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newstfionline · 4 years ago

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Monday, May 10, 2021

Higher Prices Leave Consumers Feeling the Pinch (WSJ) Americans accustomed to years of low inflation are beginning to pay sharply higher prices for goods and services as the economy strains to rev back up and the pandemic wanes. Price tags on consumer goods from processed meat to dishwashing products have risen by double-digit percentages from a year ago, according to NielsenIQ. Some consumers are feeling stretched. Costs are rising at every step in the production of many goods. Prices for oil, crops and other commodities have shot up this year. Trucking companies are paying scarce drivers more to take those materials to factories and construction sites. As a result, companies are charging more for foods and consumer products including foil wraps and disposable cups. And consumers are therefore paying more.

As US reopens, campuses tighten restrictions for virus (AP) About a year into mask mandates, nasal swabs and remote classes, the atmosphere turned tense at the University of Vermont as the school cracked down on rules for social distancing and face coverings amid a spike in student COVID-19 cases. Students were handed hundreds of citations for violations like standing in another student’s doorway or walking maskless to a hallway restroom, igniting a student-led petition that blasted “strict and inhumane living conditions.” “You start to feel suffocated like I’m afraid to leave my room,” freshman Patrick Welsh said in an interview on campus. Even as restrictions relax across much of the United States, colleges and universities have taken new steps to police campus life as the virus spreads through students who are among the last adults to get access to vaccines. Administrators say they’ve needed to act urgently to avoid risking an early end to the semester or sending infected students home and spreading COVID-19. In recent weeks, the University of Michigan punished hundreds of students for missing mandatory virus testing by deactivating their access cards to nonresidential buildings, and Cornell University announced that students would lose access to campus Wi-Fi, course materials and facilities for missing virus tests. The University of Chicago locked down residence halls for seven days and shifted classes online after finding more than 50 cases in a matter of days.

Pandemic gives boost as more states move to digital IDs (AP) The card that millions of people use to prove their identity to everyone from police officers to liquor store owners may soon be a thing of the past as a growing number of states develop digital driver’s licenses. With the advent of digital wallets and boarding passes, people are relying more on their phones to prove their identity. At least five states have implemented a mobile driver’s license program. Three others—Utah, Iowa and Florida—intend to launch programs by next year, with more expected to follow suit. Mobile licenses will give people more privacy by allowing them to decide what personal information they share, state officials say. The licenses offer privacy control options that allow people to verify their age when purchasing alcohol or renting a car, while hiding other personal information like their address. Having a mobile driver’s license will allow people to update their license information remotely without having to go to a state’s Department of Motor Vehicles or waiting for a new card in the mail, said Lee Howell, state relations manager at the American Automobile Association. Industry leaders say safeguards will prevent anyone’s information from being stolen, but some critics argue that having so much personal data on a phone is too risky.

Why an Estimated 100,000 Americans Abroad Face Passport Problems (NYT) About 9 million U.S. citizens currently live abroad, and as the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel finally appears, immigration lawyers estimate more than 100,000 can’t get travel documents to return to the United States. Despite the State Department making headway on a massive backlog of passport applications in the early months of the pandemic, many consulates and embassies abroad, plagued by COVID-19 restrictions and staffing reductions, remain closed for all but emergency services. Travel is restarting, but for American expats who had a baby abroad in the past year or saw their passport expire during the pandemic, elusive appointments for documents are keeping them grounded. “It’s a real mess,” said Jennifer Minear, an immigration attorney and the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association. “It’s a giant, multilayered onion of a problem and the reduction of staff as a result of COVID at the consular posts has really thrown the State Department for a loop.” Michael Wildes, the managing partner of the law firm Wildes & Weinberg, PC, which specializes in immigration law, estimates that the number of stranded Americans abroad is in the hundreds of thousands.

Scotland’s pro-independence leader promises another bid to break from U.K. after election boost (Washington Post) First Minister Nicola Sturgeon promised Saturday to push ahead with another Scotland independence referendum after her party gained a strong showing in Scottish Parliament elections, setting up a potential clash with Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Sturgeon said that an independence referendum was the “will of the country,,” with her Scottish National Party and pro-independence allies taking a majority of the 129 seats after all the votes were counted. That will probably boost calls to redo a 2014 independence referendum, which could lead to the crackup of the United Kingdom under the strains of Brexit and its deep divisions.

‘Freedom’ fiestas: Spaniards celebrate end of COVID curfew (Reuters) Exhilarated Spaniards danced in streets, chanted “freedom” and partied on beaches overnight as a COVID-19 curfew ended across most of the nation. In scenes akin to New Year’s Eve celebrations, hundreds of mainly young people gathered in Madrid’s Puerta del Sol square to applaud the clock striking midnight while in Barcelona revellers headed to the beach with drinks in hand. Police in Barcelona had the strange task of moving people on after the last curfew began at 10 p.m., only to let them back at midnight when it ended for good.

Putin reviews Russian military might as tensions with West soar (Reuters) President Vladimir Putin reviewed Russia’s traditional World War Two victory parade on Sunday, a patriotic display of raw military power that this year coincides with soaring tensions with the West. The parade on Moscow’s Red Square commemorating the 76th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two featured over 12,000 troops and more than 190 pieces of military hardware, including intercontinental ballistic missile launchers, and a fly-past by nearly 80 military aircraft under cloudy skies. This year’s parade precedes parliamentary elections in September and comes at a time when Moscow’s relations with the West are acutely strained over issues ranging from the conflict in Ukraine to the fate of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny.

Death toll soars to 50 in school bombing in Afghan capital (AP) The death toll in a horrific bombing at a girls’ school in the Afghan capital has soared to 50, many of them pupils between 11 and 15 years old, the Interior Ministry said Sunday. The number of wounded in Saturday’s attack has also climbed to more than 100, said Interior Ministry spokesman Tariq Arian. Three explosions outside the school entrance struck as students were leaving for the day, he said. The blasts occurred in a mostly Shiite neighborhood in the west of the capital.

China says most rocket debris burned up during reentry (AP) China’s space agency said a core segment of its biggest rocket reentered Earth’s atmosphere above the Maldives in the Indian Ocean and that most of it burned up early Sunday. Harvard astrophysicist Jonathan McDowell, who tracked the tumbling rocket part, said on Twitter, “An ocean reentry was always statistically the most likely. It appears China won its gamble.” People in Jordan, Oman and Saudi Arabia reported sightings of the Chinese rocket debris on social media, with scores of users posting footage of the debris piercing the early dawn skies over the Middle East.

Palestinians fear loss of family homes as evictions loom (AP) When Samira Dajani’s family moved into their first real home in 1956 after years as refugees, her father planted trees in the garden, naming them for each of his six children. Today, two towering pines named for Mousa and Daoud stand watch over the entrance to the garden where they all played as children. She and her husband, empty nesters with grown children of their own, may have to leave it all behind on Aug. 1. That’s when Israel is set to forcibly evict them following a decades-long legal battle waged by ideological Jewish settlers against them and their neighbors. The Dajanis are one of several Palestinian families facing imminent eviction in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. It also highlights an array of discriminatory polices that rights groups say are aimed at pushing Palestinians out of Jerusalem to preserve its Jewish majority. The Israeli rights group B’Tselem and the New York-based Human Rights Watch both pointed to such policies as an example of what they say has become an apartheid regime. Settler groups say the land was owned by Jews prior to the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation. Israeli law allows Jews to reclaim such lands but bars Palestinians from recovering property they lost in the same war, even if they still reside in areas controlled by Israel. Israeli rights groups say other families are also vulnerable, estimating that more than 1,000 Palestinians are at risk of being evicted.

#headlines #news

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boreothegoldfinch · 3 years ago

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chapter 5 paragraph xi

The school bus didn't actually go all the way out to the edge of Canyon Shadows, where Boris lived. It was a twenty minute walk to his house from the last stop, in blazing heat, through streets awash with sand. Though there were plenty of Foreclosure and “For Sale” signs on my street (at night, the sound of a car radio travelled for miles)—still, I was not aware quite how eerie Canyon Shadows got at its farthest reaches: a toy town, dwindling out at desert’s edge, under menacing skies. Most of the houses looked as if they had never been lived in. Others—unfinished—had raw-edged windows without glass in them; they were covered with scaffolding and grayed with blown sand, with piles of concrete and yellowing construction material out front. The boarded-up windows gave them a blind, battered, uneven look, as of faces beaten and bandaged. As we walked, the air of abandonment grew more and more disturbing, as if we were roaming some planet depopulated by radiation or disease. “They built this shit way too far out,” said Boris. “Now the desert is taking it back. And the banks.” He laughed. “Fuck Thoreau, eh?” “This whole town is like a big Fuck You to Thoreau.” “I’ll tell you who’s fucked. People who own these houses. Can’t even get water out to a lot of them. They all get taken back because people can’t pay— that’s why my dad rents our place so bloody cheap.” “Huh,” I said, after a slight, startled pause. It had not occurred to me to wonder how my father had been able to afford quite such a big house as ours. “My dad digs mines,” said Boris unexpectedly. “Sorry?” He raked the sweaty dark hair out of his face. “People hate us, everywhere we go. Because they promise the mine won’t harm the environment, and then the mine harms the environment. But here—” he shrugged in a fatalistic, Russianate way—“my God, this fucking sand pit, who cares?” “Huh,” I said, struck by the way our voices carried down the deserted street, “it’s really empty down here, isn’t it?” “Yes. A graveyard. Only one other family living here—those people, down there. Big truck out front, see? Illegal immigrants, I think.” “You and your dad are legal, right?” It was a problem at school: some of the kids weren’t; there were posters about it in the hallways. He made a pfft, ridiculous sound. “Of course. The mine takes care of it. Or somebody. But those people down there? Maybe twenty, thirty of them, all men, all living in one house. Drug dealers maybe.” “You think?” “Something very funny going on,” said Boris darkly. “That’s all I know.” Boris’s house—flanked by two vacant lots overflowing with garbage— was much like Dad and Xandra’s: wall-to-wall carpet, spanking-new appliances, same floor plan, not much furniture. But indoors, it was much too warm for comfort; the pool was dry, with a few inches of sand at the bottom, and there was no pretense of a yard, not even cactuses. All the surfaces—the appliances, the counters, the kitchen floor—were lightly filmed with grit. “Something to drink?” said Boris, opening the refrigerator to a gleaming rank of German beer bottles. “Oh, wow, thanks.”

“In New Guinea,” said Boris, wiping his forehead with the back of his hand, “when I lived there, yah? We had a bad flood. Snakes… very dangerous and scary… unexploded mine shells from Second World War floating up in the yard… many geese died. Anyway—” he said, cracking open a beer—“all our water went bad. Typhus. All we had was beer—Pepsi was all gone, Lucozade was all gone, iodine tablets gone, three whole weeks, my dad and me, even the Muslims, nothing to drink but beer! Lunch, breakfast, everything.” “That doesn’t sound so bad.” He made a face. “Had a headache the whole time. Local beer, in New Guinea—very bad tasting. This is the good stuff! There’s vodka in the freezer too.” I started to say yes, to impress him, but then I thought of the heat and the walk home and said, “No, thanks.” He clinked his bottle against mine. “I agree. Much too hot to drink it in the day. My dad drinks it so much the nerves are gone dead in his feet.” “Seriously?” “It’s called—” he screwed up his face, in an effort to get the words out —“peripheral neuropathy” (pronounced, by him, as “peripheral neuropathy”). “In Canada, in hospital, they had to teach him to walk again. He stood up—he fell on the floor—his nose is bleeding—hilarious.” “Sounds entertaining,” I said, thinking of the time I’d seen my own dad crawling on his hands and knees to get ice from the fridge. “Very. What does yours drink? Your dad?” “Scotch. When he drinks. Supposedly he’s quit now.” “Hah,” said Boris, as if he’d heard this one before. “My dad should switch —good Scotch is very cheap here. Say, want to see my room?” I was expecting something on the order of my own room, and I was surprised when he opened the door into a sort of ragtag tented space, reeking of stale Marlboros, books piled everywhere, old beer bottles and ashtrays and heaps of old towels and unwashed clothes spilling over on the carpet. The walls billowed with printed fabric—yellow, green, indigo, purple—and a red hammer-and-sickle flag hung over the batik-draped mattress. It was as if a Russian cosmonaut had crashed in the jungle and fashioned himself a shelter of his nation’s flag and whatever native sarongs and textiles he could find. “You did this?” I said. “I fold it up and put it in a suitcase,” said Boris, throwing himself down on the wildly-colored mattress. “Takes only ten minutes to put it up again. Do you want to watch S.O.S. Iceberg?” “Sure.” “Awesome movie. I’ve seen it six times. Like when she gets in her plane to rescue them on the ice?” But somehow we never got around to watching S.O.S. Iceberg that afternoon, maybe because we couldn’t stop talking long enough to go downstairs and turn on the television. Boris had had a more interesting life than any person of my own age I had ever met. It seemed that he had only infrequently attended school, and those of the very poorest sort; out in the desolate places where his dad worked, often there were no schools for him to go to. “There are tapes?” he said, swigging his beer with one eye on me. “And tests to take. Except you have to be in a place with Internet and sometimes like far up in Canada or Ukraine we don’t have that.” “So what do you do?” He shrugged. “Read a lot, I guess.” A teacher in Texas, he said, had pulled a syllabus off the Internet for him.

“They must have had a school in Alice Springs.” Boris laughed. “Sure they did,” he said, blowing a sweaty strand of hair out of his face. “But after my mum died, we lived in Northern Territory for a while—Arnhem Land—town called Karmeywallag? Town, so called. Miles in the middle of nowhere—trailers for the miners to live in and a petrol station with a bar in back, beer and whiskey and sandwiches. Anyway, wife of Mick that ran the bar, Judy her name was? All I did—” he took a messy slug of his beer—“all I did, every day, was watch soaps with Judy and stay behind the bar with her at night while my dad and his crew from the mine got thrashed. Couldn’t even get television during monsoon. Judy kept her tapes in the fridge so they wouldn’t get ruined.” “Ruined how?” “Mold growing in the wet. Mold on your shoes, on your books.” He shrugged. “Back then I didn’t talk so much as I do now, because I didn’t speak English so well. Very shy, sat alone, stayed always to myself. But Judy? She talked to me anyway, and was kind, even though I didn’t understand a lick of what she said. Every morning I would go to her, she would cook me my same nice fry. Rain rain rain. Sweeping, washing dishes, helping to clean the bar. Everywhere I followed like a baby goose. This is cup, this is broom, this is bar stool, this pencil. That was my school. Television—Duran Duran tapes and Boy George—everything in English. McLeod’s Daughters was her favorite programme. Always we watched together, and when I didn’t know something? She explained to me. And we talked about the sisters, and we cried when Claire died in the car wreck, and she said if she had a place like Drover’s? she would take me to live there and be happy together and we would have all women to work for us like the McLeods. She was very young and pretty. Curly blonde hair and blue stuff on her eyes. Her husband called her slut and horse’s arse but I thought she looked like Jodi on the show. All day long she talked to me and sang—taught me the words of all the jukebox songs. ‘Dark in the city, the night is alive…’ Soon I had developed quite proficiency. Speak English, Boris! I had a little English from school in Poland, hello excuse me thank you very much, but two months with her I was chatter chatter chatter! Never stopped talking since! She was very nice and kind to me always. Even though she went in the kitchen and cried every day because she hated Karmeywallag so much.” It was getting late, but still hot and bright out. “Say, I’m starving,” said Boris, standing up and stretching so that a band of stomach showed between his fatigues and ragged shirt: concave, dead white, like a starved saint’s. “What’s to eat?” “Bread and sugar.” “You’re kidding.” Boris yawned, wiped red eyes. “You never ate bread with sugar poured on it?” “Nothing else?” He gave a weary-looking shrug. “I have a coupon for pizza. Fat lot of good. They don’t deliver this far out.” “I thought you had a cook where you used to live.” “Yah, we did. In Indonesia. Saudi Arabia too.” He was smoking a cigarette —I’d refused the one he offered me; he seemed a little trashed, drifting and bopping around the room like there was music on, although there wasn’t. “Very cool guy named Abdul Fataah. That means ‘Servant of the Opener of the Gates of Sustenance.’ ” “Well, look. Let’s go to my house, then.” He flung himself down on the bed with his hands between his knees. “Don’t tell me the slag cooks.” “No, but she works in a bar with a buffet. Sometimes she brings home food and stuff.” “Brilliant,” said Boris, reeling slightly as he stood. He’d had three beers and was working on a fourth. At the door, he took an umbrella and handed me one. “Um, what’s this for?” He opened it and stepped outside. “Cooler to walk under,” he said, his face blue in the shade. “And no sunburn.”

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saxafimedianetwork · 5 years ago

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Rahma Hassan Mahmoud, a herder in Somaliland, of the catastrophe that befell her 300 goats and sheep and 20 camels. For Rahma, watching her animals die was to watch the life she knew ending. “We were like a soul living on top of another soul,” she said. “Our hearts were broken.”

By Aurora Almendral

Photographs By Nichole Sobecki

Burao, Somaliland – So many died at once “it was like they were poisoned,” said Rahma Hassan Mahmoud, a herder in Somaliland, of the catastrophe that befell her 300 goats and sheep and 20 camels. After the last camel died, she and her family lived off milk from their neighbors, but with everyone else’s livestock dying, it wasn’t long before there wasn’t enough to go around.

Sabad Ali takes apart her family’s makeshift home in a camp for Internally Displaced People (IDPs) outside Burao, Somaliland, in December 2019. They came here in 2016 after drought killed their livestock, but now the government says they must move again because their plot is in disputed territory. She worries that relocating farther from Burao will make access to food aid, water, and informal work more difficult.

The people of Rahma’s village pooled money to rent a truck. Fifty of them climbed in for an overnight drive to the city of Burao, in central Somaliland. Along the road, they passed clusters of domed huts made from gathered wood, plastic sheets, and draped cloths—makeshift settlements housing people who, like them, had lived off the land but now depend on food distributions from the government and humanitarian aid organizations.

Somaliland’s parched landscape is seen from inside a crumbling colonial building in Sheikh. Pressures from a changing climate, which is intensifying droughts, along with a decades-long civil war, are shattering the region’s pastoral economy and forcing Somalis into IDP and refugee camps. Women in the camps live in constant fear of violence.

Somaliland is a country in the Horn of Africa that declared independence in 1991 from Somalia at the start of a civil war that continues today. Many Somalis are seminomadic herders who for as long as anyone can remember have moved with their animals to find the greenest pastures. But with a series of droughts in recent years, those ways are disappearing fast.

Like many Somalis, Rahma doesn’t keep track of her year of birth but counts her age by the annual rains. She was born in the year they call biyobadan, which means “a lot of water,” and estimates that she’s about 36. With her husband and 12 children, she settled in a sprawling camp for displaced people outside Burao, into a life she could neither recognize nor escape.

For Somalis, Rahma said, wealth had always been measured by the size of your herd and how much you have to share. “We didn’t need anybody’s help. We used to help others because we had so much.”

Baarud, a five-month-old camel, tugs at Aadar Mohamed’s hijab. Baarud means tough, a name the camel inherited from his mother, who survived three droughts and a cyclone that killed off hundreds of other camels in the village of Hijiinle, on Somaliland’s north coast.

This portrait of Rahma Hassan Mahmoud was taken at the Burao IDP camp. In 2016, a severe drought killed her herd of 300 sheep and goats and 20 camels, forcing Rahma, her husband, and 12 children to abandon their village.

About 30 years ago, the climate in the Horn of Africa began changing, slowly at first, then abruptly. A severe drought hit in 2016. Animals that survived succumbed the following year or in 2018—also drought years. The pastoral economy, Somaliland’s primary industry, shrank by 70 percent. Herders led thirsty animals to rumored waterholes, only to find them dry. The cavernous rib cages of rotting camels were a grim new landscape feature. Crops failed, and diseases such as cholera and acute diarrhea, broke out. Within three years, between half a million and 800,000 people—nearly a quarter of Somaliland’s population—had moved off this barren ground.

Jessica Tierney—a climate expert at the University of Arizona, in Tucson, who has studied ancient marine sediments off the coast of Somalia—found that the region is drying out faster now than at any time during the past 2,000 years.

“If anybody still doubts climate change,” said Sarah Khan, head of the Hargeysa sub-office of the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), “they just have to come here.”

Dusk falls at the Burao IDP camp, one of the largest in Somaliland, holding thousands of former pastoralists whose herds have died in droughts.

Only six years ago, Somalia was second to Australia in the export of sheep and was a major source of camels. The vibrant livestock economy supported a connected chain of people: the herders; the truckers who took the camels to market in Hargeysa, Somaliland’s capital, and elsewhere; the young boys who lured the camels out of the trucks, lining them up for sale. It employed municipal workers who collected taxes and stamped the animals, and longshoremen who ushered the camels into the cargo ships at the port of Berbera, bound for markets throughout North Africa and the Middle East.

On any given day, the Hargeysa camel market had hundreds of the animals for sale. But today, the bustle and hubbub are gone—perhaps a dozen camels paw at the ground as idled men sip tea and chat under the broiling morning sun.

Top row, left to right: Basra Ismaan Jaama, Nimo Mohamed Hussein, Yurub Jaama Shire, Yurub Suleiman Mohamed. Bottom row, left to right: Haweya Ahmed Adem, Sahra Adam Abdi, Deka Mohamed Roble, Fadumo Ibrahim Abdi and Hamdi, her daughter. Human traffickers persuaded the children of all these women in IDP camps in Somaliland to run away with them. Traffickers typically send parents audio messages of children screaming and photos of them bruised and bloodied to convince families to pay ransoms of between $5,000 and $17,000. When they can’t afford to pay, they’re told their children are dead. Fadumo rescued Hamdi from traffickers who had been stopped by police at the Ethiopian border. She now works as a community activist to raise awareness about the risks of child trafficking.

Millions on the move

The World Bank estimates that by 2050, 143 million people around the world will be forced to leave their homes to escape the effects of climate change. Some, such as Rahma and her family, will become IDPs, Internally Displaced People, with no clear alternative future. Others will become refugees, crossing an international border in the hope of securing a better life. For hundreds of thousands of Somalis who have fled war, drought, and famine in their country during recent decades, a better life remains elusive: Stranded in neighboring Kenya, in Dadaab—one of the world’s largest refugee camps, with nearly 220,000 people—all they can do is mark time.

International institutions, including NATO, the United States Department of Defense, and the UN describe climate change as a “threat multiplier,” meaning that it doesn’t play out in isolation but instead amplifies existing problems in societies, particularly in dry regions where the margin for human existence is already thin. In Somaliland and Somalia, climate pressures combine with poverty, weak governance, and internal conflict—a mix that weighs heavily on women.

In 2016, Somali and Ethiopian migrants walk to caves outside Mareero, a smuggling hub in the autonomous region of Puntland, to await boats that will take them across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen and from there to Saudi Arabia and Gulf states—if they survive. For some stranded in IDP or refugee camps, this perilous journey is preferable to a life in limbo.

Guude Aadan drags water from a hole dug in the ground in Hijiinle. She came here from her home village of Topta, after drought in 2017 killed her herd of 70 goats and sheep. She now depends on humanitarian aid—and food gifts from relatives.

Aisha Jaama, 40, watches as her daughters Maryam Yusuf, 15, and Haawa Yusuf, 12, practice Arabic in their compound in Lughaya, in northwestern Somaliland, where they came after drought killed off their herds. Living in a town, rather than as nomads, means the children can go to school and be prepared for a life other than pastoralism.

Women make up the majority in the IDP camps in Somalia and Somaliland. Some men stay behind in their villages, others join the fighting in the civil war, so it mostly falls to the women to feed and raise the children. In the camps, women also live with new risks and fears: increased violence, including rape. In Puntland, a region in Somalia east of Somaliland, gatekeepers at improvised displacement camps extort women for sexual favors in exchange for access to food and shelter. Desperation makes the camps recruiting grounds for human traffickers who persuade boys and girls to leave with them for Europe. Many of their young victims die en route.

“All I can think about is that we have nothing,” Rahma said about life in the camp outside Burao. “My children don’t have a future because this place doesn’t have a future.”

What caused this crisis?

Chris Funk, a geographer and climatologist at the University of Santa Barbara, in California, studies rainfall patterns in the Horn of Africa. The waters in the western Pacific off the coast of Indonesia are some of the warmest on the planet, he explained. When conditions are exceptionally warm and stormy, winds blow across the Indian Ocean toward Indonesia, drawing moisture away from East Africa, causing droughts there. Meanwhile, hotter, drier air evaporates more water from the land itself, exacerbating the effects. But when waters in the western Indian Ocean off the coast of Africa are exceptionally warm, that can lead to more intense winds blowing into Somalia. The result: flooding rains. These are the conditions that led to the unprecedented recent swarms of desert locusts in parts of East Africa. (Here’s how the swarms are threatening millions with hunger.)

A woman leaves a food depot in Dadaab refugee camp, in northern Kenya, after receiving her rations. The population in Dadaab, estimated at nearly 220,000, has risen and fallen with droughts in the Horn of Africa. Along with droughts, famine, and desertification, decades of civil war have pushed tens of thousands of Somalis across Kenya’s border into Dadaab.

A woman walks past camels for sale in Dadaab as an armed Kenyan police officer looks on. Violence against women and girls is common in such camps, where societal ties and traditional forms of security are weak.

Somaliland and Somalia are “uniquely exposed climatically,” Funk said. Somaliland has no rivers, and people depend on ephemeral ponds that fill and recede with the rains or on boreholes that must be dug deeper and deeper to strike water. Unlike the bordering countries of Kenya and Ethiopia, the region doesn’t have mountainous highlands that stay wet and fertile even as the lowlands dry out. For months, there’s no rain. The plants wither, the ponds shrink to dirt. Sheep are the first to die, then goats, finally camels. Once the camels are gone, the humans have nothing left. They must move.

For Rahma, watching her animals die was to watch the life she knew ending. “We were like a soul living on top of another soul,” she said. “Our hearts were broken.”

Habibo and Nasteha

In 2010, Habibo Dakane Yussuf, who’s about 40 years old, walked from her village in southern Somalia to Dadaab refugee camp, 50 miles east of the Somalia border in Kenya. During her drought-driven, two-week trek, eight men raped her as her toddler son, Musab, wailed at her side. “They were really merciless,” Habibo said. The emotional trauma lingers, and she continues to have pain in her pelvis and chronic incontinence.

According to the International Rescue Committee—an NGO headquartered in New York City that runs a hospital for women in Dadaab—crowded conditions and the fractured society in refugee camps raise the risk of violence against women and girls. In October 2019, three men dragged Habibo’s nine-year-old daughter, Mandeck, from her school and sexually assaulted her, biting her and slicing her with razors. Habibo and her three children seldom leave their hundred-square-yard patch now.

Habibo Dakane Yussuf, who’s about 40, poses with her daughter Mandeck, 10, in Dadaab. Habibo left her village in Somalia in 2010 at the start of a drought that would drive 200,000 Somalis into Dadaab. As she walked to the border, she was raped by eight men. Last year, three men dragged Mandeck from her school in Dadaab and sexually assaulted her. The girl still bears the scars from the men’s bites. Habibo and her three children now rarely leave their small compound.

Nasteha Hassan Abdi, who’s about 16, holds her two-year-old son, Musab, in Dadaab refugee camp. When her family’s goats died in the drought of 2016, Nasteha’s grandmother sold her, then 12, into marriage to a man Nasteha said was old enough to be a father. The man beat and raped her. Nasteha escaped to Dadaab, where she found out she was pregnant.

Girls recite the Koran in a madrassa in Dadaab. Refugee camps are meant to be temporary solutions to acute crises, but Dadaab, which opened in 1991, is proof that some crises may drag on for lifetimes, a likely reality for many people fleeing climate change. Refugees living in camps are isolated from society—they can’t leave to pursue opportunities or build a future.

Aid organizations, including the United Nations Children’s Fund, note that child marriages increase after droughts. In the Horn of Africa and most other climate-affected regions, hardship and impoverishment contribute to families’ decisions to sell their young daughters in marriage.

Nasteha Hassan Abdi, perhaps 16 years old, is quiet, with a bright, eager smile. The conflict in southern Somalia left her an orphan, and about four years ago, after the family’s goats died in the drought of 2016, her grandmother sold her to a man in their town. She was 12. Nasteha doesn’t know how old he was but described him as old like a father. “He used to beat me up. He used to sleep with me frequently, which I didn’t like,” she said. When she cried, he told her that he’d paid for her and could do what he wanted.

It was two months before Natesha could escape to Dadaab. When she arrived, she found out she was pregnant.

Anab Mohamed Oogle chops firewood outside the IDP camp in Burao. She says she’s afraid of this task because women gathering wood here have been raped. But she doesn’t have a son and must do it herself.

A woman waits outside the International Rescue Committee’s support center for victims of gender-based violence in Dadaab refugee camp.

Halima Hassan Mohamed, a woman of about 50 who had known Nasteha as a child, took her in. “She was terribly young,” Halima said.

Nasteha carries her two-year-old son Musab on her hip and rarely leaves Halima’s side. They sleep in the same room in Halima’s tidy family compound. Halima is teaching Nasteha how to run her business, a tea shop in the camp, and glares at men whose eyes linger on the girl. She bought Nasteha a silver Casio watch, popular with the other teenagers in Dadaab, to ease the sting of peer pressure. Still, Halima worries that Nasteha might never be accepted. Other girls call her a slut for having a baby so young—and without a husband. Sometimes, when Nasteha is left alone for too long, Halima finds her crying.

“A father can die, and you can survive,” Halima said, but Nasteha didn’t have a mother, which is much worse. “Now she’s my child…I protect her the best I can.”

Deka Ali Ahmed prays in her family’s compound in the Burao IDP camp. She came here during the 2016 drought after losing 300 sheep and goats and 25 camels. Many Somalis are grappling with an uncertain future, as the changing climate makes their traditional pastoral life in the Horn of Africa impossible.

Radical new thinking needed

Climate change is forcing Somali pastoralist culture into an unprecedented transformation that calls for radical thinking and innovation, said Sarah Khan, of the UNHCR. But, she added, “I think our responses are largely reactive. There’s this need to completely think out of the box, and I’m not sure who’s doing it.”

Shukri Ismail, Somaliland’s environment minister, admits that Somalis have degraded their environment by cutting down trees for charcoal, but, she said, the droughts afflicting their region have little to do with them. “The bigger picture is that the international world, the other world, is also destroying what we have… We don’t have industry. Industrial countries are taking their share of destroying.”

According to World Bank data, Somalia’s annual carbon emissions amount to 0.00001685 percent of what the world puts out annually.

Somalis derive few benefits from the modern industrial economy. Guude Aadan, for example, who’s about 50, said she’s ridden in a car five times in her life. She’s never flown on an airplane and doesn’t know anyone who has. She’s seen people use cell phones, but she’s never held one herself. She doesn’t own things that have been traded from China, the United States, or Saudi Arabia. “We’re nomads,” she said. “We don’t own anything.”

Countries have to work together to address climate change, Ismail said. “What affects us in here will affect other countries too… If it continues like this, many countries will be lost. Many people will die.”

“It’s extremely frustrating,” Khan said. International aid organizations tend to overlook Somaliland as a distant end of the Earth, and funds funneled into Somalia don’t get allocated to Somaliland. “Part of it is just neglect,” she said. “Part of it is being extremely poor and the sheer scale. How can you cope with over half a million people on the move in about four or five years?”

Somalis in IDP and refugee camps have no way to survive other than to accept government or humanitarian aid, and cities such as Hargeysa, with limited infrastructure and available jobs, can’t absorb tens of thousands of former pastoralists.

“I think it’s possible—it’s not impossible,” Khan said, to help the region’s people adapt to a new reality. Somaliland has a long, unused coastline, and with better management, investment, and training, former pastoralists could turn to fishing. Others could be taught skills to equip them for city life, such as becoming a mechanic or an electrician. Government and aid agencies could direct resources toward rainwater harvesting—reservoirs or cisterns in villages to collect any rain that falls. But these measures would require more funding from international institutions such as the World Bank, Khan said.

Guude’s home village, Topta, in northern Somaliland, was abandoned after the drought in 2016. She now lives a two-hour walk away in Hijiinle, near Lughaya, on the north coast, where she depends on humanitarian aid and the generosity of relatives. She moved there after her herd of 70 goats and sheep died.

Back when it rained reliably in Topta, Guude recalled, the trees grew, and the animals ate. She would wake up in the morning to green fields dotted with wildflowers and frolicking goats. The villagers plucked kulan, a bittersweet fruit, from the trees, and when their camels ate the kulan, their milk became sweeter. Families had milk and butter and enough meat for everyone. No one had to go to other towns begging for food.

They didn’t know it at the time, Guude said, but their life in Topta was happiness defined. “That is what I miss the most,” she said. “Everything.”

Aurora Almendral is a journalist based in Southeast Asia who has covered climate change and migration around the world. Follow her on Twitter @auroraalmendral and visit her website.

Nichole Sobecki is a contributing photographer at National Geographic who focuses on humanity’s connection to the natural world. Born in New York, she has lived in Nairobi for the past eight years. Follow her on Instagram and visit her website.

Asma Dhama, Abdullahi Mire and Abdilahi Siciid Yusuf contributed reporting.

This story is part of an ongoing a larger series about women and migration created in collaboration with women photographers from The Everyday Projects.

#gallery-0-4 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 100%; } #gallery-0-4 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-4 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

At the Burao IDP camp, a woman watches as a swarm of locusts darkens the sky. Erratic climate conditions that cause severe droughts across the Horn of Africa in some years yield extreme rainfall in others—the trigger, in 2019, for the worst outbreak of desert locusts Somalia has seen in decades. The locusts can devour a field of crops in hours.

Dusk falls at the Burao IDP camp, one of the largest in Somaliland, holding thousands of former pastoralists whose herds have died in droughts.

A woman waits outside the International Rescue Committee’s support center for victims of gender-based violence in Dadaab refugee camp.

Somaliland – For These Women, An Age-Old Way Of Life Is Ending In The Horn Of Africa

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vsplusonline · 5 years ago

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US consumer prices post largest drop in five years amid coronavirus disruptions - Times of India

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US consumer prices post largest drop in five years amid coronavirus disruptions - Times of India

WASHINGTON: US consumer prices fell by the most in more than five years in March and further decreases are likely as the novel coronavirus outbreak suppresses demand for some goods and services, offsetting price increases related to shortages resulting from disruptions to the supply chain. With the country virtually at a stand-still, the economy rapidly contracting and millions unemployed as state and local governments adopt stiff measures to control the spread of COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus, economists are predicting the disinflationary trend will persist for a while or even a short period of outright deflation. “The big concern right now is deflation,” said Gus Faucher, chief economist at PNC Financial in Pittsburgh. “Deflation is likely to take hold over the next few months as businesses slash prices in response to much lower demand from the coronavirus outbreak and associated restrictions on movement.” Coronavirus outbreak: Live updates The labor department said on Friday its consumer price index dropped 0.4% last month amid a tumble in the cost of gasoline, and record decreases in hotel accommodation, apparel and airline ticket prices. That was the biggest drop since January 2015 and followed a 0.1% gain in February. In the 12 months through March, the CPI increased 1.5%, the smallest advance since February 2019, after accelerating 2.3% in February. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI dropping 0.3% in March and climbing 1.6% year-on-year. Deflation, a decline in the general price level, is harmful during an economic downturn as consumers and businesses can delay purchases in anticipation of lower prices. It can also distort monetary policy, the labor market and signals from stock and real estate prices, economists say. Economists believe the economy entered recession in March. The National Bureau of Economic Research, the private research institute regarded as the arbiter of US recessions, does not define a recession as two consecutive quarters of decline in real GDP, as is the rule of thumb in many countries. Instead, it looks for a drop in activity, spread across the economy and lasting more than a few months. The Federal Reserve has adopted extraordinary measures to cushion the economy’s free-fall. President Donald Trump last month signed a historic $2.3 trillion package to aid businesses and workers. A record 16.8 million people have applied for unemployment benefits in the last three weeks. The unemployment rate is expected to top 10% in April. Economists said it was unlikely these massive stimulus measures would spark inflation, noting that price pressures remained low during the Great Recession and after despite the US central bank pumping money into the economy through extensive bond buying programs. “The disinflationary impulse, along with the great disruption in economic and financial market activity, is a key reason why the Fed is unleashing vast new monetary policy stimulus,” said Gregory Daco, chief US economist at Oxford Economics in New York. Restaurants, bars and other social venues have been shuttered. Clothing retailers have also closed shop as have some manufacturers, while transportation has been drastically scaled back. Fears of a sharp global recession and an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia have led to a collapse in crude prices. This is expected to offset price increases caused by bottlenecks in the supply chain. The widespread business closures affected March’s CPI report, with in-store data collection suspended on March 16, the labor department said. It said data collection last month was also impacted “by the temporary closing or limited operations of certain types of establishments,” leading to “an increase in the number of prices being considered temporarily unavailable and imputed.” That resulted in many indexes being based on smaller amounts of collected prices than usual, and a small number of indexes that are normally published were not published in March. Those issues will likely persist with April’s inflation data collection. More on Covid-19 Coronavirus pandemic: Complete Coverage 21-day lockdown: What will stay open and what won’t How to quarantine yourself at home Trust the newspaper for your daily verified news The dollar was trading marginally lower against a basket of currencies. Wall Street and the US Treasury market were closed for Good Friday. Broad weakness Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI dipped 0.1% in March, the first drop since January 2010. The so-called core CPI had increased 0.2% for two straight months. Underlying inflation fell in March also as prices for new motor vehicles declined by the most since April 2018. In the 12 months through March, the core CPI rose 2.1% after increasing 2.4% in February. The Fed tracks the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for its 2% inflation target. The core PCE price index increased 1.8% on a year-on-year basis in February after rising 1.7% in January. It undershot its target in 2019. Based on Thursday’s producer price index report and the CPI data, economists expect the core PCE price index was unchanged in March. The report will be released at the end of the month. In March, gasoline prices plunged 10.5%, the most since February 2016, after dropping 3.4% in February. Food prices rose 0.3% last month after gaining 0.4% in February. Prices for food consumed at home increased 0.5%, matching February’s rise. Economists expect an acceleration in food prices in April because of stockpiling and hoarding by consumers, and would be monitoring the CPI data for shortages in specific areas. Owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence, which is what a homeowner would pay to rent or receive from renting a home, increased 0.3%. That followed a 0.2% gain in February. The cost of hotel and motel accommodation tumbled a record 7.7% last month. Airline fares plunged 12.6%, the biggest decline on record. Apparel prices dropped a record 2.0% last month after increasing 0.4% in February. “The sharp price declines are overwhelmingly in areas where consumption has fallen back sharply,” said Dean Baker, a senior economist at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington. There were increases in used motor vehicles and trucks, motor vehicle insurance, education, recreation, tobacco, alcoholic beverages, and personal care products prices. Healthcare costs increased 0.4%, driven by visits to doctors’ offices and hospital services.

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topfygad · 5 years ago

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11 Tips for backpacking in Oman on a budget

Oman, a country with absolutely great outdoors and fascinating people, should be a real paradise for adventurous, budget backpackers but, unfortunately, it is a surprisingly expensive destination.

Like all Gulf Monarchies, the Government has primarily focused on promoting luxury tourism, which means that budget hotels are practically non-existent and you won’t find any backpacker hostels, not even in Muscat.

On top of this, the public transportation system in Oman sucks, plus the cities are not walking friendly at all, so, during your journey, you will have to rely on either renting a car or taking a lot of cabs.

However, spending little money in Oman is very possible.

I actually backpacked in Oman for over a month, traveling from north to south and visiting everything in between, and I swear that I spent less money than in other backpacking destinations, such as Kyrgyzstan or Georgia.

In this post, I will tell you several tips for backpacking in Oman on a super low budget.

Index:

11 Tips for successful budget backpacking in Oman How much does it cost backpacking in Oman on a budget? More useful tips

Remember to have proper travel insurance for both Israel and Jordan. For this, I recommend you read: How to find the best travel insurance

11 Tips for successful budget backpacking in Oman

My 11 best tips:

Public transportation sucks but hitchhiking is very doable

In one entire month, I only took two taxis within Muscat (2.50OR-6.50USD each) and the 12-hour bus from Muscat to Salalah (7OR – 18USD).

Then, I hitchhiked back to Muscat through the coastal road and visited pretty much any spot in between.

I calculated it and, in total, I hitchhiked over 1,400km.

Seriously, hitchhiking in Oman is super easy and, during all that time, I think the maximum I waited for a lift was 20-25 minutes, and that was because I was standing on a road with very little traffic on a Friday, so most of the few cars that passed by were families and, if there are women inside and you are a man, they are unlikely to pick you up.

From trucks driven by Indians to wealthy Omanis driving extravagant 4×4, Western tourists and even Bedouins with their pickups, except for families, everybody in Oman is willing, and happy, to pick up a random foreigner.

Sometimes you have to hitchhike in roads like this one but trust me, someone will eventually pass by

And pretty often, Omanis are willing to make big detours, so they can drop you as close as possible

Something you need to know about Omani people is that, on the one hand, they are really nice, kind and hospitable to foreigners and, on the other, many of them don’t work, or just work a few hours a day, so they have a lot of free time.

It happened to me several times – really, several times – that I was going in a completely different direction, yet, the Omani insisted in taking me to my actual destination, even if that involved him driving 60-80 additional kilometers, no kidding. Omanis are awesome.

I had similar experiences when I was backpacking in Pakistan.

Read: How to visit Saudi Arabia – Tips & tricks

If you are hitchhiking, don’t rush and don’t plan much

Omanis are extremely hospitable so, when hitchhiking, expect Omanis to invite you to their house before you continue with your journey.

Telling them ”no” would not be polite, so always say ”yes”, but this also means that when backpacking in Oman, your plans will be constantly changed, thanks to the Omani hospitality.

You may experience this all around the country but it particularly happened to me when I was hitchhiking in Central Oman, the least visited part of the country and a land of Bedouins. That inhospitable part of Oman is composed of a road several hundred kilometers long with absolutely nothing but desert and occasional tiny villages inhabited by Bedouins.

Well, there wasn’t almost a single Bedouin who didn’t want me to hang out at his place after dropping me off, which led to me having a very high heart-rate due to the 20 cups of qahwa (local cardamom coffee) I had to swallow in one single day.

That delayed my trip significantly but, if you want to enjoy the country to the fullest, go with the flow and don’t rush.

Read: A guide to visit Musandam in Oman

With a family of Bedouins, somewhere in Central Oman

You will also need to hitchhike within cities, even in villages

From Muscat to Salalah, the different towns and villages in Oman are some of the least-pedestrian-friendly places you may ever encounter.

They are always so spread out that you will regret not having a car, even in the smallest village.

Fortunately, Omanis are aware of that, so hitching a ride in a city is as easy as when you are standing on a highway. I hitchhiked in Muscat, Salalah, Sur and all villages in between without any problem, always.

Looking for a ride in Muscat

If you are 2 or more people, look for apartment hotels. Otherwise, check Airbnb

As I said before, in Oman there are no hostels and, for a hotel, you will pay a minimum of 25�� for a private room, usually a single one.

You may find some cheaper deals on Airbnb but it won’t be much cheaper. By the way, if you create an Airbnb account through my link, you will get 35€ of FREE credit on your next booking.

Otherwise, apartment hotels are a very big deal in Oman and, if you are 2 or more people, they are great value-for-money.

During my 30-day journey, I did a few Airbnb and stayed in a few random hotels and always paid around 20-25€. However, I have to admit that all the places I stayed in were excellent.

Read: What to do in Saudi Arabia in 2 weeks

This Bengali man was extremely amazed by me traveling with such a big backpack and didn’t believe it had a tripod, a sleeping bag, a tent, a mattress, besides all my clothes

Alternatively, Couchsurfing is great

Some of my greatest Couchsurfing experiences ever have been Oman.

In Oman, Couchsurfing is a big deal and you can find active profiles in pretty much any city and, if you send requests well in advance, you may also find couches in smaller towns and villages.

I did Couchsurfing in Muscat, Salalah, Sadeh, Sur, Bidiyah and Nizwa.

Moreover, since Omanis are really hospitable and treat all guests as honorable guests, if they accept you, most of the time they will be completely free, as they really want you to have the best experience, so they will show you around and, if you are staying with a family, the mother will cook some delicious local food.

My best experience was with Musab, a kind-hearted Omani from Sadeh. I visited him during a national holiday, so we spent 4 days together with his friends visiting all around Dhofar province. From driving to the Yemeni border to visit his friend’s camel farm and loads of traditional food, every day, we had so much fun and today, I am glad to say that I have a brother in Sadeh.

Thank you, Musab!

Read: How to visit Dubai on a backpacking budget

Somewhere in Dhofar province, with Musab and his friends

Muscat is where the big Couchsurfing community is and, every weekend, they organize different outdoor activities, which usually involve going to the desert or camping at the many wadis (valleys).

Those events are a great way to meet open-minded Omanis and explore Oman on a budget.

Bring a tent and take advantage of the outdoors

Oman is a huge country only inhabited by 4.6 million people, which means that most of the country remains pretty wild.

From great wadis to loads of natural pools, outstanding mountains and 1,700km of coastline, Oman is known for its great outdoors activities and, since the country doesn’t really have a proper, nice nightlife, plus Omanis aren’t party people either, going camping on the weekend is a big thing here, and a great way to cut costs when backpacking around Oman.

Places like Jabel Akhdar, Jebel Shams and most wadis are easily reached by hitchhiking, no problem.

So yeah, do bring a tent.

Read: How to visit Dubai in 1 week

Somewhere in Jebel Shams

Camping in the middle of a city is also good

I have to admit that I was not always able to find a Couchsurfing host, so when I didn’t feel like paying for an expensive hotel, I didn’t mind pitching my tent in one of the comfy palm gardens that abound in most cities.

Technically, I heard that camping in Omani cities is not allowed but nobody ever cared about my tent and trust me that I camped in quite a few places, including in the palm garden next to Nizwa Fort.

Read: Everything you need to know to visit Iran

The palm plantation next to Nizwa Fort

Always eat in Indian or Bengali-run restaurants

Controversially, in Oman, you can eat for cheaply, like very cheaply actually.

Nearly two-thirds of the population in Oman are from the Indian Sub-Continent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), so restaurants serving food from their respective countries are plentiful and, actually, in villages they tend to be the only option.

From daal to chicken curries, for just a few dollars, you can easily fill your belly with Indian food.

Moreover, restaurants serving purely Omani food, which usually consists of rice with chicken, meat or fish, are also inexpensive, usually 1-3USD more expensive than Indian food.

On the other hand, in Muscat and other big cities, the restaurants serving international food will charge you like a restaurant in Dubai or Western Europe.

Grilled meat plus a huge amount of rice. This massive Omani meal cost around 7-8USD and it could feed 3 people

If you are planning to backpack in Oman on a budget, don’t come in summer unless you want to die

Oman is one of the hottest countries on Earth, with summer temperatures averaging 45ºC , and the bad news is that summers last forever.

From May to October, day temperatures are nearly unbearable, so if you are planning to hitchhike, camping in cities and stuff like that, you should avoid backpacking around Oman during these dates.

Even when I came in mid-November, some days were disgustingly hot, especially in Salalah and Central Oman.

Read: What to do in Iran in 1 month

Conclusion – How much does it cost backpacking around Oman on a budget?

Like I said in the introduction, in Oman I spent less money than backpacking in Kyrgyzstan for example. How can that be?

Well, in Kyrgyzstan, accommodation is cheap, like 10USD per night, and you can go by public transportation everywhere. However, despite being cheap, I still had to pay for it and, in Oman, since I was always hitchhiking and mostly camping or Couchsurfing, I didn’t have to pay for any of those things.

Oman budget travel – Typical costs

One-month visa – 20OR (52USD)

Welcome package SIM + Data – 3OR (7.80USD) but then you pay 3OR for 1GB

Budget Hotel – 10-12OR (26-31USD)

A plate of daal – 500bias (1.30USD)

A biryani – 1.5OR (3.90USD)

A big bottle of water – 200 bias (50¢)

A beer – 4OR (10USD) – Only available in hotels, avoid it

Short taxi rides within Muscat – 2.50OR (6.50USD)

Bus from Muscat to Salalah – 7OR (18USD)

If you are a serious budget backpacker, so you will basically Couchsurf and hitchhike, besides the cost of the visa and the SIM Card, you will only have to pay for food and, for that, you can easily survive on 15USD a day

Half Omani Rial, the most curious note

More useful tips for backpacking in Oman and around the region

Here you can find all my articles and guides to Oman

Traveling to Saudi Arabia? Here you can find all my articles and guides to Saudi Arabia

Are you traveling to Dubai and have little money? Read how to travel in Dubai on a budget

Iran is so close to Oman, are you going there? Remember to check then my tips for visiting Iran

And here all my content to the Middle East

source http://cheaprtravels.com/11-tips-for-backpacking-in-oman-on-a-budget/

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olko71 · 5 years ago

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New Post has been published on All about business online

New Post has been published on http://yaroreviews.info/2020/03/rising-food-costs-lift-u-s-consumer-prices-coronavirus-to-weigh-on-inflation

Rising food costs lift U.S. consumer prices; coronavirus to weigh on inflation

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. consumer prices unexpectedly rose in February but could drop in the months ahead as the coronavirus outbreak depresses demand for some goods and services, outweighing price increases related to shortages caused by disruptions to the supply chain.

FILE PHOTO: A man wears a face mask shopping at a market in the Chinatown section of San Francisco, California, U.S., February 25, 2020. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

The report from the Labor Department on Wednesday, which also showed a steady rise in underlying inflation, did not change financial markets expectations that the Federal Reserve will aggressively cut interest rates again at its policy meeting next week as the coronavirus spreads across the United States.

The U.S. central bank implemented a 50-basis-point emergency rate cut last Tuesday as the highly contagious coronavirus fanned fears of a recession in the U.S. and global economies. Many economists are predicting the Fed will reduce its benchmark overnight interest rate to zero by year end, given low inflation expectations and a plunge in Treasury yields.

“With core inflation stable, and headline inflation set to plummet, there is little in the inflation data to distract the Fed from its immediate goal of supporting the economy during the coming coronavirus hit,” said Michael Pearce, a senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics in New York.

The Labor Department said its consumer price index increased 0.1% last month, matching January’s gain, as rising food and accommodation costs offset cheaper gasoline. In the 12 months through February, the CPI rose 2.3%. That followed a 2.5% jump in January, which was the biggest year-on-year gain since October 2018. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI would be unchanged in February and rise 2.2% on a year-on-year basis.

The coronavirus, which causes a respiratory disease called COVID-19, has killed at least 29 people in the United States and sickened 1,050, according to a tally from Johns Hopkins University. Overall, more than 4,000 people have died from COVID-19 and over 121,000 have been infected.

The disease originated in China, the main source of inputs used in many factories in the United States. While some Chinese factories have resumed operations after Beijing extended the Lunar Year holidays in an effort to limit the spread of the virus, they are running below normal capacity.

Cargo volumes at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the No. 1 gateway for ocean trade with China, dropped sharply in February in part because of the coronavirus outbreak, port operators said on Tuesday.

Supply bottlenecks are expected to lead to shortages of some goods, including prescription medication, which could boost prices. But fears of a global recession and an oil price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia have sent crude prices tumbling.

In addition, travel restrictions and social distancing are likely to sap demand for services such as travel, hotels, entertainment and eating out at restaurants. The coronavirus’ impact is expected to start showing up in March inflation data.

“A combination of negative supply and demand shocks is problematic and will require both the Fed and fiscal policy to respond,” said Ryan Sweet, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in West Chester, Pennsylvania. “We still forecast that the Fed will cut interest rates to zero soon.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday the Trump administration was considering a range of steps to offset the economic impact of the virus, which causes flu-like symptoms, including tax relief measures.

Stocks on Wall Street tumbled as investors grew skeptical of the stimulus plan. The dollar .DXY fell against a basket of currencies, while U.S. Treasury prices rallied.

FIRM UNDERLYING INFLATION

Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI increased 0.2% in February, matching the gain in January. The so-called core CPI was up by an unrounded 0.2229% last month. Underlying inflation in February was boosted by rising prices for apparel, personal care, health care, used cars and trucks, and education. Airline fares and recreation prices fell.

In the 12 months through February, the core CPI increased 2.4%, after advancing by 2.3% for four consecutive months.

The Fed tracks the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for its 2% inflation target. The core PCE price index rose 1.6% on a year-on-year basis in January. It undershot its target in 2019. February’s PCE price data will be published later this month.

The central bank last week slashed its benchmark overnight interest rate by half a percentage point to a target range of 1.00% to 1.25%. It was the Fed’s first emergency rate cut since the height of the financial crisis in 2008. Financial markets have fully priced in a rate reduction of as much as 75 basis points at the March 17-18 policy meeting.

In February, gasoline prices dropped 3.4% after falling 1.6% in January. Food prices shot up 0.4% after rising 0.2% in January. Prices for food consumed at home jumped 0.5%, the most since May 2014, after climbing 0.2% in January.

There were increases in five of the six major grocery store food group indexes last month, with prices for dairy and other related products surging 1.1%, the most since March 2014.

Owners’ equivalent rent of primary residence, which is what a homeowner would pay to rent or receive from renting a home, increased 0.2% in February after gaining 0.3% in the prior month. Healthcare costs edged up 0.1% last month after rising 0.2% in January. The cost of doctor visits increased 0.2%, but prescription medication prices dropped 0.8%.

There were also increases in the costs of motor vehicle insurance, household furnishings and operations, new motor vehicles, tobacco and alcoholic beverages.

“Should the oil price war intensify and COVID-19 lead to a downturn in the economy in the middle of the year, there is a good chance that inflation will be negative for a period of time this year, and perhaps for all of 2020,” said David Berson, chief economist at Nationwide in Columbus, Ohio.

Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Paul Simao

Our Standards:The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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From worn-out sandlot to ‘bursting with production,’ Texas monster field revives U.S. oil fortunes

MIDLAND, Tex. — In a global collapse of oil prices five years ago, scores of U.S. oil companies went bankrupt. But one field withstood the onslaught, and even thrived: the Permian Basin, straddling Texas and New Mexico.

A combination of technical innovation, aggressive investing and copious layers of oil-rich shale have transformed the Permian, once considered a worn-out patch, into the world’s second most productive oil field.

And this transformation has apparently inoculated Texas against its traditional economic enemy, the boom-and-bust cycle pegged to oil prices.

'Very, very scary': This mammoth new shale drilling method is about to supersize the future of fracking

The great oil paradox: Too many good crudes, not enough bad ones

The plunge in oil prices is putting even the Permian Basin under water

Moving sticky crude: Oilsands firms throw new tech at old foe

Even now, with prices still far below their peak, the Permian is bursting with production and exploration, and the biggest concern is how to create more capacity to get all that oil to market.

The shale-drilling frenzy in the Permian has enabled the United States not only to reduce crude-oil imports, but even to become a major exporter for the first time in half a century. Its bounty has also empowered the U.S. diplomatically, allowing it to impose sanctions on Iran and Venezuela without worrying much about increasing gasoline prices. Mounting Texas crude exports have pressured global oil prices down and are a major reason that Russia and Saudi Arabia recently cut their own production to push oil prices back up.

“OPEC producers never thought the Permian could be the next star world producer,” said René Ortiz of Ecuador, a former secretary-general of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. “They never thought one field — one, and not a country — could actually be the monster field of their imaginations.”

Last year alone, the Permian’s production rose one million barrels a day, and it could surpass the Ghawar field in Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest, within three years. Now producing four million barrels a day, the Permian generates more oil than any of the 14 members of OPEC except Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

All told, domestic oil production increased two million barrels a day last year, for a record of 11.9 million barrels, making the U.S. the world’s top producer.

Permian production has quadrupled over the past eight years, in contrast with the decline of most other established oil fields, for several reasons.

Companies found ways to lower exploration and production costs in tapping the Permian’s accommodating shale. New technologies for drilling and hydraulic fracturing helped bring the break-even price for the best wells from more than US$60 a barrel to as low as US$33.

The Permian, as vast as South Dakota, is distinct from other shale fields because of its enormous size, the thickness of its multiple shale layers — some as fat as 1,000 feet — and its proximity to refineries on the Gulf of Mexico. Some shale fields produce too much natural gas, which is worth less than oil. Others have uneven layers of rock difficult to drill through. The Permian is rich in oil, and its shales are relatively easy to tap with today’s rigs.

Separator tanks stand at the Royal Dutch Shell processing facility in Loving, Tex.

Today the biggest risk, at least for producers, is that too much output might drive down prices too much and jeopardize their profitability. They could also prompt another round of aggressive actions from OPEC and its new ally, Russia.

“If U.S. production grows another two million barrels a day, we could take market share, but how long would OPEC allow that to happen?” said Scott D. Sheffield, chairman of Pioneer Natural Resources, a major Permian producer. “You could have another price war.”

That may be inevitable.

As many as 15 oil and gas pipelines serving the Permian are expected to be completed by the middle of 2020, potentially increasing exports from the Gulf of Mexico to eight million barrels a day after 2021, according to a recent Morningstar Commodities Research report.

The Permian has been producing oil for a century, and provided much of the fuel the allies needed to win World War II. By 2008, it was a field in steep decline. Many major oil companies left, selling their land to smaller ones for a song.

But as the big companies looked for fields deep under oceans and in the Arctic, independents like Concho Resources and Parsley Energy pioneered shale drilling here, giving the field new life.

When oil prices took a dive, the upstarts experimented. They drilled longer wells and spaced them closer together in a zipper design to penetrate more shale. They tinkered with their formulas of chemicals and sands that they blasted through the rocks, and they used computer technology to steer drill bits more accurately.

“OPEC changed the price of poker and the Permian had the best hand,” said Dale Redman, chief executive of ProPetro, one of the basin’s biggest fracking service companies. “They unleashed our creativity. They forced us to do things better and cheaper.”

ProPetro laid off 250 workers three years ago, after oil prices fell below US$30 a barrel. But the company has since hired back those employees and added hundreds more, including 600 when they completed an acquisition on Jan. 1.

What makes the payroll additions all the more remarkable is that they come in the wake of the most recent downturn in oil prices — US$76 a barrel in early October to US$42 in late December, before recovering to more than US$55 on Friday.

Conveyors stand above a sand pile at the Black Mountain Sand Vest Mine in Winkler County, Tex.

Despite the ups and downs, there are signs of expansion everywhere in the West Texas desert. Trucks line up at dawn for half a mile to pick up sand at local mines for the day’s fracking jobs. Competition for workers is so fierce that fast-food restaurants have blinking signs advertising their salaries. Anadarko Petroleum and Plains All American Pipeline are constructing new regional offices to add to those built in recent years for Chevron and Apache.

Motel rates and apartment rents have climbed so much that trailer parks are the only option for many workers. But few seem to mind.

“I will have work here forever,” said Mike Wilkinson, a truck driver who came from Dallas a year ago and moved into a trailer with his teenage daughter. “As hard a place as this is to look at, they are going to need guys like me to move equipment around here for years to come.”

A worker passes in front of residential units at the Permian Lodging camp in Midland, Texas, U.S. Thousands of workers now reside in dormitory-like compounds in the Permian Basin, a more than 75,000-square-mile expanse of sedimentary rock.

Wilkinson has reason for enthusiasm, given the giant new investments that Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell have begun to make here despite all the price uncertainty.

With a major acquisition in New Mexico last year, Exxon Mobil became the most active driller in the basin, and projects that it will increase production fivefold by 2025. Also growing rapidly here, Chevron estimates that one in six of every barrels it produces globally will come from the Permian by 2021.

After regaining a foothold in the Permian last year, BP is expected to invest heavily, contributing to a total investment of more than US$10 billion by the major oil companies here this year, according to energy consultant IHS Markit.

Royal Dutch Shell is just beginning to catch up, after buying acreage from Chesapeake seven years ago. It has 1,300 wells that produce 145,000 barrels of oil a day and associated gas, a 200 per cent increase since January 2017. The company projects it can increase production to 200,000 barrels a day by 2020.

Shell’s chief executive, Ben van Beurden, said his company was seeking to increase its footprint in the Permian, the most recent sign that big oil companies will continue to snap up smaller ones.

“For Shell, the Permian is absolutely critical,” said Gretchen Watkins, president of Shell Oil. “The Permian is massive; it’s a game changer for U.S. shale. It is the powerhouse field.”

But the output of shale wells declines quickly, making the drilling here a never-ending treadmill. And that has been a challenge for the small companies that have been the innovators here but are now facing demands from investors to show financial discipline.

Typical of the smaller producers is Parsley Energy, one of the most active drillers in the basin with some of the most productive wells. Its share price was cut in half over the past two years as it outspent its cash flow grabbing land and ramping up production.

Late last year, as oil prices fell, Parsley changed course. It is reducing spending on exploration and production this year by US$300 million. It decommissioned two of its 16 rigs late last year, and two more in January.

“We all have to be prepared,” said Matt Gallagher, Parsley’s chief executive, for a six-month slump in prices. “We’re one Twitter message away from a deal with Iran and US$40 oil.”

The multinationals have the wherewithal to stick by their aggressive development plans and take a longer view.

They bring an arsenal of tools that the smaller companies lack. With their size and reach, they can make the best deals for equipment such as drill rigs and fracking services. Many have their own pipelines, refineries and global trading personnel to sell their oil for the highest price.

In January, Chevron agreed to acquire a refinery in Pasadena, Tex. from Brazilian company Petrobras for US$350 million to refine more products coming from the Permian. The announcement came only days after Exxon Mobil announced a major expansion of its Beaumont, Tex. refinery to process more local crude.

The major companies also aim to cut production costs even further with increasingly sophisticated applications of artificial intelligence. Shell, for instance, has developed algorithms to replicate and standardize the most effective drilling and fracking methods worldwide.

“We are not here through one boom and bust,” said Amir Gerges, Shell’s Permian general manager. “We are here developing a generational resource.”

from Financial Post http://bit.ly/2RG3Ahr via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

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foodtrailerforsale-blog · 7 years ago

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Buy Food Trucks At Low Cost In Saudi

Saudi Arabia, the premier business hub of the Middle East, has so many opportunities in store that you would be hard put to pick the right one. Setting up a food trailer isn’t just one of the numerous businesses you can dabble in, it is THE booming opportunity in town. Most of the Saudi residents prefer to eat at food trucks rather than waiting in the long lines at static restaurants.

Saudi is the prime region of UAE where people are always on the run. Most of them are executive professionals with a deadline or two on their hands. You can’t expect them to wait for a few good minutes just for buying lunch. That is when food trucks and trailers come to the rescue.

These mobile machines are always flooded with customers, prompting the cooks to keep most of their menu prepared beforehand. Due to the frequency of the customers, the food never becomes cold. They just have to ensure that every particular item on the menu is backed up with a fresh one. Thus, the customers can get fresh food at any time of the day without having to wait more than necessary.

You may already be a great cook, but do you have what it takes to serve food in a truck? If yes, then you need to buy or rent a food truck first. And if you are on a tight budget, then it is a tough task to find a good trailer in Saudi. Needless to say, there is only one place in all of the UAE where you can get low cost, durable, and quality food trucks - Bespoke Trailers.

You can pick and choose from a wide range of food trailers that have been manufactured with care. Bespoke Trailers are always on the lookout for innovation, due to which you can only find the most technologically advanced food trucks in their repertoire. The prices range from the lowest that you can find anywhere in the country, to the ones reserved for luxury.

If you are simply trying to test the waters before diving in, you can always rent a truck from them. The rental costs are reasonable to the point of being utterly cheap. And if your business has reached a high ground, you can even consider purchasing the truck. It doesn’t have to be the rental one; you can choose from the new lot.

If you are more of the conventional type who prefers to trust his/her own instincts and design rather than those of the manufacturer’s, then you are free to customize your very own food trailer!

Bespoke Trailers can make your dream trailer come to life. Just recommend a particular design you have in mind and tick off the required parts, and you will get a reasonable quote from them. You will have a brand new customized truck ready to use within a few months!

#food trucks

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xymalf · 7 years ago

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Migration it is a joke

The UK still has an open door immigration policy. When Bismark invented National Security in Germany it was a big ponzi scheme. Germans paid into the scheme but could only cash out when they were 65. Yet no one hardly ever lived to 65. Now we have people and living to past 80 all on state pension.

we still have over 200,000 none EU migrants arriving in the UK every year. Most come from 3rd world shit hole countries that have no welfare, no NHS, no child benefits and no social housing. Many have no allegiance to the UK and many demand Sharia Laws or FGM (No one prosecuted yet for this crime!). Some have 4 wives and over 40 children and get loads in child welfare.

if they wanted Sharia then why move to Uk when Saudi Arabia was closer?

Londonistan is no longer English. THe English are an ethnic minority here just like Luton, Leicester and Birmingham. Our main cities have become no go zones as immigrants with links to Heroin dealers in Afghanistan / Turkey / Pakistan and other Islamic lands have taken over. Vietnamese grow most Cannabis in the UK.

The Uk should not be giving asylum to no one as they are not genuine refugees they are economic and mainly all young men. We don’t owe them a living. Africa has safe lands. The UK gives millions in Aid to Africa.

France is a safe land so anyone arriving from France should have all assets seized and flown back to Africa or which ever 3rd world shit land they come from. You only have to see migrants at Calais throwing stones at trucks or using sticks on each other to ask are these people what we want. Most child refugees look like old men to me.

Many economic migrants use marriage to get into the UK. i am not against anyone coming to the Uk to live as long as they never claim welfare, get free social housing, child benefits, free education for their children or use our NHS for free. The NHS has become an International health service with African women flying in to give birth. Then we have Africans coming here to get free HIV treatment – they should be sent back home.

We owe the EU nothing they owe us for our share in the buildings, art work, wine, inventory etc. Why does EU have 2 parliaments and never had an audit done?

The Uk can establish much better trade deals with our commonwealth countries. The EU was slapping tariffs on goods manufactured cheaply outside the EU and giving money to EU companies that are not profitable and should have gone to the wall.

The fish in our half of the channel are ours, the other side the belong to France. Any foreign fishing boat coming into Uk waters should be destroyed by the Royal Navy. We don’t need free trade we need tariffs on all German and French imports to encourage us to buy British.

If we look at Glenfell fire -Glenfell was in Kensington [the most expensive area of Londonistan] and most residents within were these none EU Migrants. They will get highly subsidised rents yet most wont be working or paying taxes. If they do work it will be cash in hand – washing cars or working in fast food joints. All over south of England we have seen Sheds in gardens converted into bedrooms for immigrants.

We have even given economic somali fakeugees 1 million homes in Londonistan and they get full rents paid. It is a joke. We have Visa over stayer and fake students.

Just look at sewage in Londonistan it shows 1 million more people living in london than official audit. Illegals are not going to declare themselves and it is easy to get fake passport which then gets them a bank account. All illegals must be offered 6 moths to leave by Government then after this deadline must face losing all assets. We need to get tough on migration. These migrants are fleeing lands that have no social security or NHS but they don’t realise that as Uk popultion booms then soon our NHS and welfare state will not exist as it wont be affordable.

Why should migrants be able to live in most expensive part of UK for free? They should never have been let in our country in first place. we even house Jihadi’s near schools or give them jobs as bus drivers – yuo can’t make it up.

we must remember EU planed by count Kalergi and mass migration all planned to create a mixed slave race to serve Jewish Elites. Go to Londonistan now and see all

the mutant half-breed Kalergi kids. Even Jewish media is always showing weak white men and black men/white women to brain wash white women into wanting coffee babies.

from Migration it is a joke

#Migration it is a joke

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megadarkbouquettidalwavethings · 7 years ago

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Yemen’s ex-child soldiers tell their stories

“I saw the people beside me get killed,” he says. Seated next to his mother and surrounded by eight siblings, he recounts his shocking experiences, which included a serious wound to his leg.

“They would get a bullet (in the head) or in the chest. I was very scared. When the projectile hit me, I thought I was dying. I was overcome by fear and anxiety. Even now, I still feel the same way.”

During the shelling that caused his leg injury he says he was at the front. His fellow child soldiers were crying out. “I sat next to them and cried too,” he recalls. He couldn’t think of anything else, he says, not even his favorite animals.

Since March 2015, the United Nations has verified 2,369 cases of child recruitment and use of children in combat in Yemen, Meritxell Relano, UNICEF resident representative in Yemen, told CNN. The UN says it faced various challenges to monitoring and believes the number to be much higher.

Yemeni officials in the Western-backed government in the South believe there are more than 6,000 child soldiers across the country, and suspect that as many as 20,000 children may need help with war rehabilitation.

The country has been embroiled in crisis since 2014, when Iranian-backed Houthi rebels took over the capital Sanaa and other major cities. A coalition led by Saudi Arabia has waged a military campaign to prop up the internationally recognized government of Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and fight the rebels since March 2015, mainly through airstrikes and an ongoing air, land and sea blockade.

The war has caused international outcry. Over 8,600 people have died and nearly 50,000 have been injured since March 2015, according to the World Health Organization. The country also faces one of the world’s worst cholera outbreaks in modern history.

Last December, the UN’s Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen said he was “deeply disturbed” by mounting civilian casualties and said it was proof of the “complete disregard for human life that all parties, including the Saudi-led coalition, continue to show in this absurd war.”

Children in Yemen’s war

The UN once dubbed Yemen’s war “a children’s crisis,” and argued that young people were bearing the brunt of the conflict’s humanitarian disasters. The Saudi-led coalition has been blamed by the UN for being behind most of the Yemen war’s child casualties.

The Secretary General’s Annual Report on Children and Armed Conflict says the Saudi-led coalition’s bombing of rebels in Yemen led to “the killing and maiming of children, with 683 child casualties.”

Saudi Arabia said the report is filled with “inaccurate and misleading information.” The kingdom’s UN Ambassador Abdallah Y. Al-Mouallimi said his nation exercised “the maximum degree of care and precaution to avoid civilian harm.”

When it comes to child soldiers, Houthis shoulder most of the blame, the UN said in a report last year. Houthis were behind 359 out of 517 verified cases of child combat recruitment in 2016, while 76 children were recruited by pro-government armed groups known as the Popular Resistance and the coalition-backed Yemeni army, according to the report. Al Qaeda and its affiliates were behind 56 recruitment cases.

A Houthi official has called reports of the group’s enlistment of child soldiers “exaggerated,” and claims that official leadership is trying to counter the practice.

“We are against child soldiers and our supreme leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi has continuously given us orders to not allow children to fight,” a senior Houthi official and member of the group’s political council, tells CNN.

“At times, and without knowledge of our military leadership, a parent accompanies his young son with him to the battleground. We oppose this and force them to go home. We have returned hundreds of such cases and will continue to do so,” he adds.

Younis says his family is part of the pro-government Popular Resistance. When the Houthis came to arrest his father in Amran, north of Sanaa, he crouched on their house’s rooftop firing a machine gun to scare them away. He says he kept them away for long enough to secure his father’s escape.

Children like Younis can be spotted on roads connecting Yemeni towns, wielding rifles as they trudge through the desert. The problem of Yemen’s child soldiers precedes this civil war, and spans its entire political spectrum.

According to the UN, Yemen’s child soldiers are as young as 11.

In addition to engaging in combat, children guard checkpoints and buildings, patrol areas and act as porters, the same UN report said.

Ex-child soldiers tell their stories

At a Saudi-funded rehabilitation center for child soldiers in the desert city of Marib, Younis’ classmates — predominantly ex-Houthi soldiers — talk about their roles in battle.

CNN was in Yemen with the country’s information minister and the government army’s regional commander. Their coalition partners, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, facilitated the trip, including a visit to the Saudi-funded rehabilitation center.

Saleh draws a sketch of a pickup truck carrying a Katyusha rocket. He points to the driver in the drawing. “That’s me,” he says. At 13, he transported the rocket launchers for Houthis to the frontline.

Naji, 13, says the rebels had him dragging dead bodies from the field. “One day, I looked at the body and it was my uncle. I cried. I didn’t know what to do. I couldn’t pull his body out,” Naji recalls.

At the playground, the kids gather around a camera tripod and snicker, as though sharing an inside joke. “This looks like the rocket launchers,” one of them says.

Basheer and Abdullah, 13, use it as a prop in a story that they are eager to tell — of their friendship and escape from the battlefield.

They stand on either side of the tripod, describing how they used to fire Katyusha rockets for the Houthis. The task of launching rockets came as part of their rise in the ranks toward the end of their three-year stint as soldiers, they say. Before that, they were messengers and made tea for soldiers.

An animated Basheer tells the story: He would load the launcher with ammunition and Abdullah would fire it. The Houthis told them “infidels” were on the other side of the frontlines, they recall. One day, the missile backfired, burning Abdullah’s right leg. Their families took this as an opportunity to pull them off the battlefield.

Basheer wears a wide smile as he puts his arm around Abdullah’s shoulders. They are proud of their enduring friendship, which preceded the war. Their friendship appears to be the bedrock of their recovery.

Basheer blows a red balloon as he hugs the shier Abdullah.

“The Houthis depend on the children because they are impressionable. And they can be easily coaxed with weapons, money and even food and water. They also take advantage of their child enthusiasm,” Abdel-Rahman El-Qotby, director of the Saudi-funded Marib rehab center, said.

According to a 2017 Amnesty International report, the Houthis promise monetary incentives to the families of child soldiers, pledging monthly pensions of around $80 to $120 if the child were to die. Houthis will print memorial posters for deceased child soldiers, the report says.

According to the UN, child recruits to the pro-government Popular Resistance were often motivated by a desire to secure income for their families.

A rise in poverty and the near-collapse of the education system have enabled recruitment. An estimated two million children are out of school in Yemen, where persistent fighting has left more than 1,600 schools partially or completely destroyed, according to UNICEF.

El-Qotby says Houthis draw a lot of those children into their ranks by taking them to religious classes and teaching them jihadi chants to heighten their enthusiasm. After the religious inculcation, he says, the children are given arms.

At the rehab center, the children offer up details of their escape from the battlefield. As with Younis, most managed to get away after an injury or while escorting an injured friend away from the front. Younis defected while he was recovering from his leg wound at the hospital.

He made his way to Marib, a city just outside Houthi-held Yemen, dodging Houthi fighters and other armed groups along the way, he says. In that desert town, he reunited with his family, who had taken refuge in a cinderblock house.

Marib has seen its population swell from 400,000 to 1.8 million over the past two years thanks to an influx of refugees from Houthi-controlled areas, officials say. Younis’ mother Samira says the family is seven months behind on the rent and facing eviction.

Nightmares of a child soldier

The rehab program Younis enrolled in is still in its infancy — it has treated nearly 200 teenagers in four centers across the country.

Recovering from the trauma is slow. Nightmares still haunt Younis and sometimes spill into reality. “One night at school I could see a face on the wall looking at me,” he recalls. That night he thought someone was going to kill his friends in a nearby room and then come for him. He locked himself in his room.

Younis says he has stopped smoking and chewing Qat, a commonly used leafy amphetemine-like drug especially popular among soldiers. He is back in school.

His mother Samira says Younis has come back “politer and with better manners.”

“He used to wake up at night startled, screaming ‘The Houthis, the Houthis. They are coming to take me,'” Samira says. “I would go to him, tell him to say a prayer. ‘You are here with me, not with them. God has saved you from them and brought you to us.'”

The post Yemen’s ex-child soldiers tell their stories appeared first on Sports News, Transfers, Scores | Watch Live Sport.

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thefoodtruckuae · 3 years ago

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Where to Buy a Food Truck

Food trucks are all over. Hoping to get one? You’ll have to begin with a financial plan. Then, at that point, settle on whether you need to rent, or buy a new or used food truck. You can get one on thefoodtruck.co. Here is a rundown of probably the best places to Buy Food Truck Online. You’ll likewise observe a rundown of food truck cost contemplations in this blog.

Best Places to Buy a Food Truck

Past buying a truck, you should realize how to begin a food truck business. Beginning a food truck business includes a food truck business plan. You’ll have to recognize an objective market and collect the cash. In certain spots in the United Arab Emirates, you’ll need a wellbeing grant. Then, at that point, you’ll need to pick the menu things. Remember to add on food service hardware.

Probably the greatest choice is the place where to buy your food truck. Here is a rundown that can assist you with getting everything rolling.

Why Buy a Used Food Truck?

Probably the greatest advantage of buying used is that they are normally more affordable than buying new trucks.

Moreover, when you buy a used food truck, all the retrofitting has effectively been done. This permits you to check whether the interior/kitchen format will work for your food truck idea.

At the point when you buy a used food truck, you likewise don’t need to stress over what oven, stove, or sink to buy. The exploration has as of now been done, and on the grounds that your used food truck as of now has what you want within.

Since you know the advantages of purchasing utilized, how about we uncover the things you really want to search for prior to buying your used food truck.

Look at the Engine and Truck Equipment

Expensive fixes and support can truly eat into your main concern.

This is the reason you need to have your cherished specialist investigate your proposed buy.

You can likewise have an apparatus expert investigate your kitchen region to look at the situation with your machines and ensure everything is functioning admirably.

Know the Manufacturer

Before you buy a used truck, look into the producer. Look at the surveys.

Similarly as when purchasing a machine, the audits and appraisals matter. In case the maker has more terrible surveys than great, avoid them.

Similarly, you need to check the audits of the organization selling you the truck. Too many negative surveys mean they are certainly not a respectable seller.

Look at the Age of the Truck

Very much like purchasing a trade-in vehicle, you need to take a gander at the age of the pre-owned truck you’re pondering purchasing.

Excessively old and you head into vintage domain. While this isn’t a major issue, you need to ensure the truck has been kept up with well throughout the long term.

Assuming you’re pondering purchasing a truck that is more established than 8 years of age yet not exactly vintage, the equivalent remains constant. Ensure it’s been dealt with and consistently have your specialist investigate it to educate you regarding any issues.

Thefoodtruck.co is producer Food Truck Manufacturer, Buy Food truck, Catering Van portable Mobile Kitchen, Food Truck Design of various sizes and design to according your needs and budget.

We design and manufacture food trucks and trailers in the UAE,saudi arabia,Bahrain, kuwait, Oman, & Jordan, We restore vinatge trailers, trucks and buses. We convert anything on 4 wheels to mobile kitchens.

#Food Trucks for Sale Used Food Trucks for Sale Buy Custom Food Truck

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topfygad · 5 years ago

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11 Tips for backpacking in Oman on a budget

Oman, a country with absolutely great outdoors and fascinating people, should be a real paradise for adventurous, budget backpackers but, unfortunately, it is a surprisingly expensive destination.

However, spending little money in Oman is very possible.

In this post, I will tell you several tips for backpacking in Oman on a super low budget.

Index:

11 Tips for successful budget backpacking in Oman How much does it cost backpacking in Oman on a budget? More useful tips

Remember to have proper travel insurance for both Israel and Jordan. For this, I recommend you read: How to find the best travel insurance

11 Tips for successful budget backpacking in Oman

My 11 best tips:

Public transportation sucks but hitchhiking is very doable

In one entire month, I only took two taxis within Muscat (2.50OR-6.50USD each) and the 12-hour bus from Muscat to Salalah (7OR – 18USD).

Then, I hitchhiked back to Muscat through the coastal road and visited pretty much any spot in between.

I calculated it and, in total, I hitchhiked over 1,400km.

Sometimes you have to hitchhike in roads like this one but trust me, someone will eventually pass by

And pretty often, Omanis are willing to make big detours, so they can drop you as close as possible

I had similar experiences when I was backpacking in Pakistan.

Read: How to visit Saudi Arabia – Tips & tricks

If you are hitchhiking, don’t rush and don’t plan much

Omanis are extremely hospitable so, when hitchhiking, expect Omanis to invite you to their house before you continue with your journey.

Telling them ”no” would not be polite, so always say ”yes”, but this also means that when backpacking in Oman, your plans will be constantly changed, thanks to the Omani hospitality.

That delayed my trip significantly but, if you want to enjoy the country to the fullest, go with the flow and don’t rush.

Read: A guide to visit Musandam in Oman

With a family of Bedouins, somewhere in Central Oman

You will also need to hitchhike within cities, even in villages

From Muscat to Salalah, the different towns and villages in Oman are some of the least-pedestrian-friendly places you may ever encounter.

They are always so spread out that you will regret not having a car, even in the smallest village.

Looking for a ride in Muscat

If you are 2 or more people, look for apartment hotels. Otherwise, check Airbnb

As I said before, in Oman there are no hostels and, for a hotel, you will pay a minimum of 25€ for a private room, usually a single one.