1、Haitis First Lady Champions Social CausesNovember 10, 2011 Sophia Martelly, the wife of Haitis new president, Michel Martelly, is juggling the care of four children and a change of lifestyle from when she was simply the wife of a popular musician, her husbands previous job. She has many passions and
2、 many things she says she wants to accomplish in the next four and a half years of her husbands presidency.Sophia Martelly is nervous. Its her first TV interview since becoming Haitis first lady. And what a transition its been.Her husband, Michel Martelly, is now president of Haiti. She jokes how he
3、 suddenly needed more than one suit and a single pair of dress shoes.Thats because Michel Martelly previously dressed a lot more casually as can be seen on YouTube videos featuring music star “Sweet Micky“. Theres also plenty of Internet evidence about “Sweet Mickys“ wild side.Sophia Martelly says i
4、t was just a performance.“My husband Michel is very conservative,“ she insists. “A lot of people find it very hard to believe that somebody so outspoken, so controversial on stage could be so conservative. But he has been a very conservative husband and father for the past 25 years that Ive been wit
5、h him.“Martelly and his family show up a lot on YouTube. Oldest child, Olivier, even produces music videos.Mrs. Martelly says life changed for them after Haitis presidential election in May.“Its different. They have more security. They cannot do anything in private. That part is a little frustrating
6、 to them,“ she admits. “But they do enjoy the advantages of being the presidents child.“Mrs. Martelly predicts no return to her husbands rock star life.“Hes giving himself totally to making a difference in peoples lives,“ she says. “I understand that the music, he had also given 100 percent himself.
7、 But I think theres more satisfaction in the results he can get by doing good for the people.”The first lady says she plans to dedicate her own good to Haitis elderly.“Here, they are really neglected. I think it would be good to have shelters for the elderly. To provide them with healthcare,“ she ex
8、plains.Also on her list, malnutrition. The United Nations says it is the number one cause of death in Haitian children under five years old.Sophia Martelly says for the past 18 years shes championed social causes. She says that part of her life will continue now - just on a much larger scale.Europe
9、Struggles to Restore Confidence in Troubled EconomiesNovember 10, 2011 Greece named a new prime minister Thursday, and Italy is planning to do the same fairly soon, as European leaders move to regain the confidence of financial markets and to ensure that the regions economic crisis does not get any
10、worse.Greece chose economist Lucas Papademos to head its interim government, with the goal of getting the tough conditions of the European financial rescue package approved.Italys embattled Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is also expected to give way to an interim government, perhaps also to be led
11、 by an economist.The goal is to restore confidence in the two troubled economies and their leadership, and to stabilize financial markets, in the hope of avoiding the kind of dire consequences highlighted by headline writers in recent days.But Economist Ben May at Londons Capital Economics analysis
12、firm says it is not all about image and confidence. He says Italys debt is so high that even as the worlds eighth-largest economy it will not be able to pay all of it back, with huge regional and global repercussions.“Clearly what has happened now is fears about Italy are growing and certainly we th
13、ink there is a real chance it might have to default to get its debts down to a sustainable level,“ said May.Italian-born political economist Leila Simona Talani of Londons Kings College says such concerns are unwarranted.“I do not think it is unsustainable,“ said Talani. “I know that non-Italians ha
14、ve the feeling that it is not possible to handle such a huge debt. It is a huge debt. Italians know, however, that this debt is financed by Italians, and is very likely to keep on being financed, even in a higher percentage than before, by Italians.”But the European Union is imposing tough condition
15、s on continued financing of the troubled economies, and insisting on tighter monitoring.Already, austerity plans are causing social unrest, particularly in Greece.Even in Britain there have been demonstrations, including one this week by students protesting higher tuition fees caused by government s
16、pending cuts designed to avoid an Italian or Greek scenario.Some experts are concerned about an austerity-based approach that could lead to many years of recession in some countries, and have begun to call for targeted spending to stimulate growth.“You lost competitiveness,“ said Talani. “You lost p
17、roductivity. So you have to invest in these.”And that is a tough thing for European leaders to contemplate as they focus on reducing debt and convincing banks and investors that, with help, troubled countries can live within their means.Massive Gas Fields Discovered Off MozambiqueNovember 10, 2011 I
18、nternational energy companies say they have discovered potentially massive natural gas fields off the coast of Mozambique.The Italian energy firm ENI last month announced two major finds in the Mamba South gas fields off Mozambiques northeastern coast. The company said the field, located 45 kilomete
19、rs off Cabo Delgado province, could yield more than 22 trillion cubic feet of natural gas.The announcement follows that of the American oil company Anadarko, which said its gas fields in the same area could yield up to 10 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. And, Britains Cove Energy PLC estimates it
20、 exploration field in the same area could eventually yield 40 trillion cubic feet of gas.Gas flows are expected to come on line between 2014 and 2016.“It is big,“ noted Tony Twine is director and senior economist at Econometrix, South Africas largest independent macro-economic consultant firm. “It w
21、ould provide about $150 billion at 2010 gas prices, it really is a significant find. Incidentally, $150 billion is equivalent to ten full years of Mozambique gross domestic product. So relative to their other sources of income, this is massive.“Twine says the fields are huge by any standards and pro
22、mise an enormous financial windfall for the country.Mozambique is one of the worlds poorest countries, having emerged from a 15-year civil war in 1992 with its infrastructure devastated and its economy shattered. The country has made many gains since then and continues to be one of the continents fa
23、stest growing economies. Even so, economists note this growth comes off a very small base, and that most Mozambicans still live on less than $1.25 a day.Arsenio Mabote, the chief executive officer of Mozambiques National Petroleum Institute (INP) says the financial benefits from the gas must be used
24、 to develop the countrys economy and its citizens.“As I told you employment is very important to us, improvement of different infrastructure is very important for us, build up capacity,“ Mabote said. “Training of Mozambican employees is part of the package that we would like to see so that by exploi
25、ting natural resources like natural gas, will benefit the country.“And, Mabote sees benefits too for Cabo Delgado province where there have been almost no infrastructure improvements since the end of the civil war, two decades ago.“It will enable us also to improve our basic infrastructure,“ Mabote
26、added. “As a matter of fact, if you look at Pemba where the gas discoveries are being made, you have no adequate infrastructure there, by implementing these kind of projects will definitely increase the infrastructure situation, improve the infrastructure situation.“Mobote says the country will also
27、 be looking to added-value projects to ensure even greater income and build capacity in Mozambique.“Implementation of projects that add value to the gas in Mozambique - such as liquefied natural gas, ammonia projects, fertilizers, methanol projects, power generation projects - those projects will ha
28、ve a lot of importance because they will possible build up capacity in the country, train a lot of technicians as well and high-level technical people to work for those projects,“ Mobote explained.Economist Twine says that these are the dream projects that promise unbelievably high macro-economic ga
29、ins. But he says, even without the dream projects, Mozambique stands to gain well beyond the simple cash flow generate by exploiting the gas fields from royalties, mining rights, taxes on profits and personal incomes generated both upstream and downstream from the actual gas extraction.“So the event
30、ual Mozambican fiscal take, at a rough guess would probably be around about 30 percent of the total value added, which I guess would be in the region of $100 billion for the life of the project,“ Twine noted. “So about 35 billion, which is 3 1/2 years worth of Mozambican GDP, just popping up as dire
31、ct revenue to the Mozambican government.“Twine says the benefits of such large gas fields will also flow to other countries in the region, such as Zimbabwe, Malawi and especially for South Africa, Mozambiques largest trading partner.“And a rule of thumb applied by economists in South Africa is that
32、for every dollar that is spent on Mozambique, wherever the dollar comes from, it doesnt matter for every dollar, 60 cents of that dollar in turn is spent on goods and services emanating from South Africa. So even for its large economy neighbor South Africa, it would be very, very big,“ Twine added.L
33、arge energy projects around the globe are often accompanied by corruption, where the cash flows often do not reach the national treasury. Twine notes that in Angola, between 80 and 90 percent of oil revenues go missing. But he says that in existing onshore gas projects in Mozambique the picture is very different and that revenues appear to go where they should. He says this is encouraging for the potentially massive revenue windfall anticipated in Mozambique.
