United Party

Harry Oppenheimer biography shows the South African mining magnate’s hand in economic policies

Retrieved on: 
Friday, June 2, 2023

Based on a remarkable depth of research, it is written in an elegant style which makes for a delightfully easy read.

Key Points: 
  • Based on a remarkable depth of research, it is written in an elegant style which makes for a delightfully easy read.
  • It is rendered the more impressive by the author’s deep conversance with the debates over the relationships between mining capital, Afrikaner nationalism and apartheid.
  • Cardo’s reckoning is that Oppenheimer transcended his country’s parochial political arena to become a significant figure on the world stage.

The man behind the money

    • Yet Oppenheimer emerges from this study not as a “malevolent monster” (p.1) but as a personally likeable individual, intensely loyal to his friends.
    • One who was highly cultured and sophisticated, with a deep love of art, literature, old books and antiques for their own sake, rather than for opulent display.
    • His devotion to his Anglican faith was deep and real, underlying his perhaps too-convenient conviction that wealth and power could be combined with “doing good”.
    • His father, Ernest, was the founder of the Oppenheimer empire, but Harry would become its consolidator (p.18).

The conservative liberal

    • He served as the party’s financial spokesman and was touted as a future leader.
    • Later, when liberals formed the Progressive Party, he lent them his firm support.
    • Cardo characterises Oppenheimer’s liberalism as “pragmatic”, opposing the idea of a universal franchise.
    • Regarding himself heir to British colonialist and businessman Cecil Rhodes, he deplored the threat to civilisation represented by “primitive tribesmen”.

The influential magnate

    • He exercised all the soft power at his disposal, through Anglo and his personal contacts with politicians locally and internationally.
    • His advice to prime minister and president PW Botha to inaugurate multiracial negotiations was ignored.
    • But when Botha’s notorious “Rubicon” speech in August 1985 prompted a massive outflow of capital, he urged US companies to resist the disinvestment drive.
    • All these efforts were capped by Gavin Relly, who had succeeded Oppenheimer as chairman of Anglo, meeting with the ANC in exile.
    • Oppenheimer and Anglo now reached out to leading figures in the ANC to reshape their ideas on the economy.
    • This book does not offer a radical re-interpretation of either the Oppenheimers or the Anglo-American empire.

In B.C., Alberta and around the world, forcing drug users into treatment is a violent policy

Retrieved on: 
Saturday, May 27, 2023

Intervention without human rights goes by many names — involuntary institutionalization, compulsory drug treatment, “coerced care,” forced abstinence or a combination of all of those terms.

Key Points: 
  • Intervention without human rights goes by many names — involuntary institutionalization, compulsory drug treatment, “coerced care,” forced abstinence or a combination of all of those terms.
  • Involuntary treatment in the Global South has been labelled inhumane by rights-based organizations, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, UNAIDS and Human Rights Watch.
  • In Alberta, Danielle Smith’s UCP has also proposed apprehending those with, in her words, “severe drug addiction.”

Increased risk of overdose

    • The evidence shows that forced treatment leads to increased risk of death and deprives survivors of autonomy, while no positive benefits have been established.
    • From Mexico to Sweden, Vancouver and England, involuntary treatment has been found to increase risk of overdose and shows no significant impact on substance use patterns.

Lowered tolerance

    • These overdoses are trending away from being predominantly non-fatal to being deadly due to the toxicity of the supply.
    • People are being discharged into the same living conditions with lowered tolerance.

Settler colonial violence continues

    • But reports suggest it is occurring through misuse of the province’s Mental Health Act.
    • The B.C.
    • Involuntary psychiatric detentions among youth, however, are at an all-time high in the province.
    • As with most punitive and carceral policies in Canada, the province’s Mental Health Act is used disproportionately against Indigenous people in British Columbia, including children — a disturbing continuation of the violence against Indigenous children that Canada is founded upon.

Relying on involuntary treatment

    • Involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations under the B.C.
    • Mental Health Act for those older than 14 also increased to 23,531 from 14,195 from 2008 until 2018 in the province.
    • Relying on a system designed to criminalize drug use, while temporarily stabilizing people via involuntary mental health treatment, risks causing further harm, trauma and death.
    • Read more:
      As an Indigenous doctor, I see the legacy of residential schools and ongoing racism in today's health care

Moral panics

    • Expanding forced treatment in Canada and elsewhere stems from the same moral panics that drove earlier drug prohibition regimes imposed through colonial power.
    • Provinces should collaborate with municipalities and health boards to expand life-saving and life-affirming safe use sites, and all levels of government must urgently prioritize solutions to the housing crisis.

Is democracy on the ballot in west Africa? What the latest data tells us

Retrieved on: 
Tuesday, April 4, 2023

Democracy indices compiled by respected organisations have suggested that around the world, there’s an increase in authoritarianism or democratic backsliding.

Key Points: 
  • Democracy indices compiled by respected organisations have suggested that around the world, there’s an increase in authoritarianism or democratic backsliding.
  • One way to evaluate potential democratic backsliding is to examine nationally representative public opinion data.
  • We’ve done so for three west African countries that have yet to hold elections in 2023: Sierra Leone (June), Liberia (October) and Togo (December).
  • Drawing on recently collected data from Afrobarometer, a non-partisan research network, we identified four themes prevalent in citizens’ attitudes about the democratic process.

Demand for elections

    • First, a large majority of citizens in all three countries agreed that their national leaders should be chosen through regular, honest and open elections (see figure 1).
    • Indeed, Liberia and Sierra Leone valued elections more than most other Africans.

Free and fair elections

    • Second, a minority of citizens believed the last national elections in their country had been fraught with major problems or had been entirely unfree and unfair.
    • As the table below shows, Liberia’s and Sierra Leone’s citizens reported fairly positive perceptions of their last national elections.
    • Most (86% and 82%) said that the most recent elections had been free and fair or only had minor problems, respectively.
    • These institutional barriers figured prominently in the country’s major opposition parties’ decisions to boycott the 2018 legislative elections.

Electoral violence

    • Third, and perhaps most worrying, is that a majority of survey respondents in three of the four west African countries believed that multiparty electoral competition led to violence often or always.
    • Some of these countries have a history of political violence.

Solutions for citizens’ most pressing issues

    • Fourth, citizens in these countries said they would evaluate governing parties on their ability to provide solutions to the countries’ most pressing problems.
    • The figure below illustrates that routine concerns like economic management, the supply of public goods and infrastructural quality weigh heavily on citizens’ minds.
    • So presidential incumbents running for reelection in Sierra Leone and Liberia will have to take responsibility for their nations’ successes and failures.
    • These issues are likely to feature heavily on the campaign trails in the coming months.

Midnight Sun Congratulates Zambian President-elect

Retrieved on: 
Monday, August 23, 2021

Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 23, 2021) - Midnight Sun Mining Corp. (TSXV: MMA) (the "Company" or "Midnight Sun") extends congratulations to President-Elect Mr. Hakainde Hichilema and the United Party for National Development on the recent Zambian General Election.

Key Points: 
  • Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - August 23, 2021) - Midnight Sun Mining Corp. (TSXV: MMA) (the "Company" or "Midnight Sun") extends congratulations to President-Elect Mr. Hakainde Hichilema and the United Party for National Development on the recent Zambian General Election.
  • "I would like to congratulate Mr. Hichilema on his victory, and I look forward to working with his government on the creation of economic opportunities in the country through mineral exploration and development of the Solwezi Licences."
  • Stated Al Fabbro, President and CEO of Midnight Sun, "Additionally, I would like to acknowledge the Zambian people - they continue to show the world how deeply Zambia values democracy, as illustrated by the tremendous voter turnout, track-record of orderly elections, and peaceful transitions of power."
  • ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF MIDNIGHT SUN MINING CORP.