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peakwealth · 5 years ago

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There goes old Europe

Immigrants are needed before the sun starts to set over Europe. (Tropea, Reggio Calabria, Italy. The cone of the Strómboli volcano is visible on the horizon, to the right.)

Of all the seemingly unrelated ideas that have emerged during the Coronavirus pandemic, there are a few I find compelling. One is the proposal to tackle systemic police abuse through defunding. The other is about deciphering who will inhabit the planet in the near future.

Let's start with the latter idea which comes in the shape of detailed population projections published earlier this month in the British medical journal The Lancet (1). They are derived from the latest data set (2017) of a worldwide epidemiological survey known as The Global Burden of Disease Study, produced by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington in Seattle, USA. It covers 195 countries.

The study is a game changer. Its findings suggest, in a statistical middle-of-the-road 'reference scenario', that the world's population will peak at 9.74 billion as early as 2064 and then decline rather rapidly so that by the end of the century only 8,79 billion people would be living on Earth.

Of course, all manner of variables might lead to deviations on either side of that reference number. Alternate scenarios could work out as high as 13.6 billion in 2100 and as low as 6·3 billion (or even fewer, depending on improved female education and access to contraception in those countries where they are not adequately provided).

The underlying reason for the decline is that by 2100, 183 out of 195 countries are expected to have fertility rates well below replacement level. That's the key driver. Barring a significant influx of immigrants, twenty-three countries are likely to lose half of their populations by 2100, including the People's Republic of China, Japan, South as well as North-Korea, Thailand, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Sri Lanka, etc.

This is not news per se, it should not come as a shock. We have known about ageing populations and declining fertility in many countries for a long time, in Japan, Eastern Europe, Greece, Italy, etc. By now the fertility rate has dropped to nearly 1 in countries as diverse as Portugal, Taiwan or Moldova.

But put together and all added up, the numbers do have shock value because they paint a dramatic picture of a changing world where the pecking order could be very different. The idea of 700 million Chinese vanishing so quickly is a startling one. So is the prospect of a Europe that would be depopulated on its southern and eastern fringes, a trend foreshadowed by today’s deserted villages in Romania or an already 'empty' Spanish countryside.

While key parts of Asia and Europe shrivel away, sub-Saharan Africa is set to triple its population to 3,071 billion. The only other regions of the world expected to have a population larger in 2100 than in 2017 are Central Asia and the Middle-East-and-North-Africa (aka MENA, just shy of a billion people).

Statistics don't get more fascinating than this. They challenge the imagination and raise many complex questions about the rise and fall of civilizations, about the shifts in global power now clearly on the horizon.

****

So it is instructive to look at the numbers in some detail. Some of the data may occasionally appear counterintuitive (why would Holland lose a few million people while more geriatric Belgium next door would gain population?). It should also be kept in mind that all of these figures are mere calculations, the product of statistical modeling, something the Coronavirus crisis has told us to be wary of.

First of all, the American study is at odds with widely quoted and accepted projections (so far!) from the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, last updated in 2019. They assume the world's population will keep rising throughout most of the century to reach approximately 11 billion people by the year 2100.

That's a gap of two billion. The authors of the American study attribute this difference to faster declines expected in sub-Saharan African fertility (from 4,62 in 2017 to 1,73 by 2100) but even more to lower fertility in China and India (who, together, make up around three billion people today). The rapid reversal of the demographic rise of both China and India is such that it may catch some people by surprise.

Looking at the figures country by country, distinct groups emerge:

1. Developed nations with a long tradition of immigration will see moderate to sustained population growth. This includes the USA, Canada (+ 25 %), Australia (+ 50 %) and New Zealand. But together they make up less than half a billion people.

2. Some countries will see relatively little change, one way or the other. Examples include Argentina, Colombia (and Latin America as a whole), Morocco, Lebanon, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Burma and many West-European countries. France and the UK are set to grow a touch while Germany would lose 16 million inhabitants. But those are minor details. Peripheral Europe, however, is a different story (see below).

3. Some countries will see a moderate to heavy decline in total population compared to 2017. Although India is set to overtake China as the most populous nation, peaking at 1,6 billion around 2048, it is expected to decline later in the century, ending up at 1093 million by 2100, still number one.

- Brazil down from 212 to 165 million

- Indonesia down from 258 to 229 million

- Iran down from 82 to 70 million

- Russia down from 146 to 106 million

- Nepal down from 30 to 18 million

The Chinese century may not last long if the population declines by half. (Xian, PRC. 2015)

4. Some countries will see a massive decline in total population, including the core of South-East Asia, Eastern Europe and the Baltic states, creating serious challenges to maintain a functioning economy, a sufficient labour force and a viable tax base in geriatric societies.

- China (People's Republic) down from 1412 to 732 million

- Japan from 128 to 60 million

- Taiwan down from 24 to 11 million

- South Korea down from 53 to 27 million

- North-Korea down from 26 to 13 million

- Thailand down from 71 to 35 million

- Bulgaria down from 7 to 2,6 million

- Romania down from 19,4 to 7,8 million

- Poland down from 38 to 15 million

- Ukraine down from 45 to 17,5 million

- Greece down from 10,4 to 5,5 million

- Italy down from 61 to 30,5 million

- Spain down from 46 to 23 million

- Portugal down from 11 to 4,5 million

- Cuba down from 11,4 to 4,5 million

More people are expected in Turkey (Istanbul, 2015)

5. Some countries, other than those listed in (1), will see fairly moderate increases in total population, like Sweden, or Ecuador, Mexico, Turkey (from 80 to 102 million), Pakistan (surprisingly perhaps, from 214 to 248) .

6. There is little doubt that parts of the world will see a massive increase in population. By the end of the century Nigeria would be second only to India which is to say that there would be more people living in Nigeria than in China. Of the fifty countries with the highest current birth rate, 44 are in Africa. As the graph below shows, most of the fastest growing populations live in the poorest countries.

Many African countries are set to multiply their populations by three or four. Madagascar, Tanzania, Burkina-Faso or Mali are typical examples. But South-Sudan, one of the poorest nations on Earth, would see its population explode by a factor of seven, to almost 70 million people. Chad by a factor of more than eight. Niger by almost nine, to 185 million. Some countries continue to restrict contraception and aim for larger populations still.

Others, such as the Gabon or Congo-Brazzaville would hardly grow at all or see a moderate increase, like Ghana. The Central African Republic would even shrink. But most will be struggling not only with a huge youth bulge but with a vast, hungry working-age population. Sustained economic growth would be needed to deal with such a scenario. That would put more strain on Africa's already strained ecosystems and resources, and possibly push the entire planet over the edge of irreversible climate damage - or do so earlier than anticipated. Think, for example, deforestation, which has already reached dramatic proportions in countries such as Nigeria, Ghana or Uganda, leading to drought, crop failure and desertification.

But that problem isn’t limited to Africa.

- Afghanistan up from 33 to 130 million

- Tajikistan up from 9 to 24 million

- Iraq up from 43 to 108 million

- Philippines up from 103 to 169 million

- Algeria up from 40 to 79 million

- Egypt up from 96 to 199 million

- Nigeria up from 206 to 791 million

- Chad up from 15 to 123 million

- Niger up from 21 to 185 million (with a current fertility rate of around 7)

- Burundi up from 11 to 43 million

- Madagascar up from 26 to 106 million

- Democratic Republic of Congo up from 81 to 246 million

- Angola up from 28 to 84 million

- Tanzania up from 54 to 186 million

- Ethiopia up from 103 to 223

- Sudan up from 40 to 82 million

- South-Sudan up from 10 to 69 million

- Bolivia up from 11 to 23 million

- Peru up from 33 to 52 million

7. Some countries just stand out from the pack:

- Bangladesh down from 157 to 81 million

- Papua New Guinea up from 9 to 27 million

- Israel up from 9 to 24 million

- El Salvador down from 6 to 1,4 million (as people are expected to flee this notoriously violent country)

____________________________________________________________

HOW WILL THEY COPE? The red lines at the bottom of this graph (the UNDP Human Development Index over time until 2018) are those of the sub-Saharan African countries projected to have rapid population growth this century. The bottom line is that of Niger. The line at the very top is Norway. It shows the economic, environmental and human challenges facing those countries. Though falling, continental Africa’s total fertility rate is currently still around 4,4. (Screenshot)

****

Behind these figures looms a historic reconfiguration of what the world will look like, not just demographically, but in terms of political, economic and cultural dominance.

"Africa and the Arab world will shape our future, while Europe and Asia will recede in their influence", says the editor-in-chief of The Lancet, Dr. Richard Horton.

Most of the countries that are to see the fastest population growth are politely referred to as ‘low income’. Many are politically unstable, under jihadist threat, have authoritarian regimes and are often constrained by religion (mostly, but not only, by Islam).

The old, broadly secular world, already in retreat, will likely recede further. It comprises not only most of Europe and the Americas, but much of South-East Asia and Australasia, regions that have been in the process of shedding their religious identities for a long time. Thailand is Buddhist in name or appearance only; same for Japan and Shintoism; China has essentially become a pragmatic, deconfessionalized country focused on material wealth and, lately, on power.

The idea of Nigeria and India becoming dominant powers in the new world order will take some getting used to as the lights begin to fade in the great capitals of geriatric Europe, or in Tokyo and Singapore.

Of course demographics are not written in stone, nor do dwindling populations necessarily lead to equivalent economic collapse. Countries have tools at their disposal to try and change things. Although Japan would be ‘half empty' by 2100, the study suggests it would remain the fourth largest economy (after the USA, China and India) while Nigeria would be in ninth spot. South-Korea would drop precipitously to number 20 and Spain to number 28. Implied in all of this is that countries with ever more ageing, unproductive people will need many more immigrants to keep their economies afloat. How this can be achieved in a political climate of identitarian anxiety and populism is another matter.

But whatever the great demographic aggiornamento turns out to be, it is likely to coincide with the other convulsions that are approaching: global warming, habitat destruction, species extinction, resource depletion, food and water insecurity, political instability, etc.

Rising seas, extreme weather and disease alone could trigger demographic consequences well beyond the study’s scope.

It may be that by century’s end, large chunks of the planet will have become uninhabitable and the human species will be in rapid retreat. Few would still worry about who lives where, or how many. The multilayered chaos could be such that it wouldn’t matter anymore.

But for now, it is something to keep in mind.

----------

(1) https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)30677-2/fulltext

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awesomecolorfulcollectorwombat · 6 years ago

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Anand Giridharadas on Saudi Money and Silicon Valley Hypocrisy

New Post has been published on http://iwebhostingreviews.com/vexx/anand-giridharadas-on-saudi-money-and-silicon-valley-hypocrisy/

Anand Giridharadas on Saudi Money and Silicon Valley Hypocrisy

Silicon Valley’s deep financial ties to Saudi Arabia illustrate “the hypocrisy behind the ‘change the world’ fantasy” pushed by tech companies, said journalist Anand Giridharadas. Saudi backing for popular apps like Uber, Slack, and Wag offers proof that “the most idealistic companies on earth—in rhetoric—are very happy to take the dirtiest money on earth to grow and grow and grow,” he said.

Giridharadas, author of Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the Word, spoke at the WIRED25 festival on Sunday, on a panel about the trouble with techno-utopianism. He argued that the uproar around the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was allegedly killed by Saudi agents last week, forces the tech industry to face the reality of the Saudis.

The relationship has worked well for the Saudis, Giridharadas said, who have financed popular apps as “a form of influence peddling” to distract people from things like the way oil contributes to climate change.

However, in light of the graphic details that have emerged about Khashoggi’s alleged murder, Silicon Valley can “no longer hide behind an idea that it’s another player in Davos in the Desert,” he said, referring to an upcoming festival in Riyadh arranged by the Saudi government. Several tech luminaries scheduled to speak at the summit have dropped out following Khashoggi’s disappearance and possible murder. But there’s been no reckoning with the billions the Saudi government has funneled into tech companies through its Public Investment Fund.

Anand Giridharadas

Amy Lombard

The panel was moderated by Virginia Heffernan, an author and contributor to WIRED, who quickly challenged Giridharadas on the idea that anyone came to Silicon Valley to associate themselves with repressive regimes. Heffernan offered her own brief experience with the Saudi government as an instance of good intentions. Years ago, Heffernan said she was paid about $24,000 for two speaking gigs in Saudi Arabia, even though the sessions were later cancelled. Perhaps receiving such a large sum, roughly a quarter of what she made while she had been on staff at the New York Times, colored her view of the regime. “I suddenly thought Saudi Arabia is not that bad,” she said.

“I think that that’s what the VCs think,” Heffernan said. “Suddenly the money’s flowing and yet we’re beholden to them.”

Giridharadas agreed. “The winners of our age are not bad people. They’re not evil people. They are there people motivated, as they ought to be under the system that we have, by the pursuit of profit. And that makes them very good at a bunch of things like building businesses and creating things and inventing things,” he said. But what his book Winners Take All explores is the way that pairing the pursuit of profit with the rhetoric of social change has led us to a place where we look to the same tech leaders funded by the Saudi to save the world.

“How did we decide to outsource the improvement of the human condition to those people?” Giridharadas asked. “The Saudi thing and your experience illustrate [that] it’s not bad people, but it’s just people who are ill-positioned to balance the voice of greed with the voice of the good.”

More Great WIRED Stories

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magicwebsitesnet · 6 years ago

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Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince http://www.nature-business.com/business-saudi-admission-on-khashoggis-death-wont-touch-reformist-crown-prince/

Business

(CNN)Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has tried to craft his image as a young reformist pushing the Saudi kingdom into the 21st century.

He touts his vision to modernize Saudi Arabia by weaning its economy from fast-depleting oil reserves and ushering in a more moderate form of Islam, a vision that Western leaders have welcomed.

His leadership, once praised, is now overshadowed by

the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. After first claiming that Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, Saudi officials on Friday — 18 days later —

finally admitted he was killed on their premises.

US officials say privately that an operation to target Khashoggi could never have happened without the knowledge of the Crown Prince, the de facto head of government. The arrest of 18 men, some from bin Salman’s inner circle, can only make the argument that he had no knowledge of it harder to swallow. Bin Salman, in public comments the day after Khashoggi disappeared, professed to know nothing about any malfeasance, insisting Khashoggi had left the Istanbul consulate alive.

How a figure embroiled in such a horrific scandal could survive politically seems unfathomable. But the Khashoggi case is just one of many missteps the 33-year-old Crown Prince has tangled himself in, and the extraordinary amount of impunity he has enjoyed suggests his position is unlikely to change.

That’s despite growing international pressure over the journalist’s death and further threats of Saudi isolation.

Some of the biggest names in global business and senior ministers from around the world, for example, have canceled plans to attend an investment conference in the kingdom, dubbed “Davos in the desert.” The Crown Prince’s 2030 vision for the economy was going to be a centerpiece of the event.

The UK, Germany, France and the European Union

have demanded the Saudis conduct a credible investigation

and take part in Turkey’s probe over what happened. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” after hearing the Saudis’ admission.

While US President Donald Trump has said he believes the Saudis’ version of events — although he added that a US review of the investigation was yet to be completed — members of Congress of both parties are already pushing for sanctions on Saudi officials.

But such pressure is unlikely to keep the Crown Prince from ascending to the throne, said Neil Quilliam, who directs the Future Dynamics in the Gulf project at the Chatham House think tank in London.

“There is a tremendous amount of international pressure, but it won’t amount to much in terms of getting him to step down. The international community has no ability to influence King Salman to say ‘drop your son,’” Quilliam told CNN.

“At most, in private, his wings will effectively be clipped. Some of these more ‘adventurous’ behaviors will be curtailed. Ultimately, that will be the kind of compromise reached.”

He added that he was not surprised by

Trump’s defense of the Saudis.

Trump himself has mentioned job-creating defense deals with the Saudis as reason to keep relations intact.

“We’re starting to understand what Trump’s all about. He’s a transactional politician, and issues concerning human rights don’t really feature. Even if it weren’t for Trump, the US-Saudi relationship is not about to be derailed.”

Fiery foreign relations

The Crown Prince, known by the initials MBS, has made an extraordinary debut in Saudi politics, embarking on a series of high-profile, politically risky moves to consolidate his rise and to begin remaking the kingdom in his own image.

Many of these moves have reeled in other nations and have made for testy foreign relations, forcing allies into uncomfortable corners to justify their continued cooperation with the Saudis.

Bin Salman’s consolidation of power at home came through a highly publicized palace coup masked as an “anti-corruption drive” last year, in which he had senior government figures, top advisers and businesspeople

detained for months in Riyadh’s lavish Ritz-Carlton hotel.

Around the same time, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, a dual Saudi-Lebanese citizen, was detained while visiting Saudi Arabia on an official visit, according to multiple sources. While in Riyadh, he resigned as prime minister in a bizarre recorded statement. He

rescinded that resignation

shortly after setting foot back on Lebanese soil.

Bin Salman also led an aggressive land, air and sea blockade against Qatar last year in what was seen by critics as an attempt to expand his regional influence.

Even Canada has not been spared bin Salman’s overreach. After officials in Ottawa accused the kingdom of human rights violations and demanded the release of imprisoned activists, Saudi Arabia froze new trade and investment deals, suspended flights to Canada, reassigned students studying there and expelled Canada’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, while recalling its own.

But it is the Crown Prince’s handling of the proxy war at Saudi Arabia’s southern border that is perhaps most telling. In his additional role as defense minister, bin Salman has intensified the country’s assault on rebels in Yemen, in operations that have also killed thousands of civilians.

The war is now one of t

he world’s worst humanitarian disasters,

with more that 16,000 casualties, according to th United Nations Human Rights Council.

Calls for more answers

While bin Salman’s power in the kingdom may seem unshakeable, the Khashoggi case could isolate the country just as it seeks better relations with the world, largely to attract foreign investment.

Western leaders are hesitant to name bin Salman in their calls for accountability, but the voices are louder from other pockets of politics, particularly in the United States, a key Saudi ally.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham wrote on Twitter: “To say that I am skeptical of the new Saudi narrative about Mr Khashoggi is an understatement,” adding it was “hard to find this latest ‘explanation’ as credible.”

Robert Jordan, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that there are “serious reservations” about bin Salman’s leadership.

“If you look at the track record of the Crown Prince, he’s presided over one failure after another over the last two years — the war in Yemen, the detention of the Lebanese Prime Minister, the blockade of Qatar .. you can go down the line and one would ask, if this fellow was applying for a job, what administration would hire him, or give him a promotion?

“So I think we’ve got serious reservations about his suitability for the job and long term I think we need to have some very frank conversations with the Saudis about how this is going to be handled going forward.”

Armida van Rij from The Policy Institute at King’s College in London pointed to the pressure Saudi Arabia’s allies are now under to respond to the Khashoggi case, saying it should be “a defining moment in UK-Saudi relations.”

“At a time when the UK is reshaping it’s foreign policy and the role it would like to play on the global stage, and when it states that as part of that role it wants to defend and uphold the international rules based order, the UK risks significant reputational damage if it were to take a softer stance on this than it did with Russia over the Novichok attack,” she told CNN.

“This admission from the Saudi authorities should not stand in the way of the remainder of the investigation. There are still important questions that remain unanswered, such as who gave the order, and who knew? What happened to Khashoggi’s body?”

Read More | Analysis by Angela Dewan and Euan McKirdy, CNN,

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince, in 2018-10-20 16:40:09

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

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captainblogger100posts · 6 years ago

Text

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince

Business

(CNN)Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has tried to craft his image as a young reformist pushing the Saudi kingdom into the 21st century.

He touts his vision to modernize Saudi Arabia by weaning its economy from fast-depleting oil reserves and ushering in a more moderate form of Islam, a vision that Western leaders have welcomed.

His leadership, once praised, is now overshadowed by

the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. After first claiming that Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, Saudi officials on Friday — 18 days later —

finally admitted he was killed on their premises.

That’s despite growing international pressure over the journalist’s death and further threats of Saudi isolation.

The UK, Germany, France and the European Union

have demanded the Saudis conduct a credible investigation

and take part in Turkey’s probe over what happened. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” after hearing the Saudis’ admission.

But such pressure is unlikely to keep the Crown Prince from ascending to the throne, said Neil Quilliam, who directs the Future Dynamics in the Gulf project at the Chatham House think tank in London.

“At most, in private, his wings will effectively be clipped. Some of these more ‘adventurous’ behaviors will be curtailed. Ultimately, that will be the kind of compromise reached.”

He added that he was not surprised by

Trump’s defense of the Saudis.

Trump himself has mentioned job-creating defense deals with the Saudis as reason to keep relations intact.

Fiery foreign relations

Many of these moves have reeled in other nations and have made for testy foreign relations, forcing allies into uncomfortable corners to justify their continued cooperation with the Saudis.

detained for months in Riyadh’s lavish Ritz-Carlton hotel.

rescinded that resignation

shortly after setting foot back on Lebanese soil.

Bin Salman also led an aggressive land, air and sea blockade against Qatar last year in what was seen by critics as an attempt to expand his regional influence.

The war is now one of t

he world’s worst humanitarian disasters,

with more that 16,000 casualties, according to th United Nations Human Rights Council.

Calls for more answers

While bin Salman’s power in the kingdom may seem unshakeable, the Khashoggi case could isolate the country just as it seeks better relations with the world, largely to attract foreign investment.

Western leaders are hesitant to name bin Salman in their calls for accountability, but the voices are louder from other pockets of politics, particularly in the United States, a key Saudi ally.

Robert Jordan, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that there are “serious reservations” about bin Salman’s leadership.

Read More | Analysis by Angela Dewan and Euan McKirdy, CNN,

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince, in 2018-10-20 16:40:09

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

0 notes

computacionalblog · 6 years ago

Text

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince

Business

(CNN)Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has tried to craft his image as a young reformist pushing the Saudi kingdom into the 21st century.

He touts his vision to modernize Saudi Arabia by weaning its economy from fast-depleting oil reserves and ushering in a more moderate form of Islam, a vision that Western leaders have welcomed.

His leadership, once praised, is now overshadowed by

the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. After first claiming that Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, Saudi officials on Friday — 18 days later —

finally admitted he was killed on their premises.

That’s despite growing international pressure over the journalist’s death and further threats of Saudi isolation.

The UK, Germany, France and the European Union

have demanded the Saudis conduct a credible investigation

and take part in Turkey’s probe over what happened. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” after hearing the Saudis’ admission.

But such pressure is unlikely to keep the Crown Prince from ascending to the throne, said Neil Quilliam, who directs the Future Dynamics in the Gulf project at the Chatham House think tank in London.

“At most, in private, his wings will effectively be clipped. Some of these more ‘adventurous’ behaviors will be curtailed. Ultimately, that will be the kind of compromise reached.”

He added that he was not surprised by

Trump’s defense of the Saudis.

Trump himself has mentioned job-creating defense deals with the Saudis as reason to keep relations intact.

Fiery foreign relations

Many of these moves have reeled in other nations and have made for testy foreign relations, forcing allies into uncomfortable corners to justify their continued cooperation with the Saudis.

detained for months in Riyadh’s lavish Ritz-Carlton hotel.

rescinded that resignation

shortly after setting foot back on Lebanese soil.

Bin Salman also led an aggressive land, air and sea blockade against Qatar last year in what was seen by critics as an attempt to expand his regional influence.

The war is now one of t

he world’s worst humanitarian disasters,

with more that 16,000 casualties, according to th United Nations Human Rights Council.

Calls for more answers

While bin Salman’s power in the kingdom may seem unshakeable, the Khashoggi case could isolate the country just as it seeks better relations with the world, largely to attract foreign investment.

Western leaders are hesitant to name bin Salman in their calls for accountability, but the voices are louder from other pockets of politics, particularly in the United States, a key Saudi ally.

Robert Jordan, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that there are “serious reservations” about bin Salman’s leadership.

Read More | Analysis by Angela Dewan and Euan McKirdy, CNN,

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince, in 2018-10-20 16:40:09

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

0 notes

internetbetterforall · 6 years ago

Text

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince

Business

(CNN)Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has tried to craft his image as a young reformist pushing the Saudi kingdom into the 21st century.

He touts his vision to modernize Saudi Arabia by weaning its economy from fast-depleting oil reserves and ushering in a more moderate form of Islam, a vision that Western leaders have welcomed.

His leadership, once praised, is now overshadowed by

the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. After first claiming that Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, Saudi officials on Friday — 18 days later —

finally admitted he was killed on their premises.

That’s despite growing international pressure over the journalist’s death and further threats of Saudi isolation.

The UK, Germany, France and the European Union

have demanded the Saudis conduct a credible investigation

and take part in Turkey’s probe over what happened. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” after hearing the Saudis’ admission.

But such pressure is unlikely to keep the Crown Prince from ascending to the throne, said Neil Quilliam, who directs the Future Dynamics in the Gulf project at the Chatham House think tank in London.

“At most, in private, his wings will effectively be clipped. Some of these more ‘adventurous’ behaviors will be curtailed. Ultimately, that will be the kind of compromise reached.”

He added that he was not surprised by

Trump’s defense of the Saudis.

Trump himself has mentioned job-creating defense deals with the Saudis as reason to keep relations intact.

Fiery foreign relations

Many of these moves have reeled in other nations and have made for testy foreign relations, forcing allies into uncomfortable corners to justify their continued cooperation with the Saudis.

detained for months in Riyadh’s lavish Ritz-Carlton hotel.

rescinded that resignation

shortly after setting foot back on Lebanese soil.

Bin Salman also led an aggressive land, air and sea blockade against Qatar last year in what was seen by critics as an attempt to expand his regional influence.

The war is now one of t

he world’s worst humanitarian disasters,

with more that 16,000 casualties, according to th United Nations Human Rights Council.

Calls for more answers

While bin Salman’s power in the kingdom may seem unshakeable, the Khashoggi case could isolate the country just as it seeks better relations with the world, largely to attract foreign investment.

Western leaders are hesitant to name bin Salman in their calls for accountability, but the voices are louder from other pockets of politics, particularly in the United States, a key Saudi ally.

Robert Jordan, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that there are “serious reservations” about bin Salman’s leadership.

Read More | Analysis by Angela Dewan and Euan McKirdy, CNN,

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince, in 2018-10-20 16:40:09

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

0 notes

blogcompetnetall · 6 years ago

Text

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince

Business

(CNN)Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has tried to craft his image as a young reformist pushing the Saudi kingdom into the 21st century.

He touts his vision to modernize Saudi Arabia by weaning its economy from fast-depleting oil reserves and ushering in a more moderate form of Islam, a vision that Western leaders have welcomed.

His leadership, once praised, is now overshadowed by

the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 2. After first claiming that Khashoggi had left the consulate alive, Saudi officials on Friday — 18 days later —

finally admitted he was killed on their premises.

That’s despite growing international pressure over the journalist’s death and further threats of Saudi isolation.

The UK, Germany, France and the European Union

have demanded the Saudis conduct a credible investigation

and take part in Turkey’s probe over what happened. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “deeply troubled” after hearing the Saudis’ admission.

But such pressure is unlikely to keep the Crown Prince from ascending to the throne, said Neil Quilliam, who directs the Future Dynamics in the Gulf project at the Chatham House think tank in London.

“At most, in private, his wings will effectively be clipped. Some of these more ‘adventurous’ behaviors will be curtailed. Ultimately, that will be the kind of compromise reached.”

He added that he was not surprised by

Trump’s defense of the Saudis.

Trump himself has mentioned job-creating defense deals with the Saudis as reason to keep relations intact.

Fiery foreign relations

Many of these moves have reeled in other nations and have made for testy foreign relations, forcing allies into uncomfortable corners to justify their continued cooperation with the Saudis.

detained for months in Riyadh’s lavish Ritz-Carlton hotel.

rescinded that resignation

shortly after setting foot back on Lebanese soil.

Bin Salman also led an aggressive land, air and sea blockade against Qatar last year in what was seen by critics as an attempt to expand his regional influence.

The war is now one of t

he world’s worst humanitarian disasters,

with more that 16,000 casualties, according to th United Nations Human Rights Council.

Calls for more answers

While bin Salman’s power in the kingdom may seem unshakeable, the Khashoggi case could isolate the country just as it seeks better relations with the world, largely to attract foreign investment.

Western leaders are hesitant to name bin Salman in their calls for accountability, but the voices are louder from other pockets of politics, particularly in the United States, a key Saudi ally.

Robert Jordan, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that there are “serious reservations” about bin Salman’s leadership.

Read More | Analysis by Angela Dewan and Euan McKirdy, CNN,

Business Saudi admission on Khashoggi’s death won’t touch ‘reformist’ crown prince, in 2018-10-20 16:40:09

#Nature of Business in the Current Market

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dwestfieldblog · 7 years ago

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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, MY AMORAL COMPASS

Back from a couple of weeks from the island...I managed to avoid watching any TV news whatsoever, but of course ended up going through a daily paper to catch up up the unfolding nightmares...The easy stuff first...the greeting phrase 'Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen' is no longer acceptable to use as an address to passengers on the London Underground...because of 'belonging to yesterday' and might be construed somehow as offensive to those with sex changes and those who are undetermined as to their gender. It has been substituted with 'Good morning everyone'. Hmm. Surely after having thought long and hard (arf) about about penis removal, vaginal implants and oestrogen supplements and the male right to wear female clothes OR vice versa etc etc, one would be HAPPY to be called that which the individual truly felt themselves to be? Political correctness is a soul numbingly ridiculous conceit which will lead to total destruction of sanity and will only breed deeper mistrust and hatreds among dangerous idiots. And a sense of misplaced righteous pride among those who seek to fill their time with utterly empty causes.

If you are a bisexual woman, you are a female. If you are a masculine lesbian, you are a female, If youare a cross-dressing man, you are a male in touch with your feminine side. If you are a homosexual man who takes the more 'submissive' role, you are a gay male.Etc etc. If you are pre Op, you are the sex your heart tells you you are, male or female. If you are a human being who could take actual offence at being called a lady or a gentleman, you are a moron.Well, then again, who likes being pigeon-holed eh?Arf. Next....

Brexit will apparently cost 36 billion pounds, WELL worth it eh? We will just have to print more notes on plastic paper. Every penny helps...and at least G.B got 3.5 billion quid from selling arms to Saudi Arabia, so we will only be morally bankrupt. Britain on the hunt for more useful cheap deals includes Chlorine dioxide washed chickens from the always healthy USA. Dr Fox of our government blustered that Americans have been eating such for years and there is nothing wrong with them... Ermmmm...Hmmm...Eventually we will find that Fox ends up on the board of chicken exporters. No puns needed. It's all foul:-) (Fowl, geddit?) How much of the imported chicken is real anyway? Pumped with water and antibiotics...Mc Donalds continue to advertise that their burgers are 100percent cow. Yes...hooves, tails, entrails and eyeballs all. But at least they are being truthful eh? Let's hope the politicians in the pay of Monsanto are the first to discover their grandchildren are born with three arms. (Or more likely, they only eat the expensive foods not imported for the proletariat.)

Speaking of antibiotics... the English newspapers were full of the 'new' idea that now, perhaps, maybe, people should not finish their course of such pills when they feel better. In direct contradiction to the accepted usual doctor's warning to take the full box/es to make sure. The building of resistance is growing. Another story mentioned that the regular drinking of alcohol can stave off future diabetes...I am only just starting to think (yes I am this slow) that doctors haveno real feckin idea about some basics, even after centuries of experiments on human white mice.

Meanwhile...Wu Xialou the three foot Chinese robot now in use, which can create arrest warrants and approve indictments...'Case management robots'...love the way they almost look friendly. Not long before Robocop is a reality. And AI goes all Terminator on us.

'When people who can read and write start fighting on behalf of people who can't, you just end up with another kind of stupidity. If you want to help them, build a big library or something somewhereand leave the door open'. T.P

So, one more time for the world...thrill at the possibilities of existence...

www.halexandria.org/home.htm

Meanwhile again, 'various' countries continue to respond to threats they themselves created in order to justify their heinous actions. Hello to Turkey, North Korea, Russia, the USA and...well,most countries have been doing this for a while. History is full of messianic little men with complexes wanting to make their country great. Hello Nero, Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Blair, Putin and Trump. How tall is Erdogan? Or the next guy...The Pilsbury Dough Boy/Kim Wrong Un has been rejoicing over his North Korean penis missile now being able to reach 6,200 miles. Hello America. Duck Fart's rhetoric matches Chairman Cheese's bizarre rants for rant. Little dogs like to make noise. 'Fire and fury' indeed. Yap yap yap, have them put down. (Using only sarcasm and satire of course. Wouldn't want the NSA to think I meant such admirable leaders should be shot like rabid canines. No sir.)

Referring to the situation, a spokesman for the Chinese government was quoted as saying; 'The man with nothing to lose does not fear the man with something to lose'. AKA'The barefoot man does not fear the man with no shoes'.

Donald actually referred to global warming as being a hoax invented by China. No, not fake news. Safe in a world where every president is as paranoid as the people.

POTUS/DOOFUS...arf...I saw a documentary last week which reminded me that good old boy President Nixon (a very honest guy) used to speak of himself often in the third person, just like Duck Fart continues to do. Draw your own conclusions on the wall in blood graffiti. But now, after many workplace postings of those 'absolutely qualified' to do their jobs and who, a few weeks later were sacked for following the law, or believing in their own importance more than paying obeisance to the president, the White House is now full of generals...(an 'axis of adults' as it has been described)... So, things are looking up eh? Obviously the world is far safer in the hands of those directly connected to the military industrial complex who follow the orders of a mentally unbalanced gurning egomaniac. And as for his plan to work with Russia on a 'cyber security unit'...'Not the dumbest idea I have ever heard, but it's pretty close', as a member of the Senate's armed services committee said. Yup.

Watch closely for his reactions to Russia's imminent massive wargames.... 100,000 soldiers to be in play on the Eastern side...Is this whereFinland, Estonia et al are invaded to protect the holders of Russian passports?

'There is nothing better than an external threat to keep everyone focused in the wrong direction'.

My last blog had wrong information, (aka; 'alternative facts') courtesy of Russian sources being quoted in the Western press, it seems that the Daesh death cult leader Baggy Daddy is still alive. Would have thought he was looking forward to fast track paradise but it appears that clinging to the desert like an infectious sand tick and having sex with kidnapped under aged girls is more preferable. Better luck next time says the unsmiling peace monger.

A true shame on Hindus in India for false accusations, leading to actual murder against Moslems for being rude in various ways to cows. Yes, yum yum cows. The killers have had no punishment whatsoever. Legal terms of imprisonment for killing a cow can be from 5 to 14 years (very reasonable eh?...whereas manslaughter can be 2 years. Nice to see a country who gave the world Yoga have such a balanced perspective.) The world expects this crap from other mainstream religions, not you.

Another TV reality show bites the big one...Eden. Paradise Lost...23 people (of course) agreed to be put into the Scottish highlands with the most basic tools, enough food for first 100 days. Of course they divided up fast into male/female Alphas/ Betas/Lord of the Flies factions and imploded fast into dire horribleness. If the future of our beautiful planet is to be decided/populated by those types who wantto be on television, we are absolutely fecked. Fecked is the mystery word tonight...it avoids me having to pretend to be polite and use asterisks, whilst retaining the clear meaning. It has appeared due to me watching a great interview with Cillian Murphy.

Sherlock or Homeland,Boardwalk Empire, House of Cards, Peaky Blinders, Taboo,or Billions,better and better TV series, at last, great acting, direction and scripts, some real intelligence on television to balance the mass culture of dumbing down via the conspiracy of counter-evolution. But just maybe....

'Good and bad are fairy tales, we have evolved to attach an emotional significance to what is nothing more than the survival strategy of the pack animal'. We are conditioned to attach divinity to utility... good isn't really good, evil isn't really wrong...'The Holmes sister...

And now a long quote by a dead American genius, circa 1982.

‘’People are just not accustomed to excellence because, when you go to school you are not given the criteria by which to judge between quality this or quality that. All they do is teach you just enough to be some kind of a slug in a factory, to do your job so you can take home a pay check, and consume some other stuff that someone else makes. The thing that separates Americans apart from the rest of the cultures in the world is we're so fukcing stupid. This country's been around for a couple hundred years and we think we're hot shit...we don't even realise that other countries have thousands of years of history and culture and they're proud of it, and when we deal on an international level with foreigners in policy...they must laugh up their sleeves at us because we are nothing. We are culturally nothing. We're only interested in the bottom line. And I think that a country that doesn't do something to sustain its culture, whatever it is, doesn't invest in it, doesn't keep it happening, isn't proud of it,maybe they just shouldn't exist, because its the culture and the beautiful things a society produces, those are the things which should survive for thousands of years, not the designer jeans.’’

Something almost normal, (for a change)...In the last blog I wrote that magpies sound like Edgard Varese...having spent a couple of weeks doing gardening in England, I will alter to that 'they sound exactly like a wire rake being scraped across concrete'. Check it out after you have spent an hour cutting down a ten foot hedge......

'the main object of the ego's desire to separate from the wave is to avoid death'

Walking around the streets and watching, sitting at home catching up on the newspapers...If Britain ever has to fight a war with soldiery again, we are surely doomed. There is a hollow which has been created in my country in the last few decades, an energy lost. Teach Bravery, Morality and determination at schools. The mass are hypnotised and malleable. Perhaps the freezing shower of Brexit will result in some type of revolution but we have undermined ourselves and are naked, wide open and powerless to be taken total advantage of...by both our former allies as well as our genuine enemies.

Getting closer to the future of serotonin, noradrenalin and dopamine in newborns to determine their predilection to becoming criminals/ rebels/ sociopaths/ musicians etc. By 2023 don't be surprised if your baby is taken away for longer than normal and injected with extra balanced goodness at the same time as being implanted. A brave new world, right around the corner...Mind you (arf) most of us could do with more serotonin, might just make us evolve into better human beings...Speaking of which/witch....

www.RAWILLUMINATION.NET

Have fun, you astral kids...23 skiddoo and all hail Discordia....

How am I? Thank you for asking...I now have a new health problem to go with the six others...at some point all of them will make themselves felt at the same time as a new depression and I will do the holy deed (not a joke or a cry for help, just calmly factual) but not just yet. 37 songs recorded so far in 12 five hour sessions...I have decided on one more session of recording to finish the two double cds, plus an extra cd of strange things and am doing the next book while there is 'time'. Apparently, I am a 'romanticist' and 'libertarian'. Loved the way the first epithet was used in a very negative way by a religious pragmatist.I am just optimistic enough to believe that human entropy can be avoided...the pessimist occasionally wonders if extinction is also a type of evolution. Dancers on a postcard to the unusual address...Deliver us from evil, for WE are the power and the glory.

'I remember when all this will be again'.

Lucid Dreaming in the Sky with ....Maybe a lover losing control, maybe the moonlight of alcohol. Maybe the temple of a mystic cabal, maybe the muse of a young femme fatale..

.Holy days over...time to go back to school...bunk off and self educate...it never did me no harm eh? See you after the autumnal equinox...Love. Love more.

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niartnithoughts · 8 years ago

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Updated/more Rogue One thoughts

You thought I was done, eh? Nope, I saw it again with a different set of people, about a month later.

I liked it much more this time! Which I sort of expected. Since I already knew how everything was going to come out I was able to focus more on enjoying what was there. So here are some more notes:

It’s definitely better than the prequel trilogy. The first time I came in subconsciously comparing it to Episode VII, but if I had been comparing it to like Episode II I would have thought it was amazing.

The movie relies too much on the audience’s prior knowledge of A New Hope. A big example is when Jyn, forcibly ‘rescued’ from a prison colony, is being brought in to the rebel base on Yavin 4. This really not a happy moment for Jyn, she has no association with the Rebel Alliance and is as much a prisoner as she was on Wobani only now her immediate future is completely uncertain. She’s not at all happy to be there.

But guys! It’s Yavin 4! That place from A New Hope! So of course when the “Yavin 4″ subtitle comes up there’s a blare of heroic music! Because you folks in the audience remember this being a heroic moon, right? It just doesn’t serve the movie. At this point they’re also doubling down on the moral ambiguity of the rebels, with them being willing to kill innocent people to cover their tracks and carry out assassinations. In the final battle sequence this gets dropped and the rebels switch back to being purely heroic, but at this point in the movie Jyn approaching the rebel base definitely doesn’t merit a triumphant score.

It does a bad job of communicating the characters’ names to the audience, with the exception of Saw Gerrera, Jyn and Galen Erso, and Director Krennic. Which would be pretty good if there weren’t such a large ensemble cast. When people are speaking alien languages and talking about made up places and words and then suddenly say a made up name, the first time around it’s too hard to know what was a character’s name we were supposed to remember and what was made up for worldbuilding but not actually important to the story. But perhaps Star Wars has always been about learning the names of the characters through the advertising/merchandising.

Now, Episode VII didn’t have this problem, and clearly taught character names through repeated use. But one, it also re-used more preexisting characters (Han, Luke, Leia and Chewie feature prominently), and two, they gave a lot of the new characters 1-syllable names— Rey, Finn, Snoke, Maz, Hux. An intentional choice? Much easier than Rogue One’s “Chirrut Îmwe” and “Baze Malbus.” But then even for more complicated names I think they did a better job, I bet way more people learned Kylo Ren and BB-8′s names than K-2SO and Bodhi Rook’s. Saw Gerrera’s character gets by far the most namedrops and gets so built-up, and then his character just stops mattering after the first third of the movie, but again since I already knew that was coming this time it didn’t bother me. They really should have mentioned Mon Mothma’s name at least once. Come on with that, The bechdel test shouldn’t be difficult to pass. The lack of women soldiers on the ground is still an... unfortunate choice.

New information: We agreed that the battle scenes in Jedha, which include desert-dwelling guerrillas with turbans suddenly pulling guns from under their robes and using explosives to stop a convoy, were meant to be evocative of the war in the Middle East, but this time it was also pointed out to me that in real life Jeddah is the name of a major city in Saudi Arabia. I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt, that they were going for a name that was reminiscent of the word “Jedi,” and it’s an unfortunate coincidence ... But they should have chosen a different name.

I like Krennic’s theme a lot. I think Giacchino did a better job than I initially gave him credit for.

The Star Destroyers look so perfect. The arrival of Vader’s was how they always ought to be portrayed, so that makes up for the others being somewhat ineffectual/nonthreatening. This time around I noticed in the scene where the hull/superstructure of one of the star destroyers is buckling and being destroyed that the special effects artists animated little jets of gases shooting out whenever a new deck cracked open and was exposed to the vacuum of space, and man that is a nice touch.

K-2SO, still good. The shot of a Juggernaut from Episode III being used as a prison transport vehicle, still great. Vader’s castle, still looks way too much like something out of Mordor. The subtitled planet locations, still bad. And the quickly switching between like 3 different locations that don’t matter early on is still bad. Since I knew where everything was going the pacing/length seemed a lot better this time around.

#rogue one #star wars #movie review

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