TOPLINE After President Joe Biden was sworn into office, his administration immediately began undoing his Trump’s policies and beefing up the federal government’s response to the coronavirus through a slew of executive actions and orders.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h4>



<ul><li>Biden issued a mask and social distancing mandate on all federal lands for federal employees and contractors.</li></ul>



<ul><li>The Biden administration extended eviction and foreclosure moratoriums until March 31 and will continue to suspend student loan repayments until September.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Biden rejoined the World Health Organization and the Paris Climate Accord, both of which Donald Trump exited during his presidency.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Through an executive action, Biden revoked permits for the Keystone XL Pipeline and put a temporary moratorium on oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, moves hailed by environmental and indigenous activists.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Biden revoked Trump’s attempt to exclude non-citizens from being counted in the U.S. Census, which affects representation in Congress and the allocation of federal grant money.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Biden reversed Trump’s travel ban from several Muslim-majority countries, including Syria, Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen, and told the State Department to start allowing visa applications from these countries again.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Biden ended the National Emergency Declaration that allowed the Trump administration to divert money from the Pentagon to construct the border wall.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<ul><li>Biden sent a sweeping immigration reform bill to Congress that includes an eight-year path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants and immediate green cards for DREAMers.</li></ul>



<ul><li>Biden&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/01/20/biden-executive-order-overturns-trump-diversity-training-ban/4236891001/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reversed&nbsp;</a>Trump’s ban on diversity training at federal agencies and federal contractors.</li></ul>



<ul><li>The 1776 Commission, the Trump’s administration’s rebuttal of the New York Times 1619 Project, was dismantled and the website was immediately taken down.</li></ul>



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Annnnnnd 1776 commission page is down<a href="https://t.co/tF6h1vZWMz">https://t.co/tF6h1vZWMz</a> <a href="https://t.co/N8Iqu0MY4i">pic.twitter.com/N8Iqu0MY4i</a>&mdash; Logan McDonald (@_loganmcdonald) <a href="https://twitter.com/_loganmcdonald/status/1351941117672124420?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<ul><li>Michael Pack, who oversaw Voice Of America, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty as CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/biden-administration-asks-agency-for-global-media-ceo-michael-pack-to-resign" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">resigned&nbsp;</a>Wednesday at the request of the incoming Biden administration.&nbsp;</li></ul>



<ul><li>The Biden administration asked National Labor Relations Board general counsel Peter Robb, a Trump-appointee, to resign, Bloomberg Law&nbsp;<a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/biden-moves-to-oust-top-labor-board-attorney-robb" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>.</li></ul>



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">CHIEF CRITICS</h3>



Right-wing pundits&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/dominicholden/status/1351983032673173504?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">questioned&nbsp;</a>Biden’s vow to unify the country amid the flurry of executive orders. Biden’s actions don’t “add much oomph to his ‘unity’ message,” GOP Strategist Karl Rove&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/dominicholden/status/1351983032673173504?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said&nbsp;</a>in a&nbsp;Fox News&nbsp;interview.



Republican lawmakers took aim at Biden’s priorities. Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), an outspoken supporter of the Keystone XL Pipeline, said Biden was costing 10,000 blue-collar jobs and making the U.S. “less energy secure.”



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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">FIRST DAY: <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Biden?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Biden</a> fires opening shot on Texas energy workers. ExecOrder revokes <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/KeystoneXL?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#KeystoneXL</a> pipeline permit. Kills 10,000 blue-collar jobs, many in Texas. Makes U.S. less energy secure. Russia &amp; Middle East cheering. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BidenKillsJobs?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BidenKillsJobs</a><a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/BidenTargetsTX?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#BidenTargetsTX</a>&mdash; Rep. Kevin Brady (@RepKevinBrady) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepKevinBrady/status/1351983718131503109?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 20, 2021</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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GOP Biden&#8217;s immigration plan sparked immediate criticism from GOP members of Congress. “A mass amnesty with no safeguards and no strings attached is a nonstarter,” said Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa).



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h3>



The official White House website, WhiteHouse.gov, also got some new accessibility changes. The new site has dark mode and a toggle to make the font larger.



-by Rachel Sandler, Forbes Staff

Joe Biden Sworn In As 46th President Of The United States At U.S. Capitol Inauguration Ceremony

Here Are All The Actions Biden Took On His First Day In Office

After Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol last week, Bank of America sent a memo to employees who had donated to the company’s political action committee. The note made it clear there would be financial consequences for legislators who had voted against certifying the 2020 election results. “For upcoming elections,” the message said, “We will take into account the appalling events of January 6 before making any PAC decisions regarding those members.”  



But what about consequences for the president? Bank of America, after all, has significant financial ties to Trump, serving as the biggest tenant inside 555 California Street, a San Francisco skyscraper in which the president holds a 30% stake worth an estimated $442 million. The bank’s annual rent amounts to an estimated $22 million, and Trump’s 30% share of that is roughly $6.5 million. When asked whether the bank planned to continue providing that money to the president, a spokesman didn’t have an answer. “Regarding 555 California, I would have to get back to you,” he said. “We don’t generally disclose rent payments.”



Bank of America isn’t the only company caught in an awkward position—pledging financial consequences for Trump’s acolytes while continuing to pay the president rent. Many of Trump’s tenants are locked into longstanding lease agreements, which makes severing those ties more challenging than simply pledging to withhold future political donations. Further complicating things: the president’s blue-chip tenants are largely inside 555 California Street and New York City’s 1290 Avenue of the Americas, two buildings in which he holds minority interests alongside publicly traded Vornado Realty Trust, which&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2019/03/07/trumps-secret-windfall-the-crown-jewels-of-his-fortune-are-2-skyscrapers-he-didnt-wantand-doesnt-control/?sh=6febfbb822e5">manages the buildings</a>&nbsp;on a day-to-day basis.



The amount of money flowing through those leases, however, is far greater than the standard political donation. Plus, the funds ultimately go to Trump personally, rather than to a campaign for his political allies. Cutting off the rental payments, in other words, would send a more significant, personal message to Trump.



But that’s not where companies are focused right now. Take Goldman Sachs. “We put a pause on all PAC activity last Thursday and are reviewing our political contributions going forward, in light of the efforts to block the results of the election,” a representative for the financial giant said in a statement. Goldman remains one of the president’s tenants at 555 California Street, paying an estimated $5.8 million of annual rent. Trump’s 30% share amounts to $1.7 million. Questioned about plans for the lease agreement, a spokesman did not have an answer. “I’ll ask,” he said.



It’s a similar story at Microsoft, which decided on Friday that it would freeze political giving through its PAC. “The PAC regularly pauses its donations in the first quarter of a new Congress, but it will take additional steps this year to consider these recent events and consult with employees,” a spokesperson said in a statement. The technology firm also did not answer whether it will be seeking to change its lease inside 555 California, where it pays an estimated $3.2 million a year—$900,000 of which is attributable to the president.



Ditto for JPMorgan Chase, which has space on the ground floor of 1290 Avenue of the Americas. “The terrible events from the last week have prompted us to pause all contributions from our political action committee and to reevaluate our PAC giving strategies,” a bank representative said in a statement. No word, however, on the rent flowing into the president’s property: “Checking on the lease,” the spokesperson said.



Morgan Stanley, which is also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/business/banks-citigroup-goldman-sachs-politicians.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reportedly halting</a>&nbsp;its donations to lawmakers who did not vote to certify the election tally, rents space inside 555 California Street and pays an estimated $10 million annually ($3.1 million of which counts toward Trump’s rent roll). But the firm did not respond to requests for comment about its lease.



Blue Cross Blue Shield’s national organization said it would suspend its donations to legislators who “voted to undermine our democracy,” explaining in a statement, “While a contrast of ideas, ideological differences and partisanship are all part of our politics, weakening our political system and eroding public confidence in it must never be.” The group did not say whether the foundation of one of its companies, Blue Shield of California, would try to change its lease agreement in San Francisco. That space, inside the 555 California Street complex, comes with an estimated $2.1 million price tag per year. Trump’s share of the rent: roughly $600,000.



With additional reporting by Jemima McEvoy and Andrew Solender.



By Dan Alexander, Forbes Staff

President Trump Returns After Border Visit

Big Companies Try To Distance Themselves From Trump—While Still Paying Him Millions In Rent

When Victor Terry answered a call from State Farm CEO Michael Tipsord and chief administrator Mary Schmidt in June, he wasn’t expecting the news he received. “To hear them say, ‘Victor, we want to make you our first chief diversity officer,’ was really a moment that’s hard to describe,” says Terry, then an area vice president. “We had already experienced the murder of George Floyd and everything that unfolded Memorial Day weekend, but I didn’t see that coming.”



Perhaps he should have: A seat in the C-suite signals a company’s commitment to the area the role represents. In appointing Terry as CDO, State Farm did just that for diversity and inclusion. But it wasn’t the only organization to mint a new chief diversity officer this past year.



According to an&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/whos-reaching-c-suite-2020-16-roles-have-momentum-george-anders/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">analysis of nearly 100,000 U.S. C-suite appointments</a>&nbsp;by LinkedIn, while overall C-level hiring declined 18% year-over-year, some roles, such as that of diversity chief, saw great growth. CDO appointments increased at a rate of 84% as a proportion of total C-suite hires in 2020 as compared to 2019—more than any other C-level role—with Terry, as well as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sonymusic.com/sonymusic/sony-music-group-appoints-tiffany-r-warren-executive-vice-president-chief-diversity-and-inclusion-officer/#:~:text=New%20York%2C%20October%2014%2C%202020,Chief%20Diversity%20and%20Inclusion%20Officer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Sony Music’s Tiffany R. Warren</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pressroom.ups.com/pressroom/ContentDetailsViewer.page?ConceptType=PressReleases&amp;id=1607452098783-458" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">UPS’ Charlene Thomas</a>, being among those tapped to serve as their companies’ firsts.



Recent years have seen C-suites expand to encompass titles beyond the traditional CFO, CMO, COO and, of course, CEO. And while some newcomers have been sector-specific—think, <a href="https://investors.virgingalactic.com/news/news-details/2020/Virgin-Galactic-Announces-Michael-Colglazier-as-Chief-Executive-Officer-in-Preparation-for-Commercial-Service/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Virgin Galactic’s chief space officer</a>, Michael Colglazier, named in July—most mirror the state of business and, more broadly, the world. “We’re going through a crisis, but at the same time, C-suites and boards are saying, ‘We need to reset,’” says Radhika Papandreou, senior client partner at Korn Ferry. “They need to make sure they have the right talent to not only recover, but to use the recovery as an opportunity to innovate.” And so it’s no wonder so many chief diversity officers made their debuts in 2020 amid the national reckoning on racial injustice.



For Terry, who had spent the better part of his 23 years with the insurer driving diversity and inclusion through its African American employee resource group, his appointment meant formalizing the organization’s efforts, facilitating company-wide conversations about race and creating a D&amp;I governance council. “This group is charged with refining and shaping our enterprise strategy,” Terry says. “While I have the formal title, and it’s something where I have a high degree of ownership and accountability, the truth of the matter is for any diversity and inclusion initiative to be successful, it has to live in the business, it has to be integrated into everything that we do.”



Diversity officers aren’t the only chiefs who have been in demand as a result of the events of 2020. When the coronavirus pandemic forced countless companies to embrace remote work overnight, chief revenue officers found themselves more reliant than ever before on marketing and technology to maintain healthy bottom lines. Some corporations consolidated these functions under the role of chief growth officer.&nbsp;



“You can have such a rigid split that it’s hard for everyone to cooperate and work together, to build the kinds of projects that are multi-teamed,” says George Anders, senior editor at large at LinkedIn and author of the study. “Having a chief growth officer provides a way that someone can look over the walls and see how all the pieces fit together.”



Chief growth officers were hired at a rate of 46% in 2020—second only to CDOs—after several years of steadily gaining steam, with such <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/we-found-57-routes-c-suite-youre-problem-fixer-step-right-anders/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">appointments increasing 42%</a> from 2015 to 2019. Gap and eBay were among those organizations to tap their first CGOs, naming <a href="https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20201124005379/en/Gap-Inc.-Appoints-New-Chief-Growth-Officer-and-New-President-and-CEO-of-Banana-Republic" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Asheesh Saksena</a> and <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/ebay-names-julie-loeger-global-chief-growth-officer-301183002.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Julie Loeger</a> in November and December. Meanwhile, Mars Wrigley expanded the responsibilities associated with its existing global growth officer role upon promoting <a href="https://www.mars.com/news-and-stories/press-releases/mars-wrigley-introduces-new-chief-growth-officer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Cathryn Sleight</a> to the job in July.



sumer behaviors and tastes have changed amid Covid-19, having all of these areas under one umbrella has paid dividends, chief among them partnerships with food delivery services DoorDash and goPuff, and the acquisitions of Kind and Nature’s Bakery.



But that’s not to say Sleight works in a silo. In fact, she often finds herself collaborating with one of her more traditional counterparts: the CFO. “We need to make sure that the programs we put in place have strong ROIs and are delivering the right level of growth to ensure we capture our fair share of the profit pools,” she says. “Working things through together, you get much better solutions.”



If the state of the C-suite is a reflection of the state of the world, it should come as no surprise that chief medical officer appointments increased in 2020. While it certainly isn’t a new position—or at least not in hospitals and healthcare companies, where it’s long been commonplace—and its growth rate wasn’t as high as that of CDOs and CGOs—LinkedIn pegs it at 4%—the coronavirus pandemic has spurred its expansion into new industries. PepsiCo and Tyson tapped <a href="https://www.pepsico.com/news/press-release/pepsico-appoints-dr.-pietro-antonio-tataranni-as-chief-medical-officer" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Pietro Antonio Tataranni</a> and <a href="https://ir.tyson.com/news/news-details/2020/Tyson-Foods-Launches-New-Nationwide-COVID-Monitoring-Strategy-Expands-Health-Staff/default.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Dr. Claudia Coplein</a> for their newly created chief medical officer roles in November and December, and <a href="https://www.royalcaribbeanpresscenter.com/press-release/1459/royal-caribbean-group-names-dr-calvin-johnson-global-head-public-health-and-chief-medical-officer/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Royal Caribbean hired Dr. Calvin Johnson</a> as its first CMO and global head of public health in July.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-style-large">“I don’t think these were knee-jerk reactions to what we’ve gone through. Some of this had already been thought about in board and C-suites—the pandemic accelerated the decisions.”-Radhika Papandreou, senior client partner, Korn Ferry</blockquote>



“Truth be told, if you’d asked me a few months earlier, I would not have believed you,” says Dr. Johnson of his appointment. “In a word, it was the pandemic. It literally stopped Royal in its tracks.”



The travel and hospitality industry has been hard hit by Covid-19, and cruise companies, including Royal Caribbean, were among the first to feel its effect, their common spaces and close quarters ideal settings for outbreaks. While Royal Caribbean did have healthcare infrastructure in place, as well as individuals to oversee it on a part-time basis, it didn’t have a dedicated leader, let alone one who had the ear of the CEO.



“A lot of C-level titles are created when companies have a crisis,” Anders says. “In 2019, we saw a lot of tech companies creating chief people officers. That happened to coincide with a sense that some tech companies were having a hard time getting the human side of their companies right.”



Like all medical chiefs, Dr. Johnson is responsible for delivering care to patients, in his case passengers and crew. He oversees more than 60 medical sites on ships sailing all around the world. During a global public health crisis, this means being in constant communication with his fellow executives. “Normal crew movement, which before wouldn’t necessarily have to have medical or public health involvement, now does because it involves ensuring the crew coming on board isn’t coming on with the virus. It is testing, screening and educating, from a prevention perspective,” Dr. Johnson says. “For crew rotating off, it’s ensuring they’re not taking the virus off and into the community.”



Would Royal Caribbean have needed a chief medical officer had it not been for Covid-19? It’s hard to say. But as reactive as the appointment—and that of this year’s other C-suite recruits—may have been, it’s not likely to result in a transient tenure. “I don’t think these were knee-jerk reactions to what we’ve gone through,” says Papandreou. “Some of this had already been thought about inboard and C-suites—the pandemic accelerated the decisions.”



-by Vicky Valet, Forbes Staff

Businesswoman looks across city at sunrise

The New C-Suite: How 2020 Shaped Corporate America’s Executive Ranks

Although Donald Trump-led arguably the most Africa-adverse American administration in history, analysts warn not to expect too much from his successor, Democrat Joe Biden. A look at the likely impact of his win on the US-Africa economic dynamics.



HISTORICALLY, IT HAS NOT MATTERED MUCH for Africa whether Democrats or Republicans sit in the White House. This is largely because the United States (US) has never really had a coherent and constructive Africa policy. So, although outgoing Republican president Donald Trump led arguably the most Africa-adverse American administration in history, analysts warn not to expect too much from his successor, Democrat Joe Biden.



Biden was vice-president in the Obama administration that preceded Trump. But whereas Trump once called African countries “shitholes”, Biden at least is promising to “reengage with the world”.



“He will be more engaging with countries, including Africa,” believes Jannie Rossouw, interim head of Wits Business School in Johannesburg. “Trump really isolated the US from many regions, from very many continents, it was bad relationship all over the place.”



Judd Devermont, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington DC, agrees.



“I think Biden is going to focus on rebuilding partnerships and that includes at the multilateral level to the state level, to the subnational level,” he says.



“So I think you will first see a refocus on climate change and strengthening international adoptions, which will be of benefit to Africans. It’s clear that Biden is very supportive of the Continental Free Trade Agreement. That is incredibly important. But he has also talked about the importance of subnational governance and particularly urbanization. And so I think we have the potential to see the next administration work with African countries at these multiple levels to unlock their economies.”



Devermont expects the biggest African economies – Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya in particular – to receive significant attention, while the prospects for Ethiopia also look promising.



But Biden has his work cut out for him. Domestic challenges like tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, an economic recession and reckoning with racism are likely to keep him busy during his first few months in office. When his attention finally shifts to international affairs, climate change and trade wars with China can expect to dominate the agenda.



But instead of disparaging Beijing at every turn, like Trump did, Devermont expects there will be a focus on “transparency around norms, around standards, ensuring that African economies are open to US investors. And the more negative elements of a Chinese engagement will be blunted or curbed through shared partnerships with Africans around how foreign countries should invest in their countries, how to form partnerships in their countries.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Another expectation is that American legislation allowing sub-Saharan African countries preferential entry into the US market will be extended.



Rossouw believes that “Biden will try to find a call partner in countries in Africa, and that might be beneficial, especially for the bigger economies in Africa, such as South Africa. If Johannesburg was an independent country, it would be the ninth largest economy in Africa. So naturally, the interest will first be in the big economies and then there will be spillover effects to the smaller economies.”



Biden has in the past committed Washington to helping the continent manage the challenges of a burgeoning population. The United Nations’ projection that Africa will be home to a quarter of the world’s population by 2050 led him to suggest an urbanization initiative. This would include partnerships between African and American cities planning for growth in critical sectors like energy access, climate change, transportation and water management.



“Urbanization is the key transformation that the continent will undergo in this century and ensuring that African cities, most of whom sit on the coasts, are open for business will be a huge opportunity for US companies,&#8221; says Devermont. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t underestimate how important that initiative, depending on what it develops into, can be for the US-Africa economic relationship.&#8221;



Equally important is that the Biden administration reach out to companies that remain skeptical or ignorant about opportunities in Africa and address some of the risks and myths they have about investing on the continent.



Trump’s mission was to make America great but his administration largely disengaged with one of the world’s fastest-growing regions. Time will tell whether his successor fares any better. 



-By PAULA SLIER AND ALLISON GOSNEY

US dollar on the Africa map background

Will The United States Re-Engage With Africa?

There’s a vignette that Senator Kamala Harris likes to tell about her mother, Shyamala Gopalan Harris. It’s a well-trodden soundbite that has proliferated into hashtags and official 2020 campaign merchandise, but the commercialization shouldn’t detract from its meaning: An immigrant from India who came to the United States with dreams of curing cancer, Shyamala raised Harris and her sister Maya to be strong Black women who are mindful of what their identities mean in American work and life. “My mother would look at me,” Harris has said, “and she’d say, ‘Kamala you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you are not the last.’”



Shyamala was right: Her daughter has been “the first” a number of times. In 2010, Harris became the first African-American and first woman to serve as California’s attorney general. In 2016, she became the first Indian-American woman to be elected to the United States Senate. In August of 2020, she became the first Black woman and first Asian-American woman to appear on the presidential ticket of a major political party.



On Saturday, November 7, the Associated Press projected that former vice president Joe Biden and his running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, won the state of Pennsylvania and have earned more than 270 electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election. Senator Harris can therefore add more firsts to her list:&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jemimamcevoy/2020/11/07/kamala-harris-makes-history-as-first-female-black-asian-american-vice-president/">she is officially the first female vice president-elect&nbsp;</a>in United States history and the first person of color to earn the distinction as well.



In her first public statement after the race was called—<a href="https://twitter.com/KamalaHarris/status/1325119592130252801" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a tweet</a>—Harris didn’t mention these firsts. “This election is about so much more than&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@JoeBiden</a>&nbsp;or me,” she said. “It’s about the soul of America and our willingness to fight for it. We have a lot of work ahead of us. Let’s get started.”



Harris’s presence in the 2020 race—both for as a candidate for president in the early days of the Democratic primary, and for vice president in the general election race—has been a potent reminder of what has been lacking in our nation’s highest office for more than two centuries.



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote">“It&#8217;s a kind of beautiful, full-circle moment for the story of America because I think women, and more specifically Black women, have done so much work—and are sort of the backbone of this country—without the acknowledgment of the work that we&#8217;ve done,” says Alia Daniels, co-founder of the global queer digital media network Revry. “And so I think being able to see someone who looks like me, in one of those positions, it&#8217;s just a level of pride that I don&#8217;t even know if I can fully express.”</blockquote>



Daniels notes that because we’ve seen women attain powerful positions in the private sector over the past few decades—consider former Pepsico CEO Indra Nooyi, or General Motors chief Mary Barra, to name a few boundary-breaking corporate leaders—it can be all too easy to take female leadership for granted. “But this is the highest position in our country that a woman has held,” she says. “There&#8217;s something to actually seeing it.”



The American public has already witnessed Harris asserting her expertise and authority on the national stage: her use of “I’m speaking” during the vice presidential debate last month was a master class in dealing with a male interrupter, and her questioning of then-U.S. attorney general Jeff Sessions and now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh in Senate hearings in 2017 and 2018 were similar showcases of feminine confidence and capability. But her impending presence in the executive branch of government has the potential to be as instructive as inspirational.



“No one can deny the power of seeing somebody who shares an identity, like your gender or your race, which are so salient in American society, certainly, in a position of power,” says Colleen Ammerman, director of the Gender Initiative at Harvard Business School. Ammerman points to research that has shown how female role models and mentors, as well as mere exposure to portraits of female leaders, can help encourage women to speak up, stand up and perhaps achieve more. “The images of leadership and power that we see are overwhelmingly white and male. Sometimes we don&#8217;t even quite notice that until we see something different,” she says.



Henah Parikh, development and communications manager at She’s the First, a nonpartisan nonprofit devoted to fighting gender inequality through education, puts it this way: “You can’t be what you can’t see.” She points to research that shows that, without female role models, girls stop believing they can be anything they want to be as early as 5 years old. Women like Harris help combat that.



“We talk a lot about these women trailblazers, like Kamala Harris who are the historic first, but they&#8217;re also paving the way for pulling other girls and women up with them,” Parikh says. “And that&#8217;s what&#8217;s so important to me and to a lot of women, but especially for me as a South Asian woman.”



Senator Harris’s election to the vice presidency comes at a moment when a pandemic has killed more than 200,000 Americans and forced thousands more out of work. Women have been disproportionately affected: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 865,000 women dropped out of the labor force in September, compared to 216,000 men. The childcare and remote learning demands on mothers working from home stand to erase <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/women-in-the-workplace#" target="_blank">close to a decade</a> of gains for women in the workplace unless spouses, employers and the government work to find solutions and provide support.



Harris alone cannot fix this. But for Aimee Koval, cofounder and president of Metis Consulting, a B-corp and certified disability-owned enterprise that provides technology and management consulting, Harris’s experience as a daughter, aunt and stepmother makes her more qualified than previous White House occupants to understand the unique challenges facing women.



“For me the big impact of choosing a woman in the White House is that that comes with a perspective that I think that we haven&#8217;t seen enough of, or enough understanding at a federal level from lawmakers who have not taken those concerns into account have not addressed issues such as childcare and the funding of schools,” Koval says.



Koval notes that fairly or unfairly, all eyes will be on Harris when it comes to these issues; this level of scrutiny and pressure is one of the well-documented downsides of being a “first” or “only” within an organization. In the federal government, where Democrats have held onto their majority in the House but control of the Senate is still unclear, women like Cori Bush—the first Black woman&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/elanagross/2020/11/04/the-firsts-of-the-us-2020-election/?sh=3309ce521c89">elected to Congress</a>&nbsp;by Missouri—and the newly-reelected members of “The Squad” (Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib) can use their personal experiences and political sway to advocate for these policies, too. But the rates of women in government, even with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/erinspencer1/2020/11/05/record-number-of-women-to-serve-in-the-117th-us-congress/">a record 131 women</a>&nbsp;so far elected to the 117th Congress, still lag that of the general public. The work is not over.



“I strongly believe that progress isn’t inevitable,” Harvard’s Ammerman says. “And I think it&#8217;s dangerous to sort of think, okay, we&#8217;ve broken one barrier and so we&#8217;ll just automatically keep going.”



Jackie Adams, coauthor of “A Blessing” and the first African-American female correspondent formally assigned to cover the Reagan and H.W. Bush White Houses for CBS News, has watched women vie for positions of power since Geraldine Ferraro was the first female vice presidential candidate on a major party ticket in 1984. Looking at the developments from the 2018 and 2020 election cycles, she finds reasons to be optimistic about female leadership beyond Harris’s fresh status as vice-president elect. “There are more women of color running for office than ever before,” she said. “I think that there is a flywheel that&#8217;s spinning and it might be pushed further ahead a little bit faster, [as] Senator Harris becomes vice president, but even if she doesn&#8217;t, it&#8217;s not gonna be stopped.”



The inspiration that Harris has already instilled in young girls is evident in the tweets and photos depicting Halloween costumes (<a href="https://twitter.com/meenaharris/status/1322297281333272576" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Converse and all)</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/ErinnFHarley/status/1313473405514125313?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1313473405514125313" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">driveway stump speeches</a>. But the significance of her election is not limited to the Gen-Z set.



“Senator Harris actually shares a birthday with my mom,” She’s the First’s Parikh says, going on to explain that both her mom and Shyamala Gopalan Harris come from South India, and both came to American with a lot to learn. Parikh describes hearing Harris talk so fondly about Shyamala and then texting her own mother.



“I said, ‘I just hope that you feel like you have seen some growth in this country, just by seeing this on television.’ Millions of Indian people around the country can relate,” she says. “It is something we&#8217;ve never ever experienced before.”



&#8211;By Maggie McGrath, Forbes Staff

kamala harris

Kamala Harris Makes History: What The First Female Vice President-Elect Means For Women

Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. is projected to be the next president of the United States based on&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/1325112441928359939?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">election analysis</a>&nbsp;by the Associated Press, defeating incumbent President Donald Trump in what proved to be one of the most brutal campaigns in modern history, throughout which Biden vowed to heal the nation’s deep divisions and respond forcefully and responsibly to Covid-19 pandemic.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h4>



•&nbsp;The Associated Press called the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania for Biden on Saturday after late-counted absentee ballots gave him a come-from-behind victory, also calling Nevada for him shortly after.



•&nbsp;Biden’s path to 270 electoral votes was paved through Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan, which Trump won after decades of Democratic dominance, leaving some Democrats to question whether their path to the presidency in future elections would still run through the Midwest.



•&nbsp;But if Biden proved Democrats could win traditional Democratic states, he also blazed the beginnings of a new trail for Democrats by putting Arizona in the blue column for the first time since 1996, and he’s on track to be the first Democrat to win Georgia since 1992.



•&nbsp;The result caps off an election defined by its ugliness, with Trump launching attacks on Biden’s physical and<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/08/26/trumps-latest-trolling-of-bidens-mental-state-calling-for-drug-tests-before-debates/">&nbsp;mental health</a>,<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-election-trump/trump-calls-biden-stupid-demands-apology-for-challenging-him-on-vaccines-idUSKBN25Z0E6" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">&nbsp;intelligence</a>,<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/08/28/destroyer-of-american-greatness-trump-savages-biden-as-he-accepts-gop-nomination/">&nbsp;record</a>&nbsp;and even his<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/10/16/lock-up-the-bidens-trump-picks-target-for-final-stretch--his-opponents-family/">&nbsp;family</a>&nbsp;while calling for him to be<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/lisettevoytko/2019/09/25/trump-urged-ukraine-to-investigate-joe-biden-in-phone-call-transcript/">&nbsp;investigated</a>, prosecuted and<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/tommybeer/2020/10/17/trump-calls-the-bidens-an-organized-crime-family-but-here-are-his-run-ins-with-the-law/">&nbsp;imprisoned</a>&nbsp;by the federal government.



•&nbsp;Biden for his part rode a wave of anti-Trump sentiment by excoriating Trump’s record as president, most notably by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/10/23/biden-hits-trump-on-covid-if-this-is-a-success-what-does-a-failure-look-like/">seizing on</a>&nbsp;the&nbsp;<a href="https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#cases_casesinlast7days" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">232,000 U.S. deaths</a>&nbsp;from coronavirus and alleging Trump had failed to adequately respond to the pandemic.



•&nbsp;But even as he clashed with Trump, Biden pledges to voters that in the aftermath of the campaign he would seek to heal partisan wounds and govern not as a Democrat, but as “a president for all Americans,” even those who disagreed with him.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h4>



Born in Pennsylvania in 1942 and raised in Delaware, Biden attended the University of Delaware and Syracuse University Law School, briefly practicing law before entering local Delaware politics as a New Castle County Councilman. Biden was elected to the U.S. senate from Delaware in 1972, defeating a three-term Republican incumbent at age 29 to become the youngest senator in the country – so obscure on the national stage that NBC News anchor Garrick Utley mistakenly called him “<a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1320076660893536260?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">James Biden</a>.” Biden served for 36 years in the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.congress.gov/member/joseph-biden/B000444" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Senate</a>, including stints as the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations and Judiciary Committees, and ran for president in 1988 and 2008 before serving as President Barack Obama’s vice president from 2009 to 2017. In addition to his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, Biden has two children, Hunter and Ashley, and seven grandchildren.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">TANGENT</h4>



Biden won<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/11/03/biden-racks-up-more-republican-support-in-final-days--the-complete-list-of-his-gop-backers/">&nbsp;endorsements from hundreds of prominent Republicans</a>&nbsp;and former GOP officials, such as former Ohio Gov. John Kasich, the family of the late Arizona Sen. John McCain, GOP mega-donor Meg Whitman and former GOP presidential candidate Carly Fiorina. Even a handful of Trump officials endorsed Biden, including former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and former Department of Homeland Security Chief of Staff<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/10/29/trump-warns-bad-things-will-happen-to-treasonous-ex-official-miles-taylor/">&nbsp;Miles Taylor</a>.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h4>



“It&#8217;s been a long and difficult campaign, but it’s been a more difficult time for our country, Biden said in a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1324165787515461634?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">speech</a>&nbsp;on Wednesday, before the race was called for him, calling to “put the harsh rhetoric of the campaign behind us” and “respect and care for one another, to unite, to heal, to come together,” a common theme of his campaign. “I know this won’t be easy. I’m not naive. Neither of us are. I know how deep and hard the opposing views are in our country on so many things. But I also know this as well. To make progress, we have to stop treating our opponents as enemies. We are not enemies. What brings us together as Americans is so much stronger than anything that can tear us apart.”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">CHIEF CRITIC</h4>



“I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT!” Trump&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/11/07/trump-falsely-claims-he-won-by-a-lot-after-telling-biden-not-to-wrongfully-declare-victory/">tweeted</a>&nbsp;an hour before the election was called for Biden. Shortly afterwards, his campaign put out a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/AndrewSolender/status/1325118083082702850?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">statement</a>&nbsp;claiming &#8220;the simple fact is this election is far from over&#8221; and vowing legal action.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">SURPRISING FACT</h4>



Trump is the first president to lose reelection since 1992, when Republican President George H.W. Bush lost to Democrat Bill Clinton. At 77 years old, Biden will be the oldest president in American history. Biden’s running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), will be the first woman, the first Black American and the first Asian American to serve as vice president.



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">BIG NUMBER</h4>



306. That’s the number of electoral votes Biden is on track to win if he maintains his lead in Nevada and Georgia. Trump won the same exact number of electoral votes in 2016, which he described as a “<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/11/06/biden-on-track-for-what-trump-once-called-massive-landslide-electoral-college-victory/">massive landslide victory</a>.”



<h4 class="wp-block-heading">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h4>



An uncalled Senate race in North Carolina and two runoffs in Georgia set for Jan. 5 will determine whether Biden comes into office with a Democratic majority in both chambers of Congress. Given the sheer scale of his&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/" target="_blank">proposals</a>&nbsp;–&nbsp;including a&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/" target="_blank">$2 trillion climate plan</a>, a&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://joebiden.com/healthcare/" target="_blank">public health care option</a>&nbsp;and a&nbsp;<a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://joebiden.com/the-biden-emergency-action-plan-to-save-the-economy/" target="_blank">second coronavirus stimulus package</a>&nbsp;–&nbsp;Democratic control of Congress would be critical for Biden to enact some of his key priorities and to get his desired cabinet secretaries and appointees confirmed, as well as to fill judicial vacancies.



-By Andrew Solender,Forbes Staff

Democratic Presidential Nominee Joe Biden Addresses The Nation As Election Count Continues In Few Key States

Joe Biden Wins Presidency After Recapturing Rust Belt States

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="720" height="405" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WHO.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-46685" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WHO.jpg 720w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WHO-300x169.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WHO-600x338.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 720px) 100vw, 720px" /><figcaption>Flags fly at the World Health Organization headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. Photo Eric Bridiers/ <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/us-mission/14195612051" target="_blank">U.S. Mission Geneva</a>/ <a rel="noreferrer noopener" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/2.0/" target="_blank">CC BY-ND</a></figcaption></figure>



The World Health Organization (WHO) has been under attack- efforts being made to defund it, ridicule it, undermine it. The world is fighting a major pandemic which rivals the flu of 1918, which killed over 50 million people.



The Coronavirus pandemic may well be a precursor of what is to come in the future. This for sure is not the last pandemic the world will grapple with, <a href="https://www.forbesafrica.com/opinion/2020/05/13/without-universal-health-coverage-we-are-sitting-ducks-when-the-next-pandemic-strikes/">so let’s brace for impact</a>, as the velocity and virulence of the next contagion may be far more fierce and destructive than COVID-19.



A recent remark that “WHO has been bought by China” is painful to hear. Coming from a senior leader of a country which is the beating heart of the UN’s multilateral system, and has been at the vanguard of improving lives and livelihoods of populations all over the world, is puzzling.



Words matter, and by promoting a number of incorrect and insinuating statements, such language may damage the overall pandemic response and undermine an organization that is doing its best – under the extraordinary circumstances – to save lives across the globe.&nbsp;



I live in Kenya, and on a day to day basis I see the WHO working with countries across the continent to strengthen health systems and tackle health crises. These African countries, like many others especially in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, rely on WHO for guidance, expertise and often for human resources, particularly around disease responses like Ebola, Marburg, Zika or the plague.&nbsp;



I myself have been a beneficiary of the organization’s work, having been immunized as a child through one of the WHO immunization programs, and <a href="http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/09/qa-we-need-a-decisive-win-against-polio/">surviving polio</a> thanks to these efforts. Small pox would not have been eradicated without WHO. Billions more have benefited from WHO’s work, and humanity as a whole stands to gain from a well-funded, highly operational institution not only during this pandemic, but for years to come to prevent the next pandemic and build robust health systems.



Currently, there have been more than 15 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 600,000 deaths around the world. But this tiny microbe has impacted far more than just the global health system. It has pressure tested our political, economic, social and cultural institutions, attacking not only our bodies but the very threads of humanity that hold us together. What’s clear already is that the virus mercilessly exploits any chinks in national unity or global solidarity, making it an enemy far more formidable the modern world has seen in recent history.&nbsp;



At a pivotal time for tackling the pandemic, the global response needs solidarity, not politicization. The attacks against WHO threatens to derail global efforts to bring this pandemic under control.



Over the course of the next few months, governments will determine not only how they tackle COVID-19, but they will set a precedent that will guide the world for tackling future global threats.&nbsp;No country can overcome this pandemic on its own, no matter how advanced its economic systems are or how mighty its military is.



This pandemic is threatening lives, livelihoods, social and economic systems that have taken decades to build. It is an enemy that is threatening to reverse the gains the world has made in healthcare, education, poverty reduction, eradicating hunger and strengthening political unity.



For the sake of humanity, we must stand united against it, and this means supporting institutions that are playing a key role in the pandemic response.



From the climate crisis to inequality, antimicrobial resistance to the threat of a meteor hit, global challenges need global solutions, and these solutions cannot be developed if we focus on demonizing institutions rather than addressing the real issues at hand.



In terms of COVID-19, we have seen examples from around the world that clearly show that no matter how bad the outbreak, leaders can get a grip on the virus. By working with a whole of government and whole of society approach, the virus can be brought under control. Countries that have done this successfully, including New Zealand and Vietnam, which stand out as exemplars of how to tackle the pandemic, have shown us that a singular focus on preventing transmission and keeping their populations safe – not engaging in politics, blame games and blatant denial of science – is what is needed to ultimately flatten the curve.



WHO continues to provide valuable leadership in navigating the pandemic, helping the world deal with this crisis by distributing much-needed Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and diagnostics, providing technical guidance for health workers, leading efforts to find a vaccine and disseminating&nbsp;information that is playing a critical role in keeping people safe. Reducing support for WHO at this time is therefore tantamount to saying that we are all on our own. But we are not.



At the conclusion of the 73rd World Health Assembly on 19 May 2020, the WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said “COVID-19 has robbed us of people we love. It’s robbed us of lives and livelihoods; it’s shaken the foundations of our world; it threatens to tear at the fabric of international cooperation. But it’s also reminded us that for all our differences, we are one human race, and we are stronger together.”



Let’s take a moment to look at the value WHO brings to the world. It may not be a perfect institution, but it is providing global leadership at a time when it is needed most.



What WHO has achieved in 72 years is remarkable, and undeniable. To accelerate the science, find solutions to the COVID-19 challenges and build global solidarity; now more than ever, the world needs WHO.



Siddharth Chatterjee, is the United Nations resident coordinator to Kenya. He has served with the UN and the Red Cross Movement in various parts of the world affected by conflicts and humanitarian crisis. He is also a decorated Special Forces veteran and a Princeton University alumnus. Follow him on Twitter&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/sidchat1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@sidchat1</a>



The views expressed in this article are the author’s own.​​​​​

Attacking WHO is Unhelpful-Let’s Focus on Defeating The Virus

<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="590" height="393" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SG-Afganistan.2.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45096" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SG-Afganistan.2.jpg 590w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/SG-Afganistan.2-300x200.jpg 300w" sizes="(max-width: 590px) 100vw, 590px" /><figcaption>UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres calls on President Ashraf Ghani during a visit to Afghanistan’s capital Kabul to show solidarity with the Afghan people. Photo UNAMA / Fardin Waezi/June 2017.</figcaption></figure></div>



The world commemorated the 75th Anniversary to mark the end of the 2nd World War also called VE Day on May 08, 2020. 



With her nation, and much of the world still in lockdown, due to COVID 19, England’s Queen marked 75 years since the allied victory in Europe with a poignant televised address. From Windsor Castle, Queen Elizabeth said, “ the wartime generation knew that the best way to honour those who did not come back from the war, was to ensure that it didn’t happen again”.



But the world is still at war. Proxy wars or localised conflicts are wrecking havoc on human development and humanity in virtually every corner of the world. By the end of 2018, <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2019/6/5d08b6614/global-forced-displacement-tops-70-million.html">wars, violence and persecution have driven record numbers of over 70 million people</a> from their homes worldwide, according to UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. This is the largest ever displacement of humanity, post 2nd World War.



Never has the appeal by the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres been more pertinent: “<a href="https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/blog/2017/09/repair-world-in-pieces-and-create-world-at-peace-un-chief-guterres-urges-global-leaders/">The world is in pieces; we need world peace</a>.”&nbsp;



The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/29/world/asia/us-taliban-deal.html">United States signed a historic deal with Afghanistan</a> that outlines a timetable and exit plan for American troops, setting the stage for the potential end to nearly 18 years of war in Afghanistan.  The UN Secretary General <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/02/1058371">welcomed the US-Taliban peace agreement</a> on February 29, 2020.  The United States also won the<a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/03/1059161"> unanimous backing of the UN Security Council</a> to this ambitious peace deal on March 10, 2020.



The implementation of the peace agreement will need leadership, courage and resolve and there will be spoilers who will attempt to upend the peace process. The road to peace will be characterized by violence, set-backs and numerous false starts, but it will need diplomacy, determination and drive to keep the peace process on track. 



Hubris must not prolong the agony of this appalling war. 



The war has cost over $2 trillion and killed more than&nbsp;<a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2018/Human%20Costs%2C%20Nov%208%202018%20CoW.pdf">2,400 American soldiers and&nbsp;</a><a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2018/Human%20Costs,%20Nov%208%202018%20CoW.pdf">38,000</a><a href="https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/files/cow/imce/papers/2018/Human%20Costs%2C%20Nov%208%202018%20CoW.pdf">&nbsp;Afghan civilians</a>. Casualties among Afghan security forces are estimated to have reached around 40,000 between 2007 and 2017.



Wars are appalling. As a combat veteran,&nbsp;<a href="https://news.trust.org/item/20161101105441-eli9d/">I have witnessed first-hand how armed conflicts</a>&nbsp;have transformed some of our finest soldiers into shells of the people I once knew. Combat is savage, it is brutal, it is reckless, it diminishes us as human beings and jeopardizes our humanity.



General William Sherman once said, “It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, and more desolation. War is hell.”



There are no winners in Afghanistan, but let’s consider the consequences on all the women and men who fought in it.



Today, research backs up what soldiers have described for decades, and what was once called shell shock or combat fatigue. We have terms like Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), chronic depression, cognitive impairment, and traumatic brain injury to help explain the symptoms suffered by active and returning soldiers.  



<div class="wp-block-image"><figure class="aligncenter size-large"><img decoding="async" loading="lazy" width="700" height="467" src="https://www.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/US-Army-soldiers-security-duty-province-Paktika-2010.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-45062" srcset="https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/US-Army-soldiers-security-duty-province-Paktika-2010.jpg 700w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/US-Army-soldiers-security-duty-province-Paktika-2010-300x200.jpg 300w, https://cms.forbesafrica.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/US-Army-soldiers-security-duty-province-Paktika-2010-600x400.jpg 600w" sizes="(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px" /><figcaption>U.S. Army soldiers on security duty in Paktīkā province, Afghanistan, 2010. Sgt. Derec Pierson/U.S. Department of Defense</figcaption></figure></div>



For a long time, many of the grim statistics about war centred on fatalities and did not include the conflicts’ deep mental wounds. Today we have a better understanding of the kind of moral and psychological toll wars take on soldiers, their families, and communities.



The United States is a leader in the understanding of psychological and emotional damage to soldiers and has taken some steps to address their mental health. The conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have left between&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/common/common_veterans.asp">11% and 20%</a>&nbsp;of military personnel suffering from PTSD. As many as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dav.org/veterans/resources/traumatic-brain-injury-tbi/">375,000 US veterans</a>&nbsp;have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries between 2000 and 2017, mostly caused by explosions.&nbsp;



But suicides in the&nbsp;US armed forces have continued to rise in recent years, reaching&nbsp;<a href="https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/09/26/military-suicide-rates-hit-record-high-2018.html">record levels in 2018</a>&nbsp;when there were 25 deaths per 100,000 service members. Former defence secretary Leon Panetta once said that the “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/war-wounds.html">epidemic” of military suicide</a>&nbsp;was “one of the most frustrating problems” he had faced.



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/12/09/world/middleeast/afghanistan-war-cost.html">More than $350 billion has already gone to medical and disability care for veterans</a>&nbsp;of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan combined. Experts say that more than half of that spending belongs to the Afghanistan effort.



Homelessness among veterans is pervasive, and soldiers still struggle to access benefits and healthcare if they suffer from&nbsp;<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/opinion/sunday/war-wounds.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=2&amp;">mental health</a>&nbsp;issues rather than from physical wounds. At any given time in the US, more than 40,000 veterans are homeless, constituting around&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usich.gov/resources/uploads/asset_library/Homelessness_in_America._Focus_on_Veterans.pdf">9% of all homeless adults</a>&nbsp;in the country.&nbsp;



In the United Kingdom, spurred by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/british-veteran-soldiers-afghanistan-suicides-deaths-a9367856.html">a dozen suicides</a>&nbsp;among Afghan war veterans in just two months, the government expedited new mental health programs to help deal with former military members’ PTSD and addiction.&nbsp;



What does this now mean for the Afghan security forces? They and their families do not have the same support structures.



All this ‘hell’, but to what end? Afghanistan remains one of the world’s largest sources of refugees and migrants. Since 2004 alone, more than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.giz.de/en/ourservices/55909.html">1.8 million Afghans have become internally displaced.</a>&nbsp;Afghanistan’s&nbsp;human development and progress has been set back by decades.&nbsp;Women and children have suffered the most and countless are emotionally and psychologically scarred for life.



While we like to see soldiers as stoic and heroic, we must open our eyes to the fact that wars scar minds as well as bodies, often in ways medical science cannot yet comprehend.



Just like the world is desperately seeking a cure to end the coronavirus pandemic which has killed over 275,000 people so far and leaving a trail of human, economic and social misery, the world too must find a way to end wars, or else we may be defeated as a civilization.



Siddharth Chatterjee, is the United Nations resident coordinator to Kenya. He has served with the UN and the Red Cross Movement in various parts of the world affected by conflicts and humanitarian crisis. He is also a decorated Special Forces veteran and a Princeton University alumnus. Follow him on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/sidchat1?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">@sidchat1</a>



The views expressed in this article are the author&#8217;s own.​​​​​

VE DAY MARKS THE END OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR-BUT THE WORLD IS STILL AT WAR

Topline: The U.S. recorded 233 deaths from COVID-19 on Wednesday, the highest number of deaths on a single day, with the death toll climbing to 1,046, according to Johns Hopkins&nbsp;<a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">data</a>—compared to around 326 deaths on Sunday.



<ul><li>The spike in cases comes as the Senate&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kellyphillipserb/2020/03/25/senate-passes-coronavirus-stimulus-bill-house-expected-to-follow-suit/#3a5d8f6d4475">unanimously passed</a>&nbsp;a $2 trillion bill to provide economic relief for families, businesses, workers and the economy.</li><li>There have now been more than 69,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. to date, which now has the third-largest number of confirmed cases after China and Italy.</li><li>The U.S. has overtaken Italy in terms of reporting the most new cases, data from Johns Hopkins shows.</li><li>Dr Anthony Fauci, a leading voice on the coronavirus task force, told CNN on Wednesday night that the pandemic was accelerating in the U.S. and called for more testing and a need to get a better idea of “what is going on” in other parts of the country.&nbsp;</li></ul>



Crucial comment: “The way we do that is by increasing testing and identifying people who are infected, isolating them, getting [them] out of circulation, and then do contact tracing,&#8221; Fauci said.



As it stands, New York and Washington states are hot spots of the outbreak in the U.S., but there are concerns that Louisiana, which has ordered residents to stay at home,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/carlieporterfield/2020/03/25/new-orleans-could-be-the-next-coronavirus-epicenter-as-available-ventilators-dwindle/#1d4c60b56dc1">could become the next hot spot</a>.



Fauci&nbsp;<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news/coronavirus-outbreak-03-26-20-intl-hnk/h_2c835bf826df1904eda0ed6dd854013d" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told CNN</a>: “I mean, I have spoken to the political officials in New Orleans and in the state of Louisiana. They are now shutting things down in a very vigorous way. It is likely that that should have been done a little bit sooner—not blaming anyone on that, but you get caught unaware because of the nature of this outbreak.”



What to watch for: The G20 group of the world’s most industrialized nations will meet for a virtual summit on Thursday, chaired by Saudi Arabia, to discuss a plan of action in tackling COVID-19.



&#8211;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/isabeltogoh/">Isabel Togoh</a>, Forbes Staff, <a href="https://www.forbes.com/business">Business</a>

concept, background

Coronavirus Death Toll Tops 1,000 In The U.S.

On <a href="http://time.com/4986918/us-military-niger-soldier-deaths-investigaton/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">October 4</a> an American Special Forces team was ambushed by a contingent of Islamic State affiliated fighters in Niger. Four American soldiers were killed and two wounded. The team of 12 soldiers was returning from a meeting with community leaders when it ran into a group of up to 50 terrorists.
The incident caused a furore in the US, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-africa-security/u-s-deaths-in-niger-highlight-africa-military-mission-creep-idUSKBN1CB2J1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sparking recollection</a> of 1993’s “<a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-38808175/black-hawk-down-the-somali-battle-that-changed-us-policy-in-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Black Hawk Down</a>” incident in Somalia that saw 18 American soldiers killed. Questions were raised about how it was that four US soldiers died, why one of the bodies was <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/20/politics/us-niger-ambush-sgt-la-david-johnson/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">retrieved only 48 hours after the ambush</a>, and <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-troops-niger/story?id=50559788" target="_blank" rel="noopener">why US troops were in Niger in the first place</a>. US President Donald Trump’s failure to address the matter with the necessary <a href="http://edition.cnn.com/2017/10/18/politics/john-mccain-niger-attack-response/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">transparency</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/18/us/politics/trump-widow-johnson-call.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sensitivity</a> fueled the agitation.
The Niger incident reaffirmed the need to ask important questions about <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2017/10/29/death-us-soldiers-in-niger-restarts-debate-about-military-involvement-post-vietnam.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">US military presence</a> in foreign territories and in this case, in Africa. African institutions that advocate for <a href="http://www.un.org/humansecurity/human-security-unit/human-security-approach" target="_blank" rel="noopener">human security</a> must continuously question the motives behind US military presence on the continent as well as its impact.
The US has an extensive military presence on the continent. In 2016 it was <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.com/bryan-maygers/nick-turse-tomorrows-battlefield_b_7480360.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> that its military had been involved with more than 90% of the 54 countries in Africa.
Two important and related questions arise following the Niger incident. Is the US military’s presence in Africa <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/americas-proxy-wars-africa/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">good or bad</a> for Africa’s security? And is America pursuing the right strategy to combat terrorism on the continent? These are pertinent questions given that Africa is “<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2017/10/25/africa-becomes-new-battleground-isis-and-al-qaeda-they-lose-ground-mideast/796148001/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the new battleground</a>” in the fight against terrorism.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/investment-guide/2017/10/30/west-africa-less-attractive-investors/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Why Is West Africa Less Attractive To Investors?</a>
<h2>The history</h2>
The US military’s presence in Africa is best understood in the wider context of America’s national security strategy. In establishing a military presence with global reach, the Americans are informed by what they call “<a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-united-states-probably-has-more-foreign-military-bases-than-any-other-people-nation-or-empire-in-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">forward strategy</a>”. This is a national security policy shaped during the Cold War.
“Forward strategy” was based on the idea that establishing and maintaining a significant US military presence in close proximity to the former Soviet Union would discourage communist expansion. This encouraged the emergence of America’s global military footprint either through a physical presence or in the form of <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2016/02/east-west-cold-war-legacy-africa-160214113015863.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proxy forces</a> belonging to sympathetic or opportunistic governments.
Forward strategy <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/21/september11.usa13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">gained renewed impetus</a> following the <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/the_september_11th_terrorist_attacks" target="_blank" rel="noopener">9/11 attacks</a> on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. This renewal was marked when the president George W. Bush declared a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2001/sep/21/september11.usa13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">war on terror</a>.
Africa had already featured in the story of the fight against terror, when in <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/7/newsid_3131000/3131709.stm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">1998</a> US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were bombed by <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/04/world_al_qaeda/html/2.stm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Al-Qaeda</a>. In 2007, and following Bush’s declaration, the “United States Africa Command” (<a href="http://www.heritage.org/defense/report/us-africa-command-challenges-and-opportunities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">AFRICOM</a>) was established as the <a href="https://www.defense.gov/About/Military-Departments/Unified-Combatant-Commands/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ninth unified combatant command</a>. AFRICOM was founded with the <a href="http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do" target="_blank" rel="noopener">operational objective</a> to neutralise <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-24587491" target="_blank" rel="noopener">violent extremist organisations</a> and beef up regional security on the continent.
The US troop contingent in Niger is part of this effort. AFRICOM is also engaged in an array of <a href="http://www.africom.mil/what-we-do" target="_blank" rel="noopener">supporting activities</a> deemed necessary for ensuring regional security. These include <a href="https://www.cfr.org/blog/us-arms-sales-kenya" target="_blank" rel="noopener">foreign military sales</a>, <a href="https://www.cfr.org/report/reforming-us-international-military-education-and-training-program" target="_blank" rel="noopener">military education and training</a>, <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22173596" target="_blank" rel="noopener">provision of healthcare</a> and <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjPLskdV7h0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">veterinary services</a>.
The US military’s strategic objective is underpinned by two ideals: the <a href="http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/clauswtz/clwt000d.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“economy of force”</a> and <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2017/04/north-korea-preventive-war/523833/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“preventative war”</a>. “Economy of force” refers to the idea that it’s more cost effective to train and equip African forces in the fight against terror than to commit extensive numbers of US troops. “Preventative war” centres on the argument that large wars can be avoided by fighting on smaller scales wherever necessary.
America’s forward strategy persisted under both the <a href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-united-states-probably-has-more-foreign-military-bases-than-any-other-people-nation-or-empire-in-history/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bush and Obama administrations</a>. By all indications it is a strategy that’s <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/25/world/africa/white-house-pushes-military-might-over-humanitarian-aid-in-africa.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">likely to continue</a> under Trump.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/politics/2017/10/04/trumps-africa-policy-still-incoherent-key-signals-emerging/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Trump&#8217;s Africa policy is still incoherent</a>
<h2>Citizens will pay a price</h2>
The danger is that, in some instances, citizens can bear the brunt of a US military presence that involves training and equipping of African forces. This is particularly true in countries where interventions, inadvertently perhaps, <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/10/old-wounds-deep-scars-us-intervention-africa-20131010101130448232.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">strengthen repressive state apparatus</a>. On the other hand <a href="http://www.global-geneva.com/keeping-it-family-how-africas-corrupt-leaders-stay-in-power/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Africa’s gatekeepers</a> &#8211; self-interested, ruling elites &#8211; have the means to ensure their own security. They control the state, and its access to foreign partnerships and aid, whether military or otherwise.
A <a href="http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/02/18/is-the-us-military-propping-up-ugandas-elected-autocrat-museveni-elections/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">case in point</a> is Uganda’s <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-12421747" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Yoweri Museveni</a> – a <a href="https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2016/06/03/uganda_on_the_brink_key_us_ally_for_african_security__109416.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">key African ally</a> in the war on terror.
And of the 16 African countries that <a href="https://www.irinnews.org/feature/2017/02/15/updated-rough-guide-foreign-military-bases-africa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">host US military presence</a>, 10 are <a href="https://freedomhouse.org/report/fiw-2017-table-country-scores" target="_blank" rel="noopener">categorised</a> by the US-based Freedom House as “not free”, four as “partly free” and only two as “free”.
Various reports this year indicate that armed forces in a number of countries that host a US military presence have abused civilians. <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/hrw-accuses-mali-burkina-troops-of-sweeping-rights-abuses-20170908" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Burkina Faso</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/sep/27/tortured-abused-deported-cameroon-accused-of-driving-out-100000-nigerian-refugees-human-rights-watch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Cameroon</a>, <a href="https://www.news24.com/Africa/News/chad-blasts-un-report-on-troop-abuses-in-car-20170602" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chad</a>, <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2017/03/09/us-stand-ethiopians-government-stifles-protests-jails-journalists" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Ethiopia</a>, <a href="http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Opinion/Candidates-should-address-abuses-/440808-4037576-55swdez/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Kenya</a> and <a href="http://ewn.co.za/2017/05/15/ugandan-troops-committed-sexual-abuse-in-central-african-republic" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Uganda</a> are a few examples.
These sorts of situations have the potential to fuel fundamentalist backlash.
<a href="http://www.forbesafrica.com/current-affairs/2017/06/21/qatars-conflict-neighbours-can-set-horn-africa-alight/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">READ MORE: Qatar&#8217;s conflict with its neighbours can set the Horn of Africa alight</a>
<h2>Is America’s strategy working?</h2>
What is the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/25/world/africa/white-house-pushes-military-might-over-humanitarian-aid-in-africa.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">efficacy of the US’s military presence</a> in Africa?
<a href="https://issafrica.org/about-us/press-releases/lessons-from-africa-on-terrorism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Research</a> by the Institute for Security Studies suggests that <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-01-18-collateral-death-more-civilians-killed-in-nigerias-war-on-terror/#.WgSSz2iCw2w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">heavy-handed anti-terrorism strategies</a> breed insecurity by making fundamentalist organisations appear attractive to ordinary citizens. The exercise of what ordinary citizens perceive to be <a href="https://www.colorado.edu/conflict/peace/problem/illegit_force.htm" target="_blank" rel="noopener">illegitimate force</a>, on the part of state security institutions, increases the likelihood of those same citizens joining fundamentalist organisations.
But it seems these findings are being ignored. The danger is that if <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/25/world/africa/white-house-pushes-military-might-over-humanitarian-aid-in-africa.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">current patterns</a> encouraged by the US military persist, countries are likely to experience an increase in extremism. This in turn is likely to perpetuate the heavy-handedness of already illiberal regimes and the <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2013/10/old-wounds-deep-scars-us-intervention-africa-20131010101130448232.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vicious cycle</a> of interventionism in Africa.
In the <a href="http://www2.ohchr.org/english/issues/terrorism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">words</a> of former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, &#8220;Our responses to terrorism, as well as our efforts to thwart it and prevent it, should uphold the human rights that terrorists aim to destroy.&#8221; &#8211; Written by <a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/craig-bailie-369223" target="_blank" rel="author noopener">Craig Bailie</a>, Lecturer in Political Science (Mil), Stellenbosch University
<img decoding="async" loading="lazy" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/86964/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />

Niger: a reminder of why the US military’s presence Africa needs constant scrutiny

South Africa’s renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) with the United States (US) a few months ago seemed to be about local poultry, when in fact negotiations were about a wider range of exports from 39 predominantly sub-Saharan African countries.
All had to meet the criteria of good governance, sound democratic values and protection of property rights. Countries such as Zimbabwe and Swaziland did not make the cut. It also did not go unnoticed that sub-Saharan Africa accounts for around $1.6 trillion of Africa’s $2.4 trillion GDP. AGOA therefore gives the US economic reach into countries where it would ordinarily have no influence.
AGOA is not a gift. As South Africa discovered, its economic strength on the continent does not guarantee its AGOA membership, and the accompanying eligibility to trade at preferential rates with the US. If South Africa did not loosen its stance on the anti-dumping tariffs imposed on chicken imports from the US, it would feel the costs in more lucrative areas, such as motor vehicles and parts, and wine and citrus exports. In the end, South Africa agreed to take 65,000 tons of bone-in chicken imports per annum, free of anti-dumping duties, from the US. Concessions could, however, have been as high as 300,000 tons, threatening an industry in which almost a billion chickens are slaughtered each year for local consumption.
The arrival of 16,000 tons of US chicken, a few weeks ahead of the deadline in mid-March this year, allowed South Africa to retain its preferential access to the world’s biggest market, and benefit from the latest version of AGOA, which was extended until 2025.
The arm wrestle between the US and South Africa may have been prompted by pressures the Americans were facing elsewhere. The dollar was strong at the time and the US needed to find export markets for its chicken. There was also the issue of a trade war looming with its neighbors, Mexico and Canada, over meat-labeling legislation, where the World Trade Organization ruled in favor of these countries being allowed to retaliate with $1 billion in punitive tariffs.
Another plausible reason was Russia imposing its own sanctions on the US in retaliation for economic sanctions it suffered while attempting to Balkanize the Ukraine. With threats to its industry coming in fast and furiously, pressuring South Africa to make the concessions must have seemed an easy option.
With the focus on what concessions the South African poultry industry had to make, it was easy to lose sight of the shortcomings in South Africa’s domestic trade policy. The concessions shed light on the lackluster performance of the manufacturing sector, caused by the political economy tilting left, protectionist trade policy, restrictive regulation, and labor disruption.
The pending Private Security Bill on the local security industry, which could see 51% of US-based companies, like Chubb, G4S and ADT, sold to South African participants, was also a worry, as were plans to limit foreign ownership of property. While the knee-jerk response may have been to assume that greater local ownership translated to black economic empowerment, a more significant interpretation is that no private foreign entity has an equity interest in South Africa’s state defense and protection services, and by extension, neither should they have controlling equity interest in private security establishments.
Land restitution may also fall short of AGOA legislation. The still-to-be promulgated Regulation of Land Holdings Bill will not affect foreign ownership of residential property, but will prohibit ownership of agricultural land, which could instead be leased for between 30 and 50 years. A ceiling on land ownership would be set at 12,000 hectares, regardless of nationality.
The potential overhaul of intellectual property laws, which could impact the pharmaceutical industry, is also concerning. While it makes socio-economic sense to roll out cheap generic drugs to as many South Africans as possible, foreign-owned multi-nationals may see this as an infringement of patents on their own more expensive medication.
Although the controversy surrounding the chicken industry seems to have settled, South Africa is still vulnerable to the vagaries in US trade policy. Should the US feel aggrieved by any of its preferential offerings, they may be withdrawn much quicker than what was allowed under the older version of the agreement. South African policymakers should be more cautious when making decisions, especially those that affect US interests.

Playing Chicken  With The US

If you don’t know where you’re from, you can’t know where you’re going. This phrase has never rung truer for thousands of African Americans who have embarked on personal journeys to trace their lineage beyond the shores of the United States (US), back to Africa.
Not since Alex Haley, the American-born Pulitzer Prize winning author of Roots, traced his genealogy to The Gambia in the late 1970s has there been such a thirst for this knowledge. The release of the movie 12 Years a Slave two years ago renewed the interest. Today, science elevates the searches according to Gina Paige, the CEO of African Ancestry, the company pioneering the tracing of ancestry in the US using DNA.
“Other companies can only determine whether an ancestry is African. [Our company] is the first to use the science of DNA to trace maternal and/or paternal ancestry, not just to Africa but to a specific present day African country of origin and ethnic group,” says Paige.
Celebrating its tenth year, the African American-owned firm Paige co-founded with geneticist, Rick Kittles, utilizes its DNA database of more than 25,000 indigenous African samples from nearly 400 African ethnic groups representing 35 African countries. This allows for a high level of detail, accuracy and confidence in its assessments.
The tests use cheek swabs and results are delivered electronically in around six weeks.
“We successfully determine ancestry over 99 percent of the time,” says Paige.
“We find identical matches for approximately 85 percent of the people we test. For the remaining people, we find closely related lineages with greater than 95 percent confidence.”
The firm’s results have impacted the lives of more than 150,000 African American families, individuals, and global icons including Oprah Winfrey, US Ambassador Andrew Young, Condoleezza Rice, Martin Luther King, Jr., posthumously; Oscar-winning actors Louis Gossett, Jr., and Whoopi Goldberg; and Grey’s Anatomy actor Isaiah Washington, who became the first African American to receive dual citizenship as a result of DNA confirmation.
Not only do the DNA results change the lives of African Americans connecting with their past, they also boost the economies of the newfound African homelands through philanthropic and investment efforts from their long lost citizens.
Security specialist, Brian Williams, used African Ancestry to trace his lineage to the Ga tribe of Ghana. Six months later, he traveled to the West African nation in search of his people.
“During my first visit, I saw an elder who looked identical to my aunt who raised me. I saw her in a marketplace and couldn’t take my eyes off her. The guide brought me to her and she explained in her native language that I looked like her grandfather who was sent to the States and never came back,” he says.
“She introduced me to a group of elders and a linguist who started asking me questions. They accepted me into their group and put me through a traditional naming ceremony. Before long, I was enstooled as Chief Nii Arde Anum I, the Noa Mantse (development chief) of three Ghanaian villages.”
Still living in the US, Williams visits Ghana every three to four months to fulfill his chiefly duties of building up the visibility of the villages and collecting much-needed education supplies.
“On my second trip to Ghana, a man who sat one seat away from me on the plane told me he purchased a hotel in Cape Coast, located about two hours outside of the capital city of Accra. Three months later, I invested in the hotel and became head of security,” says Williams.
He is now CEO of the oceanfront Sanaa Lodge hotel. He has also created a business venture and school that trains security professionals throughout the country.
Randy Williams, who is unrelated to Brian, decided to not just go back but to give back after tracing his lineage to the Fula people of Guinea-Bissau. A truck driver by trade, Williams started the non-profit organization, From Your Heart to the World, using his own money and donations.
“Taking the ancestry test was initially all about finding my purpose. Then, after I visited, I said, ‘I gotta do more,’” he says.
He collects clothing, educational supplies, toys and medical supplies and ships it to the needy parts of the country.
“Our clients have built schools, created businesses and invested not just in their African brothers and sisters, but also Africa’s economy. It’s why we are serious about helping people better understand who they are,” says Paige.
African Ancestry is not restricted to tracing lineages from Africa. It also introduced myDNAmix, a product that determines ancestries from Native Americans, East Asia, Europe and India.
For 10 years and counting, African Ancestry is filling in the holes in people’s history and reconnecting them to the continent.

tinseltown-2

Brother From Another Motherland

I finally meet the second-most powerful person in the US government’s development finance arm at a lavish awards evening in Manhattan, New York City, in late September. The 60th anniversary of the Africa-America institute; it is a spectacular affair. The who’s who of the Diaspora and African glitterati mingle with global business leaders, dignitaries and heads of state. At ease among them all, in a fabulous blue Tracy Reese cocktail dress, is Mimi Alemayehou.
We are seated at the same table, along with former Congolese-American basketball star Dikembe Mutombo and Nigerian model Oluchi Onweagba. Alemayehou manages to look as much a modern woman of the world as she is intrinsically African. She is a global player, with a très chic sense of fashion. As we exchange pleasantries, I am struck by her self confidence and keen sense of direction.
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Alemayehou is the executive vice president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic). Based in Washington DC, Opic works with the US private sector, and has a portfolio of more than $17 billion invested in over 100 countries around the world. And as the body’s second-in-command, Alemayehou oversees the distribution and implementation of these funds. She explains that Opic fosters investment in developing nations, by addressing “major world challenges, from poverty and hunger to access to electricity and financial services”, which also helps the US gain a foothold in emerging markets.
Alemayehou has held the senior Opic position since March 2010, when she was nominated by US President Barack Obama; a decision the Senate supported unanimously.
“I feel privileged to help lead an agency that is making a real difference around the world every day. Opic’s work supporting American businesses and mobilizing investment in emerging markets is particularly relevant today at a time when the private sector is playing such a key role in development,” Alemayehou says.
Although she is a naturalized American citizen, living and working in Washington DC, Alemayehou was born in Ethiopia, and the African nation has shaped the woman she has become. “I was definitely impacted by my early years in Ethiopia, as was every Ethiopian of my generation who lived through the Red Terror years,” she says.
A dark period in the country’s history, the Red Terror was a violent political campaign carried out in Ethiopia and Eritrea between 1976 and 1978. It is estimated that up to 500,000 people were tortured and killed under the brutal regime of Mengistu Haile Mariam.
“Seeing family members and friends imprisoned and killed for political reasons gave me a very early life lesson in the pursuit of freedom, not just political, but economic freedom.
“My parents’ and grandparents’ properties were expropriated and overnight they and many other families lost everything they had worked hard for. That’s a lesson that’s hard to forget.”
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When she was eight years old, Alemayehou’s family moved to Kenya, where she spent some of the most impressionable years of her life. “I still have more friends in Kenya than I do in my country of birth,” she points out. Four years later, the family left for California, in the US. Shortly after they arrived on American soil, Mimi started high school.
“I was fortunate enough to have had parents who valued education and particularly to have had a mother and grandmother who were progressive, loving, and had the same expectations of me as they did for my two brothers, Addis and Daniel. In fact, my brothers would argue that our parents expected more from me than them,” she recalls, laughing.
Our short encounter leaves me yearning to know more. As fate would have it, I meet Alemayehou again the following evening, this time at a party organized by Sudanese telecommunications entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim. The billionaire philanthropist is celebrating the launch of the New Africa Center in Harlem, New York. Once known as the Museum of African Art, the building is being reinvented as a policy institute and space to showcase both African art and African intellect.
As on our previous encounter, Alemayehou is perfectly at ease ming-ling with the high-profile guests. Among them are musician and philanthropist Bono; Ethiopian-born
supermodel, Liya Kebede; the former president of Botswana, Festus Mogae; and head of UN Women, Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
With Afrobeat melodies playing in the background, I probe Alemayehou for more details about her career path. “I got to where I am today partly because I did not always listen to the advice I got,” she concedes.
Before she joined Opic, Alemayehou tells me, she served as the US executive director at the African Development Bank, effectively the most senior US Treasury official in Africa.
“Earlier in my career I was always interested in working on Capitol Hill, but a lot of people – including some of my own family members – told me that there was no way a member of Congress would hire someone who was not an American citizen. I pursued this dream anyway and was ultimately hired as legislative staffer on Capitol Hill.
“I have found it invaluable to question things and not necessarily take ‘no’ for an answer,” she says firmly.
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After graduating from the West Texas A&amp;M University, Alemayehou completed a Master’s degree in international business, law and deve-lopment at The Fletcher School in Massachusetts.
Today, she juggles her high-powered, travel-intensive job with the equally demanding roles of a life partner and mother. She says having a supportive partner, a live-in nanny, and close-knit network of girlfriends make it possible. “I think the family that you make is much more important that the family you are born into.”
But she cautions that “every woman is unique, and what is the appropriate balance for one is not necessarily right for another”. For Alemayehou, going for light jogs with her son means that she can spend quality time with him and still get her workout done.
“One thing about being a mother, I have become an expert multitasker! For example, I could breastfeed the baby and send out emails at the same time,” she quips.
Alemayehou’s roles as a life partner and a mother are clearly a great source of joy and pride to her. “My daughter has been to Switzerland, Senegal, and Puerto Rico. Three continents and she is only two years old! It is very important to me that I expose my children to much more than I was exposed to growing up,” she says seriously.
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She also derives great fulfillment from her work: “Opic has supported many exciting projects in Africa in the past few years”. These include the development of a plant cultivation and agricultural production facility in Rwanda and the rehabilitation of municipal water systems in Ghana. She points out that Opic is one of the largest private equity investors in Africa: “I am very proud of our record. Our investment in Africa has gone up by 300 percent over the last four years.”
She is particularly interested in young people on the continent. One of Opic’s projects in Kenya is a microfinance loan program, which lends money to various entrepreneurs such as youth cooperative groups. Alemayehou also believes in the importance of mentoring.
“What is truly important is mentoring young women who look up to us. It’s our duty to mentor as many young women as we are able to. (Former US secretary of state) Madeleine Albright said: ‘There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women’. She is right. We have to do our part to make sure the next generation learns from our experience and hopefully benefits from it.”
She may be a global executive operating in the fast lane, but she claims to have “no desire to run for political office”. Instead, Alemayehou says she focuses on what she cares about: development in Africa: “The most important thing is to find out what you are passionate about.”

Mimi juggles the globe

The wealthiest women in the US have gotten even richer over the past year. Buoyed by a strong stock market and rising real estate prices, the combined net worth of the ten richest women on The Forbes 400 is $156.6 billion, up from $124.2 billion last year.
Altogether there are 48 women on this year’s Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, up from 45 last year. Newcomers include Elaine Marshall, who inherited a stake in private conglomerate Koch Industries from her late husband, and Anne Gittinger, granddaughter of the co-founder of Nordstrom  department stores.
Another new woman is a longtime Forbes 400 member: James Pritzker, a former lieutenant colonel in the army and an heir to the extended Chicago Pritzker family fortune, announced in August that she will now be known as Jennifer Pritzker. That makes her the first transgender billionaire. Pritzker runs the Pritzker Military Library in Chicago.
<div id="attachment_5799" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5799" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-5799" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/006-Lauren-Powell-Jobs-300x200.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="200" />Lauren Powell Jobs</div>
The wealthiest woman in America, Christy Walton, is also the world’s richest woman, with a net worth Forbes pegs at $35.4 billion. Walton inherited a stake in retailer Wal-Mart and a chunk of stock in solar firm First Solar FSLR -1.23% when her husband, John Walton, died in a plane crash in 2005.
Walton ranks 6th on The Forbes 400 list. She leads a very private life in Jackson, Wyoming but in August had a rare bit of publicity when was given an award by the Imagen Foundation for producing the film Bless Me, Ultima, based on the book by Rudolfo Anaya, who is considered the father of Chicano literature. Walton, aged 59, has faced a number of difficulties in her life in addition to her husband’s death. Her son – her only child – battled cancer when he was just three years old and she fought a case of pneumonia that nearly killed her, according to the Imagen Foundation.
America’s second-richest woman is Alice Walton, sister-in-law of Christy Walton and daughter of Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton. Forbes puts her net worth at $33.5 billion, a fortune mostly comprised of stock she inherited in Wal-Mart and her art collection. She ranks 8th on The Forbes 400. Alice Walton opened the Crystal Springs Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2011, and it has proved to be a popular attraction, already clocking 1 million visitors.
<div id="attachment_5801" style="width: 310px" class="wp-caption alignleft"><img aria-describedby="caption-attachment-5801" decoding="async" loading="lazy" class="size-medium wp-image-5801" src="/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/004-Abigain-Johnson-300x229.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="229" />Abigain Johnson</div>
Laurene Powell Jobs, the widow of Apple founder Steve Jobs, ranks 35th on The Forbes 400. She is the richest woman in Silicon Valley and is the 6th richest woman on the list, with a net worth of $11.7 billion.
Women still make up a minority of The Forbes 400 richest – just 12% of this elite group. Most of the women inherited their fortunes; only seven of the 45 started their own businesses or co-founded them with their husbands.
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The richest women in America 2013

One morning in mid-August, seven months into the Arab Spring protests and government crackdowns in which thousands have been killed, something strange happened on Syria’s Internet. As users aimed their Web browsers at Google and Facebook, they instead saw a page of white Arabic script scrawled across a black background.
“This is a deliberate, temporary Internet breakdown. Please read carefully and spread the following message,” it read. “Your Internet activity is monitored.”
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Then the page switched to a white screen filled with instructions on using free encryption and anonymity software like Tor and TrueCrypt to evade surveillance and censorship. Emblazoned above the text was a round, mysterious symbol: a star inside an omega, hovering over a pyramid surrounded by lightning bolts. Below it were written the words: “This is Telecomix. We come in peace.”
Telecomix, a loose-knit team of international hacktivists, had been scanning the Syrian Internet in a massive sweep, dividing 700,000 target connections among its members in Germany, France and the U.S., probing for hackable devices with software tools like Nmap and Shodan. They compromised vulnerable Cisco Systemsproduced network switches to find other devices’ passwords, snooped on open cameras revealing street scenes and even officials’ desks, and at one point retrieved the log-in credentials for 5,000 unsecured home routers, which they used to insert the above-mentioned surveillance warning into browsers across the country.
As the globally distributed hackers combed Syria’s networks and posted their findings in a crowd-sourced document, one American member of the group, who uses the handle Punkbob, spotted a Windows FTP server filled with data he recognized: logs from a Proxy SG 9000 appliance built by the Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company Blue Coat Systems. In Punkbob’s day job at a Pentagon contractor, he says, the same equipment had been used to intercept traffic to filter and track staff behavior. The Syrian machine’s logs showed the Internet activity of thousands of users, connecting the sites they attempted to visit and every word of their communications with the IP addresses that pointed directly to their homes. In short, he had discovered American technology being used to help a brutal dictatorship spy on its citizens.
“At first we were just poking around, but when I saw that, I had this feeling of dread,” says Punkbob, who requested that FORBES not use his real name. “To see exactly what Syria was tracking and who was providing the technology to do it.…That was when it felt real.”
Since Telecomix published 54 gigabytes of those logs, the resulting attention has forced Blue Coat to admit that its gear had been used by Syria, a potential violation of international sanctions against that country. The company didn’t respond to FORBES’ request for an interview, citing an ongoing internal review and a related Commerce Department probe. (Note that the investigation didn’t deter private equity firm Thoma Bravo and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan from a recent deal to take Blue Coat private for $1.3 billion.)
The disclosure of Blue Coat’s gear in Syria has touched off revelations that hardware from other U.S. firms, including NetApp and HP, was also used by blacklisted regimes. The industry now faces tough new questions about tech firms’ responsibility for how their products are used—and by whom.
Telecomix sees its Blue Coat discovery as a turning point in the group’s mission: Founded to fight for free speech, it now aims to also expose those who fight against that ideal, including any Western tech firm aiding the wrong side. “I hope that the Blue Coat thing was the start of something much bigger,” says Chris Kullenberg, a lean and lip-pierced Swedish political science grad student at the University of Gothenburg and a Telecomix founder. “The goal is to put political pressure on these companies. It started with rage and frustration. What can we do? Well, we can hack a few boxes and expose this to the world. That’s the motivation that drives hackers deeper and deeper into the networks.”
Telecomix likely broke Syrian law. But some more traditional advocates appreciate their work. “It crosses a line we wouldn’t be comfortable crossing,” says Brett Solomon, president of the digital human rights group Access Now.
“But sometimes it takes someone like Telecomix to put a spanner in the works.”
Actively hacking networks is a new game for Telecomix’s Web revolutionaries, who call each other “agents” or “Internauts.” But unlike the hacker group Anonymous, which began with juvenile pranks before attacking Scientologists, opponents of WikiLeaks and defense contractors, Telecomix was born political. The group was created at a Gothenburg conference in 2009 to oppose the European Union’s so-called Telecoms Package, industry-influenced laws that would have cut Internet access for anyone repeatedly downloading copyrighted files. “In a sense, corporations have always been the enemy,” says Kullenberg.
The hackers dug up and published the phone numbers of every EU Parliament member, then convinced the copyright-flouting Swedish download site the Pirate Bay to post a link on its home page, which received 20 million monthly visitors. The Parliament’s phones were jammed for days, and the statute was eventually dropped.
The populist uprisings of the Arab Spring brought Telecomix’s goals—and its enemies—into sharper focus. A few days into the Jan. 25 protests in Egypt Hosni Mubarak shut down all but one of his country’s Internet service providers. “Telecomix members consider themselves citizens of the Internet,” says one American Telecomix hacker who goes by the nickname the Doctor. “So we took that as a personal affront.” Agents arranged with the hacker-friendly Internet provider French Data Network to fire up modem banks and give users free dial-up connections. Then the group faxed thousands of leaflets to Egyptian universities, offices and cybercafes, explaining how to skirt the blackout.
Telecomix’s scanning of the Syrian Net began as reconnaissance to prepare for an Egypt-style Internet shutdown. Stumbling onto the Blue Coat logs was a fateful fluke. When the hackers realized what they’d found, they downloaded close to 100 gigabytes of data, using the Tor anonymization network to cover their tracks. The process took weeks. In October Telecomix released hundreds of millions of lines of text listing hundreds of sites the Syrian government was blocking, from porn to Facebook to Chat- roulette, along with enough users’ communication logs to show that the regime was using their Blue Coat gear to not only filter but also monitor dissidents’ activities.
Blue Coat’s scandal demonstrates the complexity of regulating surveillance technology. The firm claims it hadn’t known about its devices in Syria, arguing they must have found their way into the country through a reseller in the United Arab Emirates. “Blue Coat is mindful of the violence in Syria and is saddened by the human suffering and loss of human life that may be the result of actions by a repressive regime,” it wrote in a statement. “We don’t want our products to be used by the government of Syria or any other country embargoed by the United States.” But critics like cryptography guru Bruce Schneier and Tor developer Jacob Appelbaum point out that Blue Coat devices link back to its servers for licensing and updates, implying the company may have turned a blind eye to its Syrian users.
Some Telecomix agents say they’ve also spotted equipment sold by Fortinet in Syria. Fortinet responds that it “has in place a policy prohibiting shipping its product to countries where shipment is embargoed.” And what about resellers who pass it on to those countries? “At that point it’s out of our hands,” a spokesperson says. Hazy as the line may be, it’s clear some companies have crossed it. Marketing documents published by Wiki Leaks show 160 firms advertising surveillance gear, often in Arabic as well as English. British firm Gamma International brags that it can spy on users of Gmail, Skype and iTunes; its sales pitch was found in the files of the Egyptian government after Mubarak fled.
Telecomix is determined to remain a watchdog against Western firms aiding foreign Big Brothers. Two Swedish members, Chris Kullenberg and Jonatan Walck, have registered a site called Internaut.cat where they plan to publish future disclosures of the group’s findings, using Sweden’s strong media laws to shield their sources. “We’re at a point now where Internet users are becoming aware of what’s being done to them,” says the Doctor. “Companies that sell gear designed to track people should expect to be outed.”

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