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“EU Committed to Supporting Liberia’s Developmental Agenda” – Liberian Daily Observer

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“EU Committed to Supporting Liberia's Developmental Agenda” - Liberian Daily Observer
ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw== “EU Committed to Supporting Liberia's Developmental Agenda” - Liberian Daily Observer
Finance Minister Tweah and EU Ambassador to Liberia, Laurent Delahousse posed after the openining of the dialogue.

—-Ambassador Delahousse Discloses; ends EU-Liberia Country portfolio performance review

The European Union Ambassador to Liberia, Laurent Delahousse says that EU will remain committed to supporting Liberia in its development efforts.

He said the EU is here to contribute towards Liberia’s developmental agenda mainly in line with the Pro-poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development (PAPD).

Ambassador Delahousse made these remarks recently on at the opening of a two-day EU-Liberia Country portfolio performance review in Monrovia.

The EU portfolio review seeks to create a policy dialogue that is part of efforts to improve aid transparency and effectiveness through government’s decision-making. 

They also review the portfolio of the European Union funded projects by identifying challenges, lessons learned, and make recommendations for improvement in the implementation for future EU funded projects.

 “We do not do it out of the blue sky, but in the framework of regulation of accountability,” Ambassador Delahousse, emphasized.

“In this regard, there are things you can do and there are things you can’t do because we, too, have to account for the taxpayers’ money especially the people of the European Union Countries and many others,” the EU diplomat noted.

According to him, EU delegation is in Liberia to help the government to deliver and to as well address the needs of the people of Liberia.

He said over the next six years ranging from 2021-2027, they are working on their next line of projects in an EU team’s work approach, pointing out that whatever they do is not for themselves but rather for the people of Liberia.

ywAAAAAAQABAAACAUwAOw== “EU Committed to Supporting Liberia's Developmental Agenda” - Liberian Daily Observer
Minister Tweah and Delahousse (middle) along with others at the dialogue.

For his part, Finance and Development Planning Minister, Samuel D. Tweah, has underscored the need for cabinet ministers mainly those in the European Union portfolio performance platform to work hard in ensuring that they improve portfolio delivery.

Minister Tweah challenged officials of government and staff to have a proactive approach in addressing key issues of national concern in the interest of the people of Liberia.

“We should see our own challenge, write about them and find a way to solve them through our development partners”, he added.

He said gone are the days where partners will be demanding and or complaining relevant government ministries and agencies on how to spend their own monies on them instead of the government complaining the partners on making available funds intended to implement development projects for the people.

Minister Tweah made a reference to the Central Bank of Liberia’s delay on debt issue in which he had to make a personal phone call to the World Bank before said issue was addressed, even though the deadline has expired, stressing further that similar thing happens across all sectors of the country and government, pushing for more creative ways to shorting time in fulfilling their respective deliveries.

Appreciating the European Union for its continued support to Liberia, he reminded his colleagues that a development partner like EU wants results and it is incumbent upon them to work together as a government through accountability in order to solve problems of the people.

According to him, the two-day portfolio review is a practical manifestation of the energy the EU brings to help Liberia.

He pointed out that Liberia is under obligation to account for the European Union taxpayers’ money through the delivery of what they do.

“Lots of things are working, but at the same time some things are not working; there are multiple challenges and we need to get on the drawing board to strategize why they are not working and what needs to be done for them to work”,  he added.

The Finance Minister stated that the greatest priority of any Government is to enhance the service of the people, thereby providing the citizens the opportunity to realize their dreams in broad areas and sectors of the country.

He reminded his colleagues that they are under obligation to deliver to their people.

Tweah emphasized that government plans and mechanism have to move to the next level in the next three years of the current administration, stressing that practical beginning is now key.

Meanwhile, the dialogue which took place in Monrovia from March 31 to April 1, 2021, was attended by stakeholders, partners and the Government of Liberia to agree on the right balance between the implementation of short and long-term services. It also seeks to build the capacity of institution to work on upgrading the sustainability in project management.

First Person: A diabetes fighter in Eswatini pours all her efforts into beating COVID-19

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First Person: A diabetes fighter in Eswatini pours all her efforts into beating COVID-19

“Our association trained over 300 caregivers, who can empower other community leaders, and ensure that their support groups are effective. In addition, we led an initiative to train a total of 48 rural health motivators in five chiefdoms in the region of Shiselweni, and another group of 20 rural health motivators was trained in the Lubombo region.

WHO/Daniel Toro

Eswatini : How the world’s highest HIV-prevalence country turned around, and in record time.

A lack of medication

Even though the lockdown negatively affected our operations, we managed to visit health centers across the country, and we soon discovered that most rural clinics did not have relevant and adequate medication, so we pressed for more of them to made available, working closely with the Ministry of Health.  

We have also been in close contact with the United Nations: the UN country team in Eswatini has intensified its effort to help the government procure sufficient stocks of medical supplies at health care facilities in response to the coronavirus pandemic, and the World Health Organization (WHO) has supported Diabetes Association Eswatini in developing information and educational materials, helping us to communicate a wide variety of critical issues such as nutrition, coping mechanisms, and prevention.

WHO/Daniel Toro

Eswatini : How the world’s highest HIV-prevalence country turned around, and in record time.

Creating opportunities out of the COVID crisis

When I was diagnosed with diabetes in 2005, I didn’t know how to deal with my condition, and there was no help readily available. I was in a coma for three days and, when I woke up, I told myself that I was going to learn everything there was to learn about this disease. Since then, nothing has stopped me from going the extra mile to fulfil my purpose: spreading my knowledge and helping other diabetic patients. Not even COVID-19.

In this time of economic crisis, we are also helping people with diabetes to improve their livelihoods. For example, I mobilized a group of women in my community to start a textile and handicraft business. I was lucky enough to successfully convince local textile companies to donate waste material to us, that we recycle to produce a lot of useful products that we then sell to the community, including facemasks, soaps and sanitizers.

And we have other plans to help unemployed young people to make a living: a branch of the association in Shiselweni, located in the south of the country, has embarked on a project to establish a vocational centre that will provide them with this skills they need. 

We must create a stronger health system to meet the needs of people living with diabetes. There’s a lot of work to do if we are to have a healthier future in Eswatini: we need to invest more in prevention, early diagnosis, screening, treatment, and rehabilitation.”
 

Nutri-Score food labelling plan is not panacea, EU official says

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Nutri-Score food labelling plan is not panacea, EU official says

The proposed colour-coded Nutri-Score labelling system should not be seen as a panacea for consumers to assess the healthiness of food, according to a member of the cabinet of EU’s agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski.

On Thursday (1 April), Roberto Berutti, a member of Wojciechowski’s cabinet, spoke at a public event organised by the youth section of Italy’s centre-right party Forza Italia, with which he stood for local public office in the past.

In the event, which was open to all via the Facebook page of the organisers, he was introduced as a member of Wojciechowski’s cabinet although he expressed his personal views on the thorny issue of Nutri-Score that is driving a wedge through Italy and France.

He criticised quite harshly this labelling system as “an important topic that will cause a lot of damage to the Italian agri-food sector.”

In the context of the EU’s flagship food policy, the Farm to Fork strategy (F2F), the European Commission is expected to put forward a proposal for a harmonised food labelling scheme that will also consider the nutritional aspects of foodstuffs.

The labelling framework most likely to get the nod from the Commission is the colour-coded Nutri-Score, developed and backed by France.

The Nutri-Score converts the nutritional value of products into a code consisting of five letters, from A to E, each with its own colour. However, it is seen as penalising some of the core products of the Mediterranean diet.

For this reason, the Italian government has offered the Commission another scheme called NutrInform, based on a “battery-powered” symbol that shows the consumer the nutritional contribution in relation to their daily needs, as well as the correct dietary style.

“The battery system is certainly a much more honest alternative for the legitimate need of the end consumer to know how food is made and from which original products the food they eat is derived,” Berutti said.

He left it to other speakers on the panel to explain the technical aspects and the reasons why there is “an ideological fallacy in describing the Nutri-Score as a panacea.”

According to him, it’s not only the survival of the Mediterranean diet that is at stake.

“They [Mediterranean countries] have to defend all that multitude of excellent products defined by the EU as products with protected designation of origins (PDO) or with protected geographical indication (PGI), which the European Union itself, in a schizophrenic manner, tries to penalise as the common narrative now is that meat is the devil, not to mention alcohol,” he said.

The cabinet to which Berutti belongs is only partially involved in the process, as the task of outlining a proposal for a harmonised food labelling scheme is within the mandate of the food safety Commissioner Stella Kyriakides.

The Commission’s proposal is due in the fourth quarter of 2022 and will be preceded by an impact assessment and stakeholder consultations.

Speaking of other countries’ behaviour on the promotion of agricultural products, Berutti said that France has been remarkably silent on this issue so far, despite being the largest country after Italy in the EU in terms of PGI.

“It is absolutely strange that the French world is backing the wishes of the Greens, represented in disguise by the chair of the European Parliament’s environment committee [Pascal Canfin], and they are not rebelling against this excessively green wave, which is no longer a green transition but a green revolution,” he said.

He also mentioned that Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, who is in charge of delivering the Green Deal, usually talks about the so-called international dimension of the F2F strategy in his meetings with other cabinets.

For Timmermans, the EU should export its model of sustainability to countries like the African ones, teaching them how to do agriculture in a sustainable way.

“Try to think of the examples he cited in many of the meetings we had? I’ll tell you, they were; Nestlé, Unilever, Mondelez and Danone,” he said.

“So if these are the champions of sustainability, my fear is that in the future they will be labelled with the “green” of healthy products, only ultra-processed products that can be graduated in terms of sugar content or fat,” he added.

This will, according to Berutti, end up losing a whole series of elements typical of the Mediterranean food tradition that has proven to be more a harbinger of longevity than many other diets.

“The attempt is to replace products traditionally grown in the field with those grown artificially using hydroponic or vertical garden processes. All this, we must avoid,” he concluded.

[Edited by Josie Le Blond]

Why Are Fewer Americans Involved In Organized Religion?

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Why Are Fewer Americans Involved In Organized Religion?

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — In the weeks after the death of George Floyd, thousands of people flocked to the Sanctuary Covenant Church, an 18-year-old, multi-ethnic church in North Minneapolis, to volunteer. Ten months later, that Church’s lead pastor many of those same people are continuing to stick around.

“They’re constantly asking — when are you guys re-opening because we want this to be our church,” said Sanctuary’s Rev. Edrin Williams. “That’s a good problem to have.”

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Sanctuary is bucking the trend of overall declining church affiliation across the U.S. For the first time ever, Gallup found fewer than half (47%) of adults belong to a church, synagogue or mosque. That’s down more than 20 points from the turn of the century.

So, what changed over that 20 years? Good Question.

“There’s at least a couple of different factors,” said Penny Edgell, a professor of sociology who studies religion and non-religion at the University of Minnesota.

She said one reason is that moderately religious or more liberal former church-goers have moved away.

“People began to associate organized religion with political stances they don’t favor,” said Edgell. “Or the idea, it’s controversial, it’s politicized.

Researchers used to point to the lifecycle patterns of religion as a way to explain how younger people reported fewer connections to religion – that young people would move away, but then return to religious organization once they were older and started families.

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“It was true for many generations in this country, it’s no longer true,” said Edgell, pointing out people are getting married later and having children later. “So, what that means for a good 10 to 15 years of their lives, they haven’t been involved in a religious institution, so they don’t think to go back.”

Then, there’s the co-hort effect, where people who don’t consider themselves religious are less likely to raise their children as religious.

According to the Pew Research, 16% of people considered themselves atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” By 2019, that percentage jumped to 26%

Experts who follow religious trends believe that U.S. will remain a religious country, but these changes are here to stay.

“It’s hard to see how it changes direction because this is driven by deep and long-term changed in demographics,” Mark Chaves, a sociologist at the Duke Divinity School, who focuses on the social organization of religion.

Edgell said these trends can be seen in churches, synagogues and mosques.

Not all churches in the U.S. are seeing lower numbers. Mega-churches and multi-ethnic churches, like Sancutary, have grown over the last decade.

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“We want to be a church that blesses north Minneapolis and the broader Twin Cities,” said Rev. Williams. “That’s who we are and there are so many people who are looking for a place like that to get involved.”

‘Abuses in Tibet include restricted freedom of religion’

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'Abuses in Tibet include restricted freedom of religion'

New Delhi [India], April 2 (ANI): Raising the issue of human rights abuses in Tibet, the Centre for Democracy, Pluralism and Human Rights (CDPHR), in its latest report, has revealed that various individuals and organisations working for the rights of Tibetan people have reported abuses of rights in Tibet that include restricted freedom of religion, belief and association.

The CDPHR report said that the arbitrary arrests, maltreatment in custody, including torture and forced abortion and sterilisation have also been reported.

“The issue of human rights in Tibet is much debated and contested due to lack of credible information allowed by the authoritarian communist Chinese administrative mechanism and the PRC regime. Various individuals and organisations working for the rights of Tibetan people have reported abuses of human rights in Tibet that include restricted freedom of religion, belief, and association,” the report said.

Slamming China, the report asserted that the communist government of China has come under criticism from the international community on the status of religion, mainly as it relates to figures that are both religious and political, such as the exile of the 14th Dalai Lama.

Additionally, the CDPHR said freedom of the press in China is absent, with Tibet’s media tightly controlled by the Chinese leadership, making it difficult to accurately determine the scope of human rights abuses.

On the issue of ‘crushing’ Chinese policies, the report said, “The communist Chinese policies of crushing any political dissent have gravely threatened the Tibetan political and cultural identity as they disregard to the international condemnation of the human rights situation in Tibet.””The PRC demonstrated no intention of following through on its international obligations. Despite signing and ratifying international agreements on human rights, the PRC has acted in contravention,” it added.

Noting the rights abuses in China, the CDPHR suggested that “it is important for the international community concerned for the protection of human rights to recognise the PRC’s betrayal of its international human rights obligations in defending and protecting of human rights in Tibet.”The rights group further said the world community has become increasingly reticent to discuss Beijing’s human rights violations at various international forums due to various intimidation tactics exerted by the communist government of China. (ANI)

Avant-garde publisher Giancarlo DiTrapano dead at 47

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Avant-garde publisher Giancarlo DiTrapano dead at 47

NEW YORK — Giancarlo DiTrapano, an avant-garde magazine and book publisher who as the founder of New York Tyrant worked with Atticus Lish, Sam Lipsyte and Padgett Powell among others and proudly defied mainstream trends, has died. He was 47.

A spokesperson for DiTrapano’s family, Lauren Cerand, told The Associated Press that he died Tuesday in New York City. She did not immediately have further details. DiTrapano had a small, but devoted following, and was praised for his willingness to take on writers that the larger publishers shunned.

“He was who you should have wanted to impress, a real person in a world where there are vanishingly few,” the novelist and critic Lauren Oyler tweeted Friday. ”He was exactly what a publisher should be and was going to do so much more.”

A native of Charleston, West Virginia, and graduate of Loyola University New Orleans, he founded New York Tyrant Magazine in 2006 and three years later began Tyrant Books, which he ran out of his kitchen in Hell’s Kitchen. Releases from what became New York Tyrant ranged from a book of photographs of Iggy Pop to Scott McClanahan’s raw “The Sarah Book” and Marie Calloway’s “what purpose did i serve in your life,” a work so explicit that a printing company refused to produce copies of it.

“Tyrant stuff isn’t for everyone, but nothing should be for everyone,” DiTrapano once said.

In 2015, the publisher received broader attention with Lish’s “Preparation for the Next Life,” which won the PEN/Faulkner prize for fiction.

DiTrapano was also a writer who was published in The Paris Review and Playboy among other magazines and co-founded a highly regarded writing workshop that he ran out of his family home in Italy. He is survived by his husband, Giuseppe Avallone; his mother, Martha, and three siblings.

Karnataka: Man assaulted for travelling with woman of different religion in Mangaluru

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Karnataka: Man assaulted for travelling with woman of different religion in Mangaluru

MANGALURU: A 23-year-old man was allegedly assaulted for travelling on a bus with a woman from another religion in Mangaluru — the administrative headquarters of the Dakshina Kannada district in Karnataka.
Mangaluru Police has detained around eight people involved in the crime.
Those detained are suspected to belong to a saffron fringe outfit.
The incident was reported on Thursday at around 9.30pm when the man and the woman — belonging to different religions — were travelling from Mangaluru city to Bengaluru in a private bus.
They boarded the private bus near the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation bus stand.
When the bus reached Pumpwell, a group of people who arrived in a car, stopped the bus saying that they knew the woman, city police commissioner N Shashi Kumar told reporters on Friday.
As soon as the bus stopped, the woman first alighted.
She told the police that the man was her classmate and she was travelling to Bengaluru to explore jobs in the field of digital marketing for which she sought the help of her friend who was familiar with Bengaluru.
The moment the man got down from the bus, he was assaulted by about four youths.
The police said the man has sustained a three-four centimetre deep cut injury near the waist after he was pierced with a sharp weapon.
He was rushed to a private hospital and is out of danger.
The woman too was beaten up by the group, when she tried to prevent the attack.
A case has been registered under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), including Section 307 (attempt to murder) at the Kankanady Town police station.
Four teams — led by deputy superintendent of police, (law and order) Hariram Shankar and assistant commissioner of police (south sub-division) Ranjit Kumar Bandaru — are investigating the case.
“Several people have been detained and the accused have been identified,” Shashi Kumar said.
He added, “We are in the process of identifying those who encouraged the group to commit the crime by sharing information. We are also looking for people who may have captured the scene on their mobile phones and will examine CCTV footage.”
It is suspected that the man and the woman were being watched for the past few days.

Liberia: EU and U.S. Ambassadors Applaud Arcelormittal – AllAfrica.com

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Liberia: EU and U.S. Ambassadors Applaud Arcelormittal - AllAfrica.com

Ambassadors of two European countries and America have lauded Arcelor Mittal Liberia for its investment in the country. A press release issued this week said.

“The United States ambassador to Liberia, the Head of the European Union Delegation in Liberia, and the French Ambassador recently visited ArcelorMittal Liberia (AML) to learn about the existing operations, discuss the Company’s plans for the future and review its readiness to recommence construction,” the statement said.

U.S. Ambassador Michael A. McCarthy, E.U. Ambassador Laurent Delahousse, and French Ambassador Michaël Roux toured the AML mine, rail and port operations and visited the Vocational Training Center (VTC) in Yekepa. The guests also held a meeting with AML’s senior management headed by Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Scott Lowe.

Briefing the Ambassadors, CEO Lowe said it was a great honor to have them visit AML and reaffirmed the company’s strong commitment to Liberia.

CEO sets out the vision for the future

The CEO, said the company has exciting expansion plans for the future in Liberia that will benefit all stakeholders, adding AML is strategically aligned to and supporting the Government’s Pro-poor Agenda and working closely with Government representatives.

The statement said, CEO Lowe told the diplomats that AML was planning to make a bold step into the future with the resumption of its expansion project known as Phase II at an additional cost of approximately $800m, taking AML’s total investment in Liberia to over $2.5Bn. The AML expansion will triple production from 5mtpa of direct shipment ore (DSO) to 15mtpa of high-value concentrate product with plans for further growth in the future.

Mr Lowe added that the project represents major economic and social benefits for the government and people of Liberia in jobs, revenue, and social development.

The current model of operations will be transformed with the introduction of expanded mining, state-of-the-art processing technology, and upgrades to rail and port infrastructure. Importantly, the project will also involve developing the skills of Liberians and expanding the life of the mine for up to thirty years.

Lowe said: “ArcelorMittal Liberia has been in Liberia since 2006, and we are in this for the long haul. We intend to be a part of Liberia’s long term future, delivering growth for the benefit of the country, community, employees, and shareholders.”

Ambassadors provide feedback

U.S. Ambassador McCarthy described the ArcelorMittal Liberia investment as a “hope for the future of Liberia” and encouraged the company and staff to continue the good work.

He said the AML VTC is exactly what Liberia needs, noting that the company has put the future in the people’s hands, and they [the youth] need to take it from there.

The French Ambassador Michaël Roux shared similar views about the impact of AML’s business and also highlighted the role of TVET in Liberia’s economic development.

Head of E.U. Delegation in Liberia Ambassador Delahousse spoke of the importance of Public-Private partnership, and hoped that other companies in Liberia or from abroad will come, invest, create jobs and give a future to all young Liberians.

The recent visit of the three diplomats followed earlier high-level visits by other members of the diplomatic corps and most recently, H.E. President George M. Weah to the AML Concession, something CEO Scott Lowe said is an indication of the strong partnership between AML, the government, the international community and people of Liberia.

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EU urges Lebanon to form government quickly

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EU urges Lebanon to form government quickly

… , April 2 (KUNA) — The European Union on Friday urged Lebanese leaders … the interest of Lebanon. The EU urges the Lebanese leadership, once … the necessary reforms,” said EU spokesperson for foreign affairs and …

EU agrees to mediate in Cuba-U.S. relations: media

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EU agrees to mediate in Cuba-U.S. relations: media

HAVANA, April 1 (Xinhua) — The European Union (EU) has agreed to mediate in Cuba-U.S. relations, the Cuban News Agency (ACN) reported Thursday.

EU High Representative Josep Borrell on Wednesday accepted the request made by the Group of Friendship and Solidarity with the People of Cuba in the European Parliament “to mediate before the U.S. government in order to remove Cuba from the unilateral list of countries that encourage terrorism,” the ACN reported.

In a letter written by Borrell to members of the European Parliament, which was made public Wednesday on Twitter, the high representative said, “in our contacts with the new U.S. administration, we will address this issue and call on the U.S. to lift this designation.”

In response, Ana Mari Machado, deputy president of Cuba’s National Assembly of People’s Power, tweeted Wednesday that the assembly appreciated the EU’s decision.

“Cuba does not sponsor nor promote terrorism. We support peace, solidarity and collaboration between peoples,” she said.

Cuba should have never been included in the list, Cuba’s ambassador to China Carlos Miguel Pereira said Thursday on Twitter, adding that “Cuba only sponsors and promotes solidarity and peace, not terrorism.”

“The European Union clearly states its constructive commitment to Cuba,” Carlos Alzugaray, senior university professor and Cuba’s former ambassador to the EU, told Xinhua.

“It has also an economic dimension: the European Union protects its economic interests in Cuba, which are threatened by (former U.S. Secretary of State Mike) Pompeo’s unilateral action,” he added.

Cuba was first designated by the United States as a state sponsor of terrorism in 1982, and was removed from the list in 2015 under the administration of then U.S. President Barack Obama as the two countries re-established diplomatic ties.

However, on Jan. 11, 2020, just a few days before then U.S. President Donald Trump left office, Pompeo announced that the United States had restored Cuba to the list.

In early March, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters in a daily briefing that the United States is committed to reviewing Trump administration’s designation. But she also said, “a Cuba policy shift is not currently among President (Joe) Biden’s top priorities.”

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