On
Bissau, IMF
Focuses on
Cashews &
Cuts to
Industry,
UN on Strikes
& Syrians
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
February 18 --
Guinea
Bissau is
poor and is
getting
poorer, even
as the UN
and
International
Monetary Fund
crank out
reports about
transit
strikes and
cashew prices.
An
IMF team under
Mauricio
Villafuerte
visited Bissau
from February
10
to 13, and has
today
concluded that
"Growth and
fiscal
prospects
for 2014 hinge
on the success
of the cashew
campaign and
external
support. The
mission
highlighted
the importance
of setting
clear
policy
guidelines as
soon as
possible to
avoid the
uncertainty
that
undermined
last year’s
cashew
campaign. In
this context,
the
mission
suggested to
suspend
contributions
toward the
industrialization
program
(FUNPI)."
Meanwhile
UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon's
report on
Guinea Bissau,
to be
formally
issued later
as a document
of the
Security
Council under
the
symbol
S/2014/105,
highlights
strikes by
teachers and
in the
transport
sector, and
that "the drop
in cashew nut
prices in
2013 was one
of the main
shocks for 74
percent of
households."
The
"socio-economic"
section of Ban
Ki-moon report
on Bissau
doesn't
mention the
FUNPI
industrialization
program to
which the IMF
suggests
suspending
contributions.
Industrialization,
we hardly knew
ye.
Ban
Ki-moon's
16-page report
on Guinea
Bissau devotes
two long
paragraphs
to "74
individuals
claiming to be
Syria
nationals who
had
arrived in
Bissau from
Casablanca,
attempted to
board a
commercial
flight to
Lisbon with
fake Turkish
passports...
the air crew
were
allegedly
forced to
transport the
74 individuals
to Lisbon
[where
they]
requested
asylum from
Portugal. The
airline
suspended its
flights to and
from Bissau."
As
an aside,
despite much
European
hand-wringing
about Syria,
the number
of refugees
and asylum
seekers taken
has been
extremely low.
Inner
City Press asked
UNHCR's Syria
coordinator
Amin Awad
about that,
for that video,
from Minute
15:50,
click
here.
Watch this
site.
, 
