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Iran nuclear deal should boost economy, yet unknowns remain
Friday, 15 May 2015 00:00 Written by theconversationThe framework nuclear agreement that was announced earlier this month by Iran and the so-called P5+1 calls for a substantial rollback in the country’s nuclear program in return for a lifting of sanctions.
While no specific time table was mentioned, the preliminary agreement calls for the suspension and then lifting of international sanctions once the International Atomic Energy Agency has verified Iran’s compliance with ongoing restrictions on its nuclear activities.
The removal of sanctions, in other words, will take place in stages and will serve as the main incentive for Iran to fulfill its obligations. As interpreted by the US, the sanctions will be suspended and P5+1 will be able to reintroduce them if it determines that Iran is in violation of the agreements. (The P5+1 is made up of permanent UN Security Council members US, UK, France, Russia and China plus Germany.)
Despite being conditional and taking place in several phases, the lifting of sanctions will be a major relief for Iran’s economy and it is the main reason for the immediate display of joy and celebration by Iranians in the streets of Tehran immediately after the deal’s announcement.
But given the preliminary nature of the accord, it raises many questions about its impact. How significant will that relief on Iran’s economy be and when will it actually take place? How will the deal affect business investment, particularly among US oil companies that are certainly eager to get involved with the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves? And what will be the impact of a final agreement, if reached, in June?
The sting of sanctions
There is no denying that the most recent sanctions imposed in 2010 have taken a significant toll on Iran’s economy, with even government officials repeatedly acknowledging their adverse effects.
Iran’s economy has fallen bellow its potential by 15% to 20% as a result, while oil exports have dropped in half to a little more than one million barrels a day, costing the government tens of billions of dollars a year in revenue. The sanctions also made it difficult for Iran to repatriate much of its oil export revenues from Asian countries such as Japan and China, which are still allowed to buy its crude.
Beyond the oil industry, the sanctions also disrupted a wide range of export and import activities, causing severe disruptions to the manufacturing sector. Many foreign firms that were involved in joint ventures with Iranian firms in manufacturing and construction projects were forced to withdraw.
Together, these pressures caused unemployment and inflation rates to soar to record levels in recent years.
Uncertain timing, limited impact
The framework agreement lacked a fixed timetable for the removal of these sanctions, creating some uncertainty about when Iran’s economy might start to feel the real benefit. But since their removal is linked to Iran’s compliance with the restrictions on its nuclear program, it also acts as an incentive for quick compliance.
The agreement requires Iran to suspend the operation of a large number of enrichment facilities, something that can be easily accomplished, and other modifications to its nuclear program have already been implemented during the 18 months of negotiations.
While we won’t see a significant effect until after a final accord is reached within three months, we should begin to witness a number of important though limited changes begin to take place.
Jockeying for pole position
First off, it is very unlikely that any sanctions will be suspended or scaled back before the June 30 deadline. During this three-month period, while intense talks are underway over the final details, corporate executives and other economic players will be watching carefully to see if the deal can be protected against its domestic opponents in both countries. Still, we will likely begin to see a sharp increase in business negotiations and preparations for projects that can be launched after specific sanctions are suspended.
The lifting of the SWIFT ban and other financial sanctions, for example, will open up a large volume of trade between Iranian businesses and their international partners in Europe and Asia. Sanctions enacted three years ago prohibited Iran’s banks from using SWIFT, the financial messaging system that transmits and tracks international transactions.
Major international corporations such as France’s Renault and Chinese shipping firm COSCO that had suspended operations in Iran for fear of heavy financial penalties will prepare to return. Even if it may be some time before they can, companies will be jostling to regain their market presence ahead of the economic boom that is likely to follow the actual lifting of sanctions.
Iran has already prepared a large number of projects in its oil and natural gas industry to attract foreign investment. These projects include the the South Pars Gas Fields in the Persian Gulf and the Azadegan oil field in South Western Iran. Some of the largest European and Chinese oil and gas companies such as Total, Eni and SINOPEC would be among the long list of firms that are likely to compete for investment opportunities in Iran.
Internal investment
Equally significant, we should witness an increase in domestic investment and a shift from hording foreign currency to productive investments by a large number of Iranian households.
Despite all the uncertainties, Iranian businesses and households already anticipate that Iran’s oil revenues will increase as a result of the deal and the country will be able to repatriate a large amount of financial assets that were blocked because of the sanctions. While there are no official statistics on the total value of these blocked resources, it is estimated to be around $100 billion. The sums will become available to Iran as soon as the SWIFT sanctions are lifted.
Injection of all this cash back into the economy will help stabilize the exchange rate, and many households may try to anticipate this by dumping their dollars and euros in favor of the Iranian rial. That should enable Iran’s central bank to strengthen the national currency, which has lost 60% of its value versus the dollar over the past five years.
So far, the Tehran hard currency exchange market has not reacted much to the framework agreement. Iran’s stock market, however, has enjoyed a significant gain, which indicates optimism about business environment in the months ahead. The main index has surged 7% since the deal was announced.
Three months of business lobbying
During this three-month waiting period, we are also likely to witness an intense lobbying effort by Iran’s business community in support of the agreement. This business lobby will strengthen the Rouhani government against hardline opponents of the deal among conservative factions of the ruling regime.
Iran’s business community, especially the traditional bazaar merchants, have enjoyed good relations with the ruling Islamic clerics and will be able to make their voiced heard in the halls of power. They are likely to be joined by the industrialists and manufacturers, who are set to benefit from the reduction of tensions with the international community.
Some business interests in the US might also voice support for the agreement. But the Obama administration will need to manage the removal of sanctions in a manner that does not put American companies at a disadvantage compared with Asian and European ones for access to Iran’s trade and investment market.
US governments for more than 30 years have barred American companies from doing business with Iran, placing far more pressure on them than others simply because it has more regulatory control over them. So a key question US firms will be asking is whether the schedule for removal of sanctions according to the final agreement will give international rivals any advantage.
Well aware of the lobbying power of these businesses, particularly the US energy conglomerates, Iran has actively invited Western oil companies to invest in its oil and gas sector. If President Barack Obama can find a way to put US businesses on an equal (or better) footing than their foreign competitors, they are likely to help ensure a final deal has Congressional support.
With this in mind, the Iranians seen celebrating in the streets should have reason to feel joyful as there’s a good chance their many years of economic isolation are near an end.
Author: Nader Habibi; Professor of the Economics of the Middle East at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University
The article was originally published on The Conversation (www.conversation.com) and is republished with permission granted to www.oasesnews.com
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No-show king is a non-issue in Camp David summit between US and its Gulf allies
Friday, 15 May 2015 00:00 Written by theconversationThe attention-grabbing headlines about the crisis in relations between Gulf Arab countries and the US – as represented by Saudi King Salman’s announced non-presence at the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit meeting with President Obama this week – draw attention from the real issues of importance to both sides.
Even if the Saudi monarch signaled some frustration with Washington’s potential slight thaw with Iran, US-Arab Gulf relations are not likely to enter a period of free fall or suffer major erosion.
Rather, the GCC summit, which began today at the White House and continues Thursday at Camp David, was more like a party scheduled at an awkward time for participants, rather than a key moment that would define the nature of interactions for years to come. (Monarchs from Qatar and Kuwait were scheduled to attend.) The summit’s real significance lies in its connection to a more sustained process by which the US and Arab Gulf states can rethink key regional challenges. This process will by no means be easy, but it is crucial.
The hype over the no-show king ignores the issues that unite GCC countries and Washington. These include the US’s continued strategic interest in the Gulf region, the deep roots of Western economic and socioeconomic interconnections and significant Gulf investment in the US, and the overall stability of Gulf governments which, despite the political earthquakes of the broader region, make them safe destinations for Westerners.
Rapprochement with Iran does not signal a pivot in policy
Even if the US and Iran move toward rapprochement, it is hard to imagine Obama would pivot from a relationship with long-term stable allies with large resident populations of American citizens to that of a theocratic government hostile to US politics for over 35 years.
Despite its size and power and concerns about Iran, Saudi Arabia does not necessarily represent the entire GCC on every issue. As recently as last year, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had a major dispute involving regional influence and policy. While they may have since reestablished common ground, the rancor was deep enough to underscore that the GCC, and its relations with Washington, should not be seen as little more than a vehicle for Saudi policy. Indeed, perhaps one of the chief reasons that the meeting matters at all is what it represents in terms of the solidity of the GCC-US axis, and the GCC’s central influence in Middle Eastern affairs.
If the GCC summit is not a key turning point event in Washington’s connections to Arab oil states, it comes, however, at an awkward time in the Middle East region. The summit underscores three major issues that the US and GCC governments must face, ideally in tandem: the challenge of ISIS and al-Qaida, deep regional instability and the increasing isolation of Israel.
The challenge posed by ISIS and al-Qaida
First, despite their important differences, ISIS and al-Qaida represent similar and significant challenges to the US and the GCC. Namely, these groups espouse a vision of a post-national Sunni Islamic order that is dead-set against the dominant post-WWII global order of nation states and international organizations.
Though decades of regional mistrust and jockeying for influence currently put Iran and Saudi Arabia on opposite sides of a growing conflict in Yemen, neither Tehran nor Riyadh profits from the political disorder that opened the door for anti-statist al-Qaida and ISIS beachheads in Libya and Iraq.
Washington and the GCC states have pressing incentives to examine new initiatives to turn back the flexed Sunni Islamist muscles trying to pry open a door to a restored caliphate.
GCC states also need all the unity, allies and support they can muster to find fresh ways to address the crisis of political order in the broader Middle East region. The hope that Tunisia’s still-fragile transition to democracy has inspired should not obscure the regional importance of the long-term endurance of GCC and other monarchies. This stands in great contrast to the deep crises exhibited in recent years elsewhere in Arab polities.
The broad Arab regional political pattern of the past 30 years of presenting a choice between military dictators and Islamist political parties reasserted itself in 2011. This has led to the unraveling of key Arab states like Libya and Syria, contributing substantially to the largest number of refugees since World War II. Gulf and American leaders understand well that their long-term visions cannot be realized without new initiatives on mitigating the tragic human suffering of displaced Middle Easterners seeking new homes, whether in the region or the West.
Israel relations remain a festering issue
Israel presents another challenge. The recent Israeli election results and new government, and last year’s Gaza war, are clear signs that governments, including some Arab ones, that don’t prioritize the Israeli-Palestinian problem indirectly fuel an increasingly bleak conflict.
The growing tendency for Israelis and Palestinians to have little interaction with each other besides violence is an additional festering sore in the Middle East. With the other two challenges, this threatens to make the GCC area an eroding island of calm surrounded by violent political seas. The GCC’s concern about spillover from the volatile Palestinian problem could well dovetail with US doubts about the prospects of successful engagement with the current Israeli government.
Despite Saudi and other Gulf state fears, an Iran that is reintegrated into regional and global diplomacy – but not the US’s new “bestie” – has the potential to be useful to address these three major problems. Iran clearly has no interest in continuing growth of either al-Qaida or ISIS, whose impatience with Shi’a Muslims and muscular regional assertion are inimical to Tehran.
Iran has reason to rethink its foreign policy
While Iran has not shied away from pushing forces that support its regional power in the Middle East, the collapse of Syria and the level of displaced people and regional disorder may be an incentive for Iran to rethink its foreign policy, which would be accentuated with an increased presence in global diplomacy.
Iran’s hostility toward the Israeli government is unlikely to go away any time soon. Yet, even in this area, medium-term prospects for Tehran to have more normalized international engagement could provide reasons for it to think in a regionally constructive way. It may be at least worth pondering whether making the Iran-Israel nexus more multilateral could decrease the level of long-term hostility that its bilateral connections have built.
In sum, the GCC summit may be best seen as one point among many for reflective reconsideration of joint US-Arab Gulf approaches to a period of deep regional turbulence.
This may be less dramatic than spotlighting possible interpersonal tensions between the king of Saudi Arabia and the president of the United States, but it is both more enlightening, and possibly more representative of the strength of the GCC-American alliance and the major tasks ahead for this alliance.
Hype over the absence of the Saudi king at US-Gulf Cooperation Council summit obscures the real issues facing the US and its Arab allies.
The article was originally published on The Conversation (www.conversation.com) and is republished with permission granted to www.oasesnews.com
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Kerry, O'Malley Among Top 10 Hillary Challengers
Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:00 Written by newsmax Amid a stream of unfavorable news reports about Hillary Clinton’s emails, the ongoing Benghazi probe, and the dealings of the Clinton Foundation, there is growing buzz among leading Democrats that Hillary Clinton may expect a stiff challenge to her once certain grasp on the party’s presidential nomination next year.
Possibilities range from past presidential nominees John Kerry and Al Gore to “newbies” such as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio.
But strategists say the most successful challenge would come from a left-wing candidate and a women. Elizabeth Warren fits the bill but has vowed not to run. Or so she says.
Massachusetts Sen. Warren has become the darling of the left. Her opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade agreement earned her criticism from President Barack Obama, but her successful Senate effort to block the bill has earned her more plaudits from party comrades.
For now, Clinton’s lone opponent for the nomination is Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent who votes with Democrats in the Senate.
A just-completed Quinnipiac poll showed that among voters in Iowa, Clinton leads Sanders at next year’s first-in-the-nation caucuses there with 60 percent support to 15 percent.
But given recent developments and some nationwide polls, this could change rapidly.
The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll showed the former secretary of state rated favorably by 42% of likely voters nationwide and 42% unfavorably. This is down from March, when the same poll showed Clinton’s favorable-unfavorable at 44%-36%.
Here are some “Hillary challengers” being mentioned:
1. John Kerry, 71, Clinton’s successor as secretary of state, was the nearly-successful Democratic nominee against George W. Bush in 2004. The former Massachusetts senator remains a sentimental favorite among his party’s liberal grass roots and can always count on needed funding, thanks to wife Teresa Heinz Kerry (widow of the late Republican Sen. John Heinz, heir to the ketchup fortune). No friend of the Clintons, Kerry delivered a key endorsement to Obama at a critical point in the ’08 nomination battle with then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton. Some Obama acolytes are said to be courting Kerry, who came within the electoral votes of one state (Ohio) of unseating Bush in ’04.
2. Al Gore, 67, also evokes warm sentiments among grass-roots Democrats, many of whom believe he actually won the disputed 2000 election against Bush. It is no secret that Bill Clinton’s vice president has grown distant from his ticket mate and, like Kerry, he supported Obama over Hillary Clinton in ’08. Working against a “Gore II” bid are his divorce from wife Tipper, unfavorable reviews for recent speeches on his personal crusade for climate change, and some weight gain. Climate change continues to animate the Democratic left, so Gore remains viable.
3. Jerry Brown, 77, incredibly, is governor of California today and its oldest governor, 40 years after becoming the Golden State’s youngest governor. Once ridiculed as “Gov. Moonbeam” for his meanderings about outer space, Brown has lost three past bids for the Democratic nomination. Now legally termed out from ever running for governor again in 2018, no one rules out a fourth Brown bid for the nomination.
4. Andrew Cuomo, 57, was just re-elected to his second term as governor of New York and, having served as Bill Clinton’s housing secretary, has good relations with the Clinton family and its political organization. The son of the late New York Gov. Mario Cuomo —a beloved liberal icon in his heyday — the younger Cuomo has tried to hold the line on spending in the Empire State to the consternation of the left. Known for his hair-trigger temper, Cuomo lives with girlfriend Sandy Lee. With the indictment of Democratic Assembly Speaker and close ally Sheldon Silver, recent polls show the governor's popularity plummeting.
5. Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb, 69, insists he’s running, but as nationally-syndicated columnist Michael Barone noted to Newsmax, “he won his only Senate term [in ‘06] with anti-war Northern Virginia liberals who don’t want him as president now." A best-selling novelist, decorated U.S. Marine Corps veteran in Vietnam and briefly secretary of the navy under Republican President Ronald Reagan, Webb stunned Old Dominion Democrats by unseating Sen. George Allen in ’06 only to announce his retirement in ’12.
6. Former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley, 52, dubbed during his stint as mayor of Baltimore as the Democratic Party’s “hottest political property since Jack Kennedy” by Chris Matthews, is seriously exploring the race. Working against him is a record number of tax increases while he was governor and his chosen heir losing the governorship to Republican Larry Hogan in a state that went 62 percent for Obama.
7. Rahm Emanuel 55, is an intriguing prospect, months after being re-elected mayor of Chicago over a spirited left-of-center challenger. Once top political adviser in the Clinton White House and Obama’s first chief of staff, Emmanuel as mayor took a hard line against demands of striking teachers. Uber-agent brother Ari could bring in heavy Hollywood endorsements.
8. New York’s Mayor Bill de Blasio, 54, an unabashed leftist, has sparked recent speculation about running. He recently made a tour through the Midwest touting a progressive agenda. De Blasio’s black wife and son, whom he proudly points to as a modern mixed family, could draw significant black votes in Democratic primaries.
9. Deval Patrick, 58, was the first black governor of Massachusetts (he left office in January) and one-time head of the Civil Rights Division in the U.S. Department of Justice. Reportedly a personal friend of President Obama’s, the former governor made news recently with a spirited defense of the rollout of Obamacare in his state. Obama proved that a black candidate in the Democratic party starts with an enormous base.
10. Joe Biden, 72, brings out one intriguing common denominator among political scientists and Democratic operatives Newsmax spoke to: not one so much as mentioned the name of the vice president, who no doubt would like to be a candidate. Biden, who will be 73 in 2016, is the second-youngest vice president in history after fellow Democrat Alben Barkley (Harry Truman’s vice president, who was 74 when he left office). Said to be disliked by Obama and his entourage, Biden is popular among rank-and-file Democrats.
For the moment Hillary Clinton looks certain to be the nominee. But she appeared to be certain this time in 2007 when a freshman senator from Illinois stunned the political world in Iowa. It could happen again.
Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/hillary-omalley-challenger-2026/2015/05/13/id/644274/#ixzz3a3NnVX4m
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Rob Ford cancer operation a 'success'
Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:00 Written by chathamdailynewsTORONTO - Councillor Rob Ford’s family was optimistic he would win the “big battle ahead of him” after his cancer surgery “success” on Monday.
After months of chemotherapy and radiation treatments, the former mayor went into Mount Sinai Hospital on Monday for an all-day surgery to remove a tumour in his abdomen.
Eleven hours later, Ford’s office announced he was “fully conscious and recovering from his surgery.
“The procedure, which included nearly 10 hours of anesthesia, went as the team expected, with no surprises,” said the last of several statements issued by Ford’s office.
“There were no new growths, the cancer had not spread beyond what they were already aware of, and they were able to remove all the existing growths without causing damage to any internal structures.
“The clinical team has declared that they consider the operation to be a success.”
As Ford’s surgery was wrapping up, Ford’s brother, Doug, said they spent the day praying he would make it through and were “100% confident that he will.
“He has a big battle ahead of him and with all the support and love he has out there, I’m sure he’ll make it through,” he said.
“We just want to thank the people of Toronto, how grateful our family is for the outpouring of support,” added Ford, who lauded the efforts of staff at Mount Sinai.
According to the latest update from Ford’s chief of staff, Dan Jacobs, the 45-year-old politician was in some pain but he was under the care of one of the hospital’s pain management teams.
Ford is expected to spend the next two weeks in hospital and four months recovering at home.
The operation included removing a small piece of Ford’s abdominal wall and sewing a biologic mesh into its place.
“This mesh will take several months, to heal,” Ford’s spokesman warned. “Doctors have advised the councillor that he will need to take it especially easy for the first two to three months, but will need to keep stress on the area low for several months following this initial period.” As Ford went into surgery around 8 a.m. on Monday, Jacobs tweeted a picture of his boss giving two thumbs up to the camera.
“@TorontoRobFord ready to roll,” Jacobs wrote.
At the ceremonial dedication of University Ave. as Nelson Mandela Blvd. on Monday, Mayor John Tory noted Ford’s surgery, saying, “I know everybody here and everybody across the city is saying a prayer for him and wishing him well.”
credit link: http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2015/05/11/rob-ford-in-hospital-for-cancer-surgery
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Canadian reporter confronts men who disrupted broadcast with sexist remarks
Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:00 Written by theguardian.comShauna Hunt tells interlocutors who uttered vulgar internet meme – one of whom has since been fired from his job – ‘It’s a disgusting thing to say, it’s degrading to women’
A Canadian television sports reporter took her on-air trolls to task on Sunday after falling victim to a prank that has overwhelmingly targeted female live television reporters over the past year and four months and appears to brazenly glorify and celebrate the sexual assault of women.
The prank involved a man saying a vulgar phrase on air while Shauna Hunt, a reporter with Toronto-based television news channel CityNews, interviewed fans after a soccer match.
One man involved in the incident has already been identified by his employers, electricity provider Hydro One, and has been fired as a result. The man in question is an assistant management engineer who makes $106,510 a year, the Toronto Star reported.
Shortly after Hunt began her post-match live coverage in Toronto on Sunday, a soccer fan bombed her reporting frame and interrupted her interview with fans by casually uttering the words “fuck her right in the pussy”.
Hunt was quick to react. After voicing her objection by repeatedly saying “hey”, she spotted a group of men who appeared to have been waiting nearby for the prank to unfold, and confronted them.
The ensuing exchange was also caught on camera in a video released by CityNews that has since gone viral.
“It’s a disgusting thing to say, it’s degrading to women,” Hunt said to one of those men defending the act as entertaining and harmless.
“You would humiliate me on live television?” she asks.
“I am sick of it. I get this every single day. Ten times a day by rude guys like you,” Hunt says to her interviewee.
Although her calling out of men who appear to think the practice of bombing live television newscasts by saying the phrase – a phenomenon that since January 2014 has become an internet meme, also referred to as FHRITP, or #fhritp – is in many ways cathartic, her male interviewee’s response is not.
“It has nothing to do with you, it has everything to do with everyone else,” he says, seemingly referring to the amount of fun had by him and his male companions both standing beside him, watching television and waiting for the video online.
In a scenario echoing much of gender-based violence, lack of female consent and negative emotions are either overlooked or cause for more satisfaction.
The practice of FHRITP kicked off in January 2014, when an Ohio Fox news male reporter who was being broadcast live – but had not realized he was – told his cameraman that he “would fuck” the missing 20-year-old woman they were reporting on.
“I don’t care if she’s 20. Hell, I’d fuck her. You can’t say you wouldn’t fuck her. Maybe that’s what I’ll do when they find her. I will go and I’ll fuck her. I’ll fuck her right in the pussy,” John Cain, the since-fired reporter, said on air.
The video has been watched over 3m times on YouTube and appears to have kicked off a trend of male interruptions of mainly female live newscasters in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom, all proudly saying the same, offensive words.
YouTube abounds with videos of the pranks.
John Cain has proudly become one of the movement’s faces and can be seen on his own personal website sporting a T-shirt with the letters FHRITP.
Hunt: the interruptions are ‘overwhelming’
In an interview on Toronto-based television station City Television on Tuesday morning, Hunt said having to listen to men say the phrase to her has become a norm on the job, as it has for other female and male colleagues working different beats.
“Every single day, people are yelling this at us. Men drive by and roll down their car windows and just yell it at you on the street,” she said, describing the phenomenon as “overwhelming”.
On Tuesday, Ontario’s largest electricity provider, Hydro One, said it had identified one of the men as being one of its employees and has fired him as a result of the incident.
The now out-of-work engineer is featured in the video saying “I don’t care, it’s fucking hilarious,” later telling Hunt she is lucky nobody put a vibrator in her ear, apparently referring to a similar video incident in the UK.
“My mom would die laughing,” he says after Hunt asks him what his mother would make of this.
Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, the largest sports and entertainment company in Canada that owns the stadium in front of which Sunday’s interactions occurred, issued a statement Tuesday, publicized on Twitter, stating they were working to identify the individuals involved and would ban them from the facility.
They added they would also work to provide “extra security” to female reporters doing live hits during games.
While no reporters have pressed criminal charges, Toronto police told CityNews on Monday a variety of charges – including breach of the peace, harassment, sexual harassment or mischief – could be laid, should Hunt or one of her colleagues be inclined to take such steps.
Kingston police in Canada’s eastern Ontario tweeted on Monday that the crime of causing disturbance would likely apply in the case, writing that “media partners should not have to deal with #FHRITP”.
Following a pushback by a member of the public who minimized the type of encounter with the excuse that “boys will be boys”, the Kingston police Twitter account quickly quipped back that “boys will be boys” may be a “weak excuse for public sexual harassment”.
Last November, an 18-year-old man in Pennsylvania was charged by police with a misdemeanor of “falsifying a report” after he executed a similar prank on a female television news journalist, but denied it when questioned by police. The denial is what led to the charges.
‘The Road Ahead Is Not Going To Be Easy’ says Michelle Obama to the Black Graduates
Wednesday, 13 May 2015 00:00 Written by FACE2FACEThis weekend, U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama (pictured) delivered a both candid and powerful commencement speech to Tuskegee University‘s 2015 graduates, speaking to the many challenges African Americans face with racism in America, according to the Guardian.
Tuskegee University is an historically Black college and university (HBCU) founded by the iconic Booker T. Washington in Tuskegee, Alabama in 1881.
On Saturday, Mrs. Obama spoke to the mostly African-American graduates by sharing her own struggles that she faced as her husband campaigned for president.
“As potentially the first African-American first lady, I was also the focus of another set of questions and speculations, conversations sometimes rooted in the fears and misperceptions of others.
“Was I too loud or too angry or too emasculating? Or was I too soft, too much of a Mom, not enough of a career woman?” she asked.
This fear became reality once New Yorker Magazine portrayed Mrs. Obama, a Princeton- and- Harvard-educated lawyer, as an Afro-wearing terrorist fist-bumper on their July 21, 2008, cover, with husband Barack Obama as a kufi-wearing Muslim in tow (pictured).
And the blatant racist imagery “knocked [her] back a bit.”
“It was a cartoon drawing of me with a huge Afro and a machine gun,” she recalled.
“Now, yeah, it was satire, but if I’m really being honest, it knocked me back a bit. It made me wonder just how are people seeing me.”
The First Lady then admitted that the way she was being portrayed — and its potential effect on daughters Malia and Sasha — kept her up at night.
“Back in those days, I had a lot of sleepless nights worrying about what people thought of me, wondering if I might be hurting my husband’s chances of winning his election, fearing how my girls would feel if they found out what some people were saying about their mom,” she said.
Ultimately, Mrs. Obama found peace in disregarding what the naysayers and bigots said, “I had to ignore all of the noise and be true to myself – and the rest would work itself out.
“I also worked to ensure that my efforts would resonate with kids and families – and that meant doing things in a creative and unconventional way.
“So, yeah, I planted a garden, and hula-hooped on the White House lawn with kids. I did some mom dancing on TV … And at the end of the day, by staying true to the me I’ve always known, I found that this journey has been incredibly freeing.”
But with the recent internationally covered police brutality cases in America against Black men, Mrs. Obama made sure to warn this year’s graduates that obviously “the road ahead is not going to be easy.”
“It never is,” the First Lady said, “especially for folks like you and me. Because while we’ve come so far, the truth is that those age-old problems are stubborn and they haven’t fully gone away. So there will be times … when you feel like folks look right past you, or they see just a fraction of who you really are.
“People would not see them as the hard-working graduates they appeared on the day of their graduation who had struggled to achieve their education, pay for it, and give back to their communities, she said.
“They don’t know that part of you.”
Referencing her aforementioned struggles on the road to the White House, Mrs. Obama explained, “Instead they will make assumptions about who they think you are based on their limited notion of the world.
“And my husband and I know how frustrating that experience can be. We’ve both felt the sting of those daily slights throughout our entire lives – the folks who crossed the street in fear of their safety; the clerks who kept a close eye on us in all those department stores; the people at formal events who assumed we were the ‘help’ – and those who have questioned our intelligence, our honesty, even our love of this country.
Mrs. Obama spoke even more pointedly when she said that despite all of the graduates’ accomplishments, they “will never be enough” for some within the United States.
“And I know that these little indignities are obviously nothing compared to what folks across the country are dealing with every single day – those nagging worries that you’re going to get stopped or pulled over for absolutely no reason; the fear that your job application will be overlooked because of the way your name sounds; the agony of sending your kids to schools that may no longer be separate, but are far from equal; the realization that no matter how far you rise in life, how hard you work to be a good person, a good parent, a good citizen – for some folks, it will never be enough.
“They’re rooted in decades of structural challenges that have made too many folks feel frustrated and invisible, and those feelings are playing out in communities like Baltimore and Ferguson and so many others across this country.”
Jimmy Carter falls ill abroad, cancels assignment
Tuesday, 12 May 2015 00:00 Written by newsexpressngr
Former US President Jimmy Carter on Sunday cancelled plans to observe general elections in the South American country of Guyana after falling ill, his organisation said.
The 90-year-old Carter left for the city of Atlanta in his home state of Georgia, The Carter Centre said.
The nature of his illness was not disclosed.
“President Carter was not feeling well and has departed Guyana to return to Atlanta today. The Carter Center election observation mission in Guyana is continuing its work and will keep him informed of developments,” a statement read.
Carter was the 39th President of the US and held office between 1977 and 1981. He remains very active in global human rights work.
Prior to leaving the former British colony, Carter held separate talks with the leader of Guyana’s main opposition coalition and the country’s president, Donald Ramotar.
Forty-nine other observers are remaining in Guyana to observe Monday’s poll, which is expected to be keenly contested between the country’s two major political parties.
“President Carter is hopeful about Guyana’s election and expressed his commitment and that of The Carter Center to supporting Guyana in the days ahead, stressing the need for a peaceful process before, during, and after the election,” the center said.
•Sourced from AFP. Photo shows Carter.
