LONDON: The United Kingdom and the European Union condemned the decision to sentence publishing tycoon Jimmy Lai and multiple pro-democracy figures to prison for their roles in the 2019 mass protests that rocked the city for a year.
As many as 10 prominent pro-democracy figures were sentenced on Friday in Hong Kong in two separate cases for their peaceful involvement in protests.
Those sentenced are Martin Lee, Albert Ho, Jimmy Lai, Margaret Ng, Cyd Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan, Leung Kwok-hung, Au Nok-hin, Leung Yiu-chung, and Yeung Sum.
Their sentences range from terms of imprisonment between 8 and 18 months, and suspended prison sentences from 8 to 12 months in five of the cases. These latest decisions follow the sentencing of Joshua Wong and Sze-yiu Koo on 13 April.
UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab in a tweet on Friday called for the targetting of pro-democracy demonstrators to stop by China.
“The Hong Kong authorities’ decision to target leading pro-democracy figures for prosecution must stop. We will continue to stand together with the people of Hong Kong,” Raab wrote in a tweet.
The UK Foreign Office on Friday said in a statement that the “right to peaceful protest is fundamental to Hong Kong’s way of life – protected in both the Joint Declaration and the Basic Law – and it should be upheld.”
The European Union on Friday said that the recent developments in Hong Kong call into question China’s will to uphold its international commitments, undermine trust, and impact EU-China relations.
“The lengthy imprisonment of some of the individuals for non-violent acts when exercising protected civic rights is a further sign of the continued diminution of the democratic space and erosion of fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong,” the spokesperson from the bloc said in a statement.
“The exercise of fundamental freedoms, including peaceful assembly, must be ensured, as guaranteed in the Hong Kong Basic Law and in the Sino-British Joint Declaration,” the spokesperson said.
This comes after US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a statement on Friday (local time) said: “The seven pro-democracy leaders – Martin Lee, Jimmy Lai, Albert Ho, Margaret Ng, Cyd Ho, Lee Cheuk-yan, and Leung Kwok-hung – participated in a peaceful assembly attended by 1.7 million Hong Kongers… The sentences handed down are incompatible with the non-violent nature of their actions.”
The US State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Thursday had condemned the conviction of seven activists who took part in anti-government protests in Hong Kong by the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities.
This subversion was made a criminally punishable offence in Hong Kong last year, under the Beijing-drafted national security law.
Meanwhile, Beijing believes the legislation criminalises activities related to terrorism, separatism, subversion of state power and collusion with foreign forces, while local pro-democracy activists and certain Western nations claim that the law undermines Hong Kong’s civil liberties and democratic freedoms.
Beijing was perturbed by violent anti-government protests in 2019 and has imposed the draconian national security law to take action against those who protested against the government.
UK, EU condemn sentencing of Jimmy Lai, other Hong Kong pro-democracy activists
EU poised to unveil green-friendly investment list
By Monitoring Desk
Brussels: The European Commission will next week present the first part of a “green taxonomy” list of energy sources and technology to be labelled as sustainable investments, but a question mark hangs over the inclusion of natural gas.
The classification system, to be published on Wednesday, is mandated under a 2019 agreement between member states and the European Parliament meant to define durable economic activities and green finance.
It seeks to define what the EU would deem as sustainable as it moves towards a goal of Europe becoming carbon-neutral by 2050, with criteria focusing on mitigating climate change or preparing for it.
The EU’s “sustainable finance taxonomy” is a long list of economic activities and the rules they must meet to be labelled as sustainable investments in the EU from next year.
The landmark regulation aims to make green activities more visible and attractive to investors, and ensure that a sustainable investment label is only given to economic activities that comply with EU targets to slash greenhouse gas emissions.
A second commission proposal is to follow later this year covering four other subjects — protection of water and marine resources, the circular economy, preventing pollution and biodiversity — all part of the EU´s “Green Deal” to reach that ambition.
For an investment to be considered “green” it has to meet one of these objectives without hurting any of the others.
The proposal is to become a “delegated act”, meaning it becomes law unless member states or the European Parliament reject it.
But a leak of the commission´s taxonomy list last month raised an outcry from NGOs, experts and MEPs, in particular over the inclusion of gas as a partially sustainable energy source.
Nine experts the commission consulted threatened to break off cooperation over the perceived “greenwashing”, according to a letter sent to the commission and seen by AFP.
The commission plan, according to the leak, is to have gas-fuelled power stations labelled as “green” as transitional facilities up to 2025 where they replace ones using coal.
One of the experts signing the letter, Sebastien Godinot, economist at the environmental protection NGO WWF, said that would give a “blank cheque” to gas operators and risk a long-term dependence on fossil fuels.
“This proposal could potentially create a direct incentive to build even more gas co-generation plants than already planned”, Godinot warned.
A Green MEP from the Netherlands, Bas Eickhout said: “A gas-fired power plant built now is there to stay for 40 years. So brings you way over the 2050 deadline.”
As a result, “we are going to object” to the commission proposal, based on the version leaked in March, Eickhout said.
Several sources said that the governments of Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg and Spain had written a joint letter to the commission to voice their objection to including gas in the taxonomy.
Godinot noted that, while natural gas releases less carbon dioxide than coal, it also emits methane, considered a worse greenhouse emission.
Other points of discord are the commission´s approach to forestries and logging, seen by some as not rigorous enough, and it automatically classifying bioenergy as durable even when the biomass it uses comes from dedicated farmland.
A French news website, Contexte, said on Thursday that the commission has been forced to revise its document and could revert to an ordinary legislative process that would be much longer.
The commission did not confirm that. An EU source said the text it is to present is “still in development” and stressed how technical it was.
“Right now, we´re talking about a general approach to gas. Further analyses are needed,” the source said.
By cutting out gas and nuclear, the Commission aims to win EU countries’ approval for the rules. But the sectors of forestry and bioenergy have also proved contentious, with nine of the Commission’s expert advisers threatening to resign over its proposals for those sectors and gas, which they said would discredit Europe’s climate policies.
To earn a sustainable label, an activity must make substantial contribution to one of six environmental aims and not impede the other five.
The draft rules cover two of those six aims – fighting climate change, and adapting to its impacts.
EU electric-vehicle push short-circuits
BRUSSELS — In line with its ambition to make Europe a greener place, the European Union wants to drastically reduce gas emissions from transport by 2050 and promote electric cars. But according to a report from the bloc’s external auditor, it is lacking the appropriate charging stations.
“Last year, one in every ten cars sold in the EU was electrically chargeable, but charging infrastructure is unevenly accessible across the EU,” said Ladislav Balko, the member of the European Court of Auditors in charge of the report published last week.
“We think that the Commission should do more to support EU-wide network coverage, and ensure that funding goes where it is most needed.”
Transport accounts for about 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the EU. The bloc has set itself the goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions from transport by 90 % compared with 1990 levels as part of its effort to become climate-neutral by mid-century.
Noting that an essential part of this strategy is the switch to lower-carbon fuels and electricity, auditors said it’s now crucial to speed up the deployment of charging infrastructure “to promote breakthrough in electro-mobility.” Auditors acknowledged that the charging network is growing across the region, but said its deployment remains uneven.
“The EU is still a long way from reaching its Green Deal target of on million charging points by 2025, and it lacks an overall strategic roadmap,” auditors said. According to EU figures, there are currently 224,538 charging points across the 27-country region.
Among the major obstacles to electric travel across the bloc, they listed the discrepancies in the availability of charging stations and a lack of harmonized payment systems.
“In 2020, although there was an overall decline in new vehicle registrations due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the market share of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles increased significantly. Charging networks, however, are not developing at the same pace,” they said.
According to the report, carmakers forecast that the production of electric vehicles in Europe will multiply sixfold between 2019 and 2025, reaching more than 4 million cars and vans per year, the equivalent of a fifth of EU car production volumes.
Auditors praised the EU for promoting a common plug standard for charging electric vehicles but said it did not properly identify how many, and where, charging stations were the most needed. They also said the EU funding “did not always go where it was most needed, and there were no clear and coherent targets, or any consistent minimum infrastructure requirements at EU level.”
They recommended that the European Commission proposed minimum standards and requirements, and that funding criteria should be defined.
Spain announced recently that overhauling its roads to handle electric cars is a leading priority of the payout it is set to receive as part of the European Union’s pandemic recovery package. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said that he wants to spend $15.7 billion dollars of the $166 billion it is to receive from Brussels on adapting its roadways for electric, hybrid and plug-in vehicles.
In its response to the audit, the bloc’s executive arm accepted the recommendations but also pointed out that it is not entitled to coordinate the deployment of infrastructure, which is the responsibility of member states.
— Information for this article was contributed by Joseph Wilson of the Associated Press.
Scottish church, Billy Graham group sue charity over venue cancelations said due to same-sex marriage views
An evangelical church and an association founded by the late Billy Graham has launched legal action against Scotland’s largest charitable trust after it canceled a rental agreement over the church’s views on same-sex marriage.
Stirling Free Church and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), which continues the work of the late American preacher, are suing the Robertson Trust, a poverty relief agency linked to one of the country’s best-known whisky producers, UK’s The Times newspaper reported April 14.
The evangelical groups, which oppose same-sex marriage, claim that contracts to use rooms owned by the trust were canceled because of objections to their beliefs.
Stirling Free Church had a contract to use premises owned by the multimillion-dollar Robertson Trust for its Sunday services.
But when trust chairwoman Shonaig Macpherson learned of the agreement, the contract was terminated. Macpherson reportedly objected to the church’s biblical belief that marriage is between one man and one woman, the UK-based Christian Institute reported.
RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION REJECTED
The allegations of religious discrimination are firmly rejected by the charity, which gives away about 20 million British pounds ($28 million) a year, The Times reported.
It distributes dividends from its controlling stake in the whisky firm Edrington, which owns brands such as The Famous Grouse and Macallan.
According to Christian Today, the Christian Institute, which is defending the BGEA and the church, says that contracts signed when booking for church services and a BGEA conference permitted the use of the premises “for public worship and delivery of religious instruction”.
Glasgow Sheriff Court was scheduled to hear the case in the following week.
The Christian Institute said it is unlawful for providers of venue facilities to discriminate against people because of their religious beliefs.
‘RELIGIOUS BELIEF ON MARRIAGE’
“The UK courts say the religious belief that marriage is between a man and a woman is protected under equality and human rights law,” says the institute.
When asked why the contract for the Barracks in Stirling had been terminated, the trust claimed it had a policy preventing it from letting space for activities promoting religion or politics.
However, when the church wrote to the Trust asking for a copy of the policy, the Head of Finance revealed that no “explicit policy” existed and decisions were made “on a case by case basis.”
The institute quoted Stirling Free Church minister Rev. Iain MacAskill as saying, “We are a thriving church that welcomes all people and preaches the gospel of Jesus Christ. We were shocked to be told we could no longer use the Barracks for our Sunday services.
“We had negotiated with the Trust in good faith, and their contract expressly refers to us using the premises for religious worship.
“The Free Church believes marriage is between a man and a woman – a mainstream Christian belief shared with the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland and the (Anglican) Church of England.
MacAskill said his church had no problems with Trust staff during its negotiations.
“The staff seemed embarrassed when they had to tell us they were terminating our arrangement. We have had no other option but to resort to legal action,” said the church minister.
PH exporters to EU advised on ‘green’ trend
Philippine exporters are advised to consider the – Green Deal – principle in the 27-EU member countries as this new trend will affect buying preference.
Commercial Counsellor Benedict Uy of the Philippine Embassy in Belgium & Permanent Mission to the European Union during a virtual webinar organized by the Philippine Exporters Confederation Inc. (PhilExport) said that the overarching principle in EU is the Green Deal.
“This is the common consciousness of people in EU from consumers, up to policymakers and government people, so everything revolves around Green Deal,” said Uy.
Because of this new consciousness, there are new regulations about the use of renewable energy about mobility, smart mobility, and climate action, to support the climate ambition for carbon neutral by 2030.
For example, he said, there is a new regulation that the Philippines is monitoring, about the carbon audit where companies in EU are being assessed as to their production method to make sure their product produces the minimum possible carbon emissions.
Implementation of these regulations are expected to extend to exporters, to suppliers from third countries like the Philippines and other countries where they source their product.
“Sooner or later you will also be imposing regulations to monitor and to control the emissions from all factories all over the world, and to what and whoever supplies them,” he added.
Already, EU has the so-called Farm to Fork strategy, which is a preference for organic food, meat alternatives, and artisanal products that come with a story. This is expected to create more regulations and controls to make sure that food is produced in a very sustainable manner.
Along with the green mindset in EU is the burgeoning e-commerce. Thus, Uy has urged exporters to set up their own websites for their products and for their companies.
EU has also big on Smart Mobility movement. Thus, Uy said there are opportunities in this space for Filipino bicycles and accessories products.
In Brussels, where Uy is currently posted, speed limit for private vehicles is only 50 to 30 kilometers per hour to promote the use of public transport, bicycles and scooters to lessen the use of vehicles.
Meantime, Uy said that the EU-GSP Plus scheme will expire in 2023 and a program will take effect in 2024, which is expected to run for another 10 years. All existing beneficiary countries, including the Philippines, will join the new system, wherein EU could add more products, liberalize more rules of origin rules, or maybe add more criteria and requirements.
EU will also a new convention – Paris Climate Agreement – to the existing 28 UN Conventions. The EU GSP Plus provides us with zero tariff for more than 6,000 products from the Philippines going into the EU. The Philippines has exported 2 billion euros or one-fourth of the total exports in 2019 to the EU in 2019.
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Your report on 2020 elections is hopeless and useless – Kwesi Pratt to EU EOM
Kwesi Pratt Jnr, the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper
Kwesi Pratt Jnr, the Managing Editor of the Insight Newspaper has offered his assessment of the report European Union Election Observation Report on the 2020 elections, describing it as ‘hopeless and useless’.
Pratt on Saturday, April 17 edition of the Alhaji and Alhaji show on Pan African TV noted that the report is riddled with contradictions.
Quoting portions of the report, Pratt embarked on an attempt to uncover what he holds to be contradictions captured in the report.
He stated that the report provides no information that could shape Ghana’s electoral process.
“The discussions do not appear to reflect what is in the report. It’s either the report has not been read or they are skewing the discussion to achieve a certain propaganda advantage. So everybody takes a part of the report is running with it. I have come to the conclusion that this report is absolutely hopeless and useless. This report tells us absolutely nothing about the last elections.
“Indeed, anybody who was not in Ghana could write this report. This report is absolutely useless. It’s a 94-page report. If you read the report, many parts contradict other parts. The report is so hopelessly written that it adds absolutely nothing,” he said.
The EU EOM report was released earlier this week and has been met with varied responses by the country’s political.
The New Patriotic Party which had its victory in the presidential elections validated by a Supreme Court ruling has accepted the report.
John Boadu, the General Secretary of the NPP said “If you look at the entire report you will clearly see that they are raising issues that are very critical. And I’m surprised they are not interested in funding, no doubt because they can’t even account for votes that they were voted for; they can’t even account for it so I am not surprised.”
The Deputy General Secretary of the NDC, Peter Boamoah Otokunor said” “This report excluded the security situation which was the worst ever in our electoral history. This report excluded how the Electoral Commission threw all cautions to the wind and was so biased; openly biased in running the electoral process excluding people, preventing people and disenfranchising people.”
Ireland’s new hate crime legislation to protect gender, ethnicity, religion, and more
Ireland’s Minister for Justice, Helen McEntee TD, this week secured Government approval to publish the General Scheme of the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021.
The Bill will create new, aggravated forms of certain existing criminal offences, where those offences are motivated by prejudice against a protected characteristic.
Hate Crimes tell the victim they are not safe simply because of who they are.
They are motivated by prejudice and lead to a divided society. Tougher sentences will show we recognise their true harm. Read more about my plan to tackle hate crimes ???? https://t.co/6g4AHD0DxJ
— Helen McEntee TD (@HMcEntee) April 16, 2021
Ireland does not currently have any specific legislation to deal with hate crime. The only legislation in Ireland that deals with hate-based offences is the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act 1989. Although criminal hate speech is an offence, the bar is high and there have been very few prosecutions since its introduction.
Minister McEntee said in a statement on April 16: “Hate crimes tell the victim that they are not safe simply because of who they are. They send the disgusting message to victims that they and people like them are somehow lesser than the rest of us.
“These crimes are motivated by prejudice. They make victims feel afraid for their future, their friends, and their families. They lead to a divided society, where whole communities can feel unsafe and angry.
“We must get tough and show victims that we will recognise the true harm of these crimes. And perpetrators will know that we are determined to stamp out prejudice and hate.”
The protected characteristics under the Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021 are:
- Race
- Colour
- Nationality
- Religion
- Ethnic or national origin
- Sexual orientation
- Gender
- Disability
These have been updated from the 1989 Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act to add gender, including gender expression or identity, and disability, and to ensure Traveller ethnicity is recognised in the main definitions in the new law, on the same basis as other ethnicities.
The kinds of crimes that will become aggravated offences under the Bill will include:
- Assault
- Coercion
- Harassment
- Criminal damage
- Threat to kill or cause serious harm, endangerment, and other offences
The aggravated offences will generally carry an enhanced penalty, compared to the ordinary offence, and the record of any conviction for such an offence would clearly state that the offence was motivated by prejudice – that it was a hate crime.
The new offences also carry a provision for an alternative verdict, where the ‘hate’ element of the offence has not been proven. In such cases, the person can be found guilty of the ordinary version of the offence, rather than the aggravated version.
Minister McEntee said: “Creating these new offences will mean that a crime can be investigated as a potential hate crime by Gardaí, and evidence of the hate element can be presented in court.
“Where the jury finds that the crime was a hate crime based on the evidence, and convicts the person of a hate crime, the enhanced penalty for the new offence will be available to the judge at sentencing.
“Where the jury finds that the hate element is not proven, they will still be able to convict the person of the ordinary form of the offence.”
For other offences, where a specific, hate aggravated form of the offence has not been created, but where the court finds the crime was motivated by prejudice, prejudice must be considered as an aggravated factor at sentencing. This must also be placed on the formal record.
Minister McEntee said: “The nature of the crimes will be properly recorded and taken into account so we have accurate data to inform our wider responses. Offenders will also be managed appropriately, and perpetrators will know that their crimes will be reported, investigated, and prosecuted, which is the most effective form of deterrence.”
The General Scheme also proposes new offences of incitement to hatred, which are clearer and simpler than those in the 1989 Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act. These offences cover inciting hatred against a person or persons because they are associated with a protected characteristic and also disseminating or distributing material inciting hatred.
The threshold for criminal incitement to hatred in the new offences is intent or recklessness. This means a person must either have deliberately set out to incite hatred, or at the very least have considered whether what they were doing would incite hatred, concluded that it was significantly likely, and decided to press ahead anyway.
Minister McEntee said the constitutional rights of freedom of expression and of association will be respected in the new legislation: “This legislation will be proportionate, specific, and clear.
“The offences will be capable of being proven beyond reasonable doubt and will be absolutely clear as to what constitutes criminal hate speech.
“The legislation we are working on will be evidence based, while respecting the vital constitutional right to freedom of expression and association.”
The general scheme can be found here: General Scheme Criminal Justice (Hate Crime) Bill 2021.
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EU grants Turkish garlic geographical indication
KASTAMONU
The <a title="EU" href="/index/eu">EU</a> on April 16 granted protected <a title="geographical indication" href="/index/geographical-indication">geographical indication</a> (PGI) registration to the <a title="Taşköprü" href="/index/taskopru">Taşköprü</a> <a title="garlic" href="/index/garlic">garlic</a> from the Black Sea province of <a title="kastamonu" href="/index/kastamonu">Kastamonu</a>.
Residents in the province celebrated the completion of a three-month waiting period for granting the registration.
The Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Bekir Pakdemirli welcomed the move on Twitter and said: “Taşköprü garlic, the world-famous ‘white gold’ of Taşköprü [district of Kastamonu], received geographical indication registration from the European Union. I congratulate those who devoted efforts.”
Taşköprü district mayor Abdullah Çatal told Anadolu Agency that he hopes the registration will be beneficial to producers and the district.
“An average of 20,000 tons of garlic is produced annually, according to Çatal, who said 4,000 farmers in the area earn a living from the garlic. “New lands that could be used for garlic production have begun.”
<p class="tags"><a title="Turkey" href="/search/Turkey">Turkey</a>, </p>
India launches first of its kind app that teaches Sanskrit
By — Shyamal Sinha
Indian government has launched first-ever app that enables the user to learn Sanskrit, the ancient language of the country. The app created by Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) has been named ‘Little Guru’.
In Sanskrit verbal adjective sáṃskṛta- is a compound word consisting of sáṃ (together, good, well, perfected) and kṛta- made, formed, work.
The app aims to make learning Sanskrit easy and entertaining by ‘gamifying’ it. It has been developed by Bengaluru-based company Gamapp sportswizz. The app is available on Google Play Store.
Sanskrit is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It was a link language in ancient and medieval South Asia, and upon transmission of Hindu and Buddhist culture to Southeast Asia, East Asia and Central Asia in the early medieval era, it became a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of these regions. As a result, Sanskrit had a lasting impact on the languages of South Asia, Southeast Asia and East Asia, especially in their formal and learned vocabularies.
The most archaic of these is Vedic Sanskrit found in the Rig Veda, a collection of 1,028 hymns composed between 1500 BCE and 1200 BCE by Indo-Aryan tribes migrating east from what today is Afghanistan across northern Pakistan and into northern India. Vedic Sanskrit interacted with the preexisting ancient languages of the subcontinent, absorbing names of newly encountered plants and animals; in addition, the ancient Dravidian languages influenced Sanskrit’s phonology and syntax. “Sanskrit” can also more narrowly refer to Classical Sanskrit, a refined and standardized grammatical form that emerged in the mid-1st millennium BCE and was codified in the most comprehensive of ancient grammars, the Aṣṭādhyāyī (“
“Little guru is a beautiful symbol of what we proposed to do in teaching to people across the world. This app will help students, teachers, monks…to be able to get an app that will help them learn easier at their own pace, whatever time they want. It helps you do better,” said Dinesh Patnaik, director general of ICCR.
“We realised something, we need something more modern, more up to date. Which works with technology, to bring this ancient language to the people…We decided to use modern-day tools like machine learning, AI, and gaming techniques. Gaming techniques help in bringing life to language,” he said.
Sankrit is often called the ‘language of the Gods’ in Indian culture. ICCR has been providing Sanskrit books and other material to help people learn the language. ICCR comes under India’s Ministry of External Affairs. It also deputes teachers, professors to universities and institutes.
Indian diaspora as well as foreigners have been requesting ICCR for assistance in Sanskrit learning. Many Buddhist, Jain and other religious texts are in Sanskrit. There has been great demand from some countries for assistance in learning the language.
Many Indian languages like Bengali, Tamil, Marathi use Sanskrit as a base.
A number of universities teaching Sanskrit across the world have been keen for an app that helps not only the current students but also other young scholars who wish to learn Sanskrit before joining universities.
Sanskrit’s status, function, and place in India’s cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India‘s Eighth Schedule languages.
Interestingly, a fact that is well known, that in the 80s, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) also did a study to know which is the most computerable language. They realized given its clear grammatical structure and strict pronunciation that Sanskrit was the most computerable language in the world as its structure allowed it to merge into any computerable system.
The Sanskrit language scholar Moriz Winternitz states, Sanskrit was never a dead language and it is still alive though its prevalence is lesser than ancient and medieval times. Sanskrit remains an integral part of Hindu journals, festivals, Ramlila plays, drama, rituals and the rites-of-passage.
Sanskrit is the sacred language of various Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain traditions. It is used during worship in Hindu temples. In Newar Buddhism, it is used in all monasteries, while Mahayana and Tibetan Buddhist religious texts and sutras are in Sanskrit as well as vernacular languages. Some of the revered texts of Jainism including the Tattvartha sutra, Ratnakaranda śrāvakācāra, the Bhaktamara Stotra and later versions of the Agamas are in Sanskrit. Further, states Paul Dundas, Sanskrit mantras and Sanskrit as a ritual language was commonplace among Jains throughout their medieval history.
EU threatens to ban importation of cocoa from Ghana and Cote d’lvoire
Business News of Saturday, 17 April 2021
Source: gbcghanaonline.com
2021-04-17
Ivory Coast and Ghana account for almost 70% of world supplies for cocoa beans
The European Union (EU) is threatening Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire with a law to ban importation of Cocoa to the EU market because of illegal mining.
Deputy Chief Executive of COCOBOD in charge of Agronomy and Quality Control, Dr Emmanuel Agyemang Dwomoh said the activities of illegal mining is destroying the country’s forest cover and soil which, after becomes practically impossible to cultivate.
He said current satellite images show red areas which previously used to be forested of which the EU has raised serious concerns.
Speaking at a day-two National Consultative Dialogue on Illegal Mining in Accra, Dr Emmanuel Agyemang Dwomoh said Ghana currently exports about eighty percent of its cocoa to the EU market and a ban will not augur well for the country’s cocoa industry.
This Dr Dwomoh said is eroding the gains made by COCOBOD.
Extension of galamsey into the country’s forest areas is of serious concern and called on participants to help address the phenomenon.
