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The Way of the Ancestors and how it can help us hear The Voice

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星期二, 十月 3, 2023

The book opens a window into the private Aboriginal world of law, justice and politics.

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The book opens a window into the private Aboriginal world of law, justice and politics.
But the thrust of The Way of the Ancestors goes deeper into the law governing human relationships, authority, justice, reconciliation, and the settling of grievances (Makarrata).
Already published are those on Songlines, Design, Country, Astronomy and Plants, with an edition on Innovation to be released shortly.
Indeed, for the first time the outside world is permitted to glimpse the deep concepts, practices, and emotions of a way of living that sustained 2000 generations.

Building ‘moral muscle’

The colonisers’ common law, while containing provisions respecting individual rights, was largely intended to protect property and good order.
The constitution they constructed for Federation, explicitly excluded First Peoples, along with Chinese and other non-Europeans, from citizenship.
Indigenous law’s purpose is not to protect the wealth, power, and property of the leadership class.
The capital of Indigenous society is intellectual and moral, not material, and the law is about proper behaviour towards other people and the natural world.
Indigenous Law has evolved to ensure the wellbeing of the society by building the inner wellbeing of individuals and collective wellbeing.
The Yolungu see this as the building of “moral muscle”.

Managing emotions

Central to traditional life is learning to manage emotions, feelings that can be both productive and hideously destructive.
One strategy is the use of Pitjantjatjara/English fridge magnets containing the words for around 50 emotions in both languages.
Senior women had observed that young people, especially young males, could not express their emotions in either their own language or in English.

What do consumers think is the main driver of recent inflation?

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星期五, 九月 29, 2023

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Is the US banking crisis over?

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星期一, 九月 4, 2023

The US banking crisis triggered worries about the global banking system earlier in the year.

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The US banking crisis triggered worries about the global banking system earlier in the year.
Three mid-sized US banks, Silicon Valley Bank, Silvergate and Signature, fell in quick succession, driving down bank share-prices across the world.

Tight margins and dwindling deposits

In July, the Fed raised its key interest rate to as much as 5.5%, the highest in 20 years.
This saw more customers at other banks withdrawing deposits for fear that their money wasn’t safe either.
In sum, US banks saw deposits declining between June 2022 and June 2023 by almost 4%.
You can see the effect on banks’ profitability by looking at overall net interest margins (NIMs).

Credit rating downgrades

In early August, Fitch downgraded its rating of US government debt to AA+ from AAA.
Sovereign downgrades often reflect problems in the wider economy.
This can destabilise banks by making them seem less creditworthy, leading their credit ratings to be downgraded too.
Our research suggests bank downgrades are associated with making them riskier and more unstable, particularly when accompanied by a sovereign downgrade.

Regulatory intervention

These plans to increase banks’ capacity to absorb losses are encouraging, though will take more than four years to fully implement.
For the moment, the US banking system remains vulnerable both to shocks within the financial system and more general calamities.

What the pope’s visit to Mongolia says about his priorities and how he is changing the Catholic Church

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星期二, 八月 22, 2023

Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Mongolia, which is home to fewer than 1,500 Catholics, has elicited curiosity among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.

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Pope Francis’ upcoming visit to Mongolia, which is home to fewer than 1,500 Catholics, has elicited curiosity among Catholics and non-Catholics alike.
This will be the pope’s 43rd trip abroad since his election on March 13, 2013: He has visited 12 countries in the Americas, 11 in Asia and 10 in Africa.

Prioritizing the poor

While previous popes have included the poor in their speeches, what has distinguished this pope is that he has focused on the Global South and prioritized immigrants, refugees and the less privileged, from Bolivia to Myanmar to Mongolia.
At his July 2013 visit to the Italian island of Lampedusa to commemorate migrants who had drowned in the Mediterranean Sea, Francis gave a blistering critique of the world’s failure to care for the poor: “In this globalized world, we have fallen into globalized indifference.
And Josefina told me back in 2017 that this pope is “the real deal” in terms of supporting immigrants and the poor.

Francis and liberation theology

According to Austen Ivereigh prior to his becoming pope, Francis — then Jorge Mario Bergoglio – condemned liberation theology as well.
He would say “that they were for the people but never with them,” wrote Ivereigh, in his biography of Pope Francis.

Journeying to Mongolia

How does the pope’s upcoming visit to Mongolia factor into this decade-spanning trajectory of his people-focused liberation?
Christianity has been present in Mongolia since the seventh century.
In addition to this branch of Eastern Christianity, Tibetan Buddhism came to Mongolia in the 13th century, as did Islam.
Today, Buddhism is the dominant religion of Mongolia, while Islam and Christianity remain very small percentages at 3% and 2.5%.

A strategic visit

And yet, according to the World Bank, the economic forecast for Mongolia remains “promising” because of its rich natural resources, such as gold, copper, coal and other minerals.
Two rail lines connecting Mongolia to China were installed in January 2022 and a third is being built.
The pope’s visit will be bold given the challenges before Mongolia and its geographic location between Russia and China.

Zimbabwe heads to the polls amid high inflation, a slumping currency and a cost of living crisis

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星期四, 八月 10, 2023

Government, Exercise, Policy, Acceleration, Growth, Efficiency, Food, Health, Central, GDP, Education, Transparency International, Corruption, Cryptocurrency, Pig

Persistently high inflation, elevated interest rates, and a slumping and volatile Zimbabwe dollar have combined to fuel a cost of living crisis for households and battered business activity.

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Persistently high inflation, elevated interest rates, and a slumping and volatile Zimbabwe dollar have combined to fuel a cost of living crisis for households and battered business activity.
These will be among the key economic concerns weighing on Zimbabweans as they prepare to cast their votes at elections scheduled for late August.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa is campaigning to secure a second mandate that will extend his five-year term in power.
Additionally, the high pace of price growth has outpaced nominal wage growth, leaving many people struggling to afford everyday essentials.

Governance vulnerabilities

Governance broadly refers to institutions used to exercise authority by the government.
Long-running weaknesses in fiscal and central bank governance institutions have undermined the capacity of the government to effectively formulate and implement sound fiscal and monetary policies for many years.
This was done without fixing vulnerabilities in fiscal and monetary governance that had eventually led to the demise of the Zimbabwe dollar in 2009.
Because of these vulnerabilities, inflation skyrocketed to 255% in 2019 – a 23-fold increase from a year earlier as money supply growth quickened from 28% to 250% amid a widening government budget deficit which topped 10% of GDP in 2017.
The US dollar is also seen as a haven which has taken on greater importance as inflation remains stubbornly high.

Weaknesses in governance breed corruption

Weaknesses in governance also create opportunities for higher levels of government corruption, which can lead to public spending waste, inefficiencies and lower revenue collection.
In 2022, Transparency International ranked Zimbabwe 157 out of 180 countries based on perceived levels of public sector corruption, where the lower the rank the higher the perceived corruption.

A path forward

Banks plan to issue more debt instruments to counterbalance expected decline in central bank funding, the EBA funding plans Report shows

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星期二, 七月 25, 2023

EUR, Ohio Fair School Funding Plan (HB 1), European Banking Authority, EBA, EU, Report, Central, European, Bank

25 July 2023

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25 July 2023
The European Banking Authority (EBA) today published its annual funding plans Report, covering 159 banks that submitted their funding plans for a forecast period from 2023 to 2025.
As extraordinary long-term central bank funding matures, banks plan to shift to short-term and long-term debt securities instead.
This changing funding composition is particularly relevant in 2023 and 2024 when high amounts of central bank funding mature (TLTRO) and MREL targets become applicable.
Central bank rate hikes and the rise in spreads for market-based funding instruments have contributed to higher funding costs.

eNaira: Nigeria's digital currency has had a slow start - what's holding it back

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星期三, 七月 19, 2023

Nigeria was the first country in Africa to roll out a central bank digital currency.

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Nigeria was the first country in Africa to roll out a central bank digital currency.
Central bank digital currencies are well placed to serve as the anchor for all forms of digital assets and digital currencies.
The Central Bank of the Bahamas and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank have issued their own central bank digital currency.
Adoption has been slow and accessing central bank digital currency has been a challenge.
It is piloting its central bank digital currency, called e-CNY, in 26 cities but still experiencing poor adoption.

Barriers to adoption

It is believed that the Central Bank of Nigeria wants to develop its own software for the digital currency.
It is, however, reported that banks and financial institution staff do not appear well trained to get users on board.
So the system is not fully ready for adoption.
Data privacy: Under the current design, the central bank will be able to see all transactions of users of the eNaira.

Workable solutions

Users could also get incentives to use the digital currency, in the form of discounts when paying taxes and for other public services.
If these challenges can be surmounted and policy approaches to adoption implemented, adoption of the eNaira is likely to pick up.

Did the Anthropocene start in 1950 – or much earlier? Here's why debate over our world-changing impact matters

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星期二, 七月 18, 2023

The Anthropocene is the proposed new geological epoch defined by humanity’s impact on the planet.

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The Anthropocene is the proposed new geological epoch defined by humanity’s impact on the planet.
In short, Ellis believes pinning the start of our sizeable impact on the planet to 1950 is an error, given we’ve been changing the face of the planet for much longer.
The disagreement speaks to something vital to science – the ability to accommodate dissent through debate.

What’s the debate about?

Since most people aren’t scientists, we rely on the scientific community to hash out debate and present the best explanations for the data.
His resignation letter is explosive:
It’s […] [im]possible to avoid the reality that narrowly defining the Anthropocene […] has become more than a scholarly concern.
It’s […] [im]possible to avoid the reality that narrowly defining the Anthropocene […] has become more than a scholarly concern.
With the people gone, the trees regrew during the 17th century and covered the villages and cities, expanding the Amazon rainforest.

Why we should welcome honest disagreement in science

He’s not alone – other group members and experts have also worked to refute the epoch idea.
As philosopher of science Karl Popper and others have argued, productive scientific debate can only occur if there’s space for dissent and alternative perspectives.
Ellis clearly believes the Anthropocene group has gone from debate to group think, which, if true, would challenge the free exchange at the heart of science.
Bad faith actors seized on perceived issues in the emails and used them to claim anthropogenic climate change was fabricated.

What does this tension mean for the Anthropocene?

The epoch versus event debate doesn’t mean we’re off the hook in terms of our impact on the planet.
This is a complex story and we should not expect science to simplify it for political or other reasons.

Corals are starting to bleach as global ocean temperatures hit record highs

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星期五, 七月 14, 2023

Particularly concerning is how early in the summer we are seeing these high ocean temperatures.

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Particularly concerning is how early in the summer we are seeing these high ocean temperatures.
If the extreme heat persists, it could have dire consequences for coral reefs.
Just like humans, corals can handle some degree of stress, but the longer it lasts, the more harm it can do.

Why coral reefs matter to everyone

Healthy reefs are vibrant ecosystems that support fish and fisheries, which in turn support economies and food for millions of people.
When the surrounding waters get too warm for too long, the zooxanthellae leave the coral, and the coral can turn pale or white – a process known as bleaching.
In the Florida Keys, coral cover has decline by about 90% over the past several decades.

Coral bleaching in 2023

In the Port of Miami, where we have found particularly resilient coral communities, a doctoral candidate in my lab, Allyson DeMerlis, documented the first coral bleaching of her experimentally outplanted corals on July 11, 2023.
Other scientists we work with have reported coral bleaching off of Colombia, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Mexico in the eastern Pacific, as well as along the Caribbean coasts of Panama, Mexico and Belize.
However, global sea surface temperatures are at record highs, and large parts of the Atlantic and eastern Pacific are under bleaching alerts.

What can we do to protect corals?

Alice Webb, a coral reef scientist working with our group, recently published a study based on years of our research in the Florida Keys.
Major restoration efforts are underway in the Florida Keys as part of the NOAA-led Mission Iconic Reefs.
There isn’t currently a single silver-bullet solution, but ignoring the harm being done is not an option.

Christine Lagarde: Breaking the persistence of inflation

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星期三, 六月 28, 2023

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