organization:g7

La stratégie du « starve the beast » ou l’art de tuer la solidarité nationale – Le Comptoir
▻https://comptoir.org/2018/12/18/la-strategie-du-starve-the-beast-ou-lart-de-tuer-la-solidarite-nationale

https://comptoirdotorg.files.wordpress.com/2018/12/une_affamerlabete-01.png

Il s’agit dans un premier temps de baisser les recettes de l’État et des organismes sociaux afin d’assoiffer la bête publique qui voit ainsi ses déficits augmentés. Il en est ainsi en France depuis les années 1990 où, à force d’exonérations de cotisations sociales pour un faible effet économique, on baisse les recettes destinées aux retraites, à la santé ou au chômage. Pour les services publics, le mitage de l’assiette de l’impôt par le biais de niches fiscales à l’efficacité parfois douteuse réduit les marges de manœuvre budgétaires et imposent des choix drastiques comme la diminution des implantations locales des services du fisc ou des hôpitaux ou tout simplement la réduction du service fourni. À force de coupes budgétaires, la qualité du service devient de plus en plus déplorable. C’est ainsi le cas dans le système ferroviaire où très récemment lors d’une réunion du conseil régional de l’Occitanie, la région a affirmé ne pas être en mesure de rénover les petites lignes qui traversent la région car la puissance publique refuse de mettre la main à la patte. C’est ainsi que les retards augmentent et les accidents se multiplient fautes de dépenses d’entretiens suffisantes ou de suppressions de personnel qui entraîne un mécontentement généralisé des usagers. On note les mêmes problématiques au sein de l’hôpital, de la justice ou au sein des services locaux des impôts, les universités…

Accelerated remittances growth to low- and middle-income countries in 2018

Remittances to low- and middle-income countries grew rapidly and are projected to reach a new record in 2018, says the latest edition of the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, released today.

The Bank estimates that officially recorded remittances to developing countries will increase by 10.8 percent to reach $528 billion in 2018. This new record level follows robust growth of 7.8 percent in 2017. Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, are projected to grow by 10.3 percent to $689 billion.

Remittance flows rose in all regions, most notably in Europe and Central Asia (20 percent) and South Asia (13.5 percent), followed by Sub-Saharan Africa (9.8 percent), Latin America and the Caribbean (9.3 percent), the Middle East and North Africa (9.1 percent), and East Asia and the Pacific (6.6 percent). Growth was driven by a stronger economy and employment situation in the United States and a rebound in outward flows from Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries and the Russian Federation.

Among major remittance recipients, India retains its top spot, with remittances expected to total $80 billion this year, followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico and the Philippines ($34 billion each), and Egypt ($26 billion).

As global growth is projected to moderate, future remittances to low- and middle-income countries are expected to grow moderately by 4 percent to reach $549 billion in 2019. Global remittances are expected to grow 3.7 percent to $715 billion in 2019.

The Brief notes that the global average cost of sending $200 remains high at 6.9 percent in the third quarter of 2018. Reducing remittance costs to 3 percent by 2030 is a global target under #Sustainable_Development_Goals (SDG) 10.7. Increasing the volume of remittances is also a global goal under the proposals for raising financing for the SDGs.

▻https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2018/12/08/accelerated-remittances-growth-to-low-and-middle-income-countries-in-2018

#remittances #migrations #statistiques #chiffres #2018 #coût #SDGs

What’s Wrong With Rights ? Radha D’Souza in Conversation,
by Zahra Moloo, le 15 aout, Warspaces
▻http://www.warscapes.com/conversations/what-s-wrong-rights-radha-d-souza-conversation

There is no such thing as derivatives, it is a completely legal fiction. Or hedge funds. Or insurance which is property and it’s very much part of property rights. Or trade in debt. Property itself has become intangible – that’s one part of it.

Teacher-student relationships were considered a very privileged, responsible, socially important relationship. Now universities regularly say that students are our consumers, they have a right to education, and we are service providers.

As every aspect of life becomes commodified, you have rights coming in because without rights, there can’t be commodification.

When the UN was established, there were some thirty odd rights, twenty-eight I think. Now there are about 300 rights. Do people have more rights than in 1945? I mean, it’s open to question.

the farmer is not the only person claiming rights. The farmer is saying I have right to water, to food but so is Monsanto. It’s a fundamental feature of our legal and social system that a corporation is a person like a natural person. In law, both of them are entitled to human rights.

I think it’s this inability to see how corporate persons and natural persons work that gets us into all this kind of tangle.

There is nothing indigenous about an indigenous company other than the faces of people that run it.

What liberalism does is project a merchant’s world view and understanding of the world as the human world view, and as something that is universal to all humanity. Anything that has a transactional or exchange value becomes something with value. When we start extending that to everything – to land, to forest, to all sorts of things in life, then it becomes problematic.

What does democracy promotion mean? It means that there are certain international, so-called mature democracies, which are invariably, the G7 countries, the former colonizing countries who supervise elections, who fund elections, who tell them how to write the electrical rules and who then certify the elections that are right, democratic, and so on. Now my question is, where is the social contract here?

Cambridge Analytica emerged as one of those companies that provided election services to third world states. Much before they got involved in Trump election, they were involved in elections in Kenya and in India.

We are in the situation we are in because we have forgotten some of the histories of our struggles. That’s an important reason why we are not able to imagine a way of articulating our demands, a way of reconceptualising struggles and strategies. We have really forgotten that history and we are left with this idea that the only thing left is rights.

Why have we lost the courage? I think we are kind of trapped in this whole discourse of rights as the only way to imagine freedom, so much so that we are not able to imagine what real freedom will look like. And that’s the big difference between anti-colonial movements and our times now. [...] we are not able to re-imagine this because we have forgotten our histories.

G7 de Charlevoix : La fin d’un monde, par Guillaume Berlat
▻https://www.les-crises.fr/g7-de-charlevoix-la-fin-dun-monde-par-guillaume-berlat

G7 : quand les internautes détournent la photo de Trump et Merkel
▻https://www.emouaten.com/G7-quand-les-internautes-detournent-la-photo-de-Trump-et-Merkel_a122636.ht

"L’Occide...

#Le_Fil

A decade of G7 central bank collusion - and counting... - Thoughts - Nomi Prins
▻http://www.nomiprins.com/thoughts/2017/8/29/a-decade-of-g7-central-bank-collusion-and-counting.html

Since late 2007, the Federal Reserve has embarked on grand-scale collusion with other G-7 central banks to manufacture a massive amount of money. The scope and degree of this collusion are historically unprecedented and by admission of the perpetrators, unconventional in approach, and - depending on the speech - ineffective.

Central bank efforts to provide liquidity to the private banking system have been delivered amidst a plethora of grandiose phrases like “unlimited” and “by all means necessary.” Central bankers have played a game with no defined goalposts, no clock rundown, no max scores, and no true end in sight.

At the Fed’s instigation, central bankers built policy on the fly. Their science experiment morphed into something even Dr. Frankenstein couldn’t have imagined. Confidence in the Fed and the U.S. dollar (as well as in other major central banks globally) has dropped considerably, even as this exercise remains in motion, and even though central bankers have tactiltly admitted that their money creation scheme was largely a bust, though not in any one official statement.

Cracks in the Facade

Neoliberalism Booster #New_York_Times Egregiously Misrepresents French Labor Laws | naked capitalism
▻https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2017/08/neoliberalism-booster-new-york-times-egregiously-misrepresents-fren

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Code-du-Travail.png

The August 4th New York Times article Macron Takes On France’s Labor Code, 100 Years in the Making by Adam Nossiter is misleading and erroneous in its description of the Labor Code – – “a mind-numbing 3,324 pages long and growing” – from his first sentence .

Nossiter’s article is curious, infuriating and filled with hoary but totally false statements that support the neoliberal argument that France needs to dismantle its worker protections to make it more “competitive” and “flexible” – despite the fact that French workers are more productive than just about any other workforce in the Developed World ($108/hour worked versus G7 average $102).

#code_du_travail #France

Pour #Merkel, le temps de la confiance avec les #Etats-Unis est «quasiment révolu»
▻http://www.lefigaro.fr/international/2017/05/28/01003-20170528ARTFIG00147-relation-transatlantique-le-temps-de-la-confiance

http://i.f1g.fr/media/figaro/orig/2017/05/28/XVMf5ff682c-43cb-11e7-8097-86070d75c1d7.jpg

« L’époque où nous pouvions entièrement compter les uns sur les autres est quasiment révolue. C’est mon expérience de ces derniers jours », a dit Angela Merkel lors d’un meeting à Munich, dans le Sud de l’Allemagne. « Nous, Européens, devons prendre notre #destin en main », a-t-elle ajouté. « Nous devons nous battre pour notre propre destin », a poursuivi la chef du gouvernement allemand,

After summits with Trump, Merkel says #Europe must take fate into own hands | Article [AMP] | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-politics-merkel-idUSKBN18O0JK

(Reuters) - Europe can no longer completely rely on its allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Sunday, pointing to bruising meetings of G7 wealthy nations and NATO last week.

[...]

“I have experienced this in the last few days,” she said. "And that is why I can only say that we Europeans must really take our fate into our own hands - of course in friendship with the United States of America, in friendship with Great Britain and as good neighbors wherever that is possible also with other countries, even with Russia."

U.S. fails to reassure Europe, Japan over #Trumponomics | Reuters
▻http://uk.reuters.com/article/us-g7-usa-mnuchin-idUKKBN1890FP

The United States said on Saturday the world’s other rich economies were getting used to the policy plans of President Donald Trump, but Europe and Japan showed they remained worried about Washington’s shift.

Officials from the Group of Seven nations met in southern Italy hoping to hear more about Trump’s plans which they fear will revive protectionism and set back the global approach to issues such as banking reform and climate change.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the United States reserved the right to be protectionist if it thought trade was not free or fair.

“We do not want to be protectionist but we reserve our right to be protectionist to the extent that we believe trade is not free and fair... Our approach is for more balanced trade, and people have heard that,” Mnuchin told reporters at the end of the two-day meeting.

“And as I say, people are more comfortable today, now that they’ve had the opportunity to spend time with me and listen to the president and hear our economic message.”

Other ministers from the G7 countries made it clear they did not share his view.

… tu m’étonnes !
On n’est pas protectionnistes mais on se réserve le droit de l’être si l’échange n’est pas à notre avantage…

G7 clueless on cyber attack culprits but pledges work on security | Reuters
▻http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-g7-ministers-italy-cyber-idUKKBN1890EA

Group of Seven financial chiefs said they had no idea who was behind the international cyber attack that affected almost 100 countries on Friday but they pledged to redouble their efforts to make cyberspace more secure.

The economy minister and central bank governor of Italy, which holds the G7 presidency, both replied negatively when asked at the end of a G7 meeting in Bari whether the group had any suspicions on the culprits of the attack.

“Frankly no, we discussed it but we don’t know anything,” Bank of Italy chief Ignazio Visco said.

However, the G7 promised to step up their work to try to prevent repetitions of the assault which leveraged hacking tools believed to have been developed by the U.S. National Security Agency, infecting tens of thousands of computers.

Cuban Medical Internationalism: Fidel Castro’s humanitarian legacy

Even in death, Fidel Castro remains a divisive figure. Fearless revolutionary and defender of the poor to some, tyrannical dictator to others, the legacy of his five decades of rule for Cuba will doubtless be contested for many years to come. For the wider world, there is a less controversial aspect of Castro’s legacy that has been largely overlooked. As well as bringing free healthcare to his countrymen, he presided over a “Medical Internationalism” programme that exported medical aid to 158 countries and continues to provide more medical personnel to the developing world than all of the G7 countries combined.

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G7 agrees need strong message on South China Sea; China says don’t ’hype’ | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/us-g7-summit-idUSKCN0YH016

Group of Seven (G7) leaders agreed on Thursday on the need to send a strong message on maritime claims in the western Pacific, where an increasingly assertive China is locked in territorial disputes with Japan and several Southeast Asian nations.

The agreement prompted a sharp rejoinder from China, which is not in the G7 club but whose rise as a power has put it at the heart of some discussions at the advanced nations’ summit in Ise-Shima, central Japan.
[…]
U.S. President Barack Obama called on China on Wednesday to resolve maritime disputes peacefully and he reiterated that the United States was #simply concerned about freedom of navigation and overflight in the region.

G7
Brexit, Syria, refugees, South China Sea - G7 leaders seek solutions
The main focus at this year’s G7 summit in Japan will be the struggling world economy, but world leaders also face problems ranging from a refugee crisis to territorial tensions. This joint FT Nikkei special report examines the choices facing the world’s richest democracies.
▻http://www.ft.com/g7-japan

Taxis G7 vs Uber le comparatif prix et services
▻http://blog.eurecab.com/2015/04/taxis-g7-vs-uber-confrontation-de-deux-poids-lourds-du-taxi-et-du-vtc

We all go for food security, but who wins at the end? - by @odilon ▻http://visionscarto.net/food-security-who-benefits

#Food_security #Colonization #Corporations #Land_grabbing #G7 #Agriculture #Food #Revolts #Peasantry #Africa

The New alliance for food security and nutrition (NAFSN) is a partnership launched in 2012 by the G8 group (G7 since the exclusion of Russia) between private corporations from the agribusiness sector, 10 african countries (partners), international institutions, NGOs and peasants associations within partner countries. This initiative has been promoted as one of the means to eradicate hunger and malnutrition. However, more and more NGOs are criticizing the control of land resources by multinational corporations, which harms local communities more than it helps.

http://visionscarto.net/local/adapt-img/1300/10x/local/cache-vignettes/L3000xH2094/24802233894_3f48-82f9c.jpg?1456904411

Large-scale agricultural investments threaten right to food of small-scale farmers in Tanzania’s Southern Highlands
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/25267-large-scale-agricultural-investments-threaten-right-to-food-of-s

http://farmlandgrab.org//uploads/images/photos/9422/large_9_Olam_plantation_Lipokela2.JPG?1441023469

While the right to food asserts that all should have access to food by directly producing it for themselves and/or having sufficient means to purchase it, the research indicates that the four large-scale agricultural investments investigated have restricted people’s access to land and other productive resources, as well as living wages, with distressing effects on their right to food.

These trends are concerning given the rapid push by the Tanzanian government and the G7 to increase the scope and number of agricultural investments through public-private partnerships such as the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor (SAGCOT), which covers one-third of the country’s mainland or approximately 30 million hectares of land—one of many such corridors being replicated throughout the continent. The report argues that despite its focus on food security, SAGCOT’s framework lacks sufficient safeguards to ensure that the right to food is upheld.

Le rapport complet
▻http://www.misereor.de/fileadmin/redaktion/A_Right_to_Food_Perspective_EN_2015.pdf

#terres #agro-industrie #ppp #Tanzanie #alimentation

Sergueï V. Lavrov à propos du G7, des sanctions et des accords de Minsk.

▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x3niRkIUKiM

#G7 food initiative driving hunger in African countries, say global civil society groups
▻https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/270-general/52771-g7-food-initiative-driving-hunger-in-african-countries-say-globa

Launched by the G8 in 2012, the New Alliance provides aid money from the G8 countries and helps big business invest in different countries in the African agricultural sector. But in return, African countries are required to change their land, seed and trade rules in favour of big agribusiness companies. In the last year, controversies associated with the New Alliance have included:

In Ghana a proposed bill – dubbed the ‘Monsanto Law’ - would bolster the power of multinational seed companies whilst restricting the rights of small farmers to keep and swap seeds. This bill, which is being brought in as part of the Ghanaian government’s commitment to the New Alliance, will see the control of seeds being transferred away from small farmers and into the hands of large seed companies.
Farmers in Nigeria’s Taraba State are being forced off lands that they have farmed for generations to make way for US company Dominion Farms to establish a 30,000 ha rice plantation. The project is backed by the Nigerian government and the New Alliance.
In Tanzania about 1,300 people are at risk of losing their land or homes to make way for a sugarcane plantation, which is a New Alliance project. An area of land the size of Washington D.C. will be used by a plantation to produce sugar for biofuels.

#nasan

Protesters Press Secluded G7 Leaders on Harmful Policies, from Crippling Austerity to Dirty Coal
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/protesters-press-secluded-g7-leaders-on-harmful-policies-from-crippl

As leaders of the seven wealthy democracies known as the Group of Seven hold talks in a secluded castle in Germany, thousands of protesters have been met with 20,000 police in the largest security...

A New Climate for Peace

▻http://www.newclimateforpeace.org

Taking Action on Climate and Fragility Risks

This independent report, commissioned by the G7 members, identifies seven compound climate-fragility risks that pose serious threats to the stability of states and societies in the decades ahead. Based on a thorough assessment of existing policies on climate change adaptation, development cooperation and humanitarian aid, and peacebuilding, the report recommends that the G7 take concrete action, both as individual members and jointly, to tackle climate-fragility risks and increase resilience to them.

Climate change is a global threat to security in the 21st century. We must act quickly to limit the future risks to the planet we share and to the peace we seek.

Achieving a robust agreement to reduce emissions is of paramount importance. Yet the relentless momentum of change means that despite future emissions reductions, the physical impacts from anthropogenic climate change are already visible and will continue for decades to come.

#climat

Fissures dans l’unité du G7 sur de nouvelles sanctions contre la Russie
Par Bill Van Auken
7 juin 2014
▻http://www.wsws.org/fr/articles/2014/jui2014/fiss-j07.shtml

Alors qu’Obama n’a pas cherché à rencontrer Vladimir Poutine, la plupart des autres membres du G7 ont organisé des discussions bilatérales avec le président russe qui avait été invité par Hollande à commémorer le 70e anniversaire du débarquement de Normandie durant le 2e Guerre mondiale.

Hollande a défendu l’invitation disant que les Français savaient ce qu’ils devaient au peuple russe, le peuple soviétique de l’époque et que celui-ci fut héroïque dans sa défense face aux divisions nazies et face aux souffrances. Le président français organisa deux repas séparés jeudi soir : un dîner dans un restaurant parisien avec Obama et un souper avec Poutine à l’Elysée.

La chancelière allemande Merkel, qui a dit lors d’une conférence de presse « il ne s’agit pas de menaces… nous voulons le dialogue » et le premier ministre britannique Cameron ont également organisé des rencontres séparées avec Poutine. Le premier ministre japonais Shizo Abe a dit lors d’une conférence de presse à Bruxelles « j’espère continuer le dialogue avec le président Poutine. » semblant regretter que Poutine n’était pas présent au sommet.

Ben Rhodes, le vice conseiller à la Sécurité nationale de la Maison Blanche a exprimé l’hostilité de Washington à ces réunions bilatérales. « Nous avons toujours dit que nous ne voulions pas que divers pays aient des conversations par-dessus la tête du gouvernement de Kiev sur l’avenir de l’Ukraine. » a-t-il dit à des journalistes.

Pour sa part, Poutine, qui représente les intérêts d’une couche dirigeante d’oligarques milliardaires ayant une richesse substantielle investie à l’Ouest, a signalé qu’il était prêt à un compromis sur l’Ukraine. Il a ordonné aux forces russes de se retirer des frontières de l’Ukraine et a reconnu les élections du 25 mai. On a annoncé le 5 juin que l’ambassadeur russe serait présent à l’investiture de Poroshenko samedi 7 juin.

#G7 #Obama #Poutine #hollande #merkel #Poroshenko #Ukraine

ITAR-TASS: World - Russia to receive Mistral warships on time if no sanctions imposed - Hollande
▻http://en.itar-tass.com/world/734822

“France will fulfill its contract obligations and sees no obstacles for delivering the warships on time,” Hollande said following the first day of the Group of Seven most industrialized countries (G7) summit in Brussels. “The situation will be certainly different…, if European sanctions are imposed [against Russia].”
(…)
“If there are no further sanctions imposed before the end of October, the warships will be handed over to Russia. This is quite simple. Moreover, we must not forget that the breach of the contract envisages a multi-billion compensation,” Hollande said.