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The Catholic Church in Libya. “Few but not invisible”.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

It is difficult to be a Church in a place of violence and instability. “We are few but not invisible”. We speak with Mons. George Bugeja,
Bishop of Tripoli.

Libya is a country that lives between chaos and instability. With the killing of Gaddafi in October 2011, the country entered a spiral of violence. It is a country divided between the authority of the government of Tripoli led by Fayez Al Serraj and the militias of the strong man of Benghazi, Khalifa Haftar. In between the balance of power is associated with influential local tribes and, of course, the cluttering presence of many external actors who have no intention of losing the opportunity to gain possession of the great riches of the country and the control of its share on the geopolitical chessboard of the Mediterranean.
It is in this framework, with its sad and dark background, that the Catholic Church continues to be present. “We may be few but we are not invisible”, the Vicar of Tripoli, Mons. Bugeja tells us. We are just a small community surviving in the midst of so much violence and insecurity”.

Mons. George Bugeja, bishop of Tripoli.

The small whitewashed church where all can meet the Maltese Bishop in his Friars Minor habit, is, in fact, dedicated to St. Francis. It is located in the Dahra quarter, right in the centre of Tripoli. It is the only one that has been active in the Libyan capital since the time of Gaddafi’s ‘green revolution’ when – in 1969 – the Rais took power with a coup d’état under the banner of national socialism and the expulsion of foreigners. The property of the Church was confiscated, the houses of prayer (39 in the city) were closed, including the Sacred Heart Cathedral which, after some architectural changes, was fitted for Islamic worship; today it is the great mosque dominating Algeria square.
Monsignor Bugeja, 58, has been Vicar Apostolic of Tripoli since 2017. He states: “we are a Christian community composed entirely of around three thousand foreigners out of a population of 6.3 million. They are mostly Filipinos employed as nurses in the hospitals, and Africans mostly from Nigeria and Ghana, as well as a few from South Sudan.
To assist them here in Tripoli, there is just myself, another Franciscan friar, Friar Magdy Helmi, and eight Sisters of Mother Teresa, working as volunteers in two government institutes at the service of Libyan citizens with mental illnesses”.

“In Benghazi, the See of the other vicariate – the bishop continues – the situation is even more precarious: the church was destroyed when the area was bombed to drive out Isis which had set up its headquarters there. All the religious Sisters left; there are now only two Friars, as well as one in Al Beida close by.
The community is formed by a scattering of Filipinos and Sub-Saharan Africans who gather for worship in a small room at the Children’s Hospital. There we have to start again from scratch”.
“Our activities are all carried out within the confines of the parish structures. We have the Sunday liturgy on Fridays, a holy day for Moslems. We have two masses, one for the Filipinos and one for the other communities, both of which are attended by from four to five hundred of the faithful. Attendance though, depends on the situation in the city; when there are clashes in the surrounding area, people lock themselves in their houses. In the afternoon there are catechism lessons; the children are taught by the Sisters while the adults are accompanied by trained lay people, helped by myself. The Africans also organise Bible study meetings, choir practice and also get together in order to organise community help for people in particular need: they know well the various situations and, when necessary, they know they can come to me to ask for help. On Fridays we also have a small independent market where clothes and food are available”.

Mons. Budeja tells us it is difficult to make a plan of accompaniment since people are continually changing. “ People come here to work and remain here only as long as the work contract lasts. Even those with fairly constant work, such as the Filipino nurses, leave after a few years, not to mention all the people in transit who want to reach Europe. Instability is the norm. There are not many families and they are often divided with the father in Tripoli and the mother at home in their own country. Nevertheless, despite everything, each month we have six or seven baptisms of African children! However, when the children reach the age of five or six, the parents generally send them home to the grandparents, since in Libya they would have to attend a fee-paying school”.It is a situation with serious discomforts that must be borne. The Bishop of Tripoli comments: “ Naturally, many decide to leave. Up to a few years ago, our churches were attended by Poles, South Koreans, Italians, Maltese, Arabs and others, and the celebrations were held over the three days of the week-end; otherwise there would not have been room for everyone.”
” Today things are different but life in the city centre goes on quite normally; offices and schools remain open even when there are clashes in the outskirts. Yes, we have to put up with a lot of trouble. Electrical power is cut off for eight or twelve hours a day, especially in the summer when the temperature reaches 50°. There are many people with enormous problems both economic and in the field of human rights”.

Libya. Migrants gather at the Anti-illegal immigration Agency in Tripoli.

What is the Church doing for them? “We have a small Caritas office with a lay woman in charge. It is open on Tuesdays and Fridays and we use it to lend a hand to anyone who comes to us. Those coming to ask for help are mostly Eritrean Christians and Sudanese Moslems. If they are not registered with the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) we help them to do so, or else we send them to the International Organisation for Migrants (IOM) if they want to return to their own countries. We also have a small first-aid clinic where a woman doctor and two nurses work. When we have serious cases, we avail of some NGOs through which we have the sick persons admitted to hospital. When we find cases of unattached women with difficult pregnancies, we can always count on the help of the Danish Refugee Council. From the point of view of material aid, we try to help people pay the rent or, with the help of Caritas Italiana, we help students with their school fees. We have always to be careful where money is concerned as some may use it to pay human traffickers, expecting to be brought to Europe”.It is estimated that there are 200,000 migrants waiting to travel from Libya to Europe. In the past three years, more than 40,000 passed through the refugee camps where they suffered violence and torture. “Some years ago, our ‘Social Service’ was authorised to visit people confined to the camps and to those detained in the prisons to distribute food and pray together with them. This is no longer possible. Nevertheless, among our parishioners there are some citizens of Sub-Saharan Africa who have been in those detention centres and succeeded in getting away from them, either because they paid money or were sick. Now those people who were traumatised, see the Church as a safe place where they are welcomed and protected”.

The Bishop of Tripoli concludes: “ The original sin of this country is that it is so rich! Everyone wants their share of the money. The Libyans would like to find a political solution by themselves but the foreign powers refuse to yield. The problem is that the international agreements are often ineffective. The embargo is a farce: arms are still coming undisturbed, while Europe does not speak with one voice but proceeds in a non-uniform manner with each country intent upon pursuing its own interests. The UN is trying to mediate between the factions but concrete results will take a long time. Nevertheless, I am hopeful. Peace will come and we will be here to welcome it”.

Chiara Zappa

Will China Replace the United States in the Middle East?

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

It is not clear how or to what extent the COVID-19 will affect the international order. However, it is clear that it will accelerate the disruption that was already well underway before the pandemic. Complexities and nuances aside the disruption implies a shift of influence in the Middle East and North Africa region away from the West (the United States in particular) toward China.

In the immediate post-pandemic lockdown period, Washington will be focusing on health and the economy – especially as the 2020 election approaches. China will inevitably consider this an opportunity to fill in the vacuum left by a retreating, or at least less focused, American power in the Middle East. Moreover, the Saudi led effort to smash the US shale oil industry by increasing crude production to levels that have created the paradoxical phenomenon of negative prices (because of insufficient storage capacity) will have further reduced the American public’s tolerance for their government’s dense role in the Middle East.
Nevertheless, Trump cannot back away from his stance on Iran, ostensibly aimed at triggering a ‘regime change’ through economic pressure, enhanced by ever stringent sanctions and its military presence in neighboring Iraq. Nor can the US simply walk away from the core Middle East issue of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; especially, after Trump unveiled his ‘Deal of the Century’ so-called ‘peace plan’.

Unlike Washington, Beijing’s focus will be more economic than military and framed in the context of its Belt and Road Initiative, even if it has built military bases in Pakistan and Djibouti – not the Middle East proper, but well within easy reach. The region is bound to experience shockwaves as hinted above, as regional powers from Turkey and Iran to Israel and Egypt might try to use a growing US vacuum to pursue strategic ambitions of their own from obstructing Kurdish nationalism to gaining more control over key resources such as water, oil and natural gas, or simply for the oldest of reasons: to distract populations from domestic problems, which the pandemic will have magnified. By way of comparison, the Middle East in 2020 could start to look like the Middle East in 1960 that is in the aftermath of the Franco-British failure to seize the Suez Canal and before the United States’ hegemony, which took advantage of Saddam Hussein’s misstep in Kuwait in 1990 to launch a hegemonic effort in the region.

China has quietly already been shoring up its role in the Middle East. And, at least for the time being, this role does not intend to overturn the existing order. Notably, while criticizing the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem and the Deal of the Century, Beijing has both reiterated its 1988 commitment to the establishment of an independent Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as capital, and kept close ties to Israel – signing multibillion-dollar contracts for the construction of key infrastructure, and even drawing Washington’s criticism – with the Jewish State. But, whereas, Russia has also pursued close ties with Israel for domestic (large Jewish population and high percentage of Russo-Israeli citizens among its financial oligarchs) and strategic reasons (limiting Israeli efforts in Syria and Lebanon to tactical rather than strategic moves), China’s goals, and its diplomacy, appear almost entirely commercially motivated.
In 2017 Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated his government’s position on the Middle East conflict in four points: To promote a political solution on the basis of the “two State program”.To ensure joint, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security. To coordinate the international community by expanding the peace-keeping force. To encourage economic development as the foundation of a lasting peace.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) shakes hands with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

As of 2020, it seems that China has made no proposals to obstruct Trump’s machinations with the Israeli Government, including a de-facto annexation of some 30% of the West Bank, fully integrating illegal (under International Law) Jewish settlements, as part of the proposed Peace Plan. After backing the PLO and PFLP, China has all but eliminated any of the ideological links that kept it close to the Palestinian struggle in the 1970’s. Still, Beijing has good relations with Hamas, formally criticizing Israel in cases of its routine destruction of Palestinian property in the West Bank and Gaza. The ever practical Beijing understand that it can broaden its influence over the entire Middle East region, from where it satiates its enormous appetite for oil without the need for military interventions, bases or fleets, by observing wise policies. From a wider perspective, Beijing considers regional stability of utmost importance because it favors trade. It’s why Beijing has close ties to Tehran and Riyadh. Quite simply, China’s ambitious new silk route, the One Belt Road, passes through the Middle East on its way to Europe. The four-point program for Israeli-Palestinian peace was first revealed in 2013 just as Xi Jinping unveiled the One Belt Road project.

In that sense, Trump’s peace ‘Deal’, which essentially buries any remaining hope for Palestinian nationalism, as well as the US president’s pressure on Iran, compromise China’s effort by fueling tensions and conflict. China has criticized Trump’s plan because it undermines regional peace, potentially fomenting a new wave of extremism that could spread throughout the region. Trump’s Deal is largely designed for domestic consumption to court the Christian Fundamentalist/Evangelical vote in particular. His rival-apparent, Democrat Joe Biden, has expressed quiet skepticism over the plan, even if he said that, if elected President, he would not move the US embassy back to Tel Aviv, reversing Trump’s change. The Chinese have reason to back Biden, who would, presumably, be less interested in continuing the trade-war that Trump seems so keen on pursuing. The annexation of the West Bank also depends on the tenure of the Netanyahu-Gantz political alliance, needed to form a government after three inclusive attempts.
But, given the tentative support for the ‘Deal’ from prominent representatives of the regimes in power in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, China would likely choose a way to acquiesce to the plan without posing obstacles. Perhaps, if China could find a way to financially support Egypt and Jordan, it could obstruct the plan by allowing Cairo and Amman to make credible threats to withdraw from their respective peace treaties with Israel.

Jordan’s King Abdallah II walks (R) with Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi in Amman, Jordan.

For all of President al-Sisi’s and King Abdallah’s objections to the ‘Deal of the Century’, both leaders know that so long as they receive aid from the United States. Yet, Beijing seems uninterested in altering the geopolitical framework of the region, preferring to honor the founding principle of its diplomacy: not to interfere in a country’s internal affairs. Of course, this does not preclude China from pursuing closer ties with both Cairo and Amman, just as it has done with Tehran, in order to gradually reduce US influence to the point where relations ‘naturally’ shift in a manner, which China can exploit geopolitically as well. Just as in the case of Iran, where Beijing did not wish to see a conflict between the US and the Islamic Republic, it will not deliberately try to displace the United States, risking the shockwaves of Washington’s withdrawal to send a spark in its direction.
The timing is inappropriate. The United States remains the main importer of Chinese goods. Beijing understands that after the 2020 election, whether it’s Trump or his Democratic rival sitting in the Oval Office, the ‘trade war’ with China will become less of a priority. For the time being, Beijing understand that its attempts to establish deeper ties with Middle Eastern States cannot come at the risk of aggravating relations with the Washington.

China is interested in maintaining peace in the entire region, which is essential to completing the One Belt Road project, which will help spread Chinese influence through investments and infrastructure, expanding a regional market extending from the Horn of Africa, to the Middle East, southern and central Asia. A gradual US disengagement from the region can only facilitate this process, and direct interference into US interests in the region could compromise it. The Chinese famously think long term. Legend has it that when President Richard Nixon began courting China in 1973, he asked then Premier Zhou Enlai what he thought about the French Revolution. Zhou responded: “it’s too early to tell”.

Alessandro Bruno

Africa gets debt arrangement to cope with its first recession for 25 years.

Monday, 1 June 2020 8:00

The covid 19 pandemics has caused a recession in Africa which makes the repayment of external debt instalments unstainable and may jeopardises the fight against poverty reduction. The G 20 countries have decided to freeze payments. But this might not enough to to cope with the consequences of the recession.

In a matter of weeks, the Covid 19 crisis has considerably worsened economic prospects on the continent. For the first time in 25 years, Africa should record a negative growth rate in 2020. According to the latest World Bank update on the region, the growth is forecast to fall from 2.4 per cent in 2019 to between negative 2.1 percent and negative 5.1 percent in 2020. World Bank experts project that Covid-19 will cost Africa between U.S. $37 billion and $79 bn in 2020. Rwandan President Paul Kagame says that it could take “a generation or more” for the continent to recover. Accordingly, at least $100 bn in international support to Africa is needed this year alone.
The trend is caused by a combination of factors including the lower demand from the main trade partner, China but also from their partners, less foreign financing resources and lower remittances and tourism revenues. According to the World Bank, in 2020, remittances from migrants to Africa will plunge by 23.1% to US $37 bn in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis. Nigeria which received the largest flows with $23.8 bn in 2019, is the most affected country, followed by Ghana ($3.5 bn)
and Kenya ($2.8 bn).

Oil and minerals producing countries should be the hardest hit. The dramatic fall of the oil prices from 67 $/barrel by end December to only 25 $ on the 4 May 2020 is expected to provoke a 9% fall of the GDP in Congo-Brazzaville where crude oil accounts for 85% of export earnings. Other oil exporters like Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Libya, South Sudan, Gabon, Cameroon and Equatorial Guinea are expected to suffer as well. A 2.2 percent drop of the GDP is anticipated in the Democratic Republic of Congo, owing to the fall of copper and cobalt exports which account for 90% of total export earnings, alongside with oil and other minerals. A similar shocked is anticipated in Zambia. South Africa, the second economy of the continent after Nigeria, should face a likely contraction of its GDP ranging between – 0.8 percent and −8 percent.
The UN warns that 29 million Africans could be pushed into extreme poverty, reversing a decades long decline. Some fear the health crisis will spark security crises across the continent, foreshadowed by recent deadly crackdown in Kenya from police enforcing a curfew. In addition, Africa could experience reduced foreign direct investment flows since partners from other continents are redirecting capital locally. Travel bans and lockdowns are limiting crossborder movements. The knock-on effects for the public sector could be severe, in terms of reduced tax revenues, limitations on access to hard currency and rising deficits.

In the Horn of Africa, the damaging impact of the Covid 19 crisis coincides with the worst invasion of locusts since generations. The UN says that 20.2 million people are facing severe acute food insecurity.The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) warned that in Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Kanya, Djibouti, Eritrea, Tanzania, South Sudan and Uganda, the formation of new locust swarms “represents an unprecedented threat to food security and livelihoods because it coincides with the beginning of the long rains and the planting season have invaded the region.”
According to the FAO, the destruction caused by billions of desert locusts, some in swarms which have the size of Moscow, could have a devastating impact since “the vast majority of the population depend on agriculture for their livelihoods (80 percent in Ethiopia and 75 percent in Kenya). Besides, lockdowns to combat the coronavirus are hampering efforts to exterminate the locusts. In Uganda, authorities were unable to import enough pesticides from Japan, as the pandemics disrupted cargo shipments. The lockdown imposed in South Africa made it difficult to secure the helicopters for locust surveillance.

In such context, the fear is that repayments of the external debt which amounted to $ 365 bn by 2018 could bring Africa’s economy to its knees. In his Easter address, pope Francis called for the cancellation of the debt of poor countries. On the following day, the French President, Emmanuel Macron, made a similar plea, stressing that one third of Africa’s exports revenues goes to the debt service repayment, which he called a “crazy” situation. The message was partly heard; on the 13 April the International Monetary Fund announced an immediate debt relief of $ 500 m. for 25 poor countries (Afghanistan, Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Gambia, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, Haiti, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, São Tomé and Principe, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Tadjikistan, Togo and Yemen). “This provides grants to our poorest and most vulnerable members to cover their IMF debt obligations for an initial phase over the next six months and will help them channel more of their scarce financial resources towards vital emergency medical and other relief efforts”, said the IMF managing director Kristalina Georgieva.
The initiatives followed an earlier call from the African finance ministers on the 1 April for such debt relief measures.

On the 15 April, G-20 countries agreed to freeze payments on bilateral loans to poor countries until end 2020. The French President called the measure a “world first”. Yet, this freeze is not the write off some would have expected. One of Africa’s main creditors, China which holds 20 percent of the continental debt, while financial institutions and the private sector hold 32 percent and 30 percent respectively, had a reserved response. The Chinese Foreign Ministry argued that “the origin of Africa’s debt problem is complex and the debt profile of each country varies” but it understood “that some countries and international organizations have called for debt relief programs for African countries”. Then, at the G-20 Meeting, the Chinese Finance Minister Liu Kun declared that “China supports the suspension of debt repayment by least developed countries and will make its necessary contributions to the consensus reached at G-20.”

Now, China is unlikely to engage itself on the path of total debt forgiveness, especially on concessional loans and commercial loans, which represent the majority of African debts owed to China. Rather than outright relief, postponement of loan payments, debt-restructuring and debt/equity swaps are more likely options. There are precedents. In the case of Ethiopia, in 2018, China agreed to a restructuring of debt, including a $4 billion loan for the Addis-Djibouti railway, extending the repayment terms by 20 years. But in Burma, China converted debts into the acquisition of equities in new dam projects.
Another option could be to forgive zero-interest loans. In 2018, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced forgiveness of all such loans for least-developed African Countries. But this kind of loan makes up only a small portion of Africa’s debt to China.
The Finance Minister of Benin, Romuald Wadagni thinks that the moratoriums on the servicing of the bilateral public debt of African countries or write-offs may indeed provide an immediate budget relief but risk to cause a deterioration of their perceived credit quality, which could impact their access to capital markets. While some experts fear that debt forgiveness may benefit corrupt elites, Paul Frix, the former head of the Belgian cooperation agency AGCD suggests that one of the ways to avert such risk would be to convert debt services into development project finance.

François Misser

Gaye Su Akyol. Dreamer of the Turkish Sound.

Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00

A mixture of Anatolian pop and oriental folk, gypsy resonances and western sounds. A committed voice denouncing the incoherences
of its land.

Anatolia is a peninsula that forms part of modern Turkey. What the ancient Romans called Asia Minor has been the cradle of a number of civilisations, from that of the Hittites to those of the Kurds and Armenians and the Ottoman civilisation of Suleiman the Magnificent.
It is a country with a large Moslem majority (97%, only 2% of which are Christian). Like most of Turkey, it is a complex land that maintains a troublesome and precarious balance between modern impulses and western trends, regurgitation of traditionalism and radical Islam.

The typical music of this land is Turku, an expressive genre derived from sung poetry which not infrequently echoes themes and protests with a social background. The main instrument is the saz, a long-necked lute also called ‘the Saracen guitar’, and it is still today the typical instrument of Turkish folk. Among the better known artists, including those outside the country, is Gaye Su Akyol, whom the reliable British newspaper The Observer has called the icon of the ‘new sound of Istanbul’; not to mention the Financial Times which labelled her ‘The Wonder Woman of Anatolia’, due also to her look that includes silver boots and a large golden cloak.

Gaye Su cleverly mixes the pop music of her native Anatolia with oriental folk, gypsy resonances and typically western sounds, more or less traceable to the rock sub-culture. Following the tendency common to many of her colleagues, Turks and non-Turk alike, Gaye Su is involved in making a watertight synthesis not only between East and West but also between modernity and tradition. All of this is enhanced by a very attentive sensitivity to the problems, tensions and unease of the present time that are even more inconsistent where she comes from. She is a female artist who, with her music, condemns the incoherencies of Turkey and the modern world.

“Many Anatolian centres are authentic cultural bridges”, she recently affirmed, and this is especially true in music circles, starting from the Hellenistic experience along the coasts of the old Ottoman Empire. “When I was young, I often used to travel around the country with my family and could see with my own eyes the exceptional anthropological diversity that characterises the Turkish world”. She takes as her guide a very clear premise: “Behind our traditions there is the breath of our forefathers which may be mixed with current ideas and thoughts.
I am still a dreamer and as such I always have within me a desire to change the world”.

Already with her debut album issued in 2014, she took social problems to heart with an anthropological approach that marked her cultural formation. Gaye is trying to make a reckless synthesis between Nirvana of Nevermind and the great masters of her land, from Selda Bagcan to Muzeyyen Senar. At the dawn of the twenties, she is a symbol of the new Turkey, a libertarian icon who continues to dream of a different future for her land and for her people.

Franz Coriasco

Zimbabwe. In search of the lost city.

Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00

Grand Zimbabwe is one of Africa’s largest and most complex archaeological sites. Its origins and decline are mysterious,
and we visited it.

The origins of Grand Zimbabwe – Dzimba-Dzemabwe in the Shona language: The Stone City – date back to 800 AD. That’s when, in the last great Bantu migration, Black African populations descended from what is present-day Zambia to the areas beyond the Zambezi River, settling in the plains at the foot of the eastern highlands, which is now south-eastern Zimbabwe. Previously, only the San ethnic populations (the Bushmen) inhabited the area.A small group of Bantu chose to settle in the ideal conditions along the banks of the Mutirikwe River. And their choice would prove to be accurate.

The water course was navigable. And it was a tributary of the Save river, for hundreds and hundreds of kilometers, served as the only river route that crossed the great Chimanimani mountain range – a natural barrier between the inland and the Indian Ocean coastline. It was along this water highway that Arab merchants based in Sofala reached the hinterland, encountering the Bantu peoples of Grand Zimbabwe and establishing a profitable trade network.
Towards the end of the ninth century, nearly twenty thousand people lived in the city, and hundreds of villages and communities revolved around what became an important centre for trade.

A Granite Heart
Grand Zimbabwe was built using square and locally hewn granite blocks from the surrounding hills and from the Matabeleland. These were cut and laid dry on top of each other. The oldest nucleus is now known as the Acropolis, located on the granite hill overlooking the esplanade. That’s where the the sovereign resided. Centuries later the large enclosure (now known as The Great Enclosure, or ‘Imba Huru’), the most famous complex in the city, was erected.

It consists of an elliptical enclosure of cyclopean walls, in the interior of which stands the famous Conical Tower, built in a shape resembling a truncated cone; it may have been a a symbol of fertility, reminiscent of a phallic form . Or it could have functioned as a granary. Visitors to the site can still notice decorative motifs on the upper parts of the walls, produced using the laying of the blocks and believed to represent the City’s social organization, the power of the sovereign, and an invocation for fertility.The older wives of the sovereign lived in Imba Huru, where religious ceremonies were also officiated.
The priests studied astronomy, as the stelae located within the enclosure, depicting various astral constellations, show.

Moreover, the very shape of the walls, their dimensions and their relations with the Pi, the constant used to calculate the area of a circle symbolized by Greek letter Pi, betray the priests possessed deep mathematical insights. Perhaps, the Arabs, who made regular visits to the settlement, transmitted this knowledge. Beyond the southern gate there is a third complex, known as “The Valley” and it consists of a series of stone houses, probably inhabited by dignitaries and priests.

A Mysterious End
The civilization thrived for more than five hundred years. Then, around 1500, it mysteriously disappeared within less than half a century. Nobody knows exactly why the inhabitants abandoned the site. A prolonged period of drought and famine, an epidemic, or an economic crisis linked to a decline of the gold trade could have been responsible, forcing the inhabitants to move away. Moreover, archaeologists suggest migrations from the north overwhelmed both the Grand Zimbabwe (and the empire it controlled) on several occasions. Today, only the ruins of the majestic civilization that once thrived in the region are visible. They are located just a few kilometers from Masvingo, down the valley, where the ‘Great Enclosure’ and its conical tower stand against the ‘Acropolis’.

Stone Symbols
Without realizing it, as you walk through the alleys and the steps you shift from the granite construction of the Hill to an area of masonry buildings, where terraces, steps, squares and ramparts merge. Here the natural and the artificial coexist in perfect harmony. That which existed before the City (the granite area) was not demolished, or cut, but the city itself was integrated with it. It is a metaphor for African culture, in which the old is a heritage to be preserved and not a burden to be discarded.

In Grand Zimbabwe, in the small museum at the foot of the Acropolis, visitors can observe seven of the eight so-called ‘Zimbabwe birds’ or ‘Zimbabwe hawks’, a series of stele carved in soapstone representing the howling eagle or the juggling hawk. Both are thought to link the world of the living with that of the ancestors. These were probably placed on the top of the Acropolis walls. Each of these commemorates a new ruler, and the image of the last hawk recurs in national iconography from the period when thr country was known as Rhodesia to the present. They appear on flags, banknotes, coats of arms and friezes. And the ruling political Party, Zanu-Pf, has adopted the conical tower, on whose sides two tall trees have grown, as a symbol.

Contested Origins
Adam Render, a German hunter, was the first European to discover the ruins of Grand Zimbabwe. He told his friend Karl Mauch, an explorer and geographer, and they visited the site together. They took credit for the discovery attributing the site’s origins to King Solomon. For a long time, it was believed that Phoenician populations, who managed to reach southern Africa, built Grand Zimbabwe.

Cecil John Rhodes was the first to understand the political significance of the ruins: attruibuting the erection of the City to black African populations would have falsified the notion that Africans were culturally inferior to whites. Thus, the Phoenician origin of the site would remain in vogue until 1905, when the archaeologist David Randall Maclver established, after careful study, that there were no signs of European or Near Eastern influence to be observed at Grand Zimbabwe.
However, the authenticity of the existence of a purely African medieval archaeological site was censored until the late 1970s. When Rhodesian archaeologist Peter Garlake definitively established Grand Zimbabwe’s African origins, he was forced into exile.
Weeks would fail to provide enough time to talk about the mysterious Lost City, whose thousands of corners and millenary walls seem to whisper history while the massive granite boulders appear to guard its secrets. In 1986, UNESCO included the archaeological site of Grand Zimbabwe in its list of World Heritage Sites. (S.T.)

A Polarized Policy.

Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00

The Moldovan political situation is extremely complicated. It reflects the clashes between the West and Russia, but also between internal power groups that escape the great logic of international relations.

In fact, it is self-centred interests that determine every balance, at the expense of the collective well-being, in the light of the significant influence played in politics by oligarchic groups linked to the media, energy, and finance.
The political climate that reigns in the country is that of a constant election campaign determined also by the fact that the presidency, parliament, local governments were all formed at different times, between 1989 and 1991, and the new elections at various levels, national and local, have never been coordinated. Therefore, the context made it difficult for the politicians who followed each other over the years to make bold choices, the effects of which would have been realised in the medium to long term.

The formation of the new state, which began in 1991 with the passage of customs and KGB bodies under the control of the Moldovan government, continued with the establishment of the national army and the initiation of extensive reforms in the cultural, economic, scientific and educational fields. Internationally, after consolidating its independence, the country joined the UN in 1992 and in 1994 joined both the NATO Partnership for Peace (in 1997 it would also join the Euro-Atlantic Partnership) and also the Community of Independent States (CIS). These years have also been strongly animated by the confrontation between political and thought groups that clamoured for unification with Romania, those who fought for independence from any other country whatsoever, and those who still wanted some form of reintegration with Russia and the other former socialist republics. These contrasting positions have strongly fuelled the undermining of the very delicate balances between the different linguistic communities present on the national territory.

The diverse logic that animated the politics of the new republic also manifested itself during the course of the most recent events. Last February the population returned to the polls to elect the new parliament confirming the country’s deep polarization between pro-Russian and pro-European. To the three parties, the spokesman for these occasions, the electorate had assigned more than 80% of the votes, namely: the Socialist Party (31.15%), ACUM (26.84%) and the Democratic Party (23.62%). After several months of negotiations for the formation of the new government, thanks to the consent of the President of the Republic, Igor Dodon (the representative of the socialist partnership), an agreement was reached between the filo-Russians and the filo-Europeans, the PS and ACUM. ACUM is a coalition made up of centre-right, Europeanist and anti-corruption parties, led by former World Bank consultant Maia Sandu. The new alliance, which had surprised many, also because of the strong political rivalry existing between Sandu of the ACUM Bloc and Igor Dodon, was formed with the aim of carrying out some important reforms, but essentially to exclude the oligarch Vlad Plahotniuc from power. He was the leading exponent of the Democratic Party, which had indirectly controlled Moldovan politics in previous years. Vladimir Plahotniuc, in this period a fugitive abroad due to an international arrest warrant in Moldova, is considered the most powerful man in the country, despite never having held government positions. He is a mysterious man, the origin of whose wealth is unknown, and even less his real nationality.

Former Prime Minister Maia Sandu.

The new government, led by Maia Sandu, received consensus from Brussels, Moscow and Washington on the international front, while internally it was called the ‘anti-oligarch government’. But, despite the climate of hope and renewal on which the new government was born, its term in office was really short, since in November 2019 it underwent a vote of no-confidence, thus inaugurating a new political crisis. The motion of no-confidence officially came following the lack of approval of the reform relating to the appointment of the attorney general.
However, according to some analysts, the real reasons should be sought in the result of the recent administrative elections which saw the socialist team triumph for the first time in the capital Chisinau – which, on the strength of this result, would have liked to review the government balance – but also in the new project of justice reform that the Sandu government was working on.

Prime Minister of the Republic of Moldova, Ion Chicu.

Regarding the reform of justice, the government’s aim was to create the conditions for dismantling the oligarchic system that had trapped state institutions in the hands of Plahotniuc over the past five years. A reform that, if it had been launched, could certainly have also harmed the Socialists.
A few days after the fall of the Sandu-led government, Parliament voted confidence in a new government in which the alliance between Socialists and Democrats was reconstituted. The current executive, which was presented as a technical executive, is led by Ion Chicu, a former finance minister in a government led by Pavel Filip, current PDM leader, and recently a close adviser to Dodon. This constitutes a mixture useful for shoring up the oligarchic system. (F.R.)

The Fox, the Monkey, the Hare and the Horse.

Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00

The fox is the wicked animal in the forest, and everyone hates him. He is for ever cheating people and playing tricks on everyone. There is not a single animal in the whole neighbourhood who has not been fooled by him, but for a long time no one could think of a way
to get their revenge.

One day a monkey in the forest seated himself on a tree and thought and thought. He thought so hard that his forehead became a mass of wrinkles. Finally he thought of a plan. Bursting with it, he turned a somersault down to the ground to tell the hare, who lived in a grass-lined form under the tree. He told her his idea, but the hare only blinked in distrust. “Come on,” said the monkey, “I’ll show you. I’ll go to the fox and you go to the rise over there and watch.”

When the monkey found the fox, they got into conversation. “Brother Fox!” he said. “Do you know what is the best food in the world?” The fox pricked up his ears at the idea of food. “What is it?” he said eagerly. “The best food in the world! Now that is a very interesting question! Tell me!”

“I’ve only learned about it today,” answered the monkey. “It is the flesh on the rump of a horse. The only difficulty is to get hold of it, and to do that you must fasten your tail tightly to the horse’s tail.” “Why do you have to do that?” said the fox, rather worried.

“You have to, and you have to tie it very tight,” answered the monkey. “Otherwise, when the horse starts to run, you can’t keep up with him!”
The monkey dropped his voice and came closer.
“I can tell you, as I was coming along I saw the horse lying down, fast asleep. Now’s your chance!”

The fox listened with great interest to what the monkey had to say but showed no emotion. “I’ll think about it,” he said quietly. “A thing like the best food in the world needs a lot of consideration. We must meet again later and have another chat. For the time being, you’d better not tell anybody about it, don’t you think?” He flourished his long tail and strolled off. The monkey also departed. The fox only went a little way, until he saw the monkey had disappeared, then he quietly returned to look for the horse which the monkey had mentioned.

He did not take long to find the horse, lying on his side fast asleep after his day’s work, as the monkey had said. The fox crept over and stealthily tied his tail to the horse’s tail. Then he took a good bite at the horse’s rump. The horse woke up in a terrible fright; he jumped up, not knowing what was happening and galloped off, never looking round.

Of course the fox’s grip with his jaw was loosened and he was dragged along on his back, with his tail still tightly fastened to the horse. “Oh!” he yelled. “How painful this is!”
He was very unhappy, and did not know which part he should try to protect first, his flesh, his skin, or his pretty tail.

The monkey had not gone far. He had just climbed up a tree to watch. He was so amused by the comic scene as the fox was being pulled along by the horse that he clapped his hands and jumped, missed his footing and fell down smack on his bottom, making it all red. The hare, watching from the rise, laughed so much that she split her lip.

That is why up to the present the monkey’s bottom is always red; the hare has a split upper lip; the horse is afraid to lie down to sleep and lies down only for a short time when he is very tired, and the fox’s back is always marked with spots and blemishes.

Folktale from Han People. China

Erdogan plays the whole field. Trouble for the EU.

Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00

The Turkish President sides with NATO but flirts with Moscow and uses Syrian refugees and the spectre of Jihadism to blackmail Brussels. Libya, too, is going it alone.

Diplomatic relations between the European Union and Turkey are still sailing in troubles waters. One of the main points of disagreement concerns the refugees sojourning on Turkish soil. Their numbers have increased after the growth of the armed conflict around the city of Idlib, in the north-west of Syria. It is a serious battle between the government army, supported by Russia and Iran, and the armed groups made up mostly of Jihadists who are militarily supported by Turkey.

Recently, Turkey has recommenced blackmailing the EU, playing the refugee card. Turkish President had already done this in 2016, when he encouraged hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Syria to cross the Turkish frontier and enter Europe. This causes a deep political crisis in many EU countries that was exploited by groups of the xenophobic right who achieved widespread electoral success. On that occasion, Turkey succeeded in obtaining from Brussels responsibility for managing the problem of refugees within its borders. Erdogan received six billion Euro to close the border but the Turkish President insists he received only part of that sum. He is again on the attack, threatening to send the displaced people in the province of Idlib into Europe: for now they include 3.6 million Syrians, 170,000 Afghans and 142,000 Iraqis, according to Turkish authorities.

Ankara demands that the EU provide the finance to manage the refugees and military support to the government of Syria to retake Idlib. However, both the EU and NATO are reluctant to collaborate with the Turkish government, especially because it has moved closer to Russia.

The Turks have bought the Russian S – 400 air-defence and anti-missile system and signed an accord with Moscow for a Turk stream gas pipeline. Now they are seeking support from NATO. The European finance ministers do not trust Erdogan but are forced to negotiate. They know that the unpredictable “sultan” is capable of flooding the cities with Jihadists fleeing from Idlib…

There are also differences between Turkey and the EU regarding the Libyan crisis. The EU disapproves of the deployment of Turkish military troops in Tripoli in support of the government of Fayez al-Sarraj. And France, an important member of the EU, supports General Khalifa Haftar, who controls a large part of Libyan territory and the oil wells. Europa has strongly criticised the accord between Ankara and Tripoli on the question of the maritime borders in the eastern Mediterranean, a zone rich in hydrocarbons. Cyprus, Greece and Israel also oppose it.

Nevertheless, the Turkish government is succeeding in keeping them all on a lead. NATO wishes to avoid a break with Turkey fearing it may definitively move into the Russian and Chinese camp. If the EU wishes to resolve the question, it will have to review its foreign policy regarding the Middle East, hitherto based on colonial thinking, and open channels of dialogue with all the countries of the region – Syria first of all –, based upon respect for their independence and sovereignty. Only by doing so can they outflank the colonial ambitions of Erdogan and put an end to his blackmail.

Mostafa El Ayoubi

DR.Congo. A new tension area at the Zambian border.

Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00

The DRC which has faced frequently problems at its borders with several of its neighbours has clashed recently with Zambia. Both capitals have eventually managed to control the escalation. But these tensions come on top of other challenges for the country’s strategic copperbelt area, which was hit by an insurgency and by the coronavirus pandemics.

A border dispute has provoked clashes during a week during the second half of March 2020 between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia. All started when Zambian soldiers invaded the village of Kibanwa, on the shores of Lake Tanganyika; near the common border inside the Congolese Tanganyika province and planted the Zambian flag there and took the Congolese one away.

Zambia. Lake Tanganyika.

According to European diplomatic sources, the Congolese military killed two Zambian Navy soldiers who had taken control of the village on the 15 March. On the following day, Zambian Airforce helicopters retaliated, killing two Congolese soldiers, reported Agency France Press, quoting diplomats. Accordingly, the incidents occurred after that the population began leaving Kibanwa on the 13 March. The Zambian soldiers were chasing Congolese fishermen who, according to the Lusaka authorities, violated Zambian territorial waters and used prohibited nets. Zambian troops remain about a week in Kibanwa, say DRC officials.
Similar incidents between both armies occurred already in 2006 and 2016, report diplomatic sources. According to the Congolese Minister of Defence, Aimé Ngoy Mukena, the dispute goes back to the colonial period and the problem of the delineation of boundaries was discussed several times between the late Presidents Mobutu Sese Seko of the former Zaire and Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.
In fact, the Anglo-Belgian Treaty signed between Belgium and the United Kingdom in 1894 has been interpreted differently by both colonial powers. Indeed, British maps show the boundary meeting at Cape Pungu (Chitankwa) whilst Belgian maps of 1955 show the meeting point at Cape Kipimbi, which is far south of Cape Pungu, and thereby cutting deep into assumed Northern Rhodesian territory. Like today for the Congolese, Belgium interests in the North appeared to be fishing. At that time a fisheries agreement was made between Northern Rhodesia and Belgium Congo which regulated the use of nets and fishing rights.

Other tensions occurred in 2014, after the death of two truckers at the Kasumbalesa border post between Zambia and the DRC. In January of that year, a Zambian truck driver, was shot dead by Congolese officials following a dispute over a bribe.
And at the beginning of February, a Zimbabwean truck driver was shot dead on the Zambian side of the border. Eventually, the tensions which followed the clashes between both armies in March 2020, were defused after a trip of the Congolese foreign minister Marie Ntumba Nzeza, to Lusaka on the 19 March 2020. Then, on the 25 March, President Felix Tshisekedi received in Kinshasa a Zambian delegation led by foreign minister Joseph Malanji who was escorted by his Defence colleague, Davies Clama and high ranking military officers. On the Congolese side Mrs Marie Ntumba and the chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) Gen. Célestin Mbala and the head of President Tshisekedi’s Military House, Augustin Mamba also attended the meeting. In the end, both sides agreed to settle the dispute peacefully. One of the options is to set up border markers to delineate precisely the limits of the respective national territories. The stakes are high. Both Zambia and Katanga, which is the economic locomotive of the DRC, as land locked countries have a vested interest in keeping a normal relationship. Both countries also plan to develop a huge hydropower scheme on the Luapula River which is part of the borderline between them. Besides, the DRC has had lots of border issues with other neighbours. The DRC which was invaded at the beginning of the millennium by the Rwandan and Ugandan armies, is currently waiting for the payment of compensations. On a number of occasions, it has also suffered incursions from Angolan troops. In other words, Kinshasa’s rag tag army cannot afford another conflict.

Gedeon Kyungu, leader of regional separatist group, Bakata Katanga.

Moreover, these tensions occurred at a very bad moment for the DRC. Indeed, the Katanga region is in turmoil. On the 28 March, DRC security forces killed 48 militia men of the warlord Gedeon Kyungu’s Bakata Katanga group who launched attacks against the capital of the Congolese copper belt Lubumbashi, the mining city of Likasi, the border post of Kasumbalesa and the city of Pweto, in the area where the recent fighting with the Zambian military took place.
The situation is complicated. Gedeon who was under house arrest and who has been sentenced to death for war crimes and crimes against humanity, managed to escape on the 12 March. People in Lubumbashi believe he sought refuge in the farm of a close friend of the former President Joseph Kabila, General John Numbi who is also on the EU and US sanctions lists for his alleged responsibility in the murder of the human rights activist, Floribert Chebeya, in Kinshasa in 2020.

Kasumbalesa Border Post between Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

At the same time, the Congolese copper belt, which is the locomotive of the Congolese economy is already facing the consequences of the coronavirus crisis. The copper and cobalt produced in the area contributes 80 percent of the DRC total export value and the DRC accounts also for 60% of the world cobalt production. But this contribution is already threatening to decrease. At the end of March 2020 following the decrease of the Chinese demand triggered by the faltering downstream demand from the electric vehicle and consumer electronics sectors and in order to prevent the dissemination of the virus, the mining industry took a number of measures to protect its staff and scale down its production. In the Lualaba province, Glencore’s Kamoto Copper Company repatriated 26 expatriates while China Molybdennum’s subsidiary, Tenke Fungurume Mining (TFM) announced the confinement of its installations.

Zambian President Edgar Lungu.

In addition, contradictory signals were given by Zambia concerning the opening of the border. In a letter sent the 24 March, the permanent secretary of the Zambian transport authority, Misheck Lungu, suggests to the government that it should suspend all cross-border traffic with the exception of essential commodities such as food, fuel and health-related products. But on the following day, in his national address, President Edgar Lungu said that the government would not close its borders because it would weaken the economy.
Since Zambia is landlocked; “with a crisis of this magnitude, we shall find ourselves under forced lockdown if all our neighbours close their borders. This situation would make us economically vulnerable and weaker”, he warned.
Despite President Lungu’s statement, incidents at the border cannot be ruled out. On the 26 March, hundreds of trucks from the Southern Africa Development Community were stuck on the Zambian side of the Kasumbalesa border post following the detection of two suspected cases of Coronavirus in Lubumbashi and the closure of the border for two days. Eventually, the traffic resumed but the climate of concern and panic on both sides of the border can generate anytime stricter controls, traffic jams or new border closures. In other words, stability is a fragile commodity in this area.

François Misser

African Military spending up 17% over the last decade.

Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00

Over the last ten years, African military spending grew by 17%, rising to $41.2 billion in 2019, according to new research from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which reports that last year the world recorded the largest annual growth in military spending since 2010, rising 3.6% from 2018 to $1.917 trillion.

At an estimated $41.2 billion, military expenditure in Africa accounted for 2.1% of the global total in 2019. The marginal growth in spending in 2019 was the first increase in African military expenditure for five years. Despite the annual decreases in 2015–18, increases in other years meant that total African military spending grew by 17% over the decade 2010–19, SIPRI said.

Military spending by countries in North Africa is estimated to have totalled $23.5 billion in 2019, representing 57% of the total for Africa. Amid long-standing tensions between Algeria and Morocco, domestic insurgencies and continuing civil war in Libya, military spending in the sub region was 4.6% higher than in 2018 and 67% higher than in 2010.
Algeria’s military expenditure of $10.3 billion in 2019 was the highest in North Africa (and Africa as a whole) and accounted for 44% of the sub regional total. Algeria’s military spending has risen almost continuously since 2000, and particularly in the period 2004–16, when expenditure grew for 13 consecutive years and reached an all-time high in 2016. At 6.0% of its GDP, Algeria’s military burden was the highest in Africa in 2019.Military spending in sub-Saharan Africa fell by 2.2% in 2019 to reach $17.7 billion, which was 15% lower than in 2010.
At $3.5 billion, South Africa’s military spending was the highest in sub-Saharan Africa in 2019. Its spending fell by 1.5% in 2019 — the fourth consecutive year of decrease. Nigeria was the second largest spender in the sub region in 2019: it allocated $1.9 billion to its military, down by 8.2% compared with 2018.

In recent years spending on the military by sub-Saharan African states has been volatile, SIPRI said. Of the 19 countries that increased military spending in 2019, eight decreased spending in 2018. Similarly, 13 of the 23 countries that lowered spending in 2019 had raised spending in 2018. This means that, overall, the trend in changes by 21 of the 42 countries in the sub region for which relevant data is available reversed in 2019.SIPRI said that armed conflict is a major driver for the volatile nature of military spending in sub-Saharan Africa.

For example, in the Sahel and Lake Chad region, where there are several ongoing armed conflicts, military spending increased in 2019 in Burkina Faso (22%), Cameroon (1.4%) and Mali (3.6%) but fell in Chad (–5.1%), Niger (–20%) and Nigeria (–8.2%). Among the Central African countries that were involved in armed conflict, military spending rose in 2019 in the Central African Republic (8.7%), the Democratic Republic of the Congo (16%) and Uganda (52%) but fell in Burundi (–4.5%). In the Horn of Africa, military spending decreased in 2019 in Ethiopia (–1.6%) and Kenya (–1.7%); however, their spending in 2019 remained well above that in 2010: Ethiopia’s was 12% higher while Kenya’s was 25% higher.

Global trends
SIPRI said the five largest spenders in 2019, which accounted for 62% of expenditure, were the United States, China, India, Russia and Saudi Arabia. This is the first time that two Asian states have featured among the top three military spenders.
Global military spending in 2019 represented 2.2% of the global gross domestic product (GDP), which equates to approximately $249 per person. “Global military expenditure was 7.2% higher in 2019 than it was in 2010, showing a trend that military spending growth has accelerated in recent years,” said Dr Nan Tian, SIPRI Researcher. “This is the highest level of spending since the 2008 global financial crisis and probably represents a peak in expenditure.”

Military spending by the United States grew by 5.3% to a total of $732 billion in 2019 and accounted for 38% of global military spending. The increase in US spending in 2019 alone was equivalent to the entirety of Germany’s military expenditure for that year.
“The recent growth in US military spending is largely based on a perceived return to competition between the great powers,” said Pieter D. Wezeman, Senior Researcher at SIPRI.

In 2019 China and India were, respectively, the second- and third-largest military spenders in the world. China’s military expenditure reached $261 billion in 2019, a 5.1% increase compared with 2018, while India’s grew by 6.8% to $71.1 billion. “India’s tensions and rivalry with both Pakistan and China are among the major drivers for its increased military spending,” said Siemon T. Wezeman, SIPRI Senior Researcher.In addition to China and India, Japan ($47.6 billion) and South Korea ($43.9 billion) were the largest military spenders in Asia and Oceania. Military expenditure in the region has risen every year since at least 1989. (D.N.)

Dangers of Secession.

Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00

The secessionist threat of the Gagauza community, which developed simultaneously with that of Transnistria, was resolved thanks to the recognition of an autonomy statute, subsequently contemplated in the 1994 Constitution (art.111 Cost.), and ratified by referendum in the territories concerned.

The same fate did not fall to Transnistria where a ‘dormant conflict’ continues. However, the harmony of Gagauzia with Russia has not changed at all over the years, as evidenced by the data recorded in the 2014 consultative referendum established to ask the inhabitants to choose between pursuing closeness to the European Union or maintaining the diplomatic primacy with Moscow, with 97% of the voters voting in favor of the latter.
Transnistria, with its 600 thousand inhabitants, is a tongue of land with an area of about 200 km and, despite its small size, it is part of a global geopolitical clash between Russian, Moldovan, Ukrainian, Romanian, European and US strategies. Following the declaration of independence, which occurred in 1990, Transnistria, or rather, Pridnestrovia, represents, in fact, a territory in itself with its own government, its flag, its capital Tiraspol, its Parliament, and a Central Bank that prints money; it manages its own health system, schools, public transport and its own pension system.

In the Soviet period, the region was the industrial area of Moldova. According to some analysts, the strong industrialization of the area is attributable to the far-sighted Soviet economic action aimed at strongly characterizing the individual areas of the Union to make them interdependent and, consequently, discourage any future independence aspirations. Its economy, which is mainly based on exports, is managed by a single large industrial group, Sheriff, headed by former KGB agents, which controls the media, construction companies, supermarkets, fuel distribution and the football team. The country is a producer of electrical energy, which is sold to Moldova, of agricultural products and parts for machinery destined for oil extraction, whose market is that of both the Russian Federation and Eastern Europe. It is also active in the processing of metals, fabrics and in the production of shoes. However, Russia continues to play an essential role in the country’s economy through indirect concessions and real subsidies.

The erosion that the USSR was undergoing during its dissolution, uncovered the ethnic powder keg of this area, thus detonating the contrasts between the various ethnic groups. A short-lived war followed, between March and July 1992, which killed about 1,500 people. In September of the same year, Transnistria officially declared the membership of this state in the USSR, as was the case with Gagauzia. The clashes resumed in December 1991 (in the same year Moldova also declared its independence) between the Moldovan police and the Transnistrian independenceist police. Ukrainian paramilitary groups and the men of the 14th army of the Russian army also took sides in support of the latter. The Moldovans, by contrast, received support from the Romanian forces. Despite the subsiding of hostilities, Russian troops remained established within the territory as a ‘peacekeeping force’ maintaining the garrison. Since then the conflict remained latent, reaping a considerable number of victims. Over the years, numerous and regular multilateral negotiations followed which also included the European Union and the United States as observers in the current 5 + 2 format (Moldova, Transnistria, Romania, Ukraine, Russian Federation, EU and the United States) aimed at the conflict’s resolution which, however, proved inconclusive. Moldova, for its part, claims the reintegration, de jure, of the region under its sovereignty, promising strong autonomy in exchange. But Transnistria claims the will to build its own independent state. The situation of conflict has favoured the proliferation of criminal activities, transforming the country into a crossroads for various illegal traffickings, as well as a safe haven for terrorists and criminals.

To understand the geopolitical importance of this strip of land, it is necessary to observe the balances of the whole area and in particular the expansion of NATO in the Black Sea area and in Eastern Europe, with Romania playing a crucial role. This, taking into account that, since 2016, a base has been operating in the city of Deveselu, furnished with the Aegis BMD weapon system, equipped with the US surface-air missile RIM-161 Standard SM-3 Block IB, with a range of 2,500 km that aims to identify, track and shoot down SRBM and MRBM meant to fly surveillance patrols over European airspace. It is clear therefore that for Moscow Transnistria represents an important stronghold to counterbalance the NATO presence in the area in order to recreate a geometric balance. In doing so, in addition to ensuring a military presence in the area, Moscow is implementing a process of Russification through various tools, including that of granting Russian citizenship to Transnistrian residents. This latter action was aimed at counterbalancing a similar policy practiced for years by Romania, which was designed to appeal to Moldovan citizens eager to obtain Romanian citizenship.

Turkey, another major regional player, is also extending its influence in the area by engaging in Gagauzia through investments, commercial exchange and cultural initiatives managed directly by the Turkish Coordination and Cooperation Agency (Tika): a government agency that finances infrastructure, energy and cultural projects in countries of strategic interest for Turkish foreign policy. In recent years in Gagauzia there has been a surge in investments by this institution, which has worked assiduously to build Turkish and Gagauzia language schools, hospitals, kindergartens, houses of culture and libraries, and to renovate roads, buildings and aqueducts. According to analysts, Erdogan’s goal behind these actions is to exploit the Turkic population present in the region, by attracting Gagauzia into its sphere of influence, and using it as a pressure lever with which to counterbalance the power of Moscow in Moldova and Ukraine.

Filippo Romeo

World Campaign. “Sowing Hope for the Planet”.

Friday, 1 May 2020 8:00

The Union of Superiors General of Catholic Religious Sisters launched the “Sowing Hope for the Planet” campaign two years ago. Sister Sheila Kinsey, its coordinator spoke to us about the project.

Sister Sheila, an American, has clear ideas. And she knows exactly what ‘interconnection’ means. She tells us: “The world is interconnected. The exploitation of the Earth is interconnected, the repercussions of ‘extractivism’ (that is the emptying of above and below ground mines) on people and its negative effects are interconnected”. But fortunately, “so is the ability to build a barrier to address exploitation. ”
Sr. Sheila Kinsey, who belongs to the Franciscan Sisters Daughters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary (FCJM), is the executive secretary of the Commission for Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) of the Union of Superiors General (USG) and International Union of Superior Generals (UISG).

She coordinates the “Sowing Hope for the Planet” World Campaign. A project which is open to all the sisters belonging to congregations associated with UISG, who “have the opportunity to make a difference in caring for the planet”. This project is the result of the collaboration between the JPIC Commission in the name of UISG and the World Catholic Movement for the Climate (MCMC).Sr. Sheila says: “The method is ‘the Theology of Doing’: it is not limited to spreading information, rather it tends toward taking action….A country like the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, is light years away from the Brazilian Amazon”.
But the “exploitation of the mines that takes place in both countries
is almost identical.”

“There is also a correlation between the exploitation of enslaved people and the looting of the land – Sister Sheila points out -. The destruction that land grabbing causes in the Brazilian Sertão, for example, is similar to what occurs in the Mozambican savannah. And both cases create slaves; because, taking land away from small farmers to hand it over to agri-business concerns generates poverty and the movement of people, who are forced out of their lands. ”
“We are all on the same boat, and distance has nothing to do with it; we can live thousands of miles away from each other but still endure the same abuse,” noted the Sister.
And that’s why it’s essential to come together and adopt comparable instruments (that is the connections, in fact) to those that big global businesses use when they exploit the Earth. “Multinationals are well aware of the analogies between different types of crops or soil and subsoil, between the climate of apparently distant areas, and between similar types of land, thus leading to similar types of exploitation.”

“It is up to us to anticipate and contrast them, by linking farmers, peoples, people from one place to another so that they can exchange [knowledge] and methods to resist.
It’s a strategy. Like the one against land grabbing in Mozambique, which has mobilized local and international civil society for years against the Pro-Savana, a government project that wanted to transform thousands of hectares of savannah into mega soybean cultivations along the lines of the Brazilian faziedas”, says Sr. Sheila.“When people talk about extractive industries, they usually refer to oil, gas and minerals, as well as the companies that extract these products. But logging and planting trees in forests must also be considered an extractive industry, because the dynamics of forest exploitation closely resemble oil, gas and mineral extraction ones…. Our job is to bring people together, their experiences with struggle to develop strategies and devise best practices. ”

All those who join the “Sow Hope for the Planet” Campaign can find tools online in the appropriate website, which allows users to exchange of information and hold live meetings. “God created the world and all that’s in it out of love. All of nature is but a window on God’s infinite creativity, fruitfulness and joy. We are called to rethink humanity’s place in the scheme of things – says Sister Sheila -. Our starting point must decentralize us from the goal of creation, refocusing it toward the custodianship of the Planet as a way to perceive the earth as our home”.

The campaign is in line with the Catholic Climate Movement, which has encouraged and achieved for all Catholic organizations to divest from fossil fuels. “Divestment is the opposite of investment, it implies the lifting of investment capital from stocks, bonds or funds. The divest-invest movement asks institutions to move their money away from oil, coal and gas companies, for moral and financial reasons, by encouraging reinvestment in clean energy companies that will help solve the climate crisis,” recalls Sr. Sheila
On 12 September last 15 Catholic institutions including the Episcopal Conference of the Philippines and Caritas agencies in Italy, Singapore, Australia and Norway announced their divestment from fossil fuels. Globally the divestment movement has reached a new milestone of $12.1 trillion in assets. Sister Sheila concludes: “The goal is to strengthen the network and force us to face our world, which is falling apart, and that we can help put back together again”. (M.F.A.)

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