Even Majority Of Republicans Support Wealth Tax, But Totally Objective Billionaires Skeptical

Dumb, smart, poor, rich-but-not-obscenely-rich, Democrat, or even Republican, among we Americans, there is consistent, overwhelming majority support for a wealth tax. The tsunami of polls on this subject is itself a bit overwhelming.

Most recently, a Reuters/Ipsos poll of 4,441 American adults found that 64 percent either somewhat or strongly agreed with the statement that “the very rich should contribute an extra share of their total wealth each year to support public programs.” This general result largely held across demographic categories. There was a difference in support based on political affiliation: 77 percent of Democrats supported the idea of a wealth tax, but among Republicans there was still majority support, with 53 percent of GOP respondents supportive of a wealth tax on the very rich.

Last November, a New York Times/Survey Monkey poll found similar levels of support for a specific wealth tax proposal. Of the 2,672 people surveyed, 63 percent supported Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax that would place an annual 2 percent tax on the wealth of those with assets worth more than $50 million, and a 3 percent annual tax on the wealth of billionaires. Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax proposal got the support of 77 percent of Democrats, a very consistent figure compared to general Democratic support for a wealth tax, and the added level of specificity got a few more Republicans on board as well, with 57 percent of GOP respondents expressing favorable views of this policy.

A bevy of additional polls in 2019 from a variety of different polling outlets found varying levels of support for a wealth tax, but all of them found overall majority support for the policy proposal.

That’s quite astonishing, really. It’s rare to get levels of support that high on specific policies in American politics. In antebellum America, there wasn’t even that level of bipartisan majority support for the policy idea that “slavery is bad.”

What’s even more astonishing is such a high level of support for a policy we don’t even have yet and have no clear path to implementing anytime in the near future. Why kind of politician can’t or won’t take action on a policy that clear majorities of both parties want?

Well, the kind who likes money, apparently, and realizes that there are no longer any consequences in our system of government to just ignoring the will of the majority as long as you serve moneyed interests. The one demographic category among which the idea of a wealth tax falls flat is a very small one: the obscenely rich.

In an interview released in January, sports merchandising billionaire Michael Rubin blasted the idea of a wealth tax and said, “What would happen is people won’t start businesses here anymore.” Oh, the same argument that everyone has used against every tax ever that hasn’t resulted in America being anything but the best place in the world for startups? Yeah, OK, go ahead, move to Uganda and start a company from scratch there and make a billion dollars from it, we’ll wait.

Other prominent billionaires to recently slam the idea of a wealth tax include hedge fund manager Leon Cooperman, former CEO and promulgator of the $6 coffee Howard Schultz, and megabillionaire Bill Gates. Even Michael Bloomberg, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination seemingly based on the sole qualification of being a billionaire, said that a wealth tax would drive rich people to hide their incomes or withdraw money from the economy. As opposed to the other kinds of taxes that already exist that don’t do that at all -– we lawyers have surely never seen anybody try to hide income based on something like an income tax, for instance.

A lot of billionaires also call a wealth tax unconstitutional. Did everyone just collectively forget that we had to pass a constitutional amendment to put a national income tax on ourselves? That was the Sixteenth, look it up. If we can amend the Constitution to put a tax on everyone, I’m pretty sure we can figure out a way to enact a tax on the tiny sliver of people with more than $50 million dollars, especially when that idea is already enjoying the support of close to two-thirds of the electorate.

Why do we keep letting these grotesquely wealthy people dictate national policy to the rest of us? According to U.S. News, there were 607 billionaires in the United States in 2019. There are about 329,175,736 nonbillionaire Americans. In 2020, the teeming masses should turn the tables and make the billionaires swallow our ideas for a change. Frankly, billionaires should thank whatever gods they keep that two or three percent is all we want.


Jonathan Wolf is a litigation associate at a midsize, full-service Minnesota firm. He also teaches as an adjunct writing professor at Mitchell Hamline School of Law, has written for a wide variety of publications, and makes it both his business and his pleasure to be financially and scientifically literate. Any views he expresses are probably pure gold, but are nonetheless solely his own and should not be attributed to any organization with which he is affiliated. He wouldn’t want to share the credit anyway. He can be reached at jon_wolf@hotmail.com.

With $200M Series A, EQRx aims to tackle high drug prices – MedCity News

In a story summarizing biopharma executives’ forecasts for 2020 last weekend, one said that while it may take a political solution to address the issue of high out-of-pocket costs for patients, it would be up to drugmakers themselves to bring down list prices. A new startup, founded by a well-known health policy expert and a biotech industry exeutive, plans to do that.

Cambridge, Massachusetts-based EQRx announced its launch Monday with a $200 million Series A financing whose participants include GV, ARCH Venture Partners, a16z, Casdin Capital, Section 32, Nextech and Arboretum Ventures, in addition to other investors.

The company aims to provide what it calls a market-based solution for the rising cost of drugs by changing the process of creating medicines from discovery all the way through to patient delivery in order to make the process cheaper. It will then offer its drugs at costs lower than those of drugs on the market. Per a spokesperson, its initial focus will be on small molecule drugs in cancers, immuno-inflammatory and rare genetic diseases, with the goal of eventually producing biologics as well.

“The process of developing and bringing new drugs to market should and can be organized toward the goal of their being affordable, both for patients and society,” said Dr. Peter Bach, director of the Center for Health Policy and Outcomes at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York and a co-founder of EQRx, in a statement. Bach will act as an adviser to the company. “Today, even people with insurance are delaying filling prescriptions or going without due to the high cost sharing that’s part and parcel of high drug prices.”

Fellow co-founder Sandra Horning – former executive vice president, chief medical officer and global head of product development at Genentech/Roche – will also serve as an adviser to EQRx.

List prices from drug manufacturers, which in recent years have soared to eye-popping levels in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars, are distinct from the out-of-pocket costs that patients typically pay, but they contribute to those costs nonetheless. That has led to a number of proposals from both major political parties that include everything from requiring more transparency in negotiations between manufacturers and pharmacy benefit managers to allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices, which it currently is prohibited by statute from doing.

However, Tim Mayleben, CEO of drugmaker Esperion Therapeutics, previously said that while the solution to out-of-pocket costs would probably have to be political, given that it stems more from cost-sharing policies imposed by payers and PBMs, it would likely be up to drugmakers to lower list prices.

“Over the last several decades, society has benefited from unprecedented technological advances and a deeper understanding of disease biology, revolutionizing the way many diseases are treated today,” EQRx CEO Alexis Borisy said in a statement. “That said, the pricing of new therapeutic approaches is pushing beyond the limits of common sense, preventing people and society from equally benefiting from innovation. The time is now for a market-based solution to rising drug costs.”

Photo: gerenme, Getty Images

Happy New Year: 3 Hot Topics For Technology And The Law In 2020 (& Beyond)

Happy New Year! Believe it or not, we have entered a new decade — if the past is any bellwether of the present (or future), that means that technology advances will continue to accelerate. Think about it — just in the past decade, we have witnessed a vast expansion in mobile computing platforms, vast improvements in computer memory (i.e., smaller physical footprints and lower costs), as well as rapidly increasing communication speeds. Cloud computing has evolved to the point where most software is now provided as a service instead of installed directly on a computer. Need to take your software mobile? There is probably an app that can do that on your mobile device. The problem is that technology continues to outpace the laws that can affect it, and there is little doubt this next decade will be an exception.

The slow pace of the law is not surprising — the very nature of the common law system in the United States is premised upon the rendering of decisions over time, and deference to precedent (referred to as stare decisis). Needless to say, that is not a structure that is designed to move nimbly, but rather, quite deliberately. Unfortunately, technology waits for no one, and by extension, no laws. In an effort to play “catch up,” the ability to enact legislation at both the state and federal level as technology advances does exist; however, these mechanisms are far from perfect, and in the case of state legislation, a potential patchwork of legislation that can vary depending upon jurisdiction (such as data breach notification laws) looms large.

Looking at 2020 (and beyond) through this backdrop, it’s not hard to find a number of areas of interest that are worth looking at more closely.  This is not to say that these are the only areas of concern, but in the context of law and technology (with a healthy dose of intellectual property), there are three specific areas that I believe will prove to be hot topics for the coming year (and beyond):

  1. Cybersecurity & AI. If the past decade is any indication, the rise of online security threats to both computer networks and endpoint computers has been remarkable. Starting with the Yahoo security breach in 2013 (exposing over 3 billion accounts and leading the list as the largest data security breach to date), the 10 largest data security breaches of all time occurred in the past 7 years. In fact, Cybersecurity Ventures (a leading cybersecurity research group and publisher of Cybersecurity Magazine) predicts cybercrime damages will amount to $6 trillion annually by 2021, or “exponentially more than the damage inflicted from natural disasters in a year, and more profitable than the global trade of all major illegal drugs combined.”  Why? You guessed it — technology. Cybersecurity Ventures has research that estimates around 111 billion lines of new software code are being developed every single year — such vast amounts of code means a vast likelihood of vulnerabilities that can be exploited. This number will not be decreasing anytime soon. As a result, the capability of humans to uncover exploits or otherwise detect and intervene in data security incidents is being rapidly outpaced by the pace of software development. The need for real-time detection and intervention of advanced persistent threats is pushing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to help close the gap. That said, detection and intervention by a constantly learning platform is one thing, but what about threats that are being initiated by AI? Needless to say, existing laws (such as the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, or “CFAA”) are woefully inadequate in dealing with the development of AI in this area. Think about it — the CFAA was enacted in 1986, a time when the personal computer was still finding its footing in the marketplace, computer viruses were mostly confined to university research labs, and the internet as we know it today was still a part of the Department of Defense. Although CFAA has been amended many times between 1989 and 2008, it remains far behind the technology development curve. For that reason, I think we will be seeing more data security in the context of AI/ML, and a reaction by the law to address the ever-expanding online data security dilemma.
  2. Data Privacy, State Laws, and the Advent of Federal Legislation (Maybe). A corollary to the data security dilemma is the privacy of data accessible online. The General Data Protection Regulation enacted in the EU in 2016 and effective in May 2018 has been instrumental in advancing a more consumer-centric approach to the privacy of personal data. In fact, I would argue that it has been instrumental in “resetting” the approach to privacy in the U.S. — just this month, the California Consumer Privacy Act became effective in California, representing a fundamental shift in the handling of personal information by following many of the tenets embraced by the EU in the GDPR. Sounds good to privacy advocates, but the problem here is readily apparent. It is a California law, not a federal one. This is leading to some interesting discussions with clients regarding compliance — assuming a legal entity that is domiciled outside of California but otherwise meets the threshold requirements for compliance and collects data from California residents will likely need to comply because the CCPA focuses on the residency of the consumer. Given the size of California’s economy, there is almost a de facto application to out-of-state companies transacting business with California residents. Other states (such as Hawaii, Massachusetts, New York and Mexico, to name a few) are also following suit with the introduction of “copycat” bills. Given this likely patchwork of state legislation, there is a better chance than ever that Congress may take up a bill (or two) designed to harmonize these state laws. That may seem like a tall order under the present political climate, but stranger things have happened.
  3. AI & IP Creation/Ownership. The growth of AI is creating some novel issues in the world of intellectual property, not the least of which is self-created works and inventions. If an AI creates an original work, who is the author? You may be aware of the case involving Naruto (a macaque) and the authorship of a selfie he took with a camera provided by photographer David J. Slater (FYI – Slater won), but there is no guarantee the courts would apply the same logic for AI. I haven’t even touched upon novel concepts created by AI that may be patent eligible, but you get the point.

I don’t know about you, but I am looking forward to how these topics will develop in the coming year (and beyond). I can’t predict how they will play out, but I can guarantee that they will play out (if not in 2020, then in the coming decade) and that I look forward to writing about them. Now that’s a good resolution for 2020 and beyond.


Tom Kulik is an Intellectual Property & Information Technology Partner at the Dallas-based law firm of Scheef & Stone, LLP. In private practice for over 20 years, Tom is a sought-after technology lawyer who uses his industry experience as a former computer systems engineer to creatively counsel and help his clients navigate the complexities of law and technology in their business. News outlets reach out to Tom for his insight, and he has been quoted by national media organizations. Get in touch with Tom on Twitter (@LegalIntangibls) or Facebook (www.facebook.com/technologylawyer), or contact him directly at tom.kulik@solidcounsel.com.

This Court Filing Typo Is Some Great Schadenfreude

I mean… really, in the grand scheme of things, this isn’t a big deal. It’s a typo that doesn’t impact the substance of any legal argument. And you know what they meant to write. But *but* it is also a decent laugh.

In a FISA court filing by the FBI, the signature block misspells the name of its general counsel. Instead of Dana Boente, they write Dane. Classic facepalm moment. But what gives it the extra pop, is that the filing was about errors in past filings… which is just glorious.

As Washington Post reporter Devlin Barrett points out:

Not a bad quick laugh to start out your Monday morning.


Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, and host of The Jabot podcast. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter (@Kathryn1).

Esteemed Legal Scholars Giuliani And Pirro Urge SCOTUS To Decree Impeachment Illegal Under Marbury v. Madison

(Photo by Rob Kim/Getty)

The universe of people who make Rudy Giuliani look sane by comparison is pretty small. Luckily Fox News runs a full-employment program for the differently competent, and so it was that the president’s pro bono lawyer spent Saturday night on Judge Jeanine Pirro’s Howler Monkey Power Hour airing his new theory of the case. Apparently, Marbury v. Madison dictates that Chief Justice Roberts must now descend like an avenging angel and declare that impeachment is illegal. You heard it here first!

“The remedy is to go before the Supreme Court of the United States and have it declared unconstitutional,” Giuliani enthused, with the blithe confidence of a man who has buttdialed every reporter in D.C. and is clearly beyond caring. 

Which is  batsh*t even by 2020 standards, and yet the president immediately retweeted it to his 70 million followers. Twice

Giuliani repeated the widely debunked assertion that there can only be an impeachment for statutory crimes. And because abuse of power and obstruction of Congress don’t “exist as crimes” in Rudy’s world, this impeachment is akin to a grand jury returning an indictment for “eating an ice cream” or “if somebody charged me with not looking nice tonight.” Which seems unlikely, since this time he actually remembered to zip up his fly.

“You can’t find it anywhere under 18 USC. You can’t find it in common law. You can’t find it in Lithuanian law,” he went on. “It’s as if they took out the Constitution and struck out the words.”

Pirro, who hasn’t been on the bench since 1993, wholeheartedly agreed that it would be tragic to allow an impeachment trial in the Senate because then “the precedent is established that you can impeach the guy because you don’t like the color of his tie.”

Rudy’s spiffy new theory rests on the Supreme Court’s powered to adjudicate disputes between the executive and the legislative branches under Marbury. Here on Planet Earth, there is no live interbranch dispute, since Mitch McConnell is perfectly capable of disappearing Trump’s impeachment without a SCOTUS assist. Which is perhaps why no one outside the wingnutosphere has been making this argument. Well, no one except the president.

But Rudy himself has been making this point all week long, both on his Twitter feed and in an op-ed at the Daily Caller entitled, “The Supreme Court Should Step In To Rule This Impeachment Unconstitutional.”

Indeed, the Constitution is silent on the Supreme Court’s role in an impeachment except to provide that it is presided over by the chief justice. However, the Constitution is also silent on the court’s power to declare federal and state laws and government action unconstitutional. It was determined by former Chief Justice John Marshall that judicial review is implicit as the only logical answer to constitutional standoffs between the legislative and executive branches or between the federal and state governments. The reasoning of Marbury v. Madison certainly supports the court having the power to declare an impeachment as unconstitutional if it is an overreach of the carefully balanced separation of powers.

And while everyone else treated it like an old-timey slur muttered by a senile uncle at Thanksgiving — that is, they pretended not to have heard it and immediately changed the subject — Her (Former) Honor was intrigued.

“Let’s assume that your request is granted, and it is dismissed. It makes sense. What is the effect of the impeachment in the House,” Pirro wondered. “Can that ever be erased, or is that always there?”

This is, literally, the face Giuliani made as he paused to ponder her question.

“Well, then it becomes the only impeachment that’s ever been dismissed for being non-Constitutional,” he said, after a moment’s deep, scholarly consideration. “And I would say if it’s non-Constitutional, it’s null and void.”

But if by some chance McConnell chooses not to pursue Rudy’s can’t-lose legal strategy, that’s okay, too.

“I could even argue that politically it would be better to go to trial. They’ll find out about Biden, they’ll find out what a big crook Biden is,” Giuliani told Pirro. “They’ll find out that Biden just didn’t make money in Iran [sic], but he made money in China, and he made money in Iraq.”

Did he … did he mean Ukraine? Or was it Lithuania?

No matter. Giuliani has volunteered to step up to the plate to prosecute Biden for RICO in Trump’s senate impeachment hearings. Your Honor, it’s a simple case of Brown v. Board of Education, Roe v. Wade, and Chevron deference!


Elizabeth Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Morning Docket: 01.13.20

* A top lawyer for Google’s parent company is resigning amid allegations of inappropriate relationships. [Washington Post]

* The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has appointed an Obama administration lawyer to oversee the implementation of reforms. [Fox News]

* President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen claims he deserves early release from prison. [Guardian]

* A Nebraska lawyer has been accused of accepting cocaine in lieu of fees. This guy better accept Bitcoin too… [NBC News]

* The federal jail where Jeffrey Epstein died is getting a new warden and a new lawyer. [New York Daily News]

* Prosecutors have expressed a desire to pursue federal death penalty charges against an individual accused of murdering a prominent attorney. [U.S. News & World Report]


Jordan Rothman is a partner of The Rothman Law Firm, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of Student Debt Diaries, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at jordan@rothmanlawyer.com.

Zipping through Zimbabwe – The Zimbabwean

It’s not every day that you come across an elephant who thinks she’s a buffalo. This big beauty is ironically named, Nzou’, meaning elephant’ in the Shona language, and has been leading herds of buffaloes in Imire National Park, for over four decades. For me, Nzou seemed the perfect metaphor for my trip to Zimbabwe; a surreal experience where you cannot believe your eyes. Zimbabwe is full of surprises. But for those strapped for time, here’s where to begin:

VICTORIA FALLS

This UNESCO Heritage site has a width of a staggering 1708 metres. You can hear the water as it plumbs the depths ,and leaves a cool mist in its wake. You can see Victoria Falls on foot, as I did. Or splurge for a helicopter ride over this natural wonder. The first white man to ever lay eyes on the falls was Scotsman David Livingstone who promptly named it after his Queen. But the KaloloLozi people had a more apt name for it, ‘Mosi oa-Tunya’ or the ‘smoke that thunders’.

VISIT THE HWANGE NATIONAL PARK

It’s the largest national park in Zimbabwe at a whopping 14,651 sq. kilometres. It’s also home to all of Africa’s Big 5’. There are 50,000 elephants in this national park and it’s impossible to make a visit without spotting a herd or two. Sign up with an experienced safari guide and you’re in for a real treat. Of the Big 5 elephants, lions, leopards, rhinos and cape buffaloes, the big cats remain the most elusive. But don’t miss the woods for the trees; chat up your safari guide and you’ll learn of the ‘Ugly 5’ such as the warthogs, wildebeest, vultures, hyenas and marabou stork. One look and you’ll known exactly how they earned their names!

BOMA DINNER AND DRUM ENTERTAINMENT

It’s where local delicacies and traditional music come together. With a local entertainment band playing out a local legend to the beat of the drum, you can bite into crocodile tail, impala, ostrich, warthog and even the famed mopane worms. In fact if you bite into these vitamin-rich worms, you can take home a certificate to prove it!

CRUISE ON LAKE KARIBA

Lake Kariba is the largest manmade lake in the World. If you’re looking to get away from the crowds of tourists, head to this water-body. Hire your own cozy little house-boat and spend a night or two on the lake. I spent two night on the Sahwira’, a gorgeous little cruise-boat, which was my house at sea. The crew doubled up as guides, teaching me to fish; the chef cooked up our fresh catch. You can cruise from one bank to another, spotting crocodiles, rhinos and elephants along the way. Or you can just take a stroll on the shore where you’re unlikely to spot another human being. If solitude, with a dose of nature, is what you crave, head to Kariba.

IMIRE RHINO & WILDLIFE CONSERVATION PARK

There’s no dearth of national parks to choose from in Zimbabwe. But Imire offers you rustic-luxury. You can spend the night at the Imire Lodge with sink-into poster beds, bathrooms that overlook the wilderness, a cosy restaurant and a menu that offers you a taste of local cuisine.

The game drives promise to be a treat, particularly if Nzou makes an appearance. Apart from the elephants, Imire is home to the endangered rhinos. I was lucky to spot a white rhino and her little baby trailing behind her. A game drive here comes with more than just spotting wildlife; you learn that black rhinos and white rhinos are actually grey in colour! They earn their name based on the shape of their mouths: the black one has a pointed lip, while the white one has a large, flat one. You also learn that the kudu are referred to as Mc Donald’s’ in local speak; they have an M’ sign on their bottoms that seemed to have inspired Mc D’s. For animal fact to related legends, and entertaining ones at that, head to Imire.

FACT FILE

  • GETTING THERE: Fly Mumbai to Victoria Falls, on Ethiopian Airlines
  • GETTING AROUND: Zimbabwe is facing a worsening economic crisis. Give back to the economy by hiring a local tour operator such as Dream Vacations Africa.
  • CURRENCY: USD is no longer accepted in Zimbabwe. Credit cards and debit cards are accepted almost everywhere. Or exchange USD for the Zimbabwe Dollar at the airport itself.
  • FOOD: A typical homecooked meal consists of sadza , a local staple, which is essentially white maize made into thick porridge, and is often served with meats. Beef is widely available and you’re likely to bite into many delicious steaks on your visit. Not into real meat? Then bite into grilled chicken, or cream in tomato sauce; you can also expect a side of salad. Most restaurants in Harare and Bulawayo also serve continental cuisine.
  • WHERE TO STAY: At Victoria Falls, stay at the Victoria Falls hotel, a classic five-star which was originally built by the British in 1904.

Families receive life-saving food supplies in drought-hit Zimbabwe – The Zimbabwean

Once a prime agricultural region, crops have been failing and the last time Nelia was able to harvest her field was in 2017, which produced just six bags of maize. Since then she has been forced to forage for masekesa and makwakwa, wild fruits usually only fed to animals.

Eating wild fruits and taking antiretroviral drugs for HIV on an empty stomach, is taking its toll on Nelia’s health. “The excessive intake of these fruits has affected by health and my skin has been peeling off,” she says.

Zimbabwe is experiencing its worst hunger crisis in more than a decade, with 3.6 million people suffering from severe food shortages.

Nelia and her family were among 49,000 people living in Makoni district to receive desperately needed food supplies last month, distributed by ActionAid Zimbabwe and funded by the World Food Programme.

As the situation worsens, the number of families receiving food support will this month double to more than 100,000 people in Makoni and Nyanga districts.

But more funding is urgently needed to prevent the food crisis deteriorating into a famine.

“I do not feel full at all after eating the wild fruit and mangoes,” says Nelia. “My children go to school on an empty stomach and sometimes we spend days eating only the wild fruit.”

Nelia has sold all but one of her six goats to pay for her children’s school fees. She worries that they will have to drop out of school and as she is unable to plant crops in her field, the family is relying on food aid.

ActionAid is running programmes to support families like Nelia in the longer term, by providing training in climate-resilient farming practices, support to start income saving and lending schemes, knowledge-sharing and disaster preparedness and response training.

Rumbudzai grows maize and groundnuts, which are more tolerant to drought, in her family’s fields. But she says recently it is rare to harvest even groundnuts due to the lack of rainfall.

“The rainfall pattern has changed, since I grew up,” she says. “I remember we experienced drought once when I was still young. But since I got married, the rains have been limited. Since Cyclone Idai hit [in March 2019], we have not received any meaningful rains at all.”

She says some families are taking desperate measures due to the hunger crisis, adding: “We have girls who are getting married due to food insecurity and poverty. There are some parents that marry their girls off to well off people from the community.”

Post published in: Agriculture

China’s Foreign Minister Arrives in Zimbabwe on Africa Tour – The Zimbabwean

Wang Yi

Wang Yi is set to visit a Zimbabwe tobacco farm and meet with President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who will suspend his three-week annual leave to meet the Chinese leader.

China’s foreign minister often makes an African tour at the beginning of the year to emphasize the importance that Beijing places on the continent.

Like in much of Africa, China has a strong presence in Zimbabwe, with investments spanning from energy to agriculture, mining and trade in wildlife. With Zimbabwe’s economy in a downward spiral, some analysts say that Wang will, behind closed doors, urge Zimbabwean leaders to improve the country’s economic performance and to honour their debt repayments to China.

Zimbabwe’s longstanding ties with China increased in 2003 when it adopted a ‘Look East’ policy after western countries imposed sanctions.

Since then, China has become Zimbabwe’s biggest source of foreign direct investment and has ties to the Zimbabwe military, including the construction of a military university on the outskirts of the capital, Harare.

China has also increasingly broadened its ties to include the construction of a new parliament building estimated to cost more than $100 million. It also provides humanitarian assistance such as donations of rice and other food items as well as technical assistance during natural disasters.

China’s growing involvement has been criticized by Zimbabwe’s opposition and others for allegedly exploiting local workers and the country’s natural resources.

China has invested billions of dollars in major construction projects in Africa such as roads, railways and stadiums, for which many countries have accumulated large debts. In return, some African countries have given China access to natural resources, such as minerals.

China has also protected some of Africa’s repressive rulers from international sanctions at the United Nations. China’s investments often come without demands for safeguards against corruption, waste and environmental damage which has made them attractive to African leaders.

China’s outreach to Africa aims to build trade, investment and political ties with a continent often seen as overlooked by the U.S. and other Western nations. It has included many African countries in its so-called Belt and Road Initiative that aims to invest in infrastructure projects to boost trade.

On his current tour through Africa, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang has already visited Egypt, where he promised to help the country combat extremist violence and grow its economy.

Wang also visited geographically strategic Djibouti in the troublesome Horn of Africa. Djibouti is the site of China’s first overseas military base and home to the United States’ only permanent military base in Africa.

In Eritrea, he is pledging support for a project to build roads in the country that is largely isolated from the rest of the world.

Wang is also scheduled to visit Burundi where President Pierre Nkurunziza, under pressure for alleged human rights abuses, has previously described China as “a best friend.” Burundi is the beneficiary of Chinese assistance in areas such as education and construction of a state house. China is involved in the country’s energy and agriculture.

Post published in: Featured

Guns before food – Zimbabwe Vigil Diary – The Zimbabwean

It is not clear what threat the planes are supposed to protect us from. Perhaps it is the Zimbabwe Council of Churches which has warned the government of ‘all out chaos’ if things continue as they are. ‘Instability will grow and the state will need to use heavy repression to quell dissent due to the painful economic experiences’ it predicted. It said dialogue in the country was the only viable option (see: https://www.newzimbabwe.com/churches-warn-of-civil-unrest-if-govt-does-not-address-economic-challenges/).

More likely the arms purchase from Russia reflects the government’s increasing reliance on anti-Western autocratic regimes. This was seen in the recent vote at the United Nations on a resolution seeking to protect Rohingya Muslims from army atrocities in Myanmar (formerly Burma).

Hundreds of thousands of Rohingya had to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh after their villages were burnt down by soldiers, accompanied by rapes and arbitrary arrests, tortures and deaths in detention. Perhaps Zanu PF identified themselves with Myanmar’s military government given President Mnangagwa’s role at the centre of the Gukurahundi genocide. Zimbabwe was one of only nine countries to vote against the resolution, which was passed with an overwhelming majority.

‘Shameful’, said MDC Secretary for Education Fadzayi Mahere. ‘Ours is a government that has no moral or legal difficulty with soldiers killing civilians’. Exiled former minister Jonathan Moyo said: ‘The lie of a new dispensation in Zimbabwe is exposed. Zimbabwe did not vote at the UN with its SADC neighbours, not with its African Union comrades and not with the Commonwealth it is so desperate to rejoin.’ (See: https://www.newzimbabwe.com/politicians-rights-defenders-express-shock-over-zims-support-of-rohingya-muslims-suppression/).

Mnangagwas is now on three weeks’ leave – perhaps it’s so he can spend time on his farm calming down his wife Auxillia, who has fallen out with the Herald’s former acting editor Tichaona Zindoga, who accused her of being publicity-hungry, demanding to be followed everywhere by a dedicated media team from the Herald and the ZBC to report on her do-goodings.

Zindoga, who was fired by the Herald last October, said: ‘It makes one uplifted when you can no longer be associated with such garbage (see: https://www.zimlive.com/2020/01/08/publicity-hungry-auxillia-mnangagwa-branded-herald-editor-snake-in-the-carpet/).

Other points

  • The Italian football authority La Liga says it is ’extremely disappointed’ that more than 1,000 footballs it donated for the development of grassroots football in Zimbabwe appear to have been misappropriate by ZIFA’s former chief Philip Chiyanga (see: https://www.newsday.co.zw/2020/01/la-liga-angry-over-missing-donated-balls/).
  • Thanks to those who came early to help set up the front table and put up the banners: Patience Chimba, Yvonne Jacobs, Josephine Jombe, Jonathan Kariwo, Charles Mararirakwenda, Patricia Masamba, Lucia Mudzimu, Washington Mugari, Margaret Munenge, Ephraim Tapa and Kevin Wheeldon. Thanks to Josephine, Margaret and Patricia for looking after the front table, to Yvonne, Kevin, Bigboy Sibanda, Simon Nyanhi and Beverley Mutandiro for handing out flyers, to Jonathan, Delice Gavazah, Mary Muteyerwa and Chido Makawa for drumming, to Lucia for leading the singing, to Jonathan for photos and to Rosemary Maponga who, on her birthday, brought hot drinks and cakes.
  • Thanks to those generous activists who have contributed to ROHR’s Mtoko Irrigation Project: Patience Chimba, Pamela Chirimuta, Simbarashe Jingo, Dambudzo Marimira, Margaret Munenge, Molly Ngavaimbe, Ephraim Tapa and Kevin Wheeldon.
  • For latest Vigil pictures check: http://www.flickr.com/photos/zimb88abwevigil/. Please note: Vigil photos can only be downloaded from our Flickr website.

FOR THE RECORD: 32 signed the register.

EVENTS AND NOTICES:

  • ROHR general members’ meeting. Saturday 25th January from 11.30 am. Venue: Royal Festival Hall, South Bank Centre, Belvedere Road SE1 8XX. Contact: Ephraim Tapa 07940793090, Patricia Masamba 07708116625, Esther Munyira 07492058109.
  • ROHR Valentine’s fundraising dinner dance. Saturday 15th February from 7 pm till late. Venue: to be advised.
  • The Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe (ROHR) is the Vigil’s partner organization based in Zimbabwe. ROHR grew out of the need for the Vigil to have an organization on the ground in Zimbabwe which reflected the Vigil’s mission statement in a practical way. ROHR in the UK actively fundraises through membership subscriptions, events, sales etc to support the activities of ROHR in Zimbabwe. Please note that the official website of ROHR Zimbabwe is http://www.rohrzimbabwe.org/. Any other website claiming to be the official website of ROHR in no way represents us.
  • The Vigil’s book ‘Zimbabwe Emergency’ is based on our weekly diaries. It records how events in Zimbabwe have unfolded as seen by the diaspora in the UK. It chronicles the economic disintegration, violence, growing oppression and political manoeuvring – and the tragic human cost involved. It is available at the Vigil. All proceeds go to the Vigil and our sister organisation the Restoration of Human Rights in Zimbabwe’s work in Zimbabwe. The book is also available from Amazon.
  • Facebook pages:

    Vigil: https://www.facebook.com/zimbabwevigil
    ROHR: https://www.facebook.com/Restoration-of-Human-Rights-ROHR-Zimbabwe-International-370825706588551/
    ZAF: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Zimbabwe-Action-Forum-ZAF/490257051027515

Post published in: Featured