World
Quake-ravaged Nepal needs $6,663 mn for reconstruction: Government
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Kathmandu: The cost for reconstruction of the earthquake-ravaged Nepal is approximately $6,663.1 million, according to a Post-Disaster Needs Assessment (PDNA) carried out by the Nepal Planning Commission on Saturday.
Reconstruction of damaged physical infrastructures has become the most difficult task to the Nepal government after two major earthquakes jolted the Himalayan Nation on April 25 and May 12, as per reported.
“Nepal needs approximately $6,663.1 million for brining the country back on track,” the Prime Minister’s Office said in a press release on Friday following a meeting chaired by Nepalese Prime Minister Sushil Koirala, who is also the chairman of the National Planning Commission (NPC).
The commission was all set to make public the Post-Disaster Needs Assessment details in a press conference in the Nepalis Capital Kathmandu on Saturday.
Bringing the dwindling economy back on track would be a very challenging task since the economy was badly affected by the 7.9 magnitude of earthquake that claimed 9,000 lives and leaving 22, 000 people injured. Various sectors including industry, agriculture, tourism, health and education were badly hit.
Setting up a National Reconstruction fund of $2 billion, the Nepali government last month urged the international community to contribute to the fund. The government had provided $200 million as the seed money for the fund.
In view of seeking to support mobilisation of resources for Nepal’s reconstruction, the Nepali government is all set to host a donors’ conference on June 25 in Kathmandu.
“This is going to be a major conference seeking to support mobilization of resources for Nepal’s reconstruction in the aftermath of devastating earthquake and together with its subsequent aftershocks. Our intention is to invite the traditional as well as new partners, UN agencies and other relevant organisations,” Officiating Foreign Secretary Shanker Das Bairagi told Xinhua.
World
Lockdowns in China Force Urban Communities to Defy Censorship and Vent Frustration Online
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Shanghai’s rich middle class is leading a wave of online dissent over the strict and prolonged lockdowns imposed in various parts of the country. Chinese internet censorship is struggling as patience is wearing thin in many urban centers, coming up with creative forms of online protests.
Social Media Posts Revealing Lockdown Tension in Shanghai
Drawn-out lockdowns are nothing new in China as authorities insist with the nation’s zero-Covid policy since the start of the pandemic. Currently over This time around, however, metropolitan areas like Shanghai are increasingly difficult to keep quiet, given that its more than 25 million residents have seen weeks of total isolation along with food shortages and many other service interruptions.
Dozens of towns and reportedly over 300 million Chinese citizens have been affected by lockdowns of different severity. As expected, urban netizens have been most outspoken over their difficulties by finding creative ways to get around state censorship and bans placed on topics, news comments and spontaneous campaigns.
Shanghai residents have been using mobile proxies and hijacking seemingly unrelated hashtags to talk about healthcare issues, delivery failures and the overall severity of their situation. The “positive energy” that the Chinese government wants to transmit during the recent prolonged series of lockdowns does not come naturally to those counting food supplies and online censors are working hard to filter words, trending topics and undesired social media sharing.
WeChat groups and message threads are under constant monitoring. Posts questioning the zero-Covid approach have been quickly deleted, including by leading Chinese health experts like Dr. Zhong Nanshan. Video footage is soon censored and protests and investigations are quickly made to disappear.
Where this has not worked, officials have exposed banners with warnings and outright threats like “watch your own mouth or face punishment”, while drones have been patrolling the city skies. Yet, if anything, this has led to further tensions and unspoken confrontation with Shanghai’s educated and affluent middle class.
Creative Online Solutions Harnessing Civic Energy
Announcements by Chinese social media that they would be publishing the IP addresses of users who “spread rumors” have not helped either. Tech industry research has shown that much of Asia’s tech-savvy population has a habit of using mobile proxies and other privacy tools, quickly finding workarounds to browse the internet freely and talk to the world about the hottest topics.
The sheer volume of forbidden posts is already a challenge for the very censorship system, experts explain. Unable to track all trending hashtags, state workers overlook topics that speak about the US, Ukraine or other popular news. Linking human rights elsewhere to their situation, Chinese online dissidents establish their informal channels and “hijack” the conversation to share personal or publicly relevant information about the Covid suppression in their town.
Sarcastic and satirical posts still dominate. Others hope to evade the censors by replacing words from famous poems or the national anthem. One thing is certain – social media, when harnessed with the right creativity, has proven its ability to mount pressure on the government in even some of the most strictly controlled tech environments like China.