Leading MEPs on EU-Georgia relations said in their statement regarding Georgia’s November 21 runoffs that “all the political forces represented in the newly elected Parliament must work now in a constructive fashion, keeping in mind the greater interest of Georgia’s chosen European path.”
The signatories of the November 23 statement – Chair of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee David McAllister (EPP, Germany), Chair of EP’s delegation for relations with the South Caucasus Marina Kaljurand (S&D, Estonia), standing rapporteur on Georgia Sven Mikser (S&D, Estonia), and Viola von Cramon-Taubadel (The Greens/EFA, Germany), EP’s lead member for democracy support activities in Georgia – called on Georgian parties “to show responsibility, restraint and maturity, to respect the democratic choice of the electorate.”
Regretting that the opposition candidates withdrew contests from the runoffs, lawmakers called on political actors “to find the necessary compromises, notably through the new dialogue facilitated jointly by the EU and U.S. Ambassadors to Georgia, in order to enable the smooth functioning of Parliament, an institution vital for democracy.”
The MEPs highlighted that they endorse evaluation by the international electoral observation missions following the first round of October 31, and added that after the runoffs too they “expect a fair, transparent and thorough handling of all substantiated appeals and complaints.”
The four MEPs expressed the European Parliament’s readiness to assist Georgian political parties “to further improve relevant legislation ahead of future elections.”
Opposition candidates boycotted the majoritarian runoffs for all 17 single-mandate constituencies, as all major opposition parties are rejecting the outcome of the “rigged” October 31 parliamentary elections and refusing to enter the new parliament. They are demanding snap elections, the resignation of Central Election Commission chair Tamar Zhvania and the release of alleged political prisoners.
The U.S. and EU Ambassador facilitated two rounds of talks between the ruling Georgian Dream and opposition parties to end the political impasse, but with no success so far.
Agency survey – By Express News Service – VISAKHAPATNAM: BJP MLC PVN Madhav on Monday took exception to inclusion of religion column in the household survey being conducted by ward volunteers in Agency areas of the district. Speaking to mediapersons here, he said in the column, an option was given to choose ‘tribal religion’. He questioned the rationale behind inclusion of the religion column in the survey. “It is against the Constitution to include religion. Tribals belong to Hindu religion and there is no religion called tribal religion. It is an attempt to divide Hindus by showing SCs and STs as people of separate religions,” the MLC said.
Stating that there is no such survey in any other State in the country, he demanded that the State government immediately suspend it. Meanwhile, BJP State vice-president and former MLA P Vishnu Kumar Raju said courts should function on Saturday and Sunday also.
He said the authorities were serving notices on Friday evening and demolishing the structures on Saturday and Sunday. Hence, the victims are unable to seek any relief from the courts. In view of this, a court bench should function on Saturday and Sunday, he demanded.
Kuwait PM holds talks with European Council chief 1
KUWAIT: His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah discussed Kuwait’s “distinguished relations” with the European Union in a phone conversation with European Council President Charles Michel yesterday. The two officials also reviewed aspects of the growing cooperation between the two sides under various fields and means of coordination and exchanged views on current regional and international developments. During the talks, the European Council chief expressed his appreciation for the active role of Kuwait in strengthening the bonds of cooperation with the European Union and its shared pursuit of global peace.
Meanwhile, His Highness the Prime Minister praised the two sides’ distinguished level of cooperation in the aim of achieving their interests, particularly regarding the coronavirus pandemic. He said he deeply appreciates the role played by the European Union in supporting just Arab causes and its keenness to promote stability in the Arab Gulf region.
The prime minister went on to express Kuwait’s solidarity alongside the European Union in facing the terrorist attacks that some European countries were victim to recently. He also stressed Kuwait’s firm opposition to all forms of extremism and terrorism and its support for various global efforts to eliminate this phenomenon that threatens the stability and capabilities of nations. – KUNA
Opening his speech at the Colloquium on Science Diplomacy on Monday, Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Holy See’s Secretary for Relations with States, thanked the Lincean Academy in Rome for organizing the invitation.
Speaking on the theme “Fraternity, integral ecology and Covid-19: The contribution of diplomacy and science”, Archbishop Gallagher spoke of the “test” that Covid-19 has been to the whole of humanity.
Describing it as an “epochal crisis”, the coronavirus, he said, has “exposed the radical vulnerability of everyone and everything”, raising numerous doubts and concerns and causing our securities to “collapse”. Suddenly, he said, “we find ourselves weak and full of fear”.
“We live in an era full of contradictions” continued Archbishop Gallagher. “If, on the one hand, we are witnessing unprecedented progress in various scientific fields, on the other hand, the world is facing multiple humanitarian crises in different areas of the planet, each of which are strongly interrelated.”
He then went on to mention four crises that the coronavirus has brought to life. The first was the “health crisis” and the repercussions that it will have on all aspects of life: “economy, politics, nutrition and access to food.“
A food crisis, he continued, “is already underway.” Archbishop Gallagher explained that the pandemic will “further exacerbate” this crisis by compromising “production, distribution and access to food” both in the long and short terms – “especially for the most vulnerable”. The spectrum of famine, he continued, is “crossing our world once more.”
This final point, he continued, recalls us back to the environmental crisis. “Climate change represents a multitude of threats, with the potential to push part of the world’s population into extreme poverty in the coming years, nullifying the significant progress made in terms of development and that was achieved with great difficulty.”
Continuing, Archbishop Gallagher noted that “to all of this is added the economic and social crisis.”
The pandemic continues to have significant economic repercussions with substantial effects on the labor market. It revealed and amplified many of the vulnerabilities and injustices that were already present.
“The devastating consequences of inequality can no longer be ignored. For millions of workers, no income means no food, no security and no future. The poor, especially those working in the informal sectors, were the first to see their means of survival disappear,” he said.
“The health crisis, food crisis, environmental crisis and socio-economic crisis are all highly interrelated transversal crises, so much so that we can speak of a single and complex socio-health-environmentalcrisis.”
The possibility of starting over
Archbishop Gallagher noted that “the Covid-19 pandemic can, in fact, represent a real moment of conversion and give rise to the possibility of starting over, a second chance.”
This requires a clear vision of what kind of society and economy we want to build, said Archbishop Gallagher. This clear vision cannot fail to call for a careful evaluation and re-proposal of the concept of security. This, however, he continued, does not mean spending money to arm nations, as “weapons and armies will not guarantee greater security.”
“The international community is called upon to adopt forward-looking strategies to promote the goal of peace and stability and avoid shortsighted approaches to national and international security problems.”
Everything is connected
Making reference to Pope Francis’ Encyclical, Laudato Si’, in which the Holy Father describes everything as being related and connected, Archbishop Gallagher said, “Strategies for a solution demand an integrated approach to combating poverty, restoring dignity to the excluded, and at the same time protecting nature.”
Education, continued Archbishop Gallagher, is essential in order to “adopt an integral point of view that favours an intimate knowledge of nature and its processes”. He discussed the importance of “spaces for education and formation.”
“The transforming power of education in integral ecology requires the patience to generate long-term processes, aimed at shaping genuinely sustainable policies and economies which promote quality of life, in favor of all peoples and the planet, especially the disadvantaged and those in situations of greater risk,” he said.
The Covid-19 pandemic has revealed problems that already existed for years and that can no longer be avoided. “The world was relentlessly moving towards an economy that, thanks to technological progress, sought to reduce ‘human costs’; there were those who would have had us believe that freedom of the market was sufficient to keep everything secure.”
Contribution of diplomacy and science
Archbishop Gallagher continued explaining that “a new alliance between science and humanism is indispensable.”
He said the two must be integrated and not separated, and should not be opposed to one another. The health and the economic and social development of our community depend on them. Concerning the latter, we need “the development of a global community of fraternity based on the practice of social friendship on the part of peoples and nations calls for a better kind of politics, one truly at the service of the common good. Sadly, politics today often takes forms that hinder progress towards a different world,” he said.
Archbishop Gallagher went on to note that “often, in our technologically advanced world, there is the temptation to seek solutions to problems through science and technology alone.”
“An approach disconnected from the human person cannot reach a solid, just and human solution. It risks being partial, relative and ideological. In recent years, technological development has made it possible to achieve incredible progress for our societies, however it has also led to the belief that technology itself can predict all human activity using only data and algorithms. Instead, in order to face the consequences of the pandemic, I would argue that we must engage in innovative scientific and institutional models based on the sharing of knowledge and cooperation between different disciplines.”
“Life is bigger than science”, he added.
Archbishop Gallagher concluded by quoting Pope Francis: “We never emerge from a crisis just as we were. We come out either better or worse. This is why, at this critical juncture, it is our duty to rethink the future of our common home and our common project. A complex task lies before us, one that requires a frank and coherent dialogue aimed at strengthening multilateralism and cooperation between states. The present crisis has further demonstrated the limits of our self-sufficiency as well as our common vulnerability. It has forced us to think clearly about how we want to emerge from this: either better or worse. The pandemic has shown us that we cannot live without one another, or worse still, pitted against one another. The United Nations was established to bring nations together, to be a bridge between peoples. Let us make good use of this institution in order to transform the challenge that lies before us into an opportunity to build together, once more, the future we all desire”.
Religion becomes redefined for religious organizations as they transition to digital platforms
Many UC Davis religious groups find that students are having trouble adapting to virtual format as participation, faith and morale have decreased
When COVID-19 escalated in March, governors began instating statewide measures focused on restricting public gatherings and exposure. Shutdowns closed a majority of the country, and with them, religious institutions were forced to close too. Nearing the end of the year, certain restrictions have been lifted to allow for religious gatherings to take place under strict safety guidelines.
The Newman Catholic Center, the Muslim Student Association (MSA) and the Jewish Law Student Association (JLSA) are among many religious organizations that were initially banned from having in-person meetings and now have been permitted to host events according to county guidelines. Consequently, they are implementing a hybrid model with most meetings occurring online. Representatives from these organizations described shifts in their procedures as they were forced to pivot online.
According to Vince Nims, the director of the Newman Catholic Center, the organization has adhered to state restrictions as well as the University Religious Council’s COVID-19 guidelines. Nims stated that though county guidelines initially restricted all masses to take place online, overtime there was a shift to outdoor and indoor masses.
“As a student org, the Newman Center is not doing any activities, but as an institution of the Catholic Church we’re still operating, having mass and prayer events,” Nims said.
To allow for greater accessibility of their events, the Newman’s masses and weekly Newman Nights were streamed online through Zoom, according to Nims.
Similarly, Cenna Abboushi, a third-year neurobiology, physiology and behavior major and the external vice president of MSA, stated that the organization took similar precautions and shifted all meetings online. Currently, the MSA is completely digital and Abboushi stated that the organization has taken several steps to strengthen community bonds.
“We’ve been heavily relying on our Instagram,” Abboushi said. “Doing more interactive videos has been really important for us and advertising a lot on our Facebook and creating event pages.”
With no in-person meetings, the MSA has focused on strengthening their social media presence and producing an interactive online experience. Amidst the pandemic, the organization even created their own TikTok page which, Abboushi said, was used to invigorate involvement and excite the incoming freshman.
Alexander Watson, the treasurer of the JLSA and a second-year UC Davis law student, described similar efforts of redirecting all events to be online. Many were canceled, however, due to their inability to be successfully offered online.
Despite efforts to increase community interaction online, all three representatives mentioned that the digital atmosphere made it difficult to have a united community. Both Abboushi and Watson highlighted that, prior to the pandemic, offering food at meetings served an important purpose in attracting club members.
“Central to a lot of religions, and definitely Judaism, is food, […] but with our student funding we can’t use it on food whatsoever, even if it’s food being sent to people,” Watson said.
Ultimately, fewer incentives and a fully-online interface have led to a decline in participation and decreased morale among students from all three organizations. Moreover, all representatives emphasized that diminished spirits have led many students to face challenges in their faith.
“There have been dramatic changes,” Nims said. “We are really experiencing church in a long distance relationship. It’s harder to communicate. It’s harder to feel. It’s harder to experience. That’s the status. If you asked me, ‘Has there been a deflation of morale and enthusiasm?’ I would say absolutely, because it’s just not the same.”
With religion being heavily practiced online, the community aspect has been completely rewritten for the members of these organizations.
“Not being able to do things the way we usually do is […] spiritually fatiguing,” Nims said.
To counteract this depletion in participation and enthusiasm, the Newman Center will host a COVID-safe friendsgiving with individually-boxed KFC.
In response to similar issues, the MSA is looking to increase interaction with platforms like TikTok, include more speakers and collaborate with varying organizations and schools, Abboushi said.
For the JLSA, the community has turned to Zoom in order to follow the traditional community aspect, yet still follow COVID guidelines.
Though online efforts have made accessibility easier, the overarching issue remains that many students are unable to find sufficient motivation or connection to online religious platforms. All three representatives emphasized that the online system is inadequate at invigorating relationships as students experience disconnection. All anticipate, however, that online streaming will remain ingrained in the religious communities for years to come.
With online meetings becoming normalized, Abboushi said that “motivation is harder, but the access is easier.” Written by: Farrah Ballou — [email protected]
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday urged the European Union (EU) to keep its promises to establish closer cooperation.
“We call on the European Union to keep the promises made to our country from full membership to migration, so we can build a closer, more efficient cooperation,” Erdogan told his ruling Justice and Development Party during a virtual meeting, Anadolu Agency reported.
Turkey applied for membership in the bloc in 1987 and four years ago signed a deal with the EU to manage the flow of migrants to Europe. But the application was suspended as both sides have accused the other of “not properly implementing the refugee agreement.”
Turkey currently hosts over 3.6 million Syrian refugees, making it the world’s top refugee-hosting country, according to Anadolu.
Erdogan also warned the bloc against becoming a “tool for enmities” in the escalating tensions over the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey’s deployment of a vessel to search for natural gas in Miditerranean waters claimed by Greece has set off a dispute between Ankara and the EU states which early this month extended sanctions against the Middle Eastern country for another year.
“We don’t see ourselves elsewhere but in Europe,” the Turkish leader stressed, adding that he was envisaging building his country’s “future together with Europe.”
He stressed he was hoping to “improve mutual cooperation with the United States.” “We believe that we have a lot of work to do at regional and global level with the US that respects Turkey’s sensitivity to its border security and defense needs,” Erdogan said.
The EU and US have blocked British and Canadian efforts to protect an endangered shark species, angering conservationists.
The shortfin mako shark is also known as “the cheetah of the ocean” because it is the fastest shark species, swimming at up to 43mph, but numbers have collapsed by 99.9 per cent since the 18th century due to overfishing, according to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
The fast-swimming shark, which can jump over 6 metres from the surface of the water, is targeted by sport fishermen as well as for meat and fins. But it is also routinely caught accidentally as boats seek other species.
EU vessels are responsible for the majority of the recorded bycatch, in particular Spain and Portugal, followed by Morocco.
Conservationists were “shocked and distressed that the European Union and the United States – despite long promoting science-based shark conservation – were the main obstacles to the adoption of urgently needed protections for mako sharks at the annual meeting”, according to the Shark League – an umbrella organisation for shark protection.
Scientists at the Shark Trust and at the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (Iccat), a fisheries management organisation, have warned that the Atlantic population of short-finned mako sharks could take 50 years to begin to recover, even if fishing ceased immediately.
The UK backed a proposed ban on trade of mako sharks, alongside Canada and Senegal, as Iccat scientists advised.
The vote was the UK’s first official Iccat vote as a country independent of the EU, and representatives said they were disappointed no agreement had been reached last year.
But the US and EU argued that the ban would not be enough to prevent bycatch, and voted against the proposal. The lack of consensus means no decision on the rules on mako sharks will be reached until next year.
Ali Hood, director of conservation for the Shark Trust, said: “North Atlantic mako depletion remains among the world’s most pressing shark conservation crises, yet the EU and US put short-term fishing interests above all else and ruined a golden opportunity for agreeing a clear and simple remedy.
“The repeated obstruction of vital, science-based protections allows top mako fishing countries – Spain, Morocco and Portugal – to continue to fish these endangered sharks, essentially without limit, and drive valuable populations toward collapse.”
Sonja Fordham, president of Shark Advocates International, said: “North Atlantic mako depletion is among the world’s most pressing shark conservation crises.
“A clear and simple remedy was within reach. Yet the EU and US put short-term fishing interests above all else and ruined a golden opportunity for real progress. It’s truly disheartening and awful.”
Zac Goldsmith, the international environment minister, told The Telegraph: “We are pushing for stricter protections for mako sharks, and I’m disappointed there isn’t a consensus on this issue. The UK has co-sponsored a proposal for a ban on landing these important endangered species at the current Iccat annual meeting.
“As a newly independent nation, now able to speak in these global forums in our own right, we will continue to make the case for greater protection of endangered species – on land and in the ocean.”
Iccat parties plan to hold a special intercessional meeting next year to continue mako talks, the Shark League said.
The Multipurpose Adolescent Centre is a new initiative by Caritas Bangladesh, Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) and the US-based Catholic Relief Service (CRS) for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.
It aims to help the psychological development of children, provide counselling and skill development to adolescents, care for expectant mothers, childcare and care for children with special needs, according to UCA News.
The project, launched after a workshop in Cox’s Bazar on November 15, will run until April 2021, covering children aged 12-18. If needs be, the initiative could be extended, officials said.
Staff from Caritas emergency response programme (ERP), representatives from JRS and CRS and officials from the state-run Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commission participated in the evaluation of work in 2020 and formulated a strategic plan for 2021.
The work of the Multipurpose Adolescent Centre is not an easy one, given the problems of hygiene and social distancing in the extremely overcrowded conditions in the refugee camps.
Bangladesh on Monday registered 28 more deaths, taking the total to 6,419, according to the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS). 2,419 new cases of the virus were confirmed on Monday, bringing the total to more than 449,000.
The Rohingya are a largely Muslim ethnic group that mostly lives in Western Myanmar’s Rakhine state bordering Bangladesh. Buddhist-majority Myanmar considers the Rohingya illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though they have lived in the country for generations.
Denied citizenship under a nationality law passed by the government’s military regime in 1982, they are virtually stateless and are denied freedom of movement and other basic rights. The Rohingya were the targets of intercommunal violence in 2012 that killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people from their homes to displacement camps, where most remain.
More than 700,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to neighbouring Bangladesh since a brutal crackdown by Myanmar’s military in 2017, bringing the total number of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to some 1.3 million. They are mostly sheltered in about 30 refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar in southeast Bangladesh.
Caritas
Caritas has been active in the Rohingya refugee camps since 2017. With funding from Catholic agencies across the globe, Caritas has reached out to 146,819 refugees, as well as 8,641 host community members with aid including food, non-food items, water and sanitation in the past years.
Inmanuel Chayan Biswas, head of operations of Caritas ERP, said that JRS funding for the project was mainly for protection sectors, whereas CRS provides support for disaster risk reduction, shelter and protection. In addition, CRS also provides technical and advisory support.
He said JRS and CRS are funding and support for mental health and skill development. The two donor agencies are also providing technical support and advice to Caritas Bangladesh, Biswas told UCA News.
Philippine Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, the president of Caritas Internationalis, the global confederation of 165 national Catholic relief and development agencies, visited some of the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar in December 2018 and in July 2019.
JRS
JRS, which celebrated its 40th founding anniversary on November 14, started working among Rohingya refugees in April 2018.
Bangladeshi Jesuit priest, Father Jerry Gomes, JRS representative in the country, told UCA News that JRS funds 11 child-friendly spaces that already reached about 4,000 beneficiaries with basic education. In the past three years, JRS provided funds worth US$ 2.5 million.
He explained that JRS has been working in Bangladesh through Caritas, maintaining government rules and regulations. He pointed out that many governments have restrictions, especially in the education sector.
“If Bangladesh allows formal education for refugee children, we will be happy to help,” Father Gomes said. (Source: UCANews)
FILE PHOTO: Portugal’s Prime Minister Antonio Costa speaks to the media outside European Commission building after a meeting with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, in Brussels, Belgium, October 15, 2020. Olivier Hoslet/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo
LISBON (Reuters) – Rebuilding European industry and making it less reliant on China and other nations should be a priority after the coronavirus pandemic but the EU should avoid protectionist policies, Portugal’s prime minister said on Monday.
The pandemic has exposed how dependent the European Union has become on China and other countries for essential goods and this makes supply chains more vulnerable to the risk of disruption, Antonio Costa said.
“Europe cannot be totally dependent on essential goods produced outside,” Costa said during an event to outline the main priorities of Portugal’s six-month EU presidency, which starts on Jan. 1. “This is something the COVID-19 crisis has clearly turned into a priority.”
But Costa also warned against a “protectionist vision of Europe or a rupture of global trade” and said it was not a question of creating a few big dominant firms but of devising a “more agile competition policy”.
Part of the strategy should be to develop networks of different firms working on a European scale, he said, adding that the EU could only benefit from decentralising innovation and production chains.
A new European Central Bank report on Monday showed that euro zone firms are increasingly vulnerable amid a pandemic-induced recession, though public support, including cheap ECB cash, have so far limited the damage.
Reporting by Sergio Goncalves; Editing by Catarina Demony and Gareth Jones
