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Gulf Times - Why walls on frontiers fail

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Call this the Year of Border Walls. In 2015, almost five countries announced or began the construction of barriers on their frontiers. We may live in an era of globalisation, but much of the world is increasingly focused on limiting the free movement of people.
At the end of World War II, there were only five border walls around the world. Today, according to Elisabeth Vallet of the University of Quebec at Montreal, there are 65, three-quarters of them built in the past 20 years. And in the US, Republican presidential candidates are promising more.

#mur #frontières #reece_jones

Gulf Times - Katara’s Gaza solidarity fest raises QR148.64mn
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The Gaza solidarity festival held at Katara - the Cultural Village on Friday night has helped raise QR148.64mn in donations, officials said yesterday.

The festival was organised by Katara in collaboration with the Palestinian embassy in Doha, Qatar Charity (QC), Qatar Red Crescent (QRC), Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) and other local charities and organisations, including banks and private companies.

The announcement on the donations was made at a press conference in Katara. It was attended by Katara general manager Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti, Palestinian ambassador Munir Ghanim, QC director of international development Ibrahim Zainal, RAF CEO Mohamed Salahudin and QRC chairman Dr Mohamed bin Ghanim al-Ali al-Maadid.

The response to Katara’s Gaza solidarity festival, the great turnout at the event and its success highlighted the feelings that locals and expatriates in Qatar have towards the cause of supporting those suffering in Gaza, Dr al-Sulaiti stressed.

“The festival received great support across its activities,” he added, extending his thanks and appreciation to all the partners and participants, including various societies in Katara for their key participation.

Dr al-Sulaiti said the donation campaign would continue. “This blessed campaign will go on so as to tell our distressed brothers in Gaza that we are standing by them against the oppressive siege and aggression. We consider this as the minimum that we can do for our people in Gaza.”

Prévisions économiques florissantes dans le Golfe déprimantes ailleurs (Bloomberg/ Gulf Times)

Saudi economic output may expand 4.8% this year, according to an HSBC forecast that was raised from 4.3%. The kingdom may record a budget surplus equivalent to 6.4% of gross domestic product, compared with 7.1% in Qatar and 31% in Kuwait, HSBC estimates.

Qatar’s economy may expand 6.5% this year, HSBC said, revising its estimate from 5.2% in the previous quarterly report.

“Government spending remains the primary stimulus for this growth,” the economists wrote.

Qatar plans to spend $140bn on infrastructure projects by 2019, three years before hosting the soccer World Cup finals, HE the Finance Minister Yousef Hussein Kamal had said last month.

The growth forecast for Kuwait was raised to 4.4% from 3.9%.

Egypt may post a budget deficit of about 11% of GDP, HSBC said, as the economy weakens amid rising opposition to President Mohamed Mursi, delays to loan talks with the International Monetary Fund, and plunging currency reserves. “For post-revolution Egypt, the brief window of opportunity for orderly political transition and economic stabilisation appears to have snapped shut, with substantial further deterioration since our last quarterly,” Williams and Martins wrote.

The economy may grow 1.4% in the fiscal year ending in June, down from an earlier estimate of 2.1%, HSBC said. Egypt’s economy hasn’t expanded that slowly since the early 1990s, and it achieved average growth of 4.9% in the decade before Hosni Mubarak’s overthrow in 2011, according to the IMF.

▻http://www.gulf-times.com/business/191/details/348588/saudi-saves-$1bn-a-week-as-egypt-counts-wheat-stocks%3A-hsbc