Corona Voice Angola. The tok show with Sofonie Dala. Don't miss it! Day 8

COVID-19 hits the poor and vulnerable hardest. Wherever it goes, COVID-19 shines a light on injustice and inequality embedded in each society and community it touches.

Our today's guest is Veronica. She will share with us the challenges she faces during Covid-19 pandemic.

My name is Verónica Paulo, I am from the province of Uíge and I am here in the capital Luanda begging for alms on the streets. I'm going through a lot of hardships.

I'm asking for help, and by my age I'm no longer able to support my family.

I live in the woods in terrible conditions, snakes have entered the house, days ago my daughter was almost bitten by a snake.

I am living just to live, the house is very far from the city center, when I go out to the street to ask for alms with my little children, sometimes I only get 2000 kwanzas and from this value I must subtract the money for Transport. The change is not enough to support my family, I am a mother of 5 children.

My five daughters aren't studying because they don't have a personal ID, I don't have the money to take care of their personal ID. At this point I only managed to treat two children's personal ID cards.

Don't you have a husband to help you?

I have a husband, but he lost his job due to the covid-19 crisis. He has no money to support the family.

Have you been complying with coronavirus prevention measures?

At this time, it is difficult to follow the prevention rules. All my children are not studying due to our disadvantaged condition.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is a crisis like no other the world has faced in recent decades in terms of its potential economic and social impacts. We are seeing low-skilled workers being much harder hit, women being much harder hit, younger people being much harder hit than others are. "This is going to have inter-generational consequences."

We are seeing globally that poorer countries are headed toward worse futures than advanced economies are. The number of people in extreme poverty was likely to rise substantially this year, for the first time in 20 years.

This is the first and the only Coronavirus show in Angola where the most ordinary citizens show their brilliant talents.

The heroes of the program are the most ordinary citizens - they share with the audience their songs, poems and real stories of how the Coronavirus pandemic affected their lives.

Click here to watch free full webisodes: https://coronavoice-angola.blogspot.com/

Nigeria Shell employees causing oil leaks for profit: Dutch TV

 Nigerian employees of the Anglo-Dutch oil company Shell ordered the deliberate vandalisation of oil pipelines for personal gain, a documentary in the Netherlands has reported.

Dutch television documentary programme Zembla, together with Dutch environmentalist organisation Milieudefensie, reported in a programme to be aired on Thursday that “multiple witnesses declared that SPDC, a subsidiary of Shell, caused the oil leaks”.

“According to sources, Shell employees profit from these intentional oil leaks by pocketing money from clean up budgets,” Zembla said in a press release summarising an 18-month investigation of various leaks between 2010 and the present day.

Zembla added the SPDC, along with the Dutch embassy in Nigeria, were aware of the accusations but had failed to address them.

Oil spills in Nigeria have a decades-long history, making companies like Shell, whose headquarters is based in the Netherlands, a frequent target of criticism and protest from human rights and environmental groups.

Millions of litres of oil have leaked into the Niger Delta since Shell began oil extraction there in 1958. Zembla said the “greatest oil disaster in the world is unfolding in the Niger Delta”.

Shell says that 95 percent of leaks are as a result of sabotage. It denies responsibility for the leaks, which it blames on local criminals and organised gangs.

Accusations ‘credible’

However, residents in the Ikarama in the Nigerian state of Bayelsa told Zembla that Shell employees encourage local youths in the villages to sabotage pipelines in the area and then split funds allocated for the cleanup.

“If a clean up is necessary, these same youths are then hired to perform it,” Washington Odeibodo told Zembla.

A former Shell security guard, who claimed to have been responsible for sabotaging pipelines in the past, said Shell supervisors and employees “split the money from the clean up”.

“The recovery department from Shell sabotages the pipelines. If the clean up will take seven months, they’ll stop after only three months,” he added.

According to Zembla, one saboteur said they committed the vandalism “out of hunger”.

In May, Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics said 40 percent of people in the West African nation live in poverty, in a country that has Africa’s biggest economy.

Cees van Dam, a professor of International Business and Human Rights at the University of Rotterdam, said allegations in Zembla’s report were “credible”.

“In the Netherlands, this would certainly be considered a criminal offence. Intentional destruction of property, intentional environmental pollution, these are serious issues that no single company would accept from its employees,” he said according to the statement.

Who knew?

The documentary-maker claimed it was in possession of documents confirming SPDC was aware of the allegations.

However, Shell had so far not responded to queries about steps taken to address the issue.

“SPDC takes these kinds of accusations very seriously. If we find any evidence that supports these accusations, we will report it to the Nigerian authorities,” SPDC said according to Zembla’s statement.

Zembla said the Dutch embassy in Nigeria was also aware of the accusations, which were highlighted for two years, and confirmed by the European nation’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

According to Zembla, former ambassador to the country Robert Petri, who left at the start of 2019, was recorded on video promising residents of Ikarama he would share the information with Shell.

The documentary-maker said “nothing came of the commitment”.

Responding to a query from Zembla, the ministry said: “Because of the premature departure of Robert Petri as ambassador to Nigeria, he hasn’t been able to follow through on his commitment.”

The ministry added his replacement was totally unaware of the allegations against the Shell workers.

Yet, Zembla said correspondence between an embassy official and the ministry showed the issue was being discussed earlier this year.

“Second Embassy Secretary from the Dutch post in Nigeria had been corresponding about these accusations as late as May of this year. When asked about this, the ministry supposed that their commitment had ‘slipped through the cracks’,” Zembla added.

“The ministry also stated that it was only after being questioned by Zembla that the current ambassador even broached the subject with Shell,” the statement said.

SOURCE : AL JAZEERA

Biden taps Susan Rice as top domestic policy adviser amid flurry of moves

 U.S. President-elect Joe Biden chose Susan Rice, who was national security adviser to former President Barack Obama, on Thursday to lead the White House’s domestic policy council as part of a flurry of appointments to his developing administration.

Biden also chose former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack to serve a second tenure as agriculture secretary, Obama White House aide Denis McDonough as Secretary of Veterans Affairs, U.S. Representative Marcia Fudge to head the Department of Housing and Urban Development and Katherine Tai as U.S. Trade Representative, his transition team said in a statement.

The choice of Rice, 56, as Biden’s top domestic policy adviser came as somewhat of a surprise given her extensive background in foreign policy. Besides her role as Obama’s national security adviser, she earlier served as his ambassador to the United Nations. She was a contender earlier this year to be Biden’s running mate.

Vilsack, 69, served as USDA secretary under Obama for eight years and as Iowa governor from 1999 to 2007 and is seen by establishment Democrats as a sound choice, largely because of his moderate politics and longstanding relationships with large-scale farmers.

But his congressional confirmation is expected to face headwinds from progressive Democrats. Critics argue Vilsack is cozy with corporate agribusiness and top lobbying groups such as the American Farm Bureau Federation and the U.S. Dairy Export Council, where he is currently the chief executive officer. He had been a staunch early backer of Biden’s presidential bid.

Covid has ‘cut life expectancy in England and Wales by a year’

 The Covid-19 pandemic has cut life expectancy in England and Wales by roughly a year, scientists have estimated, reversing gains made since 2010.

A study, conducted by Oxford researchers, found that life expectancy at birth (LEB) had fallen by 0.9 and 1.2 years for females and males relative to 2019 levels respectively.

Life expectancy in England and Wales had been steadily improving for 50 years before stagnating in the past decade.

“If you look at life expectancy indicators in high-income countries over the 20th century, it has really been a story of an upward trend,” said Ridhi Kashyap, an associate professor of social demography at the University of Oxford, one of the authors of the study.

“What we’re seeing now is a big interruption of the kind of magnitude that we haven’t seen in a really long time … it has been a real shock.”

LEB is defined as how long, on average, a newborn can expect to live, if mortality patterns at the time of its birth sustain in the future.

The Oxford analysis was based on the researchers’ calculation of excess mortality – the number of deaths above what would be expected in a normal year based on the 10-year average from 2010-19 – and encompassed all deaths, including those from Covid-19.

They looked at data from the week beginning 2 March, in which the first death attributable to Covid-19 was registered in England and Wales, to the week ending 20 November and found that 57,419 extra deaths occurred, a roughly 15% increase compared with the expected level in 2020.

Life expectancy was 83.5 for females and 79.9 for males in 2019. For 2020, those numbers have fallen to 82.6 and 78.7 respectively, the researchers found, noting that this too was likely to be an underestimation given that there were small lags in the registration of deaths.

“To put this into perspective, male and female life expectancy regressed to the levels of 2010,” they wrote in their analysis, which is under peer review.

By way of comparison, in 2015 – a particularly difficult flu year – life expectancy fell across virtually all of Europe. In the UK, deaths associated with flu were estimated at about 28,000, and life expectancy fell by 0.2 years versus the preceding year.

“These potentially scarring effects … I think will have implications for how soon we are able to get back to the trajectory of progress that we had seen in life expectancy,” Kashyap said.

Data compiled by the Office for National Statistics showed England had the highest levels of excess deaths in Europe in the first wave of the pandemic.

Dr Veena Raleigh, a senior fellow at the King’s Fund thinktank, said Covid-19 had a disproportionate impact on the poorest communities – meaning areas with the lowest life expectancy had been hit the hardest. She predicted the gap would widen when official data for 2020 became available.

Patrick Heuveline, a professor of sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles, who recently produced a still-to-be peer-reviewed paper on the sharp fall in life expectancy in the US, conducted a similar analysis for the UK at the request of the Guardian.

Unlike the Oxford team, which based its life expectancy calculation on excess mortality data, Heuveline relied on reported deaths tallied by Johns Hopkins University, which as of 8 December were about 61,500 for the UK.

For the UK to record a one-year fall in life expectancy in 2020, the threshold is 62,500, which he estimated would be reached in days.

 

CATOCA ESTIMATES REVENUE AT OVER USD 80 MILLION

The Mining Society of Catoca, located in Lunda Sul province, plans to contribute with over USD 80 million to the state coffers in 2021.

The estimate was put forward on Wednesday by the company's managing director, Benedito Manuel, who pledged to work to preserve jobs and readjust salaries, with the aim of improving the social conditions of employees.

As part of its social responsibility, in 2021 the company will upgrade the villages surrounding the Catoca mine and make available a line of credit for young people, with a view to boosting small businesses.

Without revealing budgets for the projects, he said that credit would also be made available for more than 200 rural women, as well as 150 internal scholarships for students from disadvantaged families in Lunda Sul.

In collaboration with the Fundação Brilhante, and as part of the social responsibility strategy of ENDIAMA-EP and other diamond companies, he said that actions would be carried out as part of the package of commitments to civil society in Lunda Sul.

GOVERNMENT ANALYSES PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH HIGHER INSTITUTES

 A proposal to create eight new private higher institutes was considered today, in Luanda, by the Angolan government, as part of the participation of private entities in the promotion of education and teaching, collaborating in the training of senior staff.

The institutions that deserved the government's first assessment, at a meeting that the Minister of State for Social Affairs, Carolina Cerqueira, held with the social sector ministers, are the Higher Polytechnic Institute of Panguila, Bengo Province, Boavista Private Higher Institute, in Luanda, São Pedro Higher Institute, Huambo.

They also include the Higher Institute of Ombaka, Benguela, Private Higher Institute Nzenu Estrela, Uige, Ondjiva Private Higher Institute, Cunene, Nimi Ya Lukeny Higher Institute , Zaíre, Shahula Sha Hamadila Higher Institute, Cunene.

Among these are institutions that have changed their name, had students at advanced levels, but have shown improvements, have met the payment of fines and the courses are subject to evaluation for their normal functioning.

Speaking to the press at the end of the meeting, the Minister for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Maria do Rosário Sambo, stressed that completion of the process is dependent on the hearing of certain ministerial departments with an interest in the matter, in particular focus on Culture, Tourism and the Environment, Trade and Territorial Administration.

Some of these institutes are part of a package of institutions that operate illegally and with a considerable number of students who have complied with the payment of a fine imposed and have demonstrated that they have made the necessary improvements so that they can be legalised with their courses.

"This is an action that the Government has taken" considered the Minister, adding that it is a measure that is intended to benefit the students of these institutions, and is also a wake-up call for the society, always reinforcing compliance with the law.

ANGOLA SHOWS PROGRESS IN HUMAN RIGHTS

 Angola has in recent years seen progress in international human rights assessment, the Minister of Justice and Human Rights, Francisco Queiroz said Thursday in Luanda.

Speaking on 10 December, International Human Rights Day, the government official noted that Angola had improved for the third straight year in the annual index on Freedom of the Press, drawn up by international organisation Reporter Without Borders, and had risen three places in the world ranking.

Angola, he said, had also made notable progress in combating human trafficking which, according to a report from the US Department of State, had improved its

its performance, moving from level 2W of perception to level 2, as well as rising 19 places in the ranking of corruption and international transparency.

He noted that the Mo Ibrahim report, published in November 2020, Angola had made progress, showing signs of increasing progress.

On the business environment, Francisco Queiroz highlighted the continuous effort to improve the country's perception of the World Bank (WB) Doing Business indicator.

According to the Government minister, progress has been possible due to the new political environment adopted by the country since 2017, which has allowed Human Rights to take its rightful place in the Government's public policy framework.

Despite the progress already achieved, he acknowledged that the country still faces challenges in achieving economic, social and cultural rights, including the right to health, education and access to land or housing, especially in rural areas.

He also admitted a certain weakness in the field of civil and political rights, but highlighted the Government's effort to guarantee the right to freedom of expression, information or peaceful demonstration.

The world celebrates the 72nd anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed on 10 December 1948 by the General Assembly of the United Nations (UN), three years after the end of the second world war, with the aim of promoting world peace and preserve humanity.

COVID-19: ANGOLA REPORTS 121 NEW INFECTIONS, 100 RECOVERIES

 Angolan health authorities announced Thursday the record of 121 new infections, 100 patients recovered and four deaths in the last 24 hours.

According to Health Minister, Sílvia Lutucuta, who was speaking at the press conference on updating of Covid-19 in the country, of the new cases, 51 were diagnosed in Luanda, 27 in Cabinda, 25 in Lunda Sul, seven in Lunda Norte, six in Moxico, three in Zaire and two in Benguela.  

The list of new patients, whose ages range from eight months to 72 years, is composed of 82 men and 39 women.

It was reported that 100 patients, 88 from Benguela, six from Moxico, three from Malanje, two from Bié and one from Luanda, aged between 19 and 64, had been recovered.

In relation to the deaths, Minister Lutucuta said that these were four Angolan citizens, one male and three female, two from Cabinda, one from Moxico and one from Luanda, aged between 26 and 65. 

Angola has a record of 15,925 cases, with 362 deaths, 8,679 recovered and 6,884 active people.

Of the active cases, seven are in critical condition with invasive mechanical ventilation, seven severe, 90 moderate and 126 with mild symptoms.

Health authorities follow 230 patients admitted to treatment centres in the country.

GOVERNMENT ANALYSES PROPOSAL TO ESTABLISH HIGHER INSTITUTES

A proposal to create eight new private higher institutes was considered today, in Luanda, by the Angolan government, as part of the participation of private entities in the promotion of education and teaching, collaborating in the training of senior staff.

The institutions that deserved the government's first assessment, at a meeting that the Minister of State for Social Affairs, Carolina Cerqueira, held with the social sector ministers, are the Higher Polytechnic Institute of Panguila, Bengo Province, Boavista Private Higher Institute, in Luanda, São Pedro Higher Institute, Huambo.

They also include the Higher Institute of Ombaka, Benguela, Private Higher Institute Nzenu Estrela, Uige, Ondjiva Private Higher Institute, Cunene, Nimi Ya Lukeny Higher Institute , Zaíre, Shahula Sha Hamadila Higher Institute, Cunene.

Among these are institutions that have changed their name, had students at advanced levels, but have shown improvements, have met the payment of fines and the courses are subject to evaluation for their normal functioning.

Speaking to the press at the end of the meeting, the Minister for Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation, Maria do Rosário Sambo, stressed that completion of the process is dependent on the hearing of certain ministerial departments with an interest in the matter, in particular focus on Culture, Tourism and the Environment, Trade and Territorial Administration.

Some of these institutes are part of a package of institutions that operate illegally and with a considerable number of students who have complied with the payment of a fine imposed and have demonstrated that they have made the necessary improvements so that they can be legalised with their courses.

"This is an action that the Government has taken" considered the Minister, adding that it is a measure that is intended to benefit the students of these institutions, and is also a wake-up call for the society, always reinforcing compliance with the law.