1000 Nigerian Naira equals £1.03

‘Nigerian President Bola Tinubu addressed the nation in an evening broadcast on Monday, acknowledging the economic hardship caused by the removal of a subsidy on petrol.

He however said the country would save “trillions of naira” yearly by scrapping the subsidy and that the money would be used to implement reforms that would help boost the economy.

Ending the decades-long subsidy has more than doubled the price of petrol and raised prices for food and other essentials.

But Tinubu said the government had created a fund to use the savings to build much-needed infrastructure and supply cheap loans to farmers, small businesses and students.

He said the government would monitor petrol prices and intervene if and when it was necessary to do so.

“I assure you, my fellow countrymen and women, that we are exiting the darkness to enter a new and glorious dawn,” he said at the end of his address.’

https://www.africanews.com/2023/08/01/nigerian-president-justifies-removal-of-fuel-subsidy/

Related?

‘A total curfew was imposed on Sunday in a state in northeastern Nigeria where hundreds of residents engaged in massive looting of shops and public warehouses where food was stored, authorities said. 

Teenagers living on the street started the looting , but were soon joined by hundreds of residents who entered these places where food, especially cereals, was stored before taking them away.

“Adamawa State Governor Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri has issued a 24-hour curfew…with immediate effect ,” his spokesman, Humwashi Wonosikou , said on Sunday . “With the curfew imposed, there will be no movement statewide” .

Local police also said security personnel had been deployed to enforce the curfew and prevent future looting.

Nigeria , the most populous country in Africa and the continent’s largest economy, has been facing a serious economic crisis since 2016, aggravated by the coronavirus pandemic , then the Russian offensive in Ukraine.

Nearly half of its 215 million people live in extreme poverty (on less than $2 a day) despite its huge oil reserves .

For the past two months, poverty has worsened in the country as the new president Bola Tinubu has taken a series of economic measures aimed at reviving long-term investments, but with serious effects on household wallets.

Last month, the president notably ended fuel subsidies , causing gas prices to quadruple, and indirectly skyrocketing food prices.

In mid-July, he announced a “State of emergency on food security” , promising massive investments in agriculture, and money transfers to the poorest.

Earlier this year, the UN already predicted that more than 25 million Nigerians would be at “high risk” of food insecurity in 2023, not counting recent inflation .

Northeast Nigeria is particularly affected by food insecurity, as a 14-year-old conflict between the army and jihadist groups has displaced millions of people there and driven farmers away from their land’.

https://www.africanews.com/2023/07/31/nigeria-curfew-in-adamawa-state-after-massive-looting/

British capitalism wants to do its bit in the fight against the rising, and more rising cost of living. It wants to do its bit to protect profits! Wait for the, if you’ve done nothing wrong you’ve nothing to fear, argument to appear.

The Observer, 29th July, carried a story about the Home Office secretly planning ‘to lobby the independent privacy regulator in an attempt to push the rollout of controversial facial recognition technology into high street shops and supermarkets’.

The covert strategy was agreed during a closed-door meeting on 8 March between policing minister Chris Philp, senior Home Office officials and the private firm Facewatch, whose facial recognition cameras have provoked fierce opposition after being installed in shops.

In a development that ignores critics who claim the technology breaches human rights and is biased, particularly against darker-skinned people, minutes of the meeting appear to show Home Office officials agreeing to write to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) advocating the merits of facial recognition technology in tackling “retail crime”.

Mark Johnson, advocacy manager of the campaign group Big Brother Watch, said: “The Home Office must urgently answer questions about this meeting, which appears to have led officials to lean on the ICO in order to favour a firm that sells highly invasive facial recognition technology.

“Government ministers should strive to protect human rights, not cosy up to private companies whose products pose serious threats to civil liberties in the UK.”

The minutes of the previously undisclosed meeting reveal that Philp – appointed policing minister by Rishi Sunak last October – and Simon Gordon, the founder of Facewatch, discussed “retail crime and the benefits of privately owned facial recognition technology”’.

Big Brother Watch have also said, ‘ Home Office Minister Chris Philp is pushing police forces and shops to start rolling out Orwellian live facial recognition technology.

Just last month Northamptonshire Police announced they were deploying live facial recognition against protesters. This came days after the European Court of Human Rights found Russia’s use of the same technology to arrest a protester was unlawful.

Live facial recognition uses cameras to scan the facial features of members of the public in open spaces, comparing their faces to a hidden watchlist database of images in real time. This suspicionless mass surveillance tool treats everyone like a potential criminal, and has no place in the UK.

Live facial recognition is not an efficient crime fighting tool, with the police’s own statistics revealing that more than 8 out of 10 facial recognition matches have been inaccurate since its introduction.

Walking down the street anonymously could soon be a thing of the past if the spread of live facial recognition is not resisted.

While lawmakers in the EU are edging closer to passing an all out ban on the use of live facial recognition in public spaces through the Artificial Intelligence Act, the UK is aligning itself with autocracies like Russia and China.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/jul/29/home-office-secretly-backs-facial-recognition-technology-to-curb-shoplifting

https://bigbrotherwatch.org.uk/campaigns/stop-facial-recognition/

A report from Eurostat.( EU statistical office) says that according to its data, there was an increase in the number of Germans who did not have enough money for meals comprising of meat, fish, poultry or a vegetarian equivalent every day in 2022,

The new figures, released by German corporate newsroom Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland demonstrated a year-on-year increase of 0.9% to 11.4%, meaning that nearly 10 million people in the most populous EU nation often lacked proper meals.

That number rises to 19.3%, when it comes to single parents, marking a rise of 2.6% compared to the previous year.

The statistics were requested by the opposition Die Linke party.

And, as noted in many pieces on SOYMB, the myopic sticking plaster solution is the one advocated, not the only real solution to this problem and many others, the abolition of capitalism and the introduction of Socialism

.Commenting on the figures, the faction’s leader in the Bundestag (parliament), Dietmar Bartsch, called for a temporary suspension of sales tax on essential food items and for the state to control supermarket pricing.

“The supermarket has become a rip-off stronghold,” Bartsch said as cited by state media outlet Deutsche Welle, “The higher the prices, the more people resort to eating noodles with ketchup.”

He added that children were among the particularly vulnerable groups exposed to the problem, and demanded the introduction of a guaranteed basic child allowance.

Germany, along with a number of EU member states, has been struggling with soaring consumer prices, causing people to cut back on expenses. In June, inflation in the Eurozone’s leading economy hit 6.4% in annual terms.

An Observer article, 30 July, quotes the Joseph Rowntree Foundation which has data that shows that 2.3 million low-income families have reported taking out loans or using credit to pay essential bills during the ongoing capitalist cost of living crisis. With another expected interest rate rise possibly in the offing there are concerns about ‘a “time bomb of debt” among poorer households’.

Are we about to see another plethora of advertisements through various outlets for the loan companies whose interest rates run into three or four figures?

The article says that, ‘Nearly 6 million low-income families have unsecured debt, such as credit cards, overdrafts and personal loans from banks, credit unions and payday lenders. In May this year, they owed £14.2bn in total. Interest on this debt was £3.9bn, equivalent to about £675 a year per family’.

Further, ‘Using credit to pay bills is not preventing households from falling behind with payments. Three-quarters report arrears with at least one household bill or lending commitment, with 44% in arrears with three or more bills. Meanwhile 2.8 million low-income households said they had been refused a loan between May 2021 and May 2023’.

Those running charities aiming to help, one way or another, those burdened down with overwhelming debt problems ought to get themselves off to SpecSavers because the same myopic ‘solutions,’ which are not long term solutions, are being trotted out.

StepChange, a debt charity says, ‘ “It is crucial the government continues to uprate benefits with inflation and looks for ways to increase income for the most vulnerable households, for example by stopping unaffordable deductions from universal credit to repay government debts.” ‘

The government said, ‘ “We know people are struggling with rising prices, which is why we are delivering support worth on average £3,300 per household, (citation needed) uprating benefits in line with inflation and have increased the national living wage.

“We have invested a record £90m to support free debt advice in England and our Breathing Space scheme gives those facing financial difficulties space to receive debt advice, without pressure from creditors or mounting debts.

“Deductions help to protect claimants from enforcement actions such as eviction, make sure priority debts like child maintenance are addressed and recover money when overpayments are made.”’

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2023/jul/30/millions-of-uk-families-using-credit-cards-and-loans-to-pay-basic-bills

For those whose lives are desolated by the nature of capitalism there are other costs which add to the existing pressures: mental health issues, damaged relationships, and removal of the ability to live life to its fullest.

As the blessed Margaret Thatcher once incorrectly remark, there is no alternative. But there is. It’s Socialism, a money-free, class-free society free access to goods and services will consign this blight to the dustbin of history forever.

From a foreign news source, a report about the hardships the Dutch continue to suffer as energy utility consumer costs continue to rise. What’s going to happen when winter comes and the option to use as little energy as possible is dramatically reduced by the need not to freeze to death?

‘Household energy bills in the Netherlands are up drastically from last year, despite government subsidies and a consumer price cap.

The average gas and electricity bill rocketed by 37% in June compared to the same month of last year, data released last week by Statistics Netherlands (CBS) revealed. The increase will add €630 ($702) to annual household energy costs, bringing the average bill to €2,320 ($2,586) per year, compared to €1,691 last June.

Wholesale energy prices across the EU rose dramatically last year as Russian supplies shrank, following sanctions resulting from the Ukraine conflict.

Last October, the Dutch government announced a relief package of €23.5 billion to compensate for the rise in energy tariffs. The country has also introduced a consumer price cap, amounting to €1.45 per cubic meter of gas and €0.4 per kilowatt hour of electricity.

However, even with state aid, energy bills in the country are still higher than last June, partly due to increased taxes, the NL Times news outlet noted. The Dutch government has provided fewer tax discounts on energy, while a temporary reduction in the VAT rate has also been reversed.

Higher prices have forced Dutch families to slash energy consumption, taking an average of €40 off annual bills for gas and electricity, according to CBS.

Economists warn that the average household energy bill in the Netherlands may reach €2,500 once the state-imposed price cap expires in 2024.’

From the BBC News website: ‘The number of rough sleepers in London has risen by more than a fifth in the past year, the latest figures show.’

The BBC quotes a report by the Combined Homelessness and Information Network (Chain) which says that people sleeping rough for the first time rose by more than twenty five percent.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-66030583

There are lots of statistics given: ‘figures, released in a report commissioned and funded by the Greater London Authority (GLA), found that 10,053 people were seen sleeping on the streets between April 2022 and March 2023.

This figure was up by almost 21% from 8,329 in the same period a year before. First time rough sleepers in London rose to 6,391 – an almost 26% rise compared with 5,091 from the same period in 2021/22… some 2,084 people had been seen rough sleeping for at least two consecutive years.

After more than a year without sleeping rough, 1,578 people returned to the streets…the number of people in this situation increased by almost a third (31%) from 1,205 the previous year.’

There is recognition that this is an unacceptable situation; ‘Homelessness charity St Mungo’s branded it a “tragic reflection” of the cost-of-living crisis and lack of affordable housing’. The Mayor of London described the rise as “extremely alarming”’.

Although the sincerity to alleviate and end this dire situation for all the individuals forced to live on the streets is accepted the ‘solutions’, as is too often the case within capitalism are of the sticking plaster variety treating the effect not the cause.

The Mayor of London: ‘despite previous progress, “extraordinary financial pressures are putting the poorest Londoners at growing risk of homelessness”. His solution, ‘ he would like to be handed powers from the government to bring in rent controls’. Further, ‘ministers must “get a grip on the cost-of-living crisis and restore the social security safety net which stops people becoming trapped in a cycle of homelessness”’. And, “They (the government) must also invest in new council and genuinely affordable homes and restore London Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of market rents”’.

A government commitment had previously been made to end rough sleeping by the end of this Parliament.

The CEO of St Mungo’s underlined some of the issues which contributed toward homelessness: “The shrinking supply of affordable homes in the private rented sector, and the chronic undersupply of social housing, means people are struggling to find and keep somewhere to live… without “immediate intervention, the number of people sleeping rough will continue to rise”.

It’s perhaps too much to ask that capitalism would be recognised as the underlying cause.

Does this Blog protesteth too much? Cometh the hour, cometh the man.

Perhaps not on a par with Henry V’s Saint Crispin Day speech but stepping into the breech to eliminate the slay the dragon of homelessness (apologies for mixed metaphors. Ed.) comes Prince William to the rescue. Big sigh of relief. We can now all sleep safely in our beds. Well not if you’re homeless you can’t.

‘It’s a sad reality that in 2023 homelessness still exists. That is why Prince William and The Royal Foundation of The Prince and Princess of Wales have launched Homewards: a transformative five-year, locally led programme that will aim to demonstrate that together it’s possible to end homelessness – making it rare, brief and unrepeated’.

https://homewards.org.uk/

The Royal family own nineteen properties.

https://www.countryliving.com/uk/homes-interiors/property/a29509536/royal-family-properties/

There does not seem to be a town, village or smaller area anywhere in the UK where homeless individuals will not now be found. Socialists are just as repulsed by this social ill as anyone.

Our solution is not more sticking plaster but a maddeningly simple one – abolish capitalism and replace it with a social system where goods and services are produced for use, not profit.

Asda’s profit margins on fuel have tripled since before the pandemic, according to the competition regulator at a bad-tempered parliamentary hearing where the supermarket chain’s co-owner repeatedly refused to explain its pricing strategy.

Mohsin Issa declined to answer multiple questions on whether Asda had increased its profit margins on fuel since its takeover in 2021, prompting MPs on the business select committee to become increasingly furious as the retailer insisted it had not changed its strategy.

Petrol has become a lightning rod for concerns about the rising cost of living as soaring inflation on food, energy and other everyday essentials has squeezed household budgets.

Supermarkets are under the spotlight with the CMA also set to report on whether they have been banking additional profits on groceries – so called ‘greedflation’.

Jonathan Gullis, an MP on the committee, said on Wednesday that “people were being ripped off at the pump” at a time when the cost of living was “already forcing a squeeze at the till from supermarkets”. He said that only when the competition watchdog effectively “named and shamed” what was happening that “suddenly supermarkets magically managed to find a way to take 6p per litre off their costs”.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) published a report this month saying drivers were paying more for petrol and diesel than before the Covid pandemic because of “weakened” competition.

The CMA told the committee there had been a “significant change” in the supermarket’s pricing approach after its £6.8 billion takeover by the billionaire Issa brothers and their private equity partner in 2021. Asda is now set to buy the UK arm of the Issas’ EG Group petrol forecourts business for £2.27bn, tightening its grip at the pump.

Darren Jones, the chairman of the committee, said a whistleblower had told him that under Asda’s former owner Walmart, the retailer had aimed to be at least 1p per litre cheaper than its nearest rival but the new owners had reduced that target to just 0.1p.

In faltering words, a quietly-spoken Issa refused to confirm whether that was the case, saying there were many elements that contributed to decisions on fuel pricing.

Before Issa gave evidence, Dan Turnbull, the director of the CMA, told the committee that the chain had stuck with its strategy of being price leader but had altered course on two other aspects – increasing profit margins and to “deliberately feather” prices – or to take more time to react to drops in the wholesale price of fuel. He said this was particularly the case on diesel where there had been a lot of volatility in prices.

“We found that between 2021 and 2023 they significantly increased their internal fuel margin targets on a pence per litre basis, and indeed by 2023 those pence per litre targets were three times what they’d been in 2019,” he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/jul/19/asdas-profit-margins-at-the-pump-have-trebled-mps-told

Kenyans are experiencing the effects of both capitalism and the futility of trusting in ‘leaders’. The soaring cost of living has led to protests with extreme violence resulting, according to the United Nations human Rights Office, in protesters deaths and injuries. To protect its power, and those of the asset owning class, the State will always initially resort to those members of the working class who have undertaken to defend bourgeoisie interests even to the extent of beating and shooting fellow workers.

‘Kenyan opposition leader Raila Odinga has called for three days of anti-government protests starting on Wednesday.

The latest demonstrations are against tax hikes and follow two previous sets of protests this year against the soaring cost of living in East Africa’s economic hub and alleged malpractice in last year’s presidential election, which Odinga lost.

The new taxes were to take effect on July 1, but a Nairobi court halted their implementation pending further legal proceedings. Still, a tax increase on petroleum products was imposed, increasing fuel costs.

Odinga said more protests could be held after this week.

What are the latest protests about?

Odinga announced the protests on June 14 against a new finance bill, which introduced a 1.5 percent housing levy, a 16 percent tax on petroleum products and a 16 percent value-added tax (VAT) on money that policyholders receive as compensation from insurance companies.

“That finance bill will be the last nail in the coffin,” Odinga told his supporters. “If it is passed, it will make Kenyans slaves of paying taxes. …When they pass that bill, that will be the trumpet call. Will you be ready?”

The bill was signed into law on June 26.

On July 10, Kenya’s High Court extended an order barring Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u from implementing it.

The government mostly obeyed the ruling except for the Energy and Petroleum Regulatory Authority, which increased fuel prices, triggering an increase in public transport costs.

The price increases are from 182.04 shillings ($1.29) to 195.53 shillings ($1.38) per litre of petrol, 164.28 shillings ($1.16) to 176.67 shillings ($1.25) for a litre of diesel and from 161.48 shillings ($1.14) to 173.44 shillings ($1.22) per litre of kerosene.

What is the finance act about? 

During the presidential campaign,the eventual winner, William Ruto, promised to reduce the cost of living and positioned himself as a poor “hustler” eager to wrest power away from the ruling dynasties that President Uhuru Kenyatta and Odinga, sons of independent Kenya’s first president and vice president, represented. The younger Kenyatta endorsed the younger Odinga rather than his deputy, but Ruto was declared the winner and was sworn into office in September. President Ruto inherited an enormous government debt. At the time Kenyatta took office in 2013, it stood at 1.79 trillion shillings ($13bn). By the time Kenyatta left office, it had ballooned to 8.7 trillion shillings ($61bn).

Ruto then removed fuel subsidies, leading to a spike in the prices of basic commodities like bread and maize flour, which are directly affected by the cost of energy and transport.“In addition to being very costly, consumption subsidy interventions are prone to abuse, they distort markets and create uncertainty, including artificial shortages of the very products being subsidised,” he said in his inauguration speech.

New taxes followed. In addition to the housing levy, petroleum products tax and insurance compensation tax, digital assets taxes were also introduced. The government also imposed a 3 percent levy on transfer charges applied during the exchange of assets that cover non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, and digital currencies.

The finance act also introduced a 15 percent withholding tax for digital content creators, a 35 percent tax for people earning above 500,000 shillings ($3,536) annually and the VAT on petroleum products was increased from 8 percent to 16 percent.

According to economists, the law will increase tax revenues collected from high-income earners while shrinking individual net income for low-income earners because of increased tax burdens.

What have the effects of the protests been?

According to a statement by a spokesman for the United Nations Human Rights Office, up to 23 people were killed by the police and dozens were injured in demonstrations in the past week. A couple of opposition members were also arrested.

“The UN is very concerned by the widespread violence and allegations of disproportionate use of force, including the use of firearms by the police during protests in Kenya,” Jeremy Laurence said. “We call for prompt, thorough, independent and transparent investigations into the deaths and injuries.

”What happens next? 

Thousands of opposition supporters have protested in Nairobi and a number of other cities on back-to-back Mondays and Thursdays despite a strong pushback from law enforcement, so massive numbers are expected for the protests this week’.

https://www.aljazeeracom/news/2023/7/18/kenya-braces-for-3-days-of-anti-govt-protest-all-the-details

Namibia is a a country in Southern Africa. Its population is over two million eight hundred thousand. Twenty six per cent of its population live in extreme poverty.

 The most deprivation occurs in the the rural areas.

https://worldpoverty.io/ma

A report in the Namibian would appear to indicate that almost half of Namibia’s population are living in poverty or extreme poverty.

‘Almost half of the country’s population are faced with poverty, says prime minister Saara Kuugongelwa-Amadhila. She was speaking at the launch of the delayed sixth National Development Plan (NDP6) by the National Planning Commission (NPC).

Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said the government had reduced poverty from 38% to about 18%, however, matters have since worsened.

“If you look at the new formula to calculate poverty, close to 50% of the population is living under poverty,” she said. Since 2016, the country experienced a macro-economic deterioration which exposed Namibia’s vulnerability to external shocks, Kuugongelwa-Amadhila said.

“These had a negative impact on our poverty and inequality. In fact, the gains we made in reducing poverty were almost completely wiped out,” she said.

A month ago, The Namibian reported that the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said 43% of the country’s population are experiencing multidimensional poverty.

According to the UNFPA 2022 annual report, the Gini coefficient index shows that income inequality in Namibia stands at 57,2%.

The Gini index is a summary measure of income inequality, which incorporates the detailed shared data into a single statistic, summarising the dispersion of income across the entire income distribution.

The report indicates that the unemployment rate stands at 33,4%, with youths aged 15-34 taking up 46,1%, while women take up 48,5%.

The report further indicates that 46% of households are female-headed, while 41% are male-headed.

At that time, economic analyst Arney Tjaronda told The Namibian these figures are not surprising, as the cost of living has drastically increased while salaries remain low.

He said most concerning is the high unemployment rate in the country, and a job market that is unable to absorb the high number of graduates’.

https://www.namibian.com.na/nearly-50-of-population-living-in-poverty-says-pm/

An unemployment rate of over a third with young people and women being affected the most means that many Nambians are struggling under capitalism.

The World Bank notes: ‘Economic advantage remains in the hands of a relatively small segment of the population, and significant inequality continues. This lack of inclusiveness and society’s vast disparities have led to a dual economy—a highly developed modern sector, co-existing with an informal subsistence-oriented one’.

‘Namibia ranks as one of the world’s most unequal countries. Its Gini coefficient of 59.1 in 2015 was second only to South Africa. Geographical disparities in both economic opportunities and access to services are large and widening. High levels of inequality result in starkly different poverty rates across different groups, including by age and gender’.

‘Due to consistently negative per capita GDP growth since 2016, and the negative impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods, poverty rates are projected to have increased. Typically, female-headed households, less educated, larger families, children and the elderly, and labourers in subsistence farming, are particularly prone to poverty.

https://www.worldbank.org/en/country/namibia/overview

Capitalism is global. Capitalism is the cause of such misery. Capitalism is not the solution. Socialism is.

‘.