Swedish riots should worry the world; China, Germany as economic dream team; Brazil's largesse for Africa; Pakistan struggles to keep lights on; Australia is happiest nation; India's struggle with Maoists

1 Swedish riots should worry the world (Aditya Chakrabortty in The Guardian) You probably haven't seen much about it in the papers, but for the past week Sweden has been racked by rioting. The violence began in a suburb of Stockholm, Husby, and spread around the capital's edge before other cities went up in flames. Such prolonged unrest is remarkable for Stockholm, as those few reporters sent to cover it have observed. Naturally enough, each article has wound up asking: why here?

It's a good question. Don't surveys repeatedly show Sweden as one of the happiest countries? Isn't it famous for its equality, its warm welcome to immigrants? We all know the cliches, but the reality is they no longer fit the country so well. Whether it's on the wealth gap, or welfare, or public services, Sweden is less "Swedish" than it has ever been. As in other continental capitals, the Stockholm version of the "European social model" is an increasingly tattered thing. So, a better question, surely, is: if such instability can happen here, what might unfold elsewhere – including Britain?

The first thing to observe about Sweden is how rapidly a gulf is opening up between rich and poor. Between 1985 and the late 2000s, according to the OECD thinktank, Sweden saw the biggest growth in inequality of all the 31 most industrialised countries. It's important not to overstate this: the country remains one of the most egalitarian in the world – but it is taking big steps in the wrong direction. Swedes used to pride themselves on their sense of moderation.. Prime ministers were supposed to live as modestly as school teachers. Compare that with the recent craze in for vaskning. It means sinking, and refers to a practice adopted by young, gilded Swedes of buying two bottles of champagne and then ordering the barman to pour one down the plughole.

The second observation to make about Sweden is that parties of all persuasions have drifted rightwards over the past few years. It was the left that, in 2005, abolished inheritance tax, so that a Swede will now pay no duty on being left a million kronor, but will face a tax of 67% for starting their own business. And when it comes to privatising public services, Stockholm is way out in front of Westminster.

2 China, Germany as economic dream team (Straits Times) China is ready to open up new sectors of its economy to German investors, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said, in comments that highlight Beijing's drive for a special bilateral partnership with Berlin bypassing the European Union.

Mr Li urged closer cooperation in manufacturing - an area where German firms increasingly see China as a competitor as it moves up the value chain - and he singled out logistics, education and healthcare as sectors for German investment. "China is willing to open up this space preferentially to Germany," said Mr Li, an economist, without elaborating.

3 Brazil’s largesse for Africa (Khaleej Times) The African Union summit in Ethiopia had something to cheer for. Brazil, the world’s seventh largest economy, surprised all by announcing it would write off the entire debt of the African continent to the tune of $900 million. This is genuine leadership and state-of-art diplomacy, to say the least. The Dark Continent, of late, has increased its trade volume with the South American industrialised giant almost fivefold.

The decision announced by Brazil’s President Dilma Rousseff will benefit around 12 trading nations of Africa, including Congo, Tanzania, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Sudan. These poor African countries, which sit on the treasures of minerals but are unable to exploit them fully because of poor infrastructure and political instability, could hope for a shot in the arm as their outstanding debts are cancelled or restructured.

Brazil’s move, nonetheless, has come at an opportune time when the continent’s league, the African Union, is celebrating its 50^th anniversary. African leaders as well as world financial pundits strongly believe that the continent has come a long way in resurrecting its image as a developing icon, and made great strides in undoing poverty and freeing itself from deadly diseases to a great extent. 

Brasilia’s precedent should be emulated by other rich nations in the West. It is worth recalling that the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were asked at the height of monetary crisis in Africa and Asia to write off bad debts, and rejuvenate the respective economies with fresh loans. But that prescription fell on deaf ears. The outcome was another vicious circle of abject poverty and stagnation. Bailing out Africa from its non-performing loans could be the way to begin with. 

4 Pakistan struggles to keep lights on (Declan Walsh and Salman Masood in The New York Times) A week before he is to be sworn in as Pakistan’s prime minister for the third time, Nawaz Sharif has secured one form of power, yet now faces a fierce battle to find another. Electricity shortages, bad for years, have reached crisis proportions. Lights go out for at least 10 hours a day in major cities, and up to 22 hours a day in rural areas. 

In a bid to quell discontent, Pakistan’s interim government, which is running the country until Mr. Sharif takes over, has ordered civil servants to switch off their air-conditioners and stop wearing socks — reasoning that sandals were more appropriate in such hot conditions. The crisis is the product of multiple factors, from decrepit power plants to crumbling transmission lines to decades-old policy mistakes. One reason, however, stands above the others: most Pakistanis will not pay their bills.

The system is paralyzed by $5 billion in “circular debt” — basically, a long chain of unpaid bills that cuts across society, from government departments to wealthy politicians to slum dwellers. At its worst, this leaves power providers with no funds to pay for fuel, so their plants slow or shut down entirely.

5 Australia is happiest nation (Sydney Morning Herald) Australia is still the world's happiest nation based on criteria including income, jobs, housing and health, despite some signs of a slowing economy, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Australia kept the top spot for the third straight year, leading Sweden and Canada, the Paris-based group’s Better Life Index showed, when each of 11 categories surveyed in 36 nations is given equal weight. More than 73% of people aged 15 to 64 in Australia have a paid job, above the OECD average of 66%, while life expectancy at birth in Australia is almost 82 years, two years higher than the OECD average, the survey showed.

6 India’s struggle with Maoists (Medha Chaturvedi in The Wall Street Journal) The deadly ambush by suspected Maoist rebels in India’s Chhattisgarh state on a convoy carrying members of the ruling Congress party on Saturday came after a lull in the violent insurgency that has blighted central India for decades.
One of the victims of the land-mine blast on the convoy was Mahendra Karma, a senior Congress party politician in Chhattisgarh and architect of a state policy to arm militia to fight the Maoists.  The militia group, known as Salwa Judum, was made up of armed young tribal men. The Chhattisgarh government  had seen a recent lull in Maoists activity as a sign the rebels were on the back foot due to the militia’s ability to provide intelligence about their activities.

The Maoists, also known as Naxalites, last mounted a headline-grabbing action just over a year ago, kidnapping two Italians and a local politician in the eastern state of Orissa and another politician in Chhattisgarh. All four hostages were released after the state government agreed to free a number of insurgents from jail.

The Naxalite rebels, inspired by Chinese revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, are named after Naxalbari, the town in the state of West Bengal where the movement began as a peasant uprising in the late 1960s. Their objective is to overthrow the Indian government in a people’s war, but their aims at state level are more focused on local issues facing tribal Indians to generate grassroots support. Many observers say authorities need to focus on raising living standards in Maoist-controlled areas to combat the insurgency. Decades of poor governance and corruption in these states, they say, have fueled the insurgency.

The national government has even mulled using the army to counter the insurgency and in 2009 Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, who was then home minister, said he supported this idea as a last resort. But in other areas where this has happened, like Kashmir, the result has been to harden anti-government feeling and deepen separatist violence.