The Stock-fish Dealers Association on Thursday urged the Federal Government to grant importers of Stock-fish, access to the Foreign Exchange (FOREX).

The group made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the sidelines of a two-day Seafood Seminar in Lagos.

Chairman of the association, Mr Gregory Ilobinso, said access to FOREX ensures ease in conducting their businesses.

“Stock-fish is one of 43 products that cannot access foreign exchange.

“If importers want to bring in Stock-fish, then we have to have an approved ‘Form M’ from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) with evidence of U.S. dollars to finance the import.

“It takes from six months to one year to get a Form M approved, and because of this, we cannot stock up the product.

“That is why we are appealing to the Federal Government to allow us access to FOREX to enable us import Stock-fish.

“Getting FOREX for our businesses has been a big challenge.

“We understand Federal Government’s stance that the oil market is volatile, FOREX is not in steady supply but the cost of accessing dollars for Stock-fish is not so much compared to other commodities,’’ Ilobinso said.

He made a case for the relevance of Stock-fish in the Nigerian diet and the need for the government to ensure ease of accessing FOREX for the trade.

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“There is no substitute, alternative or competition for Stock-fish in Nigerian cuisines.

“Stock-fish has its own place and adds its own flavour to Nigerian meals.

“Eating and using Stock-fish for meals has become a tradition and a delicacy for us.

“Stock-fish is also used as a souvenir and gifts that our people appreciate.

“It has a long shelf life that cannot be compared to any protein source; it can be kept in the kitchens for an average of two years.

“During the Nigerian civil war due to the outbreak of kwashiorkor, the World Council of Churches imported Stock-fish to help solve the protein-deficiency,’’ the chairman said.

According to him, when we cannot import Stock-fish, a lot of people in its value-chain will lose their sources of livelihoods.

“The wholesalers, retailers, truck drivers, mechanics and loaders will lose their jobs if we cannot import Stock-fish.

“If we are allowed to access FOREX, it will be an added benefit to the government in terms of increased revenue.

“But if these goods find alternative ways of getting into the country, the government will likely lose revenue from its importation,’’ he said.

[NAN]

Vanguard News Nigeria

Bishop Joseph Strickland of Tyler Texas warned late Wednesday the Equality Act is destructive legislation that would do untold damage to the country if passed.

“The Equality Act being considered in Congress is a threat to people of faith in this nation,” Bishop Strickland said on Twitter. “I urge all who believe in God and the truth of His Divine Revelation to speak up and let their members of Congress and Senators know that this bill threatens the heart of our nation.”

The bishop’s appeal dovetails with a recent summons by leaders of the U.S. Bishops’ Conference (USCCB) for Congress to reject the proposed legislation, insisting it would demolish “precious rights to life and conscience.”

Writing to members of the U.S. Congress, the bishops warned the Equality Act would “discriminate against people of faith” and “inflict numerous legal and social harms on Americans.”

Biden’s HUD is charting a new course, including catering to LGBTQ supporters through discrimination cases based on “gender identity.” https://t.co/raTMvTPYFK

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) February 17, 2021

Contrary to its stated intention of protecting people experiencing same-sex attraction or gender discordance from discrimination, the law would impose “novel and divisive viewpoints regarding ‘gender’ on individuals and organizations” while “dismissing sexual difference and falsely presenting ‘gender’ as only a social construct,” the bishops asserted.

“Rather than affirm human dignity in ways that meaningfully exceed existing practical protections, the Equality Act would discriminate against people of faith,” they declared.

Similarly, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights stated that the Equality Act is fundamentally “anti-Christian” because of its rejection of biological sexual differences in favor of an ideological agenda.

The Act would “promote the most comprehensive assault on Christianity ever written into law,” wrote Catholic League president Bill Donohue this week.

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Drayton Valley, an hour’s drive west of Edmonton, sits on historic oil fields that turned a 1950s sod-busting community of farmers and loggers into streets lined with new trucks and homes with double-car garages stocked with RV’s and four-wheelers. A 5-year study of more than 500 young people and adults in Drayton Valley that I lead is showing that during past economic booms people worked very long hours but families remained stressed no matter how well they did financially. One or both parents were busy outside the home which meant both marriages and time with children didn’t always receive the attention they deserved. Still, the oil and gas industry was perceived as a Godsend, even if the industry brought with it thousands of transient workers and liquor stores that some say out-numbered places of worship. Economic busts, meanwhile, weren’t necessarily bad either. Participants in our study told us they experienced more time with family, and women felt they were treated more fairly when their work outside the home became more valued as their husbands’ jobs in the oil fields dried up.

Though the resilience of this small town of 7,000 is always teetering on the verge of collapse, Drayton Valley has something to teach us about resilience. Recovery is failure if it returns us to the old normal instead of being a catalyst for transformation. For the first time in years, Drayton Valley is considering the whole-sale diversification of its economy, with new ideas emerging about an education centre, hemp farming, geo-thermal energy production (the town has many people who are very, very  good at drilling holes deep into the ground!) and retirement villages that encourage people young and old to embrace a way of life that is reminiscent of barn-raisers and socials at a local church hall. Residents are coming to understand that to come back stronger means to come back changed.

As a resilience scientist, I shudder when I hear the word recovery. It is the least desirable form of resilience. Paradoxically, it tells us that a previous regime of behavior, whether good for us or not, is so entrenched that individuals and institutions can’t change. I prefer instead, to think of resilience a roller coaster. Over time, we habituate into patterns of living that become comfortable, even if they aren’t the best ways to live long-term. Eventually, old patterns aren’t enough to cope with new realities and our communities experience failure, which forces us to change, just enough to start a new pattern of behavior that we accept as normal (the pandemic has been a powerful catalyst for lots of new ways to live, from working from home to understanding the role government plays in maintaining our economy during a crisis). And so the cycle continues. When our families and communities work well, things get better. For a community like Drayton Valley, that has to include both diversification and honoring its past, maintaining whatever it can of the oil and gas industry it has relied on for decades.

Change Needs a Crisis

Every substantial advance in human development has come from a major natural, social or economic disruption. While painful, a crisis we didn’t intend, like a pandemic, is also an opportunity. A study of Slave Lake Alberta, for example, showed that after forest fires destroyed more than a third of its homes in 2011 many residents challenged their values and habits, seeking out family time and committing themselves to new goals in life. In a very different way, the shuttering of the military airbase in Summerside PEI announced in the April 27, 1989 federal budget was called a disaster that would result in the loss of 1200 jobs, depreciate the Island economy by 4% and affect more than a third of families in the community, many of whom would have to leave. That disaster, though, became an excuse to take advantage of the infrastructure that the federal government transferred to the community and its private entrepreneurs to create an aeronautics park. That park has been less dependent on a single employer but still employs a thousand people. Recovery to a previous state of functioning, it seems, is not all it’s cracked up to be.

If we return to the same patterns of behavior that characterized us before the pandemic, driving long commutes to work 5 days a week, always eating out instead of baking (there has been a shortage of bakers’ yeast and flour for weeks), or spending more time with our phones than our children, we may recover but we will have made ourselves vulnerable once again.

There is an odd little phrase used to describe the economic calcification that takes place in communities like Drayton Valley that depend too much on a single resource like oil and gas. They are said to be “resource cursed”, which may strike those living in Drayton Valley as an overly pessimistic way of seeing the progress they’ve made over the past century. Paradoxically, though, systems that are too strong are bad for us long term. Whether that is a way of thinking or a community’s unflappable political leanings, our success is inversely related to our ability to transform as the conditions around us change. Cheap oil, it seems, slowed our investment in green technologies until the crisis of a changing climate forced us to reconsider our priorities.

All the grief caused by any crisis is a tragic opportunity wasted unless we change the systems that put us at risk in the first place. Paid sick leave is a good lesson to take from a public health emergency. So are some form of income support for the most vulnerable, quality long-term care for the elderly delivered by well-paid staff with the right training, stronger public health investments, national self-reliance when it comes to critical medical supplies, a secure food production and distribution system that can adapt to changing demand, support by business for employees who can work from home, virtual universities and a greener economy. All of these new regimes of behavior need to become the new normal if we are to come back stronger than we were before.

OPINION: Tom’s brother Gavin is visiting on his way back to the North Island.

“So, Tom, now that you have an electric car, you are a certified, card-carrying tree-hugger!” Gavin says with a laugh.

“Who’d of thought that the kid doing burnouts in front of the church at two in the morning would become a greenie?”

“Shush, Gavin! Jimmy just got his licence and doesn’t know about that. And, I’d appreciate it if he didn’t find out. Bad example, you know.”

“OK, Tom, the secrets of your wild and crazy youth are safe with me.”

So, how’s the electric car working out?” Gavin asks, nursing his cup of tea.

Tom: “Great so far. I don’t have to visit petrol stations any more and the extra on the electricity bill isn’t that much. And the car is so quiet. I especially like ‘one-pedal’ driving. I hardly touch the brakes any more.”

Gavin: “One pedal? How does that work?”

Tom: “It’s called regenerative braking. Instead of braking to a stop, you simply back off on the accelerator pedal. The car uses the electric motor to slow the car down and put electricity back into the battery. I only need to use the brakes in an emergency.”

Gavin: “Well, that is clever. I’ve always thought it was a shame to waste all that energy when you hit the brakes. Speaking of batteries, though, isn’t there a problem with recycling these electric car batteries? Seems like we’re headed to a future full of electronic waste”

Tom: “I don’t know, Gavin. They haven’t been around all that long. I suppose someone is looking into it. Let’s ask Google Assistant.”

“HEY GOOGLE, CAN CAR BATTERIES BE RECYCLED?”

Google: “Lead-acid car batteries can be easily recycled but currently there is no recycling facility in New Zealand…”

Gavin: “Wait a minute Google. You’re talking about EV batteries, like lithium ion batteries.”

Google: “YOU NEED TO BE MORE SPECIFIC WITH YOUR QUESTIONS! MY SERVERS DON’T HAVE ALL DAY, YOU KNOW! YOU’VE JUST WASTED 2,359 MILLISECONDS THAT I’LL NEVER GET BACK!”

“SORRY GOOGLE!” shouts Tom. He leans over and whispers to Gavin, “He can be a bit testy when there is lots of internet traffic, you know.”

Google: “The recycling of lithium ion batteries is complicated and limited to only a few companies so far. For example, Tesla, the electric vehicle manufacturer, recycles its EV batteries. There are many different types of batteries and they are changing as new types are developed, meaning that recycling techniques need to change along with it. Some places, like the European Union and the UK, are requiring increasing amounts of battery collection and recycling to prevent pollution from batteries disposed to landfills.”

Gavin: “Thanks Google. Well, if we end up with as many EVs as they say we are, we’ll need to be recycling the batteries. So, what about the stress on our electricity system? Won’t all these EVs eat up all our power?”

Google: “EVs will likely require more generating capacity for the electricity system. But with new technology, their large battery capacities will help even out peak load in the electricity grid and even store power from wind and solar. This is expected to reduce the need for new power lines and new generation to handle loads when electricity demand is high. In essence, EV batteries plugged into people’s homes will store energy for when the electrical grid needs it. These ‘car to home’ systems are available now in Japan and will be coming to NZ in the next few years.”

Gavin: “So, with more generation capacity, you’ll be able to buy a more powerful EV, Tom”

Google: “And, you’ll be able to keep doing donuts in front of the church for years to come.”

Tom: “GOOGLE, YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO KNOW ABOUT THAT!”

Google: “Your secret is safe with me, Tom, though I note that you haven’t rated my service in more than a year now. More than just two sentences this time, and little Jimmy never has to know.

• If you have any questions about climate change and global warming, feel free to visit and ask at Climate Karanga Marlborough’s website (www.climatekaranga.org.nz) or on our Facebook page. We’d be happy to answer them.

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