Tag: pandemic

IRC: Women in Conflict Zones Under-tested for COVID-19

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Data collected by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) reveals mostly men are testing positive for COVID-19 in conflict-affected countries like Somalia, Pakistan, and Yemen. The figures released on Wednesday are fuelling concerns that COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, is spreading silently among women struggling to access already limited testing and treatment facilities in parts of the Middle East and Africa.

The IRC reports that in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Chad, and Central African Republic the disparities are particularly worrying, with over 70% of COVID-19 cases having been detected in men, and 30% or less in women. Those figures are in stark contrast to the ratio in Europe, for example, where it is roughly a 50/50 split between men and women. 

“This data suggests women are being under tested for COVID-19 in many places where the IRC works,” said IRC Senior Technical Advisor of Emergency Health Stacey Mearns. “Both men and women in conflict-affected countries experience great difficulty in accessing healthcare, but data shows women have a slimmer chance of seeing a doctor than men in countries such as Pakistan.”

Mearns says that in countries where the disparity is at play, women may not have the same freedom of movement as men but often perform caring roles and are front-line workers, placing them at equal or higher risk of contracting the highly contagious virus.

“The numbers do not add up. What we are seeing is a situation in which women are potentially being left out of testing and their health deprioritized,” Mearns argued in a June 24 press release. 

“There is a need for a major increase in testing for everyone in the countries where we work, but we must pay particular attention to ensure women are getting equal access to testing and health care.”

The United Nations has also warned that as with conflict situations, the COVID-19 pandemic is likely to deepen pre-existing inequalities between men and women and could undo limited gender equality gains made in recent years. 

“Across every sphere, from health to the economy, security to social protection, the impacts of COVID-19 are exacerbated for women and girls simply by virtue of their sex,” the UN said on April 9 when it released a policy brief detailing the impacts of COVID-19 on women.

In addition to unequal access to health care, women around the world have been subject to an alarming increase in domestic and family violence exacerbated by virus lockdowns, and data shows women have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19 job cuts.  

The IRC says it needs an additional $30 million to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and support for its efforts to improve female education and access to COVID-19 testing and treatment. 

Read also: Fighting Continues in South Yemen Despite Ceasefire

50,000 COVID-19 Cases in Egypt Amid Plans to Restart Tourism

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On Friday, June 19, Egypt passed the unfortunate milestone of recording more than 50,000 cases nationwide. The government reported 1,218 new cases on Thursday, June 18, after the country saw its largest daily increase yet when 1,677 cases and 62 deaths hit headlines on June 13. According to data reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) Egypt now has 50,437 cases and 1,938 deaths, with no sign of a flattening curve in infection rates.

Growing Epidemic

As the most populous country in the Middle East and North Africa, Egypt would logically record more cases than its smaller neighbors, but the continuous increase in cases is worrying experts. The Egyptian Medical Syndicate on Tuesday, June 16 reported that 68 Egyptian doctors have died of the coronavirus and 430 have contracted the virus, making up roughly 5-7% of all doctors.

According to Anadolu Agency, unofficial sources have claimed that a further 1,000 healthcare workers have caught the virus, leading to 180 deaths by Tuesday, June 16. At the end of May, the Guardian revealed that one of its reporters in Egypt, Ruth Michaelson, was forced to leave the country after reporting on a study that disputed Egypt’s official tally.

While Egypt initially designated a number of COVID-19 isolation hospitals for every citizen that showed even mild symptoms. The continual increase in new cases appears to have pushed the health ministry to now offer prescriptions that are delivered to patients’ homes as Egypt’s healthcare system struggles to cope with an influx in new cases.

Reopening tourism

On the same day that Egyptian health officials released news of the unfortunate new milestone, the Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Khaled al-Anany struck an altogether more positive tone. In an interview with Chinese outlet Xinhua, al-Anany stated that Egypt is “gearing up” to welcome foreign tourists.

Anany stated that Egypt “will reopen its airports and resorts in the provinces of Red Sea, South Sinai, and Matrouh to international tourists in an attempt to ease the anticipated recession on the tourism sector due to COVID-19 spread.” The three provinces where tourism will be allowed are all coastal provinces, where Egyptian officials have reported relatively low numbers of coronavirus infections.

“I have received official requests to resume tourist flows from Italy and Ukraine,” Anany told Xinhua, but tempered expectations by saying “we are not expecting a high number of tourists for the time being, not only in Egypt, but the whole world.”

Egypt’s reliance on income from its important tourism sector could force it to risk a premature reopening. Tourism in Egypt brought in $13 billion in 2019, which was an all-time record for the country.

Preventative measures

Several tourism-dependent countries around the world have offered a range of coronavirus-related measures to assuage potential tourists’ worries. The Cypriot Ministry of Tourism announced that any tourist that tests positive for COVID-19 infection on arrival in Cyprus will be provided with free treatment and no hotel expenses on the island. Campsites and hotels around Europe are also reopening as many countries slowly lift lockdowns.

The global pandemic has created an unprecedented situation for tourism around the Mediterranean as millions of Europeans will have had their original travel plans canceled and could soon be shopping for bargains. Meanwhile, traditional tourist destinations compete to offer visitors a safe way to enjoy the hot summer months.

For Egypt, this means improving hygiene standards and introducing a variety of preventative measures. “We are not in a hurry because we give priority to the safety of tourists as well as preserving our image as a tourist destination,” Tourism Minister Anany told Xinhua: Safety has become the new focus in international tourism.

“Hotels have ramped up hygiene, archaeological sites have been sanitized and beaches cleaned up,” Anany stated as Egypt’s seeks to reassure visitors. Whether Egypt’s ambitions toward restarting its vital tourism sector amid a growing epidemic will be successful remains to be seen.

For the many Egyptians who work in the industry, it is clear they would rather listen to their tourism minister’s optimism than despair over the increased numbers of infections reported by health officials.

MENA Region Faces Wave of Post-Lockdown Protests

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Citizens of several countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) have taken to the streets following the easing of COVID-19 measures. Citizens are demanding action from their governments after having adhered to painful lockdowns and curfews that brought severe economic hardship.

In Lebanon, Iraq, Syria, and Tunisia, large protests have emerged over the last week as citizens call upon government officials to ease their suffering. While COVID-19 fears begin to wane, a new focus on structural poverty and inefficient government is emerging across the region as protesters express their discontent.

Lebanon

The Lebanese military arrested dozens of protesters on Monday, June 15, for alleged acts of vandalism. Protesters expressed their frustration with skyrocketing inflation amid a spiraling currency crisis, while the indebted nation struggles to balance its debt obligations with popular demands for a significant increase in living conditions.

After nearly two months of empty streets, economic deprivation, and fear of the coronavirus, the Lebanese people have returned to the streets to protest the lack of solutions offered by the government of Hassan Diab. Banks and shops were attacked as Lebanese people grow more desperate, even as new sanctions on neighboring country Syria are likely to further damage Lebanon’s economy.

Iraq

Newly inaugurated prime minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi’s “honeymoon phase” in government has ended quickly as increasing austerity measures are sparking furious protests. Monthly pensions were hit by a drop in oil-revenue that is forcing the government to take unpopular measures. Nearly one million Iraqis depend on their pension each month and this month the $920 pension was more than $100 short, according to France24.

The Iraqi government has introduced several ambitious reform plans, but a dramatic fall in government revenue as a result of cratered oil prices and production cuts has meant introducing painful cuts to public sector salaries and pensions. Public sector employment has served as a method to appease Iraqis since the 2003 US invasion, but falling state oil revenues have now undermined this strategy.

Syria

Syria has seen few large protests since the 2011 pro-democracy protests that started a civil war. But protests again emerged over the rise in prices of basic necessities, a doubling in food prices and continued corruption in government. The city of Druze saw four days of intense protests as the Syrian Pound continues to fall dramatically in value.

The protesters are unlikely to see a swift resolution to their concerns as the “Caesar Act,” a new round of US sanctions targeting Syria, is set to heavily impact the last remaining economic activity that has sustained the country’s flailing economy. With an apparent consolidation of power ongoing in Damascus that has gone public, Bashar al-Assad’s regime is facing renewed pressure from all sides.

Tunisia

Protests have emerged in at least seven Tunisian cities, Reuters reported on Thursday, June 18. Unemployed and economically deprived people across the country protested what they considered government inaction in the face of a continued economic crisis. University graduates shouted “we need jobs” in Gafsa and hundreds protested in Hajeb el Ayoun and Sidi Bouzid.

The Tunisian tourism sector has suffered an unprecedented crisis after COVID-19 measures closed borders and shut the industry that provides 10% of state revenue. After a decade of high inflation and unemployment, Tunisians now call for an increased focus on jobs by protesting and even halting the country’s phosphate production through sit-ins.

A new era

The current protests across the MENA-region are likely only the beginning of popular unrest in the region, with global institutes like the IMF predicting that local economies will suffer from post-lockdown economic woes for some time to come. Protests against corruption and ineffective government appear to be supported by data, and the World Bank has called for greater transparency from MENA-governments.

As global oil prices continue to be volatile, supported by painful production cuts, revenue will likely remain impacted in many oil-dependent MENA-countries. With structural economic issues in many countries, unemployment and poverty are likely to worsen in the months ahead, as the region braces itself for a new era of popular discontent.

Fate of Oil Markets Relies on COVID-19 Containment

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Oil prices dipped again on Wednesday, June 17, as Arizona, Florida, and Texas reported record numbers of new COVID-19 cases. Many conservative states have seen an uptick in infections during their drive towards a rapid reopening of local economies with insufficient adherence to containment measures.

The worrying numbers caused oil prices to fall. Brent crude dropped $0.38, 0.9% of the total value, while American WTI oil fell $0.56 or 1.5% of its value. Oil markets had been optimistic over growing demand amid reopening economies, discounting the possibility of a second wave.

But US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci on June 16 stated that the United States had not yet left its first “wave.” “When I look at the TV and I see pictures of people congregating at bars when the location they are indicates they shouldn’t be doing that, that’s very risky,” Fauci said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Second wave

Countries like Tunisia and New Zealand had initially declared themselves coronavirus-free before having to revise expectations after detecting new local infections.

“We think the oil market is not currently pricing in a significant probability of either second waves of coronavirus cases in key consumers and the associated lockdowns, or anything less than a rapid return to economic business-as-usual,” analysts of Standard Chartered told Reuters.

In the midst of a stock market fueled by stimulus spending, in which bankruptcies have been essentially made impossible, oil markets are enjoying less of an artificial boost. The only methods that have helped alleviate prices somewhat are painful production cuts and the closing of wells.

OPEC

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) released its monthly report on June 17, predicting a gradual recovery in global demand for oil. OPEC credited much of its production cuts to the recent slight recovery in oil prices.

“The oil market was strongly supported by a reduction of the global crude oil surplus, thanks mainly to the historic voluntary production adjustment agreement,” OPEC stated in its report, released the same day participants in the OPEC+ production cuts are set to meet to review the impact of the move.

Although OPEC is cautiously optimistic, it still predicts that global oil demand will drop by 6.4 million barrels in the second half of 2020, with transportation and aviation fuels as the main laggards.

Syrians Brace for Looming Sanctions

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On June 17, the ‘Caesar Act’ will come into effect in the United States, with potentially devastating consequences for Syria’s economy. The act consists of a broad package of sanctions that would, in effect, make it illegal for most countries to do business with Syrian enterprises.

The Caeser act shares the pseudonym of a Syrian military photographer who smuggled thousands of photographs of Syrian torture out of the country, revealing the brutality of the Syrian regime’s practices against detainees.

However, the package of sanctions could have far-reaching consequences for Syria. The war-torn country’s economy is already suffering from hyperinflation that has caused food prices to rise by 50% in a single month.

“Prices of goods in Syria, including locally produced ones, are rising with the exchange rate,” Elizabeth Tsurkov, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute told the Guardian. “The inflation is so rapid that prices in the morning would be lower than in the evening,” she explained.

Looming sanctions

The already dire situation in Syria is about to get worse since the Caesar Act will effectively penalize any country that does business with any company in Syria.

While existing EU and US sanctions already target senior regime officials and aligned business interests, the US sanctions set to trigger on June 17 will target any country that trades with Syrian entities, effectively targeting Syria’s few remaining trade-partners in neighboring countries and with businesses in Europe and the Gulf states.

The largest impact of the sanctions will be felt both in Damascus and Beirut, as trade with Lebanon has been one of the few remaining lifelines on which Syria’s fragile economy depended. Both Lebanon and Syria are facing spiraling currency crises and  the US sanctions aim to exacerbate these troubles in order to weaken Iranian influence in the two countries.

Hezbollah’s role in Lebanon’s government and Iranian support for both countries have long been a thorn in the side of the US military and the US now aims to break business ties between the two countries and plunge both into a dire economic crisis.

Victims

However, the victims of sanctions are rarely the elite that they nominally target. Rising prices of basic essentials and food scarcity are inevitable, but the regime’s leadership will always have enough to eat. The sanctions hope to make the economic situation in Syria and Lebanon so dire that the starving people will rise up and hold the governments responsible.

In over a century of sanctions, they have never actually produced this result. Sanctions on apartheid south-Africa actually further impoverished the black population, according to the then prime-minister de Klerk. Cuba has been under crushing US sanctions since it’s communist revolution, but the sanctions actually allow the regime to blame the US for any economic issues.

In Syria, an already devastated country with its infrastructure in ruins is facing an economic crisis even without the new sanctions. Rising bread prices have sparked protests which were met with counter-protests by government supporters, who directly highlighted Western sanctions as the reason for the economic troubles.

Following a nine-year conflict, Syria has few resources left to rebuild. The US now attempts to once again spark a popular uprising and reduce the influence of Iran and Hezbollah. But, after the first uprising was crushed with little to no official western backing, how are Syrians supposed to topple al-Assad now?

95% of Incarcerated People Remain Locked-Up During Pandemic

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News about large scale prisoner-releases have made headlines during the COVID-19 pandemic. These acts of compassion have not led to an increase in crime, instead they have highlighted the problem of mass incarceration that existed long before the global health crisis.

Only 580,000 detainees have been authorized for release worldwide, according to Human Rights Watch. The figure represents only 5% of the world’s prisoners. Many release-orders have not been fully carried out, and releases are often temporary while governments continue to sentence more people to prison. Olivia Rope, of Penal Reform International (PRI) said in an online video-conference on the topic, “the global prison world was already in crisis before the pandemic hit us.”

The pre-crisis crisis

Between 2002 and 2018 the world’s prison population grew from 8 million to more than 11 million worldwide. The latest statistics represent the highest number ever, despite a global trend towards lower crime rates. The growth appears to be due to heavier sentences and a “tough on crime” approach that experts from a variety of NGOs say do not actually reduce crime.

Prisons are facing heavy overcrowding in over 124 countries. In 22 countries,  prisons are holding more than twice the number they are designed and funded for. Even before the threat of COVID-19, incarcerated people were twice as likely to die compared to those living on the outside.

One of the worst parts of the mass incarceration-crisis appears to be that over a quarter of the 11 million incarcerated people have not even been convicted of a crime, instead they are awaiting their court date in prison, exposing them to the risk of COVID-19 infections and a host of other issues.

Out of the global prison population, half are serving sentences for non-violent offenses, over half a million are imprisoned for small-scale drug possession, and two million people are imprisoned because of the “war on drugs.”

COVID-19 in prisons

Government data indicates that 62,000 people in prisons are infected with COVID-19 worldwide, with over 1,000 deaths. But, according to PRI, this number represents only the “tip of the ice-berg,” as government’s are reluctant to share data and COVID-19 testing is extremely limited in prisons.

For many incarcerated people around the world, the COVID-19 crisis is life-threatening even without the risk of infection. The barring of family visits is often the first measure taken, while in many countries prisoners rely on these visits to receive basic necessities, including even food.

Because of the extremely overcrowded facilities both the incarcerated population and prison staff are at risk of infection. Social distancing and other WHO recommendations are impossible to uphold in prisons and drug-detention facilities that are cramped and often don’t even have access to clean drinking water, let alone soap or masks.

Easing the problem

The solution to the problem is obvious, easy to implement and would help reduce crime while saving costs for governments. Organizations like PRI, the Transnational Institute, and the International Drug Policy Consortium offer clear paths to “decarceration.”

The flow of people sentenced to prison could be stemmed by reducing ineffectively high sentences for drug-offenses, poverty-driven petty crime, and non-violent offenses. For already incarcerated people, release-mechanisms could accelerate the pace of release for those people that are older, non-violent and those who have received punitive sentences for drug-related crimes.

According to experts, locking people up does not deter crime, and putting 3 million people in prison before they have been proven guilty means unnecessarily risking the health and well-being of incarcerated people and their families.

The threat of COVID-19 has revealed that millions of people worldwide are unnecessarily having their freedom taken away, halting their ability to contribute to society and their communities. In order to protect prison staff, incarcerated people and society as a whole, mass incarceration is doing more harm than good, while the offered solution means lower costs for governments and less crime.

Billionaires Profit as Working People Starve

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In the three months since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, US billionaires have become $565 billion richer, while 43 million Americans have lost their jobs, a report by the Institute for Policy Studies has revealed. The report reflects a vast disconnect between the world’s richest and everyone else.

Far from being just a US problem, the world’s billionaires have profited from trillions of dollars in tax-payer funded stimulus, meaning the poor and working classes are literally paying for the success of the wealthy. Politicians have justified stimulus for stock markets as a way to ensure citizens would not lose their jobs, but the opposite has happened.

No crisis for billionaires

Tens of millions of people in the US alone have lost their jobs, and, after the crisis, they will be asked to pay for the stock-market stimulus through increased taxes or reduced public spending.

The colossal transfer of wealth directly from the poor and working-classes to the rich that has occurred over the last months has not been an exception, but the rule over recent decades.

Because billionaires do not work for their money but instead profit from investments, they pay minimal taxes over their income, often paying less in taxes relatively than a shopkeeper, office worker, or taxi driver would.

Multi-billionaire Warren Buffet highlighted this problem when he revealed that his secretary pays more of her income into taxes than he does.

Global concentration of wealth

The concentration of wealth in the hands of a select few is a global problem. According to the EU, 70% of the world’s population owns only 3% of the world’s wealth. In 2018 alone, billionaires’ wealth increased by 12%, or $2.5 billion a day, while the poorest people’s combined wealth actually declined by 11%.

The decades of supply-side economics have literally taken money from the poor and given it directly to the rich.

Over the past three decades the world’s richest have become 300% richer while the world’s poorest saw no increase in wealth whatsoever. If our current trend continues, by 2050 the world’s richest 0.1% of the population will own more wealth than all working people on earth.

Middle-Eastern fortunes

In the Middle East and North Africa, the concentration of wealth is harder to measure as fortunes are more opaque and often hidden in foreign bank accounts or real-estate. Forbes magazine compiles an annual list of the world’s richest that reveals some of the vast wealth held by a few in the region.

In Israel, 9 individuals hold $28.6 billion in private wealth, Egypt’s 11 billionaires have $15.4 billion, and the UAE has 11 billionaires worth a combined $24.7 billion. Turkey has the most egregious concentration of wealth, with 22 people hoarding $37.1 billion of wealth. Like the United States the ultra-rich in the MENA barely pay taxes, meaning they are literally taking from the poor.

Stark contrast

The fortunes of the world’s moneyed elite stand in stark contrast with the fate of the poor. The UN announced that thousands are likely to suffer and die in Yemen, after 30 nations together failed to raise $2.4 billion required to fund COVID-19 and basics like food and water. The UN has warned of an approaching famine of “biblical proportions.”

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization and the World Food Program in Yemen have had to halve the food rations they give to starving people due to lack of funds. The total bill to save thousands in Yemen is $2.4 billion, which is less than 7% of the money Amazon-owner Jeff Bezos’ has made since March 18 this year.

The contrast between the vast fortunes of the rich and the terrible plight of the poor reveals that our world appears to have returned to a state of feudal lords and working peasants. While it might not be immoral to be tremendously rich, doing so while your neighbors suffer and starve defies human morality and basic compassion.

Kuwait Announces Ambitions to Decrease Reliance on Migrant Workers

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Kuwaiti Prime Minister Sabah Al-Khalid Al-Sabah has announced that the country will aim to drastically change the country’s demographics in the coming years. The prime minister, who assumed the position as an appointee in November 2019, said “we have a future challenge to redress this imbalance,” referring to the country’s large population of foreign workers.

Migrants in Kuwait

Kuwait currently hosts millions of expatriates, making up 70% of a total population of over 4.5 million. The country has announced similar plans before, deporting thousands since 2016, but continues to depend heavily on cheap foreign laborers that benefit from the country’s low tax rate to save or send remittances home.

Migrant workers in Kuwait mainly perform low-skilled labor in occupations that Kuwaitis themselves avoid. Domestic help, construction, and lower-level public sector jobs have been filled by nationals from other Middle Eastern states and Asia more broadly.

Kuwait has previously considered imposing quota systems on immigration and is now proposing similar ideas, but the small native population would be hard-pressed to fill the gap left by the departure of millions.

Pandemic reveals risks

Poor living conditions and housing for unskilled laborers has become a major source of risk for Kuwait and many other Gulf states. While the country implemented COVID-19 measures early and general adherence was maintained, the migrant population in most Gulf countries allowed the virus to spread because of the cramped conditions of expatriate housing.

For Kuwait, the crisis appears to have renewed a drive to reduce its expatriate population and work toward a state of self-reliance. Like many Gulf states, Kuwait is facing increased tensions due to protests from foreign workers packed together in COVID-19 containment camps, and has seen a worrying rise in xenophobia towards migrants.

As the concept of shrinking populations is becoming more common in highly developed economies such as Japan and several European states, Kuwait’s plans would produce a unique experiment in rapid population decline.

Growing tensions

Kuwait has faced a challenge for years in how it could to reduce its population while continuing to grow its GDP and further develop the state.

Migrants who contributed to Kuwait’s development could suffer if it indeed “purifies the country,” as Kuwaiti parliamentarian Safaa Al-Hashem phrased it in Kuwait City-based newspaper Al Qabas.

Kuwaiti actress Hayat al-Fahad told a local television channel that immigrants who tested positive for COVID-19 should be “put in the desert” in order to save hospital beds for nationals while journalist Mubarak Albugaily called Egyptians workers in Kuwait a “burden on the state” in a public call for mass deportation.

Future growth

If the state of Kuwait is to find a solution to its dilemma of producing growth with a shrunken population, its officials could benefit from a cooling of tempers regarding immigrants.

If Kuwaiti officials and public figures continue to accuse migrants of exploiting the system, and migrants continue to live under poor conditions, the country might get its wish prematurely.

By prioritizing a deportation process and quota system that provides non-coercive incentives for departure and a recognition of foreign workers’ human rights, Kuwait could slowly wean itself of its reliance on migrant workers. However, the question of what would replace the labor of millions remains.

The country could copy strategies employed by Japan where automation, digital innovation, and the use of artificial intelligence are rapidly replacing low-skilled work. But getting to that point would require much time and work, during which foreign workers would remain an important part of Kuwait’s economy.

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