My Favorites Stories Trending in World on Medium
I have compiled five of my favorite stories about World trending on Medium.
According to Joseph Dana the BRICS nations are coming under the influence of China. His opening statement reads: “The potential expansion of the BRICS group of nations could fundamentally transform the future of global alliances, but it will likely fall flat.” After breaking down China’s foreign policy objectives, he explains why more countries — from Saudi Arabia to Iran — are so interested in joining the BRICS platform.
My take: The concept of the Third World couldn’t be more relevant to China’s rise and the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Economic sanctions by the USA were designed to keep these trends in check. Many people of the world still don’t know what a Third World presence in the 21st century means, unless you are reading the literature about emerging markets (i.e. BRICS).
I point to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) which not only revolves around the issues pertaining to emerging markets, but also defense and security cooperation across multiple boundaries and jurisdictions (i.e. RATS). The SCO is an multilateral-organizational design that the international community has yet to fully grasp, while China and Russia seek to roll out measures at the SCO that benefit their own push into emerging markets. By doing so, they will dictate the direction of defense and security policies in those areas.
This is where critical questions around the Third World come into play. Defense and security cooperation between governments is unheard of for most countries. That’s why the SCO is so relevant, from a governmental and organizational point of view, in the discussion about the Third World in the 21st century.
2. The Only Two Countries In Africa To Escape Colonization
I’ve been following Grant Piper for some time for content about the historical and political dimensions of world geography. World Geography and Political Geography were two of my favorite courses while attending the university as an undergrad. I just wish that my professors could have spent more time going over the various pre- and post-colonial dilemmas of Africa’s historiography. In any case, this writing about Ethiopia and Liberia did the job for me.
My take: At the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit held in Washington DC from December 13–15, 2022, President of Kenya, William Ruto, blatantly told the audience at the Corporate Council On Africa: John Deere is a good tractor in Africa. Kenyan President William Ruto was talking to a inter-governmental panel about the mutual advantages of American machinery and African land resources — ”John Deere is a good tractor in Africa” — to find an opportunity in investing to produce for Africa.
At the World Economic Form (WEF) Annual Meeting 2023 held in Davos, Switzerland, from 16 January to 20 January 2023, there were a variety of issues and challenges addressed at Davos about agirculture, energy and food systems. It was indeed a big theme for this year’s forum — ‘To Transform Food Systems, Give Small Farmers Irrigation, Fertilizers and Secure Market — At Lower Cost’.
Morocco’s OCP Group chairman and CEO, Mostafa Terrab, addressed the WEF in a blog post about How Africa can help feed the world with this opening line, “We meet at a defining moment for humanity.”
As an African country, Morocco faces similar issues to other countries on the continent in terms of demographics and climate change. That’s why Terrab called the transition to sustainable, smarter farming an urgent concern for the world’s food systems, but particularly in Africa where fertilizer application is significantly lower than the global average.
3. How Long Will the War in Ukraine Last?
Jared A. Brock answers this question bluntly: “For as long as it takes Putin to build his Russian Third Reich.” This story really got my attention, not only because of the historical reference to World War Two, but also because I got a glimpse of what Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky used to look like before Russia’s invasion. Putin and Zelensky are two interesting political figures for the wrong reasons right now: neither side wants to end a war that is causing major disruptions to global commodities and making many people in the world suffer indefinitely.
My take: At the WEF 2023 in Davos, CEO of Yara Internatonal Svein Tore Holsether was on the panel session: Delivering on the Global Fertilizer Challenge. Holsether has been very vocal about the global food crisis as a result of disruptions from the war in Ukraine since May 2022, when he told reporters at BBC World News, “Russia plays a large role both in food production but also in fertilizer production, indirectly through natural gas that is a vital part of using fertilizers, but also key nutrients like nitrogen, potash and phosphates.”
Crop nutrients rely on sources of energy, and in the case of many fertilizer producers, natural gas is the key element for production. The geopolitical scenarios are proving to have a massive effect on fertilizer production, supplies, as well as the whole global import-export scenario. On this situation, Holsether said: “The supply chains are significantly disrupted, both directly from the sanctions and indirect effects from the situation [in Ukraine]. And also the risk of Russia holding back the exports.”
In this context he is speaking about how holding back the exports would be detrimental to global food supplies, particularly grain and wheat, both of which have been politicized over the war in Ukraine with devestating impacts to food importers in developing countries. Read all about this situation in what I wrote at the end of the year in 2022 about Grain Markets & Natural Gas Production Explain Key Trends Going Into 2023.
4. $12 Trillion Dollars Worth of Gold Deposits Found In Uganda. Let The Wars Begin
With a precise and ferocious jab to colonialism, Adebayo Adeniran explains the story of Uganda’s gold deposits and what it means for the country’s stability in the future. Adebayo forms an argument that Uganda’s people will have no control over the political situation or natural resource investments — a recipe for disaster that will allow American, Chinese and European business interests to flourish in spite of the country’s poverty.
My take: Anyone who is concerned about geopolitical events and global commodities should have the Swiss miner and commodities trader Glencore on their radar. I’ve been writing a lot about this company, since I think they are a critical player in how geopolitics are shaping up global commodities for the near- and long-term. Glencore’s Oil Market Manipulation and Bribery Case was resolved by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and UK Special Fraud Office (SFO) but investigations are still ongoing across multiple international jurisdictions.
The company still remains strong, however, with massive profits from oil and coal production in H1 2022. Next, we should be following what they are doing in metals. The company announced it was expanding processing operations in the Philippines with investments nickel processing for electric vehicle (EV) batteries. To know more about these trends in EV market-share, here’s a solid-take on trends in Batteries, Electrification, Mining & Mobility.
That’s not all, though. Glencore’s copper mining operations are being severely disrupted by political events in Peru, where violent protests are breaking out over the ousting of former leader Pedro Castillo. These are the type of events that are geopolitical in nature, and why Politicization of Copper, Nickel, Lithium & Iron-Ore Is Playing a Greater Role in Industrial Policies and Global Mining Projects is such a critical topic for geopolitics and commodities in 2023.
5. World Food Program to Cut Aid to Rohingya Camps
This story about the World Food Program’s problems in Myanmar was published in Improve the News — “Empowering people to rise above controversies and understand the world in a nuanced way.” This story compiles all of the latest and relevent figures regarding the dire situation in Myanmar’s Rakhine State, with the Rohingya population facing massive violence and poverty, and now the WFP is talking about cutting its food aid program to the area.
My take: Speaking to a panel at WEF 2023 in Davos, Gro Intelligence founder and CEO Sara Menker pointed out how many people do not understand the critial linkages between food and energy production — “food security is energy security; energy security is food security.”
She pushes the fact that data acts like a catalyst to solve the biggest problems there world is facing in terms of energy and food. “Data becomes that infrastructure that allows that risk-sharing and risk-taking to happen; it sort of facilitates different players — banks, companies, governments, etc — to play their role. But it sets a baseline by which people use to make those decisions.”
Therefore, data and analytics is growing solution in how businesses can make decisions about their carbon footprint and bottom lines going forward. This, in my view, will require deeper investments in R&D as well as massive efforts to recruit different types of talent in the job marketplace. By satisfying those two conditions — and I’m open to other possibilities — is a way to increase effeciencies in technology for the food and energy sectors, which can open up a toolbox of solutions to combat climate change and food security.
The world’s largest metal miner BHP group plans to source and produce metals while taking a more sustainable and environmental focus on their operations globally. There are basically three main commodities in this future facing commodities space: copper, nickel and potash. The former two are both metals directly related to metal mining and stainless steel production, while the latter is primarily used as a source of fertilizer — a key commodity for enuring food security in the future.
The example of BHP Group’s sustainable mining practices are in line with the narratives from a variety of CEOs on Future-Facing Commodities. Yet, what I don’t understand, is why aren’t the experts at CES 2023 and Davos 2023 talking about them too? In this context, there does seem to be somewhat of a divergence between how some CEOs are viewing a future for humanity revolving around sustainable economic development — and one that is going to be increasingly disrupted by geopolitical scenarios and global commodities. Find out more by reading What Does CES 2023 & Davos 2023 Really Mean For The World?
