Monthly Archives: December 2022

(NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ) — The 41st Bi-Annual New Jersey Film Festival will take place on select Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays between January 27-February 19, 2023. The Festival will be a hybrid one as they will be presenting it online as well as doing in-person screenings at Rutgers University. All the films will be available virtually via Video on Demand for 24 hours on their show date. From documentaries to shorts to narrative and experimental films, the festival has something for everyone. Here is a preview of the festival.

Friday, January 27, 2023 – The Language I Speak, Vagrant, and Buon Ferragosto

The Language I Speak – Ana Cuadra (Plainfield, New Jersey). The Language I Speak is an exploration about the regional varieties of spoken English in America, how our language connects us as humans, but it can also divide us, how it can box us in categories of race, socio-economics, class and gender. Are dialects and accents something that classify us as talking weird? or something to be celebrated in the new globalized world? 2022; 60 min. 

Vagrant – Giorgio Litt (Beaverton, Oregon). Throughout Italy, dogs are abandoned casually. In rural Sicily, one man saves the dogs he can, especially those being poisoned. In Italian, subtitled. 2022; 20 min.

Buon Ferragosto – Claudia Miatello (Toronto, Canada). When his father has to work on Ferragosto (Italy’s national holiday) instead of going to the sea, a boy has the adventure of his lifetime in the city of Florence with an unexpected friend. In Italian, subtitled. 2022; 7 min

Saturday, January 28, 2023 – City of Love

City of Love – Èric Boadella (Los Angeles, California). 148 Rides. 1 City. 1 Date. 2 Deaths. 1 Miracle. In this neo-noir feature, Spencer, a troubled rideshare driver in Los Angeles, will go to dangerous lengths to reconnect with the world he lost after spending 20 years in jail. 2022; 97 min.

Saturday, January 28, 2023 – Shorts Program #1

A Polar Bear Story – Vanessa Nilsson (Montclair, New Jersey). A Polar Bear Story is a 3D animated short film that comments on climate change and how it is the primary threat to polar bears as the arctic warms and sea ice disappears. The story follows a young, playful, and mischievous polar bear cub whose playfulness puts him in harm’s way of melting sea ice. 2022; 4 min.

Fereshteh – Elika Rezaee (Redondo Beach, California). Fereshteh distills the daily reality facing many modern Iranian women, as they enter old age. Alternating between naturalistic observation and imaginative flourishes, this narrative/experimental short film tells a simple story of how an older woman experiences her everyday routine. Since the Islamic Revolution, women in Iran have been required to wear veils in public, but in films, they are required to wear them in indoor settings, as well. This film breaks that taboo of Iranian cinema and shows a woman’s body and bodily functions in a private space. This is womanhood as Iranians experience it, not the idealization of the cleric or bureaucrat. Dialogue is kept to a minimum, the form of the film echoing her solitude. Actions that seem unremarkable from the outside are infused with a search for purpose amid all the mundane challenges, absurdities, introspection, and loneliness that structure her existence. It is, to me, a way of living both poetic and awe-inspiring, indeed the life of a Fereshteh – an angel. In Persian, subtitled. 2022; 15 min.

The Pratt in the Hat – Susan Hillary (Goshen, New York). Beneath the brims of hundreds of colorful hats is a woman who shares her wisdom, humor, and personal experiences about being black in America, then and now. Frances Pratt’s hats make a bold statement as does her southern charm and pithy expressions which she garnered through a lifetime of service to her community fighting for racial equality, voting rights and education. 2021; 15 min.

When will the warmth come? – Oleksandra Pletenetska (Kyiv, Ukraine). A video diary by the director in which she documents her emotional states during the full-scale invasion of her country – Ukraine.2022; 15 min.

Exposed to Each Other – Mersolis Schöne (Vienna, Austria). Touches are journeys – a film poem about the multi-faceted journey of interpersonal, intercultural encounters. How are we connected with each other? Based on a poetic text collage by Marion Steinfellner, which brings together Indian, Japanese, German, and Austrian texts by Yuko Kaseki, Savita Rani, Mersolis Schöne, and Marion Steinfellner. In English and German, subtitled. 2022; 13 min.

Sympoiesis – Rithikha Rajamohan (Vancouver, Canada). Sympoiesis, meaning “boundaryless” or “making together” is an exploration of co-creation and an attempt to answer the question of where life is trying to go. The film is a recognition that we are as a species just one of many forms of intelligent life, each with its own entangled reasons for being. In an age of self-induced ecological, technological and social collapse, the film is also a comforting reminder that we are no more than adolescents in evolutionary time, a young and fragile species prone to making mistakes, and yet still learning, growing and striving to find its proper place in an inherently symbiotic world. 2022; 5 min.

Marjorie Eliot’s Parlor Entertainment Harlem – John Decker (Ocean Township, New Jersey). For three decades, pianist, playwright, actress, poet and composer, Marjorie Eliot, turns her sadness and tragic loss into joyful weekly performances of love and camaraderie in her Harlem apartment. 2022; 8 min.

Friday, February 3, 2023 – Shorts Program #2

Voiceless – Cindy Di Xin (Pasadena, California). An international high school girl is trapped in a trauma nightmare that she has never experienced before. In Chinese and English, subtitled. 2022; 15 min.

Bean and the Babysitter – Jason Michael Roberts (Santa Monica, California). Pat, a young woman with big city ambitions takes an overnight babysitting job at a rural midwestern farmhouse. But when the parents don’t return, she finds herself solely responsible for the safety and survival of an unpredictable ten-year-old Bean. Miles from civilization, with no way to call for help and resources running scarce, she’ll need both the ingenuity of an entrepreneur and the compassion of a mother to unravel the mystery and save the boy. 2022; 20 min.

It is Quiet Here – Olena Podolianko and Novruz Hikmet (Kyiv, Ukraine). A young couple is torn from the world for one long night in a hotel room in a town near the border. That night they agreed not to talk about the war. Completely lost in each other’ s small world, they don’t realize when the morning comes and force them to go back to reality. 2022; 13 min.

Duplicitous Minds – Robert Rippberger (Toronto, Canada). This film is a crime thriller/drama about the mysterious world of magic, a journey of hypnotism, heists, illusions and fun with many thrilling twists and turns. The entire film is structured like a long form magic trick with hidden clues, symbols and meanings. The theme of the movie is the choice between love (The Queen of Hearts) and power (The Ace). The dichotomy of one man’s lust for power (Ace of Spades) and one man’s loyalty to love (Queen of Hearts) propels our lead into a labyrinth of traversing a heart torn in two. It’s a battle between traditional magic vs digital magic as a Magician and the Artist (a crooked businessman) team up for a heist that turns into a magic trick and an illusion onto itself. 2022; 18 min. 

First Girl – Ellie Konn (Miami, Florida). First times are terrifying. 2022; 8 min.

The Button Game – Drake Woodall (Brooklyn, New York). A brutal display of life in isolation. 2022; 7 min.

Saturday, February 4, 2023 – Jack Has a Plan

Jack Has a Plan – Bradley Berman (Berkeley, California). When Jack, a man with a terminal brain tumor for 25 years, decides to end his life, his family and friends struggle to accept his decision. Jack’s best friend documents his three-year quest to die a happy man, culminating in a permanent going-away party. An amazing documentary that should not be missed! 2022; 73 min.

Saturday, February 4, 2023 – Ocean City Monster Building

Ocean City Monster Building – Chris Lane (Los Angeles, California). The year is 1984, in a small sleepy town in upstate New York. The former mayor of the city is found dead on the backseat of his car with a local 15-year-old girl. In the aftermath, his wife of 30 years and his adopted daughter have to make sense of this difficult situation, while a detective from out of town is sent in to try to solve the case together with local law enforcement. 2022; 90 min.

Friday, February 10, 2023 – Shorts Program #3

Rembrandt Lives in New Jersey – Kasey Child (Burlington, Vermont). Documentary film about the New Jersey based artist Helen Frank. 2022; 12 min.

Man Fire Clay – Michael Callas (Belvidere, New Jersey). An intimate and enlightening portrait of New Jersey woodfire ceramic artist Peter Callas. 2022; 41 min.

Bye Bye Lullaby – Sonali Gulati, Rohan Gulati (Richmond, Virginia). When you are forced to leave your home, what do you take and what do you leave behind? Using a single long take, Bye Bye Lullaby explores the meaning of belonging and belongings, transporting and being transported, passing away and passing down. 2022; 5 min.

Stages of Lost Freedom – Kamran Rosen (Cambridge, Massachusetts). Derek ‘Dice’ Livingston was incarcerated for nearly two decades, during which time he kept a journal of his thoughts. Mirroring the stages of loss—denial, depression, bargaining, anger, and acceptance— this animation uses Dice’s own words and narration to show the emotional journey of losing one’s identity to long term incarceration, with each entry brought to life by a different animator. 2022; 7 min.

Sucks To Be The Moon – Tyler March and Eric Paperth (Neptune City, New Jersey). Jealous of the Sun’s stardom, the Moon journeys into space, searching for a planet that actually cares about him. Will he find his place in the universe, or is he destined to be a lonely loser forever? 2022; 11 min.

Revelation to the Disembodied – André Silva (Wilmington, North Carolina). Fragments of a collective post-human dream construct a world that straddles hyper-technological, mythological, and ecological dimensions. 2022; 9 min.

Saturday, February 11, 2023 – Junho

Junho – David Seok Hoon Boo (San Francisco, California). Juhno wanted nothing more than to be a great actor. But when his prestigious acting troupe in Korea is rocked by a #MeToo scandal, he escapes to San Francisco, to start a new life. Unlike Junho’s attempt to overcome loneliness, isolation and the loss of his best friend Jin, who was a victim of the scandal, his transgression from the past dislocates him. 2022; 104 min. In English, Spanish, Korean, subtitled.

Friday, February 17, 2023 – In Littleness and Song of a Dying Summer

In Littleness – Cherlyn Hsing-hsin Liu (Santa Clarita, California). The film was shot on a regular 8mm camera and is presented in unslit form as 16mm, a screening format commonly referred to as double 8mm. When I first came into contact with this medium, I was deeply attracted by its miniature size. Eight millimeters is a very small space on which to store images. It reminds me of all kinds of things from childhood: ephemeral, wonderful, changeable. Recalling that as a child I spent most of my time with my nanny, I decided to zoom in on daily life, especially trivial household chores. At the same time, the particles and dust of the childhood world are magnified. During the filming process, I remembered a question asked by Stan Brakhage: When a film is projected, how many frames does an image need in order to make an impression on human vision? In In Littleness, we are asked to watch four images at a time. Each screen only lasts for a moment. The waves of oncoming impressions submerge the viewer in an open and chaotic world, in which a noisy childhood experience is faintly drawn. The memories included in the film are not just from my childhood, but also from childhood memories of people close to me. In the end, what In Littleness treasures the texture of childhoods, overlapping and collective. 2022; 8 min.

Song of a Dying Summer – Kohei Sengen (Tokyo, Japan). Natsu, together with his best friends, is trying to put on a stage play to commemorate their last summer together. Shot entirely with 8mm film. In Japanese, subtitled. 2022; 71 min.

Saturday, February 18, 2023 – United States Super 8mm Film & Digital Video Festival Day 1/Program 1 – Short Films

Achilles – Adam Morris (Southend-on-sea, England). Even the legendary Achilles has moments of self-doubt. Achilles explores the Achilles syndrome, known as the fear of failure. An experimental micro drama shot on Super 8mm film with no editing. 2022, 3 min.

Emoticon – Padrick Ritch (Boston, Massachusetts). An experimental film examining the impact and influence of media. 2022; 2 min.

Teething Problems – Kristian Fitsall (London, England). Tired of her housemate stealing her toiletries, Darcy takes a twisted revenge in this darkly comic parody of a ‘How To’ video. A dark, absurd comedy micro short shot on Super 8mm film with no editing. 2022, 3 min.

Exponentials – Khalil Charif and Cristina Amiran (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Through different languages, this experimental work uses sound and visual poetry, presenting images with a non-linear flow of words in a context of exponential equations, making integrated use of the word, the meaning of the word, and the sound of the word. 2021; 3 min.

broken home movies – Heidi Van Horne (Buda, Texas). A B&W experimental, avant-garde short film reflecting on the choice of motherhood. 2022; 4 min.

Reclamation – Jennifer M Hardacker (Forest Grove, Oregon). A stark, experimental film. A mood. Exploring our fears of Armageddon, our lived isolation, and the haunting beauty of nature’s persistence. 2022; 4 min.

Triboro – Nate Dorr (Brooklyn, New York). A trip behind and beneath the street-level skin of the city on the hidden paths of industrial history and once-and-future transit. The Triboro Line is a 24-mile freight rail spanning New York City from the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, to Co-Op City in the Bronx. Once largely a passenger line, then serving only reduced intermittent industrial use for decades, the rails have again become the focus of efforts to restore crosstown commuter service to the lower eleven miles of track. Spanning seasons, hours, and changing weather in gliding tracking shots composed of thousands of still photographs, Triboro collapses time and space just as new transit options, inscribed into the ever-changing urban landscape, bring distant parts of the boroughs closer together. (Caution: contains flicker effects) 2022; 7 min

From Above – John Heins (Broomfield, Colorado). A woman encounters a UFO which ejects some material, including an odd crystal. She fashions it into a necklace which leads to a strange turn of events. 2022; 4 min.

The Winter Fern – Gwen Gottlieb (Alpine, New Jersey). When a woman in 18th century Colonial America can no longer endure her husband’s abuse she will stop at nothing to save her daughter from his wrath. 2022; 9 min.

Egypt – Erik Jacobsen (XXX). Egypt is a travel documentary written and narrated by Erik Jacobsen. It features photos from his two trips to Egypt, local indigenous music, and fascinating historical facts from research into this amazing and long, lived civilization. It includes some of the most iconic artistic works and monumental structures of ancient Egypt. 2022; 10 min.

A Potter’s Field – Zev Aaron (New York, New York). Documenting the suppressed and repressed death network of New York City’s COVID-19 emergency, A Potter’s Field uses natural and technological imagery and sound to reveal a taboo: pandemic corpses stored in refrigerated trailers are transported by truck and ferry to Hart Island, a beautiful natural landscape and mass grave run by Department of Correction (employees and) inmates enacting a process that has entombed one million New Yorkers in the largest single, spatially considered, gravesite in the world. Shot amidst a city lockdown, the film immanently creates a memento mori by avoiding the live human form and seizing in invisibility thousands of vir(tu)al pandemic corpses. 2022; 16 min.

Once I passed – Martin Gerigk (Krefeld, Germany). A lovely collage animation film based on Walt Whitman’s poem Once I Passed Through a Populous City which features the collage work of Serbian artist Nikola Gocić. 2022; 10 min.

Place in Eden – Ruth Weil (Tel Aviv, Israel). A young actress embarks on a turbulent journey with an autistic girl, breaching limitations of right and wrong, and discovering new aspects of her personality. In Hebrew, subtitled. 2022; 15 min.

Saturday, February 18, 2023 – United States Super 8mm Film & Digital Video Festival Day 1/Program 2

Sam Now – Reed Harkness (Seattle, Washington). Filmed over 25 years, two brothers go on a 2,000-mile road trip to solve a family mystery. Shooting on nearly every camera format imaginable, from hand-developed Super-8 film to Arri 4K, Sam Harkness and his older half-brother Reed use their creative world of fiction filmmaking to dive headfirst into dealing with the issue at hand: Sam’s mom is missing. Sam’s wetsuit and mask wearing alter ego, The Blue Panther, bounds into frame with youthful energy and a heroic spirit of adventure. But can The Blue Panther save the day? And are these fun-loving brothers actually ready for what lies ahead? Solving the mystery of his mom’s disappearance is only the beginning of their story. The documentary uses a hybrid narrative approach, drawing from a vast archive of fictional films, home videos, intimate family interviews and vérité scenes from over the decades. Sobering revelations blend with playful home movies and vibrant experimental filmmaking by brother and director Reed Harkness. The brothers take a spontaneous road trip in search of answers. We learn of Sam’s mother Jois’ complicated adoption history from Japan. We experience the ripple effects on the Harkness family including Sam’s brother Jared, father Randy and grandma Doris. And we are there with Sam coming of age from 11 to 36. Sam Now is about growth. The film balances heavy themes and emotional reckonings with buoyant energy and lighthearted spirit. The optimistic teenage Sam we get to know, with his heart set on finding his mom, grows into a man whose new hope is to break the cycle of intergenerational trauma. 2022; 86 min.

Sunday, February 19, 2023 – United States Super 8mm Film & Digital Video Festival Day 2

Spontaneous Artifacts – David Finkelstein (Brooklyn, New York). Two actors improvise an extended dialog, examining the way that we record and organize our experiences, and the dangers inherent in creative expression. Their words inspire a series of complex, unfolding landscapes, meticulously rendered in 3D animation, and a multi-layered musical score. Like archeologists of the unconscious, their explorations unearth images from their imaginations, as well as from our shared, cultural legacies, giving rise to vistas filled with clocks, flying pizza pies, pyramids, tarot cards, and myriad other artifacts. By turns ecstatic, reflective, illuminating and elegiac, these visually sumptuous explorations draw the viewer into an inner landscape. 2022; 77 min.

How to Behave At A Party – Allison Radomski (Longmont, Colorado). Do you feel weird around other people? Are you anxious at social gatherings? Do you often find yourself trying to seem like a normal, happy person, and then coming up short? Look no further, my friend. Even though I’ve never, ever had those problems in my whole life, this short film is here to help. 2022; 2 min.

Scum Show – MaLo Sutra Fish and Marie-Laure Cros (Paris, France). This music video for OSEES’s Scum Show was shot at Le Trianon in Paris during OSEES’ show on June 29th 2022, on Tri-x Super8 with a Canon 514 XL-S and a GAF 415 XLM. The reels were hand processed at the Collective Lab L’Etna. The film was pre-edited and animated, colored, and special effects were also processed by hand; digitally edited. Long live Punk Spirit! 2022; 2 min.

Each ticket or Festival Pass purchased is good for both the virtual and the in-person screenings. The in-person screenings will be held in Voorhees Hall #105/Rutgers University, 71 Hamilton Street, New Brunswick, NJ beginning at 5:00pm or 7:00pm on their show date. General Admission Ticket: $15=Per Program; Festival All Access Pass=$100.

On December 30, Wang Qiang, a trader of the fund company, completed the last transaction in 2022. Despite the unsatisfactory performance of A-shares in 2022, the public offering fund industry is still showing resilience amidst the vicissitudes of life, ushering in breakthroughs in scale and volume amidst the ups and downs of the overall market. The “Wanji Era” is coming quietly. How the public offering fund industry can achieve its own high-quality leapfrog development in coordination with the real economy has become a topic of the times for the industry.

In 2023, the public offering fund industry will actively focus on the country’s major strategic development direction, forge a strong development engine with inexhaustible business and product innovation, and contribute an indispensable backbone to increasing the proportion of direct financing and serving the development of the real economy. A new journey of quality development.

The industry is booming

In 2022, the number of public offering fund products will exceed 10,000 within the year, and the scale and volume of the industry will increase, showing a momentum of vigorous development.

Under the market pattern in 2022, compared with the end of 2021, the latest three-year and five-year active equity fund top 20 lists have undergone a “big change”, and champion funds have “changed owners” one after another. However, in the medium and long term, the income of public funds is still considerable.

In the past ten years, the best public funds have made a huge profit of 863%, and 7-fold bases, 6-fold bases, and 5-fold bases have emerged. Specifically, as of December 29, 2022, Wind data shows that in the past ten years, the average return rate of 1,120 public offering funds with statistics has reached 138%. Among them, there are 555 double funds, accounting for nearly 50%, and more than 100 funds have returned more than 300% in the past ten years.

Focus on long-term performance, focus on fundamental research, and maintain a cautious attitude towards market hotspots; optimize corporate governance structure… This is the “password” forged by Chang Niu Ji that the reporter of China Securities News learned during the interview.

“However, from the perspective of product structure, the phenomenon of homogenization of more than 10,000 fund products is still relatively serious, and the scale of equity funds is still relatively small. There is a certain imbalance in structure and scale, and continuous optimization is still needed.” A senior person in the fund industry said that judging from the current situation, the speed of new fund issuance is still much higher than the speed of liquidation. While the number of funds continues to grow, public funds need to correctly handle scale and quality, development and stability, efficiency and fairness, and high growth. To further improve the issuance and exit mechanism, optimize the assessment and evaluation standards, and achieve effective expansion and growth in quantity, it is necessary to seek high-quality development. Fund companies should improve their core capabilities in investment research, strengthen the systematic, long-term and platform-based construction of investment research teams, improve the cultivation of investment research echelons, do a good job in the accumulation and inheritance of investment research capabilities, and establish a scientific and long-term assessment mechanism… Practically achieve the same improvement and progress between the development of the industry and the interests of investors.

Innovation “acceleration”

In 2022, the management scale of public fund managers once reached 27.29 trillion yuan during the year, setting a new record. The picture of public fund innovation is gradually unfolding, and innovative products continue to flow.

In April 2022, the “Opinions on Accelerating the High-quality Development of the Public Fund Industry” was released. The “Opinions” proposes to actively encourage product and business integrity and innovation, and encourage fund managers to meet residents’ wealth management needs as a starting point, on the premise that risks are measurable and controllable, and investors are effectively protected. The ability of public funds to serve the real economy.

In 2022, innovative products in the public offering fund industry will continue to be launched. Among them, the ETF market continues to expand, and index products focus on improving the content of “hard technology” and increasing support for the real economy, such as hard technology ETFs, enhanced strategy ETFs, and the 50-component index base of the Beijing Stock Exchange, which not only further improves the domestic financial products. Maps, and provide investors with richer tools for asset allocation.

In 2022, the personal pension system will be officially implemented, and the public fund industry will add exclusive Y-type fund shares for personal pension investment, and the industry will officially usher in the “Y” era of pension investment. The public offering industry practiced inclusive finance with 129 pension target funds, becoming a powerful builder of the third pillar of pensions.

The development pattern of fixed income products has taken on a new look. Monetary funds, “fixed income +” and other products have ushered in new regulations, and many fund companies have reported the first batch of bond funds that adopt the hybrid valuation method. The “Interim Regulations on the Supervision of Important Money Market Funds (Draft for Comment)” “prepare for a rainy day” clarifies the definition and evaluation of important money market funds, as well as the risk control mechanism. “Fixed income +” products are traceable to the source, the convertible bond assets in the portfolio are included in the scope of equity investment, and the ratio of product equity assets is clearly defined. Compared with funds that are fully valued by the amortized cost method, bond funds with mixed valuations are more flexible and can adapt to diverse market environments.

Public offering REITs, interbank certificates of deposit index funds and other public offering innovative products will frequently explode in 2022, which is particularly “eye-catching”. In May 2022, the Shanghai and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges issued guidelines for the expansion of REITs. The expansion of public offering REITs is advancing rapidly. At the same time, the offline subscription multiple of many public offering REITs exceeds 100, and investors are enthusiastic. According to industry insiders, the original owners of public offering REITs are industry leaders in specific regions or fields, and their accumulated asset reserves for several years will open up a reasonable imagination for future REITs expansion and growth. In addition, the regular issuance of public REITs has become the main line of the year and is expected to continue until 2023. In 2023, my country’s public offering REITs market will usher in a new development pattern driven by two wheels of initial offering and expansion.

“Public offering fund products are the starting point for effectively connecting the real economy and public investors, and play the role of a bridge. For this reason, we must continue to explore and innovate in product layout.” Liu Xiaoyan, general manager of E Fund, said that on the one hand, actively focus on major national Strategic development direction layout products, grasp the opportunities of the times brought about by the transformation and upgrading of economic structure and high-quality development; on the other hand, actively develop fund products suitable for long-term investment of personal pensions, and serve the construction of a multi-level and multi-pillar pension insurance system; Increase the research and development of solution products, explore the research and development of low-volatility innovative fund products, and strive to createcommon peopleA clear, understandable, and easy-to-operate fund product line that meets diversified and multi-level financial management needs.

Enhance Christians’ sense of gain

Under the tide of the big era of residents’ wealth management, public funds stand on the cusp of high-quality development.

In the past ten years, the changes in the holdings of public funds have depicted a picture of China‘s economic and industrial changes. While realizing the synergy with the real economy, the public fund industry has achieved its own leapfrog development.

From the end of 2020,CATL、Luxshare Precision、LONGi Green EnergyAnd other manufacturing stocks “turned out” among the top ten heavy holdings of public funds. By the first half of 2022, individual stocks in the new energy industry will account for “half” of the top ten heavyweight stocks of active equity funds. This scene is in stark contrast to the scene of financial real estate “acting on stage” among the heavy holdings of public funds ten years ago.

“Through the professional investment research process, guide the flow of social funds and participate in the economic fields that have the most room for growth and are most in line with the country’s long-term development, while helping the development of the real industry, it also allows investors to fully benefit from the long-term development of the country’s economy. income.” Jing Lei, general manager of Harvest Fund, told reporters.

Looking forward to the future, in the high-quality development stage of my country’s economy, the public offering fund industry, as the backbone of the capital market and an important support for residents’ wealth management, will shoulder the important mission of promoting industrial upgrading and supporting the real economy. High-quality development will also become the only way for the industry to develop steadily and long-term.

Dou Yuming, chairman of China Europe Fund, believes that the public offering fund industry should always resonate with economic development, convert funds into capital, invest in green and low-carbon industries, and further promote the energy revolution; invest in specialized, special and new key areas, and support core technology battles; layout The construction of a socialized pension system actively responds to the aging population.

Jing Lei said that in the process of investment and research, the company adheres to long-termism, pays attention to technological innovation, helps direct financing, promotes the country’s strategic transformation and the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, strengthens ESG research and investment, and promotes the quality of listed companies to go deeper. The level and wider dimension of the capital market will be improved, so as to further promote the high-quality development of the capital market and provide support.

“It is necessary to provide investors with public offering products that are highly recognizable, stable in style, favored by customers, and truly allow investors to make money.” The person in charge of the Bank of Communications Schroeder Fund believes that in terms of industry development, public offering funds play an important role. The “connection point” between a professional asset management institution and investors is fund products. It is necessary to continuously refine product recognition, enhance the sense of gain of the foundation, and fundamentally solve the pain point of “the fund makes money, but the foundation does not make money”.

A Book of Condolence will open at St Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cathedral in Armagh following the passing of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI on New Year’s Eve.

The head of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, said the former pontiff will be remembered for his “characteristic humility and gentleness”.

Benedict led the Catholic Church for less than eight years until he became the first Pope to resign since 1415.

He was succeeded by Pope Francis in 2013.

“I am saddened to hear of the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI,” said Archbishop Martin.

“At this time of mourning in the Catholic Church throughout the world, we remember his gentle soul in prayer, asking God, in His great mercy, to forgive his sins and human failings, while rewarding his generous service and complete dedication to the Gospel and to the Church.

“On behalf of the Irish Bishops’ Conference, and the faithful across Ireland, I extend sympathy to Pope Francis, to the family members and carers of the Pope Emeritus, and to all those in his native Germany and around the globe who loved him and will mourn his loss.

Most Reverend Archbishop Eamon Martin gives a speech at the official opening of the Benburb Priory Library and Museum. .MW4456

“On that rainy day in April 2005, when the entire world had its eyes fixed on the new pope, Pope Benedict XVI described himself as a ‘simple, humble worker in the Lord’s vineyard’.

“As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger he had already been working closely with Pope Saint John Paul II through the final years of the Cold War and the beginning of a new millennium, the fall of communism in central and eastern Europe, growing globalisation and the emergence of an international threat of terrorism.

“During his own pontificate Pope Benedict witnessed powerfully to faith, hope and love – the three theological virtues – about which he wrote profoundly in his encyclical letters: God is Love (Deus caritas est); Saved by Hope (Spe salvi); and, The Light of Faith (Lumen fidei) – which was completed by his successor Pope Francis.

“On a personal level, it was his characteristic humility and gentleness which struck me when I first met him in 2009 while visiting the Vatican as Executive Secretary to the Irish Bishops’ Conference.

“I found him to be calm and softly spoken, kindly and personable, and genuinely interested in the Church in Ireland.

“Having met the Irish bishops in Rome in February 2010, he issued a unique Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland expressing profound sorrow for those grievously wounded by abuse in the Church.

“The then pope called for urgent action to address the legacy of abuse which, he said, has had “such tragic consequences in the lives of victims and their families”, and which has “obscured the light of the Gospel to a degree that not even centuries of persecution succeeded in doing.

“Pope Benedict XVI’s interest in Ireland goes back to his friendship with the late Archbishop Kevin McNamara of Dublin when both were young theology professors.

“Former students of the Pontifical Irish College, Rome, also remember fondly his visit there as cardinal. He often admired the huge contribution of generations of Irish men and women to the Church, and to humanity, and he took a special interest in the work of early Celtic missionaries like Saint Columbanus to the spread the Gospel in Europe and to Europe’s spiritual identity. He followed closely, and prayerfully, the peace process as it matured.

“Although unable to travel to Ireland for the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in 2012, he delivered the key televised address to participating pilgrims.

“His message then, about the Church as communion, recalled his remarkable 2007 Apostolic Exhortation Sacramentum Caritatis in which he speaks of the Holy Eucharist as a mystery to be simultaneously believed, celebrated and lived.

“Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was a person of deep spirituality and prayer, an outstanding apostle of Christ. With his great capacity to listen combined with a personal, discreet charm, the late pope was able to win people to Christ wherever he was: during the World Youth Day celebrations, he attracted the attention of thousands of young people; his encouragement for the World Days of the Sick, World Meetings, and his many travels around the world and meetings with other religious leaders, politicians and academics.

“I remembered his commitment to service when I wrote in early January 2013 to accept my appointment by him as Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh, just one month before he humbly resigned the papacy due to failing health.

“Pope Benedict XVI understood the need and potential for all people of goodwill to work for the realisation of the common good. On social doctrine more broadly, he emphasised that charity must always be rooted in truth in order to be fruitful (see Caritas in Veritate).

“On the eve of his election to the Petrine Ministry, the then Cardinal Ratzinger incisively identified a tendency in society to lapse into ‘a dictatorship of relativism.’ At the same time, his papacy was marked by a commitment to dialogue between faith and reason, between the Church and the modern world, and to ecumenical and interreligious dialogue, as evidenced on his significant apostolic journey to the United Kingdom in 2010.

“In his lifetime, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was an outstanding teacher and academic whose impressive intellectual ability, combined with clarity of expression, made of him one of the greatest theologians of our era. For all his intellectual abilities, he always ensured that the faith was not reduced to academic hair splitting; religion, he emphasised, is not a lofty concept or an ethical ideal; it is rather, an encounter with a person, Jesus Christ. His personal writings on Jesus of Nazareth bear witness to his life’s work to share the Good News of salvation that comes through Christ. In many respects he was similar to the early Bishops and Doctors of the Church, combining great clarity of doctrine with pastoral realism.

“In 2011, declaring the opening of universal Year of Faith, Pope Benedict spoke about how, at baptism we enter the ‘door of faith’ and set out on a journey that lasts a lifetime. Now that his earthly journey has ended, I pray that, by the help of God’s mercy, the saints will go out to meet him and welcome him into his heavenly home. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.”

Church of Ireland Archbishop John McDowell extended his sympathy on behalf of “the Church of Ireland to Archbishop Eamon Martin, and to the bishops, priests, deacons and Roman Catholic people of Ireland on the death of His Holiness Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI”.

He said: “During his visit to the United Kingdom in 2010, Pope Benedict used the occasion of his meeting with the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, to focus on the subject of ecumenism in the context of both greater secularism in wider society and the increasingly multi–faith pattern of belief. For those of us who were present on that occasion in Westminster Abbey, we were fortunate indeed to listen to two European intellectuals and people of deep faith in conversation about the future of European Christianity. It was an unforgettable and encouraging experience.

“On that occasion, His Holiness Pope Benedict also reflected on the work of the Anglican–Roman Catholic International Commission saying: ‘Let us entrust the fruits of that work to the Lord of the harvest, confident that he will bless our friendship with further significant growth’.

“We owe a common debt to him, not least as a Biblical scholar and the unique richness of his exploration of the person of Jesus.

“In the encyclicals Deus caritas est (God is Love), Spe salvi (In Hope We Were Saved) and Caritas in veritate (Charity in Truth), Pope Benedict examined the themes of God’s love, hope and redemption, and the need for an ethical perspective to achieve the common good in global development. As we look around today’s world, these reflections are perhaps more pertinent than ever, filled with a sense of prescience and still calling for response.

“Pope Benedict was manifestly a man of deep spiritual insight combined with a capacity for focused and articulate theological expression. During his life, he combined the role of churchman and theologian with energy, leaving as a legacy a substantive body of published work that stands testament to a Christian scholar of great intelligence and learning.

“His loss will be felt very keenly throughout the Catholic world and my prayers in the coming weeks will be for all who are bereaved and diminished by the passing of a great man and a humble disciple of our common Lord, especially my brothers and sisters in Christ on the island of Ireland.

“Ar dheis Dé go raibh an anam.”

January 1, 2023 | 12:00am

To safeguard P10 trillion assets

MANILA, Philippines — The Governance Commission for GOCCs (GCG) is moving to enforce accountability among government agencies in a bid to safeguard the P10 trillion in assets of the sector.

During the Meeting of the Asia-Pacific Network on Corporate Governance of State-owned Enterprises, the GCG introduced its Anti-Corruption and Integrity Program to the region.

The program aims to focus on procurement, disposition of properties, and bonuses, allowance and incentives of government-owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs).

It ultimately targets to safeguard the P10 trillion total assets of GOCCs and prevent the dissipation and wastage of public funds arising from corruption.

Through the program, the GCG will make GOCC personnel accountable for procurement inefficiency due to corrupt practices.

The GCG will also hold GOCC officers accountable for granting unauthorized allowances, benefits, and incentives in evident bad faith.

Further, the program includes the creation of a GOCC Anti-Corruption Task Force.

The task force will be composed of agencies mandated to ensure good governance and will primarily coordinate for fact-finding that can gather, consolidate, and analyze information to build a solid case against erring GOCC officers and employees.

This will then be submitted to the proper bodies for the prosecution and final determination of administrative, civil, or criminal liability.

The GCG issued its whistleblowing policy for the GOCC sector in 2014 to enable any concerned individual to report and provide information on matters involving the actions of any official or employee.

It was revised in 2016 where GOCCs are then required to establish their own whistleblowing systems.

Under the revised policy, the GCG created an integrity division to serve as the dedicated unit that implements the whistleblowing policy of the GOCC sector.

By Trend

The Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society, with the support of Silk
Way West Airlines Company, held a humanitarian charity event as a
part of the “Winter Miracle 2022” project dedicated to the New
Year. The charity event was held in Khirdalan, Sumgait, Agsu, and
Ismayilli from 29 to 31 December 2022. The project was completed
with the delivery of more than 4 tons of humanitarian food product
aid to 674 individuals from 204 families. It is worthwhile noting
that the aid was sent in boxes of various food weighing more than
20 kg for each family with 3-5 members.

The Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society with a glorious history of
more than a century is the biggest humanitarian organization
functioning in the Republic whose role is identified by state law.
AzRCS bring assistance without any discrimination based on
nationality, gender, race, religious beliefs, class, or political
opinions.

Founded in 2012 in Baku, at the heart of the Silk Way, Silk Way
West Airlines is based at Heydar Aliyev International Airport. The
airline operates hundreds of monthly flights across different
countries via its fleet of 12 dedicated Boeing 747-8F and Boeing
747-400F freighter aircraft. On April 28, 2021, Silk Way West
Airlines signed a strategic fleet expansion agreement with Boeing
for five state-of-the-art 777 Freighters. Later on November 10,
2021, the company signed a purchase agreement for two
state-of-the-art 777-8 Freighters. On June 28, 2022, Silk Way West
Airlines signed an agreement with Airbus for the purchase of two
A350F Freighters.

The airline’s annual cargo turnover exceeds 500,000 tons, while
its growing route network covers over 40 destinations across
America, Europe, the CIS, the Middle East, Central and Eastern
Asia, and the Americas.

The AzRCS prioritizes its digital transformation and launched
the development of the digital donation management system which has
been named “YARDIM.ET”. Within the “YARDIM.ET” digital platform,
your donations are received and processed through platforms such as
HÖP, ASANPay, SMS, MilliÖn, eManat, hesab.az, ePul, bank cards, and
others. The donations received will be mobilized to provide
appropriate humanitarian services to people in need and for
not-for-profit purposes only.

Companies and organizations implementing corporate social
responsibility, as well as sole proprietors and philanthropists,
interested in cooperation with the Azerbaijan Red Crescent Society
may apply at the following address:
[email protected]

The collected donations go towards providing appropriate
humanitarian assistance to people in need and are not used for
commercial purposes.

—

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz

Gujar hua zamana aata nahi dobara…, sung by vocal maestro Lata Mangeshkar, this song from the film Shireen Farhad (1956), once upon a time, used to be an effective tool to remember the bygone days. Then in the era of globalization, songs like old jeans and guitar… with the dance of pop worked like a balm for years to remind us of the days of mohalla ki chhat and college canteen. Today, in the era of social media, the same work is being done with the help of throwbacks, which take cine lovers on a journey of 100-50 years of silver screen, which is becoming a trend to see, understand and share.

Indeed, memories are priceless. Documents and heritage become if kept safe. If attached to the heart, it can become a friend and a lover. This sim-sim of past, history, memories, stories and legends should be explored by both the audience and the director. It gives a different freshness.

Every year in the last five-ten days of December, review, assessment, discussion, brainstorming of important events of the year, like a tradition, has been going on in the media for years, but throwback threads related to cinema, a systematic review Let’s increase the duration many times, due to which there is a feeling of thrill. A common viewer finds himself a time traveler when he sees that religious, devotional and mythological films like Nal Damayanti, Dhruv Charitra, Ratnavali and Savitri Satyavan were made by directors from Italy and France a hundred years ago for an Indian banner. were staying And just think about how difficult it would have been to make films a hundred years ago i.e. in 1922-23 during the British rule. Then there must have been a severe lack of things and experience related to film making. Yes, maybe there was no shortage, only passion and experimentation.

thrill of memory

In the form of period drama or costume drama, the past or its associated memories have been presented in an exciting way. The latest example is producer-director Rohit Shetty’s film Circus, releasing on Christmas this year, in which the memories of the 60s have been preserved in a lavish manner. Let’s see in what form Rohit Shetty is taking the journey of memories of the 60s after 60 years.

The emphasis is on how our life was sixty years from now. How was the society, how was the home-family, friendship etc-etc. When there was no mobile and television was also in very few homes, what was the importance of entertainment. How was the world of news. We all know how Rohit Shetty makes entertaining films. This time, his focus is visible on making the thrill of the past feel in the present, for which he has prepared his quiver from William Shakespeare’s play Comedy of Errors, considered to be an infallible arrow of laughter and humor for centuries.

Actually, it is a matter of six decades ago to say, but there is a lot of difference between then and today’s things. Today, of course, we have innumerable means of getting entertainment every time, everywhere, but you may be surprised that the daily broadcast on television started in the year 1965. Then the population was more than 43 crores, but the number of telephones in the country would have been less than an estimated 10 lakhs. STD service started in India in 1960. Earlier, with the help of the operator, trunk calls were booked for long distance calls.

Talking about telephone, in the voice of Talat Mehsud S. Composed by D. Burman, a song ‘Jalte Hain Jiske Liye…’ from the film Sujata (1959), picturized on actor Sunil Dutt and actress Nutan. In this song of about four and a half minutes, the hero (Sunil Dutt) is telling his heart condition to the inconsolable heroine (Nutan) holding the receiver on the telephone in his romantic style. Going back a further ten years, the song ‘Mere Piya Gaye Rangoon Wahan Se Kiya Hai Telephone…’ from the film Patanga (1949) comes to mind, which has a phone at its centre. You can see how people would have been interested in the phone through films in that era.

Sujata, directed by Bimal Roy, has a place of its own on the scales of excellence, which reached the Cannes Film Festival in 1960. On the one hand this year. The historical film Mughal-e-Azam directed by Asif was released, on the other hand, the film Hum Hindustani depicting the changing India and challenges after independence also came.

Indian cinema was in the last phase of its golden age (1940 to 1960). Film Finance Corporation (FFC) was then established to protect and promote off-beat cinema, so that financial assistance could be given to filmmakers. However, only a decade before this i.e. in 1950, Indian cinema was counted as the second largest film industry in the world, with an annual gross income of $250 million (in 1953).

Let’s see the scope of throwback from seventy to hundred years. Maybe the level of thrill will increase further. That is, if we look at the situation in 1922-23 or that entire decade, we can see how the era of silent films was taking a turn in British India. Entertainment tax on films was first imposed in 1922 (Bengal) and then in Bombay in 1923.

Many other significant things happened throughout this decade. Such as the formation of the Censor Board and the banning of Bhakta Vidur, produced by Kohinoor Film Company and directed by Kanjibhai Rathod, which is said to be the first controversial and banned film. Author Roy Armas, in his book Third World Film Making and the West, mentions that by now the number of film productions and cinemas had nearly doubled and we were overtaking Britain in this area. And then at the end of the decade, when Wall Street crashed, many Hollywood studios started coming to India to explore the possibilities of a golden future in the budding film industry.

a link to the Past

You must have often heard elders saying that when nothing is going well, it is better to sit quietly for a while than to beat hands and feet. One must remember those days of struggle when things were slowly taking shape. If not our own, then the glorious history of our elders teaches us a lot. The Marathi film Harishchandrachi Factory (2009), directed by Paresh Mokashi, which won several domestic and foreign film awards, including the 56th National Film Award, depicts how Dadasaheb Phalke was instrumental in the making of the first Indian film, Raja Harishchandra (1913), to worldwide acclaim. Had to face difficulties and hardships.

Paresh Mokashi’s career began as a backstage artist in theatre. Then after spending a long time in this world as a writer and director, when he started making his first film, Harishchandrachi Factory, he also faced many challenges. Filmmaking was completely new to him as compared to theatre. It took three years to find a producer and arrange money. After repeatedly hearing that the film should be made in Hindi instead of Marathi, take a big star and add music, Mokashi decided to make the film himself and says that he had to mortgage his house for this.

Even if the comparison is not made, it seems at first sight that Phalke and Mokashi had similar problems in making their first film. The productions of independent filmmakers have an incomparable contribution to the prosperity of Indian cinema. There are many such examples before and after the advent of studio culture, when such filmmakers have put their words against the wind. At a time when the economic condition of the Hindi film industry is not the same due to many legitimate and illogical reasons and it is often criticized for its content and presentation, among other things, the promising minds of the film fraternity take a leisurely throwback look at the history of Indian cinema. I should have a look.

Especially the children of those film families, whose past is full of silver-golden jubilee of glorious and successful films. Realizing this, hundred or seventy years ago there were neither the facilities like today nor the scale of success, how would their forefathers have set their feet. Almost everyone started from zero without any training and experience. At that time, our film industry was just learning to walk, then the First World War, the Spanish Flu, the Global Depression and shortly after the Second World War happened, which had a huge impact on many things. But slowly our filmmakers kept moving forward.

It took 18 years to go from the first silent film to the first talkie, Alam Ara (1931), but by then we were in the limelight. Sant Tukaram (1936), made in Marathi language, was the first Indian film to enter an international film festival. It became the first such film which ran continuously in the same cinema hall for a whole year. Suddenly the surroundings were changing very fast. Dance-song musical films started being made, the first color film Kisan Kanya (1937) was made. Even the first film against the background of the film industry was made in Telugu in Vishwa Mohini (1940). And for the coming two decades from here, Indian cinema lived its best phase, which historians call the Golden Age of films.

In fact, reliving the memories of the past here today only means that our film history of more than a hundred years is so rich, full of struggle and creativity that we have to look elsewhere to recover from bad times. Probably not needed. We see how many of our fellow and senior journalist brothers from time to time keep coming face to face with legendary film personalities and unheard stories of the olden times. Recently, in this blog section, lyricist Shailendra was remembered on his 56th death anniversary. The inclusion of Satyajit Ray’s classic film Pather Panchali in the 2022 list of all-time great films by the British magazine Sight & Sound commemorated Ray and the film. Filmmaker Hrishikesh Mukherjee remembered on the occasion of his birth centenary, with reference to Indian cinema and Amitabh Bachchan. In the beginning of the article, the meaning of throwback is that we should not only look back but also stop for a while.

A few days ago, in his address of more than thirty minutes in Kolkata, Mr. Bachchan summarized the history of 110 years of Indian cinema in a very tight manner for the first twenty-two minutes only. He also referred to the film which was shown publicly for the first time in Paris in 1895 and told how our film industry has been able to present its views despite adverse circumstances in these hundred years.

The global crisis revealed by the COVID-19 pandemic and by the wars in the climate crisis scenario has increased inequalities and reaffirmed the limits and failures of the current neoliberal model to respond to the crises and ensure a dignified life for all. Mobilisations are growing around the world to defend public services and stop their sale to the local and international private sectors.
The International Conference “Our Future is Public” brought together in Santiago de Chile, in person and online, from 29 November to 2 December, a thousand associations and networks to develop strategies to strengthen public services, essential to face these crises and realise economic, social and cultural rights. The manifesto that emerged from the Conference, brought together all forces to engage in convergent mobilisations from the micro to the macro level to achieve its goals.

The historical background: The Amsterdam Conference, the attack on the PPP fiasco and the Global Manifesto

The first global conference “The Future is Public. Towards democratic ownership of public services”, Amsterdam, December 2019, convened by social organisations and trade union networks from all continents, was almost prophetic in its timing. On the eve of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, it denounced what would become obvious to all in a few months: the impossibility of the public sector, cutting back by budgetary reductions and privatisations disguised as public-private partnerships, to cope with the pandemic and related crises. The aim was to discuss strategies to put the ‘public’ back into public services.

Why Public-Private Partnerships are still not delivering?

Above all, it was necessary to dismantle the false truths of the fashionable Public-Private Partnership (PPP) that the private sector is more efficient and better placed to deliver public services.
Is this true?

The report by Eurodad (the civil society network defending democratically controlled, fair and human rights-based financial and economic systems) and EPSU (the European Federation of Public Services Unions) identifies eight main reasons why PPPs are unquestionably bad: they do not bring in new money, on the contrary, they create hidden debt, private finance costs more than government borrowing, public authorities still bear the ultimate risk of project failure, PPPs do not guarantee better value for money, efficiency gains and design innovation can result in corner-cutting, PPPs do not guarantee projects being on time or budget, PPP deals are opaque and can contribute to corruption, PPPs distort public policy priorities and force publicly run services to cut costs.

So, what about the much-coveted and promoted public-private partnership? It has proven to be a fiasco.
From this shared awareness comes a strong demand to coordinate mobilisations, underlined by the launch of the Global Civil Society Manifesto on Public Services in October 2021, signed by over 200 organisations, to reclaim and rebuild public services as the foundation of a fair and equitable economy that works for all.

The momentum is building and raising the bar: the international conference “Our Future is Public”, Santiago de Chile from 29/11, 2/12/2022

Responding to the call of a broad network of social and trade union organisations, Global Initiative for Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (GI-ESCR), Public Services International (PSI), Transnational Institute, Tax Justice Network, International Alliance of Inhabitants (IAI), Action Aid and Oxfam, among other, more than 1,000 representatives of social movements and civil society organisations from all over the world, both face-to-face and online, took part in the “Our Future is Public” (OFIP) international conference held in Santiago, Chile, from November 29 to December 2, 2022.

Who are they? They are those who, in recent years, in different roles, have resisted policies based on the single-mindedness of neoliberalism, analysed the consequences of profit extraction on the living flesh of people and the planet, and mobilised against the theft of natural commons, such as water, and social commons, such as health and housing. They are the ones who have helped keep the alternative alive.

Santiago de Chile was chosen because the experience of the Chilean constitutional convention, watched with great attention and hope as a symbol of a new approach to the organisation of societies, made Chile an ideal setting for a global gathering of social movements, civil society actors and academic and political leaders to build and strengthen alliances, exchange ideas and develop strategies to recover public services and democratise the economy. The defeat of the new constitution in the referendum test last September is a cause for reflection, but not discouragement.

The conference was opened by Rosa Pavanelli, PSI general secretary, and Magdalena Sepúlveda, director of GI-ESCR. They stressed the importance of the centrality of public services in making human rights and democracy possible and the role of frontline workers.

The first two days were devoted to sectoral meetings on health, education, agriculture, economic justice and social protection, energy, food systems, housing rights, transport, waste and water; while the last two days were devoted to bringing together all the movements and organisations participating in the conference for a collective discussion on cross-cutting themes, including the climate crisis, gender equality, economic and fiscal justice, and democratic ownership.

Globalisation has given rise to extraordinarily powerful multinational corporations that have penetrated public services by commercialising them, including energy, water and sanitation, health and waste collection and treatment. This is the new form of colonialism.

The rules that govern a globalised world should be made democratically and in the interests of workers and people. Yet some of the most important rules governing globalisation are written in secret, and in the interests of the most powerful people in the world.

For these reasons, it is vital to protect whistleblowers who play a vital role in exposing corruption, and illegal activities such as tax evasion and illicit financial flows. Whistleblowing can save lives, protect the environment and help to stop illicit financial flows in the promotion of government and corporate accountability.

Ending corporate tax avoidance to fund public services

The debate on this issue, fuelled in particular by the Tax Justice Network, has emphasised that a fair tax system is the foundation of quality public services. Yet all over the world, corporations and the mega-rich are avoiding paying their fair share. They siphon off money for schools and hospitals and send it to offshore tax havens. There is more than enough wealth to provide quality public services for all; if corporations and the very rich pay their fair share, and if governments invest and spend wisely instead of privatising for the benefit of corporations and the rich. Without these resources, with an average of eight countries a year facing a debt crisis since 1970, sovereign debt problems are likely to affect most working people in the world at some point in their lives. When it does, it is used to deregulate, privatise, drive down wages and attack trade union rights, cut pensions and social protection, reduce public services and impose austerity.

Getting out of the market to conquer beautiful, adequate, safe and sustainable housing for people and nature.

An innovative articulation concerning other networks was introduced and highlighted by the International Alliance of Inhabitants, based on the finding that the slogan “all owners” has been used to attack the public housing service, favouring the parasitic extraction of real estate rent, the financialisation of the sector and the eviction crisis. Whereas the essence of housing is based on its use value, therefore on an inalienable right that is also protected by international human rights laws ratified by almost all countries. The claim becomes consequential: housing as a right can only exist if there is a public service, a concept highlighted at the International Workshop “Our Magna Cartas and the Right to Housing” Why do modern constitutions include the right to decent housing? and the 8th session of the World Assembly of Inhabitants. For the right to a decent habitat to exist “Our future is public and peace is essential”. Strong reasons to build and strengthen alliances with other organised social sectors, notably Public Services International, Tax Justice Network, and for the right to energy, water and health.

Fighting for a better future: the movement against the commercialisation of care, for quality public healthcare for all

The activities organised by GI-ESCR denounced how commercialisation and financialisation are increasingly present in the healthcare sector for private benefit and profit. Civil society, trade unions and researchers are mobilising globally to reverse this trends in defence of the realisation of the right to health through strong public healthcare services. The UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, Tlaleng Mofokeng, has indicated that she “plans to examine the role played by the privatisation of health care services; including public-private partnerships, aid money and philanthropy, in achieving universal health coverage” as strategic work priorities of her mandate.

The fight against the climate crisis is a fight for system change, starting with workers

The environmental crisis affects public services and their workers, who must be part of the solution and therefore benefit from fair and equitable transition programmes.

On the final day of the conference, David Boys, PSI deputy general secretary, said “We need to protect ourselves from climate change, and figure out as unions how to negotiate for ourselves in this context and invest in public services to be able to respond to climate crises.” He moderated the panel on climate justice, with the participation of Ericka Ñanco, the first Mapuche national deputy from the Araucania region of Chile, who commented “The Mapuche are people of the land, and that is why we have always protected the land. Water is a universal human right. How is it possible that in Chile water is not a universal human right?”; Sebastian Berger, Executive Director of the Global Student Forum; Ndivile Mokoena, a climate and gender activist working with Gender CC Southern Africa in South Africa, emphasised that the climate crisis is leading to a serious food crisis in Africa; and Rodrigo Uprimny, a researcher at the Centre for the Study of Law, Justice and Society.

Quality public services for all are the most important measure of development, and can only be achieved by increasing public investment, improving staffing levels and working conditions, and strengthening public participation in our systems. In particular, as women workers are the driving force behind our public services and the struggle for equality, their work must be recognised and valued equally, and discrimination, abuse and violence in the workplace must be stopped.

Did you say public services?

It is important to understand what public service is. In developed countries, it is or was defined as a mission of general interest carried out by a public body. With, if necessary, prerogatives of public power and subject to a legal regime adapted to the needs of this service, distinguished by:

1. Continuity in space and time due to national unity.
2. Equal access throughout the national territory to services guaranteed by the State.
3. Constant adaptability to the needs of both the State and the citizens. Two other criteria, often neglected, were affirmed later in most countries.
4. Secularity of the public service because the Republic guarantees freedom of conscience and equal treatment of all citizens regardless of their differences of opinion.
5. Public ownership, or at least public control of the capital, is an essential condition for the respect of the general interest.

We conclude that the three main principles among those mentioned are equal access to public services, in particular, the principles of neutrality, secularism, prohibition of discrimination and the principle of continuity, which require that public services operate regularly and that they are accessible to people, i.e., that they can meet the imperative needs of people, not ‘clients’. The principle of continuity will be applied according to the nature of the need. The idea is to rule out the “eclipsing state”.

And it is essential not to confuse “public service” with “public sector”. The term “public sector” refers to organisations, whereas “public service” is used more to define an activity (education, police, justice, etc.)

Does this mean that the public service serves the general interest? For Rousseau, in The Social Contract, public service is the set of duties that citizens owe to the community through their work and their devotion to the country, the reciprocal service of the members of the nation for the interest of all guaranteed by all, as opposed to particular interests. Thus, only the notion of public service overlaps with that of general interest. Everything depends on how this general interest is defined.

The Santiago Declaration, mobilising for a public future, is the only one that can sustain the “Buen Vivir”

The Santiago Conference went further. Indeed, the draft Santiago Declaration, written by many hands based on the hundreds of voices of different colours and shades heard, was an opportunity to update these concepts in light of the contributions of the participants from the global South.
A public future means ensuring that everything essential for a dignified life is removed from private control and placed under decolonial forms of collective, transparent and democratic control. In some contexts, this means decisive local, regional and/or national interventions by the state. In other contexts, it means strengthening people’s organisations, including trade unions, and expanding spaces of autonomy, the commons, and collective and community control over resources. Thus, public-public or public-community partnerships are valued, while at the same time there is strong resistance to public-private partnerships that only serve to extract resources from the public for private interests.

The meeting became an opportunity to see and listen to those who do not share the same realities and to find the similarities that allow us to walk together towards a public future.
Together, against marginalisation and stigmatisation, standing up for everyone, including disabled workers, all sexual orientations and gender identities.

Certainly, there is still work to be done, what has been bound must not be let go and what has been brought forward cannot be taken back as the participants claimed, it is clear that “when we unite and fight together, we win”.

Hindsight is 20/20 yet the red lights were obvious. Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto club for crypto bros was an ill-managed Medusa of companies replete with issues – pooling customer funds alongside its own.

There were little or no administration institutions in place and minimal financial statements were released. However, there were numerous famous figures—loads of well-known personalities. In that regard, FTX had the marketing part nailed.

Yes, we’re looking at you Tom Brady.

With SBF now facing 30 years in prison on multiple federal charges including wire fraud and money laundering. People are wondering how this could have happened and what steps should be taken to prevent it from recurring.

The revelation of the FTX dumpster fire (which amounts to a good old-fashioned Ponzi scheme) has highlighted the fact that many parts of the digital asset industry have been running blind in hazy regulatory zones. Prompting lawmakers and regulators to call for much-needed regulation.

Protecting Customer Assets

Many cryptocurrency companies have failed due to their failure to protect their customers’ assets. FTX, for instance, lent customer funds to its sister company. The hedge fund Alameda Research (conveniently run by SBF’s supposed girlfriend, Caroline Ellison) – which is technically illegal.

Yet, the Securities and Exchange Commission has a rule in place to protect customers’ assets. However, this doesn’t apply to crypto customer accounts as the industry resists registering with the SEC, arguing that tokens do not qualify as securities.

Gary Gensler, SEC Chair and friend of SBF, has a different opinion. So did his predecessor during the Trump administration, Jay Clayton. Both of them recognize the litmus test from the Supreme Court’s ruling in 1946 that states an asset will be prosecuted by the SEC when people finance a firm with the goal to gain more money from the endeavors of its leadership. In other words, nearly all tokens are securities according to the SEC.

According to James Cox, a Duke University law professor specializing in securities law, Congress could significantly address the cryptocurrency landscape by simply classifying most cryptocurrencies as securities. He states that doing so would give the defined assets access to off-the-rack regulatory protocols, as well as common laws surrounding those rules.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has established some rules for crypto derivatives. However, their regulation only applies to swaps and futures — not commodities.

Keep ‘em Separated

Some crypto projects have supplied a wide array of offerings and services that have muddled the rules, adversely impacting customers. Crypto exchanges being the most glaring illustration. These platforms execute various functions, such as market making, trading, custodianship, and securities lending. 

Gensler and his ilk maintain that this system is swarming with contradictions. In stark contrast, typical finance companies that render diverse services usually register their individual business branches under the governing bodies responsible. This must also be practiced in crypto, according to experts.

Open the Books

Exposure to hazards is fundamental to financial direction in US markets. However, these disclosures are mainly non-existent in crypto. Knowledge on dozens of non-US divisions of FTX is almost completely lacking. It is known more about FTX US, the American unit, but determining what still exists is difficult since it was a private company that was privately owned.

Current SEC rules for issuers and financial advisors would decrease the anonymity of crypto, but Congress may have to reinforce them. “I need more knowledge about what created the tokens,” says Reyes from Southern Methodist University, so as to figure out if code writers can control token prices.

Truth in Advertising 

Crypto firms like FTX have thrived by drawing in many individuals through their flashy ads featuring celebrities such as Tampa Bay quarterback Tom Brady and comedian Larry David. This year, crypto businesses aired promotional content during the highly-viewed Super Bowl, which amassed more than 112 million viewers.

The SEC already has regulations forbidding anyone from publicizing securities without divulging how much, if any, payment was received. Notable people such as Kim Kardashian have been fined for

Self-governance Doesn’t Work

One of FTX’s major failings was its complete absence of corporate governance. John Ray III, who is now leading FTX (and also filled a similar role with Enron post-collapse). Warned the Delaware court handling the firm’s insolvency proceedings not to rely on any of their financial statements. Ray also mentioned that most FTX entities had never held board meetings. They were however allegedly very good at stealing investor funds.

Erica Williams, who chairs the SEC’s public accounting board, warned recently that any US government agency cannot legally inspect the audits of private crypto firms such as FTX. In other words, she is suggesting that investors should be wary and ask more questions when dealing with cryptocurrency projects and trading platforms. In effect, the SEC is promoting a buyer-beware program.

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Raipur (Chhattisgarh) [India], December 31 (ANI): The Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) Limited in association with the Artificial Limbs Manufacturing Corporation of India (ALIMCO) distributed aids and assistive devices among specially-abled people in the state capital, Raipur on Friday.

According to a press release issued by REC Limited — a subsidiary of Power Finance Corporation Limited which is under the ownership of the Union Ministry of Power, on Saturday, they (REC Limited) are lending support to ALIMCO for the distribution of assistive devices to specially-abled persons as part of their CSR (Corporate Social responsibility) initiative across the country.

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As a part of their initiative, they organised two camps for distributing aids and appliances to specially-abled persons in two different areas in Raipur on Friday. The first camp was organised in Mana Camp locality in the city whereas the second camp was organised in Adarsh Nagar locality.

On the occasion, they have distributed aid and appliances to the beneficiaries, including children and women in these camps.

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The appliances which were distributed included Braille kits, smart cane, smartphones, motorised tricycles, crutches, wheelchairs etc.

Managing Director of REC Limited Vivek Kumar Dewangan, REC Director (Finance) Ajoy Choudhury, Raipur Collector Dr Sarveshwar Narendra Bhure and other officials of REC Limited, ALIMCO and the district administration were present on occasion.

The company aimed to organise 25 camps at various locations across the country in a span of two years that started in September 2021. So far, they have conducted 19 camps, including the above two held in Raipur. (ANI)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)