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Migrants’ Billions Put Aid in the Shade

▻http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/financing-for-development-1-45/international-aid-1-126/52237-migrants-billions-put-aid-in-the-shade.html?itemid=id#47826

In 2012, 214 million migrant workers globally, sent $530billion in remittances home, according to the World Bank. These money transfers often exceed aid and foreign investments received by some countries and can contribute to nearly 50% of a country’s GDP. Typically, remittances are subjected to a transfer fee of approximately 9%, reducing the monetary support for workers’ families. Often, however, up to 20% of money migrants send is lost to high transfer fees charged by companies looking to profit from this group. Debates around whether this money is a potential alternative to foreign aid have led countries like Rwanda to create “solidarity funds” or other mechanisms for managing this type of overseas funds. Meanwhile, proposals to lower transfer fees could help liberate more money for recipient families. Rather than considering remittances as potential aid supplements, greater focus must be given to improving aid effectiveness and addressing existing issues like migrant worker rights.

By Claire Provost
Guardian
January 30, 2013

For decades it was a largely unnoticed feature of the global economy, a blip of a statistic that hinted at the tendency of expatriates to send a little pocket money back to families in their home countries.

But now, the flow of migrant money around the world has shot up to record levels as more people than ever cross borders to live and work abroad. It’s known as remittance money, and in 2012 it topped $530bn (£335bn), according to the latest World Bank figures.

The Non Zero-Sum Society: How the Rich Are Destroying the US Economy

▻http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/global-injustice-and-inequality/inequality-of-wealth-and-income-distribution/52228-the-non-zero-sum-society-how-the-rich-are-destroying-the-us-econ

Recent reports reveal an 8.2% wage increase for the wealthiest US citizens while the majority is increasingly employed in low-wage jobs. This highlights the widespread inequality in the US and the eroding purchasing power of the general population. The growth of low-wage jobs coincides with the decline in labor unions since the 1950s due to an increase in anti-union laws in the US. Neo-liberal globalization, technological changes and anti-union corporations like Wal-Mart have all contributed to the rise oflow-paying jobs, stagnating wages and a decline in purchasing power. According to Robert Reich, this trend will eventually hurt the wealthiest classes since as much as 70% of the US economy is based on consumer spending. Hence, he argues that this is a “Non Zero-Sum situation” where wealthy Americans would profit more from lessening their monopoly on the economy. While this is an optimistic outlook, it ignores the fact that wealth of the 1% has increasingly been decoupled from the “real economy” through financialization and foreign investments.

European Authorities Still Punishing Greece - Can They Stopped?

▻http://www.globalpolicy.org/nations-a-states/general-analysis-on-states-and-their-future/52234-european-authorities-still-punishing-greece-can-they-stopped.htm

Greece is enduring an exceptionally long recession superintended by foreign actors, through the troika of the European Central Bank, European Commission, and International Monetary Fund. Official sources and independent observers rarely provide optimistic predictions about the Greek economy. Although European powers have desperately tried to preserve the integrity of their monetary union, there is some reason to believe that removing itself from the eurozone could be Greece’s best option. While the country’s seemingly intractable economic problems can provide a semblance of legitimacy to international technocrats sent to solve them, it may be that their “solutions” have been part of the problem.

By Mark Weisbrot
Al Jazeera
February 2, 2013

Alexis Tsipras has a tough job. He is leader of the Syriza Party of Greece, a left party that has risen meteorically in the past three years: from 4.6 percent of the vote in 2009 to 27 percent last June. It is now the most popular party in the country and Tsipras could be the next Prime Minister.

Unlike most of the eurozone’s leaders, he knows what is wrong with Greece and the eurozone, and so does his party: austerity. “We have become the guinea pig for barbaric, violent neoliberal policies,” he said at a forum at Columbia University Law School last week, in which I participated.

#grèce #crise

UN Wants to Use #Drones for Peacekeeping Missions
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/181-congo/52169-un-wants-to-use-drones-for-peacekeeping-missions.html

The UN peacekeeping department has asked the Security Council to allow the deployment of drones in the DRC to monitor the movement of armed groups. The proposed use of drones is for surveillance purposes only, but the sensitive move has sparked controversy. Concerned states and observers believe that a Council decision on this issue could allow for the drones to be armed, and may authorize the use of force if necessary to protect civilians from potential violence. The US, Britain, France and other Western States argue in favor of their use, saying it is time for the UNDPKO to modernize its peacekeeping methods. Russia, China and many developing states disagree, listing drones as a tool of Western imperialism and private intelligence. In the case of Libya, the Council’s language of “all necessary means” resulted in a resolution broad enough to authorize a NATO air campaign.

#Haiti: More Pressure Needed to Get Clean Water
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/186-haiti/52149-haiti-more-pressure-needed-to-get-clean-water.html

Haiti is vulnerable to water-borne diseases like cholera because of its lack of clean water and sanitation.

More than two years and nearly 7,800 deaths after UN troops brought the dread disease of cholera to Haiti, a plan has finally been put forward to do something to get rid of it. While we are still a long way from implementation, there are important lessons to be learned from this experience.

Perhaps most importantly, it shows that organised political pressure can work. There have been protests from many thousands of Haitians, and the Institute for Justice and Democracy in Haiti went to the UN to file for damages and reparations. Many other groups and individuals kept the issue in the news and wouldn’t let it go away, as much as the UN and powerful governments wanted it to disappear.

Newspaper editorial boards such as those of the New York Times and the Boston Globe called on the UN to take responsibility for the disaster that it caused. As a result of grassroots organising, the majority of Democrats in the US House of Representatives signed a letter to the same effect.

Still, the UN has continued to deny its responsibility despite conclusive scientific and forensic evidence that its troops had brought the disease from South Asia, and transmitted it by dumping human waste into a tributary of Haiti’s main water supply. This was gross negligence of the highest order.

#eau #ONU #santé #choléra

North Korea Still Has Long Way to Go to Produce Viable Weapon, Say Experts

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/202-sanctions/52148-north-korea-still-has-long-way-to-go-to-produce-viable-weapon-sa

The Pyongyang leadership has completed a successful rocket launch, which placed a satellite into orbit. According to the North Korean government, the satellite serves for weather and crop monitoring. As the launch technology is very similar to that required for ballistic missiles, the UN Security Council has condemned the move as a violation of resolutions 1718 and 1874, which prohibit North Korea from launching ballistic missiles. Experts on the North Korean nuclear program assert that Pyongyang is yet to develop reasonable target accuracy and to acquire a nuclear weapon that is small enough to fit on a missile. Nevertheless, this recent development intensifies concerns over North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

By Tania Branigan
Guardian
December 12, 2012

Cameroon: Campaigners Oppose Industrial Palm Oil Plantation

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/land-ownership-and-hunger/52157-cameroon-campaigners-oppose-industrial-palm-oil-plantation.html?

Up to 45, 000 people are at risk of losing their livelihoods if a large palm oil plantation project in southwestern Cameroon will proceed. SG Sustainble Oils Cameroon (SGSOC), a subsidiary of Herakles Farms, is overseeing the project after signing an agreement with the Cameroonian government in 2009. SGSOC still lacks presidential approval so the project has been unlawful since 2010. Campaigners argue that the environmental and socioeconomic gains from preserving the rainforest outweigh the promised benefits of the plantation. In addition, the working conditions and salaries at SGSOC’s plantation are deplorable and an investigation by Greenpeace and the Oakland Institute noted human rights violations. Opinion among the local population is divided because of the job opportunities that SGSOC is promising to provide.

Farmlandgrab
December 14, 2012

GM Maize in Mexico: An Irreversible Path

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/world-hunger/agribusiness-companies/52161-gm-maize-in-mexico-an-irreversible-path.html?itemid=id#1421

The Mexican government is about to approve the large-scale release of genetically modified maize for commercial production. Agribusiness giants Monsanto, DuPont, Dow and others have requested the government to plant 2.4 million hectares of genetically engineered maize. This decision would have an irreversible impact on Mexican maize, and is a threat to food security in Mexico and globally. It will be impossible to maintain maize diversity when large corporations privatize and control the maize seed market. The Mexican Unión de Científicos Comprometidos con la Sociedad (UCCS), GRAIN and other international organizations have put together a report urging the Mexican government to change track and protect the diversity of maize.

GRAIN
November 23, 2012

Read or download the report here :
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/images/pdfs/GRAIN_Mexico.pdf

Greece: A Debt Colony, Shackled to Its Lenders

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/172-general/52160-greece-a-debt-colony-shackled-to-its-lenders-.html

Greece is set to comply with another austerity measure dictated by the eurozone members, this time lowering its debt in return for bailout funds. The Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras described this as a “landmark for the country’s rebirth" although similar measures have recently been imposed undemocratically by bypassing parliamentary control. In a country where about 30 percent of the population now lives below poverty, “austerity is shredding the social fabric.”According to Matthaios Tsimitakis, Greece has become a “debt colony” and these “calls for ‘national unity’ are nothing but dust in the eyes of a dazed and confused people.” This ultimately raises concern about the capacity of supra-national bodies like the European Union to genuinely address the national struggles of their members.

Matthaios Tsimitakis
Al Jazeera
December 19, 2012

Using Passports to Construct Enemies?

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/home/172-general/52142-using-passports-to-construct-enemies.html

In times of increasing mobility of individuals across borders, citizenship rights have become central to understand geopolitical disputes. This is particularly true in Eastern Europe, where passport have become weapons of foreign policy since the fall of the Soviet Union. Russian passports have certainly facilitated Abkhazian and South Ossetian separatism in Georgia and allowed Moscow to launch a military intervention in the country in 2008. Some argue that “Russia has ‘weaponized’ citizenship by combining its right to grant citizenship with its sovereign ‘right’ or ‘duty’ to protect its citizens at home and abroad.” Governments in Georgia, Latvia and Estonia have also used citizenship rights to prevent their ethnic Russian populations from gaining political power in their country. Ultimately, Xenia de Graaf concludes that “ as long as Russia and former Soviet Republics remain insecure about their national identity and need ‘significant others’ to define themselves, passport and citizenship troubles are likely to remain.”

By Xenia de Graaf
International Relations and Security Network
December 12, 2012

’Another World Is Possible’: Nationhood and Global Justice

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/home/172-general/52146-another-world-is-possible-nationhood-and-global-justice-.html

When the Cold War ended, many observers of international relations foresaw a new “globalized era” in which social movements and struggles for justice would be led at the supranational level, at the expense of the nation-state’s classic power channels. While recent geopolitical events have in part been shaped by new global social media, the so-called globalized power is still deeply centralized and nation-states remain the most democratic forums to effect change. In this article, Jamie Mackay argues that “the desire to declare the nation ‘dead’ is premature”: the so-called globalized system remains highly centralized and “continues to depend on key state institutions and their relationship with national communities.”

By Jamie Mackay
Open Democracy
December 11, 2012

Mali: West Africa’s Gate to Chaos, Intervention

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/268-humanitarian-intervention/52152-mali-west-africas-gate-to-chaos-intervention.html

France is currently pushing for a Security Council resolution that would call for a “stabilizing” military force to be rapidly sent to Northern Mali. In this article, Ramzy Baroud provides a systemic perspective by shedding light on the history of Tuareg refugees, the large consignments of weapons made available after NATO’s intervention in Libya, and France’s destabilizing influence in Mali since its colonization in 1898. He argues that “former colonial powers rarely abandon their ambitions [and] remain deeply entrenched by meddling in various ways that destabilize the former colonies.” Recently, the US also has shown increasing interest in the prospects created by the “ungovernability” of the Sahel by creating the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) in 2008 and promoting an all-inclusive Al-Qaeda narrative to justify interventions. Ultimately, Baroud believes that “the growing chaos will likely benefit interventionist states [and that the] new war on terror, will justify further intervention in West Africa and more meddling in the affairs of ECOWAS countries.”

Ramzy Baroud
Arab News
December 18, 2012

The Humanitarian Fallout of a Military Intervention in Mali

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/268-humanitarian-intervention/52150-the-humanitarian-fallout-of-a-military-intervention-in-mali-.htm

An international military intervention in Northern Mali “could further destabilize an already extremely fragile humanitarian situation” and “very well inflict more harm to the population.” Jérémie Labbé from IPI rightly argues that intense fighting would directly affect the civilian population, increase the number of refugees and internally displaced persons, and compromise the relatively stable situation of the last few months. Moreover, a military deployment would inevitably constrain an already difficult humanitarian access. Ultimately, “the risk is real that a military intervention will be perceived as promoting a Western agenda,” which might endangers the neutrality and safety of humanitarian actors operating in the region. In order not to repeat the mistakes of the relief operations in Somalia, Labbé stresses that a potential intervention should proactively and strictly comply with the UN human rights due diligence policy and that humanitarian actors should engage with non-traditional actors such as Islamic charities and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC).

Jérémie Labbé
International Peace Institute
December 14, 2012

Rice: French Plan for Mali Intervention is ’Crap’

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/268-humanitarian-intervention/52140-rice-french-plan-for-mali-intervention-is-crap.html

Following the unexpected ouster of Mali’s transitional Prime Minister, members of the Security Council are determined to launch a military intervention in North Mali. Yet, the shape of such military action remains unclear as France and the United States are divided on the right strategy to adopt. France, South Africa, India, and other Council members favors the adoption of a single Security Council resolution authorizing a foreign intervention force by the end of 2012. France promotes a “two track” approach - promoting a democratic political transition while training Malian security forces to conduct offensive military operations. Skeptical of the capacity of the 3,300 Western African troops to oust the rebels from North Mali, the US promotes a longer-term “multifaceted strategy” to intervene in Mali, including political, humanitarian, environmental, and military pieces, as well as a greater role for its counterterrorism regional allies, mainly Algeria.

By Colum Lynch
Foreign Policy
December 11, 2012

Treasury to Crack Down on UK’s Offshore Tax Havens
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/international-trade-and-development-1-57/transnational-corporations/52096-treasury-to-crack-down-on-uks-offshore-tax-havens.html?itemid=id

Jamie Doward
Observer
November 24, 2012

The UK government is planning to force tax havens to reveal the names of account holders, according to this Guardian report. Similar to the US Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, the new changes would push the UK’s crown dependencies such as Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man and the Cayman Islands to give up what was previously secret information. There is skepticism about the implementation of the plan, but if taken up, the UK’s tax transparency move could act as a stimulus for other governments restricting the billions in tax avoidance.

Niger Delta Villagers vs. Shell: Seeking Justice Abroad

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/social-and-economic-policy/the-environment/environmental-degradation/52106-niger-delta-villagers-vs-shell-seeking-justice-abroad.html?itemi

By Zainab Usman
Think Africa Press
November 16, 2012

Villagers of Niger Delta are seeking justice in the Netherlands after a futile effort to find justice for Shell’s actions in Nigeria. The Anglo-Dutch multinational oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague is accused of oil spills that have “devastated communities, destroyed livelihoods, and endangered the health of local populations and the ecosystem.”The verdict expected in 2013 will determine if pursuing action against Shell abroad was a viable legal strategy. A successful case could have a wide impact by enforcing accountability on multinational companies.

A Global Energy Shift

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/198-natural-resources/52101-a-global-energy-shift.html

By James Parker
The Diplomat
November 28, 2012

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has published the World Energy Outlook report in which a large shift in global energy production through 2030 is predicted. North America will undergo a “supply boom”, leading to lower global energy prices, following the extraction of shale gas and unconventional oil. However, these extraction processes, including oil from tar sands, raise environmental concerns. Simultaneously, in China, Japan and India the demand for natural resources will soar. This monumental shift in the world’s energy supply and demand could increase tensions in the Asia-Pacific and in the Middle East as the world’s largest economies are shifting their geopolitical focus according to their energy needs.

Are Private Military Companies Exempted From Geneva Conventions?

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/257-pmscs-risks-misconduct/52093-are-private-military-companies-exempted-from-geneva-conventions.

By Richard Rousseau
Diplomatic Courrier

November 23, 2012❞
❝This article sheds light on the legal consequences of the increasing presence of private military and security companies on battlefields and their direct participation in hostilities. There is no legal vacuum surrounding the increasing presence of PMSCs on battlefields: states are responsible for the conduct of PMSCs which therefore become subject to international humanitarian law. The major concern is in fact “the status, rights, and obligations of PMC employees” in the respective domestic legal frameworks of these countries: PMSCs “often enjoy immunity in the countries where they operate, and their prosecution in their home countries is still not as well-regulated as prosecution involving members of regular armed forces.”

Erdoğan Says All Countries Should Be Permanent Members of UNSC

►http://www.globalpolicy.org/home/226-initiatives/52069-erdoan-says-all-countries-should-be-permanent-members-of-unsc.ht

Most initiatives to reform the UN Security Council have focused on increasing the number of permanent members in order to better represent today’s geopolitical balance of power. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan now proposes to go beyond the division between “permanent” and “non-permanent” members by arguing that “if there should be permanent members, then all members of the UN should be permanent members, because the UN Charter says, big or small, all member countries are equal.” For this reason, he considers that “permanent” membership should rotate among countries on an annual basis.

Today’s Zaman

November 9, 2012

Uganda: The Fight for Women’s Land Rights
►http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/217-hunger/52091-uganda-the-fight-for-womens-land-rights.html

Ugandan women provide 70-80% of agricultural and food production labor but only own between 7-20% of the lands. There are no laws explicitly prohibiting women from owning land, but customary and inheritance laws make it difficult for Ugandan women to own land. Many Ugandan women’s organizations have been campaigning for the inclusion of a co-ownership clause into land law with no success. In addition to increasing agricultural productivity, owning land could play a critical role in women’s social standing, especially in a land like Uganda that suffers from high gender inequality. However, very little success has been seen so far, and population pressures, market inequalities, and land grabs by large international firms are likely to increase tensions around land tenure.

#femmes #droit_foncier #agriculture #Ouganda