Illusory Visions of Strategic Autonomy: Emmanuel Macron Wins France, Loses Europe

[caption id="attachment_21725" align="alignright" width="300"] President Emmanuel Macron[/caption]

This Sunday, most French voters held their nose as they granted President Emmanuel Macron a second term in office. Faced with an impossible conundrum – how to spark change without upsetting the apple cart – France reluctantly concluded that President Macron represented the lesser of two perceived evils.

Securing a landslide victory by any standard, and the first president in twenty years to gain a second term whilst in full control of the government, Mr Macron conceded that his job now includes addressing the grievances of those who voted for Marine Le Pen. In his victory speech the president struck a conciliatory note and promised a more collective approach to governing. He also acknowledged the support received from critics on the left who voted for him only to keep the far-right at bay.

President Macron is not out of the woods yet and must quickly ready his La Republique en Marche party for the June legislative election – aka the ‘third electoral round’. With the centrist parties in disarray, both La France Insoumise on the left and the Rassemblement National on the right will eagerly exploit the general discontent – a malaise expressed in an abstention rate of 28% – to clip the president’s wings.

A Victory of Sorts

Though third time unlucky in securing the keys to the Élysée Palace, Marine Le Pen claimed her 42% share of the runoff vote as a “victory in itself.” She also promised to continue the “fight” but no longer as a presidential hopeful, although she did leave the door slightly ajar for a renewed bid.

Though inexperienced in government, Ms Le Pen has been remarkably successful in keeping her party united whilst detoxifying it of more extremist xenophobic elements – including her own Holocaust-denying father. She even ditched Frexit, dropped support for the death penalty, and downplayed earlier pledges to take France out of the NATO command structure.

Softening her image with a new neutral-toned wardrobe, repeated references to her love of cats, and smiles aplenty, Ms Le Pen managed to charm some five million more voters than she did in 2017. She now must leverage her considerable standing to keep those waiting in the wings from fracturing the party.

Though victorious, President Macron’s inbox is stuffed with problems of either an intractable or contradictory nature. His vow to give a voice to the ‘silent 28%’ is easier made than honoured. Whilst statistics show that only about 5% of the French are worse off today than they were five years ago, the recent surge of inflation puts a squeeze on purchasing power and causes much concern – and bickering.

Great Reformer

In his role as Great Reformer, President Macron will continue to experience considerable pushback to his plan for progressively raising the retirement age from 62 to 65 by 2031. He failed to do so during his first term after the large-scale protests of the ‘Gilets Jaunes’ erupted and transformed downtown Paris into a veritable battle zone for weeks on end. Mr Macron has now invited unions and employers for a tripartite round of consultations and promises not to impose his reform agenda by presidential decree.

Sunday evening, a distinct sigh of relief was heard in European capitals when projections, generally very accurate, showed Mr Macron the clear winner of the presidential race. With a war raging in Ukraine and a European Union already beset by countless challenges, an unstable, unreliable, and unpredictable France was just about the last thing missing from a storm that keeps perfecting its rage.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said the French people had voted for the preservation of their values against a “narrow vision” of the nation. The French do not generally love their presidents which makes the re-election of Mr Macron even more notable. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called the outcome a “vote of confidence in Europe.” In an opinion article published last week by Le Monde, Chancellor Scholz cautioned French voters against choosing a candidate who “openly sides with those who attack our freedom and democracy.”

Though the danger of the EU’s second largest economy succumbing to far-right extremism has, for now, passed, President Macron must not forget that he may cling to power for another five years only because of the far-left’s support. Calculating that he had more to gain on the right than to fear on the left, Mr Macron subtly shifted his position on immigration and national identity to nibble away at Ms Le Pen’s following. His decision to confront “Islamist separatism” by shuttering several mosques and Islamic associations – often on flimsy legal grounds – sought to reassure those on the right concerned over a watering down of French national values.

Crashed Edifice

In Europe, President Macron is expected to continue his push for ‘strategic autonomy’ although its intellectual edifice seems to have crashed and burned in Ukraine. Before Russia invaded her neighbour, Mr Macron’s grand vision for Europe as a suis generis civilisation – whose destiny cannot be determined at the margins of Asia or on the other side of the Atlantic – pointedly included Moscow.

He fêted Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Élyséee and Versailles palaces and philosophised openly about a ‘new continental architecture’ based on trust and a ‘clarification’ of the relations between West and East. Talk was in the air of a grand strategic rearrangement and a pivot away from traditional allies and towards European autonomy.

President Macron tried, and failed, to convince President Vladimir Putin of his vision which evaporated the instant the first Russian artillery barrage struck Ukraine on February 24. His bet on diplomacy, laudable as it may have been, did not pay off as expected and saw France relegated to a relatively minor role as the rest of Europe – possibly excepting hesitant Germany and recalcitrant Hungary – rushed to provide lethal military kit to embattled Ukraine and promptly gained a renewed appreciation for NATO and American military might.

His profound misconceptions about Europe’s destiny and place in the world have shattered President Macron’s dream of leading the continent. Apart, possibly, from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Charles Michel – both singularly lacking charisma – there is nobody with the qualities, stature, and appeal needed to lead the continent as a it grapples with the biggest armed conflict on its soil since World War 2. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz would be an obvious choice if not for his endless wavering and overly cautious approach to anything resembling action.

French voters may have expressed their confidence in Europe, and for now all remains stable, but that doesn’t imply that any of the EU’s challenges have been met.


Unfriending Europe: President Putin Turns the Screw

[caption id="attachment_21731" align="alignright" width="300"] President: Vladimir Putin[/caption]

This is perhaps not the time to tell the Germans ‘told you so’ as the nation deals with the fallout of the now disproved premises of its unfortunate energy policy. Not only has Germany’s dependency on Russian natural gas turned out to be a geopolitical miscalculation of almost epic proportions, its much touted and hastily executed Energiewende compounds present-day challenges to the point of intractability.

Earlier this week, the operators of Germany’s three remaining nuclear power plants summarily dismissed any talk of keeping their facilities operational beyond the federally mandated shutdown on 31 December 2022 as ‘impractical nonsense’. The about-to-be mothballed plants not only need to replace their almost-spent uranium fuel rods but would also require recertification.

In the Bundestag, Chancellor Olaf Scholz scorned calls to restart the three plants shuttered last year, and keep the three scheduled for closedown open, as “simplistic and unrealistic.”

The government cites a host of technical reasons for its decision to press ahead with the shutdown of the remaining reactors. However, energy analysts suspect that political posturing is present as well. Most pundits agree that the Greens, part of the ruling coalition, are loath to admit that they were wrong all along about nuclear power.

Such an admission would be tantamount to political suicide. Moreover, Russia’s aggression has already forced the Greens to ditch their cherished pacifist agenda. There are only so many political crown jewels to pawn before the party loses its raison d’être altogether.

Uranium Top Up

Currently, the installed capacity of nuclear power generation amounts to just 4.3 gigawatts – or 30 terawatt hours annually – equivalent to about 5% of Germany’s total electric power output.

During the debate in the Bundestag, Chancellor Scholz reminded his opponents that the provision of new fuel rod assemblies would take 12 to 15 months: “A nuclear power plant is not like a car that you can just top up at any petrol station.”

The remaining reactor operators are also unwilling to carry out the massive investments in safety technology likely to be triggered by a recertification process. Both EnBW (operator of Neckarwestheim 2) and Eon (operator of Isar 2) are decidedly unwilling to assume the risks and costs associated with keeping their reactors online – even in the case of an acute energy crunch. Only if the government is willing to shoulder that burden and offer iron-clad guarantees to the operators – something most unlikely to happen – could the plants be spared closure.

And then President Putin came knocking. Russia’s Gazprom suspended deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria, causing European gas prices to jump by 20% to €117 per megawatt hour. In tandem, the euro touched a five-year low against the US dollar. The Russian gas giant said it shut off supplies due to non-payment in roubles.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promptly accused Russia of using gas as an “instrument of blackmail’ and called the company’s action “unjustified and unacceptable.” Ms Von der Leyen did, however, assure that preparations had been made to deal with the scenario.

Unfriended Countries

In March, President Vladimir Putin ordered Gazprom to charge its deliveries to ‘unfriendly countries’ in roubles. European importers, all safe for Hungary deemed unfriendly, refused to comply with the Kremlin’s instruction, arguing that the diktat violates contractual terms and constitutes a violation of the sanctions’ regime. In a statement, Gazprom warned Poland and Bulgaria, both transit states, that unauthorized withdrawals of gas from pipelines would result in a reduction of flow rates to downstream buyers.

With the interruption of gas deliveries to Poland and Bulgaria considered a shot across the EU’s bow, the next Russian salvo may well hit the union’s superstructure before long. Disaster planning is going full steam ahead with ministries in all European capitals working feverishly to tap into alternative supplies and devise ways to keep the lights on and economies chugging in case Russia decides to cut off all energy supplies.

The war in Ukraine has become the world’s most disruptive event by far and, of course, follows in the wake of the Corona Pandemic, another major disruptor from which most economies have barely recovered. The IMF has reduced, yet again, its global growth forecast by 1.2 percentage points for emerging and developing markets, and 1.3 percentage points for high-income economies. Inflation is also far from tamed and expected to average 5.7% in the West and 8.7% elsewhere.

Meanwhile, the world is being sliced into distinct and opposing spheres with the global south increasingly marginalised, rendered irrelevant, and nearly invisible. The United Nations seems utterly powerless to put a stop to the horrors inflicted upon the Ukrainian people with its secretary general visiting the Kremlin to absorb a rambling monologue of President Putin whilst nodding his head in feigned understanding at appropriate intervals – a grand, yet depressing, spectacle of diplomatic impotence.

Big Guns for Ukraine

Small wonder that – given the absence of diplomatic moves – even Germany was obliged to let go of its pretence and greenlight the expedited delivery of heavy weaponry to the embattled Ukrainians. A first batch of 50 twin barrelled Gepard (‘Cheetah’) anti-aircraft systems, decommissioned in the 2010s, has been taken out of storage and returned to its manufacturer for refurbishment before dispatch to the battlefields of Ukraine.

Germany has also promised to help train Ukrainian soldiers in the use of the massive PzH2000 155mm self-propelled howitzers taken out of storage by the Dutch Army for delivery to Ukraine. Finally, the German government has agreed to pay for any military hardware from domestic manufacturers ordered by Ukraine.

The feeling in Europe is that developments are now on a fast track to destination unknown. Almost every day, yesterday’s impossibilities are being realized. The unthinkable is becoming reality, the unimaginable has become tangible.

Today, for example, Brussels has been discussing ways to confiscate Russia’s frozen dollar reserves and earmark the resulting €300 billion or so for the rebuilding of Ukraine. Lawyers will undoubtedly have a field day with this as well.


From Bear to Bull: Warren Buffett Casts a Vote of Confidence in US Stock Market

A perennial favourite of investors, the snowclone ‘What Would Warren Do?’, has an answer. Warren buys oil and other blue chips that show exceptional generosity towards shareholders. Over the first quarter, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway ploughed some $41bn of its $147bn cash pile, mostly insurance float, into the stock market.

The company upped its stake in energy company Chevron to $25.9bn and purchased 121m shares of printer manufacturer HP, worth $4.2bn. In March, Berkshire Hathaway dropped $11.6bn into the takeover of Alleghany, a sprawling conglomerate built around a core of insurance and reinsurance businesses with a bewildering portfolio of add-on manufacturing pursuits stretching from toys to funeral home supplies and custom trailers.

That diversity sits well with Berkshire Hathaway which, as an investment vehicle, suffered a dearth of opportunities over the past few years. The company’s last grand takeover – the 2016 buyout of Portland-based metal components manufacturer Precision Castparts Corp for $37bn – resulted in a $9.8bn write-down that dampened spirits and saw Mr Buffett gradually retreat from Wall Street and forgo major acquisitions.

Lustre Lost

In a remarkably bearish mood, Mr Buffett in 2019 predicted that returns from Berkshire Hathaway would “closely track” the overall stock market – which is precisely what transpired. However, Mr Buffett’s renown as the world’s most astute stock picker suffered a dent when he failed to take advantage of the corona crisis that hit markets in early 2020 before unleashing a phenomenal rebound only weeks later.

Mr Buffett also seemed to have lost his nerve during this brief downturn, selling his $8bn stake in the four largest US carriers at the bottom of the market and only weeks after buying into the airlines. He also significantly trimmed his holdings in Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase. At the 2020 meeting with Berkshire Hathaway shareholders – an online-only event due to the pandemic – Mr Buffett likened his exiting the market to pulling a train from the mainline onto the siding. Of course, the Berkshire Hathaway train briefly threatened to derail in the wake of the 2008/9 financial crisis.

Likewise, a $10bn bet on Occidental Petroleum went sour in April 2020 after the heavily indebted oil major – the largest domestic oil producer in the US – paid its controversial 8% dividend on Mr Buffett’s preferred stock in shares rather than cash. News of the dilution sent Occidental stock tumbling 12%, triggering short-sale limits and slashing Berkshire Hathaway’s equity.

Before disaster struck, Mr Buffett compared his $10bn investment at an 8% cash dividend as ‘taking candy from a baby’.His cash injection helped Occidental finance its $55bn takeover of rival Anadarko, a much-discussed move that saddled the company with debt just before oil prices collapsed in the first months of the Corona Pandemic. Since then, Mr Buffett has grown sweet again on Occidental, expanding his stake to 14% of the company in February.

Yield Rules

The first in-person Berkshire Hathaway shareholder meeting – aka Woodstock for Capitalists – since the start of the pandemic took place in downtown Omaha, Nebraska, on Saturday, 30 April. The 91-year-old sage/oracle, whisked around the venue in a golfcart, whilst subtly indicated that he has gained a renewed appreciation for yield. Explaining his recent equity purchases, Mr Buffett pointed to oil major Chevron which is returning most of its free cash flow to shareholders.

Berkshire Hathaway is now all about buying into shareholder yield, defined as dividends plus buybacks divided by market capitalisation. In the case of Chevron, that yield hovers around the 5%-mark, based on the company’s first quarter repurchases of stock. Mr Buffett remains sceptical of tech stocks (HP being the noteworthy exception) even though Meta Platforms (Facebook) and eBay boast yields of 10% and 26% respectively. Over the last year, online marketplace eBay bought back some $7.2bn worth of its own stock.

Apparently done with sitting on the sideline, Mr Buffett seeks to burnish his credentials with an inflation hedge that exposes Berkshire Hathaway to considerable upside. Answering questions during the Omaha event, he dismissed the company’s losses on its investment and derivatives portfolio – a $1.6bn hit – as “generally meaningless” because of US accounting rules.

The company reported quarterly operating earnings of $7bn, slightly over last year’s, with stronger profits at three of its four core sectors – logistics, utilities, and manufacturing. However, profits at its insurance business evaporated with Geico registering an underwriting loss and overall results plummeting to barely $47m, down from $764m last year.

Casino Capitalism

Calling the US financial markets “almost totally a casino”, Mr Buffett noted that the money is in “turning over stocks.” He added that the rapid pace of trading, the hallmark of retail investors, allowed Berkshire to make its own large bets: “Large companies in America became poker chips and people were buying and selling three-day and two-day calls. That excitement has now gone.”

Berkshire Vice-Chairperson and consiglieri Charlie Munger took aim at Robinhood – the online brokerage that brought stock trading to Main Street America – and mused that “God is getting just” as evidenced by company’s spectacular fall from grace. Robinhood saw its valuation tumble from $60bn in August 2021 to barely $8.5bn last week: “Short term gambling and big commissions; it was disgusting.”

For more than five hours Messrs Buffett and Munger took questions from the thousands who had made the annual pilgrimage to Omaha to pay their respects and hear a word from the wise. Also present were vice-chairs Ajit Jain and Greg Abel, the latter heir apparent to Mr Buffett. However, investors did not get all the answers they asked for. The oracle remained silent on topics such as the war in Ukraine, the economic slowdown in China, and the resilience of the US economy.

Charlie’s Take

Shareholder proposals to require the company to disclose the size of its environmental footprint and divulge its efforts to diversify its workforce were voted down. Mr Buffett rejected whispered suggestions that he may inadvertently have wrongfooted investors by bemoaning the lack of “appealing investments” in his February newsletter just moments before embarking on a buying spree: “During the market sell-off earlier this year, a few stocks got very interesting to us.”

Mr Buffett assured his audience that the mood at Berkshire Hathaway headquarters has since become “lethargic.” By this, he seemed to suggest that no more big buys would be forthcoming. He also explained that the company needs to preserve a sizeable stash of cash given its insurance business: “We need to be in a position to operate if the economy stops and that can always happen.” Berkshire Hathaway’s holdings of cash and T-bills has dropped to $106bn, its lowest level since 2018.

Some of this year’s most acerbic and funny quotes out of Omaha were provided by Charlie Munger who, despite his almost centenarian status (he is 98), remains somewhat of a rabble-rousing visionary. His take on bitcoin was particularly priceless: “In my life I try to avoid things that are stupid and evil and make me look bad in comparison to somebody else. And bitcoin does all three.”

Commenting on the threat of nuclear war, Vice-Chair Ajit Jahin admitted that he has no clue about the company’s exposure to such an event: “When it comes to nuclear, I sort of surrender.”


VM Finance Poised to Lead Property Financing for SMEs

VM Finance entered the non-bank specialist funding industry in 2018, armed with a wealth of experience in credit writing, backed by its parent company’s century-long work in the mortgage sector.

There was a clear need in the United Kingdom housing market for development and investment funding for SMEs. In just four years of operation, the entity has seen tremendous year-on-year growth and earned a reputation as a reliable and innovative player.

VM Finance Ltd is a subsidiary of the Jamaican-based, 143-year-old VM Group, formerly Victoria Mutual. It offers financial services and products in wealth creation and management, remittances, real estate, pension administration and general insurance.

The group has overseas representative offices serving the Jamaican Diaspora in the UK, US, and Canada.

Victoria Mutual began with an ambitious dream shared by a group of clergymen. In a time of tremendous inequality in Jamaica, they imagined a better future for the island’s hard-working people.

The dream was that all men and women — many of whom had been emancipated from slavery in the nation 40 years earlier and led the Morant Bay Rebellion just 13 years before — should be entitled to own their own homes. The only prerequisite for empowerment, the churchmen believed, was a willingness to work hard and an ability to exercise discipline in savings.

In 1989, Caribbean International Finance Corporation, renamed to VM Finance in 1991, was established. It had a similar dream: to provide financial services to Jamaicans in the UK, many of whom migrated during the Windrush era to find themselves excluded from British society. At the time, the company was licensed to write mortgages in the UK, provided remittance services and cheque cashing, and supported Jamaicans in maintaining a financial relationship with their homeland.

Over time, with a change in regulation and the needs of the diaspora, the entity became an approved mortgage intermediary, bridging the gap between high street lenders and Jamaicans. In 2018, VM Finance expanded its services to include a full range of property financing services.

Managing director Leighton Smith explains that VM Finance provides property development funding for residential, commercial, and mixed-use spaces. “Our focus is lending driven by relationship management,” he said. “We realised a lot of developers were having difficulty in acquiring funding.

“Because they are small, it becomes challenging to be approved in the traditional space. They end up going to bridging lenders who are charging high interest rates and fees.

“At VM Finance, we offer competitive rates and have become well-established because of our value proposition, and our understanding clients’ needs.”

Smith reiterated VM Finance’s commitment to its relationship management approach. “We believe that when developers become our clients, their goals become ours. In whatever way we can help them to achieve those goals, we will try to do so.”

Andrew Evans, VM Finance’s head of lending services, is similarly passionate about the relationship-driven business model. “When you are genuine in your care for your clients, people will feel that,” he said.

“The types of deals that we have been able to land since we started speaks to the strength of those relationships. We deliver in a way that shows we care; and for me, it’s so rewarding to see people grow in their business due to our partnership.”

With 2021 recording over 200 per cent growth on the previous year, VM Finance is poised to be a major player in the UK’s SME funding market.

“We are obsessed with delivering and executing for our clients, with growing our customer base and becoming the first port of call for our customers,” said Evans. “We are establishing new connections through our network. By doing that, we have been able to see significant growth.”

Smith, meanwhile, said the success of VM Finance was a reflection of the indominable Jamaican spirit — and the longstanding VM commitment to supporting stakeholders to achieve lasting financial well-being.

“We are a Jamaican entity, and we proud of own our Jamaican-ness, through which we are not just serving the needs of our compatriots here, but also serving the unmet needs of other nationals in the UK.”

VM Finance property development products include site acquisition loans, stretch development financing, and a standard development product to assist with the acquisition and development of sites. Property investment funding products and services include residential investment loans, buy-to-refurbish loans, and bespoke commercial investment loans.


Leighton Smith and Andrew Evans: Serendipitous Rise Puts Dynamic Duo at the Top

[caption id="attachment_21744" align="alignright" width="184"] Leighton Smith[/caption]

Serendipity brought Leighton Smith and Andrew Evans together at a time when they couldn’t have predicted their career trajectory — either in the financial services industry or their professional partnership.

They met as youngsters in Kingston, Jamaica, with their feet on the first rungs of the corporate ladder. The pair would travel parallel, yet distinct, paths which ultimately reconnected to create the leadership of VM Group subsidiary VM Finance.

The property development funder for UK SMEs took off with Smith as managing director and Evans as head of lending services.

Smith describes his upbringing in the busy Jamaican capital as humble. His father worked as a lifeguard, then as a tile factory supervisor; his mother was a small-scale trader. But their plans for him were clear: education would be his path to success.

The young Smith took his mission seriously, matriculating from one of the country’s most prestigious high schools, Campion College, before going on to Excelsior Community College. There he acquired a diploma in accounting; next came the University of Technology, where he pursued a diploma in marketing and a a degree in Management Studies. He later pursued his MBA at the University of New Orleans.

His stint at university was part-time, starting a year after he got his first job at the age of 18 — as a teller at the Victoria Mutual Building Society, now VM Group. Smith would take on a role in marketing before being promoted. He was the youngest operations officer at the institution, tasked with building a new branch location from the ground up.

In 2005, on learning of an initiative dubbed the Accelerated Development Programme — led by local food and financial services provider GraceKennedy Group — he applied for one of eight posts. There were more than 1,000 applicants, and Smith was selected to be in the first cohort which sought to give meaningful experience to promising youngsters through rotation across the group of companies.

Also among the successful candidates in the programme — surprise — was Andrew Evans.

[caption id="attachment_21745" align="alignleft" width="184"] Andrew Evans[/caption]

Evans, whose father was a Minister of Religion, passed his high school years at Cornwall College in Jamaica’s second city, Montego Bay, St James. He attended Montego Bay Community College, where he earned a diploma offered through the University of Technology, in business administration, majoring in marketing.

Evans then moved to the US, where he completed an undergraduate degree in International Business at the Florida Metropolitan University. Then came his first job at the Bank of America as an entry-level teller/customer-service representative. He completed post-graduate studies in International Political Economy at the University of Warwick in the UK, refining his interest in the alignment of politics and economics. He then decided to return to his homeland for the Accelerated Development Programme.

It was there that he and Smith met up again, both assigned to roles at GraceKennedy’s banking arm, First Global Bank. Smith worked in retail banking and marketing and Evans in corporate banking.

“I realised I had a passion for the field, for credit writing,” Evans said, “and through that role, I got exposure to a broad scope of activities in the sector.

“I love the intellectual rigour that comes with corporate financing; the level of analysis and discourse that comes with defending a credit — being able to identify the weak spots and cover that with the right mitigants to determine whether a deal is bankable or not. I love having that sense, that finger on the pulse.”

Several years later, Evans would move back to the UK, where he took on various roles in corporate banking, property development, and investment at the Bank of Cyprus and the Mizrahi-Tefahot Bank (UMTB). These stints further honed his expertise in development finance, relationship management, and banking operations.

Smith, meanwhile, quickly ascended the corporate ladder taking on management roles at First Global Bank, then at Capital and Credit, before moving back to VM Group as a branch manager.

In 2014, having been promoted to assistant vice-president of sales and service, he was given the role of chief representative officer for VMBS’ operations in Britain. In 2018, all overseas offices — which included locations in Canada (now closed) and the US — were assigned to him.

He was also asked to lead VM Finance, which started in 1989 as Caribbean International Finance Corporation, before being renamed in 1991. The company, initially licensed to write mortgages in the UK, provided remittance and cheque cashing services, before transitioning to being an approved mortgage intermediary, due to regulatory changes.

The two friends and former colleagues reunited and together crafted a new strategic direction for VM Finance, based on the opportunities they saw in property development funding for SMEs. They also drew on their collective expertise in credit writing, corporate financing, banking operations and marketing.

Since the expansion of the business into specialised lending in 2018, VM Finance has seen consistent profitability year-on-year, with 2021 recording a 200 percent increase over 2020.

In addition to mortgage brokerage services, VM Finance’s property development products include site acquisition loans, stretch development financing, and a standard development product to assist with the acquisition and development of sites.

Property investment funding products and services include residential investment loans, buy-to-let loans, buy-to-refurbish loans, and bespoke commercial investment loans.

“We are driven by an obsession with delivering and executing for our customers,” Andrew Evans said, “an obsession with growing our customer base to become the first port-of-call as the leading SME developer funder in the UK.”

He is proud of the impact they have been able to make as a Jamaican-owned company. “We’ve enjoyed great success because of the quality of service and product that we have been providing. It just goes to show that we should never place limitations on ourselves.

“There is something unique about us Jamaican people. There is a spirit with which we do things, that comes out on the track, in our music, and even on the political and business stage globally. I’m proud of what we have accomplished, and I’m focused on delivering even more.”

Leighton Smith concurs, noting that he is gratified that VM Finance can offer services to an under-served sector in the UK: SMEs and members of the Jamaican diaspora.

“There is a definite sense of pride and satisfaction, that we have been able to offer meaningful solutions to this sector,” he said.

Two ambitious men, hailing from opposite ends of a small island nation, leverage their natural synergy and aptitude to create even greater success — and lead VM Finance to the pinnacle of the non-bank specialist funding industry, internationally.


Sean Thompson, CAMRADATA: Future-proofing with Understanding, Honesty, Transparency … and Fun!

CFI.co engages in conversation with Sean Thompson, managing director of London-based asset manager research platform CAMRADATA.

[caption id="attachment_21748" align="alignright" width="300"] Managing Director of CAMRADATA: Sean Thompson[/caption]

CFI.co: What are your hopes for the future of your business, and for the industry as a whole?

Sean Thompson: Understanding — we will continue to improve institutional investors’ understanding of their investments.  We will continue to help our clients find those asset managers that are most suitable for their investments, and assist them in monitoring and comparing them to their peer groups so that they can determine the value-add.

Transparency — we will help investors and the asset management industry understand what firms look like across diversity and inclusion, to promote positive change across the industry.

Responsibility — we will continue to develop tools to further understand how funds are incorporating environmental, social and governance factors within their investments, enabling asset managers to improve and promote their product offerings in this space, leading to the financial services industry to be more sociably responsible.

Can you pinpoint any pitfalls to help newcomers to the industry?

Industry buy–in — we’ve seen lots of product offerings across the data and analytics space come and go over the time CAMRADATA has been operating.  The biggest pitfall for those newcomers is not having buy-in or support from your prospective clients and the industry.  Newcomers need backing from a few key players to gain traction.

How do ESG parameters and sustainability principles affect the way your industries are run?

The industry introduced regulation requiring that asset owners track and understand their investments in relation to ESG parameters. This requirement is in turn applied to asset managers managing their funds.  As an industry the need to understand the impact investments are having across ESG and sustainably factors are now a requirement.  Investing responsibly will eventually become the norm, but until them the industry will continue to enhance regulation to guide both sides in this direction.

[caption id="attachment_21751" align="alignright" width="256"] Managing Director, Business Development of CAMRADATA: Amy Richardson[/caption]

What are the mid to long-term challenges faced by your business?

A number of clients who use CAMRADATA are from DB pension schemes who are moving to buy-outs.  There is therefore less opportunity for our asset manager clients to win business from DB pension schemes.  However, we are seeing growth and asset allocations from insurance firms, wealth managers and DC funds, which is providing a whole different set of opportunities for the industry and our business.

What is the single most important requirement to become a global business?

To offer a platform or service that can be used in any jurisdiction. We can provide our manager research platform and our publication, Funds Europe, across multiple regions. It’s key to focus on your core competency before replicating your model global.

How do you see as the short- to mid-term prospects for your industry?

Education, brand, and thought leadership. Even though the number of DB pension schemes are declining, their investments are significant, and trustees of these schemes have the requirement to understand their investments. There are huge numbers of providers of financial services and CAMRADATA has the tools to distribute information to the industry through our multi-channel approach.  Both will provide thought-leadership, enabling us to educate, understand and reveal those providers in the marketplace. We give institutional investors the ability to understand, and providers the ability to promote.

What excites you about the business world in general?

The business world is ever-changing. The technology and the virtual world have enabled us to connect across regions, products and services.  In terms of financial services, we have this opportunity to encourage responsible investing, leading to the world of financial services being a key driver in generating a positive impact on the world. This is incredibly exciting.  With the bad press that banking has had over the years, this is a chance for people within the industry to make change for the good.

[caption id="attachment_21755" align="alignright" width="256"] Managing Director, Client Relations of CAMRADATA: Natasha Silva[/caption]

What lessons did you learn from your earlier career experience?

What you learn you’ll take with you — you are always learning as you go. If you move role, job or company, this will go with you.

Ask for forgiveness, not permission — have confidence in your decisions. You must be prepared to make a stand.

Your network is your most important asset. It’s a small world and you will come across many people in your career.  You never know who you will work with next; treat all people with respect and integrity.

Be ready to quantify your position — always be able to tangibly quantify your role so that you can provide an overview in two minutes of your current situation in line with your business or role objectives

Volunteer: put your hand up. This is the best way to learn and to move forwards in your role and/or career. Often a new role or challenge will arise from doing this, and you will rarely regret it.

Have fun — we’re at work for a large portion of our lives.  It is vital to have fun and enjoy ourselves.

What motivates and enthuses you about the business?

The people, the products and making a difference.  The people in CAMRADATA are focused, fun and hard-working. We all know what we need to do, and we’re all supportive of achieving our goals.  We are lean, but agile. We know that transparency across diversity and inclusion — and transparency across the industry — are required in relation to responsible investing. We have the ability to innovate products and services to meet this need.  This is incredibly exciting.

What is special about your organisation’s management style?

We have a flat structure and transformational leadership. All members of CAMRADATA are encouraged to lead from where they are and recommend change where required.

Can you share some management or organisation secrets?

The secret is focus, fortitude and fun.  We focus on providing excellent client service and products, we work hard, and we have fun.

What are the key strengths of the team?

Agility, resilience, connection. We’re agile as the industry changes, and prepared to meet its needs. We’re resilient: something that was demonstrated during the lockdown. Connection is key: we’re a relationship business; our success is down to our relationships with clients and with each other.

How important is your support team?

We know our clients inside-out, their products, their people, and their focus. It’s important for us to have that personal contact and to provide that level of service every time. Our clients know they will be dealing with someone who knows them.

What are the key traits of a good corporate leader?

Leading by example, being open to innovation, and encouraging career development and connection with senior leaders so that employees and corporations can grow.

What is the most important question people should ask about your business?

How are you making a difference? We’re improving the financial services industry by providing transparency across investments, in terms of diversity and inclusion across the industry and investing responsibly. We’re helping to drive positive change across the financial services industry — and we’re very proud to do so.


The Tale of the Squawking Dove: US Federal Reserve Moves with Cautious Resolve

[caption id="attachment_21772" align="alignright" width="300"] Jerome Powell[/caption]

Markets may have disliked what Jay Powell had to say before; however, what he does now proves a bullseye hit – pardon the pun.

The US Federal Reserve surprised no one when, at the end of a two-day policy meeting, its Open Market Committee yesterday unveiled a 0.5 percentage point rise in the federal fund rate. It was the first such robust hike in 22 years and the first back-to-back rate rise since 2006. Usually, the central bank moves in 25 basis point increments.

This time, some traders feared a triple of that as Mr Powell, the US Federal Reserve’s chairperson, had previously promised to act “expeditiously” towards “neutral rates” – i.e., one more aligned with inflation yet unlikely to plunge the economy into a recession.

Such a neutral rate is said to hover around the 2.5%-mark, implying another three 0.5 percentage point jumps, although many economists believe this number is far too optimistic/modest given the exceptionally tight labour market and inflation’s overshoot from the Fed’s own 2% target rate. US core inflation rose to 5.2% in March. Mr Powell admitted that the neutral rate was “not something we can identify with any precision.”

Who Let the Bears Out?

Though the bank does favour (in theory) a more aggressive approach to price stability, analysts detected – and found solace in – dovish undertones. Mr Powell signalled that additional ‘double hikes’ may well be forthcoming. However, he all but discarded ‘triple hikes’, saying that such a 0.75 percentage point rate rise was “not something that the committee is actively considering.”

Mr Powell did remind all and sundry that his bank possesses “both the tools we need and the resolve that it will take to restore price stability.” He also noted that the war in Ukraine and covid-19 lockdowns in China may well increase inflationary pressures stemming from supply chain bottlenecks.

Even before Mr Powell had finished explaining the bank’s rationale, investors began snapping up shares that suffered a battering during weeks of uncertainty and bears on a rampage.

That sentiment worked its way through the time zones in a wave of cautious optimism. In Asia, of late home to rather depressing markets, the Tokyo Stock Exchange remained closed for a public holiday, but the Shanghai Composite gained a modest 1.1% whilst Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 0.7%.

Taking the Hint

There was considerably more excitement in the western world. US markets closed on a high with Nasdaq gaining 3.2% on Wednesday, propelled by Airbnb (ABNB) recovering some of the ground (+7%) that it had lost in April – rather mysteriously given the travel company’s excellent performance – when the stock retreated 11% in what pundits deemed an “overblown market correction.” The S&P 500 advanced 3% and the Dow Jones 2.8% on Mr Powell’s words.

Europe eagerly took the hint, thankful to ignore – if only for a few moments – the shooting war along its eastern edge and the looming energy squeeze. In early morning trading the bellwether STOXX 600 index tentatively ballooned 2% only to deflate a bit as markets found their footing. The FTSE 100 likewise tapered as the day wore on, still adding almost 1%. Amsterdam and Paris were much more festive with the AEX advancing 1.8% and the CAC 40 trailing just behind with 1.6%. Madrid was also fairly buoyant.

Softish Does It

Mr Powell said there was a “good chance” of a “softish landing” for the US economy, pointing to solid corporate and household earnings as signs that a recession may yet be avoided. This prompted a strategist at JPMorgan to quip that after years cooing, the dove now tries to squawk like a hawk in a spectacle that some analysts considered rather unconvincing or even unedifying.

During the presentation of its policies, the Fed also unveiled plans for shrinking the size of its $9tn balance sheet. The bank announced that it will no longer reinvest the proceeds of maturing securities. At first, the run-off is to be capped at $30bn/month for Treasury paper and $17.5bn for mortgage-backed securities. This threshold will gradually be raised to $60bn and $35bn respectively.

Whilst the effort is appreciated, it also falls short of market expectations. The goldilocks scenario painted by Mr Powell – an economy robust enough to absorb monetary tightening in stride – somehow fails to convince. So does the explanation that the price index is moving up at a worrisome clip due to supply chain malfunctions.

Whilst geopolitical upheavals and China’s increasingly desperate-looking lockdowns are not at all helpful, inflation is still defined as too much money chasing too few goods. The too-much-money-side of the equation sprang, of course, from years of quantitative easing in its various guises. It is also good to remind that core inflation is purged of both the food and energy sectors – precisely those most affected by the fighting in Ukraine.

Moreover, the present federal funds rate of 0.75-1% is so far out of whack with inflation that it will surely require a significantly higher-than-neutral rate to tame the beast and usher or whip it back into its cage. Even with mended, rerouted, or widened supply chains, the monetary expansive ingredient of inflation still hovers around 3.5% or so annually, requiring a 4.5-5% benchmark interest rate – at the very least – to push it down. Then again, maybe conventional wisdom is just no longer in vogue.


Corporate Earnings Fine, Markets Not So Much: Seesawing Stock Markets Rattle Investors

And just like that… the party was over. Wednesday’s stock market rally, sparked by the dovish comments of US Federal Reserve Chairperson Jay Powell, not only fizzled out but reversed with Nasdaq suffering its biggest drop since June 2020. The Nasdaq Composite, home to big tech, nosedived all of 5% in a single day of trading. The blue-chip S&P 500 retreated 3.5% whilst the Down Jones Industrial Average limited the damage to a still painful 3.1%.

As the bears chased the bulls out of the (online) trading pits, many investors belatedly realized that the present is perhaps not such a good time after all, and Mr Powell jacking up rates – and promising more of the same – is not necessarily a good thing either. In a sign that investors and analysts are as clueless as the rest of us (including central bankers), trading volumes yesterday remained well within their 100-day moving average.

The gyrations of the stock market indicate heightened anxiety amongst investors over the fate of the economy as central banks struggle to contain inflation. Predictably, yields on government bonds spiked with the benchmark 10-year Treasury note fetching 3% – its highest level since 2018.

Upbeat corporate earnings reports failed to inject courage. Some market watchers blame the volatility on the US Federal Reserve’s own mixed messages. Indicating uncertainty about the origins of the sudden inflationary bout, the Fed unceremoniously ditched its theory that the trend was merely a ‘transitory’ phenomenon caused by the reopening of the economy after a year of covid-lockdowns and restrictions.

Difficult but Doable

Of late, the bank seems to harbour considerable concern about inflation’s duration and economic toll, acknowledging that it has little to no control over drivers such as the war in Ukraine and China’s indiscriminate lockdowns which assault already stressed global supply chains.

On Wednesday, Mr Powell admitted that taming inflation without causing a recession would be “very challenging” although the Fed chair clearly thought it doable as well.

A batch of data released on Thursday by the US Department of Labor shows a steep 11.6% rise in unit labour costs, fuelling fears of a price-wage spiral that – given the tight labour market – would prove hard to break.

Later today, the department is to release its closely watched monthly survey of the US labour market. Most analysts expect the economy to have added 380,000 new jobs last month. Any number significantly lower than that could well add to the gloom.

Gloom, No Doom

One London equity trader appealed to common sense by stating the obvious: “Growth forecasts have been downgraded, inflation expectations have been upgraded, and interest rates are rising.” The math seems to speak volumes.

The Bank of England added to the gloom by warning that the UK economy may slide into recession later this year due to high energy prices pushing up the rate of inflation north of 10%. On Thursday, the bank raised its reference rate by 25 basis points to 1% – the highest level since early 2009.

BoE Governor Andrew Bailey said he expects a “very sharp [economic] slowdown” and fully agreed with the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee whose nine members expressed regret for being “unable to prevent” hardship. In its remarkably downbeat assessment, the BoE said that UK households were likely to suffer a big squeeze on spending power – possibly the second largest since recordkeeping began in 1964. The bank forecasts another 40% hike of energy prizes by October on top of the record 54% jump registered in April.

Bleak House

The bank’s projections imply that the average UK household stands to lose an estimated £1,200 in spending power during 2022. Real post-tax disposable household income, arguably a more meaningful parameter, is expected to fall 1.75% this year – the biggest drop since 2011.

Though the economy is likely to just about avoid slipping into recession – two consecutive quarters of GDP shrinkage – the outlook remains bleak with 2023 unlikely to see growth beyond a paltry 0.25%. However, the BoE maintained its 2022 GDP forecast, keeping it at +3.75%. Over the first quarter, UK growth comfortably outpaced the bank’s earlier projection – Threadneedle Street is not usually known for its optimism – though a marked slowdown seems inevitable as high energy prices work their way through the economy.

The discouraging picture painted by the BoE puts Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak in the unenviable position of needing to provide relief to struggling families – whilst at least keeping up appearances of trying to balance the budget which currently shows a 5.5% deficit. That leaves precious little room for Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s flagship ‘levelling up’ initiative meant to reduce economic imbalances between regions and social inequality.

Earlier this week, the chancellor refrained from commenting on the prime minister’s surprise statement that “there is more we can do” to help compensate less financially resilient household cope with the increased cost of living. Thanks to the earlier deficit cuts that went beyond his self-imposed fiscal rules, there now is a tiny bit of wiggle room to help.


ORBIAN: Optimised Supplier Strategies and Ongoing Recognition

For 2022, Orbian has again been presented with CFI.co’s global award for Most Innovative Trade Finance Solutions. This award follows Orbian’s similar success in 2021, and confirms the company’s position as the most thoughtful and innovative provider of worldwide supplier finance services and solutions.

For 2022, CFI.co’s judging panel was most impressed with Orbian’s new regional control and analysis tools. As with the 2021 award based on Orbian’s development of fixed rate supply chain finance (SCF) solutions, these latest innovations not only allow for substantially greater collaboration and efficiency between Buyers and Suppliers; but are also genuinely unique propositions for Orbian in the global marketplace. Fixed rate solutions are providing great opportunities for suppliers to manage program costs in a world of less accommodative central bank policies. Likewise, the innovations underpinning 2022’s award will allow Buyers to understand exactly how their SCF programs can be used to support regional development agendas for local and national governments. Not only will this allow Buyers to support “levelling up” programs, but will also allow them to ensure optimised supplier strategies relative to local, national and supra-national subsidy arrangements.

[caption id="attachment_21796" align="aligncenter" width="300"] ORBIAN Chairman: Thomas Dunn[/caption]

ABOUT ORBIAN

Orbian is a pioneer of supply chain finance, creating expansion opportunities for businesses small and large and delivering steady returns for investors over the past 20 years. Orbian understands that supply chain finance greases the wheels of global commerce and has a developed a trade finance platform to streamline connections between suppliers, corporate buyers and funding providers. It works with businesses to custom-create scalable supply chain finance programmes to accommodate working capital and cash flow goals. To date, Orbian has processed five million transactions and $240bn in trade finance — while maintaining an error-free transactional record. It has achieved a 100 percent integration success rate across all major Enterprise Resource Planning systems and proprietary A/P systems. Supplier onboarding is a simple web-based process with documentation specialists on-hand to support thousands of suppliers across the 53 countries where it currently operates. Orbian broadens the potential investor pool by giving suppliers access to multi-bank and source-agnostic funding. Flexible funding structures allow suppliers to use excess cash to fund the finance programme. Orbian invests a portion of annual revenues into the development of staff skills and enhancement of the customer experience. The company fuels growth through a process of continuous innovation, which includes regular upgrades to its state-of-the-art platform.


Crash by Stealth: Investors Head for the Hills to Find a Valley of Tears

[caption id="attachment_21802" align="alignright" width="300"] Ben Bernanke Photo: Ralph Alswang[/caption]

In a bear market, nobody can hear you scream. Equity markets are suffering a crash by stealth with reality nibbling away at asset values.

Not long after he slipped into his job, Ben Bernanke, the two-term 14th chair of the US Federal Reserve (2006-2014), called quantitative easing – still a novelty in 2008 – a “great experiment that must be tried.” In the years that followed, the Fed duly flooded the market with an estimated $9tn.

Mr Bernanke helpfully explained in his 2015 book The Courage to Act that he and other central bankers had no choice but to open the taps: in 2007 and 2008 the global economy teetered on the brink of collapse and flirted with an economic catastrophe that would have paled the 1930s Great Depressions by comparison.

As cash was released, and a crash avoided, euphoria took hold. Asset prices went through the roof in an endless party of self-indulgence fuelled by an insatiable appetite for more. To a collective sigh of relief, the ‘Super Duper Great Depression’ was nipped in the bud. However, the abundance of cash also led to a dangerously inefficient allocation of capital, rewarding speculation and punishing more productive pursuits. Flush with paper wealth, investors large and small counted their riches whilst ignoring the piper and his due.

Anything being traded on or off an exchange surged to dizzying heights. Bitcoin – a fancy tech-driven Ponzi scheme [fodder for a future rant] – was by now supposed to have burst through the $300,000 ceiling. Just about a year ago, hordes of self-appointed and -anointed analysts and assorted snake oil peddlers managed to handsomely monetise FOMO (fear of missing out). There is, btw, a reason why bitcoin miners sell their tokens instantly upon unearthing.

Digital Highwaymen

Countless average Joes and Janes, working stiffs, moved their meagre savings into bitcoin wallets, hoping to catch a ride on the elevator up to that dreamed penthouse. If they did not fall prey to digital highwaymen, they saw their stash shrink at an alarming rate. How could they have known that bitcoin was past its 15 minutes – and on its way down? The smart money had already moved on. The ‘I’m With Stupid’ t-shirt crowd was left behind.

But the that smart money is now quickly running out of places to seek shelter from the gathering storm. Consumer cyclicals are certainly out as inflation bites. Tech is in the dumps and likely to stay there for a while. Financials are neutral at best whilst consumables offer scant protection as household budgets are being squeezed. The energy sector is beset by volatility, seesawing from mania to depression. Given the gung-ho mindset taking hold across the Western world, defence stocks seem a good bet, but don’t expect massive increases in valuation, just steady growth and rising dividends – boring stuff.

Over the past 15 years, most investors have become speculators, chasing quick returns without much concern for underlying fundamentals and being guided mostly by hype. Now that quantitative easing is being reversed by central banks progressively trimming the heft of their balance sheets, expect quite a few of these ‘investors’ to be embarrassingly exposed as ‘trunkless’ when the waters recede.

Yesterday, the US Federal Reserve thought it necessary to state the obvious: sharp increases in the interest rate pose a risk to the American economy with a “higher than normal” chance of worsening trading conditions in US financial markets.

Who Knew?

After reading and studying their crystal ball, the authors of the Fed’s Financial Stability Report, published twice a year in May and November, gravely conclude that a decline in economic activity can “negatively affect the financial system.” The deep analysis did not stop there either. Higher interest rates and lower house prices, they write, will see a rise in “delinquencies, bankruptcies, and other forms of financial distress.” Who knew?

In a slightly more enlightened part of the report, the Fed warns that tightening liquidity will likely add to price volatility. And indeed, traders have been reporting that even relatively small volumes result in noticeable price swings as markets lose their depth.

As US and global markets suffer the hangover of Mr Bernanke’s experiment, the perfect storm is about to get even more perfect. US retail investors, the very people who collectively own a decisive share of the popular vote, do not hesitate to blame the sitting president for their own follies – or those of his predecessors. The most important job of any US president is to support the Dow Jones – and keep it going.

President Joe Biden’s Democrats seem destined to agonise in the upcoming midterm elections, paving the way for a triumphant comeback of Donald Trump who is fondly remembered by many for cutting to the chase (and exceeding his authority) by telling Fed Chairperson Jay Powell in no uncertain terms to cut the interest rate. Mr Powell, handpicked by Mr Trump to succeed Janet Yellen in 2018, duly complied, although he maintained that a slowing of economic growth rather than a White House ukase impelled him to do so.

A Trump 2.0 administration has now become a distinct possibility where it was a distant one before. That prospect may yet give investors some courage to stage a rally in hopeful anticipation of all the good things to come – or it might dampen spirits as reality sets in and descends on an already unhinged world. In a word: looking for a bottom, markets remain pretty much clueless and investors out of their depth.

One thing is, however, clear: in concert with other major central banks, the US Federal Reserve no longer prioritises market stability – as it did during the financial crisis and the initial stages of the Corona Pandemic – but is now focussed on price stability. And if we know one thing from experience (1970s) it is that once the inflation genie gets out of the bottle, getting it back in requires considerable effort and involves significant pain.


Applied Science Private University (ASU): Forging its Own Path and Earning Global Respect - Jordan’s Pioneer in World of Private Universities

The Applied Science Private University (ASU) is a true educational pioneer — the first private university in Amman-Jordan when it was founded in 1989.

Over the past three decades, ASU has evolved into a hub of knowledge, innovation and discovery that attracts scholars from around the world. It has grown, too, and is one of the largest private universities in Jordan.

Built on the principles of diversity, inclusiveness, and excellence in education, research, and community service, ASU is a vibrant learning community. It is home to more than 6,500 local and international students and 240 faculty members, originating from 56 countries.

“ASU is best known for the quality of its programmes of study, supported by well-equipped laboratories, up-to-date curricula and state-of-the-art facilities,” says ASU president Iman Albasheti.

Bolstered by its strong foundation and track record, ASU recently adopted a new vision and mission that form the blueprint for shaping its future directions and priorities. ASU has embraced internationalisation, sustainability, and innovation as the main support pillars of its ongoing pursuit of excellence.

Vision and Mission

"Our vision is to be renowned internationally for excellence in teaching and learning, applied scientific research, sustainable development and community services," says Albasheti.

“Our mission is to embed creativity, entrepreneurship, and continuous development in the fields of education, scientific research, human resources, and university and community environment. In addition, we are dedicated to preparing a generation of graduates that matches national and international standards to serve their communities.”

ASU has been recognised locally and globally for its educational excellence and the quality of its services. It has partnered with universities in Europe, the US, Australia, and the Arab region, resulting in 110 joint research publications and 133 inbound and outbound students’ mobility. (Student mobility is the number of students from a given country studying abroad, expressed as a percentage of total tertiary enrolment in that country.) ASU recently joined the Erasmus+ programme as a partner with European universities, with more than 180 inbound and outbound student and staff mobilities.
ASU is an active member of the International Association of Universities, the Association of Arab Universities, UNIMED Mediterranean University Union. It is a signatory of the United Nation Sustainable Development Goals accord. i


Seelan Gobalsamy, CEO of Omnia Holdings: Putting Sustainability at the Heart of His Turnaround Strategy

[caption id="attachment_21809" align="alignright" width="300"] CEO of Omnia Holdings: Seelan Gobalsamy[/caption]

Omnia Group is an international, diversified, sustainable group of businesses which are recognised for leading the change from chemicals to green chemicals, biotech, and biomolecular solutions, offering network-created, innovative technologies that protect life.

We chatted to the CEO of Omnia Holdings, Seelan Gobalsamy, about turning a business around, leadership during turbulent times, environmental impact and the importance of all stakeholders for business sustainability.

Omnia embarked on a broad turnaround strategy in 2019 to improve the Group’s financial position, overall performance and competitive market positioning. What is your advice to other leaders who are turning a business around?

When challenging times arise, there is sufficient foresight and inherent resilience to focus and turn the situation around with a robust and disciplined execution plan. However, this is not always the case. If a business is on a downward trajectory and its leadership does not take immediate, corrective and decisive action, a collapse is most likely looming.

Resilience is more important than ever in our dynamic and unpredictable business environment. However, I believe that every crisis brings an opportunity to adapt and change course. While the Covid-19 pandemic may have spurred widespread disruption, it also created opportunities for leaders to reconsider what is required for their organisations’ future fitness.

It is critical to make the difficult decisions and put the business on a renewed path as soon as possible. Getting stakeholder buy in is critical, the alignment of these stakeholders is critical for a turnaround plan.

Global events have caused major disruptions to supply chains. How is Omnia’s sustainability agenda integrated in its strategy?

The business has adopted a holistic approach to safety; environmental, social and governance (ESG), and precision technology. By developing local suppliers through Omnia’s supplier selection processes, setting prerequisites for recycled materials, and through stringent quality standards, the business has reduced its carbon footprint, while aligning with its sustainability and environmental agenda.

We are building resilience with investments in renewable energy across our business. A large investment has been made in our plant at our Sasolburg factory, which will ultimately further reduce our reliance on the electricity grid. Equally, the effectiveness of our supply chain practices have directly contributed to the reduction of our carbon footprint. In the past year, Omnia switched from single-use plastic liners to recycled plastic. We also diversified our transport utilisation to include rail transport into the SADC region.

We emphasise social development through strategic sourcing and supplier development initiatives. By remaining close to our supplier base and their supply chains we can meet our environmental and social commitments. We maintain strict compliance and governance to ensure procurement best practices. These practices de-risk the business, increase local sourcing, reduce our environmental footprint – as well as that of our customers - and promote supplier enterprise development.

Can you share some successes Omnia has had in its impact on the environment?

Between 2020 and 2021, Omnia’s GHG emissions reduced by more than 363 091 tonnes. This reduction is equivalent to the annual emissions of about 79,000 vehicles. By FY2027, Omnia aims to advance its position, continuing to embrace new technologies and significantly lowering our business’ environmental impact. Our emphasis is on elevating our position as a sustainable, customer centric, market-leading business with a highly motivated and responsive workforce.

The bigger impact we have is ensuring that our customers reduce their impact through sustainability initiatives. Member of the Omnia Group, BME has led the field in the way it incorporates used oil in its explosives, BME promotes the circular economy for oil by annually collecting and recycling over 25 million litres of used oil from its customers, businesses and community gatherers, preventing the contamination of water and soil resources.

Similarly on the agricultural front, Omnia has addressed food security through its innovative agriculture offering. Through the provision of ‘feet on the farm’ advisory and access to a suite of agricultural technologies (DigiAg™, OmniPrecise®, OmniZone™, OmniRiskIQ™), Omnia Nutriology optimises farming practices, reduces farming risk, and enables precision farming - leading to increased yields and enhanced nutrient and water efficiency.

What is a key business philosophy you have to ensure a sustainable business?

People are the core of a business. The impact that any business makes is determined by its people. Leadership that creates a value-based culture, that continuously does what is right is critical to the sustainability goals of the business. Purpose-driven leadership is crucial, as this kind of leadership motivates, inspires, recognises and rewards employees – the very people who devote themselves to driving the business’s goals forward.

Effective leaders consider diverse points of view, identities and professional backgrounds as crucial to advancing creativity and critical thinking in the business. These provide the business with fresh perspectives that incubate new or more compelling ideas and ultimately advance the business, its people and economies. Key to harnessing these perspectives is ensuring employees feel empowered to raise their voices and put their ideas forward.

From a wider perspective, I am particularly passionate about the immense potential for African business leaders to be changemakers. They contribute towards building world-class businesses and are well placed to leverage opportunities that can strengthen the continent’s competitiveness and empower its people.

Contact: www.omnia.co.za


The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity - A Non-Linear Anarchist Reading of World History

It’s an ideology that inspires fear and loathing in equal measure. Anarchism or the conviction that the state – and its pantheon of agents including potentates, scribblers, soldiers, and priests – is a parasite of society and inherently oppressive and evil – and wholly unnecessary as well.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Perhaps Mao was right on at least one count: political power ultimately grows out of the gun barrel (or in times past, was delivered by the edge of a sword). The nation state, the highest form of political organisation, has been awarded an absolute monopoly over life and death and, as such, cannot escape its predestined fate. By design and conception, the state is corrupt. Thus spoke the anarchist.

The opposing argument holds that a stable and progressive civilisation needs structured order and organisation to grow and prosper – and, indeed, offer protection to its members: that being the state’s very raison d’être and why it was entrusted with monopoly powers. However, in practice that crucial state function – the suspension of the law of the jungle – is often a mere afterthought. Proof of the assertion that the state serves to protect against anarchy is said to be grounded in history. It is widely deemed indisputable.

The conventional reading of history postulates that humankind only embarked on a sustained and rapid trajectory of development after it shed the nomadic meanderings of prehistoric man and settled down to work the land and form communities. This first occurred in the Levant about 23,000 years ago. Here, Neolithic farmers domesticated and cultivated founder crops including barley, lentils, peas, flax, and emmer and einkorn wheat.

The Curse of the Land

Over the next ten or so millennia, agriculture arose independently in at least nine geographies from Mesoamerica to China, India, and Ethiopia.

Farming bound its practitioners to the land, resulting in the appearance of the first semi-sedentary societies such as the Natufian Culture that stretched northwards from the edge of the Negev Desert to present-day Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria.

Tell Abu Hureyra, an archaeological site in Syria’s Upper Euphrates Valley, provides the earliest solid evidence of agriculture in the world. The first evidence of bread-making, dating from about 12,500 BCE, was found at Shubayqa, a site in north-eastern Jordan.

However, the first ‘proper’ civilisation was formed eight millennia ago when Sumerians agglomerated in villages throughout the Fertile Crescent and eventually invented the plough and figured out how to brew beer, completing the Neolithic Revolution and, incidentally, setting the stage for much human suffering and bondage.

However, farming was not an agent of steady and unequivocal progress. Ethnological and archaeological research warrants the conclusion that hunter-gatherers enjoyed longer lives and more robust health than their settled fellow man. Due to chronic malnutrition (caused by frequent crop failures) and the advent of new diseases, the average height of pioneering farmers dropped 13cm to 165cm for men and 155cm for women. Shockingly, average height only returned to its pre-Neolithic Revolution level in the mid-twentieth century. The paleo diet turned out to be not so bad after all.

Upending the Narrative

In Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies[1] transdisciplinary historian Jared Diamond concludes that Europeans and East Asians leveraged their comparatively advantageous environment to become early adopters of agricultural sedentary lifestyles which, over time, brought the food surpluses that allowed some people to specialise in pursuits other than mere sustenance.

This division of labour inevitably led to technological innovation – free time being a terrible thing to waste even amongst the ancients – such as the steel swords and firearms that enabled these societies to expand their reach by conquering neighbouring lands, thus forming embryonic empires.

The struggles of mankind in its relentless chase of progress and the inescapable coveting of the neighbour’s riches may, however, have been in vain insofar that states as an expression of politics (derived from the Greek politikos, literally “affairs of the city”) have likely hindered the pursuit more than helped.

Such is the rather remarkable premise of The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity[2], a 700-page doorstopper, and page-turner, that seeks to upend the orthodox narrative of social evolution as espoused and propagated by Mr Diamond and the recently fashionable Yuval Noah Harari – and 99.9% of their fellow broad-stroke historians.

Genius Interrupted

The late David Graeber, co-author of The Dawn of Everything, was without doubt one of the most original social thinkers of our time. He wrote several books such as the bestseller Debt: The First 5,000 Years[3] and is credited with inspiring the Occupy Movement on both sides of the Atlantic – and coined its slogan ‘We Are the 99%’.

His death on 2 September 2020, at the age of 59 during a vacation in Venice, may hint at echoes from Thomas Mann’s 1912 novel but also deprived the world of a magnificent genius – a truly beautiful mind – with an uncanny knack for punching big holes in established thought bubbles, invariably deflating them to near-irrelevance.

Mr Graeber made many of his fellow academics uncomfortable. Yale University, where he held an associate professorship in Anthropology from 1998 to 2005, is suspected to have blocked his path to full tenure over political concerns. Mr Graeber, an unapologetic anarchist, moved to the University of London Goldsmiths College instead before finding an academic home at the London School of Economics.

Mr Graeber’s premise is straightforward: progress is non-linear and other paths of social evolution, much less trodden, may well lead to similar if not better outcomes. In a nutshell: the state and its agents are quite superfluous to human requirements.

Noble Savage

Before dismissing Mr Graeber as woolly-minded or worse, consider that his thoughts and considerations are, essentially, part of the philosophical framework first sketched and delineated by Jean-Jacques Rousseau in his 1754 tract on the origin of social inequality[4].

The French-Swiss philosopher exhaustively studied the journals of mariners returning from the first voyages to the New World. The seamen were astonished to have encountered an idyllic, almost paradisiacal, egalitarian society without princes, cardinals, or warlords and where work seemed optional because nature provided for human needs in abundance. Although he never used the phrase in his own discourse, Rousseau did paint a vivid picture of the Noble Savage: “Once upon a time we were hunter-gatherers, living in a state of childlike innocence, as equals.”

This happy condition, Rousseau noted, came to an end after the agricultural revolution and the rise of cities. Paradoxically, urban living sparked literature, science, and philosophy but also patriarchy, bureaucracy, taxation, armies, and the exclusion or execution of non-conformists.

As a concept, the noble savage may first have been used by the Roman politician and historian Tacitus whose Germania[5] (De origine et situ Germanorum) rather lyrically describes the lands and customs of Germanic tribes in the “uncivilised” wilderness beyond the empire’s borders.

Less historically distant sits Spanish priest (later bishop of Chiapas) Bartolomé de las Casas (1484-1566) who thundered at the inhumane treatment of the indigenous peoples of the Americas in his Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies[6]. Bishop De las Casas praised the “simple manners” of native Americans and observed that they were incapable of lying or deceit.

His participation in the landmark Valladolid Debate (1550-51), the first one in Europe to discuss the rights and treatment of indigenous people by colonisers, led to a further weakening of the “encomienda” system – which rewarded colonists and conquerors with the labour of subjected non-Christian people – and its replacement by somewhat less brutal “reducciones” that ushered natives – often forcefully – into towns where missionaries would dispense lessons in Christian morality whilst exploiting their labour.

Much later still, French structuralist anthropologist and reluctant explorer Claude Lévi-Strauss lamented the “loss of innocence” in the New World after its involution in the European chrysalis. His 1955 travelogue Tristes Tropiques[7] blends astute ethnological observation with philosophical musings and tentatively concludes that “deeper poverty and spiritual emptiness” are to be found on the streets and in the houses of “our”modern cities.

Exit Rulers

Mr Graeber departs from well-established tradition with his assertion – backed up by a vast reservoir of proof – that “nobles savages” built large cities and engaged in complex collaborative pursuits; all without the need for rulers – or indeed rigid rules.

Messrs Graeber and Wengrow point to a wealth of archaeological discoveries made over the past few decades – thus far mostly confined to scientific journals – to show that many of the earliest known cities were structured along egalitarian lines. Neolithic urbanites apparently lived for centuries without the need to elevate some to lofty positions of power and privilege. The remarkable absence of palaces, temples, or other grandiose buildings – and of evidence of a ruling caste or stratum – strongly suggests self-government.

In other places, palaces and temples were only built much later. The first large cities – with tens of thousands of inhabitants – emerged in Mesoamerica which enjoyed neither the technical nor the logistical advantages of Eurasia. Here, there were no wheeled conveyances, nor ships, or animal-traction. Moreover, metallurgy was poorly developed.

These cities should not have been. Conventional wisdom holds that advances in agriculture, producing surplus wealth, set off a chain of discoveries that allowed larger groups of people to live and work in one place. In other words: technology enabled, but invariably predated, the formation of larger cities. However, that was decidedly not the case in tech-poor Mesoamerica or along the eastern fringes of Europe.

Civic Pride

Excavations have repeatedly shown that early self-governing cities were much more than an agglomeration of self-centred individuals and did, in fact, cultivate a sense of civic pride and unity. Most early cities appear carefully laid out in harmonious patterns and with clearly identifiable districts, reflecting a high degree of urban planning – a distinctly collaborative effort.

How such large populations centres may have been held together without kings, bureaucrats, and soldiers mystified historians until 2014 when new conclusive research showed that the Cucuteni-Trypillian settlement unearthed forty years earlier near Maidanetske, a farming village about 240km south of Kyiv in Ukraine, was much larger than initially suspected, holding a population of up to 46,000 people around 3700 BCE – making it by far the largest city of that era.

Scholarship Disrupted

The steppes north of the Black Sea – now a battlefield – are home to many archaeological digs that disrupt established scholarship. Ignoring recent findings and research, many concerned academics prefer to speak euphemistically of “mega-sites” rather than mega-cities.

A few learned historians, most perturbed by the potential undermining of their narrative, call Maidanetske and sister sites such as nearby Talianki and Nebelivka “overgrown villages” before quickly moving on to Uruk, the ancient mega-city of Sumer (present-day Iraq) which was at least properly ruled by sovereigns during the Early Dynastic Period, such as the legendary King Gilgamesh.

Meticulous analysis by archaeologists show that the oval-shaped cities or sites of Ukraine flourished between 4100 and 3300 BCE and produced sizeable surpluses. That offered ample opportunity for some of the cities’ more enterprising residents to lord over their neighbours. Yet, there is no proof of that.

Instead, the citizens built assembly buildings and kept communal gardens that produced pears, cherries, apples, apricots, acorns, and hazelnuts – served on painted ceramics that are considered among the finest aesthetic creations of the prehistoric era. They also imported salt, flint, and copper from afar.

Village Simpletons

There is plenty of evidence that suggests early Ukrainian city dwellers enjoyed social freedoms maintained through local and neighbourhood decision-making processes that dispensed the need for top-down administration. After about eight centuries, the Neolithic cities of Ukraine and Moldova were abandoned for reasons still unknown. Their legacy is nonetheless important for these cities show that an egalitarian society is possible on an urban scale.

The urge to write off societies without kings, priests, or generals as “simple” has been prevalent throughout history. Indeed, the noble savage himself is but an inoffensive simpleton and weakling. He may be depicted as quite happy but is often also considered rather ignorant and singularly unable to create great works of art, defy gravity with grand buildings, or invent ingenious machines that lighten man’s burden. Of course, the noble savage carrying no burden had no need for such machines to begin with.

The findings in Ukraine and Moldova coincide with similar ones in Mesoamerica (Teotihuacan) and in China’s Shandong Province where large urban settlements were present well over a thousand years before the rise of the earliest known royal dynasty.

The narrative of most broad-stroke historians rests on the presumption of linear progress. In this reading, the first 300,000 or so years of human history were rather uneventful. Hunter-gatherers lived in small groups until – at last! – agriculture and sedentary societies gradually appeared to give rise to states organised along hierarchical lines and based on the exploitations of labour.

Messrs Graeber and Wengrow reject the notion that early humans were nothing more than automatons prodded and guided by material pressures. Instead, they argue that “primitive man” experimented with a “carnival of political forms” and possessed plenty of agency. The idea that history resembles a conveyor belt that takes humankind from the Serengeti wilderness straight into the office cubicle is overdue for reassessment.

The Indigenous Critique

But how are we to know what really happened in the far reaches of history? Can archaeology truly decipher the intricacies of prehistoric political life? Writing in The Nation, historian Daniel Immerwahr called David Graeber a “wildly creative thinker better known for being interesting than being right.” However, a feeble attempt by Immerwahr to discredit one of the book’s claims fell flat after he read the source wrong.

Yale University political scientist James C Scott said that Graeber and Wengrow have probably delivered a “fatal blow” to the traditional reading of early history but also warned that academia does not usually embrace dissidents – or kindly accept the conclusions of their research.

Mr Scott challenged the standard narrative in his own Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States[8], published in 2018, which ruffled feathers by looking at the formation and emergence of states through the eyes of sceptical peasants. He likewise concludes that the causal sequence of history’s standard version is demonstrably wrong.

Perhaps the most interesting and striking part of The Dawn of Everything is delivered in an early chapter on The Indigenous Critique which, the authors argue, is likely to have helped spark the European Enlightenment.

The critique, formulated by natives of the New World and recorded by French explorers, posited that for all their technological advances and prowess, the great powers of Europe had failed to promote the freedom, wellbeing, and happiness of their people. As such, the critique questioned the purpose and usefulness of the state as a political construct.

In a sense, the flash-in-the-pan Occupy Movement asked the exact same question – and it is a serious one that demands pondering. According to David Wengrow, the present moment invites reflection: “Our prevailing system is putting us and the planet on a course of real catastrophe. We find ourselves paralysed with our horizons closed off by false perspectives of human possibilities based on a mythological conception of history”

By Wim Romeijn

[1] Guns, germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies by Jared Diamond. WW Norton & Co. 1997. 480pp, out of print, ISBN 978-0-3930-3891-0

[2] The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity by David Graeber and David Wengrow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2021. 704pp, hardcover, $26.49, ISBN 978-0-3741-5735-7

[3] Debt: The First 5,000 Years by David Graeber. Melville House 2011. 544pp, out of print, ISBN 978-1-9336-3386-2

[4] Discourse on the Origin and the Foundations of Inequality Among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Createspace Independent Pub 2017. 96pp, print on demand, paperback, $11.95, ISBN978-1-9793-1632-3

[5] Agricola and Germania by Tacitus. Penguin Classics 2010. 121pp, paperback, $11.99, ISBN 978-0-1404-5540-3

[6] Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies by Bartolomé de las Casas. Penguin Classics 1999. 192pp, paperback, $14.29, ISBN 978-0-1404-4562-6

[7] Tristes Tropiques by Claude Lévi-Strauss. Penguin Classics 2012. 448pp, paperback, $21,49, ISBN 978-0-1431-0625-8

[8] Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States by James C Scott. Yale University Press 2018. 336pp, paperback, $15.49, ISBN 978-0-3002-4021-4


Power Meets Pluck: Paranoid and Haunted, President Putin Sees Nazis Everywhere

[caption id="attachment_21820" align="alignright" width="300"] President: Vladimir Putin[/caption]

In President Vladimir Putin’s book everybody not excitedly cheering his ‘special military operation’ to liberate Ukraine is a Nazi. If the Russian press is believed, the worse of the lot are to be found in Finland and Sweden as those countries mull joining NATO – the new disguise of the Axis Powers.

That blonde on platform shoes from Abba? A dancing Nazi. King Carl Gustav XVI? A royal Nazi. Prime Minister Sanna Marin of Finland? A closet Nazi. Her counterpart in Sweden Magdalena Andersson? A wannabe Nazi. The European Union? A conference of Nazis; and, of course, a thoroughly evil collective supporting its Ukrainian co-conspirator and Über Nazi Volodymyr Zelensky.

Mr Putin’s obsession with Nazis echoes the Red Scares of the 1910s and 1950s when Americans – and to a lesser extent Europeans – saw bloodthirsty communists lurking under beds, behind trees, and in attics. That irrational fear fuelled the Cold War just as the present fixation of the Russian president stokes the hot war.

Looking in from afar, it is almost impossible to understand the reasoning, if any, behind Mr Putin’s actions and thoughts. He seems to have achieved the exact opposite of the outcome he anticipated or desired.

Churchillian

Ukraine sprang a surprise, refused to follow Moscow’s script, and did not roll over when it was supposed to – right after the first salvo was fired. Its president did not whimper and flee in the face of an apparently almighty opponent. Instead, he morphed into a Churchillian giant, brilliantly inspiring the nation with his personal courage and determination. President Zelensky’s attitude, gestures, and words will be analysed, studied, and dissected by countless future generations of marketing and PR professionals.

The Ukrainian people, including native Russian-speakers, rose as one to defend the homeland with Molotov cocktails, hunting rifles, pitchforks, and whatever else could be thrown at the invaders. Instead of bread and salt, Russian ‘liberators’ were offered sunflower seeds so that beauty could grow out of their corpses. A formerly rather downtrodden nation was transformed almost overnight into one bursting with optimism, resolve, and confidence.

Nobody, least of all Mr Putin, saw that coming. The Russian president also seriously underestimated the West’s adoration of the underdog. Whilst he admires power, the West admires pluck.

Remarkably, there has been very little discussion over the question if Ukraine is worthy of support. The question did not even arise. It was a cut and dried given that the country suffering aggression must be assisted lest the emboldened invader turns a corner and heads west.

Preposterous

The Kremlin’s own excuses for moving into its neighbour – after denying for months on end that it harboured no such designs – were too preposterous to entertain or merit an answer. In this war, the good guys are easily distinguished from the bad ones. There is no ambiguity at all. Even Switzerland suspended its state religion to pick a side. The understandably war-shy Germans broke with precedent and decided to ship heavy artillery eastwards – and invest €100bn in their own armed forces.

Instead of driving a wedge deep into NATO, the invasion pulled the alliance together and reinvigorated it. Suddenly, that Cold War relic went from a being sleepy, boring, and slightly awkward construct to the mighty cornerstone of our common defence. With the sole exception of Belarus, all of Russia’s western neighbours are clamouring to be let in and bask peacefully and securely under the Article 5 all-for-one umbrella.

It must be particularly frustrating for President Putin to note that Finland and Sweden are immune to his empty (nuclear) threats and now ready to be fast-tracked into NATO. This profoundly chances the Nordic geopolitical reality. In Helsinki, Stockholm, and elsewhere, Russian intimations are mostly met with a retort along the lines of ‘you and what army?’

Finland shares a 1,300km-long border with Russia and will add considerable resolve and firepower to NATO. It can readily mobilise an exceptionally well-trained and well-equipped army of some 280,000. With over 800 pieces of heavy artillery in its arsenal, plus 200 Leopard II battle tanks upgraded to the highest standard, Finland has little to fear from its blustering neighbour. According to former Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, the country’s NATO accession provides not only a solid backstop but also affirms its formal abandonment of Russian- (Soviet-) imposed neutrality.

Mr Stubb called Russia’s unprovoked attack on Ukraine a “tactical and strategic blunder” which convinced both Finns and Swedes that realpolitik demanded seeking shelter in NATO: “For both countries, membership of the alliance is a no-brainer on all counts and a win-win for the Baltic Sea region as a whole.”

Immersed deep in a quagmire of his own making, and without a face-saving way to climb out, President Putin seems to be preparing for a long war of attrition. That was the considered assessment given to US lawmakers on Tuesday by Avril Haines, Director of National Intelligence.

Resilience

Mr Haines does not expect the Kremlin to be satisfied with capturing the Donbass and its two breakaway pseudo-republics. He warned that Russian leadership may be counting on the country’s greater willingness to sustain losses and endure hardship for longer than its adversaries. In this reading, the resolve of the US and EU may weaken as inflation takes it toll, energy prices spike, and the war drags on.

This is decidedly not how Ukraine Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba expects the war to unfold. Confidence is growing that the country may ultimately be victorious and eject Russian forces from its territory – including Crimea. Earlier this week, Mr Kuleba said that the “picture of victory is an evolving concept” and added that pushing the Russians out of the Donbass region would enable Ukraine to retake Crimea as well. Kyiv wants everything back – including the kitchen sink.

Mr Kuleba expressed confidence that Ukraine’s newfound allies would back the country “all the way” and said that deliveries of heavy artillery were gathering steam and would provide the military with the firepower needed to push back Russia’s recent advances.

The foreign minister was equally sanguine over his country’s prospects of joining the European Union: “Just three months ago, Ukraine did not even have a membership perspective. Now they are discussing how long the accession would take.” In June, EU leaders will decide if Ukraine is to be awarded membership candidate status and gain admittance to the crowded antechamber of the union.

Mr Kuleba was somewhat less excited over the proposal of President Emmanuel Macron of France for the creation of an associate membership category – a sort of EU Light – for promising aspirant and repentant former member states. “We want full membership asap,” said Mr Kuleba, explaining that Ukraine is the only country where people fight and die for European values.