The Wall Street Journal - 24.02.2020

(Barry) #1

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. ** Monday, February 24, 2020 |A


WORLD WATCH WORLD NEWS


SOUTH SUDAN

Fragile Power-Sharing
Government Sworn In

South Sudan President Salva
Kiir swore in opposition leader
Riek Machar as his deputy,
marking a tentative start of a
power-sharing government be-
tween two longtime enemies
and the latest effort to end the
six-year war that has plagued
the world’s youngest nation.
The two men have spent
most of the years since South
Sudan’s 2011 declaration of inde-
pendence from Sudan fighting
each other and ignoring interna-
tional pleas to reconcile. Satur-
day’s ceremony, one day after
the two men agreed to form a
unity government, appeared to
herald a new chapter for a coun-
try that has been ravaged by
conflict since 2013.
After a nine-month delay, Mr.
Machar took his oath before dip-
lomats and regional leaders in
the capital, Juba.
Some analysts warned that it
is a matter of time before this
peace deal collapses, like previ-
ous ones.
—Nicholas Bariyo

TURKEY

Nine Dead as Quake
Strikes in Iran

Nine people were killed in
Turkey in a magnitude 5.7 earth-
quake that struck western Iran,
Turkish Health Minister Fahrettin
Koca said.
The quake’s center was west
of the Iranian city of Khoy and
affected villages in the Turkish

province of Van.
Three children and four adults
were killed in Turkey’s Baskule
district, Turkish Interior Minister
Suleyman Soylu said. Mr. Koca
later updated the number of fa-
talities to nine.
The earthquake affected 43
villages in the mountainous Qot-
our area, Iran’s official IRNA
news agency said, and at least
75 people were injured.
—Associated Press

HAITI

Police and Soldiers
Exchange Fire

Off-duty police officers and
their supporters exchanged fire
for nearly two hours with mem-
bers of the newly reconstituted
Haitian army in front of the na-
tional palace, in an escalation of
protests over police pay and
working conditions.
At least three police officers
were wounded, fellow officers
said. Associated Press journal-
ists saw dozens of men who
said they were off-duty officers
march with hundreds of sup-
porters toward the palace in
Port-au-Prince, in the latest in
days of demonstrations de-
manding better pay for Haitian
law-enforcement officers.
The protest stopped outside
the army headquarters facing
the palace. Associated Press
journalists saw several soldiers
at the headquarters fire into
the air. Shortly afterward, an
exchange of fire erupted be-
tween the soldiers and police. It
wasn’t clear which side began
firing at the other first.
—Associated Press

A boy recoiled as a man in a Haitian police uniform took aim
during clashes with soldiers in Port-au-Prince on Sunday.

ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES/REUTERS


SINGAPORE—For years, this
prosperous city-state has en-
couraged its citizens to have
more children, offering cash
grants for new parents, pro-
viding public housing for
young couples and even pass-
ing along relationship advice.
In its latest push, the gov-
ernment in January expanded
preschool subsidies and en-
hanced government support
for assisted reproduction and
fertility treatments.
But fertility in Singapore
remains in a slump—1.14 chil-
dren per woman in 2018, down
from about three in 1970, mak-
ing it among the world’s low-
est rates. Demographers say
the city-state’s difficulties re-
flect how government policies
tend to have a low impact on
raising fertility rates.
“Policies in general have a
very disappointing effect from
the policy makers’ perspec-
tive,” said Mikko Myrskyla, ex-
ecutive director of the Max
Planck Institute for Demo-
graphic Research in Germany.
Once small families and child-
lessness become commonplace,
he said, cash handouts and
subsidized kindergarten tend
not to change people’s minds,
in part because they make only
a small dent in the life-
time costs of raising a child.
“We can see many youth not
getting married and they think
twice before having kids,” said
Bhavani Perina, a 41-year-old
Singaporean with three chil-
dren who is taking a break from
her career to focus on them.
Ms. Perina said workplace
hours should be more flexible
to support working parents,
and that child-care-leave poli-
cies should be extended to
those with older children.
Falling birthrates pose a
challenge in countries around
the world. They face a future
with shrunken workforces and
insufficient tax revenue to sup-
port expanding ranks of the el-
derly. Even the U.S., once con-
sidered less vulnerable because
of high immigration and high
birthrates among some groups,
saw births in 2018 fall to their
lowest levels since the 1980s.

Manpower Josephine Teo
said in a speech last year.
Singapore’s National Popula-
tion and Talent Division,
a government unit, says that
while most young Singaporeans
want to get married and have
children, “they are increasingly
prioritizing other goals such as
furthering their education,
building their careers and
travel.” The government said
there were hopeful signs, in-
cluding that “the average num-
ber of citizen births and mar-
riages over the last five years
is higher than that in the pre-
ceding five-year period.”
Singapore is finding new
ways to bring couples together.
Deon Chan, the founder of dat-
ing agency Love Express, re-
cently received a government
grant to build an app that, she
said, will use artificial intelli-
gence to suggest romantic part-
ners for singles who attend her
events. She points to statistics
that show Singaporeans staying
single until later in life.
At one of Love Express’s re-
cent speed-dating events, held
in a luxury hotel and adver-
tised on a government web-
site, a dozen men rotated be-
tween tables of women
sipping mocktails, discussing
careers, hobbies and whether
love at first sight exists.
Jessie, a 40-year-old office
administrator, said that al-
though she would like to get
married and have children,
there was no forcing it. “It takes
two hands to clap,” she said.

BYJONEMONT

Singapore Struggles to Boost Births


Children run through a waterside park in Singapore. Fertility remains in a slump in the city-state.

WALLACE WOON/EPA/SHUTTERSTOCK

The question of how to
boost birthrates is taking on
new urgency amid a global
backlash against immigration.
Some economists have argued
in favor of expanding immigra-
tion as a quick way to boost
the workforce in low-fertility
societies. Instead, many such
countries have grown resis-
tant, partly because of worries
that migrants will replace de-
clining native populations.
Even Singapore’s government
is concerned about what it
calls nativist tendencies. An op-
position party’s manifesto re-
cently alleged immigration poli-
cies were “precipitating a crisis
of national identity.” A govern-
ment spokesperson said its pol-

icy has been to take in a stable
number of new citizens and per-
manent residents committed to
making Singapore their home.
Singapore publicizes its pol-
icies to support parenthood
on http://www.heybaby.sg. Benefits
include higher tax rebates for
more children, paid leave for
parents with young children
and tax benefits for work-
ing mothers whose parents
look after the grandchildren.
The government offers grants
to companies that provide
flexible work arrangements.
“We must actively lean
against the wind to make mar-
riage and parenthood achiev-
able, enjoyable and cele-
brated,” Minister for

Demographic Squeeze


Sources: World Bank; Statistics Singapore

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