Day: May 1, 2017

Oystermen, pirates and police clashed violently more than a century ago over who could collect the Chesapeake Bay’s tasty and lucrative oysters. As the shellfish makes a comeback, a modern-day oyster war is brewing, this time between wealthy waterfront property owners and working-class fishermen.

Over the past five years, oyster production has doubled on the East Coast, driven by new farming methods, cleaner water and Americans’ growing taste for orders on the half shell. The resurgence has led to unprecedented resistance from coastal Virginians who want to maintain picturesque views from their waterfront homes and has fueled a debate over access to public waterways.

“These people can’t have it all,” said Chris Ludford, an oysterman in Virginia Beach who sells to nearby farm-to-table restaurants.  

Ludford said he faces fierce pushback along a Chesapeake Bay tributary from people with “a $2,000 painting in their house of some old bearded oysterman tonging oysters.

“But they don’t want to look out their window and see the real thing,” he said.

Views spoiled, privacy lost

 Homeowners say the growing number of oystermen — dressed in waders and often tending cages of shellfish — spoil their views and invade their privacy. Residents also worry about less access to the water and the safety of boaters and swimmers.

Low tides often expose oyster cages, usually accompanied by markers or warning signs that protrude from the surface. In some places, cages float.

“All of sudden you have people working in your backyard like it was some industrial area,” said John Korte, a retired NASA aerospace engineer in Virginia Beach who’s among residents concerned about oyster farming’s proliferation. “They may be a hundred feet away from someone’s yard.”

Ben Stagg, chief engineer at the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, said the state is poised to break its record of leased acreage for oyster growing. But nearly 30 percent of more than 400 new lease applications face opposition, an unprecedented number that’s led to a backlog of leases awaiting approval.

 “Occasionally I can resolve those by having the parties get together and adjust the area further offshore,” Stagg said. “But oftentimes, I can’t.”

Oysters make a comeback

There hasn’t been this much interest in oysters in Virginia since the early 1960s. Since then, disease and overfishing took hold and growers started to disappear.

Over the last few decades, breeding programs have produced more disease-resistant and faster-growing oysters. The water’s cleaner. American palettes have evolved, increasing demand.  

Farming techniques also changed. Traditionally, oysters are grown on the bottom of a calm and salty river or bay, then harvested with tongs or dredges that pull them onto boats.  

Now, fishermen are increasingly using cages to grow oysters over a two-to-three year period. The equipment keeps predators away and produces oysters with a more uniform shape and size, which restaurants prefer.

 But the cages are often placed in shallower water closer to shore — and people’s homes.  

Virginia Beach is perhaps ground zero for today’s oyster war. The state’s largest city sits at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay. And oysters thrive in the city’s Lynnhaven River, a network of bays and creeks flowing past expensive homes. Lynnhaven oysters are well-known for their salty taste and size.

Solution is not easy to find

A state task force was formed to find compromise. It recommended giving residents more power to block nearby oyster leases. But the idea was rejected by the Virginia Marine Resources Commission, with the majority of commissioners saying state lawmakers should step in.  

Proposals in the Statehouse have included raising the cost of an oyster farming lease from $1.50 an acre annually to $5,000. But legislators haven’t found a solution.  

Conflicts also have flared up along Maryland’s Patuxent River, the coastal lagoons of Rhode Island and on Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts.  

In Delaware, a group of people who mostly own vacation homes successfully blocked potential oyster farming along their part of an inland bay.

“Oftentimes, affluent and new members of the community have the point of view that they own the water in front of them, which is really not true,” said Bob Rheault, executive director of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association. “We need to win back our social license to farm.”

Rheault said he’s seen these battles “up and down the East Coast” — even before the crop began to double five years ago.

 “The industry was there before the waterfront mansions were built,” Rheault added. “But it hasn’t been there for this generation.”

Ludford, who also works as a Virginia Beach firefighter, is relatively new to the business. He and other relatives started growing oysters in 2010 after leaving the crab industry.

Is zoning the answer?

On a recent morning, Ludford sorted through cages as he stood in the Lynnhaven River, hundreds of yards from the nearest home.  

He dragged cages into view as grass shrimp wriggled on the shells. He and two helpers retrieved more than 500 oysters, which he sold at 75 cents apiece to three restaurants — totaling about $375.

“Really, people haven’t seen an oysterman behind their houses in 50 to 60 years,” Ludford said.

Steven Corneliussen, who owns a waterfront home in Poquoson, Virginia, said he’s among a group that successfully protested new leases along his corner of the Chesapeake. He said waterways should be subject to zoning, like land.     

“That water out in front of me doesn’t belong to me,” he said. “But it doesn’t belong to them, either.” 
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Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta spoke at the annual May Day celebrations Monday in Nairobi, a day when many countries celebrate workers. But in sub-Saharan Africa, about three-fourths of those laborers work in the informal sector, without contracts or job protections, according to the International Labor Organization.

Kenyatta pledged to tackle high unemployment during his May Day speech.

One hundred meters away, 31-year-old Christine Ndunge continued her work selling sodas and snacks. She has been a street vendor at a public park in central Nairobi for several years. 

“These days getting a job is hard,” she said. “I have decided to employ myself so that I can survive. Like now, it’s a rainy season — there are not enough customers to buy drinks. I motivate myself to continue selling because there is nowhere else I can work.”

In his address Monday, Kenyatta announced that Kenya will be raising its minimum wage by 18 percent.

The crowd cheered, but analysts say policies like raising the minimum wage won’t help a majority of the workforce. 

According to the Kenyan government’s 2017 economic survey, 833,000 jobs were created last year. However, less than 20 percent of those jobs were in the formal sector.  

“There is that disconnect,” said Kwame Owino, CEO of the Institute of Economic Affairs in Kenya. “So on one side, we have unions, which are talking for people who are in the formal sector, raising wages. And when that happens in standard economics, one of the first things that happens is employment shrinks. So when that employment shrinks in the formal sector, most of these people fall back to the informal sector. We are solving the wrong problem.”

He said Kenya and other African countries need to improve conditions for entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs in Africa often struggle to raise capital. Owino said what governments can do is create new regulations making it easier for small businesses to get loans. He said policymakers can also streamline the process of registering and running a legal business and make it cheaper.

Josphat Mwendo, a trained mechanic, spent years unsuccessfully looking for a job. Finally, the 32-year-old started fixing cars for money himself. Now, he has three people he pays to help him.

“I don’t feel good because they did not speak about people like us,” he said. “I think it’s good to think about those who have employed themselves too, so that they can know their worth and also feel they are Kenyans like the rest.”

The problem is particularly acute among young people.

A recent study by the Brookings Institution found that Africans between the ages of 15 and 24 are just a third of the continent’s total working-age population, but account for nearly two-thirds of the continent’s unemployed.
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With the U.S. economy on solid footing and unemployment at a near-decade low, the Federal Reserve remains in the midst of a campaign to gradually raise interest rates from ultra-lows. But this week, it’s all but sure to take a pause.

The Fed is widely expected to keep its key short-term rate unchanged after having raised it in March for the second time in three months. Most analysts foresee the Fed raising its key rate again at least twice more before year’s end, a testament to the durability of the U.S. economic recovery and a more stable global picture.

One reason for the Fed to stand pat this week is that even though the job market has shown steady strength, the economy itself is still growing in fits and starts. On Friday, the government estimated that the economy, as gauged by the gross domestic product, grew at a tepid 0.7 percent annual rate in the January-March quarter. It was the poorest quarterly performance in three years.

Though some temporary factors probably held back growth last quarter and may have overstated the weakness, the poor showing underscored that key pockets of the economy — consumer spending and manufacturing, for example — remain sluggish. On Monday, the government said U.S. consumer spending stalled in March for a second straight month. And the Institute for Supply Management reported a drop in factory activity.

“Given all the uncertainties they still face and especially with growth coming in so weak, the less the Fed says at this meeting, the better,” said Diane Swonk, chief economist at DS Economics.

Most economists have expressed optimism that the economy is strengthening in the current April-June quarter, fueled by job growth, higher consumer confidence and stock-market records. Many think that annualized growth could accelerate to around 3 percent and that the Fed will feel more confident to resume raising rates at its June meeting.

“The Fed will probably say in their statement that they expect the economy to rebound in the second quarter,” said Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at the Martin Smith School of Business at California State University.

It isn’t just the Fed’s short-term rate — a benchmark for other borrowing costs throughout the economy — that will likely occupy attention at this week’s meeting. Officials will also likely discuss how and when to start paring their extraordinary large $4.5 trillion portfolio of Treasurys and mortgage bonds. The Fed amassed its portfolio — commonly called its balance sheet — in the years after the financial crisis erupted in 2008, when it bought long-term bonds to help keep mortgage and other borrowing rates low and support a frail economy. At the time, the Fed had already cut its short-term rate to a record low.

The balance sheet is now about five times its size before the financial crisis hit. The Fed stopped buying new bonds in 2014 but has kept its balance sheet high by reinvesting the proceeds of maturing bonds. The Fed’s thinking has been that reducing the balance sheet could send long-term rates up and work against its goals of fortifying the economy.

Now, as the Fed becomes more watchful about inflation pressures, the time is nearing when it will need to shrink its balance sheet, a process that could have the effect of raising some borrowing rates, at least modestly. The Fed jolted investors when it released the minutes of its March meeting, which showed that most officials thought that process “would likely be appropriate later this year.” This was sooner than many investors expected.

Could the Fed clarify its timetable for paring its balance sheet in the statement it will issue when its policy meeting ends Wednesday? It may decide against doing so, given that this meeting won’t be accompanied by a news conference with Chair Janet Yellen to explain any shifts in the Fed’s policy or thinking.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said the more likely signal the Fed could send is to reinforce the markets’ view that it intends to raise its short-term rate again next month.

“I expect two more rate hikes — one in June and then one in September,” Zandi said. “Then I expect the Fed to begin allowing its balance sheet to run off.”

Some Fed officials have suggested that they would prefer not to be raising the short-term rate at the same time that they are beginning to reduce their balance sheet. Giving investors too much to digest at once risks unsettling financial markets. In 2013, the Fed triggered a brief storm in bond markets when then-Chairman Ben Bernanke raised the possibility that the Fed would start tapering its bond purchases later that year, catching investors by surprise.

“They learned their lesson with the taper tantrum of 2013 that they need to give the markets plenty of warning of changes in their bond policies,” Sohn said.

Some analysts say they think the Fed will reveal nothing this week about its timetable for reducing its balance sheet, in part because the policy committee has yet to reach a consensus on when or how to do so.

“I have a feeling we are going to get much less information than we want,” Swonk said. “The Fed wants to move slowly, but they don’t have a consensus yet on how to proceed.”

 
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A United Nations economic and social report released Monday warns Asia’s positive economic outlook “faces significant risk” from rising trade protectionism, especially concerns over U.S. trade policy with key partners such as China.

The U.N.’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) survey is largely positive for the region, which now accounts for some 30 percent of total global output. If sustained, the survey said this could reach 50 percent by 2050.

For more than 70 years, Asia’s export-led growth has helped lift millions out of poverty with such target markets as the U.S. and Europe.

But in more recent years the economies have come to rely more on domestic demand given the “prolonged weakness in external demand and global trade,” the survey said.

Regional growth is forecast by the U.N. economists at close to 5 percent, with China — a cornerstone of the region’s economies — expanding at 6.5 percent in 2017, and India growing by 7.1 percent.

China’s economic conditions are seen as ‘stable’ with rebalancing, restructuring and deleveraging [debt] leading to “new normal growth trends.” Russia, buoyed by higher oil prices, is also forecast to show positive growth in 2017.

But the general positive outlook is being overshadowed by concerns of trade protectionism impacting employment and economic growth.

“The most significant risk to the broadly positive economic outlook is rising trade protectionism,” the survey said.

It noted recent shifts in U.S. policies concerning trade, currency and immigration along with negotiations over Britain’s exit from the European Union, “have increased global policy uncertainty and could have negative impacts on the region, including for China’s goods exports and India’s services exports.”

US new stance

U.S. President Donald Trump adopted an aggressive stance over China’s trade and currency policies ahead of the U.S. presidential election. But Trump has recently toned down his comments as Washington has looked to Beijing to back measures to curb North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons.

Shamshad Akhtar, UNESCAP executive secretary, said the debate over protectionism and “distrust of globalization” needs to be addressed.

“The region now accounts for nearly one-third of the world output. Yet there is growing distrust of globalization and emerging protectionist tendencies that have created global uncertainty,” she said.

“If not addressed, [it] has implications for growth prospects in [the] Asia and Pacific region that has traditionally been dependent on its exports for jobs and prosperity,” Akhtar said.

The UNESCAP said growing global trade has led to wide-ranging regional economic benefits over decades. But the debate is being challenged by opposition to globalization, especially in the U.S. and Europe.

But Akhtar said it was difficult to “arrest globalization because of labor mobility, capital mobility and so on, [that] have been instituted now for years”.

“So I want to be rightly understood that distrust [of globalization] is really [a] public and politicians’ gimmick more than anything else — but of course we have to take appropriate policies,” she said.

The U.N. survey said projections show if trade protectionism and global uncertainty increase, growth for major developing countries could be lower by up to 1.2 percentage points.

The survey noted while the Asia Pacific region remains “the engine of global growth,” expansion was insufficient in the face of several challenges.

The commission pointed to rising income inequalities, with the expansion of decent employment also a challenge.

The region was also “falling behind the rest of the world in terms of social protection, financing and coverage” in contrast to levels of spending in developed economies.

Environment

Environmental damage was a key concern in the face of rapid economic expansion over several decades, with growth coming at a steep environmental cost.

“On average developing Asia–Pacific economies use twice as many resources per dollar of GDP as the rest of the world. Environmental degradation and carbon emissions not captured in GDP [growth data] undermine the sustainability of economies,” the survey said.

The survey called for improved governance and accountability, seen as a measure for improved economic outcomes.

Countries, it said, that perform better on governance measures, focusing on the rule of law, regulations and control corruption and government effectiveness also “tend to mobilize and spend their fiscal resources efficiently and effectively.”
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A mysterious decline in two of the most popular fishing worms is depriving fishermen of their favorite bait and threatening the livelihood of Maine’s so-called “wormers.” VOA’s Faith Lapidus reports.
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Monday is May Day, known worldwide as the day when workers and activists march in the streets and gather in city centers to honor laborers across the globe. 

The holiday is also known as International Workers Day and as Labor Day. 

Police in Istanbul arrested dozens of protesters who were attempting to defy a ban prohibiting May Day events at the city’s iconic Taksim Square.The square was blocked off for a third straight year.Small groups of labor union representatives were allowed, however, to lay wreaths at a monument there where 34 people were killed in a 1977 May Day incident.

Greek trade unions observed May Day with a call for a 24-hour, nationwide strike as the country braces for more austerity cuts imposed by bailout lenders. 

Workers and union members in the Philippines celebrated May Day by marching in the streets of Manila, the capital. Workers’ rights groups and unions have also scheduled rallies across Manila. 

Indonesian workers took to the streets of Jakarta Monday. Thousands more workers are expected to join the rally later in the day. 

France’s presidential rivals — centrist front-runner Emanuel Macron and far-right challenger Marine Le Pen — will hold their own dueling rallies Monday. There will also be demonstrations against both candidates. 

In the U.S., May Day’s rallying point has shifted from workers to immigrants.Tens o fthousands of people are expected to mark the day from New York to Los Angeles to protest against President Donald Trump’s focus on boosting deportations.Organizations have called for immigrant strikes in some cities to show Americans what a day without immigrants would look like.

Cuba is facing its first May Day celebration without longtime President Fidel Castro, who died in November.Monday’s observance will also be the last May Day overseen by President Raul Castro, who has promised to step down from office in February. 

Hundreds of thousands of people traditionally celebrate May Day in Havana’s Revolution Square with Cuban flags and portraits of Fidel Castro. 
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