Notes on grief
Saying goodbye to leaders
Happy Sunday!
This has been a hard week for my family. We lost a parent. Grief for a furiously independent woman has manifested itself in different ways for her children (both biological and in-law). She was adventurous, fiercely familial, tough, resilient — and most importantly she taught her daughter and son what real female leadership looks like.
As with every parent, our relationships were full of the usual angst, fights, love and trust and as it happens with a parent’s loss our emotional roller coaster has been a tough one. They’ve ranged from denial and overwhelming sadness, to relief her pain has finally come to an end, anger that we may not have explored all the ways this could have been prevented, desolation that the brilliant smile of a joyous soul will never be seen again, and the celebration of a life well lived, and one where she was well loved. But most of all, I’ve looked at my partner on video calls, grappling across the Atlantic with all that must be done now — knowing as I do about the loss of a parent — that nothing I say or do, can make the magnitude of his loss any less.
What’s helped me put this experience in context are the words of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Her writings over the years have explained so much in my life, and she didn’t fail me this week either. The words she uses to describe her own excruciating loss of her father in 2020, are so powerful they will forever be etched in stone for those of us, dealing with loss.
If you are in a similar situation, and in need of the words to make sense of what you are feeling - I hope this paragraph from Chimamanda’s essay ‘Notes on Grief’ will help :
“Grief is a cruel kind of education. You learn how ungentle mourning can be, how full of anger. You learn how glib condolences can feel. You learn how much grief is about language, the failure of language and the grasping for language.
Why are my sides so sore and achy? It’s from crying, I’m told. I did not know that we cry with our muscles. The pain is not surprising, but its physicality is, my tongue unbearably bitter, as though I ate a loathed meal and forgot to clean my teeth, on my chest a heavy, awful weight, and inside my body a sensation of eternal dissolving.
My heart—my actual physical heart, nothing figurative here—is running away from me, has become its own separate thing, beating too fast, its rhythms at odds with mine. This is an affliction not merely of the spirit but of the body. Flesh, muscles, organs are all compromised. No physical position is comfortable. For weeks, my stomach is in turmoil, tense and tight with foreboding, the ever-present certainty that somebody else will die, that more will be lost.” — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
News-Makers to know
In Government & Policy
Long drawn out goodbye
Angela Merkel’s counting the days now till she can put her feet up. She’s even picked the music she wants played at her retirement ceremony next week.
According to Der Spiegel, the outgoing chancellor has chosen “Für mich soll’s rote Rosen regnen” (It Should Rain Red Roses For Me) by Hildegard Knef, an actress-turned-singer who was the toast of Germany in the 1960s & 70s. The song was also covered by Austrian Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst.
While the outgoing Chancellor’s musical farewell has been approved, her plans for a lockdown of Germany has been rebuffed for now, by the country’s new incoming coalition government. Germany reported a massive number of new Covid cases on Thursday, with over 75,000 new infections. The German death toll has now reached 100,119.
Shortest time as PM ever
Just over seven hours after being sworn in as Sweden's first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson resigned on Wednesday after suffering a budget defeat in parliament and her coalition partner, the Greens, left the two-party minority government. The government's own budget proposal was rejected in favour of one presented by the opposition that includes the right-wing populist Sweden Democrats (the country's third-largest party, which has roots in a national neo-Nazi movement, but has since purportedly disavowed fascism).
Honduras is changing
Today, Xiomara Castro could change the trajectory of Honduras forever. The presidential election front-runner, is a leftist candidate who rose to prominence in politics when her husband, former president Manuel Zelaya, was ousted by a military coup in 2009.
Ditching the traditional role of the president's wife, she led a massive protest movement. It didn’t help put her husband back in power, but it did make her the people’s choice.
If she succeeds at winning the elections today, she could end a long run of two-party rule in Honduras, which has been governed by the National Party and the Liberal Party for over a 100 years. She would also be the first woman to be president of Honduras. But it is not a given, she has lost before. In 2013, Xiomara lost her first presidential bid against incumbent Juan Orlando Hernandez.
In Business & Tech
Mobi-not so-Kwik
Upasana Taku’s Indian digital payments firm MobiKwik could delay its initial public offering (IPO) by 2-3 months or could even push it to the next financial year as it struggles to get foreign institutional backers at the right valuation.
The decision by the company to delay a listing follows larger rival Paytm (it was India's largest-ever IPO) making what is being called one of the worst major Indian stock market debuts ever (shares fell more than 27%). After Paytm's dismal performance, bankers and analysts have warned that future offerings could be affected, with some specifying MobiKwik's IPO in particular.
Green ain’t good for Russian banks
Russia's plan to reduce its carbon footprint by 2050 will require investments of between 1 to 4 trillion roubles a year ($13.4 to $53.6 billion), according to the country’s central bank led by Governor Elvira Nabiullina.
Russia is the world's fourth-largest emitter of greenhouse gases (GHG) and in the main scenario approved by the government has stated, it will need to utilise 1-2% of its gross domestic product (GDP) to cut net emissions of GHG by 2050 .
But the Central Bank has been quick to burst any outward net zero pledges of a Russian government heavily reliant on fossil fuels. In a financial stability report the Central Bank states:
— “Such investment will require an active financing from Russian banks and the financial sector as a whole.”
— Even though the Russian banking sector has sufficient capital, "green" projects could face difficulties securing loans due to high risks such as insufficient transparency.
— Russian companies with businesses that negatively impact the environment have already started implementing principles of sustainable development, but their integration in the global climate agenda remains low.
— This situation has to be changed, otherwise the (Russian) financial sector could face high risks in the medium term."
A female CEO ain’t a given
Jamie Dimon’s gone and shaken up the assumption that the next boss at JP Morgan’s probably going to be a woman. In an interview to Germany’s Handelsblatt he said, “We have people that could take over the reins of this bank tomorrow, including both men and women.” The board “won’t install a woman as CEO simply to appoint a woman.”
The question of who will take over JP Morgan from its longest serving CEO (65-year-old Jamie) has been hotly debated for what feels like forever. The bank had seemingly signalled earlier this year that long time JPM’ers Marianne Lake and Jennifer Piepszak were being groomed for the role. Never say never, till never actually happens, eh?
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Caught My Eye
The Good to know
Alfafa for mangoes & pomegranates
Get excited! If you’re in the U.S. you’re going to be able to buy Indian mangoes and pomegranates, and if you’re in India you’re about to be able eat some juicy U.S. cherries and get your animals to go all hipster with some alfafa hay for animal feed.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai has been a busy bee, trying to end a long standing trade dispute between India and the U.S. This week, she worked with her Indian counterpart in New Delhi to expand farm trade and relaunch the joint trade policy forum (TPF) in order to resolve differences on issues including market access. (New Delhi and Washington have sparred over a range of issues including tariffs for over a year, hampering the prospects of concluding a bilateral trade package).
Bilateral goods' trade between the two countries in the first nine months of this year rose nearly 50% from a year ago, as the two countries economies reopened after restrictions due to the pandemic. It is set to surpass $100 billion this year.
Nigeria’s saying goodbye to subsidising fuel
Zainab Ahmed, Nigeria’s minister of finance, budget and national planning is about to take a lot of heat from everyday Nigerians. She announced this week, that the federal government will remove the country’s fuel subsidy and replace it with a monthly Naira 5000 ($12) transport grant to poor Nigerians.
According to Zainab the transport grant will target about 30 to 40 million Nigerians who make up the poorest population of the country, adding that the available resources after the removal of fuel subsidy will determine the number of beneficiaries.
The Nigerian government spends trillions of Naira yearly on payment of subsidy on petroleum products. It has repeatedly tried to cut off the payment in favour of market-determined prices stating that large sum that would be saved could be used to fund critical projects. It’s a position supported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF). But for many Nigerians low fuel costs are seen as the the only benefit they receive from the country’s vast oil wealth.
Afghanistan Watch
The green-eyed girl’s in Italy
Sharbat Gula, the famous “green-eyed girl” from National Geographic’s cover was evacuated from Afghanistan to Italy with the help of the photographer who made her a worldwide icon. Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi has said Italy organised the evacuation and will help integrate her after it was asked to help her leave the country.
Sharbat gained international fame in 1985 as an Afghan refugee girl, after war photographer Steve McCurry's photograph of her, with piercing green eyes, was published on the cover of National Geographic. Steve found her again in 2002.
How bad is it for women & children?
The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) says 18.8 million Afghans are unable to feed themselves every day. This number is set to rise to nearly 23 million by the end of the year. Nearly nine million people are close to starvation. At least one million children under five with severe acute malnutrition and 2.2 million children under five with moderate acute malnutrition need malnutrition treatment services.
UNICEF warns “Afghanistan was already one of the toughest places on earth to be a child. Right now, the situation is desperate.” The situation deteriorates quickly as the country is on a brink of famine.
Recent weeks have seen yet another trend: families selling their children, and mostly girls, so that families could buy food. In one of reported cases, a six-year-old girl and 18-month-old toddler were sold for $3,350 and $2,800 respectively. In another reporting, a 9-year-old girl was sold for about $2,200 in the form of sheep, land and cash. In November 2021, UNICEF reported that child marriage is at increase in Afghanistan.
Brink of catastrophe!
Deborah Lyons is the U.N.’s special representative for Afghanistan. This week she warned the U.N. Security Council that the country is “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe” and its collapsing economy is heightening the risk of extremism.
The U.N. reflects the FAO findings, predicting 60% of Afghanistan’s 38 million people face crisis levels of hunger. Deborah underscored that by highlighting Afghanistan’s GDP is estimated to have contracted by 40% in the past few months.
But she also told the Security Council that the impending catastrophe “is preventable,” saying the main cause for the economic collapse are the financial sanctions on the Taliban. Sanctions Deborah said, “have paralysed the banking system, affecting every aspect of the economy.”
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Have you met?
Hjh Noraini Hj Sulaiman, the new boss lady of Brunai’s largest bank
Brunei’s largest financial institution, Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam (BIBD), announced this week Hjh Noraini Hj Sulaiman will become the bank’s first female CEO since its creation in 2005. She starts her new job on December 1. Hjh Noraini is currently the deputy managing director of BIBD.
Lorelie Quiambao-Osial (“LQ”), Shell’s first female CEO in the Philippines
She is known as LQ to those that work with her, and will be the first female CEO of Shell in the Philippines in the company’s 100 years in the country. President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lorelie Quiambao-Osial is only 46 and is breaking gender stereotypes in the region having worked some pretty risky global assignments such as in war-torn Iraq as well as in conflict-ridden Iran, Pakistan and Libya. She starts her new role December 1st.
Let me know your thoughts and feedback, amplify a woman The Chief Brief community needs to know, or drop me a line just to say hello!