan, said in a statement that efforts by state governments, including Punjab and Haryana, to bring down incidents of widespread crop burning were “far from satisfactory”.

“In Punjab only daily cases of stubble burning were still running into thousands,” the minister said, adding the overall incidents of crop burning were down 30 percent from the previous year.

India has aimed to reduce stubble burning that is a major source of pollution during the winter months by 70 percent in its top two farm states this year, a top government official said last week, but experts questioned whether the target was credible.

The minister also blamed the Delhi city government for falling short of meeting its targets to rein in pollution from construction activities, open dumping or the burning of waste, including industrial waste, traffic congestion and road dust.

Delhi was also headed for a “deadly cocktail” of pollution in the coming weeks as a major Hindu festival of Diwali on Nov. 7 - during which many fireworks are usually let off - would coincide with crop burning.

Reporting by Neha Dasgupta and Mayank Bhardwaj; Edited by Martin Howell and David Evans

Parkinson's disease 'may' start in gut

By James Gallagher-31 October 201

The brain disease Parkinson's may actually start in the depths of the digestive system, US scientists say.

In their study, people whose appendix had been removed were less likely to develop the neurodegenerative disease.

And the appendix, long thought of as pointless in the human body, contained the substance that kills brain cells.

Parkinson's UK said the findings were the most compelling evidence yet that the disease's origins lie outside the brain.

In Parkinson's, toxic proteins build up in the brain to kill nerves, particularly those linked with movement.

• Parkinson's disease is incurable
• It affects 128,000 people in the UK
• As well as damaging movement, it affects the senses, memory and mood

It might feel counter-intuitive, but there is now growing evidence that the gut is involved.

Researchers at the Van Andel Research Institute, in Michigan, looked at data on 1.7 million people over half a century.

The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, showed the risk of Parkinson's was 20% lower in the people who had had their appendix removed.

Toxic protein

The appendix is a little sac at the opening of the large intestine and is probably the best known vestigial (without a use) organ in the human body.

And analysing the content of people's appendixes showed they contained the same toxic protein - called alpha synuclein - that is found in the brains of Parkinson's patients.

The appendix is clearly not the whole of the story (otherwise removing it would prevent all cases).

But the researchers argue the guts are a breeding ground for the protein, which then travels up the vagus nerve and into the brain.

Digestive disorders

One of the researchers, Dr Viviane Labrie, said people should not rush to have their appendix removed.

She said: "We're not advocating appendectomy as a form of protecting against Parkinson's disease.

"It would be much more wise to control or dampen excessive formation of alpha synuclein to tune down the overabundance or potentially to prevent its escape."

The idea that the gut is involved in Parkinson's is rapidly gaining attention.

Patients often report digestive disorders. Cutting the vagus nerve is linked to a lower level of Parkinson's and animal studies have suggested bacteria that live in the gut are key.

New questions

Claire Bale, from Parkinson's UK, said: "This research is really important because it gives us some of the most compelling evidence yet that Parkinson's may begin outside the brain, which is a revolutionary new idea that is emerging in the scientific world.

"Understanding where and how Parkinson's begins will be absolutely crucial to developing treatments that can stop it and potential prevent it altogether."

The study showed nearly everybody tested had alpha-synuclein protein in their appendix.

And there were some differences in the structure of the protein between healthy people and Parkinson's patients.

However, the hunt for the origins of Parkinson's still cannot explain why the disease develops in some people but not others.

This field of research is asking as many new questions as it answers.

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Lonely Planet 'hotspot' workers demanding minimum wage, beaten up by police

A PROTESTER SHOUTS SLOGANS DURING THE PROTEST DEMANDING A PAY RISE FOR PLANTATION WORKERS - OCT. 24, 2018, COLOMBO

By Athula Vithanage-POST 26 OCTOBER 2018

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Police beat up members of the plantation community who protested in Sri Lanka’s capital demanding a daily minimum wage of five dollars while their workplaces were celebrated by a top international travel publisher as tourist hotspots. 

The protest was the largest mass gathering in the country convened through social media, primarily by the sons and daughters of plantation workers.

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ACTIVIST ANTHONY JESUDASAN

ressed in black, protesters descended on Colombo in their thousands from hill country tea plantations hundreds of kilometers away.

Several of those plantations were promoted by Lonely Planet as “Top Experiences” for tourists in Sri Lanka, which has been named the best country in the world to visit in 2019.

Workers of all those estates were making the same demand for almost three years; A daily minimum wage of one thousand rupees.

Police violence

On October 24, plantation workers came to Colombo hoping to hand over their demands to President Maithripala Sirisena after talks broke down between trade union leaders and plantation bosses.

After nearly seven hours of waiting where no official was available to hear their grievances, the protesters launched a sit-down protest opposite the president’s office in Galle Face.

Around 7 pm street lights were switched off and riot police dropped in.

“Unlike in other protests where an official coming to meet representatives and accepting a memorandum containing demands, what we received was police violence,” said activist Anthony Jesudasan speaking to JDS.

Police used batons, tear gas and water cannons to disperse the workers, family members and activists.

THOUSANDS OF BLACK-CLAD PROTESTERS GATHERED AT GALLE FACE GREEN IN COLOMBO - OCT. 24, 2018

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In the face of rising cost of living, workers have been requesting a minimum wage of LKR 1000 for nearly three years.

Most recent talks broke down after the Planters' Association was only prepared to raise their salaries by another hundred rupees (USD 0.05). 

SUNIL POHOLIYEDDA

Ministers as union leaders

The workers were frustrated with their trade union leadership, who have a promised to take the matter up with the president. Many of those leaders are powerful ministers in the ruling coalition.

“Why can’t they take up the issue with the president at the weekly cabinet meeting?” one angry worker asked journalists.

“That is why we came to Colombo giving up the waiting for three months; To hand over our simple demand to the leader whom we voted to be president.”

President of the Planters Association Sunil Poholiyedda says that the industry was incurring heavy losses making it difficult to meet the workers demand.

“Give us the pay we deserve, and we will make the industry profitable and get the country also out of this debt trap,” said a worker at the protest.

Workers also demand the scrapping of the collective agreement between unions and plantation owners on wages, work conditions and welfare, which is due to expire this month.☐

© JDS