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Modern Day Slavery. Credit: UN images

By Thalif Deen
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 25 2019 (IPS)

After an exhaustive study of modern day slavery, the Geneva-based International Labour Organization (ILO) concluded there are over 40 million people who are victims of slavery, including 25 million in forced labour and 15 million in forced marriages – with at least 71 percent of them comprising women and girls.

The current figures are reportedly even higher since the release of the 2017 landmark study titled ‘Global Estimates of Modern Slavery,’ which was a collaborative effort with the Walk Free Foundation, in partnership with the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

The Chicago-based Safe Haven Network has described human trafficking as “the largest international crime industry– exceeding that of illegal drugs and arms trafficking.”

The United States outlawed the importation of African slaves by an act of Congress back in 1807. But it took another 58 years before there was a complete ban on slavery in 1865 following the end of the Civil War.

In the US, modern day slavery and racial discrimination are two sides of the same coin—and racism has raised its ugly head under the nationalistic banner of “white supremacy” under the current demagogic Trump administration.

Still, despite historic milestones, slavery is still prevalent in a variety of disguises—including human trafficking, child soldiers, forced and early child marriages, domestic servitude and migrant labour—both in the global South (read: developing nations) and the global North (read: Western industrialized nations).

The New York Times ran a frontpage story Feb 23 about a billionaire owner of a famous American football team who was charged on two counts of soliciting sex as part of a wide-ranging investigation into prostitution and suspected human trafficking in the US state of Florida.

The bottom line is: modern slavery is very much alive– and thriving– both in the world’s poorest and richest countries.

Karolin Seitz, programme officer on corporate accountability, business and human rights at Global Policy Forum based in Bonn, told IPS that modern slavery still persists both in countries of the global South and also in countries of the global North.

Especially migrant workers, may it be on orange plantations in Italy or Qatar’s construction sector, are at risk of coerced into exploitative and forced labor.

Modern Day Slavery. Credit: UN images

She said experience has shown that voluntary commitments by multinational companies are not enough.

Some countries, like the UK with its Anti-Slavery Act, Australia with its Modern Slavery Act or France with its loi de vigilance, have come to the conclusion that only binding rules are appropriate, Seitz added.

As the recent World Health Organization (WHO) report on the health of refugees and migrants in the European Region has shown, migrant workers are more likely to work long hours, in high-risk jobs and without necessary safety measures, and to avoid complain¬ing about hazardous conditions.

Those affected by trafficking or forced labor, said Seitz, are often not recognized by the authorities and therefore have no access to justice. Affected individuals can rarely enforce their claims to pay and compensation.

To eliminate competitive advantages based on modern slavery, human trafficking and environmental pollution, human rights due diligence must go beyond national borders, declared Seitz.

Sharan Burrow, General Secretary, International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), told IPS that inequality and modern slavery go hand in hand for millions of people.

“Modern slavery is everywhere, from the kafala system in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates; from cattle ranches in Paraguay to fisheries in Thailand and the Philippines to agriculture in Italy,” she noted.

“The supply chains of clothes, food and services consumed globally are trained with forced labour, with migrant workers and indigenous people particularly vulnerable to exploitation,” said Burrow, a former President of the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) (2000–2010).

She said ending modern slavery is possible.

“It’s a matter of political will to deliver legislative changes and freedom of association, which will be driven by the exposure of scandal and campaigning from workers, consumers and unions. Governments needs to stare down corporate pressure, people demand it.”

Dima Dabbous, Director of Equality Now’s Middle East/North Africa (MENA) office, told IPS the ILO estimates that there are 1.6 million migrant women in the Middle East living under kafala sponsorship.

Situated in the Gulf States, Jordan and Lebanon, these workers are particularly vulnerable because they are located within private homes doing domestic jobs such as cleaner, housekeeper or nanny, and are excluded from local labor regulations.

They are bound to one employer and are unable to resign, move jobs, or leave the country without consent from their sponsor, who is able to threaten deportation if their employee questions the terms of their contract, she added.

“This imbalance in power relations has created a system whereby employers are able to exploit immigrant household workers with little risk of consequence”.

As a result, mistreatment such as restricting movement, withholding payment, and physical and sexual abuse are widespread. In extreme cases women have been murdered, said Dabbous, a former director of the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World.

In Lebanon, she said, previous lobbying by local and international NGOs has led to some improvements in the type of labor contract that regulates the work of domestic migrant women, such as imposing a period of weekly rest, employers to pay the wage on a regular basis, helpers who are abused complain to the authorities.

However, none of these “improvements” have made any difference because the new contract was not translated into languages spoken by domestic helpers and was not enforced by the Lebanese government.

“Women have continued having their passports confiscated by their employers, are still being denied a day off per week, and have little possibility of complaining about or reporting abuse.”

She said the ILO and other international NGOs (INGOs) should continue their advocacy around the kafala system that binds these migrant women to their employers like slaves.

The international community should also support the local NGOs that work on abolishing or replacing the kafala system.

These NGOs remain very few and underfunded. “The problem is compounded by existing racist attitudes in the Middle East region regarding migrant domestic workers, and this also needs addressing,” said Dabbous.

Seitz of the Global Policy Forum said while still facing shortcomings and difficulties in their implementation, the laws, however, require big companies to publish statements outlining the risk of slavery in their supply chains and actions taken to address this.

Other countries still believe in voluntary measures. The German National Action Plan for the implementation of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights lacks any liability, also because of the massive lobbying of business associations.

In order to close the gaps and set common and robust standards globally, states should support the current process at the UN Human Rights Council to establish an internationally binding treaty to regulate transnational and other business enterprises with respect to human rights, she said.

It should require states to establish mandatory human rights due diligence for its companies, to hold companies legally accountable for breaching their due diligence in case of human rights violations and to remove barriers to access to justice for victims of human rights violations by transnational corporations, said Seitz.

Burrow of the ITUC said globally, work is more insecure with a predominance of short-term contracts, and both informal work and modern slavery are growing.

Inequality of income and between those who can access decent work drives people to work under exploitative conditions, and the inequality of the relationship between employer and worker stops you being able to exercise your rights.

“Where wages are low and there is no decent work, where there are no unions to represent workers’ and defend their rights – we see the conditions which lead to modern slavery”, she noted.

The Fight Inequality Alliance of social movements, NGOs and trade unions are deeply concerned by rising inequality and modern slavery.

“A minimum wage on which you can live, decent work, and rights to form unions and collectively bargaining are key to ending the crisis of inequality and ending slavery.”

For migrant workers, recruitment fees from unscrupulous employers trap workers into bonded labour. Migrant workers, many of whom are vulnerable to conditions of slavery can rate the recruitment agencies and companies with the ITUC’s platform. www.recruitmentadvisor.org

She pointed out that UN Special Rapporteurs can help expose the scandal of modern slavery, the joint condemnation by four special rapporteurs of Ireland’s migrant fishing workers scheme adds pressure to the legal cases taken by trade unions.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/19/un-experts-condemn-irelands-migrant-fishing-workers-scheme

Lasting change will take the rule of law. Due diligence and transparency is the key to ending modern slavery in supply chains.

Where corporations take responsibility for due diligence and consequently make their supply chains transparent, it is possible to establish grievance procedures that can facilitate remedy of any violations of rights at work – from forced labour to paying below the minimum wage.

She pointed out that new mandated due diligence legislation is being adopted in France with other countries including Germany, the Netherlands preparing to follow.

The writer can be contacted at thalifdeen@ips.org

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IPS coverage on human trafficking is supported by the Riana Group.

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By Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim
GENEVA, Feb 23 2019 (IPS)

The defeat of ISIS in Middle East and North African battlefields is now a reality. The terrorist group – which brought bereavement to the populations of the Arab region – has been defeated militarily in Iraq and in Syria.

Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim

Mosul, Raqqa, Tikrit and Ramadi – once considered as ISIS bastions in the Middle East – are now liberated and an era of brutality, cruelty and violence has come to an end. Although off-shoot factions still exist in countries such as Libya, Yemen, Egypt and in small pockets of Syria, the military defeat of ISIS marks a new era for Arab countries in their endeavours to rebuild societies ravaged by violence and armed conflict. Nonetheless, the “real work” to defeat ISIS and its heinous ideology lies in de-radicalizing returning militants and addressing the root-causes that initially provided fertile ground to the rise of radicalism.

Radicalism is not a new phenomenon. All regions of the world have witnessed the rise and fall of extremist forces at one time or another. Europe was the scene of far-right apocalypse prior to and during the Second World War. Radicalism and violent extremism later became the trademarks of nationalist, radicalist Marxist and fundamentalist groups during the Cold War. In order to counter the invasion of Soviet Union and the “red threat” in Afghanistan radicalization was used as a “weapon of war” to mobilize radical movements to counter the Soviet sphere of influence. The trauma inflicted upon the Middle East and North Africa by relentless foreign invasions – which have been occurring since the beginning of the 2000s – have once again given rise to extremist violence. The result: a generation of radicals with ultra-conservative views motivated to carry out attacks on societies and governments which do not comply with their ideologies.

“Once the genie is out of the bottle, who can force it back in?” One would assume that the adverse effect of Cold War radicalization would serve as lessons learned for decision-makers in their endeavours to address and roll-back radicalization. However, it appears that politicians and policy analysts presume that radicalization will disappear by itself as was initially thought with the collapse of the Iron Curtain.

Governments worldwide are now worried by the surge of ISIS fighters set to return to their home societies. And they have good reasons to remain disturbed. In a rushed attempt to identify solutions to counter radicalism, legislation criminalizing the involvement of individuals in extremist movements has been introduced for purposes of enhancing security. But will legislation alone prevent individuals – and in particular youth – from joining or remaining in extremist movements?

Imposing legislation is a step in the right direction, but it must be complemented by a full-fledged analysis of the genesis of violent extremism and radicalism. Inequality, marginalization, xenophobia, unemployment, ignorance, poverty, social exclusion and political marginalization as well as foreign intrusions, among other factors, contribute to the rise of radicalism. Ignoring these factors – and relying solely on criminalizing radicalism – is equivalent to “treating the symptom rather than the problem.” Every country must look into its own characteristics and the interplay between the push and pull factors of radicalization to address its adverse impact. Every society must have an open discussion about the root causes that incite youth to head to the battlefields of Aleppo, Raqqa or Mosul to fight for causes that starkly contradict the true values of humanity. Extremist violence is here to stay for some time. In order to roll it back, a long-term strategy that will go beyond security reinforcements is desperately needed. It will require political, cultural and sociological explanations.

Another factor which demands the urgent attention of decision makers worldwide is Internet radicalization. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has repeatedly warned against the phenomenon of Internet radicalization and urging Member States to work towards “a proactive and coordinated response.” Decision-makers must respond to the rise of Internet radicalism – that is emerging as an invisible force – inciting youth to join violent and radical groups including ISIS and others. Supportive settings and safe learning environments fostering social inclusion, open-mindedness and equal citizenship rights are important prerequisites in creating conditions protecting youth from falling prey to misguided ideologies. Internet must not become a recruitment and radicalization tool for terrorist and extremist groups. Online radicalization of youth must not be left unattended. But the challenge must be addressed without undermining press freedom.

Formal education, particularly early learning education, remain the most effective tool to nip discrimination towards others in the bud. Several countries around the world provide inspiring examples of how teaching the important values of tolerance and equality in educational institutions and through generation specific methods can save generations from the grips of radicalization and xenophobia.

Lastly, reintegration strategies of former combatants and extremists and religious counselling are key to avoid a “return backlash”. Rehabilitation of extremists must start at an early stage. Religious leaders can play an important role in providing counselling to address radicalist thoughts – that underpin the beliefs of extremists – and to promote the values of tolerance, coexistence and dialogue. The panacea to address radicalization is to rejoice in the Other and to break down the walls of ignorance that have insulated societies from some of their segments. Religious beliefs must not be instrumentalized to promote fear as a stepping stone to access power and to fuel indiscriminate xenophobic responses undermining national unity.

Many religions of the world bear a unique fundamental message of peace, harmony, tolerance and compassion. Only through dialogue between populations and regions of all cultures and religious faiths, only through the promotion of equal citizenship rights for all can bridges of understanding and tolerance be built between diverse social components of nations, thereby fostering social cohesion, harmony and a rolling-back of radicalization.

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In Haiti, more than half of the population of Haiti face hunger while 22 percent of children are chronically malnourished. Credit: Valeria Vilardo/IPS

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 23 2019 (IPS)

While news of political scandals and tweets may inundate social media feeds, numerous humanitarian crises have slipped under the radar, leaving victims “suffering in silence.”

In a new report, humanitarian organisation CARE shines a spotlight on global crises that have been neglected—a neglect that has led to dire consequences.

“We see more and more complex and chronic crises competing for public attention,” said CARE International’s Secretary General Caroline Kende-Robb.

“Media coverage has always been a strong driver of funding for crises as well as creating political pressure to protect those in need. With dwindling international coverage, under-reported crises are at a risk of falling completely off the radar,” she added.

In a recent survey by the Aurora Humanitarian Index, 61 percent of respondents from 12 countries said that there were too many humanitarian crises around the world to keep up with. More than half also felt they constantly heard the same stories from the same countries.

Whether the public heard about it or not, over 132 million people worldwide faced hardship as a result of natural disasters and conflict.

Among them were Haitians who have faced a severe food crisis in 2018, yet received the least media attention.

In fact, of the one million online articles monitored between January and November 2018, a little over 500 were about the Caribbean state.

With one of the highest levels of chronic food insecurity in the world, more than half of the population of Haiti face hunger while 22 percent of children are chronically malnourished.

On top of the threat of hurricanes, drought conditions in the Caribbean nation caused reductions in crop production, leaving families without food and thus almost three million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

Marie-Melia Joseph, a mother of eight children, told CARE that all they had was a small family plot and a little money to get food.

“Some days were better than others, but I can’t recall the last decent meal we had,” she said.

According to the 2019 Climate Risk Index, Haiti ranks fourth among countries most affected by extreme weather events. Additionally, a majority of the population live in poverty, earning less than two dollars per day.

In Ethiopia, the escalation of violence forced over one million people to flee their homes, the highest number seen in 2018.

Amreh recounted the evening when she heard gunshots and screams.

“We looked outside and saw people fleeing when we realised something was wrong. My husband went outside to look. That was the last time I saw him,” she told CARE.

“I would give everything to go back to the days when things were normal. I am weak and I depend on help from aid organisations now. I see no future for us,” she added.

After the death of her husband, one of her son’s committed suicide, unable to cope.

In addition to the devastating conflict, drought and food insecurity has also left families struggling to survive.

CARE urged not only international media, but also policy makers and civil society to raise awareness about the many neglected crises around the world in order to help garner funds and aid for those in need.

In 2018, 56 percent of Ethiopia’s humanitarian plan was funded while only 13 percent was funded for Haiti.

“Media outlets, politicians, states and aid agencies need to join forces to find innovative ways to draw public attention to humanitarian needs,” said Kende-Robb.

“Given the challenges the media industry faces with shrinking funds, with coming under attacks that are undermining, and with limited access to some of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, we are all responsible for raising the voices of those affected,” she added.

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This report is produced by UNB United News of Bangladesh and IPS Inter Press Service.

By Abdur Rahman Jahangir
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Feb 22 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(IPS/UNB) – Bangladesh economy’s impressive growth trajectory over the last decade has been buttressed by the demographic dividend resulting from a large portion of its population — around 65 percent on average — being of working age.

However, experts think growing prosperity has also resulted in an increase in the population’s longevity as people live longer these days and that poses a new challenge for the government as the number of dependents keeps rising without corresponding steps to ensure their rights, dignity and necessary facilities.

According to information provided by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, around 7.5 percent (12.5 million) of the country’s total population constitutes the elderly people while the number is expected to increase sharply and reach around 20 percent (over 40 million) by 2050.

Under the circumstances, Bangladesh’s population experts and rights activists think the government should take proper programmes and policies to cater to the specific needs, including health, finical, civic amenities, of the growing number of ageing population.

Dhaka University’s Population Sciences department Prof AKM Nurun Nabi said population trends in Bangladesh show that Bangladesh is well into third phase of demographic transition, having shifted from a high mortality–high fertility regime to a low mortality–low fertility one, offering a window of opportunity to the country, referred to as the ‘demographic dividend’.

“The demographic dividend usually continues for 30 to 35 years. Although the demographic transition creates the demographic dividend, it also brings significant challenges with it,” he observed.

In Bangladesh, Nabi said various projections suggest that by 2025 one in 10 persons will be elderly and by 2050 one in five persons will be elderly.

The population scientist said the policymakers need to take effective steps for ensuring various necessary services for the poor, middle-class and urban affluent ageing population by increasing the number of service providing institutions. “The ageing population must be integrated to society by involving them with their old profession.”

Nabi put forwarded some more suggestions, including creating endowment funds by building partnership between different segments of society and sectors of economy, introducing an a priori deduction system from wages at earlier ages as a forced savings for old age allowance, establishing community ageing deposit scheme, restructuring the retirement age and finding way out for resulting crisis in occupational mobility.

Bangladesh National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Chairman Kazi Reazul Hoque said special measures and polices alongside raising awareness are essential to ensure the welfare of ageing people as their number keeps growing due to rise in the average lifespan.

“I feel the rights of elderly persons are not being ensured now that much way. The older persons deserve more attention and care from the state as well as society,” he observed.

The (NHRC) chairman said ageing people, especially women ones, are very vulnerable group in the country and the policymakers need to take steps to protect the vulnerable people and ensure their rights.

He said the National Policy on Older Persons are not implemented for lack of sincere efforts by the authorities concerned while the Parents’ Maintenance Act–2013 are not being enforced for lack of its rules and regulation and awareness among people.

Hoque said the ageing people are being subjected to various repressions and negligence by their children and others.

Social Welfare Ministry joint secretary Abeda Akter said their ministry is thinking of taking various steps to ensure the rights and dignity of the older persons and meet the challenges of their management in the days to come.

She said the government introduced a monthly allowance programme for older people in 1998 and currently 40 lakh elderly people are getting Tk 500 ($6) each month as old age allowance. “The number of the allowance recipients will gradually be increased.”

Another official of the ministry, wishing anonymity, said they have formulated a work plan four years back in light of the National Policy on Older Persons to provide the senior citizens with various facilities, including ID cards, health cards, and reserved seats and tickets at reduced rates during their travel in buses, trains, steamers, health access vouchers, saving schemes, accommodation, but they could not implement those due to bureaucratic complications.

In his research titled “Elderly People’ in Bangladesh: Vulnerabilities, Laws and Policies, Jahangirnagar University Anthropology department teacher Sazzadul Alam, identified 12 types of vulnerabilities -– lack of social dignity, economic crisis, accommodation problem, illness, falling health, physical assault, mobility problem, emotional vulnerability, recreation problem, family burden, far from relatives and food crisis –that are faced by the elderly people in Bangladesh.

He said elderly population needs economic support including food, clothing, medical care, and housing as well as cultural support.

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This report is produced by UNB United News of Bangladesh and IPS Inter Press Service.

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Monique Taffe, a 22-year-old London-based fashion designer, makes clothing from recycled textiles and objects. Credit: A.D. McKenzie/IPS

By A. D. McKenzie
PARIS, Feb 22 2019 (IPS)

As the grandchild of Jamaican citizens who moved to Great Britain, Monique Taffe says she inherited a tradition of recycling and learned not to be part of the “throwaway culture”, as some environmentalists have labelled consumerist societies.

“I saw how my grandmother re-used things, and that was passed down to my mother who inspired me to do the same,” said Taffe, who wants to use waste materials and recycled fabrics in fashion design.

The 22-year-old London-based designer is a recent graduate of a British fashion school and she participated the 3rd Women4Climate conference that took place Feb. 21 in Paris. She joined other young women from around the world, including from several Latin American countries, who have launched sustainability projects and are being mentored by member cities of C40, a network of 94 “megacities” committed to addressing climate change – and which co-organised the conference titled “Take the Lead”.

Taffe has started a project to design maternity sportswear, encouraging expectant mothers to exercise during their pregnancy. All the clothing is being made from recycled textiles and objects at her Taffe Jones startup company, she told IPS.

She is also one of 10 finalists from some 450 contestants for London’s Mayors Entrepreneur Programme 2018, in which the city linked to the Women4Climate Mentoring Programme. The aim is to develop innovative businesses that are meant to tackle climate change.

“Women leaders played a pivotal role in negotiating the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2015 and will be crucial to its success in the future,” says Women4Climate, which was launched in 2016. “Now more than ever, enhancing women’s participation and leadership will be critical to securing a healthy, prosperous and sustainable future for us all.”

Taffe said in an interview that she would like to see young people in Britain, the Caribbean and around the world getting together via social media to share best practices for textile recycling. This could include information about leaving used clothing in central depots or designated places, where designers and others could retrieve material. Recycling in the fashion industry could have a positive environmental impact, as the sector is one of the most polluting, according to experts.

The United Nations Environment Programme says that the fashion industry “produces 20 percent of global wastewater and 10 percent of global carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping.” The agency adds that “textile dyeing is the second largest polluter of water globally and it takes around 2,000 gallons of water to make a typical pair of jeans”.

At the U.N. Environment Assembly next month, the agency will “formally launch the U.N. Alliance on Sustainable Fashion to encourage the private sector, governments and non-governmental organisations to create an industry-wide push for action to reduce fashion’s negative social, economic and environmental impact,” the U.N. says.

With clothing factories across Latin America and the Caribbean, this is an area that environmentalists are addressing as well, with organisations saying that the main focus is on waste management, including textiles and plastics that pollute the region’s beaches.

The Jamaica Environmental Trust, an NGO based in Kingston, emphasises recycling, conducts beach clean-ups with volunteers, and works to protect air and water quality, a spokesperson told IPS. Its leadership team consists mostly of young women, like Taffe, who work to sensitise the public to environmental and climate issues.

“Raising awareness will help other young people to see what’s being done and make it easier for us to form alliances for climate action,” Taffe said.

She and other observers have noted the measures taken in the Caribbean to ban single-use plastic bags and straws and to expand the use of solar power. The Jamaican government, for instance, announced last year that it wants the country to reach 50 percent renewable energy by 2030, up from the previous policy of 30 percent.

Although no Caribbean city is a member of C40, attending international conferences such as Women4Climate was one way of bringing ecological entrepreneurs together to share experiences, participants said.

In fact, forming international links was a central theme of the event, hosted by Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo (the initiator of the Women4Climate idea) and held in the French capital’s imposing city hall – flanked by the blue and green bicycles of the city’s bike-sharing scheme.

Representing cities such as Quito (Ecuador), Mexico City, and Santiago (Chile), Taffe and other women from around the world shared projects on sustainability and carbon-emissions reduction. They described ventures to improve species conservation in towns, understand and stop urban sprawl, transform restaurant waste into biogas and increase textile recycling.

Young innovators also presented technology solutions in a Women4Climate Tech Challenge.

“Climate change often has impact first on the lives of women … who traditionally are the ones taking care of the family, so women’s skills should be acknowledged,” said Hidalgo at the conference. “This is not to say women are better than men but that women have different skills and competences that are crucial in the fight against climate change.”

Hidalgo said policy makers and activists had to “think locally to act globally”.

Participants in the conference included women mayors from several cities – Freetown, Sierra Leone; Charlotte, North Carolina; Dakar, Senegal; and Sydney, Australia – alongside several male mayors working to address climate change.

“We cannot fight against climate change effectively without empowering women,” said Rodacio Rodas, the mayor of Quito. He described food-security and urban garden projects that employ women and added that at the “community” level, women could be empowered and could empower themselves to take action.

Many delegates, however, highlighted the lack of national support for climate action by some male leaders, with Clover Moore, the Lord Mayor of Sydney, deploring the global effects of climate-sceptic governments.

“We’re as devastated across the world by Trump as you are in the U.S.,” Moore said, referring to the U.S. president’s lack of support for the Paris Agreement on climate change, but she added that the prime minister of Australia was not “much better”.

“It’s very depressing times, but we don’t despair … we fully support our young community coming out and telling our national government to act responsibility. Full strength to our young communities.”

In a movement known as “Youth Strike 4 Climate”, led by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg, students in several countries have been staying out of school on certain days to protest inaction by their governments against global warming. “Young people see what’s happening, they know the science,” Moore said.

Student participants at the Women4Climate conference included 17-year-old Youna Marette, a Belgian high school activist who was one of the keynote speakers.

“We’ll continue to fight, strike … for our future,” Marette declared, urging governments to create more inclusive societies and to increase action to protect the planet.

For Taffe, the up-and-coming designer, thinking of the future and a liveable world is a strong motivation. “My grandmother passed down ways to live sustainably, and I want to carry that on,” she told IPS. “We have to re-use and recycle and do what we can wherever we live.”

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Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim, Chairman of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue

By Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim
GENEVA, Feb 22 2019 (IPS)

The massacre of Srebrenica will enter human history as one of our darkest chapters. From 11 to 22 July 1995, Bosnian Serb military forces massacred approximately 8,000 Muslim Bosniaks. It became the largest massacre committed on European soil since the end of the Second World War. In November last year, the Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic was convicted of war crimes and of genocide. This constituted relief for the victims of the Srebrenica genocide and a victory for international justice after 22 years.

Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim

Although the European Parliament denounced this gruesome crime in 1995 stating that “such horrendous crimes must never happen again”, atrocious crimes are once again inflicted on civilian populations. In Myanmar, systematic and grave human rights violations and campaigns of ethnic cleansing brought bereavement to the Rohingyas. As a result of the military clampdown in September/October 2017, more than 700,000 Rohingyas fled to neighbouring Bangladesh to escape the brutal suppression. In the words of the United Nations, the situation in Myanmar constituted “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing”. Or a tropical Srebrenica that we were promised would “never happen again”.

The euphoria that prevailed following Myanmar’s decision to open itself to the world was ambiguous. Although Myanmar’s reforms have brought some measure of change, the systematic human rights violations of the Rohingya did not come to an end. The human rights situation of the Rohingyas in Myanmar is a result of enduring denial of basic human rights. The international community has also remained silent on this issue for too long.

In Myanmar, the Muslim Rohingya population are denied the “right to have rights”. They are denied these rights as non-citizens in their own land. Indeed the 1982 Citizenship law and the 2008 Constitution impede the realization of full citizenship rights for the Rohingya people unless they have lived in the country for the past three generations. They are also being denied the right to enjoy full and unconditional legal protection and fundamental freedoms in violation of international human rights standards.

The disturbing testimonies of the Rohingyans fleeing Myanmar confirm that serious human rights violations are being carried out against the civilian population. Atrocities, massacres, looting and rape of innocent civilians confirm that appalling human rights violations are inflicted on the Rohingyas. Satellite imagery likewise reveal that dozens of Rohingya villages have been razed and burned to the ground in a deliberate attempt to once and for all erase their identity, culture and history.

The violent turmoil in Myanmar in 2012 is a legitimate struggle for justice, freedom and dignity reminiscent of the popular resistance in South Africa to tear down the Apartheid system. The government of Myanmar must review and revoke the 1982 Citizenship law that degrades the status of the Rohingya people and other minorities to at best that of second-class citizens. The gross violations of human rights must come to an end. The discrimination against the Rohingyas cannot continue unabated. In the words of the Roman philosopher Seneca “Injustice never rules forever.”

According to research carried out by the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue, the international community has “turned a blind eye” to the human rights violations of the Rohingyas. The UN Security Council is yet to address the human rights situation in the Rakhine State. Although the UN General Assembly expressed concern about the human rights situation in the country in 1991, it failed to mention the grave injustices inflicted on the Rohingyas.

It was only after the adoption of the 2008 Constitution – which was supposed to herald a new era of democracy – that the UN became more vocal. In 2009, the UN General Assembly and the UN Human Rights Council adopted Resolutions 10/27 and 64/238 respectively to express concern over the situation of the Rohingya ethnic minority. Although a Special Session was held on 5 December 2017 by the UN Human Rights Council on the human rights situation of the Rohingyas, the international response has trailed “one step behind reality.”

In this regard, the Geneva Centre is proud to have successfully campaigned for the holding of a Special Session at the United Nations Human Rights Council on the human rights situation of the Rohingya Muslim population in Myanmar after sending out individual letters to the Permanent Representatives of the members of the Human Rights Council on 12 October appealing for the holding of an urgent Special Session.

Addressing the fate of the Rohingyas is therefore a moral responsibility for world society. Bismarck’s idea of realpolitik must not be left to rear its head letting politics prevail over values and human rights. The efforts of the international community to address the situation in Myanmar will be in vain if their actions are limited to the adoption of resolutions and declarations. The momentum of 5 December 2017 has decreased as other humanitarian crises enter into and exit from the agenda of decision-makers. The planned repatriation of Rohingyas to Myanmar from Bangladesh – as stipulated in the 2017 bilateral arrangement on return of displaced persons from Rakhine state – will hardly be of any value if the central government fails to allow for the safe return and reintegration of Rohingya refugees.

The lack of livelihood options and economic development might trigger another exodus in which the Rohingya community may decide never to return which is the objective pursued by their tormentors. The international community must therefore work for the recognition of the human rights of the Rohingya community to avoid that the world’s most unwanted people becomes the forgotten people of the 21st century.

The post The Unwanted People of Myanmar: A Tropical Srebrenica in the Land of the Golden Pagodas appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali Al Qassim, Chairman of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue

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The roof of the original headquarters of the Toki Foundation on Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, located 3,800 kilometers from the Chilean coast, is also used to collect rainwater, which runs into eight large storage ponds, and to generate electricity by means of 18 solar panels. Credit: Orlando Milesi/IPS

By Orlando Milesi
HANGA ROA, Chile, Feb 22 2019 (IPS)

A school in the capital of Easter Island (Rapa Nui, in the local indigenous tongue) gives an example of clean management with the use of solar energy, rainwater recovery and an organic vegetable garden, as well as rooms and spaces built with waste materials.

Rapa Nui is a Chilean territory in the Polynesian triangle of Oceania: Hawaii to the north, New Zealand to the south, and Maori and Rapa Nui to the east. The island has about 8,000 permanent residents, most of them families from the Rapa Nui indigenous people. In addition, some 120,000 tourists visit the island every year.

With an area of 163.6 square kilometers and a triangle-like shape, the island is nicknamed the “navel of the world” in the Rapa Nui language. It is 3,800 kilometers from Chile.

On Easter Island, formally classified as a “special Chilean territory”, the Toki Foundation emerged seven years ago, created by 11 young people, including award-winning local pianist Mahani Teave, 35, the daughter of an American woman and a local artist.

Thanks to the Foundation’s school, located three kilometres from Hanga Roa, the island’s capital and only town, hundreds of Rapa Nui children have taken music workshops.

Some study classical music (violin, piano, cello or trumpet) and others traditional music, playing the popular ukulele. Children from the age of six attend the workshops in the afternoon, after school.

Michael Reynolds, an American nicknamed the garbage architect, designed the 850-square-meter Toki school house with eight classrooms plus a small auditorium and a roofed terrace.

Reynolds spent about two months in Hanga Roa building the unique facility with 80 volunteers, using tires, glass bottles, cardboard, cans and compacted earth.

“They built the main structure using garbage,” Carla León, 30, coordinator of the Foundation’s school, told IPS. Last year it served 120 students, who will return to the classrooms in March after the southern hemisphere summer vacation.

For the last three years, the house has had 18 solar panels on its roof to take advantage of the island’s strong sunlight and convert it into electric power. The panels generate 10 kVA and supply all of the electricity required by the school.

But Enrique Icka, 34, director of the Foundation and Mahani’s partner, told IPS that they want to extend the experience to a nearby site where the cultural organisation will operate, thus creating a microgrid.

In its organic garden, the Toki Foundation in Chile’s Rapa Nui or Easter Island is researching the most efficient way to recover ancestral crops of the Rapa Nui indigenous people, with minimal labour, taking best advantage of the soil and rescuing the stone garden technique that prevents erosion and maintains moisture. Credit: Orlando Milesi/IPS

The generation of solar power is important on this island, where the electricity supply depends on the 300,000 liters of oil that tankers bring each month from the continent to meet the consumption needs of the local population: 2.5 megawatts (MW).

The generation and distribution of electricity is the responsibility of the company Sasipa, which in November 2018 inaugurated the first solar power plant, Tama Te Ra (which means “first rays of the sun”, in Rapa Nui), which only generates power in the daytime, using 400 photovoltaic panels to produce 105 kilowatts.

It covers between two and eight percent of Rapa Nui’s energy needs.

The Toki Foundation is also a pioneer in rainwater recovery. The curvilinear rooftop collects rainwater, which runs into eight ponds in the shape of stone towers, each of which has a capacity of 5,000 litres.

“It’s time to take care of the water,” Easter Island Mayor Pedro Edmunds Paoa told IPS.

“Since four governments ago (for 16 years) I have been calling for metering wells to know how much water we have and how dangerous is the way we are getting it. That information is important today and the investment is not being made,” he said.

“In the meantime, we started our own awareness-raising theme by working with fairy tales so that children understand the value of water, take care of it and tell their parents not to water when it rains, for example,” Paoa said.

Drinking water in Rapa Nui is also provided by Sasipa which has six wells, from which water is channelled to six ponds to treat it and make it potable.

Meanwhile, the Toki Foundation’s rainwater harvesting system began to be replicated in some houses on the island, and the model is expected to continue to expand.

That is important for the island because in the future “we are going to have a great shortage of water resources,” Tiare Aguilera Hey, 37, an attorney who is an expert in urban and territorial planning, told IPS.

Carolina Campos, 42, the executive director of the Foundation, highlighted the promotion of an agro-ecological garden with drip irrigation using well water “that seeks to rescue traditional crops like taro root (Colocasia esculenta).

The garden is on part of Toki’s 2.5-hectare arable land, and will require about 700,000 litres of water for irrigation.

The initiative received a positive assessment from the government’s Foundation for Agrarian Innovation, which supported it with 90,000 dollars over two years.

Diego Valenzuela, 29, who has been working with the Foundation’s crops for six months, proudly showed IPS their tomatoes, lettuce, lemons, oranges, custard apples and 80 banana trees, which will soon be producing fruit ready to harvest.

They are also using manavai or stone gardens, which facilitate agriculture because the stones protect the crops from erosion, preserve moisture, maintain the temperature and provide the plants with minerals.

The Rapa Nui used these gardens to make it through tough times, Valenzuela pointed out.

In the future, the gardens will be used to help recover other ancestral species, such as the Toromiro (Sophora toromiro), an endemic tree of Rapa Nui that today is only found in the nurseries of the state-run National Forestry Corporation.

Four youngsters from the Rapa Nui Educational Village High School were invited to participate in the last Conference of the Parties on climate change, in Poland, to describe how the gardens work.

“We have several focuses. The first was music and art school, to give children opportunities that didn’t exist before,” Teave told IPS.

“If they are practicing music, coming to classes and taking part in group activities after school, they’re not on the streets using drugs,” she said. “Here they learn about respect: if you can play next to a woman cellist, listen to her and be on an equal footing, you probably won’t hit her when you’re married.”

According to Teave, Toki seeks “to make a contribution here on the island which, because it is so visible worldwide, can have an impact elsewhere, inspire other people and serve as a model.”

Icka told IPS that all these initiatives in Toki “are born out of the Rapa Nui worldview and the motivation of young people on the island.”

He also highlighted “the participation of more than 1,000 volunteers in all these years.”

Teave stresses the need to rescue the roots of the Rapa Nui people, including the language, “which is the root of this culture.”

“We need to do everything we can to recover that ancestral worldview that has to do with respect and a lot of knowledge that was being lost and that some people here are also trying to rescue,” she said.

The pianist also believes that recovering species that are not currently being planted, by using more efficient systems, can result in “producing here, on the island, what we ourselves eat.”

Related Articles

• Rapa Nui’s Stone Statues and Marine Resources Face Threats from Climate Change

The post Local School Is a Model for Energy and Water in Rapa Nui appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Oswaldo Guayasamín, The Workers, 1942.

By Vijay Prashad
Feb 22 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(Tricontinental) – As the United States and its allies put pressure on Venezuela, a poem by the Salvadoran radical Roque Dalton (1935-1975) clarifies the structure of politics in Latin America. Dalton came from one of Latin America’s smallest countries, El Salvador, which he used to call the little finger (pulgarcito). A deeply compassionate poet, Dalton was also a militant of the People’s Revolutionary Army, whose internal struggles claimed his short life. El Salvador, like so many other Latin American states, struggles to carve out its sovereignty from the tentacles of US power. That hideous Monroe Doctrine (1823) seemed to give the US the presumption that it has power over the entire hemisphere; ‘our backyard’ being the colloquial phrase. People like Dalton fought to end that assumption. They wanted their countries to be governed by and for their own people – an elementary part of the idea of democracy. It has been a hard struggle.

Dalton wrote a powerful poem – OAS – named for the Organisation of American States (founded in 1948). It is a poem that acidly catalogues how democracy is a farce in Latin America. It is from the poem that we get the title of our newsletter this week.

The president of my country
for the time being is Colonel Fidel Sanchez Hernandez
but General Somoza, president of Nicaragua
is also the president of my country.
And General Stroessner, president of Paraguay,
is also kind of the president of my country, though not as
much as the president of Honduras,
General Lopez Arellano, but more so than the president of Haiti,
Monsieur Duvalier.
And the president of the United States is more the president of my country
Than is the president of my country,
The one whose name, as I said,
is Colonel Fidel Sanchez Hernandez, for the time being.

Rafael Enriquez, Foreign Debt, OSPAAAL, 1983.

Is the President of Venezuela the President of Venezuela or is the President of the United States the President of Venezuela? There is absurdity here. Collapsed oil prices, reliance upon oil revenues, an economic war by the United States and complications in raising finances has led to hyperinflation and to an economic crisis in Venezuela. To deny that is to deny reality. But there is a vast difference between an economic crisis and a humanitarian crisis.

Most of the countries on the planet are facing an economic crisis, with public finances in serious trouble and with enormous debt problems plaguing governments in all the continents. This year’s meeting of the World Economic Forum at Davos (Switzerland) focused attention on the global debt crisis – from the near-trillion-dollar deficit of the United States to the debt burdens of Italy. The IMF’s David Lipton warned that if interest rates were to rise, the problem would escalate. ‘There are pockets of debt held by companies and countries that really don’t have much servicing capacity, and I think that’s going to be a problem’.

Hyper-inflation is a serious problem, but punitive economic sanctions, seizure of billions of dollars of overseas assets and threats of war are not going to save the undermined Bolivar, Venezuela’s currency.

European Parliament, Strasbourg, 2015.

Eradication of hunger has to be the basic policy of any government. According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation, 11.7% of the Venezuelan people are hungry. Hunger rates in other parts of the world are much higher – 31.4% in Eastern Africa. But the world’s attention has not been focused on this severe crisis, one that has partly generated the massive migration across the Mediterranean Sea. The picture above is from the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where – in 2015 – activists laid out the 17,306 names of people who have died attempting that crossing (the number is now close to 40,000 drowned). Members of the European parliament had to walk to their session over these names. They are harsh in their attitude to start a war against Venezuela, but cavalier about the serious crises in Africa and Asia that keep the flow of migrants steady.

The government of Venezuela has two programmes to tackle the problem of hunger:

a. Comité Local de Abastecimiento y Producción (CLAP). The Local Committees for Supply and Production are made up of local neighbourhood groups who grow food and who receive food from agricultural producers. They distribute this food to about six million families at very low cost. Currently, the CLAP boxes are being sent to households every 15 days.
b. Plan de Atención a la Vulnerabilidad Nutricional. The most vulnerable of Venezuelans – 620,000 of them – receive assistance. The National Institute of Nutrition has been coordinating the delivery of food to a majority of the country’s municipalities.

These are useful, but insufficient. More needs to be done. That is clear. Through CLAP, the Venezuelan government distributes about 50,000 tonnes of food per month. The ‘humanitarian aid’ that the US has promised amounts to $20 million – which would purchase a measly 60 tonnes of food.

1st US PSYWAR (Psychological War) battalion hands out anti-communist posters in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), 1965.

On the issue of ‘humanitarian aid’ to Venezuela, the international media has become the stenographers of the US State Department and the CIA. It focuses on the false claims made by the US government that it wants to deliver aid, which the Venezuelans refuse. The media does not look at the facts, even at this fact – that $20 million is a humiliating gesture, an amount intended to be used to establish the heartlessness of the government in Venezuela and therefore seek to overthrow it by any means necessary. This is what the US government did in the Dominican Republic in 1965, sending in humanitarian aid accompanied by US marines.

Democracy Now, February 19, 2019.

The US has used military aircrafts to bring in this modest aid, driven it to a warehouse and then said that the Venezuelans are not prepared to open an unused bridge for it. The entire process is political theatre. US Senator Marco Rubio went to that bridge – which has never been opened – to say in a threatening way that the aid ‘is going to get through’ to Venezuela one way or another. These are words that threaten the sovereignty of Venezuela and build up the energy for a military attack. There is nothing humanitarian here.

If you don’t let us breathe, we won’t let you breathe. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 2019. Photograph: Hector Retamal.

The term ‘humanitarian’ has been shredded of its meaning. It has now come to mean a pretext for the destruction of countries. ‘Humanitarian intervention’ was the term used to destroy Libya; ‘humanitarian aid’ is being used to beat the drum for a war against Venezuela.

Meanwhile, we forget the humanitarian solidarity offered by the Venezuelan government to the poorer nations and to poorer populations. Why is Haiti on fire now? It had received reduced price oil from Venezuela by the PetroCaribe scheme (set up in 2005). A decade ago, Venezuela offered the Caribbean islands oil on very favourable terms so that they would not be the quarry of monopoly oil firms and the IMF. The economic war against Venezuela has meant a decline in PetroCaribe. Now the IMF has returned to demand that oil subsidies end, and monopoly oil firms have returned to demand cash payments before delivery. Haiti’s government was forced to vote against Venezuela in the OAS. That is why the country is aflame (for more on this, please read my report). If you don’t let us breathe, say the Haitian people, we won’t let you breathe.

In 2005, the same year as Venezuela set up the PetroCaribe scheme, it created the PetroBronx scheme in New York City (USA). Terrible poverty in the South Bronx galvanised community groups such as Rebel Diaz Arts Collective, Green Youth Cooperative, Bronx Arts and Dance, and Mothers on the Move.

The PetroBronx Story (Spanish).

They worked with CITGO, the Venezuelan government’s US oil subsidiary to develop a cooperative mechanism to get heating oil to the people. Ana Maldonado, a sociologist who is now with the Frente Francisco de Miranda (Venezuela), was one of the participants in the PetroBronx scheme. She and her friends created the North Star to be a community organisation that helped deliver the resources to the very poorest people in the United States. ‘People had to wear their coats inside their homes during the winter’, she told me. That was intolerable. That is why Venezuela provided the poor in the United States with subsidised heating oil.

Josh MacPhee, Malcolm X, Just Seeds.

The South Bronx and Harlem, the privations produced by racism – all this is familiar territory in Latin America. In 1960, Fidel Castro came to New York to attend the United Nations General Assembly. He was refused a hotel in the city. Malcolm X, a leader of the African American community, came to his aid, bringing the Cuban delegation to Harlem’s Hotel Theresa, whose owner – Love B. Woods – warmly welcomed Fidel and his comrades. Four years later, at a meeting in Harlem, Malcolm X said in connection with his meeting with Fidel, ‘Don’t let somebody else tell us who our enemies should be and who our friends should be’.

The post The President of the United States Is More the President of My Country Than the President of My Country appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

From the desk of the Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

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Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. Credit: Masdar

By Rabiya Jaffery
ABU DHABI, UAE, Feb 22 2019 (IPS)

According to data from the UN Development Programme (UNDP), the Arab world is one of the most urbanised areas in the world, with more than 70 per cent of the population of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)— Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE)– living in urban areas.

In 2018, about 93% of the population of the UAE lived in urban cities – and it is expected to continue rising in the coming years. Dubai, the largest city in the country, has a population of over 3 million people, one-third of UAE’s 9.3 million, and is expected to double by 2027.

As the country’s cities continue to expand and grow, the challenge of civic authorities to provide adequate living conditions, water, sanitation, public transportation, and waste management features becomes more important to address.

“One of the direct results of the increase in UAE’s population, nearly all who live in urban cities, is the huge expansion in construction, facilities, and infrastructure,” says Habiba Al Marashi Chairperson of the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), one of the most active non-government organization (NGO) based in the UAE.

“While construction is a major contributor to UAE’s economy, it is also amongst the most resource intensive sectors. Thus, growing cities such as Dubai need to plan along sustainable lines in order to reduce their negative environmental impacts and natural resource depletion,” she adds.

EEG mounted an awareness campaign to popularize the concept of green buildings in an environment that was still unfamiliar with the imperative for sustainable development and energy transition several years ago.

And Al Marashi states that a change – an understanding of the importance of sustainability – has begun to roll out.

The UAE sits on eight percent of the world’s oil reserves, meets most of its energy demand through fossil fuels, and has had a history of having one of the largest carbon footprints in the world but it seems to now be taking active measures to change this.

In 2017, during the World Future Energy Summit in Abu Dhabi, the country announces its intentions to transition to at least 44% renewable energy by 2050.

“Our aim is to balance our economic needs with our environmental goals,” Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE prime minister and ruler of Dubai, said on Twitter to accompany the announcement. “The plan aims to increase usage efficiency by 40 percent and increase clean-energy contributions to 50 percent.”

Masdar City in Abu Dhabi. Credit: Masdar

This includes making sustainable development one of the key goals of its ‘Vision 2021’, including a focus on ‘green’ urban development.

“Cities are at the heart of any country’s development and define the direction of its growth and innovation and this is especially relevant in the Arab world where nearly all people are urbanized,” explains Al Marashi. “And the the future of urbanism is in sustainable cities and UAE wants to be a pioneer.”

Masdar City in Abu Dhabi is one of UAE’s most ambitious sustainable urban development projects that was built to be amongst the world’s “most sustainable developments” and “serve as a green-print for the sustainable development of cities through the application of real-world solutions in water, energy efficiency and the reduction of waste.”

The residential and retail development that is housing thousands was developed by Masdar, a renewable energy company based in Abu Dhabi, to be one of the region’s first entirely sustainable, mixed-use, low-carbon development that relies on solar and other renewable energy sources.

It is also home to Masdar Institute, the Gulf’s first research institution dedicated to advanced energy and sustainable technologies that, to date, has secured 14 US patents.

One of Masdar’s projects, in cooperation with Bee’ah, is spearheading waste-to-energy production in Sharjah that is currently generating enough power to supply to 28,000 residential complexed. Due to the facility, the rate of diversion of waste from landfills has gone up from 20% in 2009 to 70% in 2016.

The project’s goal is to eventually reduce the Sharjah’s landfill contribution to zero.

And on-site in Abu Dhabi, Masdar has developed a residential eco-villa, which aims to consume 35 percent less water and 72 per cent less power than a typical villa of the same size.

The prototype is being monitored for its energy, water, and waste management performances and the data will then be used to refine the eco-villa to support the eventual commercialization of the building concept.

Abu Dhabi also has a mandatory sustainable development framework for all its buildings. Developed by the Abu Dhabi Urban Planning Council (UPC), Estidama, Arabic for “sustainability’, was introduced in 2009 and was amongst the first sustainability initiatives in the region.

The framework establishes a clear vision for sustainability as the foundation of any new development occurring in UAE’s capital.

Estidima imposes sustainability requirements in the planning process and imposes a green building code with the classifies development projects under a ‘pearl’ rating system. All public buildings must have a minimum two pearl rating and all other new buildings must meet a minimum one pearl rating criteria.

“Right now, the focus of Estidama is on new developments, however, there are talks – and we are hoping – that it will be expand to include already existing buildings be retrofitted to meet the new standards,” says Al Marashi.

Dubai’s municipality also introduced its ‘Green Buildings Specifications’ in 2011 which were immediately mandatory for all new government buildings and then, in 2014, became a prerequisite on all new building developments.

“In practice this means goals of reducing energy and water consumption, the use of environment-friendly materials, renewable energy characteristics, alternative energy sources and increased efficiency,” says Al Marashi.

The post The Future of Urbanism: Is the UAE Pioneering it? appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Rohingya girls taking religious education lessons at a Madrasah in the camps. Globally, 75 percent of refugees of secondary education age are not in school. In Bangladesh, Kenya, and Pakistan, the figure is closer to 95 percent. Credit: Kamrul Hasan/IPS

By Tharanga Yakupitiyage
UNITED NATIONS, Feb 22 2019 (IPS)

Globally, youth are being left behind in education and employment, threatening the future vision of sustainable, inclusive, and prosperous societies.

In a new report, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) highlight the need to pay attention to and invest in youth as they are critical to building the world’s future including by helping achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

“Youth are being referred to as the “torchbearers” of the 2030 Agenda and have a pivotal role to play both as beneficiaries of actions and policies under the Agenda and as partners and participants in its implementation,” the report states.

“A few years into the implementation of the Agenda, unacceptably high numbers of young people are still experiencing poor education and employment outcomes, and future prospects remain uncertain,” it adds.

Today, there are 1.2 billion young people between 15 to 24 years, representing 16 percent of the global population. Despite advances in technology and information dissemination, attending school remains elusive to many.

Around the world, over 260 million children under the age 19 were out of school in 2014. Of them, 142 million were of upper secondary age.

The disparities between and within countries are even more stark—84 percent of youth in high-income countries are able to complete upper secondary education while the figure is only 14 percent for low-income countries. Additionally, almost 30 percent of the poorest 12 to 14 year olds have never attended school and many others do not have access to primary education.

Displaced and refugee children face particular challenges and are quickly becoming a “lost generation.”

“A lost generation is not only identified by empty classrooms, silent playgrounds and short, unmarked graves. A lost generation is one where hope dies in those who live,” said U.N. Special Envoy for Global Education Gordon Brown.

Globally, 75 percent of refugees of secondary education age are not in school. In Bangladesh, Kenya, and Pakistan, the figure is closer to 95 percent.

In Nigeria alone, where conflict has ravaged the north, over 13 million children are out of school, the highest proportion in the world.

If nothing changes, approximately 80 percent of refugee teenagers will never get a secondary school education, and 99 percent will not be able to access higher education.

With no hope for a formal education or future prospects, some children have turned to suicide.

At the Moria refugee camp in Greece, Medicins Sans Frontières (MSF) found that a quarter of children had self-harmed, attempted suicide, or thought about committing suicide.

“At 10, when life should be in front of you – full of hope and excitement at every new dawn – young boys are so devoid of hope that they attempted to take their own lives,” Brown said.

“These young people are no longer only the lost generation, they are the invisible generation. And we must do more,” he added.

Without accessible and quality education, youth also end up being left out of the world of work.

Youth unemployment has worsened in recent years, with 71 million young people unemployed around the world.

Even those that are employed often find themselves living in poverty.

U.N. DESA pointed to the need to ramp up action on youth education and employment, especially as it relates to all of the SDGs including gender equality, health, and inequality.

However, such policies and programmes must address specific individual and socioeconomic contexts.

“It is important to recognise that the flourishing of youth is about more than successful transitions to employment. Young people have aspirations that are far broader and need to be valued and supported,” the report states.

“Rather than rating the success of programmes on narrow measures of educational or employment attainment, it is crucial that institutional, programme and policy evaluations be more firmly grounded in young people’s own accounts of what they value for their human development and for the sustainable development of their communities and this shared planet,” it adds.

For instance, the Young Rural Entrepreneurs Programme in Colombia helps aspiring entrepreneurs set up innovative, productive, and sustainable businesses in rural areas.

The programme provides targeted skills development and vocational training to unemployed youth in high-demand sectors, particularly targeting vulnerable groups such as displaced persons and indigenous communities.

The report highlighted the need to invest in such capacity building, providing youth with life skills such as effective communication and problem solving as well as skills that match the demands of the job market.

Lebanon has seen success in the double-shift school system which helps provide education to Syrian refugees. Of the 400,000 Syrian refugees in Lebanon who are in school, 300,000 attend double-shift schools.

“The only way to reach the SDG of every child at school is for a child’s real passport to the future stamped in the classroom – and not at a border check post,” said Brown.

“The 2030 Agenda offers a positive vision for youth development; however, a great deal of effort will be needed to realise this vision,” U.N. DESA said.

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• Parliamentarians Promote Youth Investment in Kazakhstan
• Investing in Arab and Asian Youth For a Sustainable Future

The post World’s Youth Are Being Left Behind appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Local governance structures—in which every individual has the right, capacity, and opportunity to take part—must be kept alive | Photo courtesy: Wikimedia Commons

By Debjeet Sarangi
ODISHA, India, Feb 21 2019 (IPS)

Failing to understand the Adivasi world view and imposing the dominant development paradigm on Adivasi peoples is affecting their identity and well-being. The mainstream development paradigm has aggravated discontent among Adivasi communities. The reasons are not difficult to recognise—it encourages the siege of native resources, drives competition, is surplus-driven, instils private ownership, and consequently, is affecting the cultural identity of Adivasi peoples.

Adivasi thought leaders believe that the root causes for the failure of development lie in a failure to understand their world view, and the continued imposition of the dominant development paradigm is significantly affecting the of well-being of Adivasi peoples.

 

Land and forest

The process of pushing Adivasi communities from their traditional homelands to distant frontiers is not new. Historical research shows that the eviction of Adivasi peoples is an age-old process. Their geographical history has been one of incessant displacement and relocation—often with the use of force and violence—deeper and deeper into inhospitable terrain.

Data shows that the proportion of rural Adivasi households that do not own any land (not even homestead land) increased from 16 percent of all Adivasi households in 1987–88 to 24 percent in 2011–12.

When it comes to forest land, the usage and access of resources by Adivasi peoples has been considered to be ‘encroachment’ by the government. In 2006, the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, tried to amend this by recognising the customary rights of forest dwellers, including the right over commons areas, as well as the right to manage and sell forest produce. However, implementation of this Forest Rights Act (FRA) has been unsuccessful, with inadequate community awareness, conflicting legislations, lack of dedicated structural implementation, administrative roadblocks, and government deficit.

Adivasi thought leaders believe that the root causes for the failure of development lie in a failure to understand their world view, and the continued imposition of the dominant development paradigm is significantly affecting the of well-being of Adivasi peoples

The forest bureaucracy, reluctant to give up control, has misinterpreted the FRA as an instrument to regularise ‘encroachment’. This can be seen in its emphasis to recognise individual claims while ignoring collective claims (Community Forest Resource (CFR) rights, as promised under the FRA).

To add to this,  the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) has reportedly been pushing for a new set of rules that would dilute the FRA, and limit the power of local governing bodies like Gram Sabhas, despite objections raised by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA).

What can be done?

Local governance structures and systems where decision-making starts at the smallest unit of human settlement—in which every individual has the right, capacity, and opportunity to take part—must be kept alive. Communities should mobilise to file their community forest rights claims under the FRA, and facilitate community-led regeneration and conservation of natural biodiverse forests.

 

Culture and education

While Adivasi parents do feel that education and literacy are important, sending children away to residential schools also means that an entire generation will not learn their way of life, and will be alienated from agriculture, forests, and their parents’ livelihoods.

Children studying in residential schools are allowed to go home only once in a year, and struggle to bridge two totally different and disconnected worlds together. In an attempt to be mainstreamed, many lose their Adivasi identity.

“Without this knowledge, in the future we will have a weak education without memory. We will have a sick society where our generations to come will have no traditions—an empty space in history. We need to pass on our customs and law and way of life just as our grandparents did. We need to pass on the pride of being an Adivasi,” says a mother.

“The dominant education system in India is top-down. In this system, everything is de-contextualised,” says an Adivasi youth.

What can be done?

Facilitating dialogue on the implications of emergent ‘development’ paradigms, deliberating possible alternatives, and supporting efforts of Adivasi communities to envision their future is extremely necessary today.

Spaces need to be created for inter-generational learning for young Adivasi peoples, where adults in the community can play the role of ‘teachers’, impart local knowledge and reclaim the culture of communitarian living. To build curricula, traditional experts and thought leaders should interface with scientists and academicians from mainstream institutions. Curriculum should be contextual, and based around local issues—Adivasi agriculture, architecture, agro-ecology, food sovereignty, direct democracy, PESA and FRA.

 

Agriculture and livelihoods

Traditional Adivasi food systems tie together ecological realities, Adivasi identity, indigenous knowledge, social meanings, health, nutrition, and economics. Production practices are grounded in ecological principals like sustaining soil fertility, sustaining biodiversity, and conserving energy through practising poly-cultural farming, with numerous crops growing in tandem.

However, in recent years these self-reliant, biodiverse agricultural practices have been under threat. The green revolution model of agriculture, in the name of modernisation, has been characterised by the imposition of alien agricultural technology, ‘high-yielding’ varieties of seeds, the chemicalisation of farming, and the growth of commercial mono-cultural plantations, all of which have endangered the farms and forests of Adivasi peoples.

What can be done?

Livelihoods based on the essence of the agro-ecology, in keeping with the non-accumulative attitude of Adivasi peoples must be created.

Democratising production and consumption, involving clusters of villages with common ecological features to enhance local self-reliance in which tribal villages can trade goods and services with each other would reduce dependence on the outside market and government.

 

Health and nutrition

Although only 8.6 percent of the Indian population, Adivasis disproportionately represent people living below poverty line, and suffer from poor physical health.

When it comes to food and nutrition security, Adivasi areas have been identified as high-risk areas. Several factors have contributed to the increasing food insecurity, ranging from loss of traditional food sources in the forest, and decreasing size of land holdings, to a shift from self-sufficient agriculture to chemical-intensive agriculture, and increasing land alienation.  All this has rendered a considerable part of Adivasi communities as food insecure, with growing numbers falling into food scarcity and starvation.

What can be done?

To address changing diets influenced by external culture, local food systems need to be reoriented to produce safe, nutritious food, promote dietary diversity, and ensure balanced diets, along with revival of local health traditions and health security.

Modern doctors should be exposed to local health traditions—working with healers, midwives, traditional birth attendants, and so on—in order to sensitise them regarding local practices, and to come up with a framework to distinguish between ailments that require traditional healthcare and those that require clinical assistance.

To address malnutrition, the core existential issues that affect Adivasi peoples and other rural marginalised communities need to be examined. Poverty, indebtedness, food insecurity, lack of control over productive resources, and so on, all significantly impact nutritional outcomes. With critical reflection of these underlying structural causes, the communities themselves should undertake the responsibility of addressing them and decide the next course of action, as opposed to approaches where outsiders ‘consult’ communities, with no assurance that they will actually do anything.

 

Debjeet Sarangi has been involved with Kondh community in Odisha in building narratives of self-reliance that are primary to their way of life. This includes putting in practices and knowledge to reclaim the shared spaces, strengthen internal solidarity within the community, reclaim control over local food systems, and defending cooperative modes of living with humans and nature. He works with Living Farms, a nonprofit organisation in Odisha.

 

This story was originally published by India Development Review (IDR)

The post How Development Excludes Adivasi Peoples appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Arul Louis
NEW YORK, Feb 21 2019 (IPS)

Maldives Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid has reiterated his nation’s commitment to a “free and open” Indo-Pacific region and to democracy.

During his meeting with Secretary of State Michael Pompeo in Washington Feb 20, Shahid “underscored the importance of his government’s reform efforts to (ensure) the vitality of Maldives’ democracy,” the department’s Deputy Spokesperson Robert Palladino said.

Maldivian Foreign Minister Abdulla Shahid

The two leaders spoke of their “common interest in deepening bilateral ties between the United States and Maldives, and their shared commitment to a free and open Indo-Pacific region,” his statement added.

Pompeo appreciated the Maldives’ commitment to judicial reform, transparency, and rule of law, Palladino said.

Their statements on democracy and rule of law were a boost to the Indian Ocean nation’s fragile democracy.

Maldives had fought back a challenge to its democracy in September when the opposition candidate Ibrahim Mohamed Solih assumed the presidency after defeating President Abdulla Yameen, who had declared a state of emergency and arrested Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and Justice Ali Hameed when the Supreme Court overturned the conviction of nine opposition leaders, including former president Mohamed Nasheed.

The US-Maldives declaration of commitment to free and open Indo-Pacific region has added significance because of the China factor

Yameen, who had moved closer to China and Pakistan, sent emissaries seeking support from them after the emergency declaration that India and the US criticised.

China sent warships to the Indian Ocean region near the Maldives after the emergency was proclaimed in February last year. Beijing is also major investor and aid-giver to the Maldives.

Palladino said that Pompeo undertook to work with Congress to provide $9.75 million in additional aid to Maldives.

David J. Ranz, the deputy assistant secretary for Central and South Asian affairs, announced in December an aid package for Maldives comprising $7 million in military aid for maritime security and $3 million for supporting civil society and environmental programmes.

According to Maldives Finance Minister Ibrahim Ameer, the country owes $1.4 billion to China.

The State Department said that the Treasury Department would help the Maldives government with developing a debt strategy and with domestic debt management.

Arul Louis can be reached at arul.l@ians.in and followed on Twitter @arulouis

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Suriname’s First Lady Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring says the Caribbean nation has been affected by climate change as it has experienced many destructive floods. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

By Desmond Brown
PARAMARIBO, Feb 21 2019 (IPS)

Two of the most prominent women in the Caribbean nation of Suriname are speaking out about developed countries that release large volumes of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

First Lady Ingrid Bouterse-Waldring and Speaker of the National Assembly Jennifer Geerlings-Simons say Suriname and other countries in the region are feeling the brunt of the effects of climate change.

“If we go to the interior of our country, then we see that we have had a lot of floods in those areas. These floods are destructive for the people who are living there. The effects are clearly noticeable especially to the women and the children,” Bouterse-Waldring told IPS.

“In the coastal area . . . we have had a lot of very strong winds. These winds, actually we never had them before, so it’s also new to us. These are all things that we are facing now with climate change.”

In the aftermath of Hurricanes Maria and Irma that devastated Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and others in 2017, many countries are still struggling to recover.

Geerlings-Simons told IPS: “Some of our countries have seen devastation and we have seen examples in 2017 and 2018 of what will happen to our countries if at any point in time, a hurricane or any other type of disaster happens.”

“You can start rebuilding your economy . . . but next year another hurricane might come and wipe you out again. Did you contribute to clime change? No, you just get hit by it. How would Suriname recover from one hurricane? Seventy-five percent of our people live on the coast and 75 percent or more of our economy is right here. How will we recover? Our homes are not built for hurricanes,” Geerlings-Simons said, adding that

The Speaker of Suriname’s National Assembly said that more than 1,000 homes lost their roofs in extreme weather conditions over the last 10 years. Previously, this sort of destruction to homes due to the weather was unheard of.

“So, we’re feeling the effects right now,” she said.

Jennifer Geerlings-Simons Suriname’s Speaker of the National Assembly says poor and even highly forested countries have no way to defend themselves against this onslaught of climate change which is already happening. Credit: Desmond Brown/IPS

Geerlings-Simons said countries like Suriname, whose forests are actually aiding many other parts of the world, should get something in return. Not only do forests provide oxygen to the world, but according to the World Wide Fund For Nature two billion people either directly or indirectly rely on them for food, shelter and food security etc.

“We have no way as poor countries or even a highly forested countries to defend ourselves against this onslaught of climate change which is already happening, and which is actually threatening our future in the relatively short term of a few decades,” Geerlings-Simons told IPS.

“We as highly forested countries should . . . have an international fund in which we put some money if we push carbon into the air, and we get some money if we take it out of the air.”

Geerlings-Simons said this has already been tried and proven in Costa Rica. Twenty-two years ago, Costa Rica was the first in the world to start a nationwide scheme for compensating landowners for preserving their forests when it embarked on its national programme of payment for environmental services (PES).

“If you pay someone to keep the forest standing, they will keep it standing because they don’t have to give it to someone to cut it down to get something to eat,” Geerlings-Simons said.

“I am sure that if Europe, the United States or China would develop some kind of mechanism, some kind of machine, everybody would gladly be paying for it because it would strengthen their economy.

“But now, finally after a few hundred years, some money has to come to this part of the world, at this moment where we are facing a very dire situation. The [International Panel on Climate Change] IPCC is not some kind of scaremongering organisation and they really gave us a stern warning. You do something, you get paid for it. Why is this an exception?” she added.

Last year, the IPCC released a report assessing the impacts of global warming of 1.5 degrees C.

But as global emissions continue to rise, hopes of containing the planet’s warming well below 2 degrees C–the headline target of the Paris Agreement–are fading.

“Why do we have to beg for money while delivering a service that put carbon into the air? The only way that some people will start reducing their carbon is when they have to pay. This is the way this world works,” Geerlings-Simons said.

High Forest Cover and Low Deforestation (HFLD) nations hosted a major conference in Suriname earlier this month.

The conference ended with the Krutu of Paramaribo Joint Declaration on HFLD Climate Mobilisation. Krutu—an indigenous Surinamese word—means a gathering of significance or a gathering of high dignitaries, resulting in something that is workable.

Related Articles

• Q&A: Suriname’s President Champions Preserving the World’s Forests
• ‘Today, We Declare Our Love to Our Forests and Ecosystems’
• Q&A: What of the Carbon Neutral Countries?

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Justine Masika Bihamba at the UN Security Council in 2018.

By Justine Masika Bihamba
GOMA, DR Congo, Feb 21 2019 (IPS)

When Felix Tshisekedi, the 55 year old son of the former opposition leader, won the recent presidential election in the Democratic Republic of Congo, it should have felt like a new dawn for many of us living here.

This was nothing less than a monumental event – the first time since our country’s independence that a peaceful transition of power took place between an outgoing and an incoming president.

I was born in the city of Goma in the Eastern DRC, close to the border with Rwanda. I set up Synergie des Femmes, an organization that gives a lifeline to Congolese victims of sexual violence.

I have spent over 30 years doing my best to improve the lives of women in extremely challenging circumstances and to ensure that women can be part of a fair and transparent political process.

In the last couple of years, I have also co-ordinated the Congolese Women’s Forum, a network of 65 women from across the country, who are calling for women to be part of politics and peace-building in this country.

Despite its relatively peaceful passing, I have many concerns surrounding the recent elections. Tshisekedi’s political experience appears to be limited to being the son of a politician from a party that has languished in opposition for several decades.

Rumors are that the previous president, Joseph Kabila, made some sort of unofficial back room deal with him, which would ensure political benefits for both. It would not surprise me if this turned out to be true.

This is the type of political wrangling that Congolese people have become all too familiar with. Kabila has always played the political game – including when it causes harm to our citizens – and women in particular.

Informal political agreements by a small circle of men behind closed doors have tended to not only exclude women from the political process, but also perpetuate harm against us. This time again, when political capital was at stake, women were sacrificed.

We have demanded to be part of the political process – to have our voices heard and included – but we have nowhere near equal representation. Out of 535 parliamentarians in the National Assembly there are only 50 women.

Considering the obstacles we have had to face to even take part, this could have been even worse. The discriminatory electoral law meant that anyone proposing themselves as a candidate needs to come up with a deposit of $1,000.

This is simply impossible in our country where men can use their political networks to raise funding and trade “favors”, where women do not have the same political capital. They do not tend to have much control over their own finances either.

This December, the voting process was fraught with difficulty. The Electoral Commission ignored the fact that many people in the DRC – women in particular – are illiterate and had no idea how to use the electronic voting machines that were shipped in for the event.

These machines were sometimes moved at the last minute and breakdowns were common. No funding was given towards educating voters in advance.

Electoral lists also posed a problem on voting day. Even some of those who could read were not able to find their names, which were sometimes categorized in a confusing way – and regularly included people from the wrong constituencies, so some voters simply did not know where to go.

Delays in opening certain polling stations affected things too. In a handful of areas it was not possible to vote at all. Voter turnout was directly affected by this and many chose to stay at home, after hearing about the challenges. From what I have seen, once again, this disproportionately affected women.

Congolese women have faced decades of being victims of sexual violence in conflict, where rape was regularly used as a weapon of war. What has happened to women here has often caused outrage for a few moments and is then quickly forgotten about.

The best solution to this is ensuring that women – the most negatively affected by the status quo – are active decision makers in government.

Those of us who speak out publicly about this live with constant worry. My own home and office have been attacked because I spoke out. I am forced to continue doing so even though I am at risk every single day. I have had dozens of threats to my life, but I am not giving up.

Women have been left out of this latest political transition, but there is a lot that we have learned too. The first peaceful transition in politics in our country has shown the Congolese Women’s Forum that maybe one day we can peacefully achieve equal representation, where we are finally listened to, and where we are able to make decisions on our own futures.

The post DRC’s First Peaceful Transition of Power Was At Expense of Women appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Justine Masika Bihamba is founder of Synergie des Femmes, a front line women’s organization based in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and local partner of Donor Direct Action.

The post DRC’s First Peaceful Transition of Power Was At Expense of Women appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Roberto Savio is founder of IPS Inter Press Service and President Emeritus

By Roberto Savio
ROME, Feb 21 2019 (IPS)

I have been a member of the first international party: the Transnational Radical Party, founded in 1956 by Marco Pannella and Emma Bonino. Then in 1988, I was a wetness of the large protest, in Berlin West, against the meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, a precursor of the “Battle of Seattle” in 1988, where 40.000 protesters disrupted the annual meeting of the two world’s financial institutions. I was even detained for a day by the police, even if was just a witness: my condition of foreigner made me automatically suspect.

Roberto Savio

And I was a witness of the Nobel prize Joseph Stigliz address to the protesters of “Occupy Wall Street”, in 2011. In the same year, I was part of the creation of the Word Social Forum, in Porto Alegre. And I have been carefully following the arrival of the new International nationalist and populist wave, since Orban’s arrival in Hungary in 2019, Kaczynski in Poland in 2015, Brexit in 2016, Trump in 2016, and totally different movements like now the Yellow Jackets in France.

Therefore, I have decided that I can be more useful as a practitioner than as a theoretician in the cultured an interesting debate that Paul Raskin has opened on a world political party. But I still remember that during the debate on the New International Information Order in the seventies, at a very important conference in Berlin of academicians, I spoke as practitioner (I was the founder of Inter Press Service, the fourth international news agency), and when I finished, the German chairman of the conference observed: “what Roberto had said works in practice. But the question is: would it work in theory”?

The Transnational Radical Party choose a human rights agenda, as Pannella did in Italy with the Italian radical party. The abolition of the death’s sentence, the depenalization of light drugs, the freedom of medical choice, including euthanasia, the end of female mutilation in Africa and Arab countries, the importance of scientific research free of religious dogma as part of bioethics, the creation of the United States of Europe, a multicultural, inclusive and environmentally concerned Europe. It called for the inclusion of Israel in the European Community, and made public campaigns on Tibet, the Uighurs, the Montagnard (a Vietnamese Christian minority), and the Chechens. This agenda of Human Rights was able to link intellectuals and activists from many countries (especially Europe and Latin America). But it never became a mass movement, and it dissolved itself in 1989. It was highly affected by the May 68, which fought against centralizing structures, and indicated that the fights should become individual, and free from any command.

The World Social Forum was the closest thing to a world movement. It was based on a much broader agenda, which was the build up an alternative to what the World Economic Forum, Davos, represented. Global finance, unchecked capitalism, economic agenda over the social agenda, the alliance of corporations to control politics and governance: a Forum where unelected people met to take decisions over the course of the world. It come out from a visit in 1999 in Paris by two Brazilian activists, Oded Grajew who was working in the field of social responsibility of companies, and Chico Whittaker, who was in the Social Network of Justice and Human Rights, an initiative of the Brazilian catholic Church. They were incensed by the tv coverage of Davos, and the following day the went to meet Bernard Cassen, coordinator of of Le Monde Diplomatique, who encouraged them to organize a Counterdavos, but not in Europe, but in the South. They came back, organized a committee of eight Brazilian organizations, in February if 2.000, got the support of the government of Rio Grande do Sul, and in the 2001 the first Forum was held in Porto Alegre, at the same time of Davos. We were thinking that 3.000 people would come (the equivalent of Davos), instead there were 20.000 participants.

The impact was so great, that the Brazilian committee organized a consultative meeting the following year in Sao Paolo, about the continuation of the WSF. They invited a number of international organizations, and at the second day they appointed all of us as the International Council. The Council was born, therefore, not out of a planning to organize a really representative structure. The efforts done to rebalance the composition, never went far. Lot of organizations wanted to be member of the Council, without any criteria of representative and strength, and the Council become soon a large list of names, with few participating, and changing at every council, which left to the Brazilians (Chico Wittaker especially), the de facto ability to have a heavy weight in the process.

The WSF had a large number of meetings. There was the yearly WSF itself, who always had close to 100.000 participants (the one of 2005 150.000), The WSF moved out of Latin America, first in Mumbai, with the participation of 20.000 Dalits (the untouchables). Then in Africa and so on. The march against the American invasion in Iraq, saw a march of 15 million people all over the world.

George Bush dismissed that as a focus group, and the war went on. In addition to the yearly WSF, two other main events were created. The regional WSF, and the thematic Wsf, where under this umbrella people could meet beside the central one Then, local WSF could be held in any country, as part of the general WSF process. A most probable estimate is that the WSF, from 2001. Has joined together over 1 million people, who paid their travel and lodging costs, to share experiences and dream together for a better world.

Some points of this enormous process (that I do not see now replicable to the idea of a party), must be kept into account for our debate.

Civil society is made by many threads. We have no time to go over this, but Boaventura de Sousa Santos, the Portuguese sociologist and anthropologist who has more studied the WSF (and he is also departing in disagreement with the inability of updating from Chico Wittaker and others) has written an interesting study on the “translation” which was necessary to put together those threads.

Woman organizations, for instant, are concerned about the patriarchal society. But indigenous organizations are worried about the exploitation by white colons. Human rights organizations, have different agenda from those dealing with environment. To understand each other, and share and work together, a process of translation of those priorities, to think holistically, went on. It is what is called now identity. Any world party has to answer this question, because there are no indigenous organizations in Europe, and there are no activists on the impact of infrastructures in Asia or Africa. In other worlds, while it is easier to build a mass participation against a common enemy, it requires a lot of dialogue for building up a movement. Certainly, the WSF was fundamental for creating the awareness that a holistic approach is necessary to fight injustice, climate change, an uncontrolled finance, the growing social injustice, etc. And that is an important point in the creation of a world party.

All over those 63 years, from the creation of the Transnational Radical Party, in all movements which have been created, and now in the Yellow jackets, there is a common.

Fact. For the immense majority of the participants, the notion of a party is linked to power, corruption and lack of legitimacy. In the WSF it was its final irrelevance. As the Talmudist, led by Chico Wittaker have opposed: any political declaration from the WSF, because it could divide the movement; any creation of spokesman on behalf of the WSF; the idea of horizontality as the main basis for the governance of the WSF, the WSF as a space for meeting, not for organizing actions. Actions could be done by those participating making up alliances, but the WSF could not make declarations or plans of action. The International Council was not a governing body, but just a facilitating structure. The lack of organizations made that media did not come any longer, as they had no interlocutors, as spokesman were forbidden. Even a declaration on something which could not create any scission, like condemnation of wars, or appeals on climate action were forbidden. The result is that the WSF become like spiritual exercises: useful for those who participates, they come out with more individual strength, but without any impact on the world.

This is an extremely important handicap for a world party. Those who would be in principle its largest constituency, reject the notion of a part, which automatically creates structures of power, opens to corruption od ideals, and leave Individuals without participation and representation. The Yellow Jacket Is a sobering lesson of this. The political world has lost legitimacy, participation, and young people. It is totally separated from culture, research, and intellectualism. A world party, to be real, cannot be based on a few people. It must address and solve those issues.

For these among many, three considerations are important.

The first, Internet has changed the participations in politics. Space and time ae not the same. Tine has become fluid and short. Tweets, Facebook, etc. are much more important than media. Bolsonaro was elected through social media. This is a general phenomenon, from Salvini in Italy, to the Arab Spring, to Brexit. All American media have 62 million copies. Of these, quality papers (WSJ, NYT, WP,etc.), have just ten million copies. Trump tweets have 49 million followers. We know that only 4% buy newspapers, and they look only Fox news, which is an extension of his tweeters. So, when Trump makes absurd claims, like that when he visited Queen Elizabeth, he could not go to the center of London, because there were so many people waiting for him, that this was the advice of the Police, when in fact there were 200.000 people in the streets protesting his visit, those 49 million believed him blindly. The quality media publish a fact checker, which has dramatic figures about his lies and misguided truth. His followers will never read those, and if they see it they will not believe them. We need to be able to get into this kind of mobilization. I, for one, I am not able to use efficiently Twitter. And Aldo Moro the Italian PM assassinated by the Red Brigades (which were used by a stronger force), would not be able either. And politics jump from a short period on an item, to another one. Gone is the ability to follow process. We only follow events. And the same is happening with media.

The second, as a consequence of this, Internet went the wrong way, as far as politics are concerned. Instead of becoming an element of participation, has become an element of atomization. A whopping 73% of its users declare that they carve their own world, a virtual world, that they can build on their wishes. As a result, debate among people (especially young people), has waned. Users go into Internet, dialogue with like-minded people, and insult others. The result is that young people vote less and less, with results like Brexit, where 88% of adults voted, against 23% of young people, who demonstrated against the result of the referendum the day after, with onlookers shouting them: you did not vote and now you protest?

The third, there is now a divide between towns and country side, which is just the point of the iceberg of a much significant divide: between those who feel left out by globalization, and think it went in favor of those living in towns, the elites (intellectuals are considered a part), and those who were not victims. It is just enough to look where Trump got his voters in 2018, and no significant support in the towns. He lost the popular vote by two million. But the peculiar American voting system, a heritage of the process of unification of American states, gives today a disproportionate representation to the smaller and least developed American States. But the same was behind Brexit, and it is happening worldwide.

This has brought an unprecedented situation. Those who feel left behind, are now legitimized to mistrust elites. Ignorance has been for a long time a reality in every country.

But now there is the arrogance of ignorance. Yellow jackets revolt against elites, with Macron as a symbol, is shared by the followers of Trump, Salvini, Le Pen, Bolsonero, etc.

And is ironic that the political system, considered everywhere the main enemy, is in fact the most ignorant in modern times. Once, if Nelson Mandela, Adlai Stevenson, Olaf Palme, Allende and Aldo Moro would meet, they would have some books on which to talk. It would be highly improbable among even parliamentarians, let alone Trump, May and Merkel…

This bring us to a consideration, and the conclusion. The consideration is to reflect what happened to degrade politics and policy. My own reading: there were a sum of factors, all at the same time. The Berlin’s wall fall, brought to the Tatcher’s Tina (there is no alternative). It was the end of ideologies (the end of history), those cages that brought us to wars. The cry was to be pragmatist. But when politics become just the solution of a single problem, without a long term and organic vision of the step you are taking, you are being utilitarian, which is a different perspective. At the same time, we had the Washington Consensus, among the IMF, the WB, and the American Treasury, of how to run the world. The benefits of globalization would lift all boats. Anything which was not productive, was to be curbed: social costs, education (Reagan even wanted to abolish the Ministry), health, which were unmovable and should be privatized. The public system, the state, all what was movable (trade, finance, industry) was to be globalized. Microeconomies were out. It took 20 years for the IMF and the WB, to belatedly restore the role of the state as a regulator, beyond the market. But by now the genie is out of the bottle. Finance has taken its own life, is over the economic production. And the unprecedented concentration of wealth in fewer and fewer hands is just a symbol, which adds the exasperation of the losers.

But very important was the Third Way theory of Tony Blair, who decided that as globalization was inevitable, the left could ride it, and give to it a human face. The result is that the left lost his constituency, and workers now vote for the new populist parties, which are growing everywhere. The debate left-right, which was largely an ideological debate, has disappeared. Why people should feel passionate about a politic which has become basically an administrative matter?

And this brings us to the conclusion. To create a world party, we must find a banner under which people would come. I think that, in today world, the right does not need to structure Bannon attempt to join all populist and xenophobe parties, is valid as long they have a common enemy: Europe, the multilateralism. But if you push people to nationalism and competition, it will go the way of the much proclaimed unity between the Austrian Prime Minister, Sebastian Kurz, and Salvini, who declared themselves brothers, united against the common enemy, the European Union. But as soon they come across a concrete theme, how to deal with immigrants, their competing interests was the of their brotherhood. I have no doubt that next European elections in May, will see a strengthening of the anti-European forces. But from that to the end of Europe…

Therefore, this growing tide will exhaust itself, when it will be clear that their program of making the national past the future, will last until they take the power, and will become visible that they have no answers: this is what the Italian government is proving now.

Echoing Gramsci, a party should be able to rally masses, for a common goal. This goal, according the reality, should be able to interpret and rally the majority of people. Today, the common denominator has been globalization. Many historians think that the engines for change in history have been greed and fear. Since 1989, we have been educated to greed, which has become a virtue: and since the crisis of 2008 (a direct result of greed), fear has become a strong reality. Immigrants are now the scapegoats, when they have always been a resource. When, in American history, a wall with Mexico could have justified the longest government’s shutdown?

What bonded people together, until 1989, were values it is enough to read any constitutions to find those values: justice, solidarity, ethics, equality, law as the basis of society, and so on. Today we live in a world where nobody speaks of values (unless you take market as a value), and less of all the political world. It would be a long walk, but a world party should be based on values, the defense of international cooperation as a warrant for peace, and on the fact that competition and greed make few winners, and many losers.

We must think that there are millions of people in the world engaged at grassroot level, hundreds of times more than the WSF. Our challenge is to connect with them. This, I am afraid, is a long walk. But unless se connect with those who are working to change the present trend, and we must simply made clear that we are not the elites, but we consider us equally victims, and we share the same enemy. Finally, those are people who read and reflect..And we share the same values…But can we find the language to do that? Communication is the basis for participation…

The post A World Party appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Roberto Savio is founder of IPS Inter Press Service and President Emeritus

The post A World Party appeared first on Inter Press Service.

By Rose Delaney
MIAMI, Feb 20 2019 (IPS)

Inaccessible justice and socio-economic inequality act as core components of the United States criminal justice system.

Thousands of individuals are denied their basic human rights and treated as a criminal “underclass” in what appears to be a perfectly “legal” and “just” system.

Jean-Claude Nöel

The United States currently carries the world’s highest prison population with a staggering 2.3 million individuals behind bars. In other words, 1 out of every 99 North American adults are confined to a prison cell at present.

The state of Florida has the third largest prison population in the country. Over $2.7 billion per year is spent to house criminals for predominantly petty crimes.

U.S. prisoners have no political rights, no say in how they are treated, and almost no groups or organizations to advocate on their behalf.

Once released, they cannot avail of social housing or financial aid. In addition, they must state that they were a convicted felon on every job application they apply for.

According to the Bureau of Justice Studies due to poor rehabilitation and access to services in the public domain, 76% of prisoners will be re-arrested within 5 years of release.

I spoke to Jean-Claude Nöel, a former convict, on his experience within Florida’s criminal justice system.

Jean-Claude is well-poised and notably articulate. His family back in Haiti come from a long line of educators and influencers.

One could scarcely imagine such a man having spent close to 10 years behind bars.

Among other convictions, Jean-Claude was charged with conspiracy based on “hearsay evidence” related to racketeering, with no tangible evidence to prove his crime.

Jean-Claude claims that this is wrongful under the eyes of the law and cannot be used to convict an individual.

In 1998, Jean-Claude embarked on a 10-year battle with the state of Florida. He is still in the throes of a heated debate to revise legislation for statute 777.04 on “Attempts, Solicitation and Conspiracy.”

As the recount of Jean-Claude’s conviction progressed, a gross injustice was made apparent. After three and a half years behind bars, he went to trial.

He was offered a bond of over $1million. His requests for a reduction fell on deaf ears, and were denied by the court. His lawyer charged a hefty fee of $15,000 and did little to resolve his case.

Evidently, telling your side of the story proves exceedingly costly in the U.S. criminal justice system. It is not a right granted to low and middle socio-economic classes.

Jean-Claude’s case is distinct as 85% of prisoners in North America’s criminal justice system never go to trial.

From staggeringly high attorney’s fees and extortionate bonds, for many, it’s advised and encouraged to just plead guilty to crimes they may not have committed.

Jean-Claude explained, “the state and lawyers discourage one from going to trial, it is far too costly and time-consuming.”

As a Haitian immigrant, conditions within the U.S. prison system were exceptionally unjust, just two days before his release date, he was transported to a detention center for deportation.

In the detention center, was placed in solitary confinement for 23 hours a day, which is considered to be a form of torture by prominent human rights groups such as Amnesty International.

He narrowly evaded deportation by pleading his case to a judge, highlighting the fact that his wife and kids, located in the United States were eagerly waiting for him on the outside after 9 years.

As echoed in Michelle Alexander’s work, The New Jim Crow, Jean-Claude shares the notion that prisoners are treated as a marginalized caste within North American society.

Both within and outside of prison walls, prisoners are stripped of their basic rights to reform and rehabilitation. “the majority leave the prison worse off than when they came in.” Jean-Claude stated.

To overcome such demoralizing setbacks, he decided to put his background in entrepreneurship to use.

A high percentage of male prisoners’ education in the state of Florida do not surpass students aged 11-12, or the U.S. schooling equivalent of the sixth grade.

Therefore, Jean-Claude’s introduction of an “Entrepreneurship and Innovation” program in his assigned prison proved impactful.

Over 150 students went through Jean-Claude’s program which focused on technological literacy and innovation. Although he’s now released, he continues to provide educational and job creation services to prisoners and ex-convicts.

Jean-Claude’s organization, Riemerge, focused on rehabilitating men who have been trapped in the U.S. criminal justice system through classes on technological innovation and advocacy for the employment of prisoners in major coporations.

As the children of inmates are six times more likely to end up incarcerated themselves, Jean-Claude also places a key focus on the sharing of ideas between parents and children.

Parents share their learnings and achievements with children and encourage them to think innovatively about technology and entrepreneurship as well.

Just where does the future lie for wrongfully convicted young men?

Jean-Claude highlights the importance of artificial intelligence in the criminal justice system.

“I am hopeful for reform because of technology, the criminal justice system is adopting new technologies at a brisk pace. I believe these technologies will remove bias out of the courts and out of policing.”

That saying, new technologies come with their own challenges. Jean-Claude offered the example of Brian Brackeen, an African-American entrepreneur, the founder of Kairos, who has developed a successful “face recognition” technology.

Brackeen openly refuses to sell his product to law enforcement, as bias can be passed on to computers.

“I’ve been pretty clear about the potential dangers associated with current racial biases in face recognition, and open in my opposition to the use of the technology in law enforcement.” Brackeen stated.

All in all, with enhanced awareness and dedication, ex-convicts like Jean-Claude are optimistic in their ability to eradicate the gross injustices imposed by the North American criminal justice system.

Jean-Claude’s story is one of many.

He will do everything in his power to advance access to justice and ignite change for inmates who are wrongfully silenced.

The post Intricacies of a Broken System: A Convict’s Tale appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Dr. Kakoli Ghosh, Strategic Program on Sustainable Agriculture Management Team, FAO Ms. Loreta Zdanovaite, Partnerships Officer, Division of Partnerships, FAO

By Kakoli Ghosh and Loreta Zdanovaite
ROME, Feb 20 2019 (IPS)

When young people from small towns and villages seek higher education they have to usually migrate to big cities leaving their local communities behind. On completion of their degree from the Universities, they generally prefer staying in cities, in search of a good job and a successful career. Though this is a standard practice, it is also a case of lost opportunities, especially for students who pursue higher education in agriculture. Here is why.

Mobilizing local farmers in for sustainable practices for common bean production, Uganda

Agriculture covers a range of subjects from agronomy and dairy science to plant and animal health–and for many small -holder farmers and producers, there is a tremendous need for infusion of new knowledge and innovations to upgrade farming practices to improve income and livelihoods. However, there is usually a lack of availability of such support for them in a timely manner. At the same time, all Master’s level students studying agricultural sciences have to conduct research and prepare their dissertations on topical issues as part of their courses. Could it be possible to incentivise students to return to their communities for some time to look at local agriculture problems with fresh eyes and share their new knowledge? Can such reverse engineering accelerate problem solving at a local level and spur innovations? What would entice young people and their local community to create such knowledge linkages?

An small initiative was carried-out with the partner RUFORUM1 to try this out to strengthen linkages between academic knowledge and its ground-based applications. The goal was to promote youth support for SDG2- End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Graduate students from African agriculture universities were offered a six-month Community-Based Field Attachment2 to share their knowledge and research experience with rural communities and receive feedback from communities on their specific research areas. The expectation was that such an interaction would provide graduate students an opportunity to a) link academic work with experience of rural community, b) increase practical skills to apply research findings in development-related field projects as well as c) provide local agencies, farmers groups and organizations with the specialized knowledge that can generate innovative solutions to improve rural livelihoods.

Demonstrating vaccination of New Castle Disease vaccine for chickens, Uganda

There was a high response from students, however, based on available resources five each of male and female graduate students from RUFORUM member universities from Benin, Uganda, Kenya and Lesotho were selected for implementing their field projects (Table 1). During their stay with the rural communities, those students interacted with local farmers, village institutions and community elders to discuss and share their knowledge and work together to develop locally- based solutions. With the guidance of their professors as mentors, they reached out to a range of local stakeholders including farmers, agricultural traders, farmer associations, community health institutions, veterinary and extension services and rural community leaders to disseminate their research and also learn from them. They organized interactive workshops and trainings, made open-air presentations and hosted radio shows to increase outreach and share experiences. (Box 1). All participants provided regular reports of their progress to the RUFORUM Secretariat, who provided the necessary monitoring of the project.

This limited exercise has provided us with some interesting insights. It is clear that there is a genuine interest among youth to contribute to their local communities. The various topics of their projects on child nutrition, crop production and animal health among others, addressed a pertinent need in that community. The interactions allowed them to link their theoretical knowledge with practice on the ground. Both local communities and academic institutions expressed willingness to undertake more of such knowledge-exchange partnerships as it was a win-win. In future, perhaps such experiences could help universities to design short-term courses to address local issues and nurture innovations. If such initiatives were at scale and sponsored by local institutions, they might also encourage return of educated youth to agriculture in Africa and beyond. That would surely accelerate the implementation of Sustainable Development Goals.

Table 1. Student projects for Community-Based Field Attachments in Africa

1 The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is a network of 105 universities in 37 countries in Africa, www.ruforum.org.
2 Special Call for Applications: Ten RUFORUM Community-Based Field Attachment Programme Awards

The post Reverse Engineering for SDGs appeared first on Inter Press Service.

Excerpt:

Dr. Kakoli Ghosh, Strategic Program on Sustainable Agriculture Management Team, FAO
Ms. Loreta Zdanovaite, Partnerships Officer, Division of Partnerships, FAO

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SIPRI Director on Armament and Disarmament Dr Sibylle Bauer discusses the future of arms control at the Munich Security Conference.

By Dan Smith
MUNICH, Germany, Feb 20 2019 (IPS)

This year’s Munich Security Conference (the MSC), held on 15-17 February raised many questions but didn’t have the answer. It was not a happy and certainly not a self-confident gathering. Yet a couple of moments suggested the first new blooms of new ways to think about security might soon poke through the soil.

The MSC is the annual meeting of makers, shakers and influence-makers on the Euro-Atlantic security scene. Its recent editions have all been full of doubt and query. In 2015 the conference theme was ‘Collapsing Order, Reluctant Guardians?’

That was followed the next year by ‘Boundless Crises, Reckless Spoilers, Helpless Guardians’ – no question-mark this time but not any better or more confident because of that.

In February 2017, with the impact of the newly inaugurated Trump administration as yet unclear, it was ‘Post-Truth, Post-West, Post-Order?’. And last year it was ‘To the brink—and back?’, which, if you look hard, at least has a drop of optimism hidden behind the query.

This year the theme was ‘The Great Puzzle: Who Will Pick Up the Pieces?’ To make sure everybody got the point, there was a little jigsaw puzzle in the conference packs. But by the end of the gathering, not to anybody’s surprise, there was no real answer.

The components of anxiety and uncertainty are not new or surprising for anybody who follows international politics. In the last several years there has been a general deterioration in geopolitical stability.

A key dark moment was the Russian takeover in Crimea during February and March 2014 but the problem goes back further than that. In 2009, as Secretary of State in the new Obama administration, Hillary Clinton aimed for a major “reset” in US-Russia relations because of the negative turn they had taken in the previous years.

US-Russian relations remain at a low ebb, especially over arms control. The expression “INF Treaty” seemed to be used every other sentence that was uttered at the MSC.

It was not like that last year when the prospects for the Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty of 1987 was a matter of interest only for the specialists among the specialists.

Now people were discussing whether there is any hope at all for nuclear arms control between the US and Russia and what happens if there is none – a new arms race? Or is a more likely prospect perhaps something new, more of an asymmetric nuclear arms competition in which each is spurred by the other’s new systems but not to match them?

Along with this, tensions are growing between the rest of NATO and Russia, punctuated by further dark moments such as last year’s novichok poisonings in the UK.

There is the trade dispute between the US and China, and close military encounters in the South China Sea where, late last year, US and Chinese warships passed within 40 metres of each other.

Beyond the great power rivalries, there is widespread violent conflict and a re-ordering of power in the Middle East. Worldwide, the incidence of armed conflict is much greater than ten years ago.

Military spending and arms transfers are at their highest levels since the end of the Cold. Regional rivalries, as between Iran and Saudi Arabia and between India and Pakistan remain heated.

There are also rifts and significantly divergent perspectives within NATO. At the MSC, it was instructive to compare the quiet politeness that greeted US Vice-President Pence’s speech with the enthusiastic applause that greeted a single mention of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s name.

As represented here, the European part of the Euro-Atlantic security community, yearning always for a strong western alliance, seriously does not like the Trump administration.

Presumably because they recognised this in their separate ways, those consummate opportunists of the annual MSC platform, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Iranian counterpart Javad Zarid, both devoted their time to attacking America, not Europe.

A big part of the problem about is that there is not much appetite for a thoroughgoing rethink. For most MSC participants, the answer to the question – “Who will pick up the pieces?” – is, despite Trump, “America, please!” And into what shape should the picked-up pieces be assembled?

Few addressed the question directly but a fair inference is that, for most, the new shape should be as much like the old one as possible. According to one sharp observer of the scene, Carnegie’s Judy Dempsey in her post-MSC wash-up, what was on display at MSC was “a bickering West reluctant to address the new geostrategic realities.”

There were just a couple of moments that suggested something different. One was the first session on climate change and security that the MSC has ever staged in the main conference hall. It is about time.

We have got beyond asking whether climate change causes conflict – a dumb question because no conflict has a single cause; the discussion now is about the circumstances in which climate change contributes to insecurity.

What starts out as growing human insecurity because of, for example, over-use and inefficient management of water, can translate over time into the open warfare and human catastrophe that is Yemen today. Looking ahead, the discussion needs to address the impact of sea-level rise on low-lying coastal areas.

One billion people live less than five metres above current sea-level. What happens to the security agenda ten to fifteen years from now as these areas start to be endangered, if their governments and city authorities cannot help citizens ride out the impact of the change?

If nobody else was prepared to confront the bigger picture, Angela Merkel was. The German Chancellor opened her speech by noting that in 2016 geologists confirmed the view that we now live in the Anthropocene Epoch, when human action is the biggest influence upon nature.

And this, she said, formed the context in which all discussions of security should be held henceforth.

In sum, then: many questions, no satisfying answers, but a couple of glimmers of light showing where to look.

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Excerpt:

Dan Smith is Director, Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)

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By Geneva Centre
GENEVA, Feb 20 2019 (IPS-Partners)

(Geneva Centre) – On the occasion of the 2019 World Day of Social Justice observed on 20 February, the Executive Director of the Geneva Centre for Human Rights Advancement and Global Dialogue Ambassador Idriss Jazairy stated that the promotion of international solidarity and social justice are vital to the building of peaceful and inclusive societies.

Idriss Jazairy

The Geneva Centre’s Executive Director observed that “social inequality gives rise to social tensions that destabilize societies. Lack of employment opportunities stifle economic growth and result in poverty, social exclusion and discrimination.”

The rise of protest movements in developed societies – he said – is a telling testimony that economic growth can often generate deep inequalities and marginalize the lower middle class and the working class and in particular vulnerable groups such as female-headed households.

“In view of the fact that the value-chain of wealth creation knows no borders, such policies will be self-defeating and may end up in violent confrontation,” suggested the Geneva Centre’s Executive Director. The recent social tensions in Europe is a telling testimony that freewheeling globalization has translated into rising inequality of income and social exclusion.

“Indeed, while the acceleration of globalization and advances in information technology did have some upsides contributing to economic growth and material well-being, it triggered a whole range of complex problems. These include, in particular, growing inequality, increasing poverty, mismatch between qualification and employment opportunities, social disintegration and environmental degradation. The effects of materialism has adversely affected compassion, solidarity and spirituality,” Ambassador Jazairy underlined.

To address this ominous situation, the Geneva Centre Executive Director stressed the importance of identifying a more sustainable and inclusive model of globalization. Domestic and international solidarity – he said – need to be reinvented as reaffirmed in the Sustainable Development Goals of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda of the United Nations.

In this connection, Ambassador Jazairy said: “We need to seize the opportunity to address the causes of social instability and economic backsliding. People must be empowered so as to enable them to realize their potential and take ownership of their destinies. The gap between the growing elites and ordinary people must be bridged.

“Identifying, addressing and eradicating the root-causes of social injustice will enable us to promote a more equitable development that puts the human being at the centre, and creates synergies between societal development, human security and peaceful societies. There can be no social justice without promoting peace and enhancing equal citizenship rights,” concluded the Geneva Centre’s Executive Director in his statement.

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Dorianne Rowan-Campbell is an organic coffee farmer in Jamaica. Taking over her father’s farm in 1992 and turning it into an organic one was a huge risk at the time. However, she sustainably grows 1,800 coffee trees and harnesses nature to deal with pests, rather than using pesticides. Courtesy: Dorienne Rowan-Campbell

By Busani Bafana
BULAWAYO, Zimbabwe, Feb 20 2019 (IPS)

In 1992, the idea of replanting her father’s ruined coffee farm seemed foolhardy at the time. But in retrospect it was the best business decision that Dorienne Rowan-Campbell, an international development consultant and broadcast journalist, could have made.

Nearly three decades later, Rowan-Campbell grows organic coffee on her two hectare, Rowan’s Royale farm. The nearly 60-year-old farm is situated on a steep slope western Portland, a parish northeast of Jamaica overlooking the famous Blue Mountains, known for their coffee plantations.

Rowan-Campbell is a select grower of the famous Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, one of the most rare and expensive coffees, favoured for making delectable espresso.

“I was foolhardy I just wanted to get up in the mountains and try farming,” Rowan-Campbell tells IPS about her foray into growing coffee, an energy-boosting beverage loved the world over, which may well become scarce, thanks to climate change.

Freshly picked coffee beans. Credit: Will Boase/IPS

Shifting to organic farming a big risk but not for nature

Growing organic coffee was a major shift from conventional coffee farming but it was a big bet. Her father grew coffee the conventional way using polluting pesticides, herbicides and industrial fertilisers to manage pests and diseases while maintaining soil nutrition. She cultivates over half a hectare of the farm with more than 1,800 coffee trees.

“Organic came [about] because everyone said ‘You need a big 50-60 gallon drum to mix pesticides’ and I thought not me,” says Rowan-Campbell, a former Commonwealth Director of the Women and Development Programme at the Commonwealth Secretariat in London.

She beat the odds of having initially a poor knowledge about organic farming. Her husband and small staff were trained in organic farming techniques. And the organic farming experiment worked. In 2002, BCS OEKO-GARANTIE in Germany—which certifies some 35 percent of all organic products in the country— certified the farm organic.

Since 2004, it has been inspected and certified annually by the Certification of Environmental Standards (CERES), an organic certification agency that uses the presence of birds as one indication of environmental balance.

A 2006 study, by Humbolt University and the University of the West Indies, into birds as vectors of pest control found that although Rowan’s Royale was the smallest farm in the sample, it had the most birds, the greatest variety of birds and the least coffee berry borer (a beetle harmful to coffee crops).

“As an organic farmer, I have to harness nature and work with it because we do not use any chemicals on my farm. I have insects and birds and they eat more than 50 percent of any pests that would attack my coffee so the quality of the coffee is naturally protected,” she says, explaining that she mulches and prepares natural compost for the coffee trees and manages pests and diseases with natural chemicals.

“We have coffee rust disease right now, decimating the coffee industry in Central, South America and the Caribbean. Some people are using extremely strong chemicals to deal with it. I use a mixture of garlic and water. It works, and I share it with all the farmers.”

An estimated 4,000 farmers are growing Blue Mountain Coffee in Jamaica. This year Rowan-Campbell expects to harvest up to four tonnes of coffee beans and is marketing the coffee in America, Europe and Asia.

Dorianne Rowan-Campbell’s farm is a select producer of the famous Jamaica Blue Mountain coffee, one of the most rare and expensive of coffees, favoured for making delectable espresso. Courtesy: Dorienne Rowan-Campbell

Beating climate change

Once Rowan-Campbell packed a packaged, a box with various coffee roasts and sent it to Prince Charles, the future king of England via a courier. But he never got it.

“He had asked about organic coffee and was told there was none,” she remembers. “Organic farming is an adaptation strategy against climate change and I try to teach others.”

Coffee is vulnerable to temperature change as it only grows at specific temperatures around the tropics.

Scientific research is showing that climate change will reduce coffee growing areas around the world by up to 88 percent by 2050. It has become necessary for more than 25 million coffee farmers in more than 60 tropical countries to adapt to climate change using a blend of techniques such as shade improvement and crop rotation.

“Our results suggest that coffee-suitable areas will be reduced 73–88 percent by 2050 across warming scenarios, a decline 46–76 percent greater than estimated by global assessments,” says a study by the PNAS journal.

Coffee is the second most commonly traded commodity in the world, trailing only as a source of foreign exchange to developing countries, according to the International Coffee Organisation.

Bouyed by global demand for organic produce, Rowan-Campbell—an active member of the Jamaica Organic Agriculture movement—is also growing root vegetables and makes organic jams and marmalade.

“For me organic farming it is the most important thing in farming because it says you are building a sustainable future for your great [grand] children,” she said.

However, what has made organic farming work? “Probably love and passion,” she says.

“I think it is important that in Jamaica we have this wonderful flavour of coffee. It is a gift because coffee is grown at a certain elevation and the soil is good.

“When I started, I did not know I was taking such a major step in Jamaica. I have many women who come to me and say they want to grow organic.”

Since 2004, the farm purchased by her father in 1960 has weathered four hurricanes with Hurricane Dean in 2007 damaging close to 70 of the coffee trees. Despite this, Rowan-Campbell says organic methods have prevented landslides and soil erosion on the farm.

Rowan-Campbell is a certified inspector and trains other famers in organic farming and promoting certification. Last year she was part of an initiative to develop a Caribbean Community (CARICOM) standard for organic coffee production.

Organic coffee farmers in Jamaica have had to overcome the challenges of poor regulations for organic coffee, high license fees and local certification.

Rowan-Campbell says she has no plans of expanding the business. She wants to keep it small, efficient, profitable and delivering high quality export coffee.

“I am meticulous. I want only well ripened cherries and I reap a little at a time. No big pay-out at end of the day, but sustainable production and high quality coffee.”

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