Today the Plateau State Contributory Health Care Management Agency PLASCHEMA paid an advocacy/sensitization visit to the University community.

THREAD!

Vice Chancellor, Prof. Yohana Daniel Izam led management staff, principal officers and other staff of the University to receive the PLASCHEMA team in the 600 capacity University Auditorium

The VC told the gathering that the health of every member of the university community is of paramount importance to him. He therefore welcomed the idea of a Health Insurance scheme advocated by the agency

Director general of the Plateau State Contributory Health Care Management Agency, Dr Fabong Jemchang highlighted the benefits of health insurance to members of the University community saying it will end the out-of-pocket expenditure on HealthCare.

He said the Plateau state Contributory Health Care Management Agency is poised to strengthen health financing by pooling resources and through strategic purchasing mitigating high out-of-pocket expenditure

THREAD #Serbian #Orthodox #Church bishops start Conclave (#Sabor-Holy Assembly in #SPC parlance) to elect new #Patriarch, 3 months after previous died of #Covid. Election much more about politics than religion, mainly #Serbia #Kosovo relations but also #Russia Orthodox Church /2

2/ vs. #Ecumenical Patriarch of #Constantinople. Most of numerous traditional cleavages within SPC (Young Lions vs. Old Guards); Serbians vs. TransDrinians; ecumenicals vs. hardline Orthodox etc. will be irrelevant with only the split between Russian vs. Greek students, roughly/3

3/corresponding with main division: support for whatever "solution" President Vucic might propose to satisfy int'l demand to at least de facto recognize Kosovo vs. stubborn refusal to accept anything not in line with current Serbian constitution that says #KosovoJeSrbija. /4

4/Due to 3 decades of heavy politicking under 1 weak Patriarch (Pavle) & his insipid successor (Irinej), those who’d otherwise be God-obeying “good guys” are staunchly in Kosovo Status Quo camp, refusing any deal. Those bishops who were in bed with politicians & secret services/5

5/ now support “accommodation” with Kosovo. Voting system is peculiar: Conclave picks 3 eligible bishops (each needs to obtain simple majority of votes i.e. 23); names of top 3 are sealed & 1 is drawn. System was designed in Communist times to prevent manipulation. Both sides /6

HMIC Alh. Lai Mohammed addresses a Press Conference on plans to return to Lagos - Lekki Toll Gate under the guise of #EndSARS protest.

PERPETRATION OF VIOLENCE UNDER THE GUISE OF #ENDSARS: NEVER AGAIN - FG

Being the text of the press conference addressed by the Honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, in Abuja on Thursday, 11 Feb. 2021

Good morning gentlemen and thank you for honouring our invitation once again.

2.   As you may be aware, some EndSars proponents have given notice of their plan to return to Lagos - Lekki Toll Gate to be specific – on Saturday, February 13th 2021.

The ''Occupy Lekki Toll Gate'' flyers have been circulating online, with the proponents threatening that ''Lagos will burn'' again.

3.   Let me be clear: While peaceful protests are the constitutional rights of Nigerians, violent protests are not. At this time, the chances that any peaceful protest will be hijacked are very high.

Today Vice President @ProfOsinbajo presided over a meeting of the National Economic Council (NEC), to critically review the security situation in the country. Council recommitted to the following principles:

#NECBrief
#AsoVillaToday
#Thread

The Council recommitted to the following principles:

1. The protection of all residents of all States, including non-indigenous communities and religious and ethnic minorities within State jurisdictions;

2. The arrest and prosecution of all perpetrators of crime;

3. In collaboration with federal authorities, the reconstruction of destroyed homes and payment of compensation where appropriate by State authorities for damage to property and livelihoods sustained during targeted attacks on communities within their jurisdictions;

4. Ensuring that deceased victims of such violence are duly accorded dignified burial rites;

5. The immediate public and unequivocal condemnation of all manifestations of hatred, targeted violence, and other hate crimes against ethnic, religious, and minority groups;

6. Ensuring that local security initiatives—whether State Govt law enforcement agencies/local vigilante groups/ @PoliceNG Community Policing programme—are inclusive & composed with due consideration given to adequate representation of non-indigenous/minority resident communities;

1/Alright, let's talk about Southeast Asia! One of the most interesting stories in the world that tons of people are

2/When most people think about economic development, they think of China. But Southeast Asia is coming up!

Already Singapore is super-rich, Malaysia is on the cusp of being a developed country, and Thailand isn't too far behind!

3/But the really encouraging sign is how nearly every poor country in the region is now growing steadily and exponentially.

The star performer, of course, is Vietnam, where incomes have almost quintupled since 1990.

4/And watch out, here come Indonesia and the Philippines!

5/And you know what? It's not technically in Southeast Asia, but it's really close, and its economic situation looks very similar, so let's include Bangladesh!

A lot has been written about what Mario Draghi's arrival in Italy means for Italy. But little has been said about what he could mean for Europe. I think Draghi could be a game changer for EU; he could even turn its toxic North-South dynamic on its head. Thread 1/

Why? The @EU_Commission is currently reviewing (quietly) member states reform plans. These are basis upon which EU capitals hope to begin receiving their allocation, in transfers & loans, from the €750 billion Recovery Fund, starting later this year 2/

Remember the numbers are unprecedented. Italy is eligible for ~€188bn (roughly €65.5bn in grants; €123bn in loans). Spain a €144bn, roughly €59bn in grants & €85bn in loans etc etc. The amounts for all member states are unprecedented 3/

Yet despite this, & fact Fr & Ger pushed hard for this deal, officials in Bxl are scathing about proposals advanced by.. Paris & Berlin. I oversimplify: but basically, Macron is distracted by Covid; Merkel, elections in Sept. Sweeping reforms are the last thing on their minds 4/

This puts Commission in its usual bind. If Bxl doesn’t raise the reform bar with Chancellery & @Elysee, it will have no credibility to push southern Europe to do same. But it also can’t impose reforms on countries that aren’t willing to do them, especially not the big 2 5/

NEW:
BBC has seen the official internal management data for the new post Brexit freight border - roll on roll off lorry outbound flows to EU now at 98% of last February - though was 73% in January... officials say “back to normal”...

That is reference to lorry flow rates - which is what Cabinet Office key committees most concerned about post Brexit in terms of knock on social impact for supplies of everything. Government now confident its “reasonable worst case scenario” of 7k lorries in kent won’t happen...

That is not same as saying trade has normalised - drawing on multiple sources - ferry manifests, Kent checks, french official data - the level of empty lorries on the short straits is around 50%, and was normally around 30%... ...

traffic here was 67% normal in Jan - 82% in feb

Combining those and you get to around 2000 fewer laden export trucks a day in January, still notable fall now. Officials say much was displaced into last year by stockpilers. On other hand French transport sources suggest the higher value Tunnel export empties more like 50-60%

Officials have been tracking the commodity codes on the ferry manifests and have distinguished between freight flows hit so far in 2021 by general COVID downturn - eg clothing and apparel, and post Brexit transition - agriculture, food and groupage

Israel and Russia held intensive contacts in last few days over humanitarian issues related to Syria. Via ⁦@WallaNews⁩

2-Over last two days, talks between Netayahu and Putin, Israeli DM Gantz and Russian DM, Israeli FM Ashkenazi and Russian FM Sergey Lavrov. Israeli DM team says Gantz spoke to counterpart about "advancing humanitarian issues in the area."

3-Israel and Russia held intensive talks on Syria in last few days

4-Last Wednesday, on day of call between Gantz and Russian DM, Israeli ambassador to Russia Alex Ben Tzvi met w/Russian FM, Putin's Syria envoy Mikhail Bogdanov. IDF attache in Moscow attended. Russian MoD confirmed meeting in statement. Bogdanov and Ben Tzvi met again today

5-Meanwhile, Israeli cabinet convened today at 6:00 PM Israel time. Senior officials called meeting "urgent" to deal w/issue defined as "security-related and classified."

We're kicking off the Irish National Integration Conference this morning, with the first of 9 migrant-led discussions on Irish identity & integration, beginning with: INTEGRATION - LEARNING FROM THE PAST, LOOKING TOWARD THE FUTURE.

#INIC2021

@BriKi

CEO of @immigrationIRL @BriKi, kicking things off with his call to 'truly see the true diversity of Ireland 100 years on'.

Chair of the @immigrationIRL Board, Dr Roja Fazaeli, now delivering opening remarks for the conference, acknowledging the huge contribution of immigrant communities to essential services in Ireland through the Covid-19 pandemic. 🙌

Roja - Institutions such as direct provision continue to disfigure Ireland as an inclusive place to live... Ireland still has a long way to go until we're a fully inclusive society. We want to build a country where no one is left behind.

We're delighted to welcome Minister @joefingalgreen now to deliver the key note address for our opening session. Minister O'Brien was a past team member of the @immigrationIRL, and is now Minister of State with special responsibility for Community Development and Charities.

Why should we be careful when talking about a “jobs bounce-back” in South Africa? - A THREAD.

You don’t get better labour market economists in South Africa than the @NIDS_CRAM team, but the main finding of an “employment bounce-back” seems counterintuitive. What’s going on? 1/n

NIDS-CRAM does NOT show a rebound to pre-COVID employment levels. They report 700,000 job lost between Feb and Oct 2020, this is massive = 3.85% fall (broad definition). The authors of the employment paper say this could be as high as 5.3% or 960,000 jobs.

The authors @joshbudlender @ihsaanbassier (+ Rocco) also show that Oct employment is normally higher than Feb employment, super roughly Oct is plausibly around 102% of Feb. This means it’s plausible 360,000 jobs would have been gained between Feb-Oct *anyway*.

This would mean - within the study parameters - it’s possible COVID has caused up to (an outer outer limit) of 1.32 million job losses when comparing Oct 2020 with what we would have expected it to be in normal times. This is a total disaster in the context of the SA economy.

This is roughly what we should expect from the StatsSA QLFS. This showed 2.2 million jobs lost in first half of 2020, and 543,000 regained in Q3, meaning a loss of just under 1.7 million jobs in first 9 months. We’d definitely expect some more jobs regained in Oct-Dec.

As witch-hunt #3 gets underway by @BeatriceJanzon
@sverigesradio @sr_ekot against me, Keith Begg, a citizen of Ireland and Sweden and no doubt some members of the FB Group I would like to post some questions to the above:
🆘Is it ethical, that the tactics and antics of a state

media station, paid for with taxpayers money, can infiltrate a Private FB group and try to discredit them? This is done in the most authoritarian of states.
🆘Is it ethical that the Honorable David Nabarro from @WHO had to issue a press release due to being deliberately

misquoting in Swedish media?
🆘Are these headlines reflective of what you would see in free media in a democracy, when the rest of the world was posting quite opposite headlines about Sweden?
🆘Does the deliberate distortion of information on Swedish TV constitute any

breaches of trust? Why was it done? After all when the government changed its C19 strategy on the Gov website, they deemed it a mistake?
🆘Not to mind the Italian embassy having to issue three statements over false claims by Tegnell

which were picked up by the media. Do I as a private citizen think that @RSF_en made a big mistake by recognizing Sweden as #4 in terms of Freedom of the Press? ABSOLUTELY. We want to know what they based their decisions on. Because it is clear to many

This thread was inspired by @PrinceGanaku. He made a legal argument pushing back against the legalization of homophobia, which some like @konkrumah have happily advocated.

I come from an academic background in social and political philosophy. I wanna make a moral argument 1/x.

Homosexuality is better defined as sexual attraction in homogeneity. The claims made against this phenomenon have been drawn anywhere from biological science to majoritarianism in democracy. I would like to pick and tackle three of these: science, religion and majoritarianism

The search for what makes one gay, sensationally-named the Gay Gene, has dominated the scientific discourse on the matter. Science is reductionist materialism

The attraction btwn man and woman is thought to have been reduced to a material cause in our being so what about gays?

But have we really reduced heterosexual attraction to its material cause in our biology? The best answer is no.

I would encourage anyone to seek this: "what is the cause of heterosexual attraction" and I would confidently tell you that the science is inconclusive

We don't know

We have no idea WHY usually, those we call male are attracted in sexual biological and neurological terms to those we call female.

We know HOW it happens. That is to say we can explain observable phenomena like hormones and receptors moving but we don't know WHY men like women.

1. Since many people seem to get the different strains of reaction in Taiwan mixed up, I thought I'd make a thread clearing things up. One thing that both supporters and detractors of China have in common is when they speak on Taiwan, they tend to get many facts wrong.

2. One of the things I've seen pro-China people do is mixing up the positions of the old-school KMT (think Chiang Kai-shek) with the current separatists. Little do they know that until the 1980s, separatism was illegal.

3. They'll say things like "haha, Taiwan thinks it's the REAL China." This is not entirely accurate for many reasons. For one, nobody seriously claims that the "Republic of China" is the sole legitimate government of all of China anymore.

4. Secondly, per the "ROC" constitution itself, Taiwan is but a province of the "ROC." The "ROC" and Taiwan are not one and the same, though there are certainly overlaps. Hardline separatists want to abolish the "ROC" and establish a "Republic of Taiwan."

5. Meanwhile, the DPP, though branding itself as the pro-independence party, is in reality a status-quo party (like the KMT is today). What it does nowadays is blur the line between the "ROC" and Taiwan, and say that Taiwan is already an independent country called the "ROC."

💥🇸🇪The Sweden “Problem” SOLVED!🇸🇪💥

Or, how does a biased world rid itself of the best example of a non-lockdown control for its horrible lockdown experiment?

Simple! CHANGE THE DATA.

Of course we all know Sweden has been a battleground regarding its mild voluntary lockdown strategy versus the heavy lockdowns of most of the EU. Inconvenient graphs like this one are quite a thorn in Team Lockdown’s side. Sweden fewer deaths/M, much better quality of life.

When I did some analysis in the Spring and Fall, I looked at Oxford’s stringency index as a proxy for lockdown severity. And sure enough Sweden was significantly lower stringency than all other EU countries.

Here is a plot tracking stringency for the UK, Finland Norway and Sweden. I added Norway and Finland because Team Lockdown loves to reply to Sweden threads with “but Norway but Finland”! When I plotted this in October we see Sweden’s Spring stringency was comparatively low.

But then I just happened to plot this again yesterday. What the heck? Sweden is no longer a mild-response country! It is only slightly less stringent than the UK! And the “but Norway Finland” argument is now moot! Look how much less stringent they’ve been!

14 January 2020 #MAGAanalysis #Overturn

A Man Isolated, Does He Have The Power?

It's Thursday morning and we're not in a globalized war with China, far as I can tell. I was happy to give Simon, Charlie, and Danielle their time from Tuesday to Wednesday. Where to now?

Daily Bookmarks to GAVNet 01/15/2021

We were pulled over by Nigerian police the last time I was in Naija and this man saw a weapon certification in my wallet and was shocked. The weapon certification had a list of weapons I was qualified to shoot. He yelled "you fit shoot this thing?" I said "yes nau".. he-

Yelled "so if I give you this my gun, you fit shoot am well". I said "boya you should give me and let us see? 🤷🏾‍♂️" He said "who qualify you?". I said "This thing clearly says "Missouri State. Na yankee nah! I mean USA". He yelled "Sergeant Ojo! Sergeant blah blah come o!"

He looked at the uber driver "you come down! And come here! Sergeant! Search the car and search it well. Na huge case dey here! This man fit get guns inside the car! Search it well!" 🤣🤣🤣 I was just laughing! I was like "Mr Police, why you dey harrasss me?"

They all started to cock their guns anyhow "praaaa move! Kini kan! Stay there! Don't move! If you moveeee?!" I was just laughing" They started telling the bystanders to not move! People were putting hands on their heads like we had done something wrong.

The uber driver started crying "I said guy calm down, no dey give this people chance." They searched o! And found nothing as expected. The boss asked where I lived, and I explained I just came back from the US. I presented my passport and boarding passes to him to back it up.