The Patriotic Front (PF) - the largest opposition party in Zambia - has adopted "change" as their core theme for their campaign this year. Indeed, their recently unveiled manifesto promises a significant departure from virtually all policies implemented by the ruling part - the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) - in the last 20 years. This essay offers an analysis of the promises contained in the PF manifesto and attempts to assess whether they represent genuine, viable change and an alternative to the current policies of the MMD.
In the balance of this assessment is a host of critical questions: PF proposed approach to converting Zambia's vastly improving economic growth forecasts into meaningful and sustainable economic development (that creates viable jobs and consequently reduces poverty); policy on how to handle revenues from mining operations (the single most important sector in the Zambian economy); and finally, constitutional (as well as institutional) reforms that Zambians hope can advance their young democracy, help curb corruption and foster a sense of responsible governance.
Beginning with the foreword by the PF president, the promise of the PF manifesto is a Zambia where jobs are plenty, individuals (and companies alike) pay low taxes (even lower for families with children), while the value of incomes and savings is protected by a low inflation rate and a fixed exchange rate. For those that want to borrow, there will be government assured low interest rates.
This is a fantastic scenario for individuals particularly, as they most certainly will have much larger disposable incomes. But the good news of the PF manifesto doesn't end there! Add to these awesome perks for a Zambian citizen under a PF government, free education from grade 1 to 12 and free health-care for all. Furthermore, the "responsibility" that most working Zambians have of helping their less economically able relatives will be taken off their shoulders as the PF government provides welfare benefits for the poor.
And of course, the promised large (very large indeed) government driven infrastructure programme will ensure better transportation, electricity and communication infrastructure, while improving service delivery in all public sectors of the economy.
You could be forgiven for mistaking this idealistic picture the PF manifesto creates with the biblical description of paradise. The PF manifesto promises to deliver for Zambians in five years, what has eluded previous Zambian governments in the last five decades.
What fascinates - or worries - most about this manifesto is not what it says, but rather, what's missing; the details of how this PF utopia can be achieved! Exactly how would PF simultaneously (and vastly) increase public sector spending, while lowering taxes and refusing to borrow from external partners? As a matter of course, the PF manifesto does not put a value to how much all these promised freebies will cost, nor does it specify where it will raise additional financing.
The promise of low taxes (income tax, VAT, fuel levy, corporate tax) is not supported by any numbers. Nowhere in this manifesto are the numbers given of what current revenues are from these taxes (although they are publicly available in the national budget), and consequently how any shortfall reaulting from increased government spending will be met.
In theory, one would argue (as does the PF manifesto), that increased household disposable income will increase demand (which, stated in economics 101 jargon means shifting the aggregate demand curve to the right). The premise (or perhaps, assumption) is that there will be a corresponding increase in supply (or, a shift in the aggregate supply curve to the left) i.e., local production of goods and services increasing correspondingly to meet this hoped-for increase in demand.
In other words, as Zambians spend more on goods and services, employment should (and the PF manifesto promises it will) increase and the economy will move to a new and higher level of production i.e., positive GDP. The cycle should go on, and on, leading to sustainable economic growth and consequently development. But this is in theory! In reality, the Zambian economy is not closed - Zambia is part of the global economic village.
As you may have guessed by now, the apparent PF assumption is that ours is a closed economy where all goods and services are produced in Zambia. Put differently, that the increased demand arising from higher disposable income will only be for goods and services produced in Zambia, by Zambians. The reality, unfortunately, suggests Zambians have an appetite for foreign manufactured goods - cellphones, vehicles, TVs etc (Zambia does not currently manufacture these goods - although some are assembled locally. PS: PF subtly proposes imposing protectionist tariffs - a tax increase anyone?). Is it possible, as I suspect, the nuveau rich Zambians under a PF government may opt to import more and more foreign goods and services that are not locally produced? After all, higher disposable incomes from lower taxes, inevitably, should make this (demand for foreign manufactured goods) a very attractive option.
This conundrum - where increased disposable income may encourage more imports from abroad, the PF manifesto supposes, will be addressed through a new and productive manufacturing sector in Zambia. Indeed it maybe the only hope, since surely increasing tariffs on imports would be increasing taxes which the PF have insisted will not happen.
This leads to some big-ticket questions: do Zambians currently have the skills, innovation potential and capital (PF promises less reliance on foreign direct investment) to setup a manufacturing sector (or services, for that matter) able to compete with what is produced in other countries; and given a choice, will Zambians demand more local goods (at least in the medium term) to support the PF encouraged "labour intensive" local manufacturing and services sectors?
If all what the PF promises sounds eerily familiar to the reader, it is because we have tried a lot of this before - under UNIP between 1973 and 1991. During that 18 year period a manufacturing sector was established along with protectionist policies (both of which the PF manifesto promises to re-introduce albeit under a different guise). Pointless to re-hash how that turned out, but critical in understanding how these second republic policies under PF will pun out!
Zambia's 2011 budget is approximately US$4.4 billion, funded predominantly by tax revenues which account for nearly three-quarters of the total (or approximately US$3.2 billion). A significant proportion of tax revenues comes from a combination of income tax (PAYE) and value added tax (VAT) - US$1.1 billion. One would assume - as this is not stated in the PF manifesto - the shortfall in revenues once taxes are reduced will come from the promised revision of taxes on mining operations and a more efficient - and broad - tax system (street vendors beware). Without detail on what the new proposed mining tax regime will be (since 2001, Zambia has experimented with three regimes on taxing copper mining operations), it is impossible to determine what revenues will be collected.
Whatever the case, taxes from mines and revenues from other sources, hitherto unspecified in the PF manifesto, would have to be significantly large - perhaps astronomically so - to finance free education, free health-care, provide welfare to the very poor, build 2 million new houses, improve roads and electricity etc - all of which the PF manifesto promises to do between 2011 and 2016.
In fact, of the 28 sections comprising the PF manifesto, increases in budget allocations are promised for 14 of them (including four sections of what the manifesto terms "core programmes" - mining is conspicuously absent). Increases in budget allocation are promised largely in percentages. In the PF world "whole" must not be represented by 100%. I find these glaring incongruity in the numbers presented in this manifesto insulting to most Zambians, as promised increases in budget allocations to the various sectors can never add up to 100%. Stated differently, since PF promises to increase allocations in virtually all sectors, either the size of the budget has to grow to account for the increase, OR as I suspect is the case here, authors of the PF manifesto have a low aptitude in mathematics. Remember, Zambia's budget is only $4.4 billion and PF has not specified how it can grow this.
One has to consider that an alternative source of funding for the ambitious PF programmes would have to be borrowing. However, in the most pointed language, the PF promises to do away with lending (or at least reduce it). This potentially means that the current MMD government plans to issue bonds (on the back of a Standard & Poors B+ rating for Zambia's Soveriegn bonds) will be scraped! It must be pointed out, and as is typical of this PF manifesto, it is silent on the specifics. Surprising indeed, as one can scarcely think of a country that has developed in the last 300 years without issuing bonds on the back of solid fiscal and monetary policies. However, the ill defined fiscal and monetary policy in the PF manifesto would be a hindrance to the bond issue route.
A very ambitious programme under the PF manifesto is the promise to diversify the agricultural sector, away from Zambia's staple crop - maize (a resource intensive crop that is not indigenous to Zambia nor suitable for Zambia's climate). In other words, PF is promising to end Zambians love affair with Nshima. On paper, this is a great proposal but in reality it is more idealistic than it is practical. In fact, crop diversification has been tried many times before (most recently between 2001 and 2006) and failed, for the simple reason that Zambians just cannot give up Nshima - easily! The market for maize far outstrips that of more traditional crops such as cassava. The question is, will Zambians change their menus to provide the market that supports crop diversification? Here again, the PF manifesto promise is not supported by any detailed study - the details are missing!
Although the fundamental premise of the PF manifesto is badly broken i.e., it does not make financial sense, there are few twinkles of hope. Perhaps the most promising piece over the 52 page length of a largely fantastical manifesto can be found in Section 21. Here the manifesto ventures into a crucial element for sustainable development (which has largely been ignored in the last 20 years) - a prioritization of teaching science and maths in schools, coupled with a corresponding investment in scientific research and promotion of collaboration between science and industry. There is even an interesting and entirely fresh idea to create national awards for achievements in scientific and technological research!
There are few examples in the world where sustainable development has been achieved without the bedrock of science and maths. Here (section 21), the PF manifesto get a B+ (would have been an A+ had the details - regarding specific budget allocations, numbers of science specific schools envisioned to be built and number of teachers to be trained - been provided).
Of course, no serious critique would ignore the proposals in the PF manifesto which require legislative reform and not just the promise to throw more money at the problem. These mainly covered in sections 22 (Legal and Constitutional Reform); 23 (Electoral Reforms); 24 (Good Governance and Public Service Reforms); 25 (Judicial Institutional Reforms); 26 (The Church and Civil Society Organisations in National Development); 27 (Media Reforms); and 28 (International Relations and Cooperation).
Most commendable are the proposals for amendments to the Electoral Commission Act (that established the Electoral Commission of Zambia - ECZ - in 1996), reform of the Electoral Act of 2006 and corresponding promise for government (or public) funding of political parties with representation in parliament. These suggested proposals, if implemented correctly, should strengthen the independence of ECZ and possibly lessen foreign influence (as Americans call it, lobbyists) on policies crafted by political parties (especially those in opposition). These proposed reforms, along with reforms to strengthen the Office of the Auditor General, Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), Drug Enforcement Commission (DEC), Office of the Investigator General and the Human Rights Commission are what Zambians have been asking for and expect. Another B+ here.
The PF manifesto promises to make civil service appointments purely on merit, sound promising. In a diverse society such as is Zambia, this promise ought to have been followed by a requirement for tribal balancing (this is an inescapable reality in a country with a reported 73 tribes and 16 tribal groupings). We have seen how in the past, merit has been applied to promote into the civil service only individuals from politically favourable regions or tribes. There has to be an open, even legislated process, that ensures fair tribal representation (based on merit, of course). Here, I am afraid, the promises in the PF manifesto fall short of the expectations of many Zambians! Merit alone will not cut it!
On constitutional reform, the PF manifesto promises a process that includes "a Committee of Experts." As the details are not provided on who the stakeholders in this "Committee of Experts" will be, one can only hope it will not be a fiasco on the proportions of the recently failed constitutional amendment bid.
The PF manifesto is heavy on "good-to-hear" soundbites, but incredibly thin on detail - the "how?" question. Without the details, and specifics, the PF manifesto is nothing more than hollow rumblings aimed at exciting the uninformed and unsophisticated masses! Even the very positive constitutional and institutional governace reforms promised are only as good as the people making the promises (the question is, can PF be trusted to keep their word on the good aspects of their manifesto?). Frankly, the last time I read similarly crafted and fantastic promises was in the bible - but PF is no God! In fact, without divine intervention, it is inconceivable how this utopia can be achieved. It is certainly not change you can believe in.
2001 - 2009 mining houses were exempt from taxes through the development agreements; 2008 - 2009 windfall taxes were introduced which attracted 25% for copper copper prices at US$2.5 per pound, 50% for copper prices between US$2.5 and US$3 per pound and 75% for copper prices above US$3. Corporate taxes were also increased from 25% to 30% and mineral royalties were also increased from 0.3% to 5% (NB: the windfall taxes are effective only when revenues of a mining house are twice the cost of production); 2009 - present windfall taxes were scrapped, in favour of taxes of 15% on profits. Corporate taxes were reduced to 25% but mineral royalties remained flat at 5%.
Education Development; Health Services; Agriculture Development; Local Government and Housing.
If there is proof that Zambia desperately needs investment in science and mathematics, this is it - a political party manifesto with promises that cannot stand up to basic mathematics.
The above post was written by a special guest. We have withheld the name at the exceptional request of the author.
The Zambian Economist encourages guest contributions from leading Zambian thinkers on matters relevant to national development. The purpose of these notes is to stimulate discussion and ensure logic and impartial critique plays a leading role in shaping public debate. See the special observers page for more information.
Francis i deeply disagree with you, a budget is built around a manifesto. in other words you first have a manifesto and then you create a budget that can support that manifesto.
that aside i find that this article raise numerous issues,issue which me and many others have raised on this same blog. the analysis cuts through the unrealistic nature of the manifesto but also displaces what a politician can do to win at all costs.i know that for these politicians to win they need to present such a manifesto but to gov they will abandon it almost entirely.
what is more disturbing to me is that many believe that in this day and age we can have free services given to a national population and the nation survives the shortest possible life span. history has shown that this is not a sustainable way of doing things.
the second thing upsetting me is the strange belief that zambia doen't necessarily need FDI. that zambia will raise above countries like bostwana, S.A without FDI. this simple euphoria. according to what i know Zambia does not have the capital investment to undertake the necessary projects that can propel zambia to the next level.
The 'vastly improving economic growth forecasts' are meaningless of they are foreign owned. What exactly has been the effect on job creation of the increase in GDP? Certainly the MMD have nothing to do with the rise in copper prices or the good rains they have had the luck to occur under their watch.
This is a fantastic scenario for individuals particularly, as they most certainly will have much larger disposable incomes.
It is not 'a fantastic scenario'. It is possible, when there is a shift back in the tax burden. Remember that the MMD did not lower taxes, they shifted taxes from corporations to workers.
In fact, under the MMD, Zambia forfeiting about 1.3 billion a year, by not collecting corporate income tax and dividends owed to ZCCM-IH.
When that is done, there can be a lowering of taxes on workers, without an decrease in government revenues.
At the same time, at least $300 million a year can be saved by stamping out corruption in procurement, and increasing transparancy of government finances in other areas. For instance, look at the completely unneccessary expenditure of about $100 million on the NCC. I don't understand where all that money went. There already was the Dean Mungomba Draft Constitution, so whey convene a conference?
Add to these awesome perks for a Zambian citizen under a PF government, free education from grade 1 to 12 and free health-care for all.
Remember that universal education was a reality during the UNIP days. That was when there were half as few students, but then copper prices where about $1500 per tonne too - today it is over $10,000.
Why not have a windfall tax of 100% over $10000 per tonne?
We have discussed this issue of costing and figures online. Neither have the MMD costed their manifesto. Nor has the writer produced the numbers to show why this manifesto is: utopian, fantastic, promised, or any of the adjectives he substitutes for data.
Rather than slag off the PF's manifesto, why not produce a positive (and costed) commentary on the MMD's plans for the country?
Of course, we have experience with the MMD, so the room for fantasy is rather limited.
Brilliant analysis! This is exactly what we mean when we say the PF manifesto is a replica of the old UNIP manifesto. A lot of hot air, little substance. How can you cut taxes, increase expenditure, but reduce borrowing at the same time? The mathematical inadequacies are just too glaring for my liking.
I just think MrK above should not refer to the MMD's failures at the moment, but concentrate on what updates are required to turn the PF manifesto into a saleable document that appeals not only to the Kabova, but to the intellectual as well.
I'll refer to whatever I want, MMD cadre.
What we can argue about are the factors that have contributed to this job creation. We can argue whether with copper going close to 10 000 we should/could have done better! I share your belief that we could/can do better on this front.
Secondly- GDP increase is important. In my book any increase, any sort of increase is better than a reduction in GDP.( GDP is an imperfect measure and may produce distorted views - I know all those arguments!)But GDP figures used together with other HDI indicators in an objective manner tells the complete picture.
Kaunda oversaw a reduction in real per capita GDP . This reduction started in the early 70s but the general public only started feeling the pain much much ,much later. Similarly the GDP gains take time to be felt.
Sometimes I get worried that we do not appreciate the scale of our problems. Health, Education , roads will not get sorted out if we do not get to at least double our GDP every few years. The US$4 Billion that GRZ oversees is just slightly more than what the Johannesburg municipality spends per annum. In short the Mayor of Johannesburg in fiscal terms is equal to the Zambian President.GDP must grow to allow us space to implement any of the ambitious programs we have in the manifestos. Let us take Health as an example.We spend US$79 per capita on health. South Africa is 67th in the world and it spends US$715. To get to similar levels of expenditure we will have to increase spending by over 800%. If 100% of current tax revenues were to go to health and health alone we would still be spending only half of what RSA spends on a per capita basis. So that is why we have to strive for GDP growth. To paraphrase and extend Nhkruma's thought " Seek ye first GDP growth and everything shall be added unto you." It would be nice to have windfall taxes, it would be nice to tax the street vendors, but all of that at US$4 billion will still not be enough to fund even a quarter of PF manifesto promises.
But strangely enough while knowing that the PF promises are pie in the sky. That PF is undemocratic - I somehow feel with the right leash on Sata he alone can deliver the 12% growth that we need . How to ensure that the leash stays on after the election is the solution we have to seek!
Mwanawasa and Banda in a corresponding period have taken this to US$ 4 billion.
The MMD claim to be neoliberals, don't believe in government interference, basic services etc.
Wouldn't that mean that, when government does less and less and the private sector grows, the government budget would to DOWN instead of quadruple?
If we cut through the rhetoric and look at what policies have actually been implemented in the last 40 years. It is very difficult to see any dramatic changes at all. The biggest change was of course the Kaunda/ Chiluba handover. But even this was not as drastic as made out to be. KK in the end-days was under the IMF cosh and Zambia's economic policy direction was essentially Washington driven. Chiluba also took up the Washington lead , but strayed by sprinkling it liberally with Mobutu-isms.
So to answer you, Zambians with US$1 billion got more value from KK than with from MMD. But the same MMD at 1 billion should give four times more at 4 Billion. The problem is that we are starting from a very low base so we need to quickly ramp up to 20 billion plus before we start to see noticeable benefits to the man in the street.
I run a business for which there is never enough funding. Survival comes down to correctly prioritising expenditure between income generating expenses, expansion, and unavoidable maintenance. If I get my expenditure decisions wrong, I make less profit or go out of business.
For a government or a party policy we can have a utopian vision of what we would like but we need to set priorities for expenditure now with what resources we have. We need to consider where money spent would give the greatest return.
Personally I believe education and passable dirt roads should be our highest priorities. Ministerial allowances, MP's gratuities, the defence forces, and most of the civil service would be a long way down the list if not off it.
South Korea did a study that found that increasing education added 3% GDP for every year added to the education that all children receive. This means that increasing education in Zambia up to Grade 12 for everyone would add 15% GDP. Educating girls drastically reduces the birth rate which brings population growth down to manageable levels.
Many civil servants exist merely to collect enough funds to fund their existence. They produce nothing, facilitate nothing and serve no useful purpose. A reduction in the numbers of such would actually improve things.
There is no justification at all for Zambia to have defence forces. Our enemies are poverty and ignorance. Except as a form of employment creation they cannot be justified and that employment is just a tax on others.
Tarring of roads would be something that would have to be seriously justified economically. Tar roads are a luxury that we cannot afford for two vehicles a day. Good dirt roads are much, much cheaper and if properly maintained almost as passable. Efficient railways ought to be 10 or 20 times cheaper than roads for hauling goods. Giving our railways to someone else to make a profit on probably isn't the best way to achieve this.
I'm sure there is the matter of priorities. Obviously, the MMD's priority is staying in power. In fact selfpreservation will always motivate central government politicians to some extent.
However, there is a space for decentralisation of government, not in the least because it allows local people to set priorities.
South Korea is an interesting example, because it is often presented by neoliberals as a example of free trade. The facts are the opposite - South (and North) Korea both have heavy government presence in the economy, directly through parastatal companies, and indirectly, through it's support of the large family based conglomerates, the Chaebol. The same for Japan, Taiwan, China, etc.
A big problem in both setting priorities and government taking the lead in economic growth has been the ideology foisted upon the countries of the world by the IMF and World Bank, followed by neoliberal politicians like the MMD.
The Utopian idea 'free markets' will find their own equilibrium and that they are 'efficient' in allocating resources, has led to the situation where there are no real national development plans, just the UN created 'Millennium Development Goals'.
Together with that has been the lack of taxation of the mining industry, which would easily finance educational initiatives.
ZIMBABWE has overtaken Tunisia to become the country with the highest literacy rate in Africa, according to statistics from the latest UNDP Digest.
Tunisia had held pole position for years with Zimbabwe second- best and number one in Sub-Saharan Africa.
But according to the UNDP Digest, Zimbabwe's literacy level jumped to 92 percent, up from 85 percent while Tunisia remains on 87 percent.
"The government has expanded the number of teachers' colleges to 13, producing 2, 500 teachers per year," he said, adding that other countries in Africa produce between 200 and 400 teachers annually on average.
"This has seen other countries like Namibia requesting us to train teachers for them and this shows that we are well-recognized on the continent," Mbizvo said.
Government intervention in the provision of basic services is essential.
What is it with you with Zimbabwe? Sometimes you give the impression that you mistake Zambia for Zimbabwe. You might as well own-up, your untiring zeal, campaigning for a despotic, totalitarian set-up, as Bob (Robert) Mugabe's, to steer a kind of sympathy, exposes you. You don't mean well for Zambia and not that you avow to the ideologies you purport to hold but as a propaganda to steer course after Zimbabwe's journey of self destruction.
Be reminded that despite your Zimbabwe having the highest literacy levels, Zambia remains well ahead of you IQ wise if you wish to toe this statistics point of view. So, don't think we Zambians can fall for your cheap and petty propaganda.
The reason we have different views of Zimbabwe and what happened there, is because I have done years of online research into it, and you have not.
I have been running my blog since 2007. You on the other hand, are going to disappear from cyberspace as soon as the 2011 elections are over.
In fact, the entire MMD may disappear, and go the way of UNIP.
You belong to a party, the MMD, whose finance minister is on record as having said that following the MMD's policies, there will be no dent made on poverty for another 30 years. A time at which Zambia's population will not be 13 million, but 29 million.
It is the MMD that has bad intentions for Zambia, and specifically the people.
You are not even ashamed to admit your inkling for Zimbabwe which you have singled out, unashamedly, from all the nations of the world as a must be model for Zambia.
Don't you think there are, out there, better countries we could learn from. Unless, of course, you are so dearly attached to Zimbabwe by an umbilical cord. Don't cheat with that blog nonsense for many years as I am not as daft as you think I am. Keep dreaming for your utopia pf, I careless.
Is this whole homo thing in the manifesto or is the PF manifesto completely detached from REALITY?
For those of us who know Sata, this manifesto means nothing to him once he gets into state house. He is known to destroy anyone who opposes him and will spare no favourites. In the interim, he will fill his pockets and all those who support his cruel ways will benefit, a little. Zambia will have no choice but to take the law into their hands and brutally remove Sata and his minions from office, execution style.
Do we really want this for Zambia?


text:
Q: Liferay Velocity Structure and Template. Repeatable Fields I am using a structure a little like this with levelOne and levelTwo both being repeatable.
levelOne
    levelTwo
        levelThree

When using  a foreach loop to display the data I can only seem to find the first instance of levelTwo and levelThree. I have tried an absolute ton of methods to try and grab this information but i'm beginning to wonder if it is outside of Velocitys capabilities.
Even when I just grab the data from levelOne and display all of it with
#foreach($i in $levelOne.getSiblings())

$i

#end

all that I get displayed is
{name=levelOne, data=levelOneData, type=text, options=[],
levelTwo={name=levelTwo, data=levelTwoData, type=text, options=[],
levelThree={name=levelThree, data=levelThreeData, type=text, options=[]}}}

when using a nested foreach like so
#foreach($i in $levelOne.getSiblings())
 #foreach($j in $i.getSiblings())

$j

 #end
#end

I get the same result..
There is no information displayed about the repeated data in levelTwo. Does anyone know if this is a waste of time trying to figure out or if there is something i'm missing?

A: I hope I understand your situation.
If you need to know how many siblings exist for a variable, you can use $yourVar.getSiblings().size(): it returns the size of the siblings list.
This is why a code like #foreach($i in $levelOne.getSiblings()) works.
The following output shows that you have just one sibling (I indent it for simplifying reading):
{
name=levelOne,
data=levelOneData,
type=text,
options=[],
levelTwo={
    name=levelTwo,
    data=levelTwoData,
    type=text,
    options=[],
    levelThree={
        name=levelThree,
        data=levelThreeData,
        type=text,
        options=[]}
    }
}

Going forward... I'm sure you can work with nested lists and maps in Velocity... so my first question is: are you sure that inside your variable you have more than one instance of Leve2 and Level3?
To better understand try to modify the second part of code you reported as follow

$levelOne

#foreach($i in $levelOne.getSiblings())

$i

    #foreach($j in $i.getSiblings())

$j

    #end

#end

What do you see now?
Is it possible you have a problem with your $i before loops?
But (second question)... if I'm not well understanding your structure... and you need something of different... do you know the getChildren() method of Velocity variables?

A: Ok. Solution is as follows..
#foreach($i in $levelOne.getSiblings())
  #foreach($j in $i.levelTwo.getSiblings())

$j

  #end
#end

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
New Definition of Age of Dependants Now in Force
On Friday, October 27, 2017, the Government of Canada has changed the definition of the age of dependants from "under 19" to "under 22," as it had promised to do.
This change applies to all new applications received by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) on or after October 24, 2017.
IRCC also announced that it would allow for the addition or sponsorship of some children whose parents had existing applications in process on May 3, 2017, or who have applied since that time.
Permanent residence applicants who wish to add or sponsor a child who was 19, 20, or 21 years of age on May 3, 2017, or on the date IRCC received the parents' application (if between May 3, and October 23, 2017) should notify IRCC as soon as possible, using a web form, as the notification period will end on January 31, 2018.
Once IRCC has been advised, they will contact applicants directly to tell them what they need to do to sponsor or add their child to their application.
More Changes to Express Entry Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS)
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) has announced changes to the Express Entry Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS). The changes will affect those individuals who have submitted their candidacy for immigrating to Canada in the Federal Skilled Worker Class, the Federal Skilled Trades Class and the Canadian Experience Class. The changes will take effect on June 6, 2017.
1. French Language Ability
On June 6, 2017, Express Entry candidates with strong French language skills, with or without English language skills, will be awarded additional points by the CRS.
A total of 15 additional points will be awarded for test results of the Niveaux de compétence linguistique canadiens (NLC) at level 7 in all four language skills in French (listening, speaking, reading and writing) and an English test result of Canadian Language Benchmark (CLB) 4 or lower.
A total of 30 additional points will be awarded for test results of the NLC at level 7 in all four skills in French and English test results of CLB 5 or higher.
2. Sibling (Brother/Sister) in Canada
Previously, the system did not award any points to candidates with siblings in Canada. On June 6, 2017, the Express Entry system will award 15 points to candidates with siblings in Canada.
To get these points, candidates will need to show that the sibling is a Canadian citizen or permanent resident who is living in Canada and is 18 years of age or older.
The sibling in Canada must share a mother or father with the principal Express Entry applicant or their spouse or common-law partner. This relationship can be through blood, marriage, common-law partnership or adoption.
3. Job Bank
Previously, candidates were required to create a Job Bank account (after creating their Express Entry Online Profile) if they did not have a valid job offer or a provincial or territorial nomination before they were placed in the pool and became eligible for an invitation round.
On June 6, 2017, Job Bank registration for Express Entry candidates becomes voluntary for all candidates.
Candidates who meet the minimum entry criteria for Express Entry will be automatically placed into the pool and immediately eligible for invitation rounds. If they do not currently have a job in Canada and would like to start their job search, they will be able to register for Job Bank.
Employers will still be able to use all of their existing recruiting methods, including Job Bank, to find Express Entry candidates and Abrams & Krochak will continue to create Job Bank accounts for its clients as part of its services.
Canada Has New Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship
REPRODUCED FROM "THE GLOBE AND MAIL"
A former Somali refugee is now overseeing Canada's federal immigration policies after a cabinet shuffle Tuesday.
Ahmed Hussen, who arrived in Canada as a refugee from Somalia at the age of 16, was sworn in as Canada's Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship at a Rideau Hall ceremony. He replaces John McCallum, who is leaving politics and heading to Beijing as Canada's new envoy to China.
The rookie MP for the Toronto riding of York South-Weston is also the first Somali-Canadian to hold a seat in Parliament; his election made news across the world, including on BBC Africa and Al Jazeera.
Mr. Hussen arrived in Canada as a refugee in 1993 and settled in Toronto's Regent Park community. While he is proud of his Somali heritage, he hopes to be more than the token Somali in the Liberal cabinet.
"As members of Parliament and members of the cabinet, each of us coming into public life are informed … by their different experiences that they bring to the table. And I'm no different in that sense. I'll bring my experience as an immigrant to Canada, but also an immigration lawyer, someone who worked many, many years before running for office as a community activist, a community organizer and a community advocate," Mr. Hussen told reporters on Parliament Hill Tuesday.
Mr. Hussen's commitment to public service began after high school, when he began working for the Hamilton-Wentworth social-services department. He eventually returned to Toronto, where he completed an undergraduate degree in history at York University.
Returning to his roots, Mr. Hussen co-founded the Regent Park Community Council in 2002 and helped secure a $500-million revitalization project for the area.
His first foray into the political realm took place at the provincial level in Ontario, where he worked as an assistant to Dalton McGuinty, who was leader of the official opposition at the time. He followed Mr. McGuinty to the premier's office after the Liberal win in 2003. Mr. McGuinty spoke highly of Mr. Hussen, describing him as a "natural leader."
"He sees politics as public service and he is driven in large measure by a sense of indebtedness for the opportunity he found in Canada, his adoptive country. He's just a great Canadian story. Canada welcomed him and now he will help us welcome others," Mr. McGuinty said in an e-mail statement.
Mr. Hussen went on to attend the University of Ottawa's law school and began practising in the areas of criminal defence, immigration, refugee and human-rights law. He continued to maintain links to his heritage as national president of the Canadian Somali Congress and, in that capacity, testified to the U.S. Homeland Security Committee on radicalization within the Canadian Somali community in 2011.
Mahamad Accord, who met Mr. Hussen eight years ago through their work with the Canadian Somali Congress, said Mr. Hussen was always bound for success.
"He's a natural. He's an advocate for human rights. He's a warm-hearted person," Mr. Accord told The Globe and Mail. "His personality is exceptional, but at the same time his experience, it shows."
Mr. Hussen comes into his new role amidst growing anti-immigrant sentiments south of the border, as U.S. president-elect Donald Trump prepares to take office next week. Ruby Latif, a long-time friend of Mr. Hussen who worked with him at Queen's Park, said Mr. Hussen is exactly who Canada needs as immigration minister at this time.
"The portfolio really needs somebody who understands what's happening to vulnerable people in vulnerable communities, especially with what's happening across the border," Ms. Latif said. "Somebody like Ahmed understands the issues of immigrants, visible minorities."
Mr. Hussen, a father of two boys, is fluent in English, Somali and Swahili.
Changes to Parent/Grandparent Sponsorships
Today, Wednesday, December 14, 2016, The Honourable John McCallum, Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) announced changes to Parent and Grandparent Sponsorships that, in his opinion, "will improve access to the application process, given that the number of applications accepted for intake is limited".
Between January 3 and February 2, 2017, Canadian citizens and permanent residents who want to apply as sponsors must first complete an online form on the IRCC website to let the Department know they are interested in applying to sponsor their parents or grandparents. The online form will be available for 30 days, from noon Eastern Standard Time (EST) on January 3, 2017, to noon EST on February 2, 2017.
At the end of the 30 days, IRCC will remove the duplicates, randomly choose 10,000 people and ask them to complete the full application. IRCC will let everyone who completed an online form know whether they were chosen or not. Only those who were randomly chosen will be invited to apply to the Parent and Grandparent Program. Those who were invited to apply will have 90 days to submit their complete application to IRCC. The 2017 application kit and guide will be available on IRCC's website on January 9, 2017.
Interested sponsors who are not selected will be able to indicate their interest to apply again in 2018.
If you are an existing client of Abrams & Krochak and were planning to apply to the Parent and Grandparent Program in January 2017, please contact Mr. Peter Krochak at info@akcanada.com for further information.
Ministerial Announcement Regarding Parent/Grandparent Sponsorships Deferred to December 14, 2016
The Ministerial announcement regarding Parent and Grandparent sponsorships, which was anticipated today, Thursday, December 8, 2016 has been deferred to Wednesday, December 14, 2016. As soon as it is made, the contents will be made available on this website.
Minister Announces Improvements to Spousal/Partner Sponsorship Application Process
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) Minister, The Honourable John McCallum, made an announcement today, Wednesday, December 7, 2016, regarding improvements to the Spousal/Partner Sponsorship Application Process. Among the improvements are:
processing times for all spousal/partner applicants, inside and outside Canada, will be cut from 24 to 12 months
a simplified guide (reduced from 180 to 75 pages in simpler language)
one checklist (not clear whether visa office checklists will be removed)
one relationship questionnaire
medical, criminality and security screening to be done after applying (no longer up front)
a new application kit for use by all spousal/partner applicants. Applicants will no longer have to choose between two different kits depending on whether they live in Canada or outside Canada. All applicants will use the same application kit. Since some applicants may have already started filling out their application using the current kit, IRCC will continue to accept new applications using the current kit until January 31, 2017. After this date, only applications using the new kit will be accepted. Applicants are strongly encouraged to begin using the new kit, which is easier to use and understand, as soon as it is available on December 15, 2016.
along with the new 12-month processing commitment, IRCC will extend its pilot program which gives open work permits to eligible spouses or partners who are being sponsored and are in Canada, giving them the freedom to work while their applications for permanent residence are being processed. This pilot program ensures applicants are able to work, provide for their families and contribute to the Canadian economy while waiting for their applications to be processed. The pilot, currently slated to end on December 22, 2016, will be extended until December 21, 2017.
These changes are to be online on December 15, 2016.
The Minister will be making another announcement tomorrow, Thursday, December 8, 2017 around the 2017 intake process and application kits for the Parents and Grandparents class and the announcement will be posted on our website just as soon as it becomes available.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Culture Like Follow Follow. Consisting of over one hundred interviews with everyone from a gravedigger to a studio head, from a policeman to a piano tuner, this book provides Endocrine and Neuroendocrine Physiology. Termos e frases comuns. It can be read as a companion volume to Wordplay and Translation, a special issue of The Translator Volume 2, Number 2, , also edited by Dirk Delabastita. Cat people everywhere can sign up for their newsletter in the meantime, until they can finally purchase their own brush. The future is now.
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Description: Licking Land for Sale. What are the words to the orbit commercial where they call each other lint licker and stuff? Listing information is deemed reliable but is not guaranteed accurate. Use our mortgage calculator to see how much it would be to finance a home in Are there any songs that you like a lot, yet don't know the name of it, nor the artist of it?


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Fort Collins police investigating possible…
Fort Collins police investigating possible murder-suicide
Man, two children found dead in a home
By Reporter-Herald Staff |
A man and two children were found dead in a Fort Collins home on Saturday, and police are investigating it as a presumed murder-suicide.
At 10:25 a.m. Saturday, a man called 911 to report three people who were dead inside of a home in the 3500 block of Stratton Drive, according to a news release from Fort Collins Police Services.
When officers arrived, they did not receive a response from anyone inside the house, so along with the SWAT team, they went into the house. Inside, they found two children and one man, all dead.
Police reported that investigators believe the man is the person who called 911.
"Based on preliminary information, police are investigating this as a possible murder-suicide," the news release stated. "All of the involved individuals knew each other, and there is no indication of any ongoing threat to the public."
Police did not release any additional details on how the man and children knew each other, saying that the Larimer County Coroner will release their names and how they died at a later time.
"This is shocking and tragic situation," Deputy Chief Greg Yeager said in a news release. "Words cannot express the depth of our condolences for the friends and family of those involved. I'm extremely grateful for the work of first responders who, despite a traumatic situation, acted quickly and operated with the utmost professionalism.
"This a sad day for our entire community, and we will work diligently to determine what occurred."
The investigation is ongoing, and anyone with information is asked to contact Detective Drew Edmonds at 970-416-2051.
Reporter-Herald Staff
Loveland, Berthoud law enforcement calls: Several warrant arrests


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New Staff Members Make Their Way to North Point
Kristina Dawkins, Staff Writer
Out with the old, and in with the new. The 2017-2018 school year has come forth with new perspectives and fresh faces. Everyone is excited to get to know one another, and it's not just the students this year.
With the influx of new teachers and staff, it is likely you have met at least one in the halls or in the classroom. Like many others, recent add Mr. Muhammad, Business Ed Teacher, is fired up about the new school year and what is to come. New to the county, Mr. Muhammad was hoping to snag a job as a Financial Literacy/Business teacher. With North Point on the top of his list, you can imagine how grateful he was to make the team, stating that his first week was "very exciting."
"Everyone is very welcoming and supportive," says Mr. Muhammad.
Teachers, old and new, all possess goals that they want to achieve throughout the school year for their students. They have an intention to leave an impression, and hope to inspire their classroom kids to reach above and beyond. Educators such as Mr. Muhammad hope to "provide students with real life experiences," as high school isn't forever.
As a new teacher, Mr. M is "still adjusting." In a new environment, that is only normal. With the school year in full swing, he feels that "as time goes on, I feel better each day." Each class, Mr. Muhammad makes it a task to make sure his students leave with motivation and knowledge.
The teachers and staff here, as you can tell, are just as thrilled and proud as you are to be a part of the North Point family. #WeareNorthPoint
The Art Contest Winner!
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Spirit Week Recap
Homecoming Spirit Week 2021
Sweatpants, Hoodies, and Crocs
The Class of 2020: Students of a Pandemic
A Day in the Life of a Student in Quarantine
LGBT+ Teens: Worried for Their Future and Scared of What's to Come
10th Grade Cosmetology Student Talks About Her Program and Future Careers


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Quality Unit
Rules of Study Courses
Selection of courses
grant the Master's and Ph.D
General Rules for obtaining a PhD degree
Registration requirements for the PhD degree:
To enroll for a doctorate degree in Arts, the following are required in scholar: 1. Must have a master's degree in literature from an Egyptian university or an equivalent degree from a corresponding college or other recognized scientific institute, and at least C + in Master's degree courses.
2. Have a bachelor's or bachelor's degree in specialization from one of the Egyptian universities or non-Egyptian universities corresponding to them with a general grade of C + at least in the average of his estimates during the study years, and B- in the specialization branch. The scientific section shall be allowed to propose the admission of foreign students and their loading with supplementary courses provided that they receive a C assessment in these courses. The supplementary courses are not calculated in the GPA.
3. The student obtains the approval of his employer to enroll in graduate studies.
4. The student's file shall be transferred to the appropriate scientific department to express an opinion and to appoint an academic advisor to the student.
5. The student prepares an innovative study plan. This plan represents a new scientific addition in accordance with Article (178) of the University Organizing Law (according to the model prepared for this purpose) and presented in a general seminar in the scientific department to discuss it.
6. The department council shall form the supervisory committee of the doctoral student. The principal scientific supervisor shall act as the academic advisor. The composition of the graduate committee shall be approved by the college council and the university council.
7. In the case of the participation of an external supervisor of the Supervisory Committee, the reasons for the contribution of this member should be clarified and a statement of his biography should be provided and the role of the supervisor in the field of supervision should be clarified. This shall be presented to the
8. Department Council, the Graduate Studies Committee, and then the College Council. 9. The date of approval of the College Council is the registration date, after the approval of the Vice President for Graduate Studies and Research.


What purpose will this serve?
Why would saying no be a bad option?
Can my time be better spent on something else?
Could someone else do this for me?
You might not have a satisfactory answer for 3 out of 4 of these questions. If the answer for the remaining question is a compelling reason to say yes, then do exactly that. This isn't a formula; these questions are a guide.
Sometimes it's as simple as believing you'll find a quick, efficient way to learn something. Or to answer a question that will help move your business forward. You rarely learn anything by avoiding challenging situations or avoiding opportunities to grow. If it looks like something that will aid you in your career development, then say "yes".
Saying yes to someone with an idea that may not be all that great, could shine a light on something that has never been considered before. It could change the direction of a situation and break through a wall that has seem insurmountable in the past. It could be just a simple option or idea, like a tiny beam of light, in a dark corner. Say "yes".
You could be encountering an opportunity that in some way will change your life. How can you pass that up? Despite your fear of public speaking, when given the opportunity to speak at a conference, you might meet the person who will help you help your business accelerate. So, go ahead, say yes.
Being a person who says yes gives others the impression that you are a positive person, an optimist, and they will be drawn to you. If you are always seeing the negative side of an issue or always saying no, it will affect you psychologically, as well as affect others who may want to interact with you (or maybe NOT interact with you). Say "yes"!
No is a survival word, it's the word you say to your child when they are making poor choices. No is a word you say to someone who wants to cause you harm or wants to lead you somewhere that may cause you harm. "Yes" is a thriving word, it energizes, encourages safety and trust and makes creativity grow. When you feel neutral to slightly negative, say "yes" instead!
Sometimes to grow a business, you need to give people the impression that you can do something that you've never done before. You have the resources, you have the knowledge, you just have not been afforded the opportunity to prove yourself yet. Maybe the person asking who wants to invest in you and your company. It might give you a "deer in headlights" moment. If you have the knowledge and the resources, and all you need to do is put it into motion, despite the bright headlights, say "yes"!
Saying yes to being helpful is another great opportunity to grow a positive and optimistic point of view. Help someone who helped you. Help someone who might be able to help you, but don't hold them to it. (No one needs that kind of pressure or negativity.) And definitely help people without the ability to return the favor. It doesn't matter who you're helping, just say "yes"!
Conclusion - Getting to "Yes"
If you've made it to this point, you are trying to learn to say yes. Or are carefully balancing an important decision and trying to get to a positive response.
Attend a networking event, even if you hate networking. Have an objective for attending - meet your new salesperson, see what local startups are working on, working on your fundraising pitch - walk up to the first person and go.
Explore moving your company into a coworking space. Sure, it feels non-traditional, but focus on the benefits. Think about why successful corporate giants like IBM, Salesforce and Microsoft are adopting shared workspaces over owned offices.
Eliminate clutter! Not only office clutter, but mental clutter too. Say yes to getting focused.
Do not get overwhelmed. Do not try to change everything overnight. Do it all in baby steps. You can't change everything in one day or a week or even a month. Say yes to taking the first step.
There are many ways that saying yes can help your business grow, even if at first consideration it seems like a poor use of time and resources. It will help you advance into a positive, optimistic person who people like to have around. You'll be the first vendor that a customer contacts, because you've given the impression of being positive, and helpful. You'll be the business that an investor will want to invest in, because they will see the confidence of someone who wants to advance and grow. Just say "yes"!


Ref. 15592 - Typical charentaise stone house rénovated to a very high standard for sale, 10 minutes north of St Jean D'Angely.
Come and let this large family home seduce you. From the entrance hall, there is a large bureau which can easily function as a ground floor bedroom. An immense dual aspect open lounge with stone fireplace. High quality fitted kitchen, utility room, WC, laundry room with shower cubicle, pantry, and wine cellar.
On the first floor, 4 large bedrooms (3 with wardrobes), shower room, separate toilet and large bathroom with walk in shower.
Double garage with electric doors, workshop and fully enclosed garden with electric gates. Lovely pool and terrace completes the deal.
Lots of charm, lots of space, lots to please you.
It's a must see !!!


From Dirt to Dazzler: Digging the Sapphire Gemfields Word spread from Australia to New Zealand and as soon as Peter Brown heard about the free, easy lifestyle in the Sapphire Gemfields in Central Queensland, where anyone could stake a claim to land and start digging for sapphires, he was hooked.
Central Queensland gemfields. ... Fossicking is not permitted on the numerous mining leases and claims in these areas without the permission of the holders. If you have any questions about fossicking, contact the local mining registrar. Central Queensland gemfields Guide.
Located on the central Queensland gemfields, Big Bessie is a small area … Fossickers know the area well as place for collecting gem topaz. … Small-scale hand mining under mining claims is currently carried out in this area.
Gemfields specialises in the mining and marketing of emeralds, rubies and amethysts from some of the finest sources in the world. We are proud of our leadership position and continually work to improve the awareness and delivery of sustainability within our industry all the way through to the end consumer.
Gemfields mining claims buy & sell has 805 members. G'day All This is a new page specifically for buying & selling mining claims in the Gemfields.... Jump to. Sections of this page. ... Emerald, Queensland. See pics for details (ARCHIVED) Mining claim Sapphire Gemfields. $36,000.
properties for sale in Rubyvale, QLD 4702. Real Estate Directory Property For Sale. NSW Property For Sale; ... Living on the Gemfields comes with it's perks. One of those perks is having no neighbours and never having neighbours. ... Fabulous Stone Miners Cottage and mining claim.
Central Queensland gemfields - qld.
Central Queensland gemfields Sapphire/Rubyvale designated fossicking land. ... Fossicking and camping are not permitted on the numerous mining leases and claims in these areas without the permission of the holders. Details of these tenures can be obtained from the local mining registrar.
The Central Queensland Sapphire Gemfields are located on the Tropic of Capricorn approximately 350 kms (217 miles) west of Rockhampton, Queensland Australia ( 50 kms west of Emerald). Access is by sealed roads to the townships of Anakie, Sapphire, Rubyvale and The Willows.
Anyone can apply for a mining claim for $309, allowing the erection of temporary structures, provided they actively work the land. "There are not too many old miners left.
2 joined mining claims at The Gemfields, Sapphire, QLD. Open cut mining. All mining equipment, wash plant, 2 tumblers, gantry with electric winch, shovels, picks, wheelbarrows, ladder, throw. Dam with 3" pump and hose. Power and then water connected.
The whole Gemfields region is so interesting. I totally recommend going for a drive around the local streets and don't forget to hit the Mining Claims – you're in for a treat.


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Home Wake Is the US kicking the can down the road in Afghanistan (again)?
Is the US kicking the can down the road in Afghanistan (again)?
By Luke Vargas
A U.S. Air Force sergeant provides aerial cover during a transport flight over Khost province in eastern Afghanistan. February 24, 2010. Courtesy: U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Stephen J. Otero / Khost PRT Public Affairs
"Wake" is a weekly foreign policy broadcast produced by Talk Media News and hosted by Luke Vargas from U.N. Headquarters in New York.
The following is a complete transcript of Episode 12, "Back to Afghanistan."
Subscribe to weekly episodes of "Wake" on iTunes or Google Play, and follow the broadcast on Twitter @WakeOnAir.
Luke Vargas: The Pentagon is said to be reading plans to send 4,000 new U.S. soldiers to Afghanistan, scaling up American involvement there some 16 years after the Afghan war began.
But conspicuously absent is a public discourse about why the troops are needed. It's even hard to tell what President Trump thinks – he's told his generals they're in charge of setting troop levels.
So what is the mission in Afghanistan, and what can we learn from Trump's approach to the war?
We're taking on those questions next, on Wake.
Thanks for joining us. We're coming to you today from U.N. Headquarters in New York City.
And to get us started on this very complex topic, I'd like to rewind to October 7, 2001, when President George W. Bush addressed the nation from the Treaty Room of the White House and officially announced the beginning of the U.S. fight in Afghanistan.
"On my orders the United States military has begun strikes against al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. These carefully targeted actions are designed to disrupt the use of Afghanistan as a terrorist base of operations, and to attack the military capability of the Taliban regime."
"At the same time, the oppressed people of Afghanistan will know the generosity of America and our allies. As we strike military targets, we will also drop food, medicine and supplies to the starving and suffering men and women and children of Afghanistan."
Fast forward now, really fast forward, past Afghan elections, past nearly 2,400 lost Americans lives, many thousands more civilian casualties, generals Petraeus and McChrystal, a troop surge, a troop withdrawal, and we press play again this month, with Secretary of Defense James Mattis testifying before the Senate on Afghanistan. He couldn't be more blunt.
"We're not winning in Afghanistan right now, and we will correct this as soon as possible."
But what is winning? I know I'm not alone in saying that the end goals for this war in Afghanistan have always felt a bit slippery.
Mattis says he'll have a new strategy for the U.S. in Afghanistan by mid-July. So, is the mission going to change and become more clear?
To help us take on that daunting question we've brought together two experts today.
And we start in Denmark, with Peter Viggo Jakobsen, Associate Professor in the Department of Strategy at the Royal Danish Defence College. He's written extensively on NATO, on the mission in Afghanistan and the importance of the US president articulating the U.S. mission in the country. Peter, welcome to the show.
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: Thank you very much.
And from Washington today, we're joined Rebecca Zimmerman, a policy researcher at the RAND Corporation where she focuses on national security, terrorism and special operations. She's spent the last decade in and out of Afghanistan, helping U.S. efforts there to improve the Afghan security forces and [address] governance issues.
Rebecca Zimmerman: Thanks for having me.
Peter, the first question to you. With the prospect of 4,000 new US troops heading to Afghanistan, I'd imagine the security situation there has seen better days. What does the Afghan security landscape look like now?
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: As was mentioned in the audio clip we heard, the United States is not winning in Afghanistan at the moment, and it's to try and at least stalemate the situation that the troops are being sent to Afghanistan.
If we look at the situation, the way it has evolved since most of the U.S. troops and also most of the NATO troops were withdrawn back gradually until 2014, what we've seen is a deterioration of the security situation. We have more civilians getting killed, we have more Afghan soldiers getting killed, and we are also seeing the Taliban reestablishing itself in the rural areas in the Pashtun South.
And if we are looking at the proportion of the Afghan territory that is currently controlled by the Afghan government, it's gradually shrunk to about 60 percent. It's been stable for most of the past year, but we are not really seeing any progress.
And it's because the Afghan security forces are under increasing pressure that there's now consideration to send more troops to Afghanistan in order to stabilize the situation and also to prevent the kind of collapse that we witnessed in Iraq when the Islamic State entered Iraq in 2014.
A natural landscape in Bamyan Province west of Kabul. Courtesy: U.S. Embassy Kabul
Luke Vargas: Peter, I want to follow up on that.
I think there's been a long-running assumption in the U.S. that the barbarity of groups like the Taliban is so severe that if an outside power just showed up and said it was willing to fight, that whatever tribal divisions might exist in Afghan society and politics would be put aside and everyone would join in on the good fight. That of course, didn't exactly happen.
Now that the Islamic State is in Afghanistan, I wonder if that logic making its way back into American decision making, and on the Afghan side, if Afghans are responding differently to the Islamic State than the Taliban or Al-Qaeda before them.
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: Well the thing is, if we start with the Taliban. If you look at the polls that you still get, than you see that the majority of the Afghan people do not want the Taliban back.
But at the same time, they are also hugely disappointed in their own government, and if you look at the polling there, you see that the support for the Afghan government in Kabul has simply just continued to drop since the main American forces left in 2014.
So to the average Afghan it does not make that much a difference whether you're basically under the thump of the Taliban or a government that does not really do anything for you. And that's probably also why we see that the Taliban is capable of establishing itself in the Pashtun areas where they used to have the greatest amount of support.
And then if we look at the Islamic State, they get a lot of airtime in the media, but they're not a real threat to Afghan stability. They're a minor player in a very violent society where you have a lot of armed groups fighting amongst each other over drugs and all sorts of other things.
So we haven't really seen this coming together of the various groups in order to sort of fight external threats as you would think that they might.
And one of the reasons is also that the threats simply have not been big enough. And that is still the case, even with the advances that the Taliban has made in recent years. They're still not capable of conquering and holding major population centers. Whenever they try to take territory or populated areas that are considered important from the point of view of the Afghan government, then the Afghan security forces are capable of taking it back.
So one could also that without U.S. support, you might have had more of a reaction toward the return of the Taliban, but I think that the calculation basically is: as long as the international society, as long as the Americans are there to support the Afghan government and their security forces, than the Taliban is not that much of a threat.
Afghan police look on during a 2010 drug burn hosted by the Interior Ministry for Counter Narcotics. Courtesy: U.S. State Department
Luke Vargas: Peter, you're saying the Afghans have become too reliant on the U.S.?
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: Even though I know it sounds sort of paradoxical, the Afghan groups that are scrabbling among themselves over how the government should be run, they're not sufficiently concerned to work together collectively to ward off the threat that the Taliban poses, simply because they expect the Americans to help them out before it gets really serious.
In that way you can basically compare the way the Afghans are approaching this situation with the way that the Europeans are approaching the rising threat and concern that's created by Russia after they annexed the Crimea and also destabilized eastern Ukraine.
Most Europeans are not really worried, because we still expect the U.S. to bail us out as they have on each and every occasion when we've had a military problem since World War II. So in that sense you could say that the U.S. presence, and also continued support, has created what you could call a culture of dependency.
So the U.S. is sort of between a rock and a hard place that, in a sense, if they withdraw all their forces, then the Afghan government would probably collapse and create a situation that is in nobody's interest. But it's really hard to find that balance where you withdraw so much support that you really force the Afghans to come together and cooperate more effectively.
The threat of complete withdrawal has simply not been credible, and that's probably one reason why they have not really had the effect that you would sort of expect.
Luke Vargas: Rebecca, Peter just mentioned that Afghan security forces may need the threat of the Taliban or the Islamic State to be very higher – higher than it may be now – to really take the fight to these groups.
You've talked to Afghan police and Afghan troops. Have you found it difficult to convince them that the threats that the U.S. sees as top priorities are ones they should be taking just as seriously?
Rebecca Zimmerman: Most Afghans – whether in the security forces or out – see this at this point as our war that they're helping with.
Now, that doesn't mean there isn't a tremendous anti-Taliban sentiment among some of the security forces, but by and large in the research I've done, it's not the lack of a potent enough threat that is the problem. It is a government that they don't feel is worth risking their lives for.
When I talk to soldiers it's not unusual to hear them describe their government as a mafia, as something corrupt and not in their eyes legitimate.
That's much harder to fix than saying, if the threat were more existential they would band together. I don't see that as quite as proximate an issue.
A view of old town Herat, Afghanistan's third-largest city. Courtesy: UNAMA / Fraidoon Poya.
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: I would agree with that, because what I was actually thinking about was at the level of the political leadership.
As soon as you go down the chain of command and you get to the actual commanders and the actual soldiers and police forces that are out there trying to fend for themselves and do operations, then I would agree entirely with what Rebecca said.
I also think it's a problem of dysfunctional political leadership, and the fact that the political leaders are not taking this seriously enough. There are still too many problems with corruption and what have you, and they are not devoting their attention to actually supporting the troops and commanding with a proper civilian strategy that you'd find in a more well-functioning country.
And that's really the heart of the problem. Because if you look at the actual forces that they have in Afghanistan, they actually equip themselves quite well. The problem is sort of the more senior command, logistics and that sort of stuff, that they really haven't got around to organizing properly yet.
But if you look at the average fighting man, they're doing quite well considering the circumstances they find themselves in.
Rebecca Zimmerman: Precisely.
Luke Vargas: Rebecca, let's shift to political goals, which I would imagine figure into the new Pentagon plans, at least to a degree. What are the political challenges in Afghanistan, what political goals would you expect the U.S. to articulate here?
Rebecca Zimmerman: Sure, so the government of Afghanistan is a pretty complex government. Afghanistan has a very complicated political landscape, as a multi-ethnic country that hasn't always fit together terribly well.
And so it's government is really designed to be a big tent and to include representatives from all of these different factions and ethnicities inside the country.
But after the last presidential election about three years ago, there was a dispute over which of the two leading candidates won the election – Ashraf Ghani or [Dr. Abdullah Abdullah]. And the U.S. stepped in to broker a solution, a political solution to that – it's called the National Unity Government.
Courtesy: U.S. Embassy Kabul
And the trouble with the unity government is that it''s been very fragile and very dysfunctional, and they've had a very hard time actually pushing for any kind of policies and making change inside the country. And so a lot of Afghans are very dissatisfied with the state of the government right now.
There are issues with keeping a cabinet. The parliament at this point is essentially an illegal parliament, they don't have an official quorum because they're so far past the time when they were supposed to have another election. And the U.S., as part of the unity agreement, promised that they were going to help fix this by helping Afghanistan to enact reforms.
Those reforms haven't happened. And so there's a possibility that we're nearing a crisis point, although of course, everyone's been saying that for years.
But the government continues to be incredible fragile. And that's really, if you ask me, the biggest threat to Afghanistan. The Taliban is a serious security threat, you've got ISIS, you've got Al-Qaeda, you've got Haqqani,which is sort of this parasitic group that fits inside the Taliban, but is yet more extreme.
But I think if the government falls, then it essential clears the path for all of these groups or any other groups, or for civil strife, for multi-party civil war. There's a whole lot of potential there.
So from that standpoint, the U.S. has a really tall order in terms of trying to help Afghanistan maintain some level of stability.
Luke Vargas: Rebecca, an array of steep challenges there. Does the U.S. have the tools now to address any of that?
Rebecca Zimmerman: Unfortunately, this current plan is being formulated really inside the Pentagon, and now more than ever that policy is now being handed to over the Pentagon. The White House has sort of said we're going to take the shackles off of the military, which in some cases may be good, but in any case runs the risk of making this a sort of military-only plan.
We know that Secretary Mattis and Chairman Dunford are both folks with long experience in Afghanistan, phenomenal military leaders, both of whom are committed to a whole of government, inter-agency approach. So it's clear that they will want to consult their non-military counterparts on this.
But it's complicated by the fact that there is no Senate-confirmed U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, and the office of the Special Representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan seems essentially to be closing. The Special Representative who had been in office resigned after the inauguration, and there's been an acting in his place, and she actually just resigned. Her last day was Friday.
So that means that now we're really facing a crisis of civilian-side leadership on these issues. This isn't to say that the folks that are standing in and doing the work aren't doing a great job, but there is a difference between someone who has been Senate-confirmed for the position who knows they're going to be in the position for years, and someone who is acting until someone else comes in.
So we're in a bit of jam now. It takes extra effort to make sure that we're taking into account these issues of governance and diplomacy.
Traffic in the Afghan capital of Kabul during 2017 Eid celebrations. Kabul traffic gets busier during the day as families shop for special food and other goods to mark the festive occasion. Courtesy: UNAMA / Fardin Waezi
Luke Vargas: Peter, you've written recently about the importance about the U.S. president articulating a clear Afghan strategy, as a way of determining the staying power the U.S. might have there. Given that Trump is letting the generals take the lead on the Afghan strategy, can you mount an effective military campaign in a country without making a public case to the American people?
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: Convention wisdom would certainly say that, no you cannot do that. But I think that in this particular case, when we look at the way that the Afghan war has evolved and the complete lack of public interest that there was in the later stages of this war, then I think that he might actually be able to get away with it.
When you look at the major decisions that Obama took when he decided to increase the military presence back in 2009/2010, at that point in time there was very little media coverage of those quite significant decisions. The U.S. presence was surged with some [30,000] personnel, and if we look at the media coverage in 2009 and 2010, it was only about four or five percent of the news stories that were actually focused on Afghanistan. And that even applies in 2010 when there was more than 100,000 U.S. troops there, and at a point in time when they took significant casualties.
And I think that that just goes to show that the U.S. public does not really care all that much about Afghanistan. If you look at the opinion polls, and if you ask the U.S. population whether they support the war in Afghanistan, the majority of them would say no.
But it's clearly not high on their list of priorities. So it's not something that they're going to go into the streets and protest about. So I don't really think that the public, as paradoxical may sound, I don't think that the public is that important.
Luke Vargas: If public support isn't necessary, what about building what we'd call an "elite consensus" in Washington?
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: I think what is important is whether the Trump Administration can get support in Congress to get the troop increase and to get the budgets that they request. As long as they can do that – and with very little debate, because there has been very little debate about that in Congress as well – then I think they can probably get away with continuing to enhance their military presence in Afghanistan, and also doing it without really articulating a strategy.
Because as Rebecca rightly said before, we don't really know what the political objectives are right now. We understand that the U.S. is going to increase the number of military personnel because the Pentagon has said they need that to avoid defeat.
So they get a little more troops sent to Afghanistan, but we don't know how they're going to tackle all the civilian issues that are there. We've heard about a very fragile political situation, but there are also some problems with the civilian administration. Most of the Afghan population do not really think that they get much out of their government.
And all of these very important issues are of course crucial if we want to create a lasting stability in Afghanistan. So all you can basically do by increasing the troops numbers as we're now talking about, is you can buy some more time.
You can probably keep the Taliban at bay. You can perhaps deny them the possibility of taking more territory, but if you do not do something to address the more fundamental political problems, then it's really not going to work.
So I think that you can probably get away with what Trump is currently doing for another year or two, as long as the military situation does not deteriorate drastically. Because then he can keep it under the radar. But at one point in time there will be more voices than is currently the case in Congress saying, why are we here? What are we achieving? How come the General Accounting Office and the Special Inspector for Afghanistan keep saying we're not getting anywhere?
Senator John McCain meets with U.S. service members during a January 2010 visit to Afghanistan. Courtesy: U.S. Embassy Kabul
Luke Vargas: Peter you mention some of the critical voices that might emerge if this new Afghan strategy doesn't show results relatively soon. I want to bring one such voice into the conversation, a clip from 2012.
"Afghanistan is a total and complete disaster. What are we doing? We have all of these horrible events taking place there. We can't even run our own country. We don't build our schools, we don't build our highways, we don't build anything anymore. What's wrong with us? What's wrong with our leadership?"
"And now we have Afghanistan. What is going on? Money should be spent in our country. We should rebuild our country."
Donald Trump in 2012 there, articulating the folly of overseas nation-building. Now, Trump was voicing arguments like this pretty deep into his presidential campaign until the point when he brought on formal foreign policy advisors.
Rebecca, why is that? Do you simply not hear these "pull out now, no more American adventurism!" lines in foreign policy circles? What explains Trump's change of heart there?
Rebecca Zimmerman: So in the U.S. foreign policy community you have a fairly strong consensus that it's in the U.S. interest to have some form of involvement in Afghanistan that is higher than what you'd have in the average country and, generally speaking, that has a military component to it. And that's not orthodoxy, but it's close to it.
You do hear a few people who say that the U.S. should completely get out of Afghanistan and have simply the normal diplomatic relations with the country And those people generally say it's because we can't fix the problems in Afghanistan. And I think that's certainly true. We alone, unilaterally can't solve Afghanistan's problems for it.
But the reason why so many people, and I think probably now the president as well, have come around to this view that some form of involvement is in U.S. interests, is because Afghanistan itself, to the average American and probably to the president at the time in 2012, Afghanistan is a far away place, we don't have a huge economic relationship with them. Why on earth do we care? We went and did what we originally sought to do and Osama Bin Laden is no longer a threat, so why are we still there?
But when you look at it in greater detail you see that Afghanistan, while on it's own may not be the home of many U.S. security interests, it physically touches the majority of U.S. critical national security interests, what Chairman Dunford calls the 4+1 framework. That is: Russia, China, Iran, North Korea and then the threat of global terrorism.
And Russia is actively involved in Afghanistan – and if you recall General Nicholson, the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan, his recent congressional testimony – being increasingly involved in the fight in Afghanistan.
China is exerting a lot more foreign policy effort in Afghanistan, to include a great deal of economic effort. Iran obviously borders the country.
And then you've got the threat of global terrorism, which still exists in Afghanistan in the Af-Pak border region. Again, if the Afghan government were to be seriously destabilized and they couldn't really oversee their country, there's the risk that that would dramatically increase.
So that's why very few foreign policy experts advocate fully leaving Afghanistan.
U.S. Marines on patrol in Kajaki, Helmand Province. March 9, 2013. Courtesy: Musadeq Sadeq / U.S. State Department
Luke Vargas: Rebecca, you just mentioned China, which has bet beg on Afghanistan, pouring billions of dollars into contracts to extract minerals and develop infrastructure. That's all well and good, and maybe economic development is what Afghanistan really needs, but doesn't the success of those sorts of projects hinge on someone, perhaps the United States, playing an active role in security?
Rebecca Zimmerman: Certainly right now the U.S. is providing the security base, along with NATO allies and the Afghan government, that allows economic development and large-scale economic activity to take place. So that's absolutely true.
In fact, China has some serious security concerns when it comes to Afghanistan. There's a fear that terrorism will somehow spread through the tiny little geographic, it looks like a finger poking Afghanistan, the very tiny border that they share, that terrorism could spread up and into China.
And so, not only does China benefit from the U.S. security relationship, but it also provides sort of an interesting area of overlap.
So yes, the U.S. should focus more on some of these economic issues, in particular because I think China has not got a great global reputation for economic development that actually is fair and benefits the nations where they are conducting those activities. But also it's an area where the U.S. and China actually have a surprising number of common interest.
Luke Vargas: Peter, you're in Denmark. Denmark is a NATO nation and sent hundreds of troops to Afghanistan over the last decade and a half – more troops per capita, in fact, than almost any other NATO nation.
America's allies joined us on the battlefield in Afghanistan before, are they going to do that again this time? Or will the Trump administration find this to be a tough sell?
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: No I don't think so. And that again of course depends on how much the United States demands of its NATO allies.
We have this obligation in NATO that we agreed to uphold after the Russian annexation of Crimea to increase our defense spending up to two percent of GDP. And most European nations are not even close to spending two percent. So at the moment there's huge pressure from the United States on the European nations to increase their defense spending, but also to do more to participate in the fight against terrorism in Afghanistan, but also in Iraq and Syria.
So at the moment that nations that aren't spending enough on defense, one way for them to signal to the United States that they're paying attention and still want the United States to be engaged in Europe is to continue to support the operation in Afghanistan.
And if we take my own country, Denmark, we just agreed to increase our presence. I think we will end up having about 110 personnel out in Afghanistan. We have about 50 at the moment. So we just decided to double our presence in order to accommodate the request from the United States.
President Trump accompanies NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and other member nation heads of state during a walk-through of the new NATO Headquarters in Brussels. May 25, 2017. Courtesy: NATO
And I think that that's the picture that you're going to see across Europe. So I don't think the United States will have any difficulty getting the Europeans to send more troops to Afghanistan.
But in comparison to what the U.S. is sending it will still be a small proportion, and there will not be an expectation that they have to do combat. Instead, they'll be insisting that they're only doing training or advisory missions, or perhaps providing aircraft, so they do not have to do combat themselves.
So as long as it's presented in that way I don't think that the NATO countries will have any difficulty meeting the force levels that the Americans have just asked for.
Luke Vargas: We're up against the clock, so a question to both of you quickly. I'll start with you, Rebecca. What's the one thing you'll be watching as the Pentagon unveils its new Afghan strategy?
Rebecca Zimmerman: I think I'll be looking most of all to see if there's any kind of strong governance-related or diplomatic component to the new strategy.
Luke Vargas: Peter?
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: Well I actually don't expect there to be much of that. The Afghanistan strategy will probably resemble what we are currently seeing in Iraq and Syria, where they are trying simply to, let's put it this way, fix the military situation to try and reach short-term military goals, and then they leave the more difficult political goals for later.
So they will basically be kicking the can down the road. I think that's what we're going to see in the July strategy that comes out, because I don't think that anybody really has a clear idea about how we're going to address the big political problems that also need to be addressed. And I think they were described quite well by Rebecca.
But I think it's really hard to see how we can get a handle on them. So therefore I would expect them to simply provide the troops and the air power that will serve as a stopgap measure and buy the American administration, but also the Afghans, more time.
And then they'll try to tackle the problems as they emerge, one by one.
Afghan students walk home from school in Kabul. Courtesy: UNAMA / Fardin Waezi
Rebecca Zimmerman: I would agree with that. I think the U.S. is very good at scaling up or scaling down our involvement. We're not good in Afghanistan changing the essential nature of what that involvement is.
Luke Vargas: Rebecca Zimmerman, policy researcher at the Rand corporation. Thank you so much for being with us.
Luke Vargas: And Peter Viggo Jakobsen, associate professor in the Department of Strategy at the Royal Danish Defense College, on the line tonight from Denmark. Peter, thank you so much as well.
Peter Viggo Jakobsen: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
Luke Vargas: If you like what you just heard leave us a review on iTunes or follow the program on Twitter @WakeOnAir.
I'm Luke Vargas, signing off. Join us again next week on Wake.
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Tag: Papy Djilobodji
Chelsea news: Trio could be axed for Champions League tie, and banter banned from training ground
September 15, 2015 Jordan Harris
Here is Tuesday's news and gossip concerning Chelsea: Branislav Ivanovic, Cesc Fabregas, and Diego Costa are all set to be axed for the Blues' Champions League group stage opener with Maccabi Tel Aviv, according to the Daily Express. The trio are set to be punished for the side's poor start to the campaign, with Baba Rahman, and one of either Radamel Falcao and Loic Remy being possible replacements. Jose Mourinho has taken the bizarre step to ban players from joking around on the training ground as the club try to…
Champions League, Chelsea, Premier LeagueBranislav Ivanovic, Cesc Fabregas, Diego Costa, Jose Mourinho, Papy Djilobodji, Stamford Bridge, Victor Valdes
Chelsea gossip: Blues target gets confirmed exit and Mourinho vows to stay at Stamford Bridge
Saturday's biggest Chelsea news and transfer rumour roundup. Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho says it was not his decision to sign defender Papy Djilobodji, 26, from Nantes on transfer deadline day, The Independent reports. The 26-year-old moved to Stamford Bridge in a £4m deal in an effort to bolster the Blues' defensive options after they failed to sign Everton centre back John Stones, despite tabling several bids for the Englishman. Tottenham Hotspur are open to entering a Wembley ground share agreement with Chelsea to avoid the London clubs trying to outbid…
Chelsea, Everton, Premier League, Tottenham HotspurJohn Stones, Jose Mourinho, Papy Djilobodji, Thibaut Courtois, Wembley
Jose Mourinho admits bringing Papy Djilobodji to Chelsea wasn't his choice
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho has admitted that the final say over whether to bring defender Papy Djilobodji was not his, according to the Metro. The Senegalese international signed for The Blues on transfer deadline day in a £2.7m deal from Ligue 1 side Nantes (via Metro). However, Mourinho has claimed that the defender was snapped up on the insistence of somebody he trusted as he didn't personally have the time to scope the player out himself. "It was not my choice. It was the choice of somebody I trust completely,"…
Chelsea, Ligue 1, Premier LeagueJose Mourinho, Papy Djilobodji
Chelsea gossip: Courtois out for "a long time" but Brazilian defender back on Blues' radar
Friday's biggest Chelsea news and transfer gossip. Chelsea goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, 23, is set for an extended spell on the sidelines after injuring a knee in training, the London Evening Standard reports. That means deputy Asmir Begovic will now get the opportunity to shine in his absence. Courtois also requires knee surgery and will be out for "quite a long time", manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed, the BBC reports. The 23-year-old Belgium international damaged his medial ligaments during training on Wednesday. Chelsea transfer target Marquinhos is growing increasingly unsettled at…
Chelsea, Everton, Ligue 1, Premier League, PSGJose Mourinho, Marquinhos, Papy Djilobodji, Radamel Falcao, Thibaut Courtois
Chelsea gossip: Pogba turned down Stamford Bridge switch, while Begovic backs Blues for the title
September 5, 2015 Jordan Harris
Here is Saturday's news and gossip concerning Chelsea: Juventus star Paul Pogba reportedly turned down the chance to move to Stamford Bridge this summer, according to the Independent. The Old Lady appear to have accepted the Blues' bid which involved the Serie A side earning £62m and getting Oscar in exchange. Asmir Begovic has backed Chelsea to recover from their shaky start in the Premier League, and catch Manchester City who are eight points ahead of them in the table, the Daily Express report. "We need to improve, we know…
Chelsea, Europe, Juventus, Premier League, Serie AAsmir Begovic, Eden Hazard, Papy Djilobodji, Paul Pogba
Chelsea gossip: Pogba, Stones and Marquinhos deals fail to materialise, but £8m pair arrive
September 2, 2015 September 2, 2015 Jordan Harris
Here is Wednesday's news and gossip concerning Chelsea: Chelsea failed in their attempts to land Juventus star Paul Pogba, Everton centre-back John Stones, and Paris Saint-Germain youngster Marquinhos, according to the Daily Mail. The inability to bring the trio in to Stamford Bridge meant that it was a surprisingly low-key deadline day for the Premier League champions. Two players that did arrive on the final day of the window however, are defenders Papy Djilobodji and Michael Hector, BBC Sport report. The pair both joined for £4m, and while the former Nantes…
Chelsea, Europe, Everton, Football League, Juventus, Ligue 1, Premier League, PSG, Reading, Serie AJohn Stones, Lucas Piazon, Marquinhos, Michael Hector, Papy Djilobodji, Paul Pogba, Victor Moses
Chelsea fail in £134m deadline day double swoop and forced to go 'on the cheap'
September 2, 2015 Steve Green
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho was forced to settle on spending just £6.75m on new talent on transfer deadline day because he spent the last two weeks of the window chasing two players worth £134m, the Daily Express reports. During the final hours of a busy summer spending period, The Blues brought in Nantes' Senegal international defender Papy Djilobodji for £2.75m before completing the surprising £4.5m signing of Reading's Jamaican international centre-back Michael Hector. But having already brought in the likes of Radamel Falcao, Asmir Begovic, Kenedy, Nathan, Danilo Pantic, Baba…
Chelsea, Everton, Football League, Juventus, Ligue 1, Premier League, Reading, Serie AJohn Stones, Jose Mourinho, Michael Hector, Nantes, Papy Djilobodji, Paul Pogba
Chelsea spend £6.7m on moves for defensive duo Papy Djilobodji and Michael Hector
Chelsea have reportedly completed the signing of two defenders on transfer deadline day, with Nantes' Papy Djilobodji and Reading's Michael Hector both moving to Stamford Bridge, according to the Metro. The Blues spent £2.7m on the Senegalese centre-back (via Metro), after he signed a four-year contract with the Premier League champions, BBC Sport report. While the 27-year-old's move has surprised many given the marquee names that have been linked with a move to Jose Mourinho's side, it is surely the deal for Hector that will stun most football fans. The…
Chelsea, Europe, Football League, Ligue 1, Premier League, ReadingMichael Hector, Papy Djilobodji
Chelsea on verge of completing cut-price £2.7m deal for John Stones alternative
August 31, 2015 Jordan Harris
Chelsea are on the verge of completing a £2.7m move for Nantes defender Papy Djilobodji, according to the Guardian. The Blues have been desperate to add more defensive depth this summer, and have been linked with John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, and Ezequiel Garay, the Guardian report. However, having had four bids rejected for Stones, and finding, following enquiries, that the latter pair would be too expensive also (via Guardian), Jose Mourinho has switched his attention to the Senegal international, who is set to sign a four-year deal at Stamford Bridge. And…
Chelsea, Featured Column, Ligue 1, Premier LeaguePapy Djilobodji
Chelsea gossip: Blues told to pay £109m for Pogba, and defender undergoes medical ahead of Stamford Bridge arrival
Here is Monday's news and gossip concerning Chelsea: The Blues have been told that they will need to pay £109m if they want to sign Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba, according to the Daily Express. The Premier League champions had been preparing a £72m bid for the former Manchester United man, but will need to drastically improve that offer if they want the Frenchman's signature. Nantes defender Papy Djilobodji is having a medical ahead of a move to Stamford Bridge, according to the Metro. The 27-year-old had previously been linked with…
Chelsea, Europe, Ligue 1, Premier League, Serie A, West HamEzequiel Garay, Nathaniel Chalobah, Papy Djilobodji, Paul Pogba, Victor Moses
Arsenal news: Marco Verratti interested in Premier League switch, and teammate offered to Gunners
Here is Monday's news and rumours concerning Arsenal: Paris Saint-Germain's deep-lying playmaker Marco Verratti has put Arsenal on alert after suggesting that he would be interested in making a move to the Premier League in the future, the Daily Express report. The 22-year-old did concede however, that he was happy with the French side at the moment. "I'll begin to consider leaving on the day that I no longer feel good at PSG or when the club decides to sell me," he said. "England, Spain, and a return to Italy…
Arsenal, Europe, La Liga, Ligue 1, Premier League, PSG, Real MadridEzequiel Lavezzi, Karim Benzema, Marco Verratti, Papy Djilobodji, Thierry Henry