Crude at $45 may cut deficit

analysis
OMANDAILYOBSERVER
9
TUESDAY l DECEMBER 13 l 2016
Time to catch them young and nurture them
analysis
LAKSHMI KOTHANETH
lakshmiobserver@gmail.com
H
e is just 18 years old and he won Red Bull’s title,
King of Drift. He just got his driving licence. So
where did he get all this energy and skill? And he
has been go-karting for many years. Haitham al
Hadidi impressed visitors from other countries as
well as his home-based fans at the Red Bull Car
Park Drift Final 2016 held at Sultan Qaboos Port.
Spectators continued to cheer and jump on
the stands as he was handed the trophy. Just as
we rushed to capture the emotions of winners
and the team members, I saw a gentleman come
to support Hathim with a little flag and wondered
if it was just another fan. There was pride in his
eyes.
It was soon revealed he is Hathim’s grandfather,
Shekhan al Abry. He spoke about his grandson’s
interest in cars even as a child and how Hathim’s
father and rest of the family nurtured that interest.
“I never thought I will see this in my life,” Al
Abry said. It was a great moment to be with the
grandson, rejoicing and soaking in his success.
It left a lot to think about. When a grandfather
comes to support a venture, you can imagine the
support system for a child. Mentors come in all
forms. As a child, one of the best form of support
comes from maternal/ paternal grandparents,
besides parents.
Grandparents can handle shocks better than
parents, who are very often in the “midst of
impatience”.
There are, however, children who do not have
any of these support systems and yet excel. One
reason, of course, is they have inborn talent and
second, the teachers have identified and nurtured
the budding talent.
Identifying talent is as important as imparting
knowledge to students. Equally important is
offering opportunities for youngsters to prove
and challenge themselves.
The Shell Road Safety Awards 2016 was yet
another platform that featured young talent.
There were students and educationists, proud of
their brilliant students, who had gathered at the
Road Safety Institute of Royal Oman Police to
attend the prize distribution.
There were young ones who had painted to
convey their message – the dangers of using a
mobile phone while driving. There were young
researchers and multimedia presentations that
were delivered by students.
Identifying talent is as important as
imparting knowledge to students.
Equally important is offering
opportunities for youngsters to
prove and challenge themselves.
There is another important aspect of the
whole initiative: the event has created many
ambassadors of road safety who would be the
right candidates to drive home the message of
staying safe on roads.
The message of road safety has been conveyed
through the media, but nothing is as effective as
a young one in the family cautioning elders when
he/ she sees someone in the family speaking on
the cellphone, or worse, texting while driving.
“Making calls or replying to a text message can
wait until you are safe to respond,” said Assem al
Kharousi, a young school student.
Another student on the podium asked, “Who
is responsible for the young students being left
behind in school buses? What is the role of school
bus drivers? How can parents contribute to
solving the issue?”
“School buses have become a cause of concern
vis-a-vis road safety. There are not enough
studies about students being left behind in buses,
except for one in the UAE. Why are kindergarten
students forgotten in school buses?”
“There is a need to teach students,” she
pointed out. One of the important points that
drew everyone’s attention was the photograph
of Maryam al Kharousi, a survivor. She cried out
for help and pressed the horn. When she didn’t
receive any response, she decided to pick her bag
and jump through the bus window.”
“We need smart schools. Work on cooperation
with schools, universities and colleges to invent
alarms or sensors,” she suggested.
To come to this conclusion, she had
conducted research and visited schools to make a
presentation while studying the subject.
And all this was definitely not part of her
school curriculum!
Quake hits Aceh education
COCO LIU
Greece seeks ‘compromise’ in reform standoff
G
RENEE MALTEZOU AND LEFTERIS PAPADIMAS
reece wants to end a standoff with its lenders
through ‘honest compromise’, its finance
minister said, indicating a willingness to
give ground on reform, but he warned that
inflexibility on their part could inflame antiestablishment
sentiment in Europe.
Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos
said he anticipated a deal could allow the
country’s inclusion in an asset-buying
programme of the ECB by the spring of
2017, allowing Greece to then test markets
with a debt issue later in the year.
Greece, which is on its third international
bailout since crisis first hit the indebted
nation in 2010, is again at odds with lenders
on fiscal targets and the scope of reforms
required to conclude its latest review on
bailout progress.
European Union and International
Monetary Fund mission chiefs left
Athens last month without a deal on key
bailout review issues, including labour
and energy reforms. Talks are being held
over teleconferences until there is enough
progress for direct talks to resume, probably
this week.
“The Greek expression is ‘put water into
wine’. It’s not an expression I like, because
I wouldn’t like my wine watered down,
but you know what I mean, to reach an
honest compromise,” Tsakalotos said in an
interview.
Delays in signing off on the bailout
review, he argued, could temper economic
recovery, an early return to markets, and
further deepen a view — already entrenched
with the result of referendums in Britain and
Italy — that Europe was out of sync with its
citizens and was not solving problems.
“I can’t see the logic of returning to
uncertainty and delay,” he said adding Greece
was meeting its bailout commitments and
was ‘constructively engaging’ with creditors.
“We don’t go to the institutions with “this
is our stance, take it or leave it” we try to
respond to their criticisms, when they have
objections to the nature of our structural
measures, and we are willing to discuss all
those issues in good faith.”
Euro zone ministers want Greece to
maintain a primary fiscal surplus of 3.5 per
cent beyond 2018, but have yet to specify
Greece, which is on its third
international bailout since crisis
first hit the indebted nation
in 2010, is again at odds with
lenders on fiscal targets and
the scope of reforms required
to conclude its latest review on
bailout progress.
how long it should keep this up and have
also left open the question of longer-term
debt relief.
Last week, they offered relief on shortterm
debt, which will eventually lop about
21 points off the country’s massive debt
mountain now standing at just under 180
per cent of GDP, but did not outline any
medium- or long-term debt relief measures.
Both are important factors for the IMF in
weighing up whether it will join the present
bailout programme worth up to 86 billion
euros. Germany, Europe’s paymaster, wants
the IMF on board to add credibility to the
programme.
A 3.5 per cent surplus retained post-2018,
when the bailout programme ends, implies a
heavier tax burden and more pension cuts
for Greeks, who have been squeezed due to
a deep recession.
It’s an option ruled out by Greece’s
leftist-led government which argues the
austerity burden is already crippling for a
nation where one in four are unemployed,
and many households rely solely on elderly
relatives’ pensions to make ends meet.
“No government would be able to legislate
more measures to be implemented in 2019
and further. There is no economic sense in
that and there is no political possibility of
them being carried out,” Tsakalotos said.
The IMF has said that with the current set
of reforms agreed with Athens, Greece will
only reach a primary surplus of 1.5 per cent
of GDP in 2018 and therefore the euro zone
should grant it more relief or Athens should
implement deeper cost-cutting.
With Greece’s euro zone partners
insisting on a 3.5 per cent surplus after 2018,
Athens has offered a half-way compromise
of attaining a 2.5 per cent surplus. Tsakalotos
said his proposal remained on the table,
though he said there had been no in-depth
discussion of it at the Eurogroup meeting.
“The IMF — I’m disappointed with it —
the IMF has said on countless occasions that
it thinks that in the post-programme period
we should not have very high surpluses, that
Greece can not have more austerity.
“But in all honesty, I didn’t see them
giving any fight with the Europeans on
reducing the fiscal surplus,” Tsakalotos said.
The pressure, he said, seemed to be
applied only on Greece, and not those who
were stalling on a better deal on debt, an
indirect reference to Germany’s reticence.
“What we want is an IMF that fights on
two fronts,” he said.
—Reuters
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ast week’s earthquake in Indonesia’s northern province of Aceh damaged
dozens of schools, undermining children’s ability to recovery from the
trauma of the disaster, aid groups said.
Wednesday’s 6.5 magnitude earthquake, which toppled dozens of
buildings and killed at least 100 people, was the worst disaster to hit the
region since the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.
Among those affected are 30,000 children and young people whose
schools are closed as a result of the earthquake, said aid agencies.
In Aceh’s Pidie Jaya, one of the hardest-hit districts, the quake
damaged nearly a third of schools, with at least seven completely
destroyed, according to Yayasan Sayangi Tunas Cilik, a local aid agency.
Many residents of the town of 140,000 have been sleeping in shelters
and relief workers last week were handing out food, water, and blankets.
With students now on their winter break, the destruction might not
have an immediate impact on their study, but it undermines their sense
of safety, said Ronald Sianipar of Yayasan Sayangi Tunas Cilik.
“When school buildings are safe, we know they are the best place
for students to be following a disaster like this. It creates a sense of
normality and safety and supports children’s emotional recovery,” he
said in a statement.
“With no schools to go to, there are no places for students to gather
together and release their fear,” he said.
At least 80 million children living in areas affected by war or natural
disasters had their education disrupted last year, according to a report
by British charity Theirworld.
Schools offer a safe place to learn and play which in turn can help
children deal with trauma in the aftermath of a crisis, say experts, but
education is often overlooked by aid donors.
When children are out of school, they are more vulnerable to falling
prey to child labour, trafficking and extremism.
Sianipar said his organisation was trying to help by creating play areas
in camps where many families are living, and may set up temporary
classrooms in tents. Local authorities in Pidie Jaya say they plan to
reopen schools in time for the start of the new semester in January. But
aid workers say children are still fearful.
“Children in Pidie Jaya are afraid of going back to school,” Irsyad
Hadi, spokesman in Jakarta for the global child rights organisation Plan
International, said by phone.
“Many schools are badly damaged. Even though some schools only
have minor damage, students and teachers are still concerned. They are
afraid of entering buildings.” — Thomson Reuters Foundation
ESTABLISHED ON 15 NOVEMBER 1981
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Abdullah bin Salim al Shueili
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