Black Immigrant Daily News

Barbados’ Mark Farmer is swimming the English Channel and writing his name on history’s page once more for the sake of two charities – Variety – The Children’s Charity and the Ubunye Challenge in South Africa.

According to the website where donations could be made, it says that Farmer has only swum in warm, tropical waters his whole life. Therefore, this time he is truly out of his regular depths and comfort zone. He is attempting the Herculean task of swimming in the frigid waters of the English Channel, from England to France, considered the Mount Everest of open water swimming.

Farmer is doing this historic swim to raise funds for The Ubunye Challenge to replace the existing pit latrine toilet facilities at the Sophuele Childhood Development centre in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. The new facilities will consist of new environmentally friendly and sustainable ECO-Dry toilets.

While at home, funds will also be donated to Variety, which assists numerous children in Barbados with a myriad of needs from assistance with school and day-to-day living essentials to medical treatments and more.

On the website – https://ubunye.web.app/ – donations of $20, $75 or $150 can be made.

At 6pm, September 21, according to the tracking map, Farmer has almost completed the humongous feat as well.

Good luck!

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The Bank of England raised its key interest rate Thursday by another half-percentage point to the highest level in 14 years, but despite facing inflation that outpaces other major economies, it avoided more aggressive hikes made by the US Federal Reserve and other central banks.

It is the Bank of England’s seventh straight move to increase borrowing costs as rising food and energy prices fuel a cost-of-living crisis that is considered the worst in a generation.

Despite facing a slumping currency, tight labour market and inflation near its highest level in four decades, officials held off on acting more boldly as they predicted a second consecutive drop in economic output this quarter, an informal definition of recession.

The bank matched its half-point increase last month — the biggest in 27 years — to bring its benchmark rate to 2.25 per cent. The decision was delayed for a week as the United Kingdom mourned Queen Elizabeth II and comes after new Prime Minister Liz Truss’ government unveiled a massive relief package aimed at helping consumers and businesses cope with skyrocketing energy bills.

The new measures have eased uncertainty over energy costs and are “likely to limit significantly further increases” in consumer prices, the bank’s policymakers said. They expected inflation — now at 9.9 per cent — to peak at 11 per cent in October, lower than previously forecast.

“Nevertheless, energy bills will still go up and, combined with the indirect effects of higher energy costs, inflation is expected to remain above 10 per cent over the following few months, before starting to fall back,” the monetary policy committee said.

The bank signaled it is prepared to respond more forcefully at its November meeting if needed. Its decision comes during a busy week for central bank action marked by much more aggressive moves to bring down soaring consumer prices.

The US Federal Reserve hiked rates Wednesday by three-quarters of a point for the third consecutive time and forecast that more large increases were ahead. Also Thursday, the Swiss central bank enacted its biggest-ever hike to its key interest rate.

Three of the British bank’s nine committee members wanted a similar three-quarter-point raise but were outvoted by five who preferred a half-point and one who voted for a quarter-point.

The decision “suggests the Bank of England is concerned about the UK’s economic deteriorating outlook amid the looming threat of recession,” said Victoria Scholar, head of investment at interactive investor. “The timid increase will do little to stem the slide in sterling but may avoid inadvertently inducing unnecessary pain for the economy which is already grappling with slowing demand and deteriorating confidence.”

Surging inflation is a worry for central banks because it saps economic growth by eroding people’s purchasing power. Raising interest rates — the traditional tool to combat inflation — reduces demand and therefore prices by making it more expensive to borrow money for big purchases like cars and homes.

Inflation in the United Kingdom hit 9.9 per cent in August, close to its highest level since 1982 and five times higher than the Bank of England’s two per cent target. The British pound is at its weakest against the dollar in 37 years, contributing to imported inflation.

To ease the crunch, Truss’ government announced it would cap energy bills for households and businesses that have soared as Russia’s war in Ukraine drives up the price of natural gas needed for heating.

The Treasury is expected to publish a “mini-budget” Friday with more economic stimulus measures, and the bank said it won’t be able to assess how they will affect inflation until its November meeting.

The Bank of England expects gross domestic product to fall by 0.1 per cent in the third quarter, below its August projection of 0.4 per cent growth. That would be a second quarterly decline after official estimates showed output fell by 0.1 per cent in the previous three-month period.

The weakness partly reflects a smaller-than-expected rebound after an extra June holiday to celebrate the queen’s 70 years on the throne and the impact of another public holiday Monday for her funeral, officials said.

The bank avoided pressure to go bigger even as other banks around the world take aggressive action against inflation fuelled by the global economy’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and then the war in Ukraine.

This month, Sweden’s central bank raised its key interest rate by a full percentage point, while the European Central Bank delivered its largest-ever rate increase with a three-quarter point hike for the 19 countries that use the euro currency.

But British policymakers signalled they will “respond forcefully, as necessary” if there are signs that inflationary pressure is more persistent than expected, “including from stronger demand.”

The bank said it’s also moving ahead with plans to trim its bond holdings built up under a stimulus program, selling off 80 billion pounds ($90 billion) worth of assets over the next year to bring its portfolio down to 758 billion pounds.

By Kelvin Chan, AP

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Black Immigrant Daily News

By Sir Ronald Sanders 

(The writer is Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to the United States of America and the Organization of American States.   He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London and Massey College in the University of Toronto) 

“Every bullet, every bomb, every shell that hits a target in Ukraine, hits our pockets and our economies in Africa.”   Those were the words of the President of Ghana, Akufo-Addo, at the UN General Assembly on September 21.

The Ghanaian President was referring to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which aggravated an already difficult worldwide economic, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

While he spoke as an African, Akufo-Addo could have been speaking for every developing region of the world, including the Caribbean.

Several African countries now have inflation rates, surging three to four times higher than they were just two years ago.  The situation is no different in the Caribbean region.

If the world was turned upside down because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is damaging it still further.   And, with no end in sight.

No region of the world, or any person within regions, has escaped the consequences of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ill-advised invasion of Ukraine, clearly aimed at seizure of large tracts of Ukrainian land and strategic access to the sea and global commerce.

In July, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said “global growth is projected to slow from an estimated 6.1 percent in 2021 to 3.6 percent in 2022 and 2023. This is 0.8 and 0.2 percentage points lower for 2022 and 2023 than projected in January”.

The IMF emphasized that the economic costs of the Russian war against Ukraine “are expected to spread farther afield through commodity markets, trade, and—to a lesser extent—financial interlinkages. Fuel and food price rises are already having a global impact, with vulnerable populations—particularly in low-income countries—most affected”.

Therefore, the troubling economic and financial situation should completely dispel the illusion, held by some in the developing world that the war has nothing to do with us.  In fact, the entire world has a vested interested in encouraging its immediate end.

The leaders of the two most important developing countries, Xi Jinping of China and Narendra Modi of India recently indicated their concerns about the war.   Significantly Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey, has called for an end to the war in Ukraine “as soon as possible through diplomatic channels.”

As in all unpopular wars – and this one certainly is – Russian military forces have been losing ground to the more committed Ukrainian troops.   The former are soldiers, carrying out orders; the latter are men and women determined to protect their homeland with their lives.  Despite the superior Russian military firepower, especially missiles launched from areas bordering Ukraine, the Ukrainians, armed with improved weaponry – gifted by sympathetic nations – and fortified by a patriotic resoluteness, have pushed Russian troops out of Ukrainian territory that they had earlier seized.

This has caused President Putin to announce conscription of reservists and other civilians.  But his plan has met resistance.  More than 800 Russians were arrested in anti-war demonstrations in 37 cities, including Moscow and St. Petersburg, according to the independent Russian human rights group OVD-Info. The number of men fleeing the country has increased as has widespread protests by Russian citizens.

The protestors have been assaulted with military force and hundreds have been detained.  Journalists in Moscow, with the international news agency, Associated Press, reported that they witnessed at least a dozen arrests in the first 15 minutes of a night-time protest in the capital, with police in heavy body armour tackling demonstrators and , hauling some away as they chanted, “No to war!”

Fighting a war, which relies on reluctant conscripts, is unlikely to bring the success that Putin told the Russian people was imminent.  Instead, the Ukrainians have recaptured vast swathes of Russian-occupied territory.  In addition to sinking confidence in any achievement, resulting from the war, the Russia economy is also suffering.

Despite all this, and in a departure from reality, President Putin is planning to hold referenda “on joining Russia” in areas of the Ukraine that Russian troops occupy.

Referenda in the middle of a war, and with the populating living under the guns of occupying forces, would hardly be credible to any nation in the global community.  However, the decision to hold them clearly shows Putin’s intention to annex the areas to Russia.   Consequently, the war will escalate further, as the Ukrainians intensify their resistance.

The referenda are scheduled to start on September 23 and to continue for 5 days, after which Russia will no doubt announce that the people of the areas have voted in favour, and they have opted to join Russia.   In his quest to re-establish the Soviet Union, President Putin is doing so by seizing the territory of a neighbouring state and balkanizing it.  This is a grave violation of the international legal order, which Russia was party to establishing, and which has been applied by the UN Security Council since 1945.

But, in the way of powerful nations, rules and laws are discarded when it does not suit the ambitions of their governments.

Every government, at the United Nations General Assembly this month, at the General Assembly of the Organization of American States next month, and in every international meeting, should make it very clear to President Putin that the war against Ukraine is not only unpopular, but it is fast becoming a war against global economic peace and growth, which are vital conditions for economic progress in developing countries.

Developing countries, especially, small states, depend on adherence to international law; they also need global peace that facilitates travel for tourism, aid money being spent on development and not on arms, and competitive commerce that reduces high prices for food and other goods.

President Putin has jeopardized all that.

Responses and previous commentaries: www.sirronaldsanders.com 

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The four-lane road on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) railway embankment that the People’s Progressive Party/Civic (PPP/C) Government has sent out to tender, is expected to be completed in two to three years.

During the recent distribution of cash grants to fishermen on the ECD, Vice President Bharrat Jagdeo updated them on infrastructure plans. Specifically, he informed them of the time frame to complete the four-lane highway from Unity to Sheriff Street, on the railway embankment.

“We just awarded a contract that from Unity to Sheriff Street, on the railway embankment, we’re going to now have a four-lane road. So that should be completed in maybe two to three years. Four lanes. So, you don’t have traffic congestion going in from the East Coast,” he explained.

According to Jagdeo, this means reduced traffic and transit time, as persons traverse the East Coast. He also noted that as a consequence of all these initiatives, the whole area will become more urbanised.

“What this means is that all of the lands and development will come out further on the East Coast. Because people can travel, the transit time will be fast. You’ll now have, like from this area you’ll have eight lanes going in to the city. Four on the railway embankment and four here.

“So that will be important for development. It means housing, business development, everything. You’ll see the whole area becoming urbanised. We’re now building a four lane, from Diamond into Georgetown. We’ve completed part of it,” the Vice President said.Government has said that the four-lane highway will go all the way from Sheriff Street to Mahaica on the railway embankment. There are also plans for the upgrade of a two-lane road from Belfield to Orange Nassau.

Back in June when the contract for the East Coast Demerara-East Bank Demerara road link project was being discussed, Senior Minister in the Office of the President with responsibility for Finance, Dr Ashni Singh, had talked about extending the four-lane road from Sheriff Street to Buxton and beyond.

“When I say brand new four-lane road, I’m speaking here of the alignment along the existing railway embankment road, but widening that existing railway embankment road to a new four-lane highway from Sheriff Street to Orange Nassau, like I said with plans to go beyond,” Dr Singh had said.

At the time, a US$106 million contract had been signed between the Public Works Ministry and India-based Ashoka Buildcon Limited, for the construction of a four-lane bypass road that will link the East Coast of Demerara corridor at Ogle directly to the East Bank Demerara corridor at Eccles.

Back in 2015, the Indian Government had provided the US$50 million line of credit for the road link that was initially slated for Ogle to Diamond, EBD. However, the project cost was driven up to over $208 million by the previous A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) Government and the project languished under them.

However, when the PPP/C Government took office in 2020, it redesigned the project into two phases to fit the line of credit – first from Ogle to Haags Bosch road in Eccles, which is about 48-50 per cent of the project, and then from Eccles to Diamond.

The Guyana Government will be undertaking the extension from Diamond all the way to Timehri. It was announced in January of this year that Ashoka Buildcon Limited won the contract to construct the road, ahead of two other Indian companies. Ashoka has built a number of bridges and roads. According to the company’s website, it even built a bridge in 38 days, namely the Mandve Bridge near Pandharpur, India. The company said the bridge was supposed to be built in 12 months.

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