Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – President Barack Obama on Friday launched an effort to trim extra fat from governmental machinery with a first list of agencies under the Department of Commerce.

Urging Congress to reinstate “fast track authority,” of the president, Obama said, “We live in a 21st-century economy, but we’ve still got a government organized for the 20th century.”

Addressing an audience of invited business community, Obama blamed the tug of war between the White House and Congress for the failure of successive administrations to limit the ballooning government workforce, saying, “Too often past attempts to streamline government got caught up in beltway politics and power struggles that prevented meaningful consolidation.”

Noting that, “new agencies were added without taking any away,” President Obama said, “Almost every President from Herbert Hoover to Ronald Reagan had reorganization authority.”

Obama was referring to a reorganization authority to President Herbert Hoover, handed during the Great Depression but later Congress took away that authority during the presidency of Ronald Reagan.

“Congress needs to reinstate the authority it has given to Democratic and Republican presidents for decades,” said President Obama.

Giving as one his favorite examples of inefficient government apparatus, Obama said, “The Interior Department is in charge of salmon in fresh water, but the Commerce Department handles them in saltwater,” adding, “No business or non-profit leader would allow this kind of duplication or unnecessary complexity in their operations.”

Launching his first plan, Obama proposed combining six agencies from the Commerce Department, the Small Business Administration, United States Trade Representative, the Export-Import Bank, the Overseas Private Investment Corporation and the Trade and Development Authority.

“Over half of the Commerce Department’s budget is actually NOAA, so NOAA would move to the Interior Department,” said Jeff Zients, the Deputy Director for Management at the Office of Management and Budget.

Addressing journalists at the White House briefing room, Zients, who is also the President’s chief performance officer, the first ever chief performance officer, said the proposal would club together, “the core business and trade business components of the Department of Commerce — along with SBA — the Small Business Administration — USTR, Ex-Im, OPIC and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency. All six of those consolidated and integrated into one.”

“We’d have one department where entrepreneurs can go from the day they come up with an idea and need a patent, to the day they start building a product and need financing for a warehouse, to the day they’re ready to export and need help breaking into new markets overseas,” Obama said.

Moreover, President Obama elevated the Small Business Administration to Cabinet-level status saying, “I’m elevating the Small Business Administration to a cabinet-level agency. Karen Mills, who’s been doing a terrific job leading that agency, will make sure that small business owners have their own seat at the table in my Cabinet meetings.”

With a history of strained relations with Republican-led House of Representatives, President Obama said, “With or without Congress, I’m going to keep at it. I’m hopeful it’s with Congress because this is an area where we can receive bipartisan support, because making our government more responsive, strategic and leaner should not be a partisan issue.” 

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Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Berlin, Germany (AHN) – Signs of an economic contraction in Germany’s economy raised fears of a recession in Europe.

The news escalated concern that demand for oil might fall, causing oil futures prices to drop by as much as 1.1 percent. In addition, the euro weakened against the dollar.

Germany has long served as the engine for economic growth for the entire European Union. Therefore, news that the German economy likely shrank by 0.25 percent during the last three months of 2011 caused alarm and has observers worrying the European Union might slide back into a recession.

Official figures from the Federal Statistics Office show that the German economy only grew by 3 percent during 2011 and that was only achieved because of strong growth during the first half of the year.

Moreover, the Statistics Office said that most of the growth during the first six months was driven by domestic demand. The Statistics Office based the annual figure on an estimate of fourth quarter growth. However, the government won’t post the official data for the last quarter until Feb. 15.

In the meantime, Norbert Raeth from the Statistics Office announced at a press conference Wednesday that the economy likely shrank by “around a quarter of a percentage point” in the fourth quarter.

Although the 3 percent growth rate was down from the 3.7 percent in 2010, Germany still had a stronger figure than the United States or the EU.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), among its member nations Germany showed better growth than the expected growth rate of the following nations:

• U.S. 1.7 percent
• France 1.6 percent
• United Kingdom 0.9 percent
• Italy and Spain 0.7 percent

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Jerusalem, Israel (IRIN) – Following a heated public debate, the Israeli cabinet passed on 9 January a tough new law intended to deter the entry of what the government calls “illegal migrants” or “infiltrators.”

The “Law to Prevent Infiltration” allows for the detention for up to three years – without trial – of anyone who crosses the border without a permit, including families and minors. Anyone convicted of helping them once they enter, including aid workers, can be jailed for up to 15 years, according to the new law.

“Its entire purpose is to deter refugees from entering Israel,” the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI) said in a statement, which describes the law as “draconian and immoral”. “The law blatantly disregards Israel’s most basic commitments as a member of the community of nations and as a signatory to the Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees.”

The law is part of a US$167 million plan approved by the Israeli cabinet on 11 December 2011 to crack down on migrants and slow their entry. In addition to extending the length of legal detention, the plan also aims to complete a 227-kilometer fence between Egypt and Israel, enlarge the capacity of detention centers, fine employers who employ illegal migrants and come up with a strategy to repatriate asylum-seekers to Africa.

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has distinguished between illegal migrants and asylum-seekers in recent statements, rights groups say the government’s policies have lumped them together, targeting genuine refugees as well. They also say of the tens of thousands of people who have claimed asylum in Israel in recent years, almost none have access to a proper Refugee Status Determination (RSD) process. (see side bar)

According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, at least 40,000 “infiltrators and asylum-seekers” — mostly from Sudan and Eritrea — have entered Israel in the past six years, usually smuggled in through Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula by Bedouin tribesmen. Netanyahu has described illegal workers as a “threat” to the country’s very foundation. As he speaks of “fighting the infiltration,” some Israeli neighborhoods have formed vigilante guards to drive out migrants.

In the midst of all this, here is what some asylum-seekers and aid workers have to say:

S.D, a Sudanese asylum-seeker in Tel Aviv:

“We [the community] don’t know anything. Will they round us up and put us in detention centers? Will they force us to leave for another country? We have no idea what tomorrow will bring. I understand that Israelis see us as a mass of people who are a burden on [their] economy and welfare, but what choice did we have but to come here? If they think we are not refugees, they should examine each of us and not make general decisions. I cannot go back to Sudan and I don’t think it is fair to jail me for wanting to have a safe life.”

Nassima, a 23-year-old asylum-seeker working as a maid:

“If we cannot work, what will we do? Steal? Beg? I came here because I would not enlist [in the Eritrean army] for life and I am an honest good worker. Much of the trouble in the community is because of unemployment. When you do not have work, you drink; you loiter in the park; that is what makes the Israelis afraid of us, and now the problem will only get worse. I know that Israel is not our country but I think [the state] should try and work with us and not against us. We are human beings, not cattle to be put in a cage.”

Oscar, an asylum-seeker residing in Israel for over 10 years:

“I cannot tell the state of Israel what to do; I believe laws are needed to govern properly but I don’t think the law [should be] punishment. If there are illegal migrants amongst the asylum-seekers, how can you tell which are which if you do not allow access to some RSD process? How can you tell which of us is a refugee and who’s an illegal migrant? The way I see it the [government of Israel] is going to invest a lot of money in a failed solution.”

Ibrahim, a Sudanese asylum-seeker who arrived in Israel four months ago:

“I don’t understand the thing about refugees and migrants. Do you think I would have put my life in danger to come here, as I have, if I were a migrant? I don’t understand how you can say that to me. We have been through hell on the way to find a safe place and now you say we should be in jail or returned to our country? You need to think about what you are doing to innocent people.”

Sudanese asylum-seeker who requested anonymity:

“I see how the people in Tel Aviv look at us. It is not easy to have many people come to your city with no money, no work. But even though I understand their fears, I think that they should help us instead of trying to drive us out.”

Sigal Rosen, co-founder of Moked, a hotline for migrant workers:

“This is an outrageous plan. The state intends to hold children and families in long-term detention?… We know that some are economic migrants but in order to decide that, they must all have access to proper RSD process. Worldwide statistics show that over 80 percent of Eritrean asylum-seekers are granted refugee status and over 60 percent of Sudanese asylum-seekers as well. I assume the numbers in Israel would be the same if the cases were reviewed.”

Oded Feller, an attorney with the Association for Civil Rights in Israel:

“We are not against the state’s right to guard its borders but we believe that since Israel is a state that was erected for refugees, it should consider the moral and legal obligation it has not to jail asylum-seekers. The state cannot punish asylum-seekers or detain them for long periods of time. It should differentiate between infiltrators [migrants] and refugees and set different standards for dealing with each population.”

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Side bar

Israel’s policy towards asylum-seekers

– Israel signed the 1951 Geneva Convention but in the last 50 years only about 650 people have been officially recognized as refugees, including 452 Darfuri asylum-seekers given refugee status and temporary residency in 2007 as a “humanitarian gesture” by former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

– The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) offices in Israel passed the duties of Refugee Status Determination (RSD) to the RSD unit at the Ministry of the Interior in July 2009. The training process for RSD officers was closely monitored by UNHCR.

– Arrivals from Sudan and Eritrea – the bulk of asylum-seekers in Israel – are automatically given collective temporary protection if they can prove their countries of origin. This protects them from deportation, but does not give them any social benefits or permanent status in the country. Human rights activists say this is not an adequate RSD process.

– Those arriving from these countries undergo a brief interview at a detention center after they cross the border and are then released carrying an asylum-seeker’s permit, which has to be renewed every three months.

– Arrivals from other countries are judged on a case by case basis. Some get temporary protection; others are detained – sometimes for years; still others are deported.

– Under the new law, anyone who enters the country illegally – including Sudanese and Eritreans – can be detained for up to three years, even if there is no intention of deporting them. In some cases, this time period can be extended, even indefinitely.

– Provided by Integrated Regional Information Networks.

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Rome, Italy (AHN) – Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti on Sunday played down claims that the European Union’s currency was in crisis, adding that his country welcomed the French proposal to tax financial transactions provided it was part of an EU-wide effort.

“The euro is not in crisis, the currency has solidly maintained its exchange rate with the dollar,” Monti said on RAI 3 public television. “The problem we are facing is that some EU countries have a public debt crisis. Our crisis is a systemic crisis.” He added that Italy’s banking system is not under threat.

Monti insisted that it is impossible for any European nation to come out of the debt crisis without any help, so he stressed the need to develop a common growth policy.

“No European country is so strong to think it can go forward alone in facing the great global economies. It’s time for everyone to do their homework. No one can think they can do less than the others. Italy, in order to develop economically and socially, needs Europe, and Europe, to be stronger, needs Italy,” Monti said in Reggio Emilia.

The leader of eurozone’s third largest economy contended there is no need for any new austerity plan, adding that the measures announced previously were enough to guarantee economic targets.

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Washington, D.C., United States (AHN) – The United States economy created 200,000 jobs in December, which was enough to keep up with new people entering the labor force and marked the sixth consecutive month of job gains instead of losses.

Those job gains were enough to bring the official unemployment rate down to 8.5 percent from 8.6 percent in November.

That was the lowest rate of unemployment in three years. Both the unemployment rate and the number of jobs created were better than analysts expected. However, because the economy needs to create from 120,000 to 220,000 jobs monthly to keep up with growth in the labor force, it will take more job creation to provide jobs for everyone who lost one during the recession.

That fact is revealed in the employment rate, which remained unchanged at 64 percent. Before the recession, 89 percent of working age Americans held a job.

The number of people involuntarily working part-time also declined by 371,000 to 8.1 million in December.

Private-sector job gains were 212,000 in December and 1.9 million over the year while government employment did not change much over the month but did fall by 280,000 for the year.

 

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Cairo, Egypt Joseph Mayton / The Media – Suzie flops down on the chair and lets out a long breath. Quickly moving to her head, she unfastens her headscarf, the purple and silver head covering she wears during the day, and calmly lets her long black hair fall to her shoulders and down her back.

“I’ve had it with this double life,” she told The Media Line at her Cairo flat. “The problem is I wouldn’t have got my job if I wasn’t veiled so I put it on during the day and take it off at night before going out with friends,” she adds in perfect English, a hint of a British accent coming through.

For 25-year-old Suzie, who is Muslim thanks to her father, Egypt has become a dichotomy of faith and honor. Now, she fears the rise of online groups espousing to uphold the country’s “morality.” These “morality police” groups are gaining steam, and for many Egyptians, especially women, the idea has them fearful that the country could quickly turn into an ultra-conservative Islamic state akin to Saudi Arabia.

“We all know that these vice prevention committees are really a way to subject women to disgusting ways of life and push us farther into the house and away from the public,” Suzie argues.

Egypt is an oddity in the Middle East and with the recent gains being made by Islamic groups in the country’s first post-Husni Mubarak election, many are worried that a conservative brand of Islam is already rising from the uprising. The Muslim Brotherhood’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), and the Al-Nour Salafist Party have won the lion’s share of votes thus far, with nearly two-thirds of votes cast in their favor.

“That can scare people a lot, but we must all remain cautious before we jump to conclusions,” says Nehad Abu Komsan, the head of the Egyptian Center for Women’s Rights (ECWR). “I don’t think that many people voted for these parties because of a conviction toward them, but more because that was who was campaigning the most.”

The grassroots Committee for the Prevention of Vice and Promotion of Virtue has adopted the name of an official government body that operates in Saudi Arabia. Armed with wooden canes, the Saudi committee’s paid operatives and volunteers patrol the streets enforcing the strict separation of men and women, conservative dress codes, public prayer and other behavior it regards as commanded by Islam.

Looking nervously at the Saudi model, activists and average Egyptians worry about what the Egyptian vice committee might bring as Islamist parties sweep the elections.

“I do feel the Salafists are powerful and have a lot of support because they have told people that the Western liberals and protesters are doing bad things like drugs and having sex. This scares people who believe them,” says café owner Mohamed Yussif, who runs a small successful middle-class café in downtown Cairo. “I hear people talk about our customers and say they should not be here, especially the women.”

Ehab Mousa, the head of Egypt’s Tourism Supporters Coalition, complained to the attorney-general against the committee, saying it would deter foreign tourism, a critical industry for the Egyptian economy. “Tour operators have had several reservations canceled over the last days due to this statement,” Mousa told Ahram Online

A month ago, around 1,000 Egyptians rallied near the ancient pyramids on Friday to protest against what they said were threats by Islamic radicals to undermine tourism

As the groups, mainly making a stir on social-networking sites such as Facebook currently, pick up members, the question is how popular they are and how much strength they have on the street.

Suzie contends that they have a big draw for the average Egyptian because of the conservative and religious undertones to their message. She argues that groups that build a mission on faith and Islam are “strong with people who think that anything Islamic is a good thing.”

The on-line group, named after their Saudi brothers, claims the great majority of Egyptians support their efforts, citing “millions of Egyptians who voted for the Al-Nour Party.” They argue this proves their support is not fabricated.

The group’s official Facebook page – all administrators of the page are anonymous – claims to “preserve the morals of Egyptians in accordance with Sharia law.”

Already, Egyptians are reporting members of the group have entered shops, cafes and other Egyptian locations to lecture owners on the un-Islamic nature of their businesses, often referring to places that sell body-clinging women’s clothes and alcohol as haram, or forbidden in Islam.

The group claims that the Al-Nour Party had told members of the organization that they would support their efforts if they came to power ahead of parliamentary elections, which began Nov. 30. However, the Salafist party, in a statement on its official Facebook page, has denied any relationship with the committee and distanced themselves from the group.

“I don’t believe it, but something must be done, because if you see these people on the streets, you know what they are doing and it is worrying me on a daily basis because I know they don’t want women in public and working,” adds Suzie. She wants Islamic leaders to speak out against the committee and educate Egyptians on the dangers of such groups.

Al-Azhar, the Sunni Islamic world’s most prominent and prestigious center of learning and jurisprudence, began on Wednesday to heed the calls from activists and citizens like Suzie. Al-Azhar declared itself the only lawful authority on Islam in the country and condemned the “vice committee” as “illegitimate and overriding the legitimacy of Al-Azhar as a religious institution.”

The committee lashed back at Al-Azhar, calling its statement unfair. It argued that the allegations made by al-Azhar are “fabrications made up against a committee that millions of Egyptians consented to because of their desire to see the diligent work of their members as they establish the law of God.”

For Suzie, who considers herself a “decent Muslim and liberal,” the very concept of a vice committee on the Saudi model “is so wrong and will destroy the Egypt that we have come to love and enjoy and that we fought to have last January.”

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Doha, Qatar David Rosenberg (The Medi – The year 2011 wasn’t only tough for Middle Eastern despots. With the exception of Qatar, the Arab World’s stock markets all ended the year with sharp drops both in share prices and trading volume as unrest took the wind out of much of the regional economy and sent political shivers everywhere.

All told, investors waved goodbye to more than $111 billion in stock market value over 2011, a drop of about 11 percent, according to figures from the Arab Monetary Fund. They took their biggest hit in Egypt, where the combined value of the country’s stocks shed $33 billion last year, a 39 percent decline and the biggest anywhere in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

But it wasn’t just the numbers that were bad. Egypt’s stock market was shuttered for 55 days amid the turbulence of President Hosni Mubarak’s ouster. Bahrain’s financial center was cordoned off by police during unrest early in the year and the stock exchange briefly closed until martial law was imposed with the help of Saudi troops. The bourses of the United Arab Emirates and Qatar were denied coveted emerging market status twice in the space of six months.

“The Arab Spring that started last winter, of course, had an impact. That said, there also has been the impact of global bear market. So, in that respect, it wasn’t all about the Arab Spring,” Daniel Brody, chief investment officer of London-based Silk Invest, told The Media Line.

He said the situation is not likely to change without an influx of foreign investment, which is an unlikely prospect for now even if some MENA markets are displaying good fundamentals. “Investors have other concerns right now like Europe. They don’t want to take on what they see as a risk asset,” he said.

Indeed, 2011 was not a good year for stock market investors almost anywhere in the world, figures from MSCI, a company that benchmarks global share market performance, show. Its ACWI index, which tracks 9,000 stocks in 45 markets, shed 10.2 percent. But MSCI’s Arabian Market index, which groups 14 MENA markets except Saudi Arabia, did worse, falling 22 percent last year and wiping out the two previous years of gains.

Even MENA economies that posted strong growth and avoided Arab Spring unrest failed to resist the bearish sentiment. Qatar’s economy enjoyed a tide of cash from growing natural gas exports and $88 billion in government spending, yet the Qatar Exchange’s benchmark QE index registered a mere 1.5 percent gain. Saudi Arabia’s economy benefitted from higher oil prices and massive government spending, but its Tadawul All-Share Index fell 7 percent.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) also saw a recovery from its real estate-induced slump during 2011, but MSCI’s UAE index shed close to 20 percent.

“To be very honest, there was a disconnect between what was happening in UAE economy and markets,” Fadi Al-Said, a senior fund manager at ING Investment Management in Dubai, told The Media Line. “We saw a major rebound in trade and tourism, but the market didn’t reflect this. In some ways, that is because it is inefficient, but also because it is heavily exposed to the real estate and banking sectors.”

Adding to the pain of falling share prices was a fourth straight year of declining trading volumes. The Arab Monetary Fund estimated that shares traded on the 14 MENA exchanges its covers dropped to $328.5 billion in 2011 from a peak of $1 trillion in 2007 — decline analysts attribute mainly to an exodus of foreign investors after the global financial crisis set in in 2008.

That decline has hit the share-brokering business hard. In the UAE, investment banks like Rasmala and Shuaa Capital gave up their retail brokerage services last year to concentrate on institutional clients. On Monday, they were joined by Taib Securities, the brokerage arm of Bahrain’s Taib Bank, after running up losses the past three years.

Many foreign investment banks also cut back last year. Germany’s Deutsche Bank reportedly moved its head of local equity capital markets back from Dubai to London; Japan’s Nomura shut its Dubai equity research unit; and Britain’s HSBC closed its UAE retail equity brokerage business.

This year isn’t shaping up to be much better. The turmoil of the Arab Spring shows no sign of abating and the outlook for the economies of the Middle East and North Africa looks poor. Although there are a few bright spots in the Gulf, the International Monetary Fund expects economic growth for the region to fall to 3.6 percent from 4 percent in 2011.

Al-Said, nevertheless, expressed the view that the Gulf has the foundations for a market recovery, especially now that a prolonged slump has pushed down valuations to attractive levels. With oil prices again on the upswing, the region’s governments will be in an even stronger position than in 2011 to stimulate economic activity.

“This is one of the few regions which still has ammunition for [state] spending. I’m talking about surpluses that can be spent, about expansionary fiscal policy … You are talking about a region that isn’t in an austerity mode,” he said.

Even Egypt, whose economy is conventionally regarded as deeply troubled by continued political turmoil and plunging foreign reserves, has a potential for a rebound, said Broby. In spite of the turmoil, the economy continues to grow and Egyptian stocks are oversold, he said, warning, however, that investors will hold off on buying.

“People will be looking for Egypt to pass its new constitution before you start seeing the market reflecting the fundamentals,” Broby said.

Meanwhile, markets are making efforts to lure back investors. On Monday, the Qatar Financial Markets Authority announced it had adopted new rules on listing securities and initial public offerings aimed at encouraging small and medium-sized companies to list. It began trading government bonds in the market at the end of 2011, which should help boost liquidity.

The UAE hopes to adjust rules that will enable it to win emerging market status next June, an upgrade that would make it more attractive to big institutional investors abroad.

But the most important development of all, say analysts, is a plan by Saudi Arabia to open up its stock market to foreigner investors. Reuters reported last week that authorities are close to unveiling the long-awaited plan and may announce the rules by Jan. 15 with implementation slated for by the end of the first quarter.

With the region’s biggest trading volumes and market capitalization backed by a growing economy, Saudi Arabia could be the magnet to attracting new capital to the region.

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