03-03-2022

More documents

Recommendations

Info

thurSdaY, March 3, 20224Can Iran and US breathe life into nuclear deal?Acting Editor & Publisher : Jobaer Alame-mail: editor@thebangladeshtoday.comThursday, March 3, 2022Tormented by rising pricesRising prices is now the subject of worried conversation everywhere.Complete strangers when travelling together to a common destinationusually discuss the weather. Not anymore. Even between strangers, inmany cases these days, the first talking point turns out to be prices of basiccommodities - such as prices of the rice they must consume daily or the pricesof other kitchen items.Two consequences in the main are noted from the rising prices. Firstly, theprice escalations have much increased the costs of living agonies of ordinarypeople. The poor and the extreme poor comprise nearly half of the population.Understandably, price increases tend to have the most unhappy effects onthem and this is more the case in the present price rises as prices of mainlycommon but indispensable consumption items of the poor are rising. Thus,the purchasing power of the poor is getting eroded. If the present conditions ofhigh prices persist, then the poor will be the poorer and poverty's pangs willdeepen in the country.Besides, even in their poor state, the poor, when they are blessed withrelatively stable or improved purchasing power, they create demand for a largenumber of goods and services beyond food and other basic things. Theproduction and marketing of these not so essential products then help to createemployment and income for people or the economy grows in the process. Butwith their purchasing power getting badly battered, the poor or commonpeople are unlikely to demand such non essential items in good quantities andhence a slump in their production can be expected with sorry consequences ofthe same on their producers and sellers. Thus, overall deepening of the povertysituation, worsening unemployment and economic stagnation are likely to bethe fallout from the unabated price rises of essential products.One reaction to the rise in prices can be reduction of consumption . Such areaction may even lead to decrease in prices as sellers then respond toconsumer reaction by lowering prices in their bids to fast dispose off stocks ofgoods with them. If goods do not sell at a brisk pace, business turnover declines.But in the current price increases, this strategy of foregoing consumption to putpressure on the sellers cannot apply for the simple reason that most of thehigher priced goods are considered as essential items by common people.Thus, even the poor cannot postpone or reduce consumption of flour, rice,cooking oil and other kitchen items as these are their basic consumption items.A poor man confronted with the choice of buying a shirt or eating a squaremeal, will likely decide to buy only food or food preparation items inunchanging quantities no matter what the price. He might decide to foregoconsumption of a new shirt but he is most unlikely to buy less rice or flour orcooking oil because the costs of these are higher. People seem not to hesitate toeven, beg, borrow or steal, as the saying goes, to meet the needs of basicsustenance in the form of food. Sections of businesses --dealing in essentialconsumer products-- understand too well this psychology or vulnerability ofthe consumers and have decided to exploit it to the utmost to squeeze outsupernormal profits.Therefore, it needs no stretch of the imagination to realise the sufferings ofpoor consumers. Even the middle classes, specially the lower middle classes inurban areas-- who would be considered to have an existence above the povertyline -- are getting affected by the price increases. The incomes of most middleclass families are limited in nature and family managers are finding theirbacks to the wall trying to balance their budgets with their modest or staticincomes.All concerned quarters are clanging their bells hard for the government to situp and hear the noises they are making to give them relief from price rises. Butso far, the response has not been proportionate to the outcry. Governmentmust demonstrate its adequate responsiveness to a demand which is centralto the needs of people and also in the vital interest of the economy.There have been good sides to the economy's management in recent yearsand the same were discussed appreciatively in the national press. Stable andincreasing foreign exchange reserve, better collection of revenues, risinginvestment rate, etc., were in focus as the features of a resurgent economy. Butcommon people understandably have not so much interest in these macroeconomic indicators. For them, the main down to earth concern is the cost ofessentials or daily consumables and the charges they have to pay for variousregular and unavoidable services. In other words, the costs of living forcommon people is a very vital issue and government's creditable activities inother spheres of the economy may be secondary to common people with costsof living seen as their comparatively higher concern.The Consumer Association of Bangladesh (CAB) in its last stock takingassessed that percentage increase of costs of living was well over the doubledigits . Food prices that have a way of creating the justification for increasingthe prices of other commodities and services have been on the higher side allthroughout 2021. Besides, several increases in the charges of power, gas andfuel oil also helped to raise production costs which in turn led to higher pricesand charges respectively of products and services. House rent, costs ofeducation, medical charges, etc., also rose notably. The higher price trends andrising costs of living thereof remain unabated .Government does not have a direct role to play in regulating prices thesedays. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina referred to this aspect in her address to thenation on last Monday. She drew attention to the rule that under the marketeconomy principles the country currently follows, there is no way for thegovernment to intervene so much in the market mechanisms. Prices are to beleft to the free play of market forces or the forces of demand and supply. Thismust have been her implied contention. She also drew attention of countrymento tax rebate and duty reductions provided by her government to businessesfor the latter to pass on the benefits of the same to consumers in the form oflower prices.But free market principles in many countries are not meant to be freestyleoperation of traders or sellers. Government in these countries take stepsagainst undue profiteering. But this has not been the case in Bangladesh.Government is seen as rather motionless as traders increase prices without anyjustification for the same. Apart from words of advice to traders, governmentseems to have no effective strategy in place as prices of goods get mostunreasonably increased by substantial margins and the high price lines areretained.The rate of inflation was very recently assessed to be nearly 8 per cent evenby official count, surpassing the previous five-year high at 7.92 per cent.Independent and more reliable estimates of inflation are considerably higher. Consumers of the more numerous humble category with limited purchasingpower in the country have been feeling the heat of substantially increasedprices of essential commodities. Prime Minister in her recent address to thenation also sought to underline that one ought not to look at only price rises butalso take into account the rising purchasing power of the people to offset theeffect of price rises. But one wonders where from she got a clue in respect of thehigher purchasing power of common peopled when that power has diminishedsubstantially from rising prices and charges. No honest assessment will be ableto quite establish that there has been a general increase in the purchasingpower of poor people to even match or keep pace with the higher prices not tospeak of higher purchasing power enjoyed by them above the price increases.The free market philosophy is ascendant in Bangladesh. But free markets arefound not devoid of regulatory attempts on the part of governments elsewhere,specially when the same relate to goods regularly consumed by commonpeople with modest purchasing power. The market behaviour on the part oftraders clearly point to their illegal and unethical profiteering instincts.Investigations from the media and other responsible sources drew theattention of the government many times to deliberate hoarding and relatedactivities by a section of so called business operators to rake in unearned superprofits at the expense of the miseries of common people. Market economyprinciples do not prohibit actions against hoarding and profiteering or theapplication of the laws of the land in such cases. However, so far, no applicationof these laws have been noted although their skilful application would not beunjustified under the present conditions.There has been also regular pleading in the press and elsewhere to revivegovernment's own extensive sale of essential goods at fair prices to take thewind out of the sales of profiteers and hoarders. Full revitalisation andoperationalisation of the state owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh(TCB) was suggested to this end. Government has only very recently gone forhalf-hearted revival of TCB operations when it should have allowed full scaleresumption of its operations, long ago, to defeat the aims of the pricemanipulators.This photo released on November 5,2019, by the Atomic EnergyOrganization of Iran shows centrifugemachines in the Natanz uraniumenrichment facility in central Iran. Iranannounced it had started gas injection into a30-machine cascade of advanced IR-6centrifuges in Natanz complex. Photo:Atomic Energy Organization of IranThe possibility of the JointComprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -the Iran nuclear deal - being revived, thoughdifficult, seems to have brightened inFebruary. The US may now also believe thatthe potential loss of Russian natural gas andoil due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine warneeds to be offset by Iran returning to theglobal oil market.The nuclear deal could have beenaccomplished much earlier if not for the JoeBiden administration's unwillingness tocommit to the "way forward" offered by Iranto stay in the deal for the remainder ofBiden's term as president, according toResponsible Statecraft.Former US President Donald Trumppulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal inMay 2018 on the premise that he could get abetter deal than the one negotiated by hispredecessor Barack Obama.Meanwhile, faced with the current realityrelating to the situation on the ground,which shows Iran is unlikely to give up itsmissile capabilities or pull back fromregional allies, Biden seems to have comearound to the original deal.Iran is unlikely to remove the moreadvanced centrifuges it now possesses anduses after the Trump administrationunilaterally pulled out of the deal. Neither isIran likely to get an assurance that Trump ora future US president who follows his leadon foreign policy will not abandon the dealagain after the 2024 presidential election inthe United States.The rest of the world is thus forced to livein an era in which the United States, thestrongest military and economic power, isno longer capable of committing to treaties,whether on global warming or the nucleardeal with Iran.Washington was not alone in itsfoolishness of pulling out of an agreementlike the Iran nuclear deal that sought toimpose the most stringent restrictions anycountry had accepted on its nuclearprograms.It was egged on, if not instigated, by Israel,which wanted the United States to do what itcould not: remove the possibility of Irandeveloping nuclear weapons and defang itsmissile capabilities.As most technologies required for nuclearweapons or missiles are dual-use, theseRussian President Vladimir Putinenters a hall before a meeting withmembers of the Security Council via avideo link in Moscow on February 25, 2022[Alexey Nikolsky/Kremlin via Reuters]If it was not plain before, Vladimir Putin'swar on Ukraine and Ukrainians hasrevealed these self-evident truths.Columnists who, like me, flit, likebutterflies, from one "crisis" to the next, one"outrage" to the next, one "scandal" to thenext, do not matter.Analysts and ex-generals appearing oncable news networks to speculate withoutknowing do not matter.The usual lineup of "think-tank"strategists and "experts" appearing on cablenews networks to blabber on and speculatewithout knowing do not matter.Rich, vacuous television personalitieswho know nothing about loss or sacrifice inthe midst of war do not matter.The keyboard cavalry of smug,perpetually wrong hypocrites who onceloved "regime change" and invadingsovereign nations before hating "regimechange" and the invasion of anothersovereign nation populated, this time, bywhite Christians, do not matter.Pedestrian, duplicitous politicians anddiplomats who spout banalities about"geniuses", "freedom", and the sanctity of"territorial integrity" and "internationallaw" do not matter.All of the above who stampede to Twitterevery other moment to share their trite,hyperbolic musings and "insight" aboutPutin, war and Ukraine may think theymatter, but they do not.People matter. Ukrainians matter and,oh, how they matter.The countless victims of Putin's war -dead, injured, homeless and traumatisedUkrainians - matter.Still, Ukrainians have shown, by their fineexample, how courage and defiance matter.Ukraine's President VolodymyrZelenskyy has, by his honourable example,confirmed that true leadership and sacrificematter.Zelenskyy has, by his honourableexample, confirmed, as well, that simplewords and acts of refusal matter.Enlightened Russians who defy thugs andrestrictions would have converted Iran to asecond-class industrial power.A set of Israeli military experts have nowcome out saying that asking the UnitedStates to pull out of the Iran deal was a hugeblunder, and the best course for Israel nowwould be to work to reinstate the nucleardeal. A report published in January by BenArmbruster in Responsible Statecraft, a USwebsite on international affairs, says: "Thehead of Israel's military intelligence agency,Major-General Aharon Haliva, has said thatthe revival of the Iran nuclear agreementwould be better for Israel than if it were to beallowed to collapse entirely."If Iran had succumbed to the UnitedStates and Israel's demands, it would havegiven the Western powers complete militarycontrol over West Asia, including its oil. Thiswould have been in line with former USPresident Jimmy Carter's 1980 declaration -the Carter Doctrine - that the Persian Gulfregion was of vital interest to the UnitedStates, and the US would brook nointerference of any outside power in thisregion.The Carter Doctrine was similar to theneocolonial Monroe Doctrine of 1823, whichdeclared that no foreign power could haveany military presence in the Americas, theUnited States' backyard.Trump's reimposition of more than 1,000sanctions on Iran after walking out of thenuclear deal was a heavy economic blow forIran. It was complemented by covert attackson Iran's nuclear infrastructure, whichincluded the sabotage of nuclear facilitiesand the assassinations of nuclear scientistsin Iran. Major-General Qasem Soleimani,the head of Iran's Islamic RevolutionaryGuard Corps' Quds Force, was assassinatedalong with Iraqi militia commander AbuMahdi al-Muhandis in a US drone strike inBaghdad in 2020.Iran's response to these sanctions andattacks has been equally forceful: Thecountry struck US bases in the region inJanuary 2020 using missiles, continuedsupporting the Lebanese political-militantgroup Hezbollah and the Syrian governmentforces and continued to exert its influenceover Iraq.After a prior warning to avoid casualties,Iran's strikes on US bases showed America'sIn Ukraine, Putin is bound to loseintimidation to oppose war matter.Kind, generous people who comfort andhelp frightened strangers fleeing warmatter.All refugees escaping the war, includingAfrican children, women and men who,shamefully, have had, again, to withstandracism even at this dire moment, matter.Intrepid (not racist) reporters riskingtheir lives to tell the truth about what ishappening in Ukraine and beyond, matter.Angry people who have come together inthe streets across the globe - even in placid,"neutral" Switzerland - to denounce andreject war and, instead, call, as one, forpeace, matter.For the little it may be worth, I do notknow what will happen in Ukraine in thedays ahead.I do not know what will happen in Russiain the days ahead.I do not know what Putin may or may notdo in the days ahead.I do not know whether or not Putin's madplans for Ukraine have gone awry.I do not know what may or may not be instore for a troubled world in the days,weeks, months and years ahead because ofPutin's war on Ukraine.But I do know this: Putin will not prevail.Time and people of good and determinedwill shall not let him prevail.History tells us that fear and force, asgoverning tools, inevitably lose theirpotency. History also tells us thatunderstanding the value and necessity ofpatience is key to beating the purveyors offear and force.I remember when, not too long ago, thecolumnists, the experts, the analysts, thestrategists, the generals and the politicianswere flummoxed to the point of shocked,and welcomed, silence when the Berlin Wallcame down - bit by bit, brick by brick, slabPrabir PurkaYaSthaandrEW Mitrovicaso-called anti-missile batteries are toothlessagainst Iran's latest missiles. Iran wascareful not to cause deaths, nor did it hit USNavy ships in order not to start a war.But its asymmetric war capabilitiesshowed that US and Israeli strategic assetsin the region were now within Iran's missilerange, and anti-missile batteries could notprotect these assets.I have previously written about Irandeveloping asymmetrical warfarecapabilities and the ability to use missiles,drones and small naval boats to strikeopponents. Supplying Hezbollah and othergroups in West Asia such as Ansarullah orthe Houthis in Yemen with these kinds ofYemen's infrastructure has been destroyed; the countryhas dealt with a cholera epidemic and faced a water crisiswith no access to safe drinking water, and its schools, collegesand health care facilities have been destroyed bysustained Saudi and Emirati bombings.technology has helped Iran vis-à-vis Israeland Saudi Arabia.The Houthis have shown they may sufferheavy losses against the militarily superiorSaudi and the Emirati (UAE) forces, butthey have missile capabilities to strike back.With Yemen, the argument of Houthiattacks hitting civilians rings hollow, as theSaudis and Emiratis have inflicted the mostsavage attacks on civilians that the world hasseen in a very long time.Yemen's infrastructure has beendestroyed; the country has dealt with acholera epidemic and faced a water crisiswith no access to safe drinking water, and itsschools, colleges and health care facilitieshave been destroyed by sustained Saudi andEmirati bombings.Yemen's only recourse has been to hitback at Saudi and UAE facilities - refineriesand airports - hoping to force them intopeace talks and settle the war.Trump and the Israeli leadership hadassumed that the economic reverses of thesanctions would drive Iran to surrender itsindependent strategic nuclear role. Iraninitially refrained from breaching theJCPOA agreement and asked the othersignatories, Germany, France, the UnitedKingdom, Russia and China, to continuetrading with it.Apart from China and Russia, theEuropean countries who were part of theagreement gave "lip service" to continuingwith the JCPOA and reduced their tradewith Iran to a trickle. With the dollarfunctioning as the international currency, noother European country was willing to buckby slab.People who had crossed the fear barrierinto wild celebration of the destruction of allthat the Berlin Wall stood for did what wasconsidered, until then, impossible.It was people - lots of them - who achievedthe impossible. They overwhelmed aninhumane regime built on fear and forcethat the columnists, analysts, strategists,generals, and politicians insisted would lastfor much longer than it did.That fear and force were dispatched inBerlin so quickly was proof that when fearand force are challenged by enough peopleseized with will and hope, change comes.And, sometimes, it arrives fast andi remember when, not too long ago, the columnists, theexperts, the analysts, the strategists, the generals and thepoliticians were flummoxed to the point of shocked, andwelcomed, silence when the berlin Wall came down - bitby bit, brick by brick, slab by slab.unexpectedly.Ukrainians, in and out of uniforms, haveseized on and demonstrated this will andhope with a stirring and humblingconviction.They have rallied to their leader's call toconfront fear and force with will, hope and,yes, weapons. They have confronted fearand force with every means that a righteousresistance permits.Ukrainians are not "hanging on". They arestanding fast. They are testament, oncemore, that fear and force will always loseout.Nazar Cherniha is one of the countlessUkrainians who are standing firm. Afterwatching a Russian missile slam into anapartment in Kyiv, Cherniha told theWashington Post: "After tonight I am notscared anymore. Fear disappeared." Hismother, Nataliya, is just as defiant. "Thepeople have really come together, and sucha unity can't possibly be defeated."She is, of course, right.Putin may have calculated thatUkrainians would cower and capitulate andthat the rank, Soviet-style rhetoric meant tosmear a freely elected government as athe United States sanctions in any seriousway.This is where Iran started to ratchet up itsnuclear enrichment, both in quantity andquality: how much uranium-235 it wouldenrich and to what degree of purity. The Irannuclear deal had the following key features:Iran's active centrifuges would have tocome down to about 5,000 from the morethan 19,000 centrifuges it had.Uranium enrichment was capped at 300kilograms at 3.67% purity.No advanced centrifuges would be usedbeyond IR-1 and Iran would have todismantle/mothball more advancedcentrifuges. Iran would have to modify theArak heavy reactor that could produceweapons-grade plutonium and convert it soit could be used for peaceful purposes.At the time of the agreement, Iran hadstockpiled about 200kg of 20% enricheduranium gas (200kg of uranium gas wouldbe 133kg of solid uranium), which wasshipped out to Russia.In terms of nuclear-weaponsdevelopment, converting uranium to 20%purity is nine-tenths of the work required toreach weapons-grade uranium of 90%purity. The bulk of the work involved inbuilding these weapons is therefore inachieving 20% purity, and the rest isrelatively easy.In centrifuges, uranium gas is spun toseparate U-238, the heavier isotope ofuranium, from U-235, which is lighter andthe fissile isotope used in the development ofnuclear weapons. The separation is done byusing a cascade of centrifuges and repeatingthe process continuously.This process is time- and energyconsumingand requires a high degree ofautomation. In Natanz, Iran, the Stuxnetmalware and a cyberweapon developed bythe United States and Israel were used todestroy more than 10% of Iran's centrifugesby attacking its Siemens controllers.This attack was the first use of acyberweapon in the world.In November 2021, the Atomic EnergyOrganization of Iran said its stockpile of20% enriched uranium had reached morethan 210kg, and 60% enriched uranium hadreached 25kg. The country also has put in anew generation of more advancedcentrifuges and efficient IR-2m, IR-4 andIR-6 centrifuges.This capability is why there are argumentsthat Iran has reached breakout capacity as ithas enough fissile material for a bomb and ismore advanced in its bomb-making abilitythan it was during the original JCPOA as aconsequence of Trump's folly.Source: Asia times"junta" filled with "criminals" and "drugtraffickers" would work. If he did, he hasmiscalculated - badly.This so-called "student" of history hasforgotten the sharp lessons of recenthistory.It is easy to succumb to distorting hubrisand the irresistible impulse to invade andimpose your evangelical designs on anotherpeople and their homeland, but it is muchmore difficult to enforce those designswithout sinking, eventually, into quagmire,retreat and defeat.That is why, I think, Putin and hissurrogates have been reduced to shoutingclichés and revisionist nonsense andmaking apocalyptic threats that suggest thatRussia's leader-for-life has slipped into adangerous and disconcerting hysteria.Time, will and hope will change that, too.We are watching it stir in Moscow and otherRussian cities. Principled Russianscontinue to risk their freedom or worsedespite Putin's fear-and-force-fuelled edictsthat they remain quiet and at home.Undeterred, they are on the street. Weowe these brave Russians our support andgratitude for their fidelity to hope over fear,to humanity over inhumanity, to peace overwar.Meanwhile, one marquee and habituallywrong American columnist who oncechampioned fear, force and "regimechange" in the Middle East and Afghanistanand now opposes it when a Europeannation is the target, recently wrote that theworld-wide-web may turn out to beUkraine's salvation.Wrong again.The worldwide web is a tool. It is howpeople of goodwill and purpose - inside andoutside Ukraine - use it to battle fear andforce that may play a part in writing thecountry's fate.Ukrainians, I suspect, do not needTwitter, Facebook, TikTok or Instagram tofight for their dignity, freedom andindependence.It is apparent to me, at least, that the willto meet an occupying army head-on isengrained in Ukrainians' minds, hearts, andsouls.Source: Al Jazeera
THursDAy, mArCH 3, 20225EmIlIE FIlOuThe boarding of Uganda Airlines flight446 from Entebbe to Dubai wasmomentarily disrupted at the end of lastyear when two of the passengers startedhawking bush crickets in the aisles.Their fellow travellers couldn't believetheir luck: nsenene are a prized delicacyin Uganda, but despite Novemberusually being peak season for theinsects, there had been hardly anyaround.The video from the plane went viral;there were grumblings about securitybreaches, but Uganda Airlines seemedsympathetic and spotted anopportunity to turn the crisis into anopportunity. "We understand that[nsenene] was not in plenty this season,hence the excitement. We areconsidering adding nsenene to ourmenu for regional and internationalflights on request," it said in astatement.Nsenene are just one of 2,100 knownedible insect species, a quarter of whichare consumed in Africa. Most are highlyprized - often costing more than beef orchicken by weight - and most areharvested from the wild.Catching them is often difficult, theyare seasonal and can be unavailablewhen most needed, said Dorte Verner,lead agriculture economist at the WorldBank's food and agriculture globalpractice. They can also be overharvestedor contaminated withpesticides.However, with rising food insecurity,safeguarding this nutritious source ofprotein has become critical. "In 2021,Are farmed insects the next big thing in food industry?21% of people in countries affected byfragility, conflict and violence did nothave access to nutritious food," saidVerner. "Also, food production percapita has been falling since 2014."Farming the insects is one solution. Arecent report, published by Verner andWorld Bank colleagues, on the potentialof hydroponics and insect farming inAfrica, found 849 farms in 10 of the 13countries they surveyed. While still inits infancy - most farms were set up inthe last decade - the industry has clearpotential: not only would insects beavailable all year, it would create jobs,help manage food waste, which is usedas feed, and insect manure, or frass,could create fertilisers.The World Bank has estimated thatwithin a year, black soldier fly (BSF)farming could generate crude proteinworth up to $2.6bn (£1.9bn) andbiofertilisers worth up to $19.4bn. Theprocess would recycle 200m tonnes ofcrop waste.Although the bulk of existing farmsproduce insects for humanconsumption, there has been growinginterest in insects as animal feed.Demand has trebled in the last decadein Kenya alone, and feed manufacturershave been increasingly looking foralternatives to soya and fishmeal, whichare plagued by volatile prices, variablequality and poor environmentalrecords.Nsenene, or bush crickets, are just one of 2,100 known edible insects species, a quarter of which are consumedin Africa.Photograph: Eugénie BaccotResearch suggests that animals fedinsect protein, notably BSF, achievedfaster growth rates and better-qualitymeat than with soya or fishmeal.Production costs are relatively stable,and will go down as operations arescaled up, said Talash Huijbers, founderof InsectiPro, one of the largest BSFfarms in Kenya. "With the pandemic,people are starting to appreciate thevalue of local protein production," shesaid. Shobhita Soor, head of LegendaryFoods, a palm weevil farm in Ghana,has seen similar trends. Many of hercustomers want to eat "made in Ghana"products.Soor's ambition is to "deliver thenutrition of meat at the price point andsustainability of plant", a mission thathas led to a relentless search forefficiency gains. "Last year, we managedto reduce our costs of production by40%. If we want to be as ubiquitous aschicken, it's incumbent on us to do theR&D to continue to optimise ourproduction."She is looking to raise $5m this year tobuild her first large-scale plant, whileInsectiPro is planning an $11mexpansion: it has already opened twomore BSF facilities in Kenya and wantsto expand in Uganda and Rwanda.Only 16 species are farmed in Africa,but the International Centre of InsectPhysiology and Ecology in Kenya hasbeen looking at how to raise variousinsect species since 2014 and hastrained thousands of would-be"entopreneurs".Publications such as the World Bankreport are vital to put insect protein onthe radar of governments - insects donot appear in any national foodstrategy. Other large developmentfinance institutions, such as theInternational Finance Corporation andthe US Agency for InternationalDevelopment, are also looking intoinsect farming. Meanwhile, the WorldBank is planning pilot investments inSouth Sudan, Malawi, Kenya andZimbabwe."From the number of meetingrequests I have received since thepublication of the report, I can tell youthat [people] are really interested," saidVerner.Affordable analysisof genomes key totackling diseasesONyANGO NyAmOlA project equippingresearchers with cheap andaccessible methods forstudying genetic materials oflarge collections of bacteriathat cause diseases could becritical in tackling futureglobal health challenges,scientists say.The 10,000 SalmonellaGenomes Project (10KSG)could make bacterial genomicdata more accessible in lowandmiddle-incomeeconomies, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa where 80 percent of the 77,000 globalannual deaths from nontyphoidalSalmonellabloodstream infections occur.The collaboration ofscientists from 16 countries,led by the Earlham Instituteand the University ofLiverpool in England, aims tounderstand the geneticmakeup of bacterial strainsresponsible for Salmonellabloodstream infections inAfrica and Latin America. Thiscan increase understanding ofdrug resistance and virulenceof the bacteria and help in thedevelopment of vaccines."Infectious diseases cause ahuge health and economicburden on low- and middleincomecountries," says NeilHall, director of the EarlhamInstitute, a life scienceresearch centre."Usually, the most effectiveinterventions involve publichealth measures. However,public health policy needs tobe well informed by good datafrom genomic epidemiologicalstudies."In less than a year, scientistshave analysed 10,000Salmonella genomes fromAfrica and Latin America foras little as US$10 per genomeA project is aiding resource-limited scientists to analyse deadly microbes' geneticmaterials .Photo: Pixabyor genetic material.According to researchers,large-scale bacterial genomeanalyses have been possible inonly a few sequencing centresglobally until now and the costhad been as much as US$100per genome.The 10KSG project, Hallexplains, has significantlyreduced the cost andincreased the large-scale studyof genetic materials present inmicrobes, enabling manymore scientists to access thetechnology worldwide.Jay Hinton, a professor ofmicrobial pathogenesis fromthe University of Liverpool,says that for any vaccines to beeffective, there is a need toknow more about the bacteriacausing the disease."Our project has providedthe best understanding of theSalmonella variantsresponsible for bloodstreaminfections in African countriesincluding DemocraticRepublic of Congo, Gambia,Mali, Malawi, Kenya, Senegaland Uganda in recent years -information that will beinvaluable for evaluating theimpact of the [Salmonella]vaccine rollout," Hintonexplained.Damaris Matoke-Muhia, amolecular biologist at theKenya Medical ResearchInstitute (KEMRI), says thatpeople trained in sequencingcan train others, in order tobuild a qualified workforce."Once the facilities areequipped with sequencingtools, it will help withcontinuous sequencing ofgenomes of interest and thiswill stop the shipment ofsamples that is usually donedue to lack of capacity,including sequencing SARS-CoV-2 variants," Matoke-Muhia tells.Sultan Mahmud Khan Rony: atorch bearer for country’s youthAzHAr AlI, BOGurACOrrEsPONDENTThe Bogura District AwamiLeague Publicity andPublication Secretary SultanMahmud Khan Rony has beenspotlighted as the beacon forthe country's youth. He hasbeen polite and thoughtfulsince his childhood.He isdedicated to literature, cultureand sports. As per him, in orderto build a strong nation,intelligence, tolerance andinnovative skills must beawakened in the youth. Theirleadership will take the countryto the forefront of the world. Inthis case, the most importantthing is to curate sports-lovingand culture-oriented mindsamong youth. As a result, theyouth get the openness of life,the formidable attitude of lifestruggle, and gain success. Bythem this society will becomefree of drug abuse, terror, andmilitancy.Father of the NationBangabandhu Sheikh MujiburRahman was a sports mindedand culture oriented personfrom his childhood. He becamethe leader of the nation at thetime when he first led a sportsteam at his early age. In orderfor this nation to be known asthe richest nation in the world,the young people have to berony poses for a portrait.managed properly. The youthare the shining stars of thecountry, nation and society, thefuture leaders of the nation. Inorder to make them drug free,they have to develop sports andculture. The country hasenough youth dependentenergy. It is our responsibilityPhoto: TBTto harness this power. It is withthis thought that SultanMahmud Khan Rony, theaspiring leader of the youthsociety of Bogura, made suchan effort to build the youthsociety as enlightened people.He has continued to supportthe neglected, miserable,disenfranchised and coldbloodedpeople of the society.He has distributed fooditems, health items and cashduring the Covid-19 pandemic.In particular, he providedfinancial assistance to poormeritorious students andsports. In the past, this youngleader was former VP ofBogura Government ShahSultan College StudentParliament, GS, DistrictChhatra League Social WelfareSecretary, Joint Convener,General Secretary, MunicipalAwami League Joint Convenerand now District AwamiLeague Publicity andPublication Secretary. Besides,he is currently directly andindirectly involved with varioussocial, cultural and educationalinstitutions including panelchairman of Bogura districtcouncil, additional generalsecretary of district sportsbody, president of districtfootball association, lifemember of Bogura DiabetesAssociationHe has been able to placehimself in the heart of the massby his good behavior.Especially the entrepreneurial,sports-loving, literary-minded,culture-minded people who arecreative thinkers, nurture himas a source of encouragement.EsTHEr NAkkAzISix African countries are to receivetechnology that will enable them tomanufacture COVID-19 vaccines, in aneffort to reduce reliance on producersoutside the continent, the World HealthOrganization (WHO) has announced.Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, SouthAfrica and Tunisia will get access to themessenger RNA (mRNA) vaccinetechnology along with knowledgeneeded to manufacture the vaccinesand support in training scientists, theWHO said.The rollout is part of a global initiativeaimed at helping low- and middleincomecountries to access thetechnology for producing mRNAvaccines at scale and to internationalstandards in order to stem the COVID-19 pandemic.MRNA vaccines, used by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for their shots,work by instructing cells to produce aprotein which triggers an immuneresponse to fight viruses when theyenter the body. These two companieshave so far delivered the majority oftheir doses to rich countries, leavinglower-income countries out in the cold."No other event like the COVID-19pandemic has shown that reliance on afew companies to supply global publicAfrica’s COVID-19 fight bolstered with tech transfergoods is limiting, and dangerous," saidWHO director-general TedrosAdhanom Ghebreyesu, at a ceremonyon Friday (18 February) hosted by theEuropean Council, France, South Africaand the WHO during the EuropeanUnion-African Union summit inBrussels.The announcement was greeted withexcitement in Africa where only about12 per cent of the population are fullyvaccinated against COVID-19,according to data from the AfricaCentres for Disease Control andPrevention (Africa CDC)."I'm really pleased to see thisprogress," said Africa CDC directorJohn Nkengasong." The way we fightthe next pandemic will be verydifferent because the continent wouldhave been producing diagnostics andvaccines."The development follows the creationof an mRNA vaccine technologytransfer hub run by a WHO consortiumin South Africa, which will sharetechnical know-how with vaccinemanufacturers in the six countries.The WHO and partners will train andhelp build up the necessary workforceacross the value chain, said Tedros, witha training hub to be announced in thecoming weeks.South African president CyrilRamaphosa said that enabling Africa tomake its own vaccines meant "mutualrespect and recognition of what we canall bring to the party, investment in oureconomies, infrastructure investmentand, in many ways, giving back to thecontinent".He added: "Organisations such asCOVAX [the initiative for equal accessto COVID-19 vaccines] and Gavi [theVaccine Alliance] need to commit tobuying vaccines from our localmanufacturers. They need to buy themfrom the locally produced hubs oncethey get going."Ramaphosa also called uponEuropean countries to approve anintellectual property waiver on COVIDtechnology, which has been before theWorld Trade Organization for over ayear."Governments that are really seriousabout ensuring that the world hasaccess to vaccines should ensure that weapprove the TRIPS [Trade-RelatedAspects of Intellectual Property Rights]waiver as we've put it forward," headded.Ultimately the mRNA tech transferhub will promote access to vaccines foreveryone, strengthen health securityand promote self-reliance for the future,according to the WHO. It says thetechnology can also be used for insulinto treat diabetes, cancer medicines and,potentially, vaccines for diseases suchas malaria, tuberculosis and HIV."Diversifying mRNA vaccinemanufacturing capacity to lowandmiddle-income countries should be aglobal health priority," said DoctorsWithout Borders (MSF), in response tothe WHO announcement."More regions producing mRNAvaccines as essential preparednessagainst infectious diseases could bolsterthe response not only to COVID-19 andfuture infectious diseases, but alsopotentially to existing ones such asmalaria, tuberculosis and HIV."German biotechnology companyBioNTech announced on Wednesday(16 February) that it will createaccessible technology for mRNAmanufacturing in Rwanda and Senegalin 2022 - with a fill-and-finishcollaboration in Ghana. Fill-and-finishis the process of filling vials with vaccineand finishing the process of packagingthe medicine for distribution.Earlier this month Afrigen, which ispart of the WHO's South Africaconsortium, announced it haddeveloped its own version of an mRNAshot, based on publicly available data onthe composition of the Modernavaccine, to be tested in the comingmonths.Patrick Tippoo, executive director ofthe Africa Vaccine ManufacturingInitiative (AVMI), told SciDev.Net thatwhile access to technology in terms ofwritten recipes and permission to usethem was important, Africa needed tobe confident of securing and sustaininga market for its products.The WHO has announced that six African countries are to receive technologyto enable them to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines. Photo: Hakan German
Page 1 and 2: thursdAyDhAkA: March3, 2022; Falgun
Page 3: THURSDAY, MARCH 3, 20223The Flag Ho
Page 7 and 8: 7THUrSDAY, MArCH 3, 2022Australians
Page 9 and 10: thurSDAY, MArch 3, 20229the tigers
Page 11 and 12: Illegal settlements have been demol

03-03-2022

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?