Seiko Holdings Corporation has been designated as the official timer for the 18th World Athletics Championships to be held at Hayward Field in Oregon, USA, from 15-24 July 2022.
Since entering into a sponsorship contract with World Athletics in 1985, Seiko has served continuously as the official timer for 17 consecutive World Athletics Championships. At the next edition, Seiko will implement new equipment including the jump management system, which is designed to further facilitate the accurate judgment of jumping events. Seiko will also hold an event called ‘Time to Shine’, which aims to support the next generation of athletes.
Seiko designated as official time for Oregon 2022
The Economics of Electric Cars and Biofuels
An electric car or battery electric car is simply defined as an automobile that is propelled by one or more electric motors, using energy stored in batteries. Compared to internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles, electric cars are quieter, have no exhaust emissions, and lower emissions overall. In the United States and the European Union, as of 2020, the total cost of ownership of recent electric vehicles is cheaper than that of equivalent ICE cars, due to lower fueling and maintenance costs. Charging an electric car can be done at a variety of charging stations; these charging stations can be installed in both houses and public areas.
According the International Energy Agency, out of all cars sold in 2020, 4.6% were plug-in electric, and by the end of that year there were more than 10 million plug-in electric cars on the world’s roads. Despite rapid growth, only about 1% of cars on the world’s roads were fully electric and plug-in hybrid cars by the end of 2020. Many countries have established government incentives for plug-in electric vehicles, tax credits, subsidies, and other non-monetary incentives while several countries have legislated to phase-out sales of fossil fuel cars, to reduce air pollution and limit climate change.
The International Energy Agency further indicates that the Tesla Model 3 became the world’s all-time best-selling electric car in early 2020, and in June 2021, became the first electric car to pass 1 million global sales. Earlier models with widespread adoption include the Japanese Mitsubishi i-MiEV and the Nissan Leaf. The United States, the European Union, China and General Motors want to make battery-powered electric cars the champion of motorists worldwide. At the same time, United States and European agricultural interests and investors are pouring serious money into biofuels that go into cars and trucks running on liquid fuels. The billion-dollar question is whether they can both be right about the future of transportation. The answer may not be as simple as it seems.
Right now, electric cars clearly have the momentum and the “inevitability” narrative on their side. The Biden administration’s ambitious infrastructure proposal sets aside $174 billion to subsidize electric cars, but little for biofuels. As Bloomberg News has reported, Europe is taking unprecedented steps to phase out gasoline and diesel cars and “bring an end to the almost 150-year-long era of the internal combustion engine.” The United Kingdom has imposed a 2030 ban on the sale of cars lacking a plug, and Germany has extended for four years its subsidies for electric vehicles. China plans to produce 8 million of the vehicles by 2028.
Dr. Robert Duran of Norwich University stressed that the biofuels cause isn’t helped by a legacy of controversy and environmental opposition. This dates back to early concerns about the value of agricultural fuels in abating greenhouse gases, as well as worries about their impact on food prices and fragile ecosystems. That makes it easy to dismiss the idea of pursuing two paths forward as a waste of time and resources. Others suggest this is another sorry example of the schizophrenic policies that we end up with when politicians shy away from choosing between powerful interests, in this case farmers and environmentalists.
But with liquid fuels powering 1.3 billion vehicles around the world now, a “both of the above” approach makes sense. Graham Noyes, Executive Director of the Low Carbon Fuels Coalition noted that a strategy of skipping biofuels and electrifying everything means choosing to use massive quantities of fossil fuels that emit the most toxic and carbon intensive emissions. That same logic explains why the $135 billion a year global biofuels industry is betting that new innovations and investments in efficiencies will not only widen their products’ climate advantage over fossil fuels. It also believes these investments will keep the industry competitive with zero emission vehicles deep into a coming age of electricity, and even beyond.
According to Graham Noyes, electricity out here is the new gold rush, but bright shiny objects aren’t going to get us to the promised land. Investors, corporations and farm-level bio-refineries have been backing that idea with their wallets. Last June 2021, for example, Raizen, an energy company based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, announced it would open a new 21 million gallon a year refinery converting sugarcane to ultra-low-carbon ethanol to cater to increasing demand for cellulosic biofuels. Toyota has been experimenting with a new “flex-fuel” Prius hybrid capable of using up to 100 percent very-low-carbon ethanol. This could result in a climate impact no greater than that of electric passenger cars that plug into dirty power grids in countries such as the United States or Brazil.
At the same time, a heartland biofuels industry that underpins the economies of hundreds of American farming communities is pinning its hopes on such things as a planned $2 billion dollar multi-state pipeline network. By some estimates, this could shrink bio-refineries’ carbon footprint by as much as 25%. The pipeline will capture carbon dioxide emitted during ethanol fermentation and bury it deep underground in North Dakota.
Ian Johnson, Secretary General of the Club of Rome stated that in California, the home state of Tesla and also the country’s largest fuel market, biofuels made from mundane agricultural products have been key in cutting the climate impact of transportation in the state by 7.5% since 2011. The unsung workhorses of this improvement include biofuels made from corn, soybeans, hog and beef fat, manure gases from dairies, and used cooking grease. Renewable diesel from “choice white grease” – the daintier name that traders use for pig fat – already powers some Amazon delivery trucks.
What is unclear is how a dual track to the future of transportation will play out in marketplaces and supply chains. In the United States, the outlines of a coming conflict have already begun to appear. “Ahead: Collapsing corn prices?,” a report recently commissioned by the Agricultural Retailers Association in which representing companies selling farm equipment, seeds and other inputs, predicts collapsing corn prices and farm revenues if the sale of new liquid-fueled passenger cars is banned, as California Governor Gavin Newsom has ordered starting in 2035. The 6 million member American Farm Bureau Federation has joined an alliance with the United States oil industry to fight federal and state electric car subsidies seen as discriminating against biofuels and farming communities.
But many in the United States biofuels industry believe that competition on a level playing field would be much better for the industry and the effort to curb climate change than a brawl in the courts and Congress. They support the expansion of commercial carbon markets, such as one in California, in which fuels and technologies are rewarded based on their contribution to greenhouse gas abatement, as determined by regulators using data and science. A newly-formed alliance of United States car companies argues that improved internal combustion engines will be needed for years. These will benefit from lower-carbon, high-octane liquid fuels, including renewables.
Heartaches, grief engulf Wollega
For the past few years several ethnic conflicts and targeted attacks against certain communities occurring in several areas of Ethiopia including the War in the northern part of the country have transpired causing deep wounded heartache; and now following the horrific attack in Wollega on June 18, the country greaves for the hundreds of ethnic Amharas who were viciously slaughtered in the Tole locality in the restive Gimbi Woreda, West Wollega Zone of the Oromia regional state.
Tole kebele which has 11 villages saw survivors of the deadliest attack narrating how the ambush was spurred and targeted the Amhara community who faced this atrocity mainly because of their ethnic identity.
“It started in the morning at about 8:30 am,” said one of the survivors from the horrific attack made by the militant wing of the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), adding, “it continued till 1:30 pm, as they killed as many as they could.”
“We are farmers, we don’t have weapons, they all wore the same uniform, and had long hair. They had modern weapons, and looked like snipers,” said another survivor, adding, “they caused havoc and killed us using guns, knives and torched the houses of some of the residents.” Having escaped this traumatic event, he explained that he had been living in Tole Kebele for the last 25 years after a move from Bahir dar, Amhara region. He further elaborated that he spoke three languages fluently, including Oromifa and as a result of this tragedy had lost 25 of his relatives.
Residents of Tole who spoke to Capital, only spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal, “as the entire community is traumatized,” they said.
The official number of deaths has not yet been disclosed by government’s side yet as the residents express, the number of deaths from the attack is more than 1500 people. “So far we have buried 920 dead bodies. We have been burying dead bodies up until Wednesday. We have buried them like an animal which is not as per our religion. It is difficult to find the rest of the missing bodies, since it could be eaten by dogs, hyenas and some of them have might have been taken by the flood,” the residents explained.
“For the last three years, we have been living in fear, however, we didn’t expect such dreadful things to befall on us,” said a father who lost his wife and two children, aged 4 years and 6 months.
As he narrates, a few kilometers away from Tole Kebele in a place called Chefe, was the main assumed spot for the rebellion group and three days back before the attack, Saturday, these rebels has started to gravitate towards Tole kebele.
We informed this to the woreda leaders to strength the security forces. However, by then most of the state forces had left the area and some has mixed with the society out of fear of the group.
“It is carelessness of the highest order,” the grieving father of two out-cried.
Selamawit Kassa, state minister of government communications said that for the last four to five days, the security forces from the region, federal police and the national army have been taking massive measures against the OLF group.
“The area is complicated, it will take time. Further information will be publicly announced through security forces,” the state minister said as she indicated that the government is now working to provide humanitarian aid to the survivors.
“We are not receiving proper aid. We call on government, the general public and the rest of the world to help us,” begged the survivors, as they indicated that now they are staying a few kilometers away from Tole, to which the federal and state security forces advised them to stay there.
“The only thing we want from the government is to move us to a better place” the survivors added.
As videos show of the small villages, graphic images of the dead bodies from the massacre have been circulating on social media for the past few days.
“Attacks on innocent civilians and destruction of their livelihoods by illegal and irregular forces is unacceptable. There is zero tolerance for horrific acts claiming lives recently in both Benishangul and Oromia regions by elements whose main objective is to terrorize communities,” said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaking on the launching event of green legacy.
“Residents are still calling for immediate assistance due to security concerns in the area,” said the Ethiopian Human right Commission in its statement.
The commission called on the government to take necessary measures to prevent further attacks on civilians, to take appropriate precautions against civilian targets in any case, and to find a lasting solution to the problem.
UN High Commissionner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, expressed these acts as a senseless killing and urged Ethiopian authorities to hold prompt, impartial and thorough investigations into the attacks that led to the killing of hundreds of people in the West Wollega zone, western Ethiopia, last weekend.
The UN Human Rights Office has spoken to witnesses who report that at around 9am local time on 18 June, a group of armed individuals descended on the village of Tole, with a predominantly Amhara population, and reportedly began shooting randomly, leaving hundreds dead – most of them women and children – and forcing at least 2,000 others to flee from their homes. The armed individuals also reportedly burned down several houses during the four-hour assault.
The public over the country, political parties, leaders, diplomatic community, country leaders, international community, and organizations have been expressing their grief over the week.
Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice Party (EZEMA) on Monday said the government is responsible for the lives of innocent civilians that are being massacred in different parts of Ethiopia.
EZEMA said that the government should have worked to ensure such massacres do not happen.
Similarly, the National Movement of Amhara (NaMA) said the government should understand that its number one responsibility is to ensure the safety and security of citizens and that it should discharge its responsibilities.
NaMA went further to demand that collaborators of radical armed groups that are working from within the government structure and armed groups should be brought to justice. On 21 June, four members of parliament representing the NaMA walked out of an ongoing parliamentary session, which was convened to receive Federal Auditor General 2021 Audit Performance Report.
In the past few years several ethnic conflicts and targeted attacks against certain communities have occurred in several areas of Ethiopia.
Thousands of unarmed civilians including children and the elderly have been massacred with millions more displaced from their homes and left deeply traumatized due to acts of violence in the Oromia, Benishangul Gumuz, Gambella, Amhara, Afar, Somalia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples regional states and the war in the Tigray region.
According to the OCHA, relief web in Ethiopia from April 2018 to 10 June 2022, shows the total number of 3000 organized violence events have occurred with 16,477 reported fatalities from organized violence and 7,324 reported fatalities from civilian targeting different ethnic groups.
On June 14, 2022, clashes between government forces and rebel forces have been taking place in Gambela. Members of the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) and Gambela Liberation Front (GLF) have launched an offense against government forces in Western Ethiopia. Security forces have reportedly regained control of some areas of the city that had been taken over by the rebels following hours of clashes.
Integrity
Writing vision and mission statements began to become popular some thirty years ago, I remember. Since then, I have often been involved in workshops to design the vision and mission for an organization, either as participant or as facilitator. Defining the mission of an organization or business is the easier of the two as it describes what it is that the organization or business does. Defining a vision statement that everybody is happy with is more difficult, as it becomes more vague, generic and seemingly unrealistic. The fact that a vision statement is often unrealistic is even encouraged by some as it will describe an ideal situation to work towards even if you know you will never get there. As a result, we end up with vision statements that could apply to any organization and don’t distinguish one from the other. Consider the following examples:
- We will be the best in the business.
- Excellence is our motto.
- We will be the market leader.
- We will give the best service to our clients.
- Diversity is our strength.
- A world in which all people live in harmony.
- Etc.
Many vision statements try to convince the public that the company provides quality products and services and that their employees are honest and respect their customers. In other words, that they are trustworthy. The reality is often different though and this is where the issue of integrity comes in.
Integrity means that what you do and think corresponds with what you say and feel, or that you “walk your talk”. Integrity means keeping your promises. Not just once in a while, no, all the time. A measure of consistency comes in here. Where there is no integrity, habits do not match values. In other words, what I do does not relate to what I really find important. If a person lacks integrity, how can (s)he be trusted? Instead, this is what is called being hypocritical. And if a company lacks integrity, how is it going to satisfy its customers and stay in the business? Never mind its vision statement, which screams that “We will be the best!” And where the Chief Executive lacks integrity, why would the workers be honest and do the best they can? Following the leader may thus end up in lying, stealing and corruption. To make matters worse, the boss will now begin to lose grip on management as leading by example results in workers following a bad example. Let us look into what we see happening around us every day and see if we can draw a few lessons from there.
- Respect. Years ago, it could happen that an elderly driver would cross the wide Meskel square in his beetle Volkswagen, without really looking whether this was possible but instead bending his head and torso forth and back a few times indicating his appreciation for being given way by other road users. This was common as the Ethiopian culture is one of respect, especially for the elderly. If the same person would attempt such manoeuvre today, he would probably be greeted by loud honking and shown a few middle fingers by upset drivers who have no intention of giving priority to others, let alone elders. The same person showing his middle finger however may be leading the church choir on Sunday. Think again.
- Gender. No strategic or business plan is complete today if it lacks a paragraph or two about gender. In other words, the company or organization indicates how important it is to work towards equal treatment of women and men: a value. And while management has been painstakingly working on getting the gender paragraph phrased right, so that it will satisfy the donor organization, you may find that some staff treat women quite brutally. I recently witnessed a man getting out of his car to attack a women driver, while he clearly was the one at fault. He was dressed in a suit, …. like a gentleman.
- Honesty. Whenever I ask a company or person to provide a certain service I am interested in, the reply I get is usually positive, like: “Yes of course we can do that for you.” or “There will be no problem.” Most of the time I get disappointed though by the quality of the service. And it is almost never delivered in time, while the bill turns out to be higher than initially agreed upon. Promises not kept and excuses are common. Apologies are rare.
And so, we see that individuals, organizations and companies often don’t do what they would like others believe they will do. They do get found out though as their true values are different from their statements.
It is easy to recognise others in the situations described above and say of somebody else that that person lacks integrity. Next time you find yourself blaming everybody and everything else for the problems around you, I suggest you look into a mirror and ask whether you are a person of integrity yourself. I find that question extremely hard to answer.
