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GIS Dossier: Governance in Africa, the case of three countries
Inadvertently and deliberately, African leaders Joseph Kabila (L), Eduardo dos Santos and Paul Kagame (R), have changed the way their countries are governed (source: dpa)
Report Dossier
civil war corruption development GIS Dossier Joseph Kabila Jose Eduardo dos Santos Paul Kagame violence in Africa
Rwanda's burden of genocide trauma: the primacy of development over democracy
The DRC's intractable curse of arbitrarily-imposed unitary statehood
Angola's search for recovery from decades of kleptocratic one-party rule
GIS Dossiers aim to give our subscribers a quick overview of key topics, regions or conflicts based on a selection of our experts' reports since 2011. This Dossier looks at diverse governance challenges in three African countries: Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola.
As the last survivors of the generation of long-serving African leaders once engaged in Africa's decolonization are – hesitantly – leaving the scene, the way politics is made on the continent is changing. New heads of state are subject to higher demands and pressure for good governance. Elections in most countries are now subject to stricter international monitoring and, more importantly, populations are becoming politically aware and capable of organizing themselves.
Africa is undergoing rapid transformation. Its countries were among the fastest growing economies in the first decade and a half of the 21st century. As a result, the continent features a rapidly expanding middle class, firming democracy, regional integration, demographic growth and rapid urbanization. However, state weakness, bad governance and armed conflicts remain common despite these changes. Three African countries extensively covered by GIS showcase the challenges, but also the emerging, indigenous governance solutions.
THE REPUBLIC OF RWANDA
Notorious for the 1994 genocide and ethnic brutality that claimed 800,000 lives in the course of a few months, Rwanda emerged less than two decades later as a World Bank economic poster child. In many respects, it stands as Africa's most astounding success story. The country has become one of the continent's fastest expanding economies. Most importantly, its growth, sustained by a combination of strong leadership, clear goals and rigorous management of public resources (Rwanda is among the least corrupt states in Africa), has been translated into improved living standards for a majority of the Rwandan people. GIS expert Teresa Nogueira Pinto set out to explore the East African country's amazing transformation in January 2012.
Rwanda facts – 2017-2018
Population of 12.2 million
The scene of Africa's worst genocide in modern times in 1994 when 800,000 were killed in less than four months
One of Africa's smallest countries – 26,338 square kilometers
Life expectancy at birth: 62.6 years (men) and 66.6 years (women)
GDP per capita, PPP: $2,100 (for 2017)
Exports coffee, tea, hides, tin ore
The second-best country in Africa for doing business according to the World Bank
The starting point was extremely low, the expert noted: Rwanda was the world's second poorest country even before the genocide, lacking natural resources and development prospects. After the conflict, its state coffers were empty, major buildings and standard infrastructure destroyed and even the most basic materials were missing. On top of that, the country lost its cultural, political and economic elite. Yet, Rwanda has escaped the poverty trap and overcome economic collapse.
The man behind Rwanda's rebirth has been Paul Kagame, today its larger-than-life president and one of the most recognized living Africans (source: dpa)
President Paul Kagame
Born in 1957 in Tambwe, a village in southern Rwanda. His parents, both Tutsi, had family ties to Rwanda's last king, Mutara III, and Queen Rosalie Gicanda
Was 2-years-old when his family had to abandon home as a result of anti-Tutsi violence to, eventually, settle in a refugee camp in Uganda
Joined the fight against the repressive regime of Uganda's President Milton Obote from 1981 to 1986
In 1986, sent to Cuba for training in military intelligence
Leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) in 1987
Sent to the U.S. Army Command and Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1989. Left the college to return home and join the RPF's first attempt to take over Rwanda in October 1990
In control of Rwanda since his RPF rebel army defeated the Hutu-led government and ended the 1994 slaughter
After gaining control of Rwanda, the RPF established the National Unity Government, a Rwandan Hutu was appointed as its first president.
Sworn in as vice president and defense minister in the post-genocide government in July 1994, but widely seen as the real power broker in Rwanda
Elected president by the parliament in 2000, won presidential elections in 2003 and 2010, and 2017
At the core of Mr. Kagame's development strategy has been a textbook set of liberal, free-market-based prescriptions: stimuli for the private sector, export diversification and attracting foreign investment through an inviting fiscal policy. But there have also been other parts. Ms. Pinto wrote:
Rwanda is a world champion of gender equality with the highest proportion of female parliamentarians. It has an efficient education system, near-universal health insurance, low crime rates and an impressive "green agenda" which includes measures such as a national ban on plastic bags.
Mr. Kagame's record as president is not free of controversy, however. He stands accused in the West of permanently delaying a transition to real democracy, crushing the opposition and harassing independent media and human rights organizations working in Rwanda. His model for the country, the expert explained, seemed to be a balance between the "Beijing consensus" and a more Western vision for the country's future.
The harrowing experience of violence that erupts so easily from incendiary speech
"Politics in Rwanda is still hostage to the genocide. Security concerns are the argument against any political dissent," Ms. Pinto noted in her follow-up report on January 24, 2012. It presented examples of the Kagame government's harsh treatment of critics and opponents. The report included the hint that Mr. Kagame may want to run for the presidency for a third time in 2017 – despite the country's constitutional ban on such ambitions.
In this report, published in GIS in January 2013, Teresa Pinto investigated why the president of Rwanda so firmly believed in the necessity to prioritize economic growth and stability above democracy. It is all there in Paul Kagame's biography: the harrowing experience of violence that erupts so easily from incendiary speech; the bitter lesson of Western inaction in the face of the genocide; and the future president's 30 years spent in exile, as a guerilla fighter longing to return home.
'Third-termism'
By early December 2015, the syndrome of incumbent leaders seeking to extend their time in power beyond legal limits had already become known as "third-termism" or "constitutional coups," a hot topic in African politics. It was against that backdrop that Ms. Pinto analyzed in her GIS report the popular – if slightly orchestrated – push in Rwanda for allowing a third term to President Kagame.
"The country's history of genocide and its recovery under Mr. Kagame's tenure make it a singular test case," the expert wrote. She described the elaborate process of the constitutional change but concluded that the outcome was becoming clear. When President Kagame would reach the end of his second seven-year term in 2017, the maximum allowed under the 2003 constitution, she wrote, "the only candidate to succeed him will be ... Paul Kagame."
On Dec. 23, 2015, GIS founder Prince Michael of Liechtenstein commented on the Rwandan referendum, which had overwhelmingly approved an amendment that changed presidential term limits. The new rules meant that 58-year-old President Paul Kagame could run again for the presidency in 2017 and serve until 2034. The Prince, who had lived and worked in Africa, observed:
The initiative has been criticized in Europe. But the choice does not lie with the Americans or Europeans. The decision is the Rwandans' alone to make. The international community should abstain from judgment.
In another comment, in February 2017, Prince Michael made a case for the Rwandan leader by comparing his record with the less-than-stellar one of the president of neighboring Burundi, Pierre Nkurunziza, also seeking a third term.
Rwanda's model of development without political power-sharing is starting to be contested
No major surprises were expected after Rwanda's presidential elections on August 4, 2017. Mr. Kagame would win with at least a comfortable majority, Ms. Pinto correctly predicted at the beginning of 2017. In her July 2017 report, she listed the Kagame administration's successes in developing the country. However, the author also pointed out the uncertainty about the president's plans for his third term, at a time when Rwanda's model of growth and development without political power-sharing was starting to be contested at home and internationally.
On August 4, 2017, Paul Kagame was reelected to his third term with 98.79 percent of the vote.
Early in 2012, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) stood at the brink of another of its countless internecine wars. Three months after the chaotic elections in November 2011, the country had two sworn-in presidents: Joseph Kabila and Etienne Tshisekedi.
Incumbent President Kabila, Teresa Pinto wrote in her report, prevailed at the polls with 49 percent of the vote. Mr. Tshisekedi, one of more than 30 opposition candidates running in the contest, received 32 percent but refused to accept the result and was sworn in as president by his supporters.
The electoral process, Ms. Pinto pointed out, lacked credibility and transparency. "[M]ultiple locations, notably several Katanga province constituencies, reported impossibly high rates of 99 to 100 percent voter turnout with all, or nearly all, votes going to incumbent President Joseph Kabila," she wrote.
Polling was held on an uneven playing field. The expert explained:
A constitutional amendment, which included a switch from proportional representation to majority voting, was seen to favor 40-year-old President Kabila and his political entourage. So was the appointment of people from his inner circle to the Supreme Court and the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Joseph Kabila (pictured) managed to fend off Mr. Tshisekedi's challenge by putting the resourceful rival under house arrest and remained Congo's president for another six years (source: dpa)
The conflict was characteristic of Africa's most populated Francophone country – rich beyond belief in natural resources but lacking in infrastructure, rules-based governance and holistic development after centuries of colonial and commercial extraction.
The turbulent history of the DRC
The Portuguese were the first Europeans to visit the area in the 15th century
In the following two centuries, British, Dutch, Portuguese and French merchants bought slaves there
In the 1870s, Belgian King Leopold II set up a private venture to colonize the area. In 1908, Leopold's Congo Free State was annexed by the Belgian state following outrage over the mistreatment of the Congolese
In 1960, Congo became independent, with Joseph Kasavubu as president. The following five years were marred by civil war and temporary fragmentation of the country
Joseph Mobutu ousted Kasavubu in a coup in 1965. Six years later, he renamed the country Zaire and himself Mobutu Sese Seko
In 1997, twin invasions, supported by Rwanda and Angola (dubbed Africa's First World War) ousted Mobutu and Laurent-Desire Kabila, a former leftist emigre in Angola, became president. The country was renamed again – becoming the Democratic Republic of the Congo
The next six years were taken up by civil war (referred to as the Second Congo War, or the African World War), drawing in several neighboring countries
Laurent Kabila was killed by a bodyguard in 2001 and succeeded by his son, Joseph Kabila
In 2003, Joseph Kabila set up a transitional government, leading to a new constitution in 2006
Crisis and confusion have marked the younger Kabila's 17-year rule, punctuated by interethnic fighting, coup attempts, violent protests, two chaotic presidential elections (2006, 2011) and, finally, his bid for constitutionally prohibited third term
"Democratic elections in ethnic and regionally divided societies tend to accentuate cleavages and rivalries," wrote the GIS expert. She added that in a country where rebels and armed groups still hold much power this is even more dangerous.
Perennial war zone
The Great Lakes region of Africa, and eastern Congo in particular, has been the battleground for armies and rival rebel militia groups since ethnic violence exploded between Hutus and Tutsis in the 1990s. As the defeated Hutus fled into Zaire, the Rwandan and Ugandan armies followed. The Second Congo War started in 1998 and ultimately nine African countries and 25 different armed groups were involved in the hostilities, which caused 5.4 million deaths (mostly from starvation and disease). The war officially ended in July 2003, with the creation of a transition DRC government, but fighting has continued in parts of the country, mostly in the east.
More than 100 armed groups – including some foreign-backed rebels – have exploited the DRC's political crisis to capture mineral-rich areas in the country's east (source: macpixxel for GIS)
Ms. Pinto described the complexity of these conflicts for GIS in 2012 here and here. She wrote:
President Kabila knows that he could easily lose control of the country if the violence escalates. He does not have a trained and motivated army, nor the political authority necessary to win a direct military confrontation in a country with more than 40 rebel groups and ethnic-based militias, and where there is no longer any sense of nationhood.
Bid to overstay
The DRC's next big crisis was triggered by President Kabila's bid to stay in power after his term expired on Dec. 20, 2016.
Under the DRC's constitution of 2006, he was expressly prohibited from running for a third term. Faced with the same dilemma, the leaders of Rwanda and Burundi managed to secure legal sanction for extending their term limits. But Mr. Kabila found it difficult to tinker with the constitution that he had helped to give the country.
"After the president revealed his intentions before the term's end, street protests erupted and were violently repressed by the military and the police, prompting the United States and the European Union to impose sanctions on some of Mr. Kabila's partisans, wrote an anonymous GIS expert in a February 2, 2017 report. The U.S. Treasury announced measures against the country's interior minister and security chief.
The president retained the wherewithal to attempt a crackdown on the opposition at any time
Mr. Kabila's friendly neighbors – in particular, Angola and the Republic of Congo – leaned on him hard to cut a deal with the opposition. Mediated by the DRC Conference of Bishops, a fundamental understanding was reached on December 31, 2016.
Under its terms, President Kabila was allowed to stay on until the next elections, to be held no later than December 2017. During the transition period, no attempt was to be made to change the constitution or hold a constitutional referendum, and the president's power would be balanced by a prime minister and half of the cabinet ministers chosen by the opposition.
The opposition, however, remained divided and the president retained command of the army and the security forces, the central and regional administrations, and most of the financial resources in the public sector. He had the wherewithal to attempt a crackdown at any time.
Continued violence
In late 2017, reports of reignited civil war and starvation were coming out of the Kasai region of the DRC. Especially heartbreaking was news that some 250,000 children in Kasai were in mortal danger due to hunger and lack of medical treatment.
Hundreds of thousands of children could die due to violence in the Kasai region. Katanga has seen conflict since it was forced under Kinshasa's rule (source: macpixxel for GIS)
The founder of GIS emphasized in his Nov. 24, 2017 analysis that the root of the never-ending violence in the DRC was the outside world's misguided insistence on keeping it a unitary state. Prince Michael of Liechtenstein wrote:
At the very beginning, the southern province of Katanga wanted independence. … Not only did the central government in Kinshasa find this unacceptable, so did the UN. … [I]n 1964 the UN engineered an invasion of Katanga, where UN troops committed horrible atrocities. Katanga was forced to reunite with the country under Kinshasa's rule.
And he continued:
It is true that Katanga's copper mines were a very important resource for the whole country, but this does not justify the UN and Kinshasa ignoring the region's right to self-determination. The problem is a typical one for postcolonial Africa. The DRC is an artificial state, created by a compromise between London, Paris and Berlin. … The real problem is that after decolonization, it was forced to remain a unitary state.
This unsustainable situation, the author explained, facilitates kleptocracy. And kleptocracy, he wrote, "will always try to keep all its territory by force, and Kinshasa uses a strategy of divide and rule to maintain control."
In March 2018, the 46-year-old Joseph Kabila was still president of the DRC, but he lacked Mr. Kagame's legitimacy or the legal loopholes to exploit. His only method for extending his tenure was to delay elections as long as possible, wrote Ms. Pinto in the report summarizing his rule. In May 2016, the Constitutional Court of the DRC ruled that Mr. Kabila would remain in office until elections could be held. Before long, the country's electoral commission announced that financial and logistical difficulties would make it impossible to conduct nationwide polling before the end of 2018.
But that proved the end of the road for President Kabila. Under increasing pressure – the opposition was united in calling for his ouster and the formation of an interim government – the entrenched leader finally buckled. New presidential, legislative, regional and local elections were set for December 23, 2018.
The DRC's presidency went to Felix Tshisekedi, the son of Mr. Kabila's old rival, Etienne Tshisekedi, who assumed office on January 24, 2019.
THE REPUBLIC OF ANGOLA
Angola is a richly endowed country and sub-Saharan Africa's second largest oil producer after Nigeria. It is also a model example of the so-called "resource curse," or "the paradox of plenty" – countries with a wealth of natural resources are often the poorer for it. With its destitute population, Angola ranks 147th out of 189 countries in the 2018 edition of the UN's Human Development Index. This drama is mainly due to the 27-year-long civil war, the entrenched ruling regime's anti-market prejudice and very high levels of corruption and mismanagement.
Angola's power system
Angola gained independence from Portugal in 1975. The People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) party has ruled the country since then. It fought the Portuguese army in the Angolan War for Independence (1961-1975) and against rival armies in the civil war which raged, with interruptions, for 27 years and caused an estimated 1.5 million fatalities and the displacement of 4 million people. When the civil strife ended in 2002, the MPLA leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos cemented his hold on power. He served as the country's second president for 38 years, starting in 1979. Forced to step down, he was succeeded by Joao Lourenco in September 2017.
Eduardo dos Santos was picked for the top post in 1979 not because he was perceived among the ruling elite as presidential timber. As an anonymous GIS expert wrote, there was no obvious successor to the late head of state and the different factions and groups thought they could manipulate Mr. dos Santos. The new president outsmarted them, however.
As president, Eduardo dos Santos created a patronage-based ruling system that ensured his political longevity and his family's wealth but has kept average Angolans destitute (source: dpa)
He used the powers of the state and nationalized companies, including the energy firm SONANGOL, to consolidate his control by distributing financial benefits to loyalists and excluding those who were "less enthusiastic." The method proved successful in extending Mr. dos Santo's rule.
Avoiding elections
After Mr. dos Santo's reelection in 2003, no further presidential elections were held in Angola. Under a new constitution, instituted by the MPLA in 2010, the leader of the party winning the most seats in the parliament automatically assumed the presidency.
By September 2011, unrest against the president's overextended rule was spreading in Angola's capital, Luanda. The same GIS expert observed in the next report on the country's instability:
There has been antigovernment sentiment for a long time. This demonstration was called by a group of dissidents who were mainly young, disaffected and unemployed but also including children from some important families.
The president was said to be amassing an enormous personal fortune. His critics, the anonymous expert wrote in the follow-up analysis, focused on the nepotism with the president's family in key economic jobs and the fact that under the dos Santos regime, the Angolan economy was even less liberal and open than during the early days of postindependence "socialism."
Selfish class
As in other oligarchies, the president's family won a place at the top of the list of the wealthy. Mr. dos Santos' eldest daughter, Isabel dos Santos, said to be the richest woman in Africa, was the ultimate symbol of a dominant, self-centered class, indifferent to all others – from writings of GIS's anonymous expert.
Rumors in Luanda had it, though, that the beleaguered president would soon initiate changes and bring in a vice president as a clear sign of his intention to retire, possibly as early as in 2012. Many of the GIS expert's sources in Angola were skeptical.
In August 2012, before the parliamentary elections, expert Teresa Pinto listed in her report three factors that had guaranteed President dos Santo's leadership since 1979:
"[T]he people's fear of war and instability, an opposition lacking resources and strong leadership, and an oil boom which has brought increased prosperity to one of the world's poorest countries."
As Ms. Pinto had anticipated, the MPLA prevailed in the 2012 election, winning two-thirds of the votes. The voter turnout, at some 60 percent, was considered low. "[M]any believed the MPLA could not be defeated and did not bother voting, despite discontent in the country. There is also a lack of confidence in the opposition as a real political alternative," an anonymous GIS expert noted, adding that the election saw the "emergence of new political parties and expressions of frustration at the divisions between rich and poor which could point to greater democracy or more confrontation."
Economic shock
Nearly three years later, Ms. Pinto detailed in her April 2015 GIS report the devastating impact of the plunge in oil prices on the Angolan economy.
"Angola has been attracting attention lately but for all the wrong reasons," noted an anonymous GIS expert at the end of July of the same year, describing events –an alleged massacre and the trial of a renowned journalist – that were new blows to the government's credibility. The president's reaction? Mr. dos Santos countered the speculation that he would step down from power before completing his mandate, in 2017. The president stated that "it would be 'unwise' to abandon Angola's leadership under the current circumstances," the expert reported.
That was not the first time the leader announced an intention to retire; in 2007 and 2011 he did the same thing
Before long, however, the expert wrote of a possible breakthrough: in early 2016, President dos Santos pledged to leave "active political life" in 2018. Potential successors included the country's defense minister and the general secretary of the ruling party – both longtime dos Santos loyalists.
Many, including within the ruling party, were skeptical of his remarks, since it was not the first time the leader had announced an intention to retire. In both 2007 and 2011, the president did the same thing but instead opted to remain in office.
Then, on February 3, 2017, a sea change in Angolan politics became official. An anonymous GIS expert wrote:
In his opening speech to the general meeting of the Central Committee of the MPLA, President dos Santos repeated his will to retire. Later, the body approved the party's list of candidates for the election – President dos Santos' name was not on it. … Defense Minister General Joao Lourenco and Minister of Territorial Administration Bornito de Sousa were at the top. If the MPLA wins the election as expected, Mr. Lourenco will become president and Mr. Bornito vice president.
In contrast to many other long-serving African autocrats, the Angolan leader opted to leave office alive and on his own terms.
The designated successor, Defense Minister Joao Lourenco, a 64-year-old general and former secretary general of the MPLA, was seen as "a discreet politician, but also tough and experienced," wrote the anonymous expert after the Angolans voted in a combined parliamentary and presidential election on August 23, 2017.
The new leader was a compromise pick between the die-hard supporters of Mr. dos Santos and his family (some of whom had pushed for a dynastic choice of one of his children) and an emerging groundswell of critics within the ruling party.
In early December of 2017, GIS provided a detailed report on the daunting complexity of the situation faced by Angola's new leader. By January of 2019, an anonymous expert marveled at the surprising speed and decisiveness with which of Mr. Lourenco was shaking up the state's power structure and administration. The anonymous expert wrote:
He removed some of the most influential individuals in the country from their positions, including Isabel dos Santos … and allowed the detention of Jose Filomeno dos Santos (known as Zenu), his predecessor's son and the head of the Angolan sovereign wealth fund, on charges of mismanagement and abuse of state funds. The once-powerful former finance and transport Minister Augusto Tomas has been another casualty of the anti-corruption crusade. His role in the disappointing modernization of the Angolan railway system, performed by Chinese companies, was given as one of the reasons for his detention.
President Laurenco's economic focus has been on diversification and bringing in desperately-needed foreign investment. The game is risky, pointed out the expert. Life has been getting harder for most Angolans. To keep the oil and mining industries going and breathe new life into its agriculture sector, Angola needs foreign help. The country's new law to attract investment and new partnerships, the expert wrote, would be for naught without an answer – rather sooner than later – from American and European investors.
Angola: basic facts
Angola is Africa's second largest oil producer (after Nigeria), with proven crude oil reserves of 8.38 billion barrels. Its economy is mostly driven by oil production and related industries, which account for about a half of its gross domestic product (GDP), some 90 percent of its exports and more than 70 percent of its government's revenue. Its non-oil industries include diamonds, gold, uranium, bauxite, iron ore, cement, fish products, brewing, textiles and sugar.
Area: 1.247 million square kilometers
Population: 30.3 million; growth rate 3.49% (2018 est.)
Oil production: some 1.6 million barrels per day (2018)
GDP per capita, (PPP, est.):
GDP real growth rate, est.:
-2.5% (2017)
0.9% (2015)
Inflation rate (consumer prices, est.):
15.8% (2019 projection)
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POWER OF POP MUSIC ROCK HISTORY: MAY 1966
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Pet Sounds – though initially not a hit album (peaking at #10) – has had its reputation enhanced in later years, to be recognised as one of the top pop albums of all time. It's melancholy tone and lush orchestration was akin to a teenage symphony to God, and arguably has never been surpassed. Famously, the late George Martin has attributed the making of The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band to the inspiration of Pet Sounds. Listen …
Blonde on Blonde – completed a trilogy of rock albums that electrified the music world, by which Dylan gained new fans and alienated old ones – bringing a folkie sensibility to rock 'n' roll that has remained vital in the years following. Frequently, cited as the #1 rock album of all time, commercially the album was marginally successful, topping at #9 on the Billboard Album Charts. However, there is no denying it's powerful legacy.
A week before these unforgettable LPs, the Small Faces released its debut eponymous album. The album was successful in the UK and is notable for the band's hybrid rock + R&B sound and lead singer Steve Marriott's soulful vocals. "You Need Loving" – a thinly veiled cover of Willie Dixon's "You Need Love" would inspire Led Zeppelin's raison d'être in the early 70s. The band would release stronger albums in the years ahead but this is where it began.
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bittymacbeth (aka Beth Yap) launches her debut album Beauty for Ashes at the Esplanade Recital Studio tomorrow night. Guess what? ...
ROCK HISTORY: FROM SEVENTIES PROG TO EIGHTIES POPROCK HISTORY: FROM SEVENTIES PROG TO EIGHTIES POP
Punk. 1977. Ground zero. The torn t-shirts, the spiky coloured short hair, the spitting and most of all the back-to-basics ...

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Jamaica's Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Culture, Gender, Entertainment and Sport, Denzil Thorpe, says the Government is taking steps to achieve greater gender equity in the society, particularly with regards to leadership positions.
He was speaking at the opening of the ParlAmericas Inter-Parliamentary Meeting at The Jamaica Pegasus hotel in New Kingston on Wednesday January 24.
Mr. Thorpe argued that despite gains in every profession, women remain under-represented at all levels of leadership.
He said that former United Nations Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, in one of his final speeches before leaving office, noted that there are still five countries in the world where not a single woman is represented in Parliament, and seven countries without any women in the Cabinet.
Mr. Thorpe said that while the Americas has made better progress, there is much more to be done, noting that in Jamaica, for example, out of 84 parliamentarians, only 16 or 19 per cent are women.
He called on men to support efforts towards achieving gender equity, as they stand to benefit in numerous ways. He pointed out that equality ensures that everyone benefits from the skills, ideas and dreams of the whole of humanity, not just one gender or a particular group.
Mr. Thorpe cited the McKenzie Global Institute Report published in 2016, which found that advancing women's equality could add between US$12 trillion and US$28 trillion to global gross domestic product by 2025.
That represents a net economic effect roughly equivalent to the size of the combined Chinese and United States economies.
"Research also shows that gender equity is good for companies as well. The more gender-equal companies have higher rates of retention, higher job satisfaction and higher rates of productivity," Mr. Thorpe said.
Member of the ParlAmericas Board of Directors, Senator Dr. Saphire Longmore, in her remarks, said that amidst global achievements in gender equality, more emphasis and effort are needed at the local and regional levels.
She said that the two-day ParlAmericas meeting provides an opportunity to expand on discussions that surface frequently on the importance of adopting a comprehensive approach to achieve gender equality, one that features a variety of social actors working in coordination to advance legislative change and positive cultural transformations.
ParlAmericas is an independent network comprised of national legislatures of 35 states from North, Central and South America, and the Caribbean with a goal to engage and develop inter-parliamentary dialogue on relevant hemispheric issues. The work of the body is focused on three interconnected focus areas – gender equality, climate change and open parliament.
The ParlAmericas group carries out a range of activities each year, including conferences and training sessions, facilitating the exchange of legislative best practices, and developing resources for parliamentarians on issues of shared concern.
The workshop, being undertaken through support from the Government of Canada, will explore how parliamentarians can collaborate strategically to achieve greater gender equity.
Unleashing the Greatness Within : Elevating the Organizational MIND!!!
The Junior Stock Market & The Keys To Unlocking Our Country's Entrepreneurial Spirit.


text:
const cron = require('node-cron');
const config = require('../lib/config.js');
const speedTest = require('speedtest-net');
const ping = require('ping');

const Modem = require("../devices/modem.js")
var modem = new Modem({
  "privateKey": config.PRIVATE_KEY,
  "clientCert": config.CLIENT_CERT,
  "caCert": config.CA_CERT,
}, config.HOST, config.DEBUG);

modem.connect(function(){
  cron.schedule('*/5 * * * *', function(){

    speedTest({maxTime: 5000}).on('data', data => {

      var info = {
        "download": data.speeds.download,
        "upload": data.speeds.upload,
        "publicIP": data.client.ip
      }
      modem.info = info;

      modem.logger.info('internet info', info);

    }).on('error', err => {
      modem.logger.error(err);
    });

  });

  const threshold = 3;
  const host = config.ADMIN_PHONE_HOST;
  var failCount = 0;
  cron.schedule('*/10 * * * * *', function(){

    ping.sys.probe(host, function(isAlive){
        modem.logger.debug(isAlive ? 'host ' + host + ' is alive' : 'host ' + host + ' not reachable');

        if(isAlive){
          modem.isAminConnected = 1;
          failCount = 0;
        }else{
          if(failCount > threshold){
            modem.isAminConnected = 0;
            modem.logger.info('admin host not found, fail count: '+failCount.toString());
          }else{
            modem.logger.info('admin host not reachable');
            failCount++;
          }
        }
    },{
      timeout: 10
    });

  });

})

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Product prices and availability are accurate as of 2019-04-22 05:38:15 UTC and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on http://www.amazon.com/ at the time of purchase will apply to the purchase of this product.
2 piece set for attaching two items such as two doors together. Hasp and Staple is perfect for using on gates, sheds, storage containers, garage doors, general security and more. Screws and padlock are not included here.


the daemon just won't start, no errors. hd-idle is not in the processes list.
service_start /usr/bin/hd-idle -i "$(compute_seconds $interval $unit) $args"
hd-idle.patch (748 bytes) - added by coatto87 <coatto87@…> 6 years ago.
The proposed patch does not fix the issue but forces hd-idle into daemon mode by invalidating all calculated parameters. The param handling never worked correctly. Fixed with r30722.


text:
Merry Christmas and All That
It's Christmas time here in stately Vredenburgh Manor and my reading time has been limited. I was hoping to finish off The Xothic Legend collection tonight and that just didn't happen. Also, if you didn't catch me saying it on the facebook, it's very, very dull. Try as I might to let Robert Price's introductions whip up some modicum of enthusiasm in me for Carter's stories, it just ain't happening. To get the taste out of my mouth, I'm going to try to read one of the books Carter republished in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, The Last Unicorn.
On the other hand, I am gearing up to see Gov't Mule Tuesday night, so I got that going for me. Actually, I'm very excited. The thing about the Mule is anybody can just show up and play with them. They also do all sorts of cool covers in addition to their own bluesy power trio originals. I don't see much live music these days other than the luminous Mrs. V's various bands so this is a big deal.
So that's all I got to say for now. I hope everybody has had a great Christmas ans has a Happy New Year's Eve.
Posted by The Wasp at 12:35 AM 3 comments: Links to this post
Chaosium Mythos Fiction: Have You Seen the Yellow Sign? : The Hastur Cycle, edited by Robert M. Price
Starting with The Hastur Cycle in 1993, Chaosium Games started printing a series of Lovecraftian fiction anthologies. Robert M. Price seems to have been in overall charge of the project, with others editing from time to time. Most of the volumes focus on a single aspect of the Mythos, be it a location, like Innsmouth, or a deity, like Cthulhu. Several collect the Mythos fiction of notable authors such as Clark Ashton Smith or Lin Carter. There are several general anthologies in the series, including a reprint of Edward Berglund's seminal Disciples of Cthulhu. You can read the previous entry here.
I'm hoping to reread and review as many of them as possible before I lose too many SAN points. I hope you'll drop by with each new post.
I love Lovecraft. I love the betentacled, squamous, squelching monsters. I love the brooding atmosphere and cosmic horror. I love the strings of adjectives. I love I share my birthday, August 20th, with him.
The understandable debate around the appropriateness of using the Gahan Wilson bust of HPL for the World Fantasy Award doesn't change the centrality of his work to weird fiction. He wasn't alone in introducing cosmic weirdness or non-supernatural evil into horror fiction, but I'd argue he's the most important person to have done so. If vampires and werewolves were proving less frightening in an age of growing secularism and scientific progress, he he shows you how the universe is still a harrowing, psyche shredding place. In his best, scariest stories, man is a speck
I started reading Lovecraft when I was almost eleven years. The very first story I read was "The Festival." It was the night of the 1977 NYC Blackout and I read it out loud to my friend, Jesse B. who was sleeping over while his parents were out of town. It didn't really scare us but it was creepy enough to make me read the rest of the book, The Shadow Over Innsmouth and Other Stories of Horror published by Scholastic Books( !).
As an introduction to HPL's work, it was a pretty alright place to star. While it includes weaker stories like "The Transition of Juan Romero" and "Imprisoned With the Pharaohs", it also has the monumental "The Colour Out of Space" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth." That book made me a fan for life.
Pt. II
The Hastur Cycle, edited by Robert M. Price, is a good book with some dull stories in it. That isn't as contradictory as it sounds. For each gem there's a snoozer only worth reading for its place in the development of the Lovecraft Mythos. Price, one of the major contemporary Lovecraftian, scholars lays a marker down in his forward about what he hoped to accomplish in this volume and I believe he makes a pretty good case for himself.
Price makes the claim that Lovecraft's mythos is part of a larger body of work that includes stories that predate his own. The HPL tentpole story in the book is "The Whisperer in Darkness." There are works that inspired Lovecraft by Ambrose Bierce, Robert Chambers, and Arthur Machen. Then there are stories that followed in HPL's wake by the likes of Karl Edward Wagner, August Derleth, and James Blish,
August Derleth wrote to Lovecraft that he should call the emerging shared world of stories The Hastur Mythos. While Price thinks Derleth just wanted to use the name of the god that was starting to loom large in his own stories, it evinces a brief moment of insight on the young author's part. The shared world of tales shouldn't be named after HPL's own creation but one that indicated the Mythos extended before HPL and would continue to beyond him into the future.
The first two stories, "Haïta the Shepherd" (1891) and "An Inhabitant of Carcosa" (1886) by Ambrose Bierce, introduce some of the names that will become part of the central invented lore concerning the figure of Hastur. In the first, Hastur is a the god worshipped by the titular character. The second is a presented as the transcription of a spirit speaking through a medium. This is where the ruined city of Carcosa is mentioned and Hastur's eventual home, the star Aldebaran, first appears.
I don't have anything to say about the two (very short) tales. Their importance lies in helping inspire the next two stories, Robert W. Chambers' nutzoid "The Repairer of Reputations" (1895) and "The Yellow Sign (1895)." Chambers took character and place names from Bierce and added The King In Yellow, a fictional, decadent play apt to drive its readers mad. Mixing these elements together, there's a hint of reality that only heightens the more disturbing parts of his stories.
"Repairer" is a story told by a man manipulating his way to ruling an alternate 1895 America, replete with state sponsored suicide chambers along Washington Square Park and a German invasion of New Jersey. Or it's mad man with head trauma spinning his delusions into a web of paranoia and murder.
Whichever it is, that dangerous book, The King in Yellow that sits at the heart of the narrator's tale. This startled the heck out of me when I first read it twenty years ago and it still does today.
"The King in Yellow" is a more straigh forward frightener. A louche artist (and reader of The King in Yellow) living near Washington Square Park, sees a strange man working at a nearby church. Soon his dreams are invaded and things start to go terribly wrong. His relationship with his virginal model starts to go wrong and soon all sorts of unpleasantness occurs.
Chamber's invented book clearly points in the direction of Lovecraft's own tome, the Necronomicon and all the various invented volumes evil lore that followed. Only the barest hints of the contents of the The King in Yellow are given which of course lets the reader's imagination run wild. Just where is Lake Hali and what is the Pallid Mask? What is the Yellow Sign that the narrator is asked if he's fouind? This is a magniicent story that still disturbs more than a century after it was written.
Stealing a line from "Over at the Frankenstein Place" from Rocky Horror, "The River of Night's Dreaming" (first published in Whispers III, 1981), by Karl Edward Wagner, is an excursion into madness, again triggered by The King in Yellow. An escapee from a psychiatric hospital finds herself involved in dark, decadent doings in a old mansion in an abandoned and decaying town. Again, is it real or madness? I'm a big fan of Wagner's but I never particularly cared for this story. Rereading it in the context Price has created I liked it much more. The descent into despair or madness the protagonist suffers is well portrayed and quite unnerving.
While primarily a science-fiction writer (Cities in Flight, A Case of Conscience) and critic, James Blish, like so many others, was a youthful correspondent with the Old Gent from Providence on matters of horror. Part of a real letter he wrote to Lovecraft, asking if he ever intended to write a complete version of the Necronomicon, forms part of Blish story "More Light (first in Alchemy and Academe, 1970)." It posits that Chambers actually sat down and wrote out The King in Yellow and Lovecraft came into possession of it. A writer named William Atheling (Blish's own real-world pen name) has come into possession of it and he wants his friend to read it.
The contemporary portion of the story is good enough, but, sadly, by attempting what Chambers and Lovecraft never did, in creating large chunks of text for The King in Yellow, the story falls flat. It's neither chilling or disturbing. But I don't think that matters. I don't think it's possible for anyone, even a writer as talented as Blish, to create a play that's able to generate madness.
Arthur Machen's "The Novel of the Black Seal" (1895) seems to have introduced the idea of a race of semi-human beings who live under the earth and are the truth behind stories of the little people and changelings. Machen drew on Margaret Murray's silly theories of pastoral, goddess-worshipping humans who retreated into the the wild spaces of England. Price believes that Machen's story informed Lovecraft's own stories of strange creatures living and lurking behind the legends.
The story is a part of Machen's novel of interwoven tales, The Three Impostors. A young woman, destitute and on the verge of giving up, encounters an eminent scientist. He hires her as his children's governess thereby saving her from despair but also bringing her in to contact with the primal terrors lurking under England's green and pleasant hills. I love this one and it's borne up well after multiple rereadings.
Finally we come to Lovecraft's own "The Whisperer in Darkness (first in Weird Tales, 1931)." It's linked to Bierce's stories by the use of Hastur, though clearly he's no longer a shepherd's god. There are also mentions of the Yellow Sign, the Lake of Hali, and Dunsany's Bethmoora for good measure.
For those who haven't read it, well, you should. It's one of Lovecraft's big ones. While less subtle than I remembered, it still does a great job at creating a feeling of impending isolation and doom as the mysterious being hiding in the Vermont hills take action to prevent their discovery. The ending might seem cliched at this point but the first time I read it I was suitably creeped out.
A professor from Miskatonic University is caught up in a debate over whether strange bodies found in the wake of the Great Flood of 1927 are simply bloated animals or strange beings said to live on isolated hilltops. He is skeptical of any claims of boogie men hiding in the woods. Soon after his argument graces the pages of the newspapers he begins he is receiving letters, and later phonograph records, from a retired academic in Vermont that begin to make him change his mind.
Price makes a strong case, based on the general theme of a hidden race, as well as numerous little tips of the hat to Machen, that Lovecraft's story is "essentially a rewriting, a new version of Machen's."
Reading them back to back, I can see his point. Instead of human throwbacks hiding behinds stories of goblins, it's aether-riding aliens (winged, fungus-crab things from beyond our solar system if you must know) obscured by stories of the Yeti and strange figures moving above the Vermont treetops by night. This (and Robert Bloch's "Notebook Found in a Deserted House") made me more than a little uneasy during my first drive through the Vermont woods decades ago.
Robert Lupoff's "Documents in the Case of Elizabeth Akeley" (first in F&SF, 1982) is a sequel to Lovecraft's "Whisperer." It takes claims made by the antagonists in the earlier story seriously and spins out what might have happened next. It's an interesting spin on things but I found it dull. Dull to the point I had to keep forcing myself to pick the book back up and finish the story. Ultimately, it's pretty much a body-swap love-story mashup that I could've done without.
"The Mine on Yuggoth" is one of Ramsey Campbell's earliest stories, first seeing print in The Inhabitant of the Lake and Less Welcome Tenants (1964) which was published when he was still a teenager. It's not great, but it's not terrible either. There's a verve that I've rarely found in stories by those other pasticheurs, August Derleth and Lin Carter. More of a science-fantasy story than horror, there are still a few very good bits that make it more than worth the fifteen minutes or so it takes to read.
James Wade's "Planetfall on Yuggoth" (HPL, 1972) is about a space mission to Pluto. Lovecraft's fiction exists in the story but it soon becomes clear it was more than just storytelling. Then we discover Ramsey Campbell's stories are more than fiction as well. It's slight, a bit of a goof, and perfectly enjoyable.
Then we get smacked in the face by August Derleth's terrible "The Return of Hastur (Weird Tales, 1939)." It's one of his early Mythos stories and I can't say anything about it except it's awful. Price's introduction includes a letter from Clark Ashton Smith to Derleth advising him how to fix the story. Every bit of advice was rejected and the story suffers for it.
Aside from the whole elemental take on the Mythos he would become infamous stinking up the story, Derleth's characters are never believable. There's barely a moment of suspicion or incredulity about the spooky goings on. Within a few pages people are glibly talking about strange fish-men from Innsmouth and gods and demons. And none of it's scary, or fun, or even very interesting.
It feels like Derleth wanted to fit the disparate bits and pieces of Lovecraft's stories and make it all make sense. Price states that Lovecraft explicitly didn't want everything to make sense: "Lovecraft always explained to correspondents that he did not achieve perfect consistency in his various stories, say, in what each said about Cthulhu or the Necronomicon, for the very good reason that he wanted his shuddery allusions to these eldritch items to reflect the inconsistencies, duplications, and redundancies of actual ancient myth cycles, where, e.g., we find two of three origin tales for the same goddess or shrine."
Things pick up considerably with "The Feaster from Afar" by Joseph Payne Brennan. It was first published in the original Disciples of Cthulhu (1976) but rights issues meant it didn't make Chaosium's reprint. Price was able to snag it for the 2nd edition of The Hastur Cycle.
Again it's set in the "real" world, where Lovecraft exists and is a writer strange stories that turn out to be real. I don't love that conceit, never finding it to work very well. How did HPL write what he did without getting killed right away? Nobody except the narrator or some inbred yokel knows he was telling the truth? Nope, it just doesn't work for me.
On the other hand, the story itself is pretty alright. A successful writer of mid-list historical fiction makes the mistake of going to Lovecraft country to find some peace and quiet so he can work on his next novel. Try to guess what happens to him. Despite it's lack of an original plot, Brennan does a good job with it and the feeling of swiftly encroaching doom is well done.
The Hastur Cycle concludes with a series of poems by Lin Carter. Inspired by Bierce, Chambers, and James Blish's work in "More Light." They're a mess and Price says so as well. Carter was driven by the need to make all the pieces fit together and make sense even more than Derleth. As much as I'm looking forward to reading The Xothic Cycle, Carter's collected Mythos stories, these poems made me dread it a little bit as well.
Pt. III
There are better books in this series than The Hastur Cycle but not many that make Price's case as well as this one. Each step of the way you can see how each story sort of moves on to the next one: Lovecraft builds on Machen and on Chambers who built on Bierce. Wagner looks back to Chambers and Wade looks to Lovecraft and Campbell. The book makes as good a case as possible that the Cthlhu Mythos is something greater and more inclusive than just the stories of HPL.
From the forward:
"In the same way, it seems to me highly misleading to take Lovecraft's stories and myth-concepts as the definitive version and to view Chambers and the others as leading up to it, Derleth and the others as representing a declension from it. Each has its own integrity, its own priority. Lovecraft has his moment upon the stage, but then he is replaced by a new teller of a new version."
When this volume first came out, many of these stories were not familiar to me at all. "Repairer of Reputations" blew me away and still does. It's the same for "The Novel of the Black Seal." I don't totally agree with Price's thesis, but I know he comes back to it again in later volumes. As much as Lovecraft drew on earlier authors I think he was doing something entirely different than them. I also see too many of the later authors as too more concerned with mimicking HPL instead of trying to contribute to a larger, inclusive Mythos. Still, after finishing The Hastur Cycle I admit I'm looking forward to see if I can be swayed to Price's side.
The later, post-HPL stories are a decidedly mixed bag of tentacles and pincers. Several are very early examples of Mythos fiction. Sadly, Derleth's is a perfect example of the bad path taken by many other writers. Explain everything, don't bother to build any sort of atmosphere, then explain everything a second time. It's not good.
Still, if you want to see how this great blobby mass that is the Cthlhu Mythos was influenced and grew, this is a good place to start. The less well known stories were hard to come by in 1993. By pulling them together with several important (and great) ones Price did a great service for Mythos readers. Price's essays are major bits of Mythos scholarship, well worth reading. Definitely get the 2nd edition with "The Feaster from Afar" in it.
Next Time: The Xothic Cycle, The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter, edited by Robert M. Price.
Labels: August Derleth, Hastur, hpl, King in Yellow, Lin Carter, Lovecraft, Robert Chambers, Robert M. Price
It's been a while since I've mentioned new books bought. So here goes.
This was on sale and I wanted a digital version of Ramsey Campbell's "The Tugging." And there's a Charles Saunder's story in there to boot.
Reading a lot of hardboiled over the past month prompted me to finally get a copy of this.
I only recently learned of Kersh and the terrific title story. For $1.99 you can't go wrong.
This I borrowed for free from Amazon. I like the Christopher Lee movie based on it, and loved his first novel, A Scent of New-Mown Hay.
'Cause why not? Great so far.
This just popped up on radar last night. For $.99 how could I not buy it even without the gorgeous Josh Kirby covers.
Between this omnibus, the rest of the Thongor books, and the upcoming Xothic Cycle, it looks like I'm going to be having a very Lin Cartery New Year.
Finally, I should have the first Chaosium Mythos Fiction review up this week. The Hastur Cycle, despite some weak stories, has really rekindled hpl, my interest in Mythos stories. This site's gonna become very Cthulhuly for the next few months.
Posted by The Wasp at 1:52 PM 1 comment: Links to this post
Labels: hpl, john blackburn, Lin Carter, Lovecraft, mail bag, the getway, zanthodon
The deadly dream airport
FIFTY US ARCs!
Chaosium Mythos Fiction: Have You Seen the Yellow ...


Does the Library provide access to the Financial Times?
Yes. We have a print subscription to the Financial Times. Issues for the current week are on display in the Atrium in the Main Library, in the seating area opposite the cafe. Earlier issues are shelved at the end of the Journals sequence on Level 1.
You will be taken to the search screen. Enter your search terms and apply any filters (for example, dates) to your search.


text:
Q: Unable to play large mp4 video in JW player I am using JW player in one of my recent website. It has capability to play mp4 video and it is playing well all mp4 video which is around 16 - 17 mb, but when the size increase more than 30 mb it stop playing it and showing error message "Error loading media: File could not be played" in firefox. In chrome it is showing only black screen on video player. I have attached screen shot. If you have any clue please tell. I have searched their forum but haven't find any solution.
Thanks in advance

A: The url is https://berrytalented.com/talent/popup_video/42
For loggin to the site please use the following info:
username : emailme@ranasha.com
password : 123456
Can anyone please give us the solution

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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The payment methods accepted by tolltickets can be found at the following link: www.tolltickets.com. The information reproduced there is an integral part of these General Terms and Conditions.
In the case of an unjustified chargeback by the customer, tolltickets GmbH is entitled to charge all incurred costs to the customer. The charge back in the area of credit card payments are called chargebacks. Depending on the justification of the card-issuing bank (bank of the customer), the processing of a chargeback costs between 25-45 EUR. This also applies to the unjustified reversal of a submitted direct debit (return debit note). The applicable fees vary depending on the place of residence (home country) of the customer and can be up to 20 EUR per transaction. Likewise, we reserve the right to charge the applicable fees in the event of an uncovered credit card or unsecured bank account to the customer. In order to avoid additional costs, we recommend our customers to contact us in advance in case of complaints of any kind by e-mail: collection.fibu@tolltickets.com.
The payment obligation of Customer is due upon conclusion of contract. tolltickets reserves ownership of the delivered goods until full payment of the purchase price and the other receivables from the business relationship. In the case of late payment, debit collection failure, protested cheques or bills of exchange, the entire claim of tolltickets against the customer becomes immediately due for payment. Additionally tolltickets charges interests in the amount of 8 percentage points over the basic lending rate for the duration of default. This does not affect the assertion of further damages caused by default.
This does not deprive Customer of the right to evidence lower damages. tolltickets is entitled to demand adequate financial securities from Customer.
All invoices can be viewed and checked by the customer after being created at https://my.tolltickets.com/mytolltickets. An exception to this payment agreement is only possible between tolltickets and the customer and requires a prior written agreement.
The automatic settlement of all due invoices takes place immediately after the invoice has been created. The outstanding amounts are settled according to the payment method chosen by the customer on the website. If billing with the deposited means of payment is not possible and an error occurs, the customer will be notified separately via e-mail.
If the customer does not comply with the request to check or update the payment data in his customer portal, the process automatically goes into the dunning process. In the dunning process, all open transactions of the customer are immediately due.
The further non-payment of outstanding debts may result in a suspension of the toll device. Costs incurred for this lock must be borne by the customer and reimbursed to the toll tickets. The assumption of these costs, € 30.00 per box, does not exempt the customer from the obligation to return the toll product.
If all attempts of tolltickets to ask the customer for payment, remain unsuccessful and the customer there is no justifiable explanation of the customer, the tolltickets GmbH reserves the right to transfer the claim to an external collection agency.
tolltickets cooperates in the field of debt recovery with the Creditreform, which further enforces the claim against the customer. After a transfer to Creditreform, the payment, including the costs incurred, must be paid by the customer to Creditreform.
Please note that a transfer to the collection agency can have a negative impact on your credit rating.
The communication between tolltickets and the customer takes place in the dunning process by e-mail to the customer's e-mail address. The customer is basically required to keep his data up-to-date in his customer area.
The delivered goods, as also the received services and goods registered by means of electronic products, are considered as received when arriving at the Customer. Customer shall examine the tolltickets invoices immediately and must notify protests in writing with statement of all protested data in the invoice and the complete reasoning for his complaint; otherwise, any protest is excluded and the invoice balance is considered as approved, unless examining the invoice was impossible by no fault of Customer.
9.1 tolltickets assumes liability for material defects relative to the individual goods ordered from tolltickets, but not for material totalities, unless this is explicitly thus agreed with Customer.
9.2 Liability for material defects cannot be assumed for deficiencies caused because Customer uses the goods improperly or imposes an above average strain on them, or for parts subject to wear.
9.3 The statutory periods of limitation for warranty claims apply for defects of the ordered goods. A manufacturer guarantee does not impair the warranty claims.
9.4 Complaints due to quality and/or quantity of the goods/services must be notified to tolltickets at www.tolltickets.com/en/kontakt within two days following receipt of the goods/services, and within 24 hours following discovery of unrecognisable defects, with statement of the customer number, order number, name of the article concerned, as well as a description of the defect. Otherwise, the goods/services are considered as approved. The statutory provisions apply in case of a defect in the purchase item. These claims of Customer may not be assigned.
9.5 tolltickets is under no compulsion to deliver. tolltickets cannot be held liable for force majeure, non-delivery from suppliers, other unforeseen occurrences and for changes in the technology/processes of suppliers, toll operators and service partners rendering the delivery impossible or difficult.
9.6 tolltickets owes compensation for damages only in case of wilful conduct or gross negligence. This limitation of liability does not apply for damages of life and limp.
9.7 tolltickets is not liable for damages not suffered by the delivery item itself; tolltickets is especially not liable for lost profits or other economic loss suffered by Customer.
9.8 The regulations set out in this section reflect the full scope of liability of tolltickets, its management, employees and legal representatives. Further-reaching liability is excluded.
10.1 Orders are handled at tolltickets and service partners using automated data processing. Customer herewith grants his explicit approval to the processing of data becoming known to tolltickets within the context of contractual relationships and necessary for order settlement. Customer moreover agrees that data received by tolltickets from the business relationship with Customer may be also be used by tolltickets and processed to its service partners for business purposes in the meaning of the Federal Data Protection Act.
10.2 For the purpose of investigating the creditworthy of Customer, tolltickets reserves the right to procure Customer information to credit reporting agencies or credit insurance agencies and – restricted to cases of non-contractual settlement such as e.g. dunning notice for uncontested receivables, issued enforcement notice, compulsory enforcement measures – to report data to said agencies. Data is only communicated inasmuch as necessary to safeguard justified interests of tolltickets and if this does not impair protectable concerns of Customer. tolltickets will observe the relevant applicable provisions of data protection law.
10.3 tolltickets invoices in electronic form. The invoice is provided to Customer at https://my.tolltickets.com/mytolltickets for download, unless stated otherwise in the individual contractual agreement. Customer is will not separately informed when a new invoice is made available. If Customer demands special invoicing in form of paper invoices, tolltickets is entitled to charge an additional EUR 4.00 net for each paper invoice supplied.
10.4 Customer accepts the electronic form instead of paper invoices and acknowledges the electronic form as legally binding.
10.5 The invoice data are held available for retrieval up to 6 months after contract conclusion. Afterwards Customer has to request the specific invoice by sending a written request to tolltickets.
10.6 Customer has to enter a personal user ID, a password and an email address und which he is available as prerequisites to access its Customer data. Customer must keep his legitimisation data secret (especially user ID and password) in a secure place, and must change these data immediately or have them changed by tolltickets if Customer suspects that unauthorised third parties have gained knowledge thereof.
Customer is obliged to promptly notify tolltickets of changes of address and his legal relations. If customer fails to observe this obligation he has to hold harmless tolltickets of any damage caused therefrom.
The legal relationships between tolltickets and Customer and this General Conditions of Business shall be governed by the material laws of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German version of these General Conditions of Business. CISG (United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods) is explicitly excluded.
Customer is only entitled to setoff if his counterclaims are established with lawful finality or are accepted by tolltickets. Customer is not entitled to any right of retention.
Side agreements must be made in writing. This also applies for setting aside this written form requirement.
Customer will be informed in writing (email is sufficient) of changes to the tolltickets General Conditions of Business. If customer does not contradict within three days as of receipt of the change notification or by virtue of using the electronic toll products after having receipt the change notification, Customer acknowledges the new version of the General Conditions of Business.
Place of jurisdiction for all disputes from the business relationship – also after it has ended – is Traunstein (Germany), this also applies if Customer is a legal person under private or public law or is a public special fund.
If a provision of these General Conditions of Business is invalid, this shall not impair the validity of the other provisions.
1.1 tolltickets provides toll products to Customer for (electronic) toll collection.
1.2 The General Conditions of Business of tolltickets apply initially for all business relationships between tolltickets and Customer, supplemented and partially modified by the following Special Conditions.
The toll products remain the property of tolltickets or of the respective toll charger. The toll products must be kept and treated with due care by Customer and his vicarious agents and may not be sold. After validity expired, further use is prohibited, the business relationship ended or if the toll products become invalid or damaged, the toll products (and pertaining accessory materials) have to be returned to tolltickets immediately at the expense of Customer. Customer has no right of retention regarding the toll products.
3.1 Changes of registration plate number or vehicle and damages to toll products must be immediately reported to tolltickets at https://my.tolltickets.com/mytolltickets. If required Customer receives a replacement product in short time. Customer has to compensate tolltickets for a damaged toll product according to the pricelist.
3.2 Use of the toll products by persons other than Customer or his vicarious agents or for vehicles other than those registered is not permitted.
3.3 tolltickets may at any time demand the names and addresses of the persons to which Customer has given the toll products for use.
3.4 The unauthorised use of toll products can be prosecuted as fraud or as credit card misuse pursuant to respective national jurisdiction of the country the toll product is used for and is punishable by imprisonment or cash fine.
4.1 If a toll product is stolen, lost or is otherwise misplaced, this must be reported immediately to tolltickets with statement of the circumstances leading to the loss. In case of loss or theft, an affirmation in lieu of oath must be submitted within 14 days, which can be downloaded at https://my.tolltickets.com/mytolltickets. In case of theft, a police report (copy of the notification to the police) must also be submitted to tolltickets. Furthermore, a clearly legible copy of the personal ID card must also invariably be sent to tolltickets.
4.2 Customer has to compensate tolltickets for the lost, stolen, destroyed or incompletely returned toll product pursuant to the pricelist.
4.3 In case of loss, theft, destruction or accident, Customer is obligated to immediately submit a blocking request for the respective toll product at https://my.tolltickets.com/block. Customer is liable for all damages caused by misuse of the product until the blocking is activated.
4.4 Customer is liable for damage or misuse of the toll product, unless he and the entitled user have taken all reasonable precautions against use in breach of contract or against product misuse and whereby the onus of proof is on Customer. Customer is deemed to have not taken all precautions that can be reasonably expected of him if the misuse of the toll product was eased or rendered possible by him, if the toll product was not kept carefully, if the theft or loss notification was not forwarded to tolltickets immediately after discovery or if the toll product was given to third parties or subcontractors without proper authorisation.
Customer is liable for breaches of duties of care by persons to whom he has given the toll product.
At the instruction of tolltickets, electronic toll products must be packed in special mailing bags for shipment. When the product is delivered, these mailing bags must be kept and reused for returning the product. A new mailing bag must be purchased from tolltickets if the original mailing bag is damaged or no longer available.
A toll product reported as misplaced may no longer be used after it is found again. By sending back the toll product, the fee for losing the toll product may be partly refunded against return of the toll product to tolltickets. If the fee is refunded depends on the individual case.
tolltickets may at any time demand that a financial security is provided for all claims from the business relationship and which adequately secures its risk, especially in view of the number of toll products provided, the monthly toll turnovers per toll product and the sector in which Customer operates, the procured credit standing information about Customer and other risk assessment indicators.
c) the economic circumstances of Customer change or threaten to change for the worse, especially if the information procured about Customer worsen significantly or if other risks have increased according to the underlying risk assessment indicators.
5.3 tolltickets shall allow Customer an appropriate period of time (regularly 14 days) to subsequently provide or increase the financial security. tolltickets is entitled to exercise its right to termination without further notice if Customer fails to fulfil his obligation to provide or increase the financial security within the aforementioned period of time.
5.4 Financial security in the form of cash security must invariably be provided in advance and are not interest-bearing.
5.5 Unless agreed otherwise, separate financial securities must be provided for each toll product provided.
5.6 Customer has to timely extent financial securities through credit card authorisation pursuant to the tolltickets pricelist at regular intervals at https://my.tolltickets.com/mytolltickets. If the toll product is neither given back, nor the term extended nor a new credit card deposited before the time periods stated in the pricelist expire, then tolltickets shall collect the financial security for itself and the toll product is blocked.
5.7 The actual receipt of the toll product by tolltickets is decisive for the return.
5.8 In cases of payment irregularities, debit collection protests, recharges or credit card chargebacks, tolltickets is entitled to the financial security in full and block the toll product.
If a credit balance from the financial security remains after all toll transactions by the toll operators and services have been settled, this is refunded to the Customer within the third month after the toll product is returned.
5.9 A service charge pursuant to pricelist is levied for collecting the financial security provided through credit card.
Instead of cash securities and credit card authorisations, tolltickets may also choose to accept unconditional, absolute guaranties unlimited in time issued by banks and in which the guarantor waives release by way of deposit and obligates himself to pay on first demand.
6.1 Remunerations dependent and independent of usage are levied gradually in the form of instalments on account depending on the actual toll volume, accounting cycles of the toll operators and the service charges incurred.
6.2 Levied remunerations are due immediately.
6.3 Customer authorises tolltickets to collect all remunerations due within the scope of the contract relationship via the means of payment stated for the respective product.
6.4 In case of participation in the SEPA direct debiting process, the due date of payment (day of debiting and amount) is communicated to the customer by pre-notification in the form of the bill issued, at the latest, three days before due date, using the most low-cost method (by email).
tolltickets prepares an electronic invoice for all its deliveries and payments, respective of Customer's instalment payments on account – depending on product, term and turnover – quarter yearly, yearly or at the latest after the toll product is returned and all open items are accounted. The invoice is considered as delivered as soon as it is made available to Customer for download at https://my.tolltickets.com/mytolltickets.
Independent of the currency in which the delivery note/debit voucher is issued or – especially in non-voucher use – the currency in which the delivery or service is offered and used, tolltickets accounts the receivables given from this in the currency of the country in which the service is performed (toll context), unless another currency is agreed for settling the invoice. The VAT rate of the toll context in effect on the respective transaction day is applied and displayed in the invoice. All prices are based on the Euro currency. If offers or contract offers of tolltickets display another currency than Euro, additionally the respective daily exchange rate in Euro will be shown. If the effective exchange rate at the time of delivery of the toll product differs more than 5 % from the exchange rate of the day of the Customer's order, tolltickets reserves the right to adapt the foreign currency price according to the change in the exchange rate. If the order just displays Euro currency the displayed prices are fix prices.
8.1 tolltickets may – also without stating reasons – prohibit at any time with appropriate notice Customer from using the toll products, block the toll products at the service partners and/or end the business relation with Customer (termination).
i) Customer contradicts a contract transfer.
8.3 Customer has to return the toll products to tolltickets immediately following a prohibition of use and/or ending of the business relationship and/or blocking.
9.1 Unless stated otherwise in the respective offer, the contract prolongs automatically by a term extension of Customer at https://my.tolltickets.com/mytolltickets pursuant to pricelist.
9.2 The contractual relationship can be terminated at any time in observance of the initial minimum contract term according to pricelist by sending back the product.
9.3 Actual receipt of the toll product by tolltickets is decisive for the moment of termination.
9.4 tolltickets is entitled to collect incurred and not yet accounted toll transactions and service charges via the stated means of payment for up to 6 months following termination or return of the toll product.
9.5 Provided financial guarantees will first be released after all toll transactions by the toll operators and service charges have been accounted, but at the latest three month after the toll product is returned.
Customer is aware that the toll products provided have been used before and may therefore show traces of wear.
11.1 tolltickets is entitled to transfer the contract between tolltickets and Customer to a service partner.
11.2 Customer will be informed in writing of changes in the contractual relationship. The Customer is deemed to be agreed to the change if he does not object in writing to the change within two weeks after it is notified. By virtue of using the toll product after receiving notification of the change, Customer directly acknowledges the new version of the contractual relationship. tolltickets will indicate this in the change notifications.
11.3 All provided collateral (cash securities, sureties and guaranties) transfer to the new contract partner.
Our toll products are additionally subject to the respective terms and conditions of business of the toll operators and which can be found at the respective Internet websites. A manual with the title "General operating instructions toll boxes" ruling and explaining the usage of the toll products in general and a special instruction of usage for the specific toll product provided accompany every delivery from tolltickets to Customer. Customer is obliged to follow and observe the instructions laid down in the manual and the special instructions and the toll products accordingly.