Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Hollande must find answers -- fast; Niger worst country to be mom; Turbulence in India aviation; Cancellations hit Boeing, Airbus; Permit for self-drive car; A gracious revolution

1 Hollande must find the answers – fast (The Guardian) After a midnight appearance on stage among rock singers and party stalwarts at Paris's Bastille to address the crowds gathered to celebrate his election, Francois Hollande, who has so far stayed true to his "Mr Normal" reputation, arrived back at his nondescript, modern apartment building at 2am, ready to start work as France's new president-elect. The rightwing Nicolas Sarkozy is still president for another week before the Socialists move into the Élysée Palace for the first time since 1995.

Hollande knows he has no honeymoon period. He takes power in a country that is crippled with public debt, high unemployment, stuttering growth, decimated industry, low competitiveness, high public spending and the impending doom of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis. The day after he takes power next Tuesday, the cash-strapped, high-spending country must raise €12bn on the markets. Hollande's first task is to deliver his major international election promise, convincing the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to renegotiate the European budget discipline pact, to add measures on growth and thereby change the direction of Europe.

Hollande’s first months in office have already been meticulously planned, from scrapping tax breaks for the rich and making the wealthiest pay more to taking steps to cap the public deficit. He will start with a few quick symbolic measures, including freezing the cost of fuel for three months to ease the nation's wallets and cutting his own presidential salary by 30%. He will spend this week choosing his cabinet. Most important is the new prime minister, who must lead the party into the June parliamentary elections where Socialists need a majority to support Hollande's reforms.

2 A journo as First Lady (The Guardian) If François Hollande has styled himself as Mr Normal, his partner, Valérie Trierweiler, could revolutionise the unofficial role of France’s first lady. If, as she has promised, the 46-year-old journalist keeps her contract for the magazine Paris Match and continues to work, it would be the first time a president’s partner has held down a regular job and salary. Her role as a journalist would make this juggling act trickier. For 20 years, she covered French politics for Paris Match, and also recently hosted her own politics show on cable.

Trierweiler, a twice-divorced mother of three teenage boys, who comes from a modest family in eastern France, said during the campaign she had to keep working to support her children, saying she doesn’t want to be paid for by the state. Trierweiler has, like Hollande, styled herself as the antithesis of “bling” on the campaign trail. She says she buys clothes at the market, spends time searching for stray socks under her children’s beds, and claims Hollande does the shopping and cooking and has an annoying habit of leaving cupboard doors open and never closing doors when he comes into the room. But, she argued, this habit showed he had “nothing to hide”.

3 Complexion obsession(The Guardian) One of my very dear friends, who also happens to be a PhD student at Oxford University, was very recently called to Pakistan by her parents to meet a suitor. The said eligible bachelor was later on termed as a superficial man amongst many other phrases that I am not at liberty to pen down, for rejecting my friend because she wasn’t fair skinned ‘enough’. It is at times like these when I am ashamed to be a part of a society in which an alabaster complexion supersedes the beauty within. It is not unwise to say that the mindset pertaining to ‘hunt’ for girls with a fair complexion is an epidemic disease which plagues our society in more ways than is fathomable.

In order to address this problem, it is essential to understand the significant causes behind it. Dating back to the time when we were a British colony, our obsession with a light skin tone stems from the fact that we were ruled by the white race which was considered supreme authority. This would explain why the stigma surrounding dark people is not only specific to Pakistanis, as Indians and Bengalis share the same obsession.

4 Niger is worst country to be mother (The Guardian) Niger is the worst country on earth in which to be a mother, according to a report by Save the Children, in its assessment of 165 countries. Niger's current food crisis bears much of the blame for its placing at the bottom of the list, just above Afghanistan, Yemen, Guinea-Bissau and Mali. Afghanistan, which came last the previous two years, was credited for providing skilled assistance at more births and a reduction in female mortality rates, among other factors.

Hunger and deprivation are the chief factors keeping other developing nations, such as Eritrea, Chad, Sudan and South Sudan, near the bottom of the list. Of 73 developing nations on the table, which account for 95% of child deaths, the Save the Children report rates only four as "very good" for child nutrition. Of the bottom 10 nations, four have seen an increase in stunted growth in children caused by poor nutrition over the past 20 years. The authors stress that income is not the only thing that matters: Vietnam's per capita income is 25% less than that of India, yet it has half the rates of stunting. Norway is rated as the world's best place to be a mother, followed by Iceland, Sweden, New Zealand and Denmark.

5 Turbulence in India’s aviation sector (Soutik Biswas on BBC) India's aviation industry is in deep trouble. Aviation Minister Ajit Singh told the parliament that airlines are expected to report a combined loss of nearly $2bn for the last financial year. Independent analysts peg last fiscal's losses at $2.5bn. All airlines - there are six main operators - barring budget carrier Indigo are in the red and further losses are expected in 2011-12, he said. India's biggest airlines - the private Jet and the national carrier Air India - are struggling.

Total losses since 2004 are estimated to be around $8bn, and the airlines are groaning under accumulated debts of up to $18bn, according to independent analysts. Most believe the industry has been hit by steep fuel prices, punishing taxes, tough competition and the general economic slowdown. Airport charges are also on the upswing and flying is going to become more expensive. The structural weaknesses extend from quality of air navigation services to adequate inspectors to the way the private airlines are run.

Analysts says most of the airlines have expanded recklessly and managed their money poorly. They point to Indigo, the only airline in black, which runs a low-profile, no-frills, on-time operation and has an extensive network as an example of how the business should be run in these difficult times. India has more than 400 aircraft - flying on both domestic and international routes - and some 3,500 pilots. More than 60 million Indians flew domestically in 2011, and some 37 million flew internationally. Passenger traffic grew by a healthy 17% last year, though it has slowed down a bit since. On the face of it, the industry should be booming. Instead, it seems to have become a victim of a slowing economy, shoddy fiscal management, punitive taxes, poor management and the hubris of the operators.

6 Boeing, Airbus hit by cancellations (BBC) Airlines have cancelled a total of 32 orders for planes so far this year, according to data from the world's two major plane makers. US giant Boeing said it had 25 orders of its flagship plane, the 787 Dreamliner, cancelled by airlines without naming who they were. European rival Airbus has had seven A350 orders cancelled by Etihad Airways, the Abu Dhabi-based airline. The cancellations reflect the difficult travel market and weak global economy.

7 Google self-drive car gets permit (Khaleej Times) The state of Nevada has issued a license plate giving Google’s self-driving car the green light to travel along public roads. The modified Toyota Prius was issued a license bearing an infinity sign next to the left of number ‘001’ after demonstrating its auto-pilot capabilities on highways, neighborhood streets and even the hectic ‘strip’ in Las Vegas. The Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles proclaimed the license the first for an autonomous vehicle in the United States. The car was given a unique red license plate to make it recognizable by police and the public as a self-driving test vehicle. Google co-founder Sergey Brin heads a stealth team working on visionary innovations such as self-driving cars and eye glasses that mesh the online world with the real world.

8 Putin checks in (Khaleej Times) Russia’s new czar is at work. The difference, however, is that Vladimir Putin is no new face. He is back to the presidency for a third term and that too for six years. Putinisation of Russia, as it is widely called, has come full circle. From the ultra-right to the conservatives, all see him as a re-doer of a new Russia and a mentor and go-getter in locking horns with the West. This nationalism episode is bound to see new developments as Putin scraps much of the compromises that his handpicked incumbent, Dmitry Medvedev, had managed to strike in his term as president.

Putin will be calling the shots at a time when much has changed. Russia today has an effective civil society and people really care for the fundamentals of the state. Human rights, access to civil liberties and a free Press are indispensable — and can no more be brushed aside as a ploy of the West to weaken the socialist edifice. Putin has to address the concerns of the civil strife brewing in his backyard and build an edifice of confidence and trust in the institutions of the state. Other than the presidency, there is hardly any other hallmark of state power. Putin in his third-term can do well by strengthening national institutions and buoying the infant civil society.

9 A gracious revolution (Dawn) If there is to be a revolution in Pakistan, it will be brought about by the generation born in the late 1960s and early 1970s. There were crucial similarities between their parents in each case. The groom tended to be intelligent, hardworking and progressive. He came from a closely knit-together family, and high moral values were strongly instilled in him. The bride was not too different either being the daughter of a family that laid great emphasis on education for sons as well as daughters. No one would have thought that it would be innocuous couples such as these that would effectively bring about a revolution in this country.

Their children are no longer silent. Slowly but surely, they are taking over the country. While it will not happen overnight, the change will come and it will come at the hands of people whose parents worked hard to raise a generation that has faith in the value of hard work against all odds and does not believe in getting ahead at the expense of other people. Their parents made sure that they did not compromise on their ethics, with the father travelling on public transport and the mother sacrificing trips to the beauty parlour so that they could save enough to have their children educated respectably. Couples such as these passed up on many a candlelit dinner to make sure that their children went to bed early so that they could be up for school on time.

These children are young men and women now, and between them they are setting off waves of change that is bound to alter the status quo in which Pakistan has been stuck for years. Consider the medics that have banded together to form the Young Doctors’ Association to protest for better compensation and to raise their voice against exploitation. In a similar vein, a group of civil servants have formed an association for the protection of their rights. A petition filed recently in the Supreme Court asked for court intervention to ensure that civil servants are not transferred for denying the bigwigs an undue favour, as is often the case.

10 Exxon Mobil tops Fortune 500 (Straits Times) Exxon Mobil has bumped Wal-Mart from first place among the Fortune 500 top revenue-generating US companies, thanks to rising oil prices. Revenue poured in last year for Irving, Texas-based Exxon Mobil Corp as the price of benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude oil soared 19%. Brent crude, which helps set the price of foreign oil varieties, surged 38% between 2010 and 2011. Two other petroleum companies - Chevron and ConocoPhillips - ranked behind Wal-Mart Stores Inc. For 2011, Exxon Mobil reported revenue of $486 billion.

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