Argentine Cartoonist Liniers Designed the New Poster for 'Stranger Things'
His work has already been featured 4 times on the cover of The New Yorker.
By Pedro Camacho | [email protected] | May 1, 2019 4:00pm
Photo by Nico Perez
If for whatever reason you are unfamiliar with Ricardo Siri, better known as Liniers, let me give you a short introduction. Liniers is a sort of an icon, both regarding cartooning and Argentine pop culture in general. For starters, you can find him in the daily comics section of newspaper La Nación, and he's also published several books.
But that, as they say, is just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, this guy has designed album covers for musicians like Andrés Calamaro and Kevin Johansen (with whom he's also toured in a hilarious and very popular concert/live drawing session), had a web series in which he interviewed local celebs, has sold a truckload of his Macanudo comic books, and his work has even been featured on four covers of The New Yorker, an honor that speaks for itself. Liniers was even named a Distinguished Cultural Personality of Buenos Aires by the Buenos Aires Legislature.
But even an artist as accomplished as Liniers must be especially proud of his latest feat, as it was unveiled that he's the creator behind the newest official poster for the hit Netflix series Stranger Things. That's right, Argentina's own Ricardo Siri designed the beautiful Upside Down-inspired image which was shared by none other than the official Stranger Things Twitter account:
Every night, he would come to me in my dreams. And every night when he came to me, I ran.
The Pollywog by @porliniers. pic.twitter.com/tSQp5WGHcg
— Stranger Things (@Stranger_Things) April 30, 2019
The cult series will be returning on July 4th for its third season; since its premiere it exploded into a global cultural phenomenon, besides being one of Netflix's largest original productions. Liniers' own reaction to the announcement – also shared via Twitter – came shortly after the tweet was published, he couldn't hide his excitement:
Loved working on this poster for you guys . Thanks @Stranger_Things ! Can't wait for season 3. https://t.co/75tmDo1Dj9
— Liniers (@porliniers) April 30, 2019
The fact that local artists like Liniers receive such international acclaim is reason for pride here in Argentina, a country with a rich history in the field of cartoonists. He himself is an avid student of the craft and has stated that the first things he ever read were Mafalda (an Argentine icon if there ever was one, created by Quino) and Tintin. We leave you with a tweet by some guy called @DraculaOK that summarizes how I feel with this bit of news today in one bizarre image:
Sos groso! Sabelo pic.twitter.com/zgS5QdUvLf
— Conde ??♂ (@DraculaOK) April 30, 2019
Pedro Camacho
Pedro is the Lifestyle editor at The Bubble. Over the years he's written about porn directors, viral social media darlings and once about a guy that built sex machines in Ramos Mejía. He enjoys writing chronicles, interviews and those top 5 lists that seem to be so popular with the cool kids nowadays.
Tags: andrés calamaro, Art, Culture, Kevin Johansen, Liniers, mafalda, netflix, New Yorker, Stranger Things
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Jerusamem
Golan Heights and the Greater Israel Project
All the while, the US ambassador to Israel lobbied Israeli Members of Knesset (MKs) to support legislation that would favor the gas and oil industry, particularly after the botched project in the Shfela Valley. These efforts were largely successful and resulted in the 2013-14 US-Israel Energy Cooperation Bill, which is intended to foster cooperation between Israeli and American energy companies in the exploitation of these "strategic" reserves […]
Iran 1953: State Department Finally Releases Updated Official History of Mosaddeq Coup
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Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]SaveSave
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Origins of images: Facebook, Twitter, Wikimedia, Wikipedia, Flickr, Google, Imageinjection, Public Domain & Pinterest.Read our Disclaimer/Legal Statement!Donate to Support UsWe would like to ask you to consider a small donation to help our team keep working. We accept no advertising and rely only on you, our readers, to keep us digging the truth on history, global politics and international relations.[wpedon id="4696" align="left"]Save
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How might we use the power of communities to financially empower those who need it most?
Phase: Research Missions: Identify Success
Real-time crop information through mobile
A partnership between the Ethiopian government and Ethio Telecom to offer rural farmers real-time crop information in their native language
Written by André Fernandes
Updated on 06:39, Mar 30, 2015
Imagine how to share relevant information to increase the quality of agriculture!
One reason farmers in Africa mostly produce so much less than those in other parts of the world is that they have limited access tothe technical knowledge and practical tips that can significantly increase yields. But as the continent becomes increasingly wired, this information deficit is narrowing.
While there are other factors, such as poor infrastructure and low access to credit and markets, that have helped keep average yields in Africa largely unchanged since the 1960s, detailed and speedily-delivered information is now increasingly recognized as an essential part of bringing agricultural production levels closer to their full potential. Another aspect to pay attention to is the reliance on development agents, which means that sometimes agronomic information reaches farmers too late or is distorted.
The 8028 hotline was launched as a partnership between the Ethiopian government and Ethio Telecom to offer rural farmers real-time crop information in their native language. The service provides information by automated voice message or SMS, and is designed to increase agricultural productivity by improving the technical knowledge of farmers. In December 2014 – after five months in operation – three million people had called the 8028 service.
The agriculture hotline was proving popular due to its"pull" and "push" factors, according to ATA's chief executive officer, Khalid Bomba.Farmers could pull out practical advice, while customized content could be pushed out, such as during pest and disease outbreaks, to different callers based on the crop, or geographic or demographic data captured when farmers first registered with the system.
The hotline currently focuses on cereal crops such as barley, maize, teff, sorghum and wheat, but plans are under way to provide agricultural advice on other crops,such as sesame, chickpea, haricot beans and cotton, while incorporating farmers' feedback on needs.
Take this case of m-farming, how could we imagine technology being used to increase productivity and the quality of the service provided by low-income workers?
How could we use technology to improve the technical knowledge of low-income workers?
How could we help to improve productivity and technical knowledge throughout offline methods?
Press 4 for fertilizer – M-farming in Ethiopia
MARCH 2015 AFRICA TREND BULLETIN - CANDID CONSUMPTION
Video explaning the project
Inspired by (4)
E-choupal: financial empowerment from access to information
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Exploration of the Community's Power.


Frailty predicts medication-related harm requiring healthcare: a UK multicentre prospective cohort study
Rajkumar, Chakravarthi, Ali, Khalid and Parekh, Nikesh (2018) Frailty predicts medication-related harm requiring healthcare: a UK multicentre prospective cohort study. In: 14th International Congress of the European Geriatric Medicine Society: Advancing Geriatric Medicine in a Modern World, 10th - 12th October 2018, Berlin.
Frailty has been under investigated as a risk factor for medication-related harm (MRH) in older adults[1]. We sought to determine whether frailty is independently associated with MRH in a large multicentre prospective cohort, the PRIME study.
The PRIME study recruited 1280 older adults at hospital discharge from 5 hospitals in England between 2013 to 2015[2]. MRH and associated healthcare use within 8-weeks post-discharge were identified by senior pharmacists using (1) hospital readmission data, (2) primary care records, (3) patient telephone interviews. Based on the Rockwood approach[3], we developed a frailty index including 55 deficits from multiple domains (morbidity, cognition, mood, strength and mobility, nutrition, daily function). Frailty was defined using the established cut-off of 20% deficits[4], and internally validated using Kaplan-Meier plots comparing survival in frail and non-frail patients. We then used logistic regression analysis to investigate the relationship between frailty and MRH requiring healthcare.
1116 patients completed follow-up (median age 81.9 years, range 65-103 years, 58.4% female). 446 patients (40%) were frail in our cohort. 36% of frail patients experienced MRH compared with 25% in non-frail patients. There was a strong relationship between frailty and MRH (OR 1.67, 95% CI 1.29-2.17, p<0.001). A significant relationship between frailty and MRH remained on multivariable regression, adjusting for polypharmacy, age and gender (OR 1.37, 95% CI 1.04-1.81, p=0.027). Frail patients had significantly reduced 18-month survival (Log-Rank test p<0.001).
Key Conclusions
Frailty is a predictor of MRH requiring healthcare, independent of polypharmacy.
Brighton and Sussex Medical School > Brighton and Sussex Medical School
Brighton and Sussex Medical School > Clinical and Experimental Medicine
Marie Shelton
http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/77388


Home/News/Netflix to Launch in Australia and New Zealand in March 2015
Netflix to Launch in Australia and New Zealand in March 2015
Netloid Team November 29, 2014
Netflix is heading down under, announcing today it will expand into Australia and New Zealand in March 2015. Users in Australia and New Zealand will be able to subscribe to Netflix and instantly watch a curated selection of popular movies and TV shows in high-definition or even 4K where available.
At launch, the premium and unique Netflix offering will include such original series as "Marco Polo," "BoJack Horseman" and, among many kids titles, DreamWorks Animation's "All Hail King Julien."
New Netflix release will also be home to the critically-acclaimed documentaries "Virunga" and "Mission Blue," and stand-up comedy specials "Uganda Be Kidding Me, Live," from Chelsea Handler and Jim Jefferies's "Bare," among many others.
The Netflix ANZ selection will expand in 2015 to include highly-anticipated original series family thriller "Bloodline" starring Ben Mendelsohn, Kyle Chandler, Sissy Spacek, Linda Cardellini and Sam Shepard; the gripping Super Hero tale "Marvel's Daredevil" featuring Charlie Cox, Rosario Dawson, Deborah Ann Woll, Elden Henson and Vincent D'Onofrio; "Sense8," a new globe-spanning thriller series from the creators of "The Matrix" trilogy and "Babylon 5," and, from the creator of "Friends," "Grace and Frankie" with Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda.
Netflix The End of the Fucking World will be available at launch on smart TVs, tablets and smartphones, computers and a range of Internet-capable game consoles and set-top boxes.
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A new stage in the crisis of capitalism - Part Three
Αναρτήθηκε από anemosnaftilos την 27 Αυγούστου
Europe faces a protracted period of austerity, with major contractions in output, consumption and employment. The crisis has started with the smaller, more vulnerable economies like Greece, Portugal and Ireland. But the others will follow, starting with Britain. [Part one]
Europe faced with a downward spiral
Some crises can be solved with reforms, which do not go beyond the established limits. This is above all the case after a long period of economic growth when capitalism has accumulated a layer of fat. It can use its accumulated reserves to prevent the crisis from developing into a deep slump.
In the recent crisis, the ruling classes of the world, beginning with the USA, was frightened at the social and political effects of a slump, and took extraordinary measures to prevent it. From the standpoint of orthodox capitalist economics these measures were completely irresponsible.
These measures had a certain effect, but did not solve anything fundamental. On the contrary, the huge levels of government debt caused by the bail-outs are a finished recipe for new and even more severe crises of an economic, social and political character.
Long ago Ted Grant predicted that in the event of a deep crisis, the bourgeoisie would use their accumulated reserves, and this is just what has happened. Over a period of more than half a century the capitalists have accumulated a layer of fat that could be used to prevent a deep slump from taking hold. But these reserves are rapidly being used up, and now the governments of the western world have been obliged to resort to the policy of deficit financing to prevent a total collapse. The result has been the creation of new and insoluble contradictions in the form of deficits that have no historic precedent in peacetime.
In the period following World War Two, in 1945-7, the USA financed European capitalism to the tune of $200 billion (in modern money). But in the first two years of the present crisis, the US government underwrote the banking system by $800 billion, and Britain (a far smaller economy) handed over $400 billion – twice the total amount of Marshall Aid. This situation cannot be sustained. The options of the ruling class are severely limited. Interest rates are close to zero, and cannot be further reduced to stimulate borrowing.
The huge debts left over from the previous period still have to be repaid, which will inhibit consumption and slow the recovery in Europe and worldwide. The recourse to "quantitative easing" is a desperate measure, which, if it continues, will lead to a combination of stagnation and inflation ("stagflation"). Thus, the capitalists will end up with the worst of all worlds.
The viability of the "rescue" package launched by the bourgeoisie in Europe depends on the implementation of brutal austerity measures. Failure to carry these out could lead to cutting off the cash, which is approximately the same as cutting off the vital supply lines that keep a critically sick patient alive. Even if it the plan were to "succeed" it would leave Greece with an intolerable public-debt burden. This so-called rescue means years of painful austerity for the people of Greece, without giving other countries any relief.
If there is a default in Europe, it will be accompanied by a massive contraction of consumption, which can drag the whole world economy back into recession. It will affect the USA and Asia. None of the contradictions has been eliminated. A new commercial real estate crisis is being prepared in the USA. Some say it might be due this autumn. This involves 6.7 trillion dollar, whereas the last sub prime crisis "only" involved 1.3 trillion. It could drag the whole financial system down into a complete collapse.
Fears are growing of a double-dip recession. The Chinese leaders are also worried. The Chinese spent massively to avoid recession but this has created new and insoluble contradictions. China has built up a colossal productive power, which cannot be absorbed by its internal market. If demand shrinks in Europe and the USA, where are they going to export? And since China has been the main engine of global growth as the world struggled to emerge from recession, a sharp slowdown in China could deal a heavy blow to the world economic recovery.
What future for Europe?
The euro and the European Union will probably survive this crisis because the consequences of a break-up would be very serious for all. Nevertheless, the crisis is so deep, and the confidence of the bourgeois so shaken, that some of the bourgeois strategists are beginning to contemplate the unthinkable. George Friedman wrote on the intelligence website Stratfor on May 25, 2010:
"We return to the question that has defined Europe since 1871, namely, the status of Germany in Europe. As we have seen during the current crisis, Germany is clearly the economic center of gravity in Europe, and this crisis has shown that the economic and the political issues are very much one and the same. Unless Germany agrees, nothing can be done, and if Germany so wishes, something will be done. Germany has tremendous power in Europe, even if it is confined largely to economic matters. But just as Germany is the blocker and enabler of Europe, over time that makes Germany the central problem of Europe."
If the EU were to break up, where could Germany look? The obvious answer would seem to be France. But historically, France and Germany have been rivals, and even in the context of the EU this rivalry continued, with France aspiring to the political and military leadership of Europe, consigning to Germany the economic primacy. Unfortunately for France, economic power is always decisive in the last analysis.
France's interests look southwards – towards the Mediterranean, the Middle East and North Africa. Germany, by contrast, looks east – to Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans – and Russia. That is where Hitler looked forLebensraum. What he failed to do by military means, the German capitalists hope to do by economic means. It is not ruled out that Germany in the future will expand its contacts with Russia, which represents a vast potential field for markets and investments, raw materials and cheap labour. But this could only be achieved by subordinating Germany to Russian interests. This would be bitterly resented by Washington and the rest of Europe, especially Poland.
The unification of Europe is a necessary task if Europe is not to enter into a path of slow and inglorious decline, as happened to imperial Spain from the 17thcentury onwards. It is a historically inevitable task, which capitalism has posed but is totally incapable of solving. Only the Socialist United States of Europe could succeed in radically abolishing the old frontiers and unite all of Europe, include Russia, the Ukraine and Turkey. It would be able to mobilize the colossal productive potential of what is, in fact, Eurasia, uniting the vast natural resources and agriculture of Russia and the Ukraine with the industries of Europe.
Robbing the poor to pay the rich
In 1939 the capitalists found a way out of the crisis through war. But this avenue is now closed. There is no question of Europe waging war against the USA, for example, or of conquering Russia (as Hitler attempted), still less of conquering China. Europe, despite its colossal potential, remains weak and divided, as the tiny Greek city states were divided in Antiquity, when they ended up under the domination of Rome.
The Marxist tendency pointed out long ago that the coming period will be a period of wars, revolution and counterrevolution. The recent upheavals in Iran, Kirghizstan, and Thailand, on the one hand, and Iraq, Afghanistan and Gaza, on the other, show the correctness of this assertion. There is colossal instability at all levels: economic, financial, social, political and military.
For reasons we have explained, a world war is ruled out at the present time. But there will be many small wars: wars over markets and natural resources, especially oil. This can be a source of international or national conflict, which inevitably leads to higher military spending. The bourgeoisie of all nations are preparing for the future by arming to the teeth.
Under these circumstances, the ruling classes of Europe have no alternative but to attack the working class. For the last half century, they bought social peace by granting reforms. But this option is no longer available to them. From the standpoint of the capitalists, not only can they not afford any new reforms: they cannot afford to maintain the reforms that were won by the working class over the last fifty years. In order to maintain their profits, they must destroy all these reforms, which the workers have come to regard as natural.
In reality they are not natural, but the product of decades of class struggle. It is worth remembering that democracy itself was only achieved through a long and bitter struggle. The ruling class, which now often speaks of its commitment to democracy, was opposed to each and every democratic advance. And like every other gain that was won through struggle, the democratic rights of the workers are under threat, beginning with the most important rights: the right to strike and demonstrate.
In the last period the capitalist system went beyond its limits. The unbridled expansion of credit (and consequently, of debt) has pushed world capitalism into an abyss of debt from which it is now striving to extricate itself. But in so doing, it has created new and indissoluble contradictions. The central contradiction is that the European working class is now a thousand times stronger than it was in the 1930s.
The peasantry, the main social reserve of reaction, has been practically eliminated. In Italy, Spain and Greece, the peasants were a majority and even in France and Germany they were a sizeable force not so long ago. Now they are a tiny minority and the working class is a decisive majority. The workers' organizations are intact and have not suffered a decisive defeat since 1945. The students, who in the 1930s were a recruiting ground for fascism, have moved to the Left and are a now a recruiting ground for revolution, as they were in Tsarist Russia.
Given this correlation of class forces, the bourgeoisie regards the prospect of an all-out conflict between the classes with dread. But they have no alternative. The perspective is of a weak recovery, accompanied by high levels of unemployment and ferocious attacks on the living standards of the workers and middle class, the unemployed, the old and the sick. The poorest sections of society will be compelled to pay the bill for the crisis of capitalism. This fact, in itself, will have profound consequences.
For a whole historical period the bourgeoisie has had to base itself on the support of the reformist leaders of the unions and mass workers' parties. But in the end, this basis will not be reliable. The crisis of capitalism is also the crisis of reformism. For decades the social base of reformism in the labour movement has been strengthened at the cost of the revolutionary wing, which has been weakened and isolated. Workers are practical people. If, as the reformists assured them, it was possible to achieve what they wanted under capitalism, then why go to all the pain and trouble of revolution?
These arguments carried weight as long as the reformists delivered the promised results. Reformism with reforms makes sense. But reformism without reforms, reformism with counter reforms, makes no sense at all. This is the lesson that the Greek Prime Minister Papandreou is learning, to his cost. The Greek workers voted massively for the Pasok in the last elections, because they hoped that the Socialists would protect their living standards. But the depth of the crisis of Greek capitalism ruled this out.
Despite their intentions, Papandreou and the other leaders were compelled to take drastic measures, not to protect the living standards of the Greek workers and middle class, but to save Greek capitalism. The two things are mutually exclusive.
Papandreou has promised to push through cuts totaling 45 billion Euros to reduce the budget deficit by an unprecedented 11 percentage points of GDP, to below the EU ceiling of 3 percent. But already there are suggestions that the planned deficit cut of more than 20 billion Euros in 2010 is too ambitious. In the context of an economic contraction of about 4 percent, this is the country's deepest recession since 1974.
Deep cuts in public spending will make things worse by reducing demand and causing a fall in tax returns. The increase in VAT and public sector pay cuts adds up to an estimated 10 percent loss in purchasing power. This hits small businesses hardest. About 60,000 small businesses are expected to shut down by the end of the year - around a third of the total. This will mean less income from taxes, not more, as the government claims.
Fuel tax increases, which have boosted the price of unleaded gasoline by 36 percent to 1.52 Euros a liter since February, have shrunk sales volume by up to 15 percent. On the other hand, with the collapse of construction, Greek unemployment rose to 12.1 percent in February, the highest monthly level on record and above an average 2010 estimate of 11.8 percent envisaged by the bailout plan. Higher unemployment will force the government to spend more on benefits than expected. And earnings from tourism receipts, Greece's biggest source of foreign currency, are set to shrink for a second consecutive year, by up to 15 percent.
Papandreou's chances of actually implementing his austerity policy are therefore close to zero. In the end, no matter how much pressure is applied on the people of Greece, they will never be able to pay their debts. The so-called "aid" can only postpone the Day of Judgment. And the merciless pressure from Brussels to slash living standards, and therefore reduce demand, will only succeed in pushing Greece further along the road to national bankruptcy and default.
The threat of a chain reaction, beginning in Greece, that could drag the whole of Europe into a downward spiral, still hangs over Europe. One country after another will be pushed over the precipice, starting with the weakest ones. The rest, with a greater or lesser delay, will follow. The strategists of Capital are aware of the danger. An article by Thomas F. Cooley, professor of economics and dean of the NYU Stern School of Business, on 2nd June bore the title: This Greek Tragedy Is Only Beginning. In it he writes:
"For the next several years Greece will face a huge drop in output and consumption. The magnitude of the drop in Greece will dwarf the U.S.'s experience in its recent recession. It will take years for consumption levels to return to anything close to pre-crisis levels. Wages will fall, and access to capital markets will be limited. Greece will be forced to restructure its debt. Several of the other debt-burdened economies in Southern Europe will face similar, painful adjustments." (This Greek tragedy is only beginning, Forbes.com)
Portugal is a small economy, accounting for only 2% of euro-zone output and public debt. Before they turned their attention to Spain, the bond markets seemed to judge Portugal as the next weakest link in the euro zone chain. Portugal's bond yields jumped to 5.7% on May 5th, an increase of 1.6 percentage points since the start of the year. Its public debt reached 77% of GDP last year. This is about average for Europe, but its budget deficit was 9.4% of GDP – a very high figure.
Portugal relies heavily on foreign capital and so is vulnerable to market bullying. Its net international debt rose to 112% of GDP in 2009, after a run of huge current-account deficits. About half of this is public debt; part of it is direct investment in big firms; but a large portion, some 46% of GDP, is channeled through the banking system.
Lisbon protests that Portugal has scrupulously observed the euro-zone's fiscal rules, cutting its budget deficit from 6.1% of GDP in 2005 to 2.8% by 2008. Public-sector jobs have been cut by 10%. In 2006 the Portuguese held down real increases in pensions at a time when the economy was still growing rapidly, and relaxed the rules on hiring and firing.
These are the same kind of policies that the markets are demanding in Spain and Greece. But this was all to no avail. For every step Portugal takes to satisfy the markets, the latter demand three more. Portugal has been warned that if it is to refinance its existing debts at tolerable interest rates, it must lower the cost of public borrowing. That means it must undertake far more drastic action to cut the budget deficit.
The fall in the euro as a result of the crisis ought to help Portugal sell more in Angola, Brazil, China and America. But a rise in Portugal's exports can only be at the cost of other capitalist economies. In the end, the government will have no alternative but to launch an attack on living standards. It has already pledged to cut unemployment benefit. Public pay could be frozen. Big transport projects could be scrapped and state-owned firms can be sold off to satisfy the implacable demands of the Men of Money.
This means that all the gains of the Portuguese Revolution of 1974-5 will be liquidated. But such a counterrevolution cannot take place without arousing fierce resistance from the Portuguese working class, which has never forgotten the revolutionary traditions that burst to the surface in those glorious days. At that time it would have been possible to have carried through the socialist revolution in Portugal, and this could have been accomplished peacefully.
The London Times in 1975 published an editorial with the title: "Capitalism in Portugal is dead." This ought to have been the case. If it was not, the fault was not of the Portuguese working class, which behaved admirably. The fault was with the leaders of the Socialist and Communist Parties who were not prepared to take power when they could have done so. As a result, the bourgeoisie succeeded in containing the movement and reasserting its power.
For three decades the movement in Portugal has been pushed back. But as Marx explained, the Revolution requires the whip of the Counterrevolution. The attempt by the bourgeoisie to liquidate all the gains of 1974-5 will arouse the Portuguese workers and youth. Already there have been mass demonstrations on the streets.
The minority Socialist government has passed its economic programme (the PEC), but it needs the support of the right wing PSD and CDS to carry out an austerity policy. The working class has already reacted with mass demonstrations, beginning with May Day, when 130,000 demonstrators came onto the streets of Lisbon. This was followed up by another mass demonstration of 300,000 against austerity 29th May, mainly organized by the Communist Party, but also Bloco de Esquerda and the trade unions, above all the Communist-controlled CGT-In.
The crisis in Spain
Spain is a much bigger problem for Europe than Greece. It is Europe's fifth-largest economy, and if it follows Greece into a debt crisis the effects will be felt throughout Europe and beyond. The International Monetary Fund has warned that the Spanish economy needs "far-reaching and comprehensive reforms" of its labour market and banking sector.
In the last few years Spanish capitalism went up like a rocket and is now falling like a stick. More than any other country in Europe, the Spanish capitalists threw themselves into the orgy of speculation with merry abandon. As a result, the collapse of the housing market has hit Spain harder than anywhere else.
The Spanish economy had the fastest growth rate in the EU, but has been in recession for nearly two years, and in the first quarter of 2010, grew by only 0.1 per cent. The economic collapse is reflected in the frightful level of unemployment, which stands (officially) at 20 per cent – the highest in Europe (except Latvia) and one of the highest of any developed capitalist country. The deficit soared to 11.2 per cent of GDP. Zapatero wishes to reduce it to 9.3 per cent this year, 6 per cent next year and 3 per cent by 2013.
Zapatero wanted to avoid a clash with the unions, but under pressure from Brussels and the White House, he has made an about-turn, announcing a programme of painful measures which are supposed to save €15bn over two years.. "We need to make a singular, exceptional and extraordinary effort to cut our public deficit," he said. Barack Obama made a personal telephone call to Zapatero the day before his announcement to discuss the importance of "Spain taking resolute action as part of Europe's effort to strengthen its economy and build market confidence."
This "exceptional and extraordinary effort" includes a 5 per cent pay cut for Spain's 2.5 million public sector workers this year, scrapping the €2,500 (£2,100) "baby cheque" for new mothers and a €6bn cut in public investment. Spaniards living on the minimum pension have seen their cost-of-living increases cancelled, and there will be cuts to state medical expenditure, payments to people caring for elderly parents. The plan also includes cuts to regional governments.
The fact that the American President had to ring Madrid shows the deep concern in Washington over the parlous state of the European economy, and the fears that the crisis in Europe will have the most serious consequences for the United States. Brussels welcomed the cuts promised by the PSOE government. The European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Olli Rehn, said that the measures "seem to go in the right direction" and that he expected similar announcements soon from Portugal.
EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia, a former leader of the PSOE, called the cuts "a logical step" that is necessary "to avoid greater evils in the financial markets and emerge from the crisis sooner". Thus, Washington and Brussels loudly applaud the fact that a "socialist" government is prepared to do the dirty work for them. Despite this, however, the right wing PP is attacking the PSOE and voted against its economic package.
Up till now Zapatero has avoided the type of unrest that has brought thousands on to the streets of Athens because he managed to preserve social benefits and protections in the face of repeated calls by economists and business leaders for "labour reform". However, the austerity package has angered the unions. In an attempt to placate his base, the Socialist Prime Minister stressed that despite the new austerity measures, "the pillars of the welfare state will remain untouched". This is the same song that is being sung by governments all over Europe. But it does not make any sense.
"The behaviour of the trade unions has been and is impeccable during these times of crisis and will continue to be so, but [Zapatero's] announcement is a turning point," Ignacio Fernandez Toxo, president of the CCOO, has said. The union leaders were desperate to avoid a confrontation with the government. But the union leaders can only keep the unions in check if the government and the bosses offer them something in return. But nothing is being offered except cuts. Therefore, the union leaders are compelled to mobilize.
Until now there has been a low level of strikes because the suddenness of the economic collapse and the onset of high unemployment temporarily shocked the workers. This was entirely logical and was foreseen by the Marxists in advance. We had to explain this to the ultra left sectarians who, in Spain as everywhere else, imagined that the economic crisis would lead immediately to a wave of strikes and general strikes. Now a general strike is on the order of the day, not only in Spain but in other European countries. A national strike of civil servants has been called for 8 June and there is talk of a general strike.
The PP leaders have attacked Zapatero for letting the economy deteriorate to the point that Washington and Brussels had to push him into action. They are putting party interests before that of the general interests of the bourgeoisie. This fact is a reflection of the deep gulf between the classes in Spain, which was papered over by the Transition, but which has emerged once more. Even before the economy collapsed, the right wing had taken to the streets under the banner of the Church, using the kind of language not heard since the days of the Franco dictatorship.
As always, the reformists are preparing the victory of the right wing. The PSOE is losing ground in polls against the conservative Popular Party, despite a corruption scandal involving opposition leaders. According to the polls, the People's Party would win an outright majority in parliament if elections were held now. But a PP government would face a radicalized labour movement. It would be a government of crisis, which probably would not last long and would only serve to deepen the polarization between the classes.
The crisis has exposed the deep fault lines that underlie Spanish society and politics, which were papered over, but not abolished, by the so-called "Transition" from the Franco dictatorship to "democracy". In the next period these fault lines will open into an unbridgeable abyss between the classes.
The whole situation is beginning to change. Spain faces a period of heightened class struggle in which the workers will rediscover the traditions of the 1930s and 1970s. By implementing a policy of cuts, Zapatero has capitulated to the bourgeoisie. This is producing a mood of disillusionment among those workers who had changed their vote from the United Left (IU) to the PSOE in the last period, in order to block the advance of the right wing and because the IU leaders were offering no serious alternative.
Now that process will go into reverse. Through experience, militant workers will come to understand the limitations of economic strikes and turn to politics, and radicalized youth will look for the banner of Communism. Despite all its deficiencies, the IU will increase its vote and begin to pick up new members from the most radicalized layers of society. The audience for genuine Marxist ideas will grow irresistibly.
In Italy Berlusconi has just passed an austerity bill off 24 billion euros of cuts over two years. The ruling right wing coalition plans to freeze the wages of public sector workers. The age of retirement for women workers in the public sector will be raised to 65. Ten billion Euros will be cut from the local administration, which will force local councils to carry out deep cuts in social spending: schools, health etc.
Berlusconi won the elections thanks to the bankruptcy of the Centre Left and only maintains itself in power for the same reason. The Democratic Party shows itself to be completely impotent to take advantage of the crisis of the Berlusconi government. But the latter now has to preside over a programme of vicious cuts. The Italian capitalists are supporting the present package but want the government to go much further. The pressure from Confindustria is aggravating the splits within the ruling coalition.
The impotence of the Left means that all the attention of the working class is concentrated on the unions. The union leaders, as in other countries, are no more inclined to conduct a serious struggle than the leaders of the political "opposition". At its national congress, the CGIL decided that it was not the moment to lead an offensive against the government. But they were forced by pressure from below to call a four hour general strike in June.
This is an early anticipation of how things will develop. The defeat of the Centre Left Coalition caused disappointment and disorientation in the working class. But this mood will not last long. The impotence of the "Left" opposition and the vacillations of the union leaders will not prevent the radicalization of the Italian workers. Beginning in the public sector, there will be a series of strikes and demonstrations, which will transform the whole situation.
Κραχ ΚΡΙΣΗ ΟΙΚΟΝΟΜΙΑ Πραγματικότητα


Voting results: 2021 NBA All-Star Game starters
Starters for the 2021 NBA All-Star Game were selected by fans, current NBA players and a media panel. Fans accounted for 50 percent of the vote to determine the starters, while players and media accounted for 25 percent each.
After all votes were tallied, players were ranked in each conference by position (guard and frontcourt) within each of the three voting groups. Each player's score was calculated by averaging his weighted rank from the fan votes, the player votes and the media votes. The two guards and three frontcourt players with the best score in each conference were named NBA All-Star Game starters.
Fan votes served as the tiebreaker for players in a position group with the same score. The Dallas' Mavericks' Luka Dončić won the tiebreaker with the Portland Trail Blazers' Damian Lillard for the second starting spot in the Western Conference guard group.
Click on the links below for the voting results from each position group. Each player's score was weighted based on 50 percent for fan vote, 25 percent for players vote and 25 percent for media vote. The formula to determine a player's score is (Fan Rank * 2 + Player Rank + Media Rank)/4.
Eastern Conference Frontcourt
Eastern Conference Guards
Western Conference Frontcourt
Western Conference Guards
NBA All-Star Voting presented by AT&T tips off Dec. 20
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The Uses of Imperial Citizenship
The British and French Empires
By Jack Harrington
Examines how ideas of citizenship and subjecthood were applied in societies under British and French imperial rule in order to expand our understanding of these concepts.
Hardback ISBN: 9781783489206 Release date: Mar 2020
Ebook ISBN: 9781783489220 Release date: Mar 2020
Postcolonial Politics and Non-Eurocentric IR
Contemporary citizenship is haunted by the ghost of imperialism. Yet conceptions of European citizenship fail to explain issues that are inclusive of the impact of empire today, and are integral to the reality of citizenship; from the notion of 'minorities' to the assertion of citizenship rights by migrants and the withdrawal of fundamental rights from particular groups.
The Uses of Imperial Citizenship examines the ways in which ideas of citizenship and subjecthood were applied in societies under imperial rule in order to expand our understanding of these concepts. Taking examples from the experience of the British and French empires, the book examines the ways in which claims to the rights and obligations of imperial subjects by otherwise marginalised people – from women activists to 'native' newspaper editors – shaped the history of British and French concepts of citizenship. Through extensive analysis of colonial and diplomatic archives, parliamentary debates and commissions, journalism and contemporary works on colonial administration, the book explores how governments and people in colonial societies saw themselves within, on the frontiers of, and outside of imperial notions of citizenship and subjecthood.
1. Introduction: What is Imperial Citizenship? / 2 Citizens, Empires and Revolutions / 2. The Limits of Freedom: slaves, indentured labourers and emancipation / 3. European Freedoms and the Settler / 4. Natives: customs, restrictions, protections and rights / 5. Imperial Belonging: the transnational experience of the British and French subjects / 6. The Limits of Imperial Citizenship: Resistance, anti-colonialism, and revolutionary subjectivity / 7. After Imperial Citizenship
Jack Harrington is a Research Manager at the London School of Economics and Political Science and a Research Associate on the Oecumene project at the Open University


Category Archives: Central African Republic
by Joel | 20 August 2018 · 3:21 pm
Slavery and the Ngaoundere State
From "Raiders and Traders in Adamawa: Slavery as a Regional System" by Philip Burnham, in Asian and African Systems of Slavery, ed. by James L. Watson (U. Calif. Press, 1980), pp. 46-48:
The Adamawa jihad was undertaken by small groups of Fulbe who were substantially outnumbered by the autochthonous 'pagan' groups of the region. Ngaoundere was certainly no exception in this regard, and the rapid integration of conquered Mbum and other peoples into the Fulbe state, which transformed large numbers of former enemies into effective elements of the state political and economic apparatus, is truly remarkable.
The limited information that we possess concerning the organisation of the Wolarbe Fulbe who first penetrated the Adamawa Plateau and attacked the Mbum of Ngaoundere suggests that they were a semi-nomadic pastoral group. Slaves definitely formed a part of Wolarbe society prior to the jihad, and it is possible that some of these slaves were settled in fixed farming villages which served as wet-season foci and political and ceremonial centres for the transhumant families of Fulbe pastoralists. At least a rudimentary system of political offices, with titles for both freemen and slaves, was in operation prior to the jihad and had probably been adopted by the Wolarbe during their earlier period of residence in Bornu.
On analogy between the pre-jihad Wolarbe and better-documented cases of similar semi-pastoral Fulbe groups composed of both free and slave elements, it is probable that the initial group of Wolarbe who took Ngaoundere did not exceed 5,000 in number, including women, children and slaves. But in the course of several decades of fighting against the indigenous peoples of the Ngaoundere region, the Fulbe were able to conquer and reduce to slavery or tributary status large groups of local populations who certainly outnumbered the Fulbe conquerors by several orders of magnitude. These conquests were assisted by alliances between Ngaoundere and other Fulbe states as well as by the progressive incorporation of 'pagan' elements into the Ngaoundere army. Conquered 'pagan' village populations located near Ngaoundere town were often allowed to remain on their traditional lands. Their chiefs were awarded titles, and the whole village unit was allocated to the tokkal (political following) of a titled Fulbe or slave official in the Ngaoundere court, who became responsible for collecting annual taxes and raising levies of soldiers for Fulbe war expeditions. In return, the 'pagan' group's loyalty to Ngaoundere was rewarded principally by opportunities to secure booty in war, and this incentive was probably the primary factor which allowed the Fulbe to secure the allegiance of conquered groups so rapidly.
The tokke units (plural of tokkal) which formed the basis of the Ngaoundere administrative system, had their origins in the leadership patterns of mobile pastoral society and were not discrete territorial domains ruled by resident overlords. Rather, tokke were sets of followers, both Fulbe and members of vassal peoples, who were distributed in a scattering of different rural villages or residential quarters in town and who were allocated to individual office holders living at Ngaoundere at the whim of the Fulbe ruler (laamiido). Such a spatially dispersed administrative organisation lessened chances of secession by parts of the Ngaoundere state and yet was an effective means of mobilising and organising an army.
In addition to locally conquered 'pagan' peoples, the size of the servile population at Ngaoundere was further enlarged by slaves captured at distances of 200 to 500 kilometres from Ngaoundere town itself. These captives were brought back for resettlement at Ngaoundere either as domestic slaves or as farm slaves in slave villages (ruumde). This long-distance raiding, which was a regular occurrence from the 1850s up until the first decade of the twentieth century, was a large-scale phenomenon, and European observers at the end of the nineteenth century estimated that as many as 8,000 to 10,000 slaves might be taken on these raids annually (Coquery-Vidrovitch 1972:76, 204-205; Loefler 1907:225; Ponel 1896:205-207). Those captives who were not settled at Ngaoundere were sold to Hausa or Kanuri traders, and Adamawa soon gained the reputation as a slave traders' Eldorado (Passarge 1895:480). By the second half of the nineteenth century, Adamawa had become the main source of supply for the Sokoto Caliphate (Lacroix 1952:34).
Summing up the demographic situation at Ngaoundere in the nineteenth century, we can say that at no time following the establishment of the Fulbe state did the proportion of slaves and vassals to freemen ever fall below a one-to-one ratio and that for most of the period, the ratio was probably more like two-to-one. Modern census figures, although they can be applied retrospectively with only the greatest of caution, tend to support this interpretation. Thus, in 1950, there were approximately 23,000 Fulbe living in the Ngaoundere state as compared with 35,000 non-Fulbe who were still identifiable as ex-slaves, vassals, or servants of the Fulbe (Froelich 1954:25). It goes without saying that in modern conditions, when all legal disabilities and constraints on movement have been removed, the proportion of servile to free would be expected to drop. But nonetheless, as late as 1950, we still encounter almost a three-to-two ratio.
Whatever the exact number and proportion of slaves in the pre-colonial period, they were not all of uniform social or legal status, and it is instructive to attempt a classification of the various forms of servitude in practice in nineteenth-century Ngaoundere. The Fulbe language makes a distinction between dimo and maccudo, meaning respectively 'freeman' and 'slave', a discrimination paralleling the basic one made in Koranic law. Membership in the legally free category was attainable through birth to two free parents, through birth to a slave concubine having relations with a freeman, or through manumission. A slave concubine herself, having borne a free child, would also become free on the death of her child's father. Free offspring of slave concubines were not jurally disadvantaged and as the decades passed after the conquest, many of the Ngaoundere aristocracy and even several of the rules had such parentage.
Filed under Cameroon, Central African Republic, Islam, language, migration, slavery, war
by Joel | 6 December 2015 · 9:40 am
Sectarian Standoff in Central African Republic
This update on the sorry state of affairs in the Central African Republic (CAR) is in memory of my closest brother, who died a year ago today just before his 64th birthday. He served as a Peace Corps Volunteer on rural health projects in what was then Emperor Bokassa's Central African Empire during the late 1970s, and later went on to become one of the tiny handful of academic experts on the country. For his memorial service, his old Peace Corps colleagues recommended redirecting contributions to Water for Good, which builds wells to provide clean water throughout the CAR.
The following excerpt is from a detailed and depressing firsthand report in Foreign Policy by Ty McCormick headlined 'One Day, We Will Start a Big War': Outgunned by powerful rebels in the Central African Republic, the U.N. can't even protect civilians. Now it's pushing for early elections that could destroy a fragile peace.
There are scarcely 200 paces of tarmacked road in Bambari, a sprawling city of rusty tin kiosks and crumbling concrete edifices, smudged with rust-colored clay, deep in the heavily forested interior of the Central African Republic (CAR). They span the length of a single-lane bridge across the Ouaka River, a muddy torrent that cleaves Bambari in half from north to south. They also happen to be the most important 200 paces of road in town, though for reasons unrelated to the quality of the driving surface. The bridge marks the boundary between two dangerously divided communities, a red line across which visitors from the other side risk death, occasionally by decapitation.
The east bank of the Ouaka is controlled by remnants of the Seleka, a largely Muslim rebel coalition that pillaged and raped its way across CAR before seizing power over the country for a brief period in 2013. The west bank belongs to the anti-Balaka, the knife- and machete-wielding Christian self-defense militias that sprang up to counter the Seleka but managed to make the Muslim rebel coalition's abuses look relatively mild by comparison. "Muslims are too afraid to travel to the [west] bank," the mayor of Bambari, Abel Matchipata, told me recently. "Some Christians are traveling to the [east] bank, but they are doing so with a lot of fear."
Bambari's stark divisions mirror those in the rest of CAR, a Texas-sized swath of rainforest and savannah that is sandwiched between Chad, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, among other troubled neighbors. Even before the latest crisis, CAR was "worse than a failed state," according to the International Crisis Group. Now, after two-and-a-half years of turmoil stemming from the Seleka coup, the country is de facto partitioned: anti-Balaka in the southwest and former Seleka fighters in the northeast, where they fled after the coalition was disbanded and its leader stepped down under intense international pressure in January 2014. (They are now known as ex-Seleka, an umbrella term that refers to a smattering of armed groups lacking an organized central command.) Outside of CAR's capital city, Bangui, virtually nothing is under government control. At least 6,000 people have been killed and 832,000 displaced — 368,000 inside the country and 464,000 abroad. About half of the country's 4.7 million inhabitants are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.
When I visited Bambari last month, ahead of planned elections that many fear could be destabilizing, the city of just under 50,000, the third-largest in CAR, was still reeling from its latest spasm of violence. On Aug. 20, a Muslim taxi driver was plucked from his car outside the city and beheaded by anti-Balaka fighters. The incident provoked a backlash from the Muslim community and a counter-backlash from the Christian community, both of which have acquired a healthy appetite for revenge. By the time the dust had settled, at least 10 people were dead and dozens more wounded, including two aid workers from the Red Cross.
The unenviable task of keeping Bambari's residents from each other's throats falls mainly on a single battalion of U.N. peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is itself home to the largest peacekeeping operation in the world. The Congolese are part of a 12,000-strong U.N. force in CAR known by its French acronym, MINUSCA. Authorized with a robust Chapter VII mandate to protect civilians and support the transitional government that replaced the Seleka, MINUSCA has been dogged by persistent charges of abuse and incompetence since taking over for a beleaguered African Union force in September 2014. U.N. peacekeepers have been accused of rape and of firing indiscriminately on civilians. They have also struggled to halt periodic outbursts of violence, like the spate of clashes and looting in late September that paralyzed the capital for close to a week. "Plagued by accusations of sexual abuse and facing mounting violence, MINUSCA threatens to turn into a disaster for the U.N.," said Richard Gowan, a U.N. expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.
Filed under Central African Republic, democracy, NGOs, religion, U.N., war
A Linguistic Rediscovery Close to Home
During my dissertation fieldwork in Papua New Guinea over thirty years ago, I discovered that a bunch of Austronesian languages in Morobe Province mark their relative clauses in a manner that is pretty rare from a typological point of view: they mark both the beginning and the end of the clauses. An English equivalent would go something like, "The language [that they were speaking that] sounded vaguely familiar," or "The language [which they were speaking such] sounded vaguely familiar."
The only other place where I could find languages that did the same was in Central Africa, and my dissertation cited a 1976 article by the great French linguist Claude Hagège which mentioned by name two Nilo-Saharan languages, Moru and Mangbetu, and two Niger-Congo languages, Mbum and M'baka. Over the years, I lost track of anything pertaining to those languages except their names.
But I got curious again recently as I worked on updating for publication an old paper on clause-bracketing in PNG Austronesian languages. So, yesterday, after googling those names and finding out that Mbum and M'baka (= Ngbaka) are spoken in the Central African Republic, I emailed my historian brother in Strasbourg, whom I recently visited, to ask whether he knew of any CAR languages that bracketed their relative clauses. He had spent years working in the (at that time) Central African Empire for the US Peace Corps and USAID while I was writing my dissertation in linguistics, and he later wrote a dissertation himself on Japan-Africa relations before World War II.
My query didn't ring any bells with him at first, but after some reflection he came up with some examples in Sango, CAR's national lingua franca. And then he emailed to ask his linguist friend Raymond Boyd at CNRS whether he could think of Adamawa-Ubangi languages that used such markers for relative clauses. Boyd replied:
Right off, I can't think of one that DOESN'T. In languages like Sango and Chamba, opener and closer can be the same. In Zande, the opener is etymologically an indefinite and the closer is a locative. I've been reading a dissertation on Mambay (an Adamawa language closely related to Mbum and Mundang) where there is only an opener, but I take this to be perhaps a Chadic influence (I'd have to check this on a much larger range of data).
It was a Eureka moment for both of us.
I can't believe I never thought to ask my own brother before! Back in January, when he took us to the used book vendors in place Gutenberg in Strasbourg, I discovered a book I couldn't resist buying—despite the 30€ price—for no other reason than that I had mentioned the language it described in my dissertation. It was La Langue des Makere, des Medje et des Mangbetu, par A. Vekens, Dominicain (Editions Dominicaines Veritas, 1928), and the pages were still uncut. But even then, it didn't cross my mind to quiz my brother about the CAR languages he had worked on.
Here are some examples of bracketed relative clauses.
Mangbetu (Vekens 1928) in Congo
A belu [si kesia né môlô ta kira ne] kambuba e faranga môkôtu.
Les hommes [ceux font le travail avec intelligence ceux-là] gagneront des francs beaucoup.
'Those who work smart get plenty money.'
Sango (my brother, pers. comm.) in CAR
Tene [so mo tene so] ake nzoni ape.
word [thus you say thus] is good not
'What you say is no good.'
Jabêm (Dempwolff 1939) in PNG
Lip [tec aê gawa nec] gêjac mocseŋ teŋ.
trap [Dem I I-set Dem] it-catch bushfowl one
'The trap I set caught a bushfowl.'
South Watut (Holzknecht 1989) in PNG
Jek i-ra jiyaʔ ri naip a [ti ra-gin afu ŋga]
Jack he-cut tree with knife [Dem I-give to Dem]
'Jack cut the tree with the knife which I gave him.'
Patep (Lauck 1980) in PNG
Ông ob tyoo yii yuu nuhu [wê ob lam ge]
you will dodge spear two arrow [Rel will come Rel]
'You will dodge the spears and arrows that will come.'
Filed under Africa, Central African Republic, language, Papua New Guinea
by Joel | 10 December 2006 · 4:50 pm
Darfur Conflict Spreads into Central Africa
Lydia Polgreen of the NYT reports on the southward spread of yet another conflict not worth stopping, although France has intervened at the request of the current government of the CAR.
KALANDAO, Central African Republic — The Central African Republic — so important as a potential bulwark against the chaos and misery of its neighbors in Chad and the Darfur region of Sudan — is being dragged into the dangerous and ever-expanding conflict that has begun to engulf Central Africa.
So porous are its borders and ungoverned are parts of its territory that foreign rebels are using the Central African Republic as a staging ground to mount attacks over the border, spreading what the United Nations has already called the world's "gravest humanitarian crisis."
The situation is so bad in some places that 50,000 residents have fled the Central African Republic to find refuge in Chad, of all places, while starvation threatens hundreds of thousands who remain.
"This is the soft belly of Africa," said Jerome Chevallier, a World Bank official who is trying to help stabilize the Central African Republic. "It has little protection from whatever might strike it."
There's much more on Darfur and the fighting in Chad at Passion of the Present.
Filed under Africa, Central African Republic, Chad, Darfur, war
by Joel | 4 March 2004 · 5:51 pm
Former Haitian President Aristide's New Hosts
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: Bangui grants Aristide asylum 'on humanitarian grounds'
BANGUI, 2 March (IRIN) – The Central African Republic (CAR) has granted former Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide asylum at the request of Gabonese President Omar Bongo and for humanitarian reasons, a government minister said on Monday.
"When a man in need knocks at your door, you do not consider his colour, his race or his rank, you welcome him and offer him the little you have," Parfait Mbay, Communications Minister, said in a statement read on state-owned Radio Centrafrique.
He added, "At the request of his counterpart and dean of central African heads of state Gabonese President Omar Bongo, the president of the republic [Francois Bozize] accepted to receive the former president of the first black republic in the world, Jean Bertrand Aristide."
By receiving Aristide, the CAR had confirmed its reputation as a land of asylum for people in difficulties, Mbay said.
Mbay, four other ministers and the CAR army chief of staff, Gen Antoine Gambi, received Aristide when he arrived on Monday at the Bangui-Mpoko Airport.
Mbay said that Bozize had consulted Vice-President Abel Goumba, Prime Minister Celestin Gaombalet and the chairman of the National Transitional Council, the country's law advisory body, Nicolas Tiangaye, before allowing Aristide into the country.
"It is with sincere gratitude that we address the Central African Republic's authorities for receiving us this morning," the radio quoted Aristide as saying on his arrival in the capital, Bangui.
Referring to and paraphrasing Toussaint Louverture, the historical Haitian hero who was tortured and killed by French colonisers 200 years ago, Aristide said: "Today, in the shadow of Toussaint Louverture I declare: by overthrowing me, they have cut down the tree of peace but this tree will grow up again because its roots are Louverturian."
The CAR government's decision to welcome Aristide is perceived as an attempt to draw the attention of the international community to its own situation. The country is currently in a transitional period since the 15 March 2003 coup that brought Bozize to power. Since then, the authorities have been seeking international recognition. Now, with Aristide in exile in Bangui, the task may likely be easier.
[This Item is Delivered to the "Africa-English" Service of the UN's IRIN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations. For further information, free subscriptions, or to change your keywords, contact e-mail: Irin@ocha.unon.org or Web: http://www.irinnews.org. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post this item, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Reposting by commercial sites requires written IRIN permission.]
Copyright (c) UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2004
Filed under Caribbean, Central African Republic
Filipino 1st Recon Battalion (Special) in New Guinea


Airbnb targets hosting double African customers this year
Hotel Industry
Online room rental service Airbnb, according to news agencies is planning to maintain its rapid growth in Africa and double its customer digits to 1.5 million.
Data shows, in 2016 the service already increased to 143 percent of more than 700, 000 individuals using the service. According to Nicola D'Elia, the firm's Africa and Middle East chief noted. "If you just look at 2017, it's going to double, you will have 1.5 million people at the end of this year," she added.
With several businesses tapping into the African market, the continent is a major win for the service with population spilling over a billion and a plethora of tourist and safari destinations.
South Africa is currently the most popular country when it comes to Airbnb listings and visitors, tourists visiting Africa from the UK, the United States, Germany and the Netherlands prefer staying local homes than hotels.
Currently, the top cities synonymous with the service are Cape Town, Marrakesh, Johannesburg, Nairobi, and Casablanca.
The thirty-five year old CEO Chesky said, the continent is "an incredibly exciting emerging market for travel."
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