jewworldorder--2020-12-14--Farmer Protests: No solution in sight?

Farmer Protests: No solution in sight?

The Modi government is facing one of the strongest oppositions since it came to power .
And it is not from its biggest rival Congress .
Rather it is from the people that Modi government promised to make the life easy for- the farmers of India .
The seeds of this massive protest were laid on 27th September 2020 when the president gave assent to the three contentious agriculture bills that were earlier passed by the parliament .
The three bills include the Farmer ’ s Produce Trade and Commerce ( Promotion and Facilitation ) Bill , Farmers ( Empowerment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Farm Services Bill and Essential Commodities ( Amendment ) Bill .
The three bills share a common theme making it easy for private players to deal directly with farmers and bypassing the ‘ Mandi ’ system existing at present .
The government believes that the three bills would make it easy for farmers to sell their products outside ‘ Mandis ’ making the market competitive and thus yielding better price for the farmers ’ produce .
Also , the bills are claimed to improve farmer ’ s accessibility to modern technology and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the farmer .
However , the farmers are apprehensive of the motive behind the bills .
The contention is that the bill significantly jeopardizes the position of small and marginal farmers leaving them open to the vagaries of the market driven prices .
A major setback could be the farmers not getting the minimum support price with the concentration of power in the hands of few big private players .
The competitive price offered by private players can drive the APMC mandis out of business putting the farmers at the mercy of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The discrepancy in the Indian farming sector is widely known .
According to agriculture census 2015-16 , small and marginal farmers account for 86.2 % of all farmers is India but they own just 47.3 % of the crop area .
This leaves a considerable proportion of Indian farmers with little negotiation power in front of a large buyer if left in the open market which may further widen the inequalities in the sector .
Further the bill completely removes any regulatory oversight which might be similar to the worrisome experience of dairy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of firms coming with adulterate milk .
Even the APMC deregulation in Bihar in 2006 failed to bring significant changes with farmers in the state who were rather further hamstrung by lack of right information about the prices .
What has been even more worrisome is the response of the government towards the protest .
The attempts to stifle the protest have made the situation worse with agitation gaining widespread support and intensifying the protests to the extent that farmers are looking for nothing less than complete repeal of the law .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that of suppression .
Seeing that it didn ’ t work out , phase 2 is about superficial negotiation .
We have to see what phase 3 holds ” - Kirankumar Vissa ( Farmer rights activist ) It is pretty clear that there are glaring loopholes in the bill that government needs to fix before it can come to the negotiation table .
There is mention of price information in the bill but only as something government may do .
In case the farmers lose access to the indicative prices of the mandis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of alternate mechanism .
Crop diversification hailed as one of the ways for improving the farmer ’ s condition would further be discouraged under the contract farming scheme .
In the past contract farming has led to issues like buyers rejecting the crop citing quality concerns and not paying the full amount .
In the absence of regulatory framework , government needs to chart out a proper mechanism for speedy resolution of the cases related to contract farming .
There is now more than assurance needed from the government ’ s side .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to engage in conversations with the stakeholders and give assurance that the bill will be put on hold till the issues are resolved .
More transparency on the bill and other kinds of support are needed to win the trust of the farmers .
Investments in infrastructure like cold storage needs to be ensured to avoid any repercussion of the dwindling mandi system .
Capital inflows into the value chain and encouraging crop diversification into high value crops should be adopted .
Further , the government can take cues from China ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ small steps such as brining in price and market reforms , setting up rural cooperatives and transferring land rights to farmers .
The proliferation of agri-tech startups can make the life a bit easier and government should encourage the same for the benefit of the farmers .
It is very clear that suppression and rhetoric has not worked in pacifying the protestors .
The way ahead is to win the trust of the farmers and do that with meaningful reforms .
The farmers are longing to return to their fields from the street @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the government ’ s next response how fast and peacefully that happens .

The Modi government is facing one of the strongest oppositions since it came to power. And it is not from its biggest rival Congress. Rather it is from the people that Modi government promised to make the life easy for- the farmers of India.
The seeds of this massive protest were laid on 27th September 2020 when the president gave assent to the three contentious agriculture bills that were earlier passed by the parliament. The three bills include the Farmer’s Produce Trade and Commerce (Promotion and Facilitation) Bill, Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Bill and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Bill. The three bills share a common theme making it easy for private players to deal directly with farmers and bypassing the ‘Mandi’ system existing at present.
The government believes that the three bills would make it easy for farmers to sell their products outside ‘Mandis’ making the market competitive and thus yielding better price for the farmers’ produce. Also, the bills are claimed to improve farmer’s accessibility to modern technology and reduce transportation cost resulting in multifold benefits to the farmer.
However, the farmers are apprehensive of the motive behind the bills. The contention is that the bill significantly jeopardizes the position of small and marginal farmers leaving them open to the vagaries of the market driven prices. A major setback could be the farmers not getting the minimum support price with the concentration of power in the hands of few big private players. The competitive price offered by private players can drive the APMC mandis out of business putting the farmers at the mercy of the private players and contract farming.
The discrepancy in the Indian farming sector is widely known. According to agriculture census 2015-16, small and marginal farmers account for 86.2% of all farmers is India but they own just 47.3% of the crop area. This leaves a considerable proportion of Indian farmers with little negotiation power in front of a large buyer if left in the open market which may further widen the inequalities in the sector. Further the bill completely removes any regulatory oversight which might be similar to the worrisome experience of dairy deregulation in 1991 leading to a number of firms coming with adulterate milk. Even the APMC deregulation in Bihar in 2006 failed to bring significant changes with farmers in the state who were rather further hamstrung by lack of right information about the prices.
What has been even more worrisome is the response of the government towards the protest. The attempts to stifle the protest have made the situation worse with agitation gaining widespread support and intensifying the protests to the extent that farmers are looking for nothing less than complete repeal of the law. “Phase 1 response of the government was that of suppression. Seeing that it didn’t work out, phase 2 is about superficial negotiation. We have to see what phase 3 holds”- Kirankumar Vissa (Farmer rights activist)
It is pretty clear that there are glaring loopholes in the bill that government needs to fix before it can come to the negotiation table. There is mention of price information in the bill but only as something government may do. In case the farmers lose access to the indicative prices of the mandis, government needs to ensure the farmers of alternate mechanism. Crop diversification hailed as one of the ways for improving the farmer’s condition would further be discouraged under the contract farming scheme. In the past contract farming has led to issues like buyers rejecting the crop citing quality concerns and not paying the full amount. In the absence of regulatory framework, government needs to chart out a proper mechanism for speedy resolution of the cases related to contract farming.
There is now more than assurance needed from the government’s side. To start with, the government has to engage in conversations with the stakeholders and give assurance that the bill will be put on hold till the issues are resolved. More transparency on the bill and other kinds of support are needed to win the trust of the farmers. Investments in infrastructure like cold storage needs to be ensured to avoid any repercussion of the dwindling mandi system. Capital inflows into the value chain and encouraging crop diversification into high value crops should be adopted. Further, the government can take cues from China’s successful market liberalization in 1978 by taking small steps such as brining in price and market reforms, setting up rural cooperatives and transferring land rights to farmers. The proliferation of agri-tech startups can make the life a bit easier and government should encourage the same for the benefit of the farmers.
It is very clear that suppression and rhetoric has not worked in pacifying the protestors. The way ahead is to win the trust of the farmers and do that with meaningful reforms. The farmers are longing to return to their fields from the street. Now, it all depends on the government’s next response how fast and peacefully that happens.
Ananta Chhajer, MBA – IIM Ahmedabad (2nd year student)
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jewworldorder--2020-12-14--Explosion hits ship off Saudi Red Sea port of Jiddah

DUBAI , United Arab Emirates ( AP ) — An explosion rocked a ship off Saudi Arabia ’ s port city of Jiddah on the Red Sea , authorities said Monday , without elaborating .
The kingdom did not immediately acknowledge the blast , which struck off a crucial port and distribution center for its oil trade .
Initial reports also offered no cause for the explosion , though it comes after a mine attack last month that damaged a tanker off Saudi Arabia that authorities blamed on Yemen ’ s Houthi rebels .
Get The Times of Israel ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ miss our top stories Free Sign Up The United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations , an organization under Britain ’ s royal navy , said the blast happened Sunday , without elaborating .
It urged ships in the area to exercise caution and said investigations were ongoing .
Saudi Arabia ’ s state-run media did not acknowledge the explosion .
The U.S. Navy ’ s 5th Fleet , which patrols the Mideast , did not immediately respond to a request for comment .
The coordinates offered by the UKMTO put the blast just southwest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the area .
At least two oil tankers were known to be in that area , according to the ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.com — the Desert Rose and Al Amal Al Saudi , or the Hope of Saudi .
Owners for the ships could not be immediately reached .
The apparent explosion comes after a mine exploded and damaged a ship off Saudi Arabia last month .
Another mysterious attack targeted a cargo ship off the small port city of Nishtun in Yemen ’ s far east earlier this month .
Yemen ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mines before in their long war against a Saudi-led coalition .
However , the Houthis have not commented last month ’ s attack .
Dryad Global said if it was the Houthis behind Sunday ’ s blast , it “ would represent a fundamental shift in both targeting capabilities and intent.
” The Red Sea is a vital shipping lane for both cargo and global energy supplies , making any mining of the area a danger not only to Saudi Arabia but to the rest of the world .
Mines can enter the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the currents , which change by the season in the Red Sea .
The Red Sea has been mined previously .
In 1984 , some 19 ships reported striking mines there , with only one ever being recovered and disarmed , the UN panel said .

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An explosion rocked a ship off Saudi Arabia’s port city of Jiddah on the Red Sea, authorities said Monday, without elaborating.
The kingdom did not immediately acknowledge the blast, which struck off a crucial port and distribution center for its oil trade.
Initial reports also offered no cause for the explosion, though it comes after a mine attack last month that damaged a tanker off Saudi Arabia that authorities blamed on Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
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The United Kingdom Marine Trade Operations, an organization under Britain’s royal navy, said the blast happened Sunday, without elaborating. It urged ships in the area to exercise caution and said investigations were ongoing.
Dryad Global, a maritime intelligence firm, also reported the blast.
Saudi Arabia’s state-run media did not acknowledge the explosion. The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols the Mideast, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The coordinates offered by the UKMTO put the blast just southwest of the port near anchorage for ships in the area. At least two oil tankers were known to be in that area, according to the ship-tracking website MarineTraffic.com — the Desert Rose and Al Amal Al Saudi, or the Hope of Saudi. Owners for the ships could not be immediately reached.
The apparent explosion comes after a mine exploded and damaged a ship off Saudi Arabia last month. Another mysterious attack targeted a cargo ship off the small port city of Nishtun in Yemen’s far east earlier this month.
Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have used sea mines before in their long war against a Saudi-led coalition. However, the Houthis have not commented last month’s attack.
Dryad Global said if it was the Houthis behind Sunday’s blast, it “would represent a fundamental shift in both targeting capabilities and intent.”
The Red Sea is a vital shipping lane for both cargo and global energy supplies, making any mining of the area a danger not only to Saudi Arabia but to the rest of the world. Mines can enter the water and then be carried away by the currents, which change by the season in the Red Sea.
The Red Sea has been mined previously. In 1984, some 19 ships reported striking mines there, with only one ever being recovered and disarmed, the UN panel said.


jewworldorder--2020-12-14--Education is the Key to Building a Responsible and Empowered Nation

Education is a very powerful transformative force , provided we first transform education itself .
India has always been a patriarchal , feudalistic society , and even now , it is .
There are certain societal and cultural norms , so deeply rooted in our culture , that a shift in mindset for the better is extremely slow , and sometimes , even close to impossible .
Even today , in the 21st century , we see oppression against women prevails in India in various forms such as female infanticide , female feticide , sexual harassment , rape , domestic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other heinous crimes .
While policy changes , awareness campaigns , sensitization initiatives have been launched by several governmental and non-governmental organizations like NGOs , activists , and private philanthropy foundations , what lies at the root of these issues is a very deeply rooted patriarchal mindset .
Dr. Urvashi Sahni , an Ashoka fellow , a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution in the U.S. , an honorary member of the Clinton Global Initiative , and the winner of the India Social Entrepreneur Award , is extremely passionate about bringing about a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Dr. Sahni is also an educator , social entrepreneur , and a women ’ s rights activist .
In a candid , heart-warming , and extremely inspiring conversation with a few second-year students of IIM Ahmedabad , she talks about the importance of making education broader , wider , and deeper .
Quoting Paulo Freire ’ s Pedagogy of the Youth , “ reading the world before reading the word ” , she says that education is a very strong and powerful personal and social transformative force , provided we first transform @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so fast , and India ’ s rapid growth to become a one of the nations with the highest number of young people , it is imperative for the country to change the way it educates its young .
The nation needs to move towards achieving learning outcomes that have more real-life applications , instead of what it is currently .
Even in larger institutions like engineering and management schools , students are pursuing the goal of earning fat packages and bagging corporate positions , without actually contributing much to the future of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a mindset of leadership and critical thinking , an education system needs to be such , that intrinsically motivates the youth and develops in them a will to lead and serve the nation .
Deep , societal change will only occur when the leaders of the country who serve the people of the nation are not driven by the goal of earning money – which currently is the case , and has been the major reason behind corruption at almost all levels of the government .
Furthering thoughts on the transformative power of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the impact it can have on children of all age groups , genders , castes , and economic sections of the society .
When equality is taught , it should be taught to both boys and girls – says Dr. Sahni .
The psychological and social turn must happen with both boys and girls – where boys treat the girls as their equals , and the girls are aware , and they believe that they are equal to everyone else around them .
Girls in India have one of the highest school @ @ @ @ @ @ @ even .
One of the reasons behind this is that adults ( parents ) are not even aware of the impact education can have on a child ’ s life .
Hence , there is a stronger need to put measures in place for their upliftment .
The change has to come from the grass-roots level says Dr. Sahni , who herself has been working for women empowerment and girls ’ education for over the three decades now .
The current education structure and curriculum of India is sterile in producing critically curious @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the role of education needs to be to empower people to think critically and to question .
Currently , it propagates rote learning and content-based learning , but does not teach children to question existing norms , answer important existential questions , and just to navigate actual life in general .
Education needs to have a strong foundation in social justice , equality , gender , caste , and religion – topics of real importance and sensitivity in a country like India .
According to Dr. Sahni , a deep , structural @ @ @ @ @ @ @ laying high focus on these aspects will enable development of a social , political , and critical perspective in India ’ s youth .
Dr. Sahni has worked in the field of education and women empowerment for over three decades now , and is the founding president and CEO of the Study Hall Educational Foundation ( SHEF ) – which works towards providing affordable and high quality education to disadvantaged girls from urban slums .
In social discourse , there can be several forms in which one can raise their voice or bring @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violent action , protest , community mobilization and many more .
Dr. Sahni proclaims that she has chosen Education as her path and wants to be a Changemaker by making education accessible to as many people as possible and enabling them to be Nation-Builders .
She says – “ Start with small steps towards Change – one person at a time .
Because Change is like a Rubik ’ s Cube – when one person changes , everything around them will have to change.
” Manasi Susarla is currently pursuing an MBA from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She is a strong believer of Equality , and has worked with several organisations in India and abroad for the upliftment of the marginalised and weaker sections of the society .
She has an Undergraduate degree in Journalism and Communication Studies .

Education is a very powerful transformative force, provided we first transform education itself.
India has always been a patriarchal, feudalistic society, and even now, it is. There are certain societal and cultural norms, so deeply rooted in our culture, that a shift in mindset for the better is extremely slow, and sometimes, even close to impossible. Even today, in the 21st century, we see oppression against women prevails in India in various forms such as female infanticide, female feticide, sexual harassment, rape, domestic violence, child trafficking, and many other heinous crimes. While policy changes, awareness campaigns, sensitization initiatives have been launched by several governmental and non-governmental organizations like NGOs, activists, and private philanthropy foundations, what lies at the root of these issues is a very deeply rooted patriarchal mindset.
Reforming Education
Dr. Urvashi Sahni, an Ashoka fellow, a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution in the U.S., an honorary member of the Clinton Global Initiative, and the winner of the India Social Entrepreneur Award, is extremely passionate about bringing about a mindset shift. A feminist at heart, Dr. Sahni is also an educator, social entrepreneur, and a women’s rights activist. In a candid, heart-warming, and extremely inspiring conversation with a few second-year students of IIM Ahmedabad, she talks about the importance of making education broader, wider, and deeper. Quoting Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Youth, “reading the world before reading the word”, she says that education is a very strong and powerful personal and social transformative force, provided we first transform education itself.
With the world changing so fast, and India’s rapid growth to become a one of the nations with the highest number of young people, it is imperative for the country to change the way it educates its young. The nation needs to move towards achieving learning outcomes that have more real-life applications, instead of what it is currently. Even in larger institutions like engineering and management schools, students are pursuing the goal of earning fat packages and bagging corporate positions, without actually contributing much to the future of the nation or the society. Inculcating a mindset of leadership and critical thinking, an education system needs to be such, that intrinsically motivates the youth and develops in them a will to lead and serve the nation. Deep, societal change will only occur when the leaders of the country who serve the people of the nation are not driven by the goal of earning money – which currently is the case, and has been the major reason behind corruption at almost all levels of the government.
Image Source: Brookings.edu
Propagating Gender Studies
Furthering thoughts on the transformative power of education, the conversation also shed light on the impact it can have on children of all age groups, genders, castes, and economic sections of the society. When equality is taught, it should be taught to both boys and girls – says Dr. Sahni. The psychological and social turn must happen with both boys and girls – where boys treat the girls as their equals, and the girls are aware, and they believe that they are equal to everyone else around them.
Girls in India have one of the highest school drop-out rates and are often left unenrolled even. One of the reasons behind this is that adults (parents) are not even aware of the impact education can have on a child’s life. Hence, there is a stronger need to put measures in place for their upliftment. The change has to come from the grass-roots level says Dr. Sahni, who herself has been working for women empowerment and girls’ education for over the three decades now.
Building a Responsible Nation through its Youth
The current education structure and curriculum of India is sterile in producing critically curious and inquisitive minds. Dr. Sahni believes that the role of education needs to be to empower people to think critically and to question. Currently, it propagates rote learning and content-based learning, but does not teach children to question existing norms, answer important existential questions, and just to navigate actual life in general. Education needs to have a strong foundation in social justice, equality, gender, caste, and religion – topics of real importance and sensitivity in a country like India. According to Dr. Sahni, a deep, structural change, along with a reformed curriculum laying high focus on these aspects will enable development of a social, political, and critical perspective in India’s youth.
Dr. Sahni has worked in the field of education and women empowerment for over three decades now, and is the founding president and CEO of the Study Hall Educational Foundation (SHEF) – which works towards providing affordable and high quality education to disadvantaged girls from urban slums. In social discourse, there can be several forms in which one can raise their voice or bring about a change – these could be violent action, protest, community mobilization and many more. Dr. Sahni proclaims that she has chosen Education as her path and wants to be a Changemaker by making education accessible to as many people as possible and enabling them to be Nation-Builders. She says – “Start with small steps towards Change – one person at a time. Because Change is like a Rubik’s Cube – when one person changes, everything around them will have to change.”
Resources
Manasi Susarla is currently pursuing an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. She is a strong believer of Equality, and has worked with several organisations in India and abroad for the upliftment of the marginalised and weaker sections of the society. She has an Undergraduate degree in Journalism and Communication Studies.
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jewworldorder--2020-12-14--Jerusalem’s Jaffa Gate battles to become the Old City’s main portal

Haaretz.com , the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel , and analysis from Israel and the Middle East

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News and Partnerships Life and Culture Columnists and Opinion Haaretz Heb and TheMarker
Haaretz.com, the online edition of Haaretz Newspaper in Israel, and analysis from Israel and the Middle East
© Haaretz Daily Newspaper Ltd. All Rights Reserved


jewworldorder--2020-12-16--It’s Official: Fish Feel Pain

It’s Official: Fish Feel Pain

When Culum Brown was a young boy , he and his grandmother frequented a park near her home in Melbourne , Australia .
He was fascinated by the park ’ s large ornamental pond wriggling with goldfish , mosquitofish , and loaches .
Brown would walk the perimeter of the pond , peering into the translucent shallows to gaze at the fish .
One day , he and his grandmother arrived at the park and discovered that the pond had been drained—something the parks department apparently did every few years .
Heaps of fish flapped upon the exposed bed , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from one trash can to another , searching through them and collecting whatever discarded containers he could find—mostly plastic soda bottles .
He filled the bottles at drinking fountains and corralled several fish into each one .
He pushed other stranded fish toward regions of the pond where some water remained .
“ I was frantic , running around like a lunatic , trying to save these animals , ” recalls Brown , who is now a marine biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney .
Ultimately , he managed to rescue hundreds of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ adopted .
Some of them lived in his home aquariums for more than 10 years .
As a child , I too kept fish .
My very first pets were two goldfish , bright as newly minted pennies , in an unornamented glass bowl the size of a cantaloupe .
They died within a few weeks .
I later upgraded to a 40-liter tank lined with rainbow gravel and a few plastic plants .
Inside I kept various small fish : neon tetras with bands of fluorescent blue and red , guppies with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and glass catfish so diaphanous they seemed nothing more than silver-crowned spinal columns darting through the water .
Most of these fish lived much longer than the goldfish , but some of them had a habit of leaping in ecstatic arcs straight through the gaps in the tank ’ s cover and onto the living room floor .
My family and I would find them flopping behind the TV , cocooned in dust and lint .
Should we care how fish feel ?
In his 1789 treatise An Introduction to the Principles of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bentham—who developed the theory of utilitarianism ( essentially , the greatest good for the greatest number of individuals ) —articulated an idea that has been central to debates about animal welfare ever since .
When considering our ethical obligations to other animals , Bentham wrote , the most important question is not , “ Can they reason ?
nor , Can they talk ?
but , Can they suffer ?
” Conventional wisdom has long held that fish can not —that they do not feel pain .
An exchange in a 1977 issue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ argument .
In response to a 13-year-old girl ’ s letter about whether fish suffer when caught , the writer and fisherman Ed Zern first accuses her of having a parent or teacher write the letter because it is so well composed .
He then explains that “ fish don ’ t feel pain the way you do when you skin your knee or stub your toe or have a toothache , because their nervous systems are much simpler .
I ’ m not really sure they feel anypain , as we feel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ kind of ‘ fish pain.
’ ” Ultimately , whatever primitive suffering they endure is irrelevant , he continues , because it ’ s all part of the great food chain and , besides , “ if something or somebody ever stops us from fishing , we ’ ll suffer terribly.
” Such logic is still prevalent today .
In 2014 , BBC Newsnight invited Penn State University biologist Victoria Braithwaite to discuss fish pain and welfare with Bertie Armstrong , head of the Scottish Fishermen ’ s Federation .
Armstrong dismissed the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ cranky ” and insisted that “ the balance of scientific evidence is that fish do not feel pain as we do.
” That ’ s not quite true , Braithwaite says .
It is impossible to definitively know whether another creature ’ s subjective experience is like our own .
But that is beside the point .
We do not know whether cats , dogs , lab animals , chickens , and cattle feel pain the way we do , yet we still afford them increasingly humane treatment and legal protections because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In the past 15 years , Braithwaite and other fish biologists around the world have produced substantial evidence that , just like mammals and birds , fish also experience conscious pain .
“ More and more people are willing to accept the facts , ” Braithwaite says .
“ Fish do feel pain .
It ’ s likely different from what humans feel , but it is still a kind of pain.
” At the anatomical level , fish have neurons known as nociceptors , which detect potential harm , such as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ caustic chemicals .
Fish produce the same opioids—the body ’ s innate painkillers—that mammals do .
And their brain activity during injury is analogous to that in terrestrial vertebrates : sticking a pin into goldfish or rainbow trout , just behind their gills , stimulates nociceptors and a cascade of electrical activity that surges toward brain regions essential for conscious sensory perceptions ( such as the cerebellum , tectum , and telencephalon ) , not just the hindbrain and brainstem , which are responsible for reflexes and impulses .
Fish also behave in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In one study , researchers dropped clusters of brightly colored Lego blocks into tanks containing rainbow trout .
Trout typically avoid an unfamiliar object suddenly introduced to their environment in case it ’ s dangerous .
But when scientists gave the rainbow trout a painful injection of acetic acid , they were much less likely to exhibit these defensive behaviors , presumably because they were distracted by their own suffering .
In contrast , fish injected with both acid and morphine maintained their usual caution .
Like all analgesics , morphine dulls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nothing to remove the source of pain itself , suggesting that the fish ’ s behavior reflected their mental state , not mere physiology .
If the fish were reflexively responding to the presence of caustic acid , as opposed to consciously experiencing pain , then the morphine should not have made a difference .
In another study , rainbow trout that received injections of acetic acid in their lips began to breathe more quickly , rocked back and forth on the bottom of the tank , rubbed their lips against the gravel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and took more than twice as long to resume feeding as fish injected with benign saline .
Fish injected with both acid and morphine also showed some of these unusual behaviors , but to a much lesser extent , whereas fish injected with saline never behaved oddly .
Several years ago , Lynne Sneddon , a University of Liverpool biologist and one of the world ’ s foremost experts on fish pain , began conducting a set of particularly intriguing experiments ; so far , only some of the results have been published @ @ @ @ @ @ @ zebrafish the choice between two aquariums : one completely barren , the other containing gravel , a plant , and a view of other fish .
They consistently preferred to spend time in the livelier , decorated chamber .
When some fish were injected with acid , however , and the bleak aquarium was flooded with pain-numbing lidocaine , they switched their preference , abandoning the enriched tank .
Sneddon repeated this study with one change : rather than suffusing the boring aquarium with painkiller , she injected it straight into the fish @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take it with them wherever they swam .
The fish remained among the gravel and greenery .
The collective evidence is now robust enough that biologists and veterinarians increasingly accept fish pain as a reality .
“ It ’ s changed so much , ” Sneddon says , reflecting on her experiences speaking to both scientists and the general public .
“ Back in 2003 , when I gave talks , I would ask , ‘ Who believes fish can feel pain ?
’ Just one or two hands would go up .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ much everyone puts their hands up.
” In 2013 , the American Veterinary Medical Association published new guidelines for the euthanasia of animals , which included the following statements : “ Suggestions that finfish responses to pain merely represent simple reflexes have been refuted .
… the preponderance of accumulated evidence supports the position that finfish should be accorded the same considerations as terrestrial vertebrates in regard to relief from pain.
” Yet this scientific consensus has not permeated public perception .
Google “ do fish feel pain ” and you plunge yourself @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They don ’ t , says one headline .
They do , says another .
Other sources claim there ’ s a convoluted debate raging between scientists .
In truth , that level of ambiguity and disagreement no longer exists in the scientific community .
In 2016 , University of Queensland professor Brian Key published an article titled “ Why fish do not feel pain ” in Animal Sentience : An Interdisciplinary Journal on Animal Feeling .
So far , Key ’ s article has provoked more than 40 responses from scientists around @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reject his conclusions .
Key is one of the most vociferous critics of the idea that fish can consciously suffer ; the other is James D. Rose , a professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Wyoming and an avid fisherman who has written for the pro-angling publication Angling Matters .
The thrust of their argument is that the studies ostensibly demonstrating pain in fish are poorly designed and , more fundamentally , that fish lack brains complex enough to generate a subjective experience of pain .
In particular , they stress @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of large , dense , undulating cerebral cortices that humans , primates , and certain other mammals possess .
The cortex , which envelops the rest of the brain like bark , is thought to be crucial for sensory perceptions and consciousness .
Some of the critiques published by Key and Rose are valid , particularly on the subject of methodological flaws .
A few studies in the growing literature on fish pain do not properly distinguish between a reflexive response to injury and a probable experience of pain , and some researchers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ efforts .
At this point , however , such studies are in the minority .
Many experiments have confirmed the early work of Braithwaite and Sneddon .
Moreover , the notion that fish do not have the cerebral complexity to feel pain is decidedly antiquated .
Scientists agree that most , if not all , vertebrates ( as well as some invertebrates ) are conscious and that a cerebral cortex as swollen as our own is not a prerequisite for a subjective experience of the world .
The planet contains a multitude of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and elongated , as small as poppy seeds and as large as watermelons ; different animal lineages have independently conjured similar mental abilities from very different neural machines .
A mind does not have to be human to suffer .
Despite the evidence of conscious suffering in fish , they are not typically afforded the kind of legal protections given to farm animals , lab animals , and pets in many countries around the world .
The United Kingdom has some of the most progressive animal welfare legislation , which typically covers all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , animal welfare laws are more piecemeal , varying from one state or province to another ; some protect fish , some don ’ t .
Japan ’ s relevant legislation largely neglects fish .
China has very few substantive animal welfare laws of any kind .
And in the United States , the Animal Welfare Act protects most warm-blooded animals used in research and sold as pets , but excludes fish , amphibians , and reptiles .
Yet the sheer number of fish killed for food and bred for pet stores dwarfs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and reptiles .
Annually , about 70 billion land animals are killed for food around the world .
That number includes chickens , other poultry , and all forms of livestock .
In contrast , an estimated 10 to 100 billion farmed fish are killed globally every year , and about another one to three trillion fish are caught from the wild .
The number of fish killed each year far exceeds the number of people who have ever existed on Earth .
“ We have largely thought of fish as very @ @ @ @ @ @ @ didn ’ t really care how we killed them , ” Braithwaite says .
“ If we look at trawl netting , that ’ s a pretty gruesome way for fish to die : the barometric trauma of getting ripped from the ocean into open air , and then slowly suffocating .
Can we do that more humanely ?
Yes .
Should we ?
Probably , yes .
We ’ re mostly not doing it at the moment because it ’ s more expensive to kill fish humanely , especially in the wild.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United Kingdom and Norway , fish farms have largely adopted humane slaughter methods .
Instead of suffocating fish in air—the easiest and historically the most common practice—or freezing them to death in ice water , or poisoning them with carbon dioxide , they render fish unconscious with either a quick blow to the head or strong electrical currents , then pierce their brains or bleed them out .
In Norway , Hanne Digre and her colleagues at the research organization SINTEF have brought these techniques onto commercial fishing vessels on a trial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ feasible out at sea .
In a series of experiments , Digre and her colleagues tested different open-sea slaughter methods on a variety of species .
They found that cod and haddock stored in dry bins on ships after harvest remained conscious for at least two hours .
An electric shock delivered immediately after bringing fish onto a ship could knock them unconscious , but only if the current was strong enough .
If the electric shock was too weak , the fish were merely immobilized .
Some species , such as saithe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ bleed internally when shocked ; others , such as cod , struggled much less .
Some fish regained consciousness about 10 minutes after being stunned , so the researchers recommend cutting their throats within 30 seconds of an electric shock .
In the United States , two brothers are pioneering a new kind of humane fishing .
In fall of 2016 , Michael and Patrick Burns , both longtime fishermen and cattle ranchers , launched a unique fishing vessel named Blue North .
The 58-meter boat , which can carry about 750 tonnes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in harvesting Pacific cod from the Bering Sea .
The crew works within a temperature-controlled room in the middle of the boat , which houses a moon pool—a hole through which they haul up fish one at a time .
This sanctuary protects the crew from the elements and gives them much more control over the act of fishing than they would have on an ordinary vessel .
Within seconds of bringing a fish to the surface , the crew moves it to a stun table that renders the animal unconscious with about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fish are then bled .
The Burns brothers were initially inspired by groundbreaking research on humane slaughter facilities for livestock conducted by Colorado State University animal science professor and internationally renowned autism spokesperson Temple Grandin .
By considering the perspectives of the animals themselves , Grandin ’ s innovative designs greatly reduced stress , panic , and injury in cattle being herded toward an abattoir , while simultaneously making the whole process more efficient for ranchers .
“ One day it occurred to me , why couldn ’ t we take some of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fishing industry ?
Michael recalls .
Inspired by moon pools on Norwegian fishing vessels , and the use of electrical stunning in various forms of animal husbandry , they designed Blue North .
Michael thinks his new ship is one of perhaps two vessels in the world to consistently use electrical stunning on wild-caught fish .
“ We believe that fish are sentient beings , that they do experience panic and stress , ” he says .
“ We have come up with a method to stop that.
” Right now , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to Japan , China , France , Spain , Denmark , and Norway .
The fact that the fish are humanely harvested has not been a big draw for their main buyers , Michael says , but he expects that will change .
He and his team have been speaking with various animal welfare organizations to develop new standards and certifications for humanely caught wild fish .
“ It will become more common , ” Michael says .
“ A lot of people out there are concerned with where their food comes from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Meanwhile , the vast majority of the trillions of fish slaughtered annually are killed in ways that likely cause them immense pain .
The truth is that even the adoption of humane slaughter methods in more progressive countries has not been entirely or even primarily motivated by ethics .
Rather , such changes are driven by profit .
Studies have shown that reducing stress in farmed and caught fish , killing them swiftly and efficiently with minimal struggle , improves the quality of the meat that eventually makes it to market .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ smoother and less blemished .
When we treat fish well , we don ’ t really do it for their sake ; we do it for ours .
“ I ’ ve always had a natural empathy for animals and had no reason to exclude fish , ” Brown says .
“ At that park [ in Melbourne ] , they didn ’ t have any concern that there were fish in there and they might need some water .
There was no attempt to save them or house them whatsoever .
I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and I still see that kind of callous disregard for fish in people today in all sorts of contexts .
In all the time since we discovered the first evidence for pain in fish , I don ’ t think public perception has moved an ounce.
” Lately , I ’ ve been spending a lot of time at my local pet stores , watching the fish .
They move restlessly , noiselessly—leglessly pacing from one side of their tanks to another .
Some hang in the water , heads tilted up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ line .
A glint of scales draws my attention ; an unexpected swatch of color .
I try to look one in the eye—a depthless disc of obsidian .
Its mouth moves so mechanically , like a sliding door stuck in a loop .
I look at these fish , I enjoy looking at them , I do not wish them any harm ; yet I almost never wonder what they are thinking or feeling .
Fish are our direct evolutionary ancestors .
They are the original vertebrates , the scaly , stubby-limbed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sea and colonized the land .
So many gulfs separate us now : geographical , anatomical , psychological .
We can understand , rationally , the overwhelming evidence for fish sentience .
But the facts are not enough .
Genuinely pitying a fish seems to require an Olympian feat of empathy .
Perhaps , though , our typical interactions with fish—the placid pet in a glass puddle , or the garnished filet on a plate—are too circumscribed to reveal a capacity for suffering .
I recently learned of a culinary tradition , still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ eating the raw flesh of a living fish .
You can find videos online .
In one , a chef covers a fish ’ s face with a cloth and holds it down as he shaves off its scales with something like a crude cheese grater .
He begins to slice the fish lengthwise with a large knife , but the creature leaps violently from his grasp and somersaults into a nearby sink .
The chef reclaims the fish and continues slicing away both its flanks .
Blood as dark as pomegranate juice @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a bowl of ice water as he prepares the sashimi .
The whole fish will be served on a plate with shaved daikon and shiso leaves , rectangular chunks of its flesh piled neatly in its hollowed side , its mouth and gills still flapping , and the occasional shudder rippling across the length of its body .

When Culum Brown was a young boy, he and his grandmother frequented a park near her home in Melbourne, Australia. He was fascinated by the park’s large ornamental pond wriggling with goldfish, mosquitofish, and loaches. Brown would walk the perimeter of the pond, peering into the translucent shallows to gaze at the fish. One day, he and his grandmother arrived at the park and discovered that the pond had been drained—something the parks department apparently did every few years. Heaps of fish flapped upon the exposed bed, suffocating in the sun.
Brown raced from one trash can to another, searching through them and collecting whatever discarded containers he could find—mostly plastic soda bottles. He filled the bottles at drinking fountains and corralled several fish into each one. He pushed other stranded fish toward regions of the pond where some water remained. “I was frantic, running around like a lunatic, trying to save these animals,” recalls Brown, who is now a marine biologist at Macquarie University in Sydney. Ultimately, he managed to rescue hundreds of fish, about 60 of which he adopted. Some of them lived in his home aquariums for more than 10 years.
As a child, I too kept fish. My very first pets were two goldfish, bright as newly minted pennies, in an unornamented glass bowl the size of a cantaloupe. They died within a few weeks. I later upgraded to a 40-liter tank lined with rainbow gravel and a few plastic plants. Inside I kept various small fish: neon tetras with bands of fluorescent blue and red, guppies with bold billowing tails like solar flares, and glass catfish so diaphanous they seemed nothing more than silver-crowned spinal columns darting through the water. Most of these fish lived much longer than the goldfish, but some of them had a habit of leaping in ecstatic arcs straight through the gaps in the tank’s cover and onto the living room floor. My family and I would find them flopping behind the TV, cocooned in dust and lint.
Should we care how fish feel? In his 1789 treatise An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation, English philosopher Jeremy Bentham—who developed the theory of utilitarianism (essentially, the greatest good for the greatest number of individuals)—articulated an idea that has been central to debates about animal welfare ever since. When considering our ethical obligations to other animals, Bentham wrote, the most important question is not, “Can they reason? nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer?” Conventional wisdom has long held that fish cannot—that they do not feel pain. An exchange in a 1977 issue of Field & Stream exemplifies the typical argument. In response to a 13-year-old girl’s letter about whether fish suffer when caught, the writer and fisherman Ed Zern first accuses her of having a parent or teacher write the letter because it is so well composed. He then explains that “fish don’t feel pain the way you do when you skin your knee or stub your toe or have a toothache, because their nervous systems are much simpler. I’m not really sure they feel anypain, as we feel pain, but probably they feel a kind of ‘fish pain.’” Ultimately, whatever primitive suffering they endure is irrelevant, he continues, because it’s all part of the great food chain and, besides, “if something or somebody ever stops us from fishing, we’ll suffer terribly.”
Such logic is still prevalent today. In 2014, BBC Newsnight invited Penn State University biologist Victoria Braithwaite to discuss fish pain and welfare with Bertie Armstrong, head of the Scottish Fishermen’s Federation. Armstrong dismissed the notion that fish deserve welfare laws as “cranky” and insisted that “the balance of scientific evidence is that fish do not feel pain as we do.”
That’s not quite true, Braithwaite says. It is impossible to definitively know whether another creature’s subjective experience is like our own. But that is beside the point. We do not know whether cats, dogs, lab animals, chickens, and cattle feel pain the way we do, yet we still afford them increasingly humane treatment and legal protections because they have demonstrated an ability to suffer. In the past 15 years, Braithwaite and other fish biologists around the world have produced substantial evidence that, just like mammals and birds, fish also experience conscious pain. “More and more people are willing to accept the facts,” Braithwaite says. “Fish do feel pain. It’s likely different from what humans feel, but it is still a kind of pain.”
At the anatomical level, fish have neurons known as nociceptors, which detect potential harm, such as high temperatures, intense pressure, and caustic chemicals. Fish produce the same opioids—the body’s innate painkillers—that mammals do. And their brain activity during injury is analogous to that in terrestrial vertebrates: sticking a pin into goldfish or rainbow trout, just behind their gills, stimulates nociceptors and a cascade of electrical activity that surges toward brain regions essential for conscious sensory perceptions (such as the cerebellum, tectum, and telencephalon), not just the hindbrain and brainstem, which are responsible for reflexes and impulses.
Fish also behave in ways that indicate they consciously experience pain. In one study, researchers dropped clusters of brightly colored Lego blocks into tanks containing rainbow trout. Trout typically avoid an unfamiliar object suddenly introduced to their environment in case it’s dangerous. But when scientists gave the rainbow trout a painful injection of acetic acid, they were much less likely to exhibit these defensive behaviors, presumably because they were distracted by their own suffering. In contrast, fish injected with both acid and morphine maintained their usual caution. Like all analgesics, morphine dulls the experience of pain, but does nothing to remove the source of pain itself, suggesting that the fish’s behavior reflected their mental state, not mere physiology. If the fish were reflexively responding to the presence of caustic acid, as opposed to consciously experiencing pain, then the morphine should not have made a difference.
In another study, rainbow trout that received injections of acetic acid in their lips began to breathe more quickly, rocked back and forth on the bottom of the tank, rubbed their lips against the gravel and the side of the tank, and took more than twice as long to resume feeding as fish injected with benign saline. Fish injected with both acid and morphine also showed some of these unusual behaviors, but to a much lesser extent, whereas fish injected with saline never behaved oddly.
Several years ago, Lynne Sneddon, a University of Liverpool biologist and one of the world’s foremost experts on fish pain, began conducting a set of particularly intriguing experiments; so far, only some of the results have been published. In one test, she gave zebrafish the choice between two aquariums: one completely barren, the other containing gravel, a plant, and a view of other fish. They consistently preferred to spend time in the livelier, decorated chamber. When some fish were injected with acid, however, and the bleak aquarium was flooded with pain-numbing lidocaine, they switched their preference, abandoning the enriched tank. Sneddon repeated this study with one change: rather than suffusing the boring aquarium with painkiller, she injected it straight into the fish’s bodies, so they could take it with them wherever they swam. The fish remained among the gravel and greenery.
The collective evidence is now robust enough that biologists and veterinarians increasingly accept fish pain as a reality. “It’s changed so much,” Sneddon says, reflecting on her experiences speaking to both scientists and the general public. “Back in 2003, when I gave talks, I would ask, ‘Who believes fish can feel pain?’ Just one or two hands would go up. Now you ask the room and pretty much everyone puts their hands up.” In 2013, the American Veterinary Medical Association published new guidelines for the euthanasia of animals, which included the following statements: “Suggestions that finfish responses to pain merely represent simple reflexes have been refuted. … the preponderance of accumulated evidence supports the position that finfish should be accorded the same considerations as terrestrial vertebrates in regard to relief from pain.”
Yet this scientific consensus has not permeated public perception. Google “do fish feel pain” and you plunge yourself into a morass of conflicting messages. They don’t, says one headline. They do, says another. Other sources claim there’s a convoluted debate raging between scientists. In truth, that level of ambiguity and disagreement no longer exists in the scientific community. In 2016, University of Queensland professor Brian Key published an article titled “Why fish do not feel pain” in Animal Sentience: An Interdisciplinary Journal on Animal Feeling. So far, Key’s article has provoked more than 40 responses from scientists around the world, almost all of whom reject his conclusions.
Key is one of the most vociferous critics of the idea that fish can consciously suffer; the other is James D. Rose, a professor emeritus of zoology at the University of Wyoming and an avid fisherman who has written for the pro-angling publication Angling Matters. The thrust of their argument is that the studies ostensibly demonstrating pain in fish are poorly designed and, more fundamentally, that fish lack brains complex enough to generate a subjective experience of pain. In particular, they stress that fish do not have the kind of large, dense, undulating cerebral cortices that humans, primates, and certain other mammals possess. The cortex, which envelops the rest of the brain like bark, is thought to be crucial for sensory perceptions and consciousness.
Some of the critiques published by Key and Rose are valid, particularly on the subject of methodological flaws. A few studies in the growing literature on fish pain do not properly distinguish between a reflexive response to injury and a probable experience of pain, and some researchers have overstated the significance of these flawed efforts. At this point, however, such studies are in the minority. Many experiments have confirmed the early work of Braithwaite and Sneddon.
Moreover, the notion that fish do not have the cerebral complexity to feel pain is decidedly antiquated. Scientists agree that most, if not all, vertebrates (as well as some invertebrates) are conscious and that a cerebral cortex as swollen as our own is not a prerequisite for a subjective experience of the world. The planet contains a multitude of brains, dense and spongy, globular and elongated, as small as poppy seeds and as large as watermelons; different animal lineages have independently conjured similar mental abilities from very different neural machines. A mind does not have to be human to suffer.
Despite the evidence of conscious suffering in fish, they are not typically afforded the kind of legal protections given to farm animals, lab animals, and pets in many countries around the world. The United Kingdom has some of the most progressive animal welfare legislation, which typically covers all nonhuman vertebrates. In Canada and Australia, animal welfare laws are more piecemeal, varying from one state or province to another; some protect fish, some don’t. Japan’s relevant legislation largely neglects fish. China has very few substantive animal welfare laws of any kind. And in the United States, the Animal Welfare Act protects most warm-blooded animals used in research and sold as pets, but excludes fish, amphibians, and reptiles. Yet the sheer number of fish killed for food and bred for pet stores dwarfs the corresponding numbers of mammals, birds, and reptiles. Annually, about 70 billion land animals are killed for food around the world. That number includes chickens, other poultry, and all forms of livestock. In contrast, an estimated 10 to 100 billion farmed fish are killed globally every year, and about another one to three trillion fish are caught from the wild. The number of fish killed each year far exceeds the number of people who have ever existed on Earth.
“We have largely thought of fish as very alien and very simple, so we didn’t really care how we killed them,” Braithwaite says. “If we look at trawl netting, that’s a pretty gruesome way for fish to die: the barometric trauma of getting ripped from the ocean into open air, and then slowly suffocating. Can we do that more humanely? Yes. Should we? Probably, yes. We’re mostly not doing it at the moment because it’s more expensive to kill fish humanely, especially in the wild.”
**********
In some countries, such as the United Kingdom and Norway, fish farms have largely adopted humane slaughter methods. Instead of suffocating fish in air—the easiest and historically the most common practice—or freezing them to death in ice water, or poisoning them with carbon dioxide, they render fish unconscious with either a quick blow to the head or strong electrical currents, then pierce their brains or bleed them out. In Norway, Hanne Digre and her colleagues at the research organization SINTEF have brought these techniques onto commercial fishing vessels on a trial basis to investigate whether humane slaughter is feasible out at sea.
In a series of experiments, Digre and her colleagues tested different open-sea slaughter methods on a variety of species. They found that cod and haddock stored in dry bins on ships after harvest remained conscious for at least two hours. An electric shock delivered immediately after bringing fish onto a ship could knock them unconscious, but only if the current was strong enough. If the electric shock was too weak, the fish were merely immobilized. Some species, such as saithe, tended to break their spines and bleed internally when shocked; others, such as cod, struggled much less. Some fish regained consciousness about 10 minutes after being stunned, so the researchers recommend cutting their throats within 30 seconds of an electric shock.
In the United States, two brothers are pioneering a new kind of humane fishing. In fall of 2016, Michael and Patrick Burns, both longtime fishermen and cattle ranchers, launched a unique fishing vessel named Blue North. The 58-meter boat, which can carry about 750 tonnes and a crew of 26, specializes in harvesting Pacific cod from the Bering Sea. The crew works within a temperature-controlled room in the middle of the boat, which houses a moon pool—a hole through which they haul up fish one at a time. This sanctuary protects the crew from the elements and gives them much more control over the act of fishing than they would have on an ordinary vessel. Within seconds of bringing a fish to the surface, the crew moves it to a stun table that renders the animal unconscious with about 10 volts of direct current. The fish are then bled.
The Burns brothers were initially inspired by groundbreaking research on humane slaughter facilities for livestock conducted by Colorado State University animal science professor and internationally renowned autism spokesperson Temple Grandin. By considering the perspectives of the animals themselves, Grandin’s innovative designs greatly reduced stress, panic, and injury in cattle being herded toward an abattoir, while simultaneously making the whole process more efficient for ranchers. “One day it occurred to me, why couldn’t we take some of those principles and apply them to the fishing industry? Michael recalls. Inspired by moon pools on Norwegian fishing vessels, and the use of electrical stunning in various forms of animal husbandry, they designed Blue North. Michael thinks his new ship is one of perhaps two vessels in the world to consistently use electrical stunning on wild-caught fish. “We believe that fish are sentient beings, that they do experience panic and stress,” he says. “We have come up with a method to stop that.”


jewworldorder--2020-12-16--Manufacturing of refrigerators, freezers increases 29%

TEHRAN- The manufacturing of refrigerators and freezers has increased 29.2 percent in Iran during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year ( March 20-November 20 ) , compared to the same period of time in the past year , according to the data released by Industry , Mining and Trade Ministry .
The ministry ’ s data show that 1.334 million sets of the mentioned products have been manufactured in the eight-month period .
Keyvan Gardan , the director for the electrical and metals industries and home appliances office of the ministry , put the annual production @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the past Iranian year .
The official further stated , “ Following the policies of Resistance Economy , the Ministry of Industry , Mining and Trade has defined a path for the development of domestic industry , and we will pass this way with our all-out efforts.
” He said that 500 production units with an annual turnover of $ 6 billion are currently active in the field of home appliances throughout the country .
In early July , Hamidreza Ghaznavi , the spokesman of Iran ’ s Home Appliances Manufacturers Union @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to become an exporter of some home appliance items as of the next Iranian calendar year ( starts in March 2021 ) .
“ If the currency problems are solved and steel sheets and some petrochemical products are provided for this industry , we will become an exporter of some household appliances by the next year , ” he said at the time .
In recent years , the Iranian government has been following a new strategy for supporting domestic production to neutralize the impacts of the U.S. sanctions while reducing the reliance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The home appliances sector has not been an exemption and like many other areas , the production of home appliances has witnessed a significant rise in the past two years so that in the previous calendar year 1398 ( ended on March 19 ) this industry ’ s production capacity increased by 10 percent compared to the preceding year .

TEHRAN- The manufacturing of refrigerators and freezers has increased 29.2 percent in Iran during the first eight months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20-November 20), compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to the data released by Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry.
The ministry’s data show that 1.334 million sets of the mentioned products have been manufactured in the eight-month period.
Iran has targeted the manufacturing of 12 million sets of home appliances in the current Iranian calendar year (ends on March 20, 2021), an official with the Industry, Mining and Trade Ministry had announced in early October.
Keyvan Gardan, the director for the electrical and metals industries and home appliances office of the ministry, put the annual production of home appliances at nine million sets in the past Iranian year.
The official further stated, “Following the policies of Resistance Economy, the Ministry of Industry, Mining and Trade has defined a path for the development of domestic industry, and we will pass this way with our all-out efforts.”
He said that 500 production units with an annual turnover of $6 billion are currently active in the field of home appliances throughout the country.
In early July, Hamidreza Ghaznavi, the spokesman of Iran’s Home Appliances Manufacturers Union, had said that Iran is expected to become an exporter of some home appliance items as of the next Iranian calendar year (starts in March 2021).
“If the currency problems are solved and steel sheets and some petrochemical products are provided for this industry, we will become an exporter of some household appliances by the next year,” he said at the time.
In recent years, the Iranian government has been following a new strategy for supporting domestic production to neutralize the impacts of the U.S. sanctions while reducing the reliance of the economy on oil revenues.
The home appliances sector has not been an exemption and like many other areas, the production of home appliances has witnessed a significant rise in the past two years so that in the previous calendar year 1398 (ended on March 19) this industry’s production capacity increased by 10 percent compared to the preceding year.
MA/MA
Source


jewworldorder--2020-12-16--Loading, unloading of goods up over 40% at ports of Gilan Province

TEHRAN- Loading and unloading of commodities have risen more than 40 percent at the ports of Gilan Province , in north of Iran , since the beginning of the current Iranian year ( March 20 ) , compared to the same period of time in the past year , according to a provincial official .
Hamidreza Abaei , the director-general of Gilan Province ’ s Ports and Maritime Department , announced that 1.06 million tons of commodities have been loaded and unloaded at Anzali and Asatra ports since the year start .
He said 920,000 tons of goods have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and 140,000 tons at Astara Port , showing 42 percent and 44 percent rise , respectively , year on year .
Mohammad Rastad , the head of Iran ’ s Ports and Maritime Organization ( PMO ) , said on Wednesday that the country ’ s trade gateways were not closed even a moment despite the sanctions and pandemic , adding that loading and unloading of goods , especially the essential goods , are continuously conducted at the ports .
As announced by the PMO head , loading and unloading of commodities are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iran while the health requirements are completely met .
Rastad has reiterated that all port operations are done observing healthcare protocols and the principles set by the Coronavirus Containment Headquarters .
In a statement previously released by the PMO , the organization declared that loading and unloading of commodities are underway continuously at the country ’ s ports .
While the enemy is trying to halt Iran ’ s exports and imports through imposing sanctions , operation at Iranian ports are underway without interruption as the result of the all-out efforts of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ read .
Meanwhile , as the PMO head has announced , 11 new development projects with 59 trillion rials ( over $ 1.4 billion ) of investment are currently underway at the Iranian ports .
Not only the sanctions could not stop development activities at the ports of Iran , some new development projects have been also defined , Rastad has underscored .
The third phase of the development plan of Shahid Rajaee Port is one of the major projects which is going to go operational by the end of the current Iranian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) .
While Iran is combating the U.S. unilateral sanctions on its economy , the country ’ s ports as the major gates of exports and imports play some significant role in this battle , and the ongoing operation at the ports indicates that they are playing their part perfectly .
As reported , loading and unloading of commodities at the ports of Iran have risen six percent during the past Iranian calendar year ( ended on March 19 ) .

TEHRAN- Loading and unloading of commodities have risen more than 40 percent at the ports of Gilan Province, in north of Iran, since the beginning of the current Iranian year (March 20), compared to the same period of time in the past year, according to a provincial official.
Hamidreza Abaei, the director-general of Gilan Province’s Ports and Maritime Department, announced that 1.06 million tons of commodities have been loaded and unloaded at Anzali and Asatra ports since the year start.
He said 920,000 tons of goods have been loaded and unloaded at Anzali Port, and 140,000 tons at Astara Port, showing 42 percent and 44 percent rise, respectively, year on year.
Mohammad Rastad, the head of Iran’s Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO), said on Wednesday that the country’s trade gateways were not closed even a moment despite the sanctions and pandemic, adding that loading and unloading of goods, especially the essential goods, are continuously conducted at the ports.
As announced by the PMO head, loading and unloading of commodities are being conducted continuously at the ports of Iran while the health requirements are completely met.
Rastad has reiterated that all port operations are done observing healthcare protocols and the principles set by the Coronavirus Containment Headquarters.
In a statement previously released by the PMO, the organization declared that loading and unloading of commodities are underway continuously at the country’s ports.
While the enemy is trying to halt Iran’s exports and imports through imposing sanctions, operation at Iranian ports are underway without interruption as the result of the all-out efforts of the organization’s personnel, the statement read.
Meanwhile, as the PMO head has announced, 11 new development projects with 59 trillion rials (over $1.4 billion) of investment are currently underway at the Iranian ports.
Not only the sanctions could not stop development activities at the ports of Iran, some new development projects have been also defined, Rastad has underscored.
The third phase of the development plan of Shahid Rajaee Port is one of the major projects which is going to go operational by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2021).
While Iran is combating the U.S. unilateral sanctions on its economy, the country’s ports as the major gates of exports and imports play some significant role in this battle, and the ongoing operation at the ports indicates that they are playing their part perfectly.
As reported, loading and unloading of commodities at the ports of Iran have risen six percent during the past Iranian calendar year (ended on March 19).
MA/MA
Source


jewworldorder--2020-12-16--Jesus may not have been born in Bethlehem. Here’s why

THE CONVERSATION via AP — Every Christmas , a relatively small town in the West Bank comes center stage : Bethlehem .
Jesus , according to some Christian biblical sources , was born in this town some two millennia ago .
Yet the New Testament Gospels do not agree about the details of Jesus ’ birth in Bethlehem .
Some do not mention Bethlehem or Jesus ’ birth at all .
The Gospels ’ different views might be hard to reconcile .
But as a scholar of the New Testament , what I argue is that the Gospels offer an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ethnic identity , including genealogies .
Get The Times of Israel ’ s Daily Edition by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Today , genealogies may bring more awareness of one ’ s family medical history or help uncover lost family members .
In the Greco-Roman era , birth stories and genealogical claims were used to establish rights to rule and link individuals with purported ancestral grandeur .
According to the Gospel of Matthew , the first Gospel in the canon of the New Testament , Joseph and Mary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The story begins with wise men who come to the city of Jerusalem after seeing a star that they interpreted as signaling the birth of a new king .
It goes on to describe their meeting with the local Jewish king named Herod , of whom they inquire about the location of Jesus ’ birth .
The Gospel says that the star of Bethlehem subsequently leads them to a house – not a manger – where Jesus has been born to Joseph and Mary .
Overjoyed , they worship Jesus and present @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
These were valuable gifts , especially frankincense and myrrh , which were costly fragrances that had medicinal use .
The Gospel explains that after their visit , Joseph has a dream where he is warned of Herod ’ s attempt to kill baby Jesus .
When the wise men went to Herod with the news that a child had been born to be the king of the Jews , he made a plan to kill all young children to remove the threat to his throne .
It then mentions how Joseph , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to escape King Herod ’ s attempt to assassinate all young children .
Matthew also says that after Herod dies from an illness , Joseph , Mary and Jesus do not return to Bethlehem .
Instead , they travel north to Nazareth in the Galilee , which is modern-day Nazareth in Israel .
The Gospel of Luke , an account of Jesus ’ life that was written during the same period as the Gospel of Matthew , has a different version of Jesus ’ birth .
The Gospel of Luke starts with Joseph @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
They journey to Bethlehem in response to a census that the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus required for all the Jewish people .
Since Joseph was a descendant of King David , Bethlehem was the hometown where he was required to register .
The Gospel of Luke includes no flight to Egypt , no paranoid King Herod , no murder of children and no wise men visiting baby Jesus .
Jesus is born in a manger because all the travelers overcrowded the guestrooms .
After the birth , Joseph and Mary are visited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who were also overjoyed at Jesus ’ birth .
Luke says these shepherds were notified about Jesus ’ location in Bethlehem by angels .
There is no guiding star in Luke ’ s story , nor do the shepherds bring gifts to baby Jesus .
Luke also mentions that Joseph , Mary and Jesus leave Bethlehem eight days after his birth and travel to Jerusalem and then to Nazareth .
The differences between Matthew and Luke are nearly impossible to reconcile , although they do share some similarities .
John Meier , a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that Jesus ’ “ birth at Bethlehem is to be taken not as a historical fact ” but as a “ theological affirmation put into the form of an apparently historical narrative.
” In other words , the belief that Jesus was a descendant of King David led to the development of a story about Jesus ’ birth in Bethlehem .
Raymond Brown , another scholar on the Gospels , also states that “ the two narratives are not only different – they are contrary to each other in a number of details.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that neither the other Gospels , that of Mark and John , mentions Jesus ’ birth or his connection to Bethlehem .
The Gospel of Mark is the earliest account of Jesus ’ life , written around 60 AD .
The opening chapter of Mark says that Jesus is from “ Nazareth of Galilee.
” This is repeated throughout the Gospel on several occasions , and Bethlehem is never mentioned .
A blind beggar in the Gospel of Mark describes Jesus as both from Nazareth and the son of David , the second @ @ @ @ @ @ @ BC .
But King David was not born in Nazareth , nor associated with that city .
He was from Bethlehem .
Yet Mark doesn ’ t identify Jesus with the city Bethlehem .
The Gospel of John , written approximately 15 to 20 years after that of Mark , also does not associate Jesus with Bethlehem .
The Galilee is Jesus ’ homeplace .
Jesus finds his first disciples , does several miracles and has brothers in the Galilee .
This is not to say that John was unaware of Bethlehem ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where some Jewish people referred to the prophecy which claimed that the messiah would be a descendant of David and come from Bethlehem .
But Jesus according to John ’ s Gospel is never associated with Bethlehem , but with the Galilee , and more specifically , Nazareth .
The Gospels of Mark and John reveal that they either had trouble linking Bethlehem with Jesus , did not know his birthplace , or were not concerned with this city .
These were not the only ones .
Apostle Paul , who wrote the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ considered Jesus a descendant of David but does not associate him with Bethlehem .
The Book of Revelation also affirms that Jesus was a descendant of David but does not mention Bethlehem .
During the period of Jesus ’ life , there were multiple perspectives on the Messiah .
In one stream of Jewish thought , the Messiah was expected to be an everlasting ruler from the lineage of David .
Other Jewish texts , such as the book 4 Ezra , written in the same century as the Gospels , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ written two centuries earlier , also echo this belief .
But within the Hebrew Bible , a prophetic book called Micah , thought to be written around 722 BC , prophesies that the Messiah would come from David ’ s hometown , Bethlehem .
This text is repeated in Matthew ’ s version .
Luke mentions that Jesus is not only genealogically connected to King David , but also born in Bethlehem , “ the city of David.
” Genealogical claims were made for important ancient founders and political leaders .
For example @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Greek colonies in Asia , was considered to be a descendant of Apollo .
Alexander the Great , whose empire reached from Macedonia to India , was claimed to be a son of Hercules .
Caesar Augustus , who was the first Roman emperor , was proclaimed as a descendant of Apollo .
And a Jewish writer named Philo who lived in the first century wrote that Abraham and the Jewish priest and prophets were born of God .
Regardless of whether these claims were accepted at the time to be true , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ identity , political status and claims to honor .
As the Greek historian Polybius explains , the renowned deeds of ancestors are “ part of the heritage of posterity.
” Matthew and Luke ’ s inclusion of the city of Bethlehem contributed to the claim that Jesus was the Messiah from a Davidic lineage .
They made sure that readers were aware of Jesus ’ genealogical connection to King David with the mention of this city .
Birth stories in Bethlehem solidified the claim that Jesus was a rightful descendant of King David @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Bethlehem is heard in Christmas carols or displayed in Nativity scenes , the name of the town connects Jesus to an ancestral lineage and the prophetic hope for a new leader like King David .

THE CONVERSATION via AP — Every Christmas, a relatively small town in the West Bank comes center stage: Bethlehem. Jesus, according to some Christian biblical sources, was born in this town some two millennia ago.
Yet the New Testament Gospels do not agree about the details of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem. Some do not mention Bethlehem or Jesus’ birth at all.
The Gospels’ different views might be hard to reconcile. But as a scholar of the New Testament, what I argue is that the Gospels offer an important insight into the Greco-Roman views of ethnic identity, including genealogies.
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Today, genealogies may bring more awareness of one’s family medical history or help uncover lost family members. In the Greco-Roman era, birth stories and genealogical claims were used to establish rights to rule and link individuals with purported ancestral grandeur.
Gospel of Matthew
According to the Gospel of Matthew, the first Gospel in the canon of the New Testament, Joseph and Mary were in Bethlehem when Jesus was born. The story begins with wise men who come to the city of Jerusalem after seeing a star that they interpreted as signaling the birth of a new king.
It goes on to describe their meeting with the local Jewish king named Herod, of whom they inquire about the location of Jesus’ birth. The Gospel says that the star of Bethlehem subsequently leads them to a house – not a manger – where Jesus has been born to Joseph and Mary. Overjoyed, they worship Jesus and present gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. These were valuable gifts, especially frankincense and myrrh, which were costly fragrances that had medicinal use.
The Gospel explains that after their visit, Joseph has a dream where he is warned of Herod’s attempt to kill baby Jesus. When the wise men went to Herod with the news that a child had been born to be the king of the Jews, he made a plan to kill all young children to remove the threat to his throne. It then mentions how Joseph, Mary and infant Jesus leave for Egypt to escape King Herod’s attempt to assassinate all young children.
Matthew also says that after Herod dies from an illness, Joseph, Mary and Jesus do not return to Bethlehem. Instead, they travel north to Nazareth in the Galilee, which is modern-day Nazareth in Israel.
A Christmas star is seen in front of the Church of Nativity, believed to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, on December 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)
Gospel of Luke
The Gospel of Luke, an account of Jesus’ life that was written during the same period as the Gospel of Matthew, has a different version of Jesus’ birth. The Gospel of Luke starts with Joseph and a pregnant Mary in the Galilee. They journey to Bethlehem in response to a census that the Roman emperor Caesar Augustus required for all the Jewish people. Since Joseph was a descendant of King David, Bethlehem was the hometown where he was required to register.
The Gospel of Luke includes no flight to Egypt, no paranoid King Herod, no murder of children and no wise men visiting baby Jesus. Jesus is born in a manger because all the travelers overcrowded the guestrooms. After the birth, Joseph and Mary are visited not by wise men but shepherds, who were also overjoyed at Jesus’ birth.
Luke says these shepherds were notified about Jesus’ location in Bethlehem by angels. There is no guiding star in Luke’s story, nor do the shepherds bring gifts to baby Jesus. Luke also mentions that Joseph, Mary and Jesus leave Bethlehem eight days after his birth and travel to Jerusalem and then to Nazareth.
The differences between Matthew and Luke are nearly impossible to reconcile, although they do share some similarities. John Meier, a scholar on the historical Jesus, explains that Jesus’ “birth at Bethlehem is to be taken not as a historical fact” but as a “theological affirmation put into the form of an apparently historical narrative.” In other words, the belief that Jesus was a descendant of King David led to the development of a story about Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem.
Raymond Brown, another scholar on the Gospels, also states that “the two narratives are not only different – they are contrary to each other in a number of details.”
Mark’s and John’s Gospels
What makes it more difficult is that neither the other Gospels, that of Mark and John, mentions Jesus’ birth or his connection to Bethlehem.
The Gospel of Mark is the earliest account of Jesus’ life, written around 60 AD. The opening chapter of Mark says that Jesus is from “Nazareth of Galilee.” This is repeated throughout the Gospel on several occasions, and Bethlehem is never mentioned.
A blind beggar in the Gospel of Mark describes Jesus as both from Nazareth and the son of David, the second king of Israel and Judea during 1010-970 BC. But King David was not born in Nazareth, nor associated with that city. He was from Bethlehem. Yet Mark doesn’t identify Jesus with the city Bethlehem.
A painting depicting the transfiguration of Jesus, a story in the New Testament when Jesus becomes radiant upon a mountain (Raphael /Collections Hallwyl Museum, CC BY-SA)
The Gospel of John, written approximately 15 to 20 years after that of Mark, also does not associate Jesus with Bethlehem. The Galilee is Jesus’ homeplace. Jesus finds his first disciples, does several miracles and has brothers in the Galilee.
This is not to say that John was unaware of Bethlehem’s significance. John mentions a debate where some Jewish people referred to the prophecy which claimed that the messiah would be a descendant of David and come from Bethlehem. But Jesus according to John’s Gospel is never associated with Bethlehem, but with the Galilee, and more specifically, Nazareth.
The Gospels of Mark and John reveal that they either had trouble linking Bethlehem with Jesus, did not know his birthplace, or were not concerned with this city.
These were not the only ones. Apostle Paul, who wrote the earliest documents of the New Testament, considered Jesus a descendant of David but does not associate him with Bethlehem. The Book of Revelation also affirms that Jesus was a descendant of David but does not mention Bethlehem.
In this December 5, 2019, photo, a Palestinian wearing a Santa Claus costumes welcomes Christian visitors outside the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed by Christians to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
An ethnic identity
During the period of Jesus’ life, there were multiple perspectives on the Messiah. In one stream of Jewish thought, the Messiah was expected to be an everlasting ruler from the lineage of David. Other Jewish texts, such as the book 4 Ezra, written in the same century as the Gospels, and the Jewish sectarian Qumran literature, which is written two centuries earlier, also echo this belief.
But within the Hebrew Bible, a prophetic book called Micah, thought to be written around 722 BC, prophesies that the Messiah would come from David’s hometown, Bethlehem. This text is repeated in Matthew’s version. Luke mentions that Jesus is not only genealogically connected to King David, but also born in Bethlehem, “the city of David.”
Genealogical claims were made for important ancient founders and political leaders. For example, Ion, the founder of the Greek colonies in Asia, was considered to be a descendant of Apollo. Alexander the Great, whose empire reached from Macedonia to India, was claimed to be a son of Hercules. Caesar Augustus, who was the first Roman emperor, was proclaimed as a descendant of Apollo. And a Jewish writer named Philo who lived in the first century wrote that Abraham and the Jewish priest and prophets were born of God.
Regardless of whether these claims were accepted at the time to be true, they shaped a person’s ethnic identity, political status and claims to honor. As the Greek historian Polybius explains, the renowned deeds of ancestors are “part of the heritage of posterity.”
Matthew and Luke’s inclusion of the city of Bethlehem contributed to the claim that Jesus was the Messiah from a Davidic lineage. They made sure that readers were aware of Jesus’ genealogical connection to King David with the mention of this city. Birth stories in Bethlehem solidified the claim that Jesus was a rightful descendant of King David.
So today, when the importance of Bethlehem is heard in Christmas carols or displayed in Nativity scenes, the name of the town connects Jesus to an ancestral lineage and the prophetic hope for a new leader like King David.


jewworldorder--2020-12-16--ICCIMA offers suggestions to amend next year’s budget bill

TEHRAN – Iran Chamber of Commerce , Industries , Mines , and Agriculture ( ICCIMA ) Research Center , after examining the strengths and weaknesses of the budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year ( begins on March 21 , 2021 ) , has proposed eight practical suggestions to amend the bill .
The government submitted the administration ’ s draft of the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year to Majlis on December 6 .
The private sector had earlier stated that the budget bill is important to them from two perspectives : the impact of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ impact on the business environment .
Following the submission of the bill to Majlis , ICCIMA called on the private sector and their specialized committees as well as the provincial chambers of commerce to submit their expert opinions and suggestions on the bill to the ICCIMA Research Center .
After reviewing the mentioned opinions , the research center has presented its final assessment and evaluation on the 1400 budget bill .
Uncertainty about the realization of the oil export resources set in the bill , excessive counting on the National Development Fund ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the private sector , the ambiguity of the government ’ s foreign currency and supportive policies , issues related to awarding development projects and lack of transparency , as well as uncertainty about the quality of the budget allocated to government-owned companies were some of the issues that the private sector pointed out about the next year ’ s budget bill .
Redefining the budget structure based on the country ’ s production capacities and not just resources from oil and gas exports , modifying the government expenditures and expenses , clarifying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support policies in the upcoming year , and elimination of any budgetary use of National Development Fund ( NDF ) resources , providing a report on the justifications for forecasting a 55-percent tax increase for legal entities , as well as considering the support for national production and encouraging investment and production , especially export products in the budget bill , were some of the suggestions provided by the ICCIMA Research Center for amending the bill .

TEHRAN – Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines, and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Research Center, after examining the strengths and weaknesses of the budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year (begins on March 21, 2021), has proposed eight practical suggestions to amend the bill.
The government submitted the administration’s draft of the national budget bill for the next Iranian calendar year to Majlis on December 6.
The private sector had earlier stated that the budget bill is important to them from two perspectives: the impact of the budget on macroeconomic variables and its impact on the business environment.
Following the submission of the bill to Majlis, ICCIMA called on the private sector and their specialized committees as well as the provincial chambers of commerce to submit their expert opinions and suggestions on the bill to the ICCIMA Research Center.
After reviewing the mentioned opinions, the research center has presented its final assessment and evaluation on the 1400 budget bill.
Uncertainty about the realization of the oil export resources set in the bill, excessive counting on the National Development Fund (NDF), tax increases and pressure on the private sector, the ambiguity of the government’s foreign currency and supportive policies, issues related to awarding development projects and lack of transparency, as well as uncertainty about the quality of the budget allocated to government-owned companies were some of the issues that the private sector pointed out about the next year’s budget bill.
Redefining the budget structure based on the country’s production capacities and not just resources from oil and gas exports, modifying the government expenditures and expenses, clarifying the government’s foreign currency and support policies in the upcoming year, and elimination of any budgetary use of National Development Fund (NDF) resources, providing a report on the justifications for forecasting a 55-percent tax increase for legal entities, as well as considering the support for national production and encouraging investment and production, especially export products in the budget bill, were some of the suggestions provided by the ICCIMA Research Center for amending the bill.
EF/MA
Source


jewworldorder--2020-12-16--HAMRAH-E AVAL and KARAFARIN BANK ink MoU in technological fields

Hamrah-e Aval ( MCI ) and Karafarin Bank signed and sealed a Memorandum of Understanding ( MoU ) in the technological fields on Tue .
· The approach of signing this MoU is as follows : Cooperating in the technological fields , providing quality software and hardware services , consulting and investing in relevant areas jointly as a Joint venture ( JV ) including “ Development of Neo-Bank ” , “ API transactions ” , “ Wallet ” , “ Validation of Customers ” and “ Microfinance ” .
· In this signing ceremony , Akhavan Behabadi Chief Executive of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iran MCI ) said , “ Hamrah-e Aval ’ s vision is to become one of the leaders of Communications and Information Technology ( ICT ) market in the region by providing smart services and solutions with the aim of empowering digital ecosystem .
In this regard , our cooperation and collaboration with KARAFARIN Bank can certainly fill the gaps and obstacles facing ahead of development of technological ecosystem .
Meanwhile , working environment is also improved between operators and banks as well.
” · Farzin CEO of Karafarin Bank was the next @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , “ Since cooperating with Hamrah-e Aval ( MCI ) has always been the first priority of Karafarin Bank , we will start this MoU with the “ Wallet ” .
” He went on to say that Karafarin Bank attaches great importance to its relations with Hamrah-e Aval , so that the bank can carry out other joint activities with Hamrah-e Aval such as commissioning of “ Neo-Bank ” as well .
“ We are trying to be more advanced and pioneer than other banks in the country in this field by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 21 , 2021 ) , ” CEO of the bank ended .

Hamrah-e Aval (MCI) and Karafarin Bank signed and sealed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the technological fields on Tue.
· The approach of signing this MoU is as follows: Cooperating in the technological fields, providing quality software and hardware services, consulting and investing in relevant areas jointly as a Joint venture (JV) including “Development of Neo-Bank”, “API transactions”, “Wallet”, “Validation of Customers” and “Microfinance”.
· In this signing ceremony, Akhavan Behabadi Chief Executive of Hamrah-e Aval (Mobile Telecommunications Company of Iran MCI) said, “Hamrah-e Aval’s vision is to become one of the leaders of Communications and Information Technology (ICT) market in the region by providing smart services and solutions with the aim of empowering digital ecosystem. In this regard, our cooperation and collaboration with KARAFARIN Bank can certainly fill the gaps and obstacles facing ahead of development of technological ecosystem. Meanwhile, working environment is also improved between operators and banks as well.”
· Farzin CEO of Karafarin Bank was the next speaker at the signing ceremony who said, “Since cooperating with Hamrah-e Aval (MCI) has always been the first priority of Karafarin Bank, we will start this MoU with the “Wallet”.”
He went on to say that Karafarin Bank attaches great importance to its relations with Hamrah-e Aval, so that the bank can carry out other joint activities with Hamrah-e Aval such as commissioning of “Neo-Bank” as well.
“We are trying to be more advanced and pioneer than other banks in the country in this field by the next year (to start March 21, 2021),” CEO of the bank ended.
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