Belarusian football has never known this level of international attention.
The decision to continue playing, when all major football competitions across Europe have been suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, has made it the go-to for fans craving live action.
The Belarusian authorities have dismissed pandemic warnings as “psychosis” and have not officially enforced a lockdown in the country, with the pro-government media playing down fears about the spread of Covid-19.
That is despite the total number of deaths relating to virus passing 30,000 in Europe, and 43,000 globally.
Belarus confirmed its first death from the virus on Tuesday, but the unofficial number is reportedly a lot higher.
Fifpro, the world union for football players, has said it is “frankly not comprehendible” that games are continuing in the Eastern European nation.
But continue it does, and the Belarusian Premier League – a competition not many had heard about before this spring – is gaining popularity across the world.
Among this international craze, one team stands out.
FC Slutsk – from Minsk Region – had few international fans just a couple of weeks ago.
But despite a mixed start to the season – one win, one defeat – they can now boast of hundreds.
The FK Slutsk Worldwide Facebook group, established in Australia last week, has more than 2,000 members.
“The coronavirus has hit football fans all over the world hard,” says the group description. “We thank the Belarusian Premier League, and FK Slutsk for keeping football going for football fans everywhere.”
What is the secret of such huge popularity?
“FC Slutsk has seen hype due to its name,” explains the popular Belarusian sports website Pressball.
“Slutsk sounds similar to the rude colloquial English word ‘slut’, which means a ‘woman who has a lot of sexual partners’ or ‘women who have a lot of sexual partners’ in plural.”
The website noted that, in the light of this, a senior Russian football official’s criticism of broadcasts of the Belarusian championship on Russian TV appears to be “ironic”.
Commenting on a game he watched, Vyacheslav Koloskov likened Belarusian football to “pornography”.
But FK Slutsk’s popularity knows no bounds at the moment.
Those worldwide fans have come up with a new club emblem, almost 300 comments were left on the page during their recent defeat by Dinamo Brest, and a report in Poland said some Adelaide residents are even pushing for a twin-city relationship with Slutsk.
“We don’t want this extraordinary story to stay just a short-term hype, but would want these fans to stay with the team even after the end of the global epidemic, even when all the world’s football will return from quarantine,” the club told Belsat.
Since the first death with coronavirus was officially confirmed by the traditionally secretive Belarusian authorities, concerns have grown that the football championship may be suspended.
Vitsebsk, where the 75-year-old Belarusian actor Viktar Dashkevich died of Covid-19, is home to the eponymous top-tier club.
According to numerous reports by opposition media, the unofficial number of cases in the city and region is high. Indirectly, even the authorities concede the fact. In particular, the Interior Ministry banned policemen from leaving the region.
But the city’s football team continue to prepare for their next game – on 5 April they host Smolevichy at their 8,000-capacity stadium.
According to Vitsebsk manager Syarhey Yasinski “everything goes as planned”.
“Nothing has changed for us,” he says. “We do not go out, try not to cough on one another, wash and rub hands.”
However, he did voice some reservation.
“So far we do not have any sick players,” he said. “So far everything is fine in this respect. But you should understand: if all this changes, my comments will be different, and so will actions.”
Midfielder Anton Matveyenka appears to be more concerned.
“I am not in the best mood,” he said. “There is rather a feeling of danger nearby. And when everybody is phoning you and asking about Vitsebsk, I feel somewhat uneasy.”
Elsewhere, Brazilian defender Joao William – who plays for Brest-based Rukh – voiced his anxiety in an interview with the Belarusian sports website Tribuna.
“I hope the Belarusian championship will be suspended,” he said. “I am slightly frightened. I am not worried about it during a match. But after the final whistle is blown, doubts arise: ‘Have I contracted it today?.'”
And supporters of another top-tier club, Neman, have accused the authorities of lying about the real epidemiological situation in the country and called on all fans not to attend matches.
“Let us stay home, reduce risks linked to the coronavirus spread and defend ourselves and people next to us,” the Neman fans said in the statement, as well as urging the Belarusian Football Federation (BFF) to suspend all competitions.
For his part, BFF chairman Uladzimir Bazanaw appears to be defiant.
“There is no critical situation. Therefore, we are continuing the championship,” he said in an interview with Belarusian state TV.
“Nobody is putting pressure on us – neither Uefa nor Fifa. We are taking decisions on our own. We are not saying that we are going to play the full championship. If there is a critical situation, we will suspend the tournament.” (BBC)
Belarus football’s new global following as Belarusian Premier League continues unabated
Ethiopia signs its first power purchase agreement
One of the first independent energy company in Ethiopia, Tulu Moye Geothermal operations /TMGO/ signed a power purchase (PPA) and implementation agreement (IA) with Ethiopian Electric Power (EEP), Ministry of Finance (MoF) and Ministry of Water, Irrigation and Energy (MoWIE).
The agreement signed on March 31, 2020 at Hyatt regency, is the first of its kind public private partnership on geothermal power project and power purchasing agreement between the government and private company.
The three government bodies signed the updated PPA & IA agreements to allow the Tulu Moye Project to accelerate progress and investment in Ethiopia.
TMGO was established in December 17, 2017, created for the implementation of this geothermal project making it one of the first independent power projects in Ethiopia. TMGO is a shareholding company of the Paris based investment firm Meridian SAS and the Icelandic Geothermal Development Company, Reykjavik Geothermal.
TMGO, one of the first independent energy companies in Ethiopia kicks off drilling on 4 March 2020 at its project site with the drilling rig on site, the official start of drilling for the Tulu Moye geothermal project at Tulu Moye volcano in the Arsi Zone of Oromia Region, in Iteya District.
The project is to generate and sell the power to the Ethiopian electric power for the next twenty-five years
The drilling milestone mark the beginning of the development of 150 MW geothermal power plant in two phases, with an anticipated total investment of USD 800 million and is considered both by the government and project owners as a breakthrough event.
“Geothermal enhances our energy security by providing constant output power to support industrialisation,” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on Twitter, adding that it was the first such power purchase agreement to reach such an advanced stage in the country.
The wells are expected to be drilled by Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen), which signed a contract in October 2019 with TMGO for the first phase of the project. The agreement provides for the drilling of around ten production wells and two injection wells. KenGen will also build a collection and injection system for a water-cooled condensing steam power plant with a capacity of 50 MW. The Tulu Moye Geothermal project brings the preeminent international geothermal scientists to Ethiopia, including from USA, Iceland & Kenya,
By February 2023 the project will start to generating 50 MW on the first phase of the geothermal power-plant. Furthermore, by 2025, the project is expected to generate 150 MW towards the Ethiopian Electricity Grid base-load needsTulu Moye Geothermal will continue to work in the coming years with the technical and financial experts in Ethiopia to develop a leading global geothermal industry, totaling 150MW, the full Corbetti programme will enable the Ethiopia to meet 18% of its 2025 geothermal generation target.
Dashen donates 10 million birr for the fight against corona
Dashen Bank who is the first bank to act on the mitigation of coronavirus effect in the economy donated ten million birr for the battle to combat the virus.
Early this week the bank president, Asfaw Alemu, officially provided the donation for the taskforce formed by the government to mobilize resources to fight COVID 19.
Two weeks ago the bank disclosed new initiatives that mitigate the challenge facing in the economy due to the virus, which WHO declared a global pandemic.
“We are working our part to contribute on tackling the latest challenge the country and the world in general faces. We will also further our support based on the condition of the outbreak,” Asfaw told Capital.
Furthermore the bank has doubled the daily cash withdrawal on VISA and IFB ATM cards to 10,000 birr from the previous 5,000 birr aiming to reduce customers visit to branches.
The Bank has also waived the ATM transaction fee, Extension commission fee in the course of extending the validity of LCs, 50 percent commission fee in the course of extending the validity of purchase orders, and Re-Negotiation fees on loans and advances for a period of 60 days effective from March 23.
The bank also stated that it will continue to take its part to keep the economy from further damage.
Coronavirus making it impossible to battle devastating locust swarms in East Africa
African Development Bank approves $1.5 million emergency grant to curb desert locusts
Coronavirus is making it more challenging to eradicate gigantic locust swarms that are wreaking havoc in East Africa.
The outbreak of locusts, which can be carried in component by the wind, has overwhelmed regional officials in various locations — together with Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Uganda and the Congo.
The COVID-19 crisis, which is straining community health and fitness techniques and means in multiple international locations, has additional a new layer of complication to the fight versus the locusts.
“Obviously, the obstacle for the intercontinental local community will be to address the humanitarian needs of various levels of want and competing crises all about the world,” Cyril Ferrand, the Food items and Agriculture Organization’s East Africa resilience staff leader said.
As new cases of coronavirus have been seen in significantly of East Africa this thirty day period, the pandemic also is slowing the shipping of pesticides that can destroy the insects.
“That’s the hazard of the present-day problem whereby we have big requires for guidance, blended with the reality that with covid-19, even the northern hemisphere is really impacted economically,” Ferrand added.
The bugs can absolutely decimate crops and devastate pasture for animals. This is significantly complicated in a region the place agriculture accounts for key part of economic action.
In related development, the Board of Directors of the African Development Bank on Wednesday approved a $1.5 million emergency relief grant to assist nine countries in the East and Horn of Africa on the control of swarms of desert locusts that are threatening livelihoods and food security.
The proposed assistance will be channeled to the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), which has been mandated to mobilize resources on behalf of the African Union.
IGAD is collaborating with the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) which is leading coordination of development partner support to provide desert locust invasion control, safeguard of livelihoods and to promote early recovery of affected households in the in the East and Horn of Africa. FAO will act as the Executing Agency for the grant.
The funds will be used to control the spread of the current locust invasion, prevent potential next-generation swarms and to conduct impact assessment and monitoring to enhance preparedness and awareness. A portion of the funds would also be allocated to administrative costs.
The nine beneficiary countries are Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Uganda and Tanzania.
Kenya, Ethiopia and Somalia have been particularly hard hit by the outbreak and widespread breeding of locusts that is expected to create new swarms in the coming weeks. The infestation poses an unprecedented risk to livelihoods and food security in an already fragile region and has caused huge damage to agricultural production.
In Ethiopia and Somalia, the outbreak is the worst in 25 years, and in Kenya, in 70 years.
In Ethiopia, the locusts have devastated more than 30,000 hectares of crops, including coffee and tea that account for about 30% of the nation’s exports. Despite government’s interventions, swarms and breeding have been reported in large parts of the country. In Djibouti, over 80% of 1,700 agro-pastoral farms located in 23 production zones are affected by desert locust infestations.
At least 18 of 47 Kenyan counties are affected with more than 70,000 hectares of crops under infestation according to recent FAO reports. Locust swarms are devastating pastureland, maize, cowpeas, beans and other crops despite the government’s efforts to curb the outbreak.
Locust swarms are reportedly also threatening Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, Sudan and Eritrea.
Efforts to control the infestations will require around $147 million, of which $75 million has been provided by governments, donors and UN agencies including FAO and the World Food Program (WFP). However, a significant funding shortfall remains.
