Day: July 14, 2022

The United Nation’s latest global population projection predicts there will be 8 billion people on the planet by November and that the population will gradually increase to 8.5 billion by 2050 and to more than 10 billion by 2080. That growth will come with significant economic and environmental implications.

The projected growth is not evenly spread across the world. Some regions, including Eastern and Southeastern Asia, are expected to shrink in population, while North America and Europe are expected to grow at very low rates. The bulk of the population growth is expected to come from sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia.

The move past the 8 billion mark masks the fact that globally, the population is growing at its slowest rate since the 1950s. Two-thirds of all people currently live in regions where the fertility rate, measured in births per woman, has fallen below the replacement rate of 2.1. In many cases, those falling rates are driven in part by government policies.

Sub-Saharan Africa

Growth will be most concentrated among eight countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines and the United Republic of Tanzania.

Of those eight, the countries in sub-Saharan Africa will account for more than half of the world’s population increase over the next 30 years, creating what U.N. officials called a potential “demographic dividend,” with the share of working-age adults, defined as those between 26 and 64 years of age, rising as a share of the population.

Countries looking forward to an increase in the number of working age people as a share of the overall population, “have an opportunity to maximize the benefits of the dividend by investing in human capital formation,” the report found.

“While the demographic circumstances underlying the dividend are conducive to rapid economic growth on a per capita basis, reaping its potential benefits requires significant investments in education and health, progress towards gender equality and the availability of gainful employment.”

A ‘graying’ globe

Unlike the countries of sub-Saharan Africa, the population of the planet as a whole is trending older. Between 1980 and 2022, the number of people ages 65 or older tripled to 771 million and is on track to hit 994 million by 2030 and 1.6 billion by 2050.

Some regions are aging faster than others. By 2050, the percentage of people 65 or older in Eastern and Southeastern Asia is expected to double from 13% to 26%. In Europe and North America, nearly 19% of the population is currently 65 or older, and that proportion is expected to rise to nearly 27% by 2050.

By contrast, sub-Saharan Africa is projected to have just 5% of its population in that age bracket by 2050.

“Countries with aging populations should take steps to adapt public programs to the growing proportion of older persons, including sound social security and pension systems, the establishment of universal health care and long-term care systems,” the U.N. urged.

India to be most populous

China is currently the world’s most populous country with 1.43 billion people, but that is expected to change by next year, with India, currently at 1.41 billion, surpassing it. China’s population is actually expected to begin shrinking this year, as decades of low birthrates take their demographic toll.

Projecting out to 2050, India is expected to remain the most populous country with 1.67 billion, followed by China at 1.317 billion. The United States, currently in a very distant third place with 337 million people, will maintain that position, as the population grows modestly to 375 million.

However, the United States will have to share third place with Nigeria. Currently, the sixth most populous country with 216 million residents, Nigeria is expected to grow to 375 million by 2050.

Pakistan, currently the fifth largest country with 234 million people, will retain that rank, while growing to 366 million.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is expected to see a large percentage increase. Currently at 97 million people, its population is expected to more than double to 215 million by 2050.

Environmental challenges

The report notes that as global population growth continues, it creates possible complications in the fight against climate change. All else equal, an increase in people means more greenhouse gases are being emitted into the atmosphere.

“The growth of the population itself may not be the direct cause of environmental damage; it may nevertheless exacerbate the problem or accelerate the timing of its emergence, depending on the problem in question, the time frame considered, the available technology and the demographic, social and economic context,” it said.

However, the report argues that the most highly developed countries should bear the largest burden.

“Whereas all countries should take actions to tackle climate change and protect the environment, more developed countries — whose per capita consumption of material resources is generally the highest — bear the greatest responsibility for implementing strategies to decouple human economic activity from environmental degradation.”

Source: Voice of America

South African police say a championship belt given by American professional boxer Sugar Ray Leonard to the country’s first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela, has been stolen. Police say the belt was taken July 1 in a break-in at Mandela’s Soweto house, which was turned into a museum.

Leonard’s World Boxing Council championship belt, said to be worth close to $3,000, was a treasured possession of South African President Nelson Mandela.

South African police announced Thursday the belt was taken during a July 1 break-in at Mandela’s Soweto house museum, where it was on display.

Police spokeswoman, Colonel Dimakatso Sello says “there are currently no suspects arrested and the police are investigating. Anyone who may have information about this incident is requested to contact the police. All information received will be treated as strictly confidential.”

No other items were reported missing from the museum.

Mandela’s private secretary of 20 years, Zelda la Grange, says the American world champion boxer gave Mandela the belt during a visit to South Africa.

“I do know that it was very valuable to him. Whenever he could he watched boxing and because it was a sport in which he participated himself also, you know he really admired people who aspired to the discipline of boxing. So, he was a great fan of Sugar Ray Leonard and Sugar Ray and him met on a few occasions, so I think it was very sentimental to him as well.”

La Grange was present on two of those occasions. She says they joked around a lot.

“Both of them had a great sense of humor but they talked about the big matches in the past like Muhammad Ali and so on.”

Mandela, himself a former amateur boxer, wrote in his biography Long Walk to Freedom that he did not enjoy the violence of boxing so much as the science of it.

La Grange, who’s written a memoir called Good Morning, Mr. Mandela, has called on South Africa’s government to better secure the museum in the township of Soweto in Johannesburg.

“It is disappointing really. I mean you can’t think that someone would take something so personal of his. An icon in South Africa and someone steals his legacy. I’m disgusted by it.”

Madiba, as Mandela is affectionately known, was jailed for 27 years for opposing South Africa’s oppressive apartheid government.

Mandela first moved into the house in 1945 and his former wife, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, continued to live there until 1996.

Mandela was released from prison in 1990 and died in 2013.

His fellow Nobel Peace Prize winner, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu, who died last year, lived on the same street, called Vilakazi, which today draws many tourists.

Source: Voice of America

A Russian arms dealer labeled the “Merchant of Death” who once inspired a Hollywood movie is back in the headlines with speculation around a return to Moscow in a prisoner exchange.

If Viktor Bout, 55, is indeed eventually freed in return for WNBA star Brittney Griner and former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, as some published reports suggest, it would add to the lore around a charismatic arms dealer the U.S. has imprisoned for more than a decade.

Depending on the source, Bout is a swashbuckling businessman unjustly imprisoned after an overly aggressive U.S. sting operation, or a peddler of weapons whose sales fueled some of the world’s worst conflicts.

The 2005 Nicolas Cage movie, “Lord of War” was loosely based on Bout, a former Soviet air force officer who gained fame supposedly by supplying weapons for civil wars in South America, the Middle East and Africa. His clients were said to include Liberia’s Charles Taylor, longtime Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and both sides in Angola’s civil war.

Shira A. Scheindlin, the former New York City federal judge who sentenced Bout before returning to private law practice, can be counted among those who would not be disappointed by Bout’s freedom in a prisoner exchange.

“He’s done enough time for what he did in this case,” Scheindlin said in an interview, noting that Bout has served more than 11 years in U.S. prisons.

He was convicted in 2011 on terrorism charges. Prosecutors said he was ready to sell up to $20 million in weapons, including surface-to-air missiles to shoot down U.S. helicopters.

Bout has steadfastly proclaimed his innocence, saying he’s a legitimate businessman and didn’t sell weapons. He’s had plenty of support from high-level Russian officials since he was first arrested. A Russian parliament member testified when Bout was fighting extradition from Thailand to the U.S.

Last year, some of his paintings were displayed in Russia’s Civic Chamber, the body that oversees draft legislation and civil rights.

Bout’s case fits well into Moscow’s narrative that Washington is lying in wait to trap and oppress innocent Russians on flimsy grounds.

“From the resonant Bout case a real ‘hunt’ by Americans for Russian citizens around the world has unfolded,” the government newspaper Rossiiskaya Gazeta wrote last year.

Increasingly, Russia has cited his case as a human rights issue. His wife and lawyer claimed his health is deteriorating in the harsh prison environment where foreigners are not always eligible for the breaks that Americans might receive.

Last month, Russia’s human rights commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova said: “We very much hope that our compatriot Viktor Bout will return to his homeland.”

Moskalkova said the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the General Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Justice were working to see if Bout might qualify for transfer to Russia to serve the rest of his sentence.

Now held in a medium-security facility in Marion, Illinois, Bout is scheduled to be released in August 2029.

“If you asked me today: ‘Do you think 10 years would be a fair sentence,’ I would say ‘yes,'” Scheindlin said.

“He got a hard deal,” the retired judge said, noting the U.S. sting operatives “put words in his mouth” so he’d say he was aware Americans could die from weapons he sold in order to require a terrorism enhancement that would force a long prison sentence, if not a life term.

“The idea of trading him shouldn’t be unacceptable to our government. It wouldn’t be wrong to release him,” Scheindlin said.

Still, she said an even exchange of Griner for Bout would be “troubling.”

The WNBA star and two-time Olympic gold medalist was arrested in February at a Moscow airport, where police said they found cannabis oil in a vape canister in her luggage. While the U.S. government has classified her as “wrongfully detained,” Griner pleaded guilty to drug possession charges on July 7 at her trial in a Russian court.

Scheindlin said Griner was arrested for something that “wouldn’t be five minutes in jail.”

That sentiment is shared by others. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch said in a July 9 editorial that Bout illegally trafficked billions of dollars of weapons “to feed wars around the world” and has “the blood of thousands on his hands,” while Griner “made a stupid mistake with a tiny amount of cannabis. She harmed no one.”

Griner could face up to 10 years in prison. Her guilty plea was not unanticipated by those who understand that similar moves commonly precede prisoner swaps. Whelan was arrested three years ago on espionage charges that the U.S. has said were trumped up and false.

In April 2012, Scheindlin imposed the mandatory minimum 25-year sentence that Bout now serves, but she said she did so only because it was required.

He was taken into custody at a Bangkok luxury hotel after conversations with the Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation’s informants who posed as officials of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, also known as the FARC. The group had been classified by Washington as a narco-terrorist group.

He was brought to the U.S. in November 2010.

The “Merchant of Death” moniker was attached to Bout by a high-ranking minister of Britain’s Foreign Office. The nickname was included in the U.S. government’s indictment of Bout.

Source: Voice of America

CUT & FSPG host 2nd Free State Industry 4.0 Summit

The Free State Provincial Government (FSPG) and the Central University of Technology (CUT), Free State, invite you to the media launch of the 2nd Free State Industry 4.0 Summit.

During the first summit in 2019, partners invited collaboration between various stakeholders, with skills and resources considered critical to enabling effective identification and subsequent deployment of 4IR technologies across the Province.

Two years after the first summit, it has become imperative to consolidate on its gains, particularly considering the pandemic’s impact on the province’s socio-economic fabric.

Join us at the media launch of the summit with the theme:

Accelerating economic growth and development of the Free State through innovative 4IR technologies for eradicating poverty and unemployment

Source: Government of South Africa

Deputy President David Mabuza, in his capacity as the Chairperson of the South African National Aids Council (SANAC), will tomorrow on Friday, 15 July 2022 chair the extended SANAC Plenary. The extended SANAC Plenary is the highest decision-making body of the AIDS Council and comprises of the Civil Society Forum, Private Sector Forum as well as Premiers of all the provinces.

The plenary will be preceded by a meeting of the North West Provincial Aids Council, for the purpose of strengthening the Provincial Aids Council. The meeting will be attended by the Premier of the North West Province, Mr Bushy Maape and the Deputy Chairperson of the South African National Aids Council, Ms Steve Letsike.

Source: Government of South Africa

R16.1 billion capital investment spending plan for Western Cape ports is good news, but needs to be “front loaded” over next 3 years

Media reports that Transnet National Ports Authority plans to spend R16.1 billion rand on improving the Western Cape’s ports over the next seven years is positive news that will help improve investor confidence, especially as we approach peak season for key sectors that make use of port services.

The sharing of this information also demonstrates a commitment to transparency, which the Western Cape Government has personally experienced, and which we warmly welcome.

In this spirit, we have invited TNPA to provide a briefing on this planned expenditure to the provincial cabinet, so that we can unpack their plans and find ways to assist in ensuring it is success. We have also invited Transnet Port Terminals (TPT) to provide a briefing on planned capital expenditure over and above the R16.1 billion that is planned by TNPA.

As we constructively engage with the information shared publicly by TNPA, we do, however, note that many of these capital expenditure announcements have been in the pipeline for some time already, and so what we now need to see is increased capital expenditure rates, with the bulk of the capital expenditure “front loaded” over the next three years, and not the outer years (year 6 and 7), as currently planned.

For both entities it is critical that capital expenditure performance improves. For example, TNPA spent less than 40% of its capital budget during the past two years. Capital expenditure by TPT was R500 million below budget in 2020/21. These spending rates on capital budgets will need to be addressed over the short-term for efficiency to improve.

The type of capital investment also matters. For example, expenditure is needed over the short-term on the container side of the business to match our growing export demand, with new cranes, and RTGs, so that the challenges created by strong winds are managed.

Smart “front-loading” of the capital investment spend in this way will make a notable difference in the experience of exporters and importers, who are desperate to get their product to market. We know, for example, that the difference between a high-growth and a low-growth scenario for the Cape Town container terminals could be as much as R5 billion in gross value added, and over 19 000 jobs.

We are certainly encouraged by what is a clear intent to address the capital under-investment at the Port, and we know, that if private sector participation at the Port is also embraced, as a clear Operation Vulindlela Presidential commitment, we will make major strides in improving the Port of Cape Town’s performance, and ranking, globally.

Source: Government of South Africa

The Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) will on Friday, 15 July 2022, convene the 2022 Children Sector Parliament under the theme ‘It is in our hands’. The purpose of the Children Sector Parliament is to empower children to participate in legislative processes and to encourage the born free generation to be part of influencing and shaping good governance in a democratic South Africa.

The Children Sector Parliament will also provide children with the opportunity of demonstrating their understanding and show their responsibilities on the freedom and rights they have in exercising democracy.

The platform will allow for interaction between children and their democratically elected representatives, i.e. Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPLs). This platform will assist MPLs in their law-making mandate and oversight over the Executive Authority with regards to challenges facing children.

Topics to be discussed on the day include:

Bullying and the effects it has on long-term learning;

How has COVID-19 affected the delivery of quality education; and

An assessment of challenges faced by learners under COVID-19.

Proceedings of the Sector Parliament will be streamed live as follows:

YouTube: https://youtu.be/4pKEB6Xw4yY(link is external)

Facebook: https://fb.me/e/1Qw2mzrbp(link is external)

Members of the media are invited to physically cover the Sector Parliament at the venue.

Source: Government of South Africa