GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES | KOMMUNIKATION GLOBAL - 01 | 2009
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES | KOMMUNIKATION GLOBAL - 01 | 2009
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES | KOMMUNIKATION GLOBAL - 01 | 2009
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<strong>01</strong>-<strong>2009</strong> | www.global-perspectives.info | www.komglobal.info<br />
The Best and the Worst of 2008<br />
UNDP richtet Sozialbörse ein<br />
No Law Says People Have to Suffer<br />
Thailand's Political Theatre<br />
EXPECTATIONS GALORE<br />
FINANCING DEVELOPMENT<br />
ENTWICKLUNG FINANZIEREN<br />
WAS BRINGT UNS <strong>2009</strong>?
www.ipsnews.de | www.ipseuropa.org
EDITORIAL:<br />
Yeesterday<br />
– annd<br />
Today<br />
DDIE<br />
WELT ANDDERS<br />
SEHEN<br />
UNDP<br />
richtet SSozialbörse<br />
eein<br />
AArgentinien<br />
zieeht<br />
über 1000.000<br />
Waffenn<br />
ein<br />
BBiokaffee<br />
aus der Dominikkanischen<br />
Republik<br />
AAfrikas<br />
arme SStaaten<br />
besoonders<br />
kinderrfreundlich<br />
GGroßmütter<br />
käämpfen<br />
gegeen<br />
Aids in Swaasiland<br />
MMarokkaner<br />
ggründet<br />
Mensschenrechts-NNetzwerk<br />
OOPINION<br />
| ANSICHT<br />
NNo<br />
Law Says TThat<br />
People HHave<br />
to Suffeer<br />
BBy<br />
Daisaku Ikeeda<br />
The<br />
Best and tthe<br />
Worst of 2008<br />
BBy<br />
Jeffrey Lauurenti<br />
WWINDOW<br />
ON EEUROPE<br />
'WWe<br />
Were Veryy<br />
Good Studeents<br />
of<br />
NNeo-Liberal<br />
Ideology'<br />
ZZoltan<br />
Dujisin interviews DDr.<br />
Andras Inootai<br />
Juust<br />
When Hoppe<br />
Was at Haand<br />
BBy<br />
Vesna Pericc<br />
Zimonjic<br />
MMega<br />
Solar Poower<br />
Plant Beegins<br />
to<br />
OOperate<br />
in Porrtugal<br />
BBy<br />
Mario de QQueiroz<br />
CCOVER<br />
STORYY<br />
| TITELTHEMMA<br />
PPoverty<br />
May BBe<br />
Halved, Aftter<br />
All<br />
BBy<br />
Global Persspectives<br />
Monitoring<br />
Unit<br />
AAfghan<br />
Expecttations<br />
Beliedd<br />
BBy<br />
Ramesh Jaaura<br />
NNo<br />
Clear End iin<br />
Thailand's Political Theaatre<br />
BBy<br />
Johanna Soon<br />
Uganda<br />
on thee<br />
Global Markket<br />
Track<br />
too<br />
Prosperity<br />
BBy<br />
Joshua Kyaalimpa<br />
ÄÄthiopien<br />
suchht<br />
ausländiscche<br />
Käufer<br />
füür<br />
Agrarland<br />
VVon<br />
Michael CChebsi<br />
CCOUNTDOWN<br />
TO COPENHAAGEN<br />
PPoznan<br />
Produces<br />
a 'Vision Gap'<br />
BBy<br />
Ramesh Jaaura<br />
FaairClimate<br />
Ammbassadors'<br />
Poznan Diarry<br />
BBy<br />
Anne Mariee<br />
Kortleve and<br />
Suzanne MMaas<br />
AArktis<br />
in fünf JJahren<br />
in denn<br />
Sommermmonaten<br />
eisfrrei<br />
VVon<br />
Stephen LLeahy<br />
CClimate<br />
Changge<br />
Threatenss<br />
Livelihoods<br />
BBy<br />
Pilirani Semmu-Banda<br />
KKINOTIPP<br />
Film<br />
erzählt Liiberias<br />
Erfolggsstory<br />
VVon<br />
Marie-Hellene<br />
Rousseaau<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong><br />
PERSPPECTIVES<br />
| JANNUARY<br />
2008<br />
4<br />
5<br />
5<br />
6<br />
6<br />
7<br />
7<br />
8<br />
10<br />
12<br />
14<br />
15<br />
16<br />
18<br />
20<br />
22<br />
23<br />
24<br />
26<br />
28<br />
29<br />
30<br />
No Law L Says Thhat<br />
People Have To Suffer<br />
"Human<br />
rights are the essence of the<br />
reason<br />
and spiritual<br />
values that<br />
char-<br />
acterise<br />
humanity,<br />
the manifeestation<br />
of th he most noble<br />
qualities of the<br />
huma an being." Theese<br />
are the prrofound<br />
words s of Austreggesilo<br />
de Atthayde,<br />
presid dent of the Brazilian<br />
Acadeemy<br />
of<br />
Letters,<br />
one of thhe<br />
active parrticipants<br />
in the process of<br />
drafti ing of the UUniversal<br />
Decclaration<br />
of Human Righhts<br />
(UDHR R), writes JJapanese<br />
Budddhist<br />
philos sopher Daisakku<br />
Ikeda.<br />
Page 8<br />
"We Were Verry<br />
Good Sttudents<br />
of<br />
Neo- -Liberal Ideeology"<br />
A reg gion that has enthusiastically<br />
embraced<br />
free market m econoomics<br />
since thhe<br />
collapse of<br />
state socialism is ffacing<br />
new socio-economic<br />
and political p challlenges.<br />
Dr. AAndras<br />
Inotai,<br />
direct tor-general off<br />
the Institutee<br />
for World Ec conomics of thhe<br />
Hunga arian Academmy<br />
of Sciences,<br />
says count tries of Centrral<br />
and Eastern E Europe<br />
that have nnot<br />
oriented themselves ex<br />
clusiv vely to the Weest<br />
may have a better chan nce to adapt tto<br />
a new w economic reeality.<br />
Page 112<br />
No Clear C End inn<br />
Thailand''s<br />
Political Theatre T<br />
One December D eveening,<br />
crowdss<br />
broke out<br />
in lau ughter as theey<br />
watched ppantomime<br />
actors s mimic oh-so-familiar<br />
politicians<br />
who were foes one<br />
minute and<br />
instant<br />
friend ds the next --<br />
after an exxchange<br />
of<br />
mone ey -- and thenn<br />
posed for thhe<br />
cameras<br />
with wide, fake smiles. But what the<br />
actors s parodied at<br />
the Bangkook<br />
Theatre<br />
Festiv val, held justt<br />
after a neww<br />
government emerged froom<br />
the ru ubble of the laatest<br />
round off<br />
political inst tability in Thaai<br />
land, was what many<br />
believe hhappened<br />
in real life. Afteer<br />
all, th hey have beenn<br />
watching poolitical<br />
theatre e unfold on thhe<br />
nation nal stage throough<br />
2008.<br />
Page 220<br />
FairC Climate Ammbassadors'<br />
Poznan Diary<br />
Karina<br />
Böckmann B<br />
DDeutsche<br />
Reedaktion<br />
CONTEN NTS | INHALLT<br />
Page 226<br />
Heikee<br />
Grit<br />
Nasdaala<br />
Mos skau-Porsch<br />
Titelbild: : © Manooche er Deghati|IRIN<br />
Bildredakktion:<br />
Barbaraa<br />
Schnöde [M Mail Boxes Etcc.]<br />
3
EEDITORIAL<br />
YYesterdday<br />
– annd<br />
Todday<br />
The staatement<br />
refleccts<br />
the utter bluntness cha aracteristic of Tandon who took charge of o the Centre in<br />
2005. HHis<br />
long careeer<br />
in national and internat tional developpment<br />
spans aas<br />
a policyma aker, a politiccal<br />
activistt,<br />
a professor and a public intellectual. He was deeplly<br />
involved in the struggle against a the diic<br />
tatorshiip<br />
of Idi Aminn<br />
and spent soome<br />
time in exile. e Tandonn<br />
is a nationall<br />
of Uganda and a received hhis<br />
degreess<br />
in economiccs<br />
and internaational<br />
relatio ons from the LLondon<br />
School<br />
of Economic cs. He taught at<br />
seeveral<br />
universsities<br />
worldwiide<br />
including the Makereree<br />
University (U Uganda), the Dar-es-Salaamm<br />
University (Tanzania), the<br />
Loondon<br />
School of Economics and Columbiaa<br />
University.<br />
Prior<br />
to joiningg<br />
the South Ceentre,<br />
he servved<br />
as the Foounding<br />
Direct tor of the Souuthern<br />
and Eastern<br />
African Trade Informma<br />
tion<br />
and Negottiations<br />
Instituute<br />
(SEATINI). . He has writtten<br />
over one hundred h schollarly<br />
articles aand<br />
has autho ored and editeed<br />
boooks<br />
on wide ranging subjeects<br />
including on African poolitics,<br />
Peace and Security, Trade and WTTO,<br />
Internatio onal Economiccs,<br />
Soouth<br />
– South CCooperation<br />
and<br />
Human Rigghts.<br />
He has aalso<br />
served on several advisory<br />
committeees.<br />
The<br />
South Centre<br />
has grownn<br />
out of the wwork<br />
and experience<br />
of the<br />
South Commmission<br />
and itts<br />
follow-up mechanism, m and<br />
frrom<br />
recognition<br />
of the neeed<br />
for enhanced<br />
South-South<br />
cooperati ion. The Report<br />
of the Soouth<br />
Commission,<br />
chaired by<br />
foormer<br />
Tanzanian<br />
presidentt,<br />
late Mwalimmu<br />
Julius Nyerrere,<br />
emphasised<br />
that the South is not well organize ed at the globbal<br />
leevel<br />
and has tthus<br />
not been effective in mmobilising<br />
its considerable combined expertise<br />
and exxperience,<br />
no or its bargaining<br />
poower.<br />
Seet<br />
up in 1987 at the Non Alligned<br />
Summitt<br />
Meeting in HHarare<br />
in Sept tember 1986, the Commission<br />
consisted of o distinguisheed<br />
inndividuals<br />
fromm<br />
the South wwho<br />
had differrent<br />
backgrouunds<br />
and political<br />
persuasioons.<br />
It functioned<br />
as an inde ependent boddy,<br />
wwith<br />
its membeers<br />
serving in their personaal<br />
capacities. Its term was set s for three yyears<br />
and its wwork<br />
was fina anced by contri<br />
butions<br />
from the<br />
developingg<br />
countries. TThe<br />
Commissioon's<br />
Secretariat<br />
was establlished<br />
in Geneeva<br />
with the assistance froom<br />
thhe<br />
Governmennt<br />
of Switzerlaand.<br />
Inn<br />
the Report TThe<br />
Challengee<br />
to the Soutth,<br />
issued in AAugust<br />
1990 the t Commissioon<br />
assessed thhe<br />
South's ach hievements and<br />
faailings<br />
in the development field and suggested<br />
directions<br />
for action.<br />
Although the<br />
Commissioon<br />
carried out t its work in the<br />
final<br />
years of a decade thatt<br />
devastated mmany<br />
economies<br />
in the Sou uth, the Repoort<br />
strikes a noote<br />
of hope and a makes a cco<br />
geent<br />
case for sself-reliant,<br />
ppeople-centred<br />
developmennt<br />
strategies. The Commisssion<br />
also showws<br />
how developing<br />
countriies<br />
coould<br />
gain streength<br />
- and bbargaining<br />
powwer<br />
- throughh<br />
mutual co-o operation. Deescribing<br />
how the world ar rrangements ffor<br />
trrade,<br />
finance, , and technoloogy<br />
handicap the South, it urges the cou untries of the South to act in solidarity in<br />
the multitudde<br />
off<br />
North-South negotiations. . It also arguees<br />
that growinng<br />
global inter rdependence makes it beneeficial<br />
to all peoples p that the<br />
deeveloping<br />
couuntries<br />
have a fairer chancee<br />
to escape pooverty<br />
and att tain sustainabble<br />
developmeent.<br />
WWhen<br />
Tandon ttook<br />
over the Secretariat three<br />
years aggo,<br />
the Centre e had only onee<br />
programme, the Trade an nd Developmeent<br />
Programme<br />
(TDDP).<br />
It provideed<br />
negotiatingg<br />
briefs and caapacity<br />
building<br />
to trade neegotiators<br />
froom<br />
the countries<br />
of the Souuth<br />
foor<br />
the World Trade Organisation<br />
(WTO) negotiations. . It also acted d as an incubbator<br />
for workk<br />
in the areas s of intellectuual<br />
property<br />
and global<br />
governaance.<br />
In the laast<br />
three yearss,<br />
the TDP has s itself expandded<br />
to face neew<br />
challenges s.<br />
At<br />
the same time,<br />
the workk<br />
on intellectuual<br />
property aand<br />
the global<br />
governance components hhave<br />
matured d into new units<br />
off<br />
their own – respectively, the Innovatioon<br />
and Access to Knowledge e Programme (IAKP), and thhe<br />
Global Gov vernance Deveel-<br />
oppment<br />
Programme<br />
(GGDP). . The GGDP, in<br />
turn, is noww<br />
incubating a potentially nnew<br />
unit on cliimate<br />
change.<br />
Ramesh<br />
Jaura<br />
Chief<br />
Editor<br />
4<br />
"We livee<br />
in a world oof<br />
paradoxes: for 200 years s, countries thhat<br />
are now inndustrialised<br />
had h easy acceess<br />
to knowwledge.<br />
Thesee<br />
same countrries<br />
are now placing p barrieers<br />
on the floww<br />
of knowledge!<br />
The pirattes<br />
of yesteerday<br />
are poinnting<br />
fingers at pirates of today," says DDr.<br />
Yash Tandon,<br />
executive e director of the<br />
Genevaa-based<br />
South Centre, an intergovernme<br />
ental policy think<br />
tank of tthe<br />
developin ng countries ees<br />
tablisheed<br />
in July 1995.<br />
We focus onn<br />
global affairss<br />
that include issues<br />
related to t developmennt<br />
cooperationn<br />
– but go farth her.<br />
We offer<br />
the perspeectives<br />
of the GGlobal<br />
South – the South in both b the developed<br />
and deveeloping<br />
countri ies.<br />
We give voicce<br />
to the voiceeless.<br />
We are<br />
open to all aarguments<br />
andd<br />
examine theese<br />
carefully.<br />
We offer in-ddepth<br />
perspecctives<br />
based onn<br />
facts.<br />
Support us in our mi ission: contaact@global-pperspectives<br />
s.info<br />
Subsccribe.<br />
Advertise.<br />
Donat te.<br />
KOMMUNIKAATION<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR 20009
New York – Die AAbteilung<br />
für Süd-Süd-<br />
Koopperation<br />
(SU/SSC)<br />
beim Entwicklungssprogramm<br />
der<br />
Vereinten Nationen<br />
(UNDDP)<br />
hat die errste<br />
globale Soozialbörse<br />
eingeerichtet.<br />
Das neue Portal [www.ss-<br />
hdsxx.org]<br />
bietet Investoren<br />
diee<br />
Möglichkeit<br />
zu einer soziaal<br />
sinnvollen Geldanla-<br />
ge. Anteile an dden<br />
bislang zzwei<br />
dort<br />
präseentierten<br />
Proojekten<br />
sind für je 25<br />
US-DDollar<br />
zu haben.<br />
"WWir<br />
haben es mit einem wwirklichen<br />
Markkplatz<br />
für Inveestitionen<br />
vonn<br />
sozialem<br />
Wertt<br />
zu tun", saagt<br />
Francisco Simplicio<br />
vom UN/SSC zu dder<br />
im Vorfeldd<br />
des UN-<br />
Tagss<br />
für Süd-Südd-Zusammenaarbeit<br />
am<br />
19. DDezember<br />
erööffneten<br />
Börsee.<br />
Diee<br />
beiden zurzzeit<br />
eingestelllten<br />
Pro-<br />
jektee<br />
bringen Sri Lanka und Inndien<br />
und<br />
Kenia<br />
und Brasilieen<br />
zusammen. Im einen<br />
Fall sollen 50 srilaankische<br />
Frauuen<br />
in der<br />
Weitterverarbeitunng<br />
von Garneelen<br />
aus-<br />
gebilldet<br />
werden, damit sie sicch<br />
selbst-<br />
ständdig<br />
machen köönnen.<br />
Im andderen<br />
Fall<br />
solleen<br />
Kenianer in<br />
Brasilien kuunsthand<br />
werkkliche<br />
Expertise<br />
erwerbenn<br />
und ihr<br />
Buennos<br />
Aires – Daas<br />
argentinische<br />
Innenminissterium<br />
hat inn<br />
den letzten n 17<br />
Monaaten<br />
102.000 Waffen und 721.000 Stücck<br />
Munition aaus<br />
dem Verk kehr<br />
gezoogen<br />
und zersstört.<br />
In diesser<br />
Zeit wurdde<br />
die freiwilllige<br />
Abgabe von<br />
Wafffen<br />
und Munittion<br />
mit zwiscchen<br />
34 und 150<br />
US-Dollar belohnt und ille- i<br />
galenn<br />
Waffenbesittzern<br />
Straffreeiheit<br />
garantiert.<br />
Das Proggramm<br />
endet am<br />
11. DDezember.<br />
Daanach<br />
wird derr<br />
illegale Wafffenbesitz<br />
wieder<br />
geahndet.<br />
Diee<br />
Idee zu der<br />
Initiative kaam<br />
vom argeentinischen<br />
Enntwaffnungsne<br />
etz-<br />
werkk<br />
RAD und wurde<br />
vom Innenministerium<br />
landesweit umgesetzt.<br />
"Un nser<br />
Plan funktioniertee<br />
gut, obwohl er wenig bewworben<br />
wurdee.<br />
Wir hoffen auf<br />
eine Wiederaufnahme",<br />
sagt Caarola<br />
Cóncaroo<br />
vom Institut für vergleich hende<br />
RRechts-<br />
und Soozialwissenschhaften<br />
INECIP, , einem Mitglied<br />
von RAD. Die<br />
Erwaartungen<br />
seien<br />
bei weitemm<br />
übertroffen worden, so Cóncaro weit ter.<br />
Man habe mit 35.0000<br />
bis 45.0000<br />
eingehendenn<br />
Waffen gereechnet.<br />
RAAD<br />
formierte ssich<br />
im Jahree<br />
2004. Anlasss<br />
war der Ammoklauf<br />
eines 15-<br />
Jährigen<br />
in Carmeen<br />
de Patagonnes<br />
im Osten der Hauptstaddtprovinz<br />
Bue enos<br />
Airess.<br />
Der Jugenddliche<br />
erschosss<br />
in seiner Scchule<br />
drei Mittschüler<br />
und ver- v<br />
letztte<br />
fünf weiteere.<br />
Das Netzzwerk<br />
hat sicch<br />
seither deem<br />
Kampf ge egen<br />
Wafffengewalt<br />
verrschrieben.<br />
Naach<br />
offiziellenn<br />
Angaben sind<br />
in Argentinien<br />
rund 1,2 Millionen Waf ffen<br />
legall<br />
in Privatbessitz,<br />
mindestens<br />
ebenso vviele<br />
illegal iim<br />
Umlauf. Eine E<br />
Umfrrage<br />
des Meinnungsforschunggsinstituts<br />
'Moora<br />
y Araujo' bbelegt,<br />
dass etwa<br />
2,2 MMillionen<br />
der 338<br />
Millionen AArgentinier<br />
beewaffnet<br />
sind.<br />
Zeehn<br />
Menschen sterben in AArgentinien<br />
tääglich<br />
an Schhussverletzung<br />
gen,<br />
drei von ihnen beei<br />
Raubüberfäällen,<br />
die übrrigen<br />
bei Streitigkeiten,<br />
du urch<br />
Selbbstmord<br />
oder<br />
einen Unfaall.<br />
"Die hohhe<br />
Nachfragge<br />
nach Waf ffen<br />
erklärt<br />
sich aus der Angst dder<br />
Menscheen,<br />
einem Verbrechen<br />
zum z<br />
Opfeer<br />
zu fallen", , sagt Cóncaroo.<br />
Daabei<br />
ist bekannt,<br />
dass mit dder<br />
Zahl der imm<br />
Umlauf befindlichen<br />
Waf ffen<br />
auchh<br />
die Gewalt ssteigt.<br />
So belegt<br />
eine Unteersuchung<br />
derr<br />
Regierung, dass d<br />
Schuusswaffenverleetzungen<br />
die zzweithäufigste<br />
Todesursachhe<br />
in Argentin nien<br />
sind und dass sichh<br />
28 Prozent dieser Todesfälle<br />
in der FFamilie<br />
ereign nen.<br />
Um zzwölf<br />
Prozentt<br />
steigt das RRisiko,<br />
der häuuslichen<br />
Gewaalt<br />
zum Opfer r zu<br />
falleen,<br />
wenn sich im Haushalt eeine<br />
Waffe befindet.<br />
Nooch<br />
erfolgreicher<br />
als in Arggentinien<br />
warr<br />
eine Entwafffnungskampa<br />
agne<br />
in Brasilien<br />
im Jahre<br />
2004. BBei<br />
dieser Sammelaktion<br />
kkonnten<br />
440. 000<br />
Schuusswaffen<br />
einggezogen<br />
werdeen.<br />
�<br />
GLOBBAL<br />
PERSPECTTIVES<br />
| JANUAARY<br />
<strong>2009</strong><br />
UNDPP<br />
richtet<br />
Sozi ialbörse<br />
ein<br />
Wissen späteer<br />
an mindest tens 100 Men-<br />
schen weiterggeben.<br />
32.000 resppektive<br />
45.00 00 Dollar werr<br />
den für die beiden Vorha aben benötigtt.<br />
Wer investieert,<br />
wird reg gelmäßig über<br />
die Verwenduung<br />
seiner Mi ittel und über<br />
den sozialen Nutzen seine er Geldanlagee<br />
unterrichtet.<br />
Sozialbörseen<br />
sind keine e neue Erfin-<br />
dung. Es gibtt<br />
sie auch in n Entwicklung-<br />
sländern wie in Brasilien, China, Indienn<br />
und Südafrikka.<br />
In Brasilie en war Celsoo<br />
Greco am Aufbau<br />
der erst ten nationalenn<br />
Sozialbörse dder<br />
Welt im m Jahre 20033<br />
beteiligt.<br />
"Wir habenn<br />
uns die guten<br />
Seiten des<br />
Kapitalismus zunutze gem macht – etwaa<br />
die Transpareenz<br />
– und uns s die schlech-<br />
ten – die Gierr<br />
nach schnell lem Geld –vomm<br />
Leib gehalteen",<br />
beschreibt<br />
er seinenn<br />
Ansatz. Die Erfahrungen n seien sehr<br />
zufriedenstellend.<br />
Nach Angaben vonn<br />
Greco wurdeen<br />
in Brasilien<br />
81 der 1044<br />
gelisteten Prrojekt<br />
mit insgesamt<br />
7,55<br />
Millionen Doollar<br />
vollständ dig über diee<br />
Argenntinien<br />
zieht über 100.0000<br />
Waffeen<br />
ein<br />
DDIE<br />
WELT AN NDERS SEHHEN<br />
Börse finanziert.<br />
Noch hhat<br />
die neue globale g Sozialbörse<br />
mit dem UNDP erst einen e bedeuteenden<br />
Partner, aber offenba ar denkt die WWelt<br />
bank über<br />
eine Bete eiligung zumindest<br />
nach. Zuur<br />
Börseneröff fnung schickte<br />
die<br />
internationale<br />
Finanz zinstitution ihren<br />
Mitarbeitter<br />
Yuvan A. . Beejadhur. "Die<br />
Kernfragee<br />
für uns ist t, welche Auuswir<br />
kungen ssolche<br />
Börseninitiativen<br />
auuf<br />
die<br />
Operationen<br />
der Welt tbank haben", , sagt<br />
er. Simpplicio<br />
verspric cht sich viell<br />
von<br />
einer mööglichen<br />
Bete eiligung der BBank.<br />
Deren Arrbeit<br />
– von oben o nach unten<br />
–<br />
wäre einne<br />
gute Ergän nzung zum Böörsen-<br />
konzept, das genau umgekehrt – von<br />
unten naach<br />
oben – funktioniert.<br />
SU/SSCC-Chef<br />
Yiping g Zhou hältt<br />
die<br />
neue Börrse<br />
SS-HDSX fü ür einen Grunnd<br />
zur<br />
Hoffnungg.<br />
Der Markpl latz habe das<br />
Po-<br />
tenzial zu einer wichtigen<br />
Entwick<br />
lungsplatttform<br />
für de en Süden zu wer<br />
den. Jettzt<br />
komme es e auf die aaktive<br />
Teilnahmme<br />
der öffentlichen<br />
und privvaten<br />
Hand undd<br />
der Zivilgese ellschaft an. ��<br />
puntocerohaciaelfuturo.blogspot.com<br />
5
DIE WELT ANDERS SEHEN<br />
Biokaffee aus der Dominikanischen Republik<br />
Los Cacaos – Dörfer in zehn Provinzen<br />
im Süden der Dominikanischen Republik<br />
haben sich zu einer Initiative zusammengeschlossen,<br />
die offenbar<br />
erfolgreich Biokaffee für den Weltmarkt<br />
produziert. Während Herstellung und Vertrieb weitgehend<br />
in den Händen von Frauen liegt, machen ihre Kinder<br />
Lehrgänge zur Steigerung der Produktivität.<br />
In dem Karibikstaat, der sich mit Haiti die Insel Hispaniola<br />
teilt, dreht sich das Leben von einem Zehntel der Bevölkerung<br />
um Kaffee. Für 700.000 Menschen ist das Geschäft mit<br />
den Bohnen die einzige Einnahmequelle. Den meisten Farmern<br />
hat der Anbau jedoch keinen Wohlstand gebracht, und<br />
viele sind auf alternative Agrarerzeugnisse umgestiegen<br />
oder haben ihre Parzellen verlassen.<br />
Nur in den Dörfern der zehn Provinzen im Süden des Landes<br />
erging es den Kaffeebauern besser. Hier profitieren die<br />
Menschen von dem Umstieg auf den organischen Anbau. Die<br />
Ernten werden vor allem auf dem kanadischen, französischen,<br />
spanischen und US-amerikanischen Markt abgesetzt.<br />
Nach Angaben des Nationalen Instituts für Agrar- und<br />
Waldwirtschaftsforschung produzieren Kleinbauern auf ihren<br />
nur ein bis 50 Hektar großen Parzellen 78 Prozent des dominikanischen<br />
Kaffees. Exportiert wurden im vergangenen Jahr<br />
rund 1.070 Tonnen. An der New Yorker Börse erzielen 100<br />
Kilo Kaffee rund 35 US-Dollar.<br />
Die dominikanischen Kaffeeplantagen liegen in den Bergregionen<br />
– dort, wo die soziale Not am größten ist. Dem UN-<br />
Entwicklungsprogramm (UNDP) zufolge leben 74 Prozent der<br />
Gebirgsbewohner in Armut. Das tägliche Pro-Kopf-<br />
Einkommen der kleinen Kaffeebauern liegt bei gerade einmal<br />
80 US-Cent.<br />
In den vergangenen Jahren haben der Niedergang der<br />
internationalen Kaffeepreise und Pflanzenkrankheiten viele<br />
Farmer gezwungen, auf den Anbau anderer Kulturpflanzen<br />
umzusteigen. Etwa 25.000 Familien verließen ihr Land, um<br />
sich anderswo ein Auskommen zu suchen.<br />
Die Vereinigung der Kaffeebauern der südlichen Regionen<br />
(FEDECARES) ist bemüht, ihren Mitgliedern ein solches<br />
Schicksal zu ersparen. Sie vertritt 7.500 Kaffeepflanzer, die<br />
zehn bis zwölf Prozent der dominikanischen Kaffeebohnen<br />
produzieren. "Wir sind Teil der Fair-Trade-Bewegung. 90<br />
Prozent unserer Erzeugnisse werden nach ökologischen Ge-<br />
sichtspunkten hergestellt. Das heißt,<br />
wir verzichten auf künstlichen Dünger<br />
oder Pestizide", so der FEDECARES-<br />
Vorsitzende Refino Herrera.<br />
Die Verbandsmitglieder produzierten<br />
im vergangenen Jahr zwischen 2.000 und 2.500 Tonnen<br />
Kaffee. Die Monatseinkommen bewegen sich um die 185<br />
Dollar, das ist mehr als das Doppelte, was herkömmliche<br />
Kaffeebauern verdienen.<br />
Um die Lebensbedingungen der Familien zu verbessern,<br />
versucht FEDECARES den Nachwuchs der armen Kaffeebauern<br />
in Entwicklungsprogramme zu integrieren. So hat der<br />
Verband ein Stipendienprogramm auf den Weg gebracht, das<br />
von Universitäten der Dominikanischen Republik und Kubas<br />
finanziert wird. Ziel ist es, den jungen Leuten in den Kaffee<br />
produzierenden Gebieten zu einem Universitätsabschluss zu<br />
verhelfen. Im vergangenen Jahr erhielten zehn Kinder dominikanischer<br />
Kaffeebauern ein Stipendium für ein Studium an<br />
einer Hochschule.<br />
Fair ist mehr<br />
"Diese Stipendien sind nicht nur wichtig, weil sie uns beruflich<br />
weiterbringen, sondern auch weil sie uns ermöglichen,<br />
unseren Familien daheim zu helfen. Wir können unser<br />
Wissen einsetzen, um die Entwicklung unserer Dörfer voranzubringen",<br />
erläutert die ehemalige Stipendiatin Cesarina<br />
Encarnación, die inzwischen eine Stelle bei 'Agroesa', einem<br />
Kaffeeunternehmen in Los Cacaos, 70 Kilometer westlich<br />
der Hauptstadt Santo Domingo, hat.<br />
FEDECARES vergibt zudem jedes Jahr einen Preis für den<br />
besten ökologischen Landbau. Das Preisgeld geht nicht an<br />
die Gewinner, sondern fließt in Sozial- und Entwicklungsprogramme,<br />
wie der Farmer Juan Lugo Franco berichtet. Mit<br />
den Beträgen werden beispielsweise Straßen, Schulen und<br />
Gesundheitszentren gebaut.<br />
"Wir treffen uns monatlich, um uns über die Marktentwicklung<br />
zu informieren", berichtet Lugo Franco. "Dann einigen<br />
wir uns auf gemeinsame Maßnahmen." Frauen spielen dabei<br />
eine zunehmend eine aktive Rolle. "Wir haben 40 Familien<br />
davon überzeugt, wie wichtig es ist, uns bei der Landverteilung<br />
gleichberechtigt zu behandeln", sagt Viviana Martes<br />
Lorenzo von der Vereinigung der Frauen in Aktion (AMA).<br />
- Valeria Vilardo | Karina Böckmann �<br />
Afrikas arme Staaten besonders kinderfreundlich<br />
London – In Afrika sind einige besonders armen Staaten wesentlich<br />
kinderfreundlicher als vergleichsweise reiche Länder. Das hat eine<br />
neue Untersuchung des Afrikanischen Forums für Kinderpolitik<br />
(ACPF) mit Sitz in der äthiopischen Hauptstadt Addis Abeba ergeben.<br />
Die Studie hebt Mauritius und Namibia auf die beiden Spitzenplätze<br />
und lobt Ruanda und Burkina Faso für eine recht gute<br />
Bilanz trotz wirtschaftlicher Notlage.<br />
Das neue Ranking berücksichtigte über 40 Indikatoren und alle afrikanischen Staaten mit Ausnahme von Somalia, das faktisch<br />
keine staatlichen Strukturen zu bieten hat, und der international nicht anerkannten Westsahara. Ausschlaggebend für die Einstufung<br />
waren Kriterien wie die Unterzeichnung von Kinderrechtsabkommen, nationale Bemühungen um den Schutz etwa vor Missbrauch,<br />
Kinderehe oder körperlicher Züchtigung, aber auch die staatlichen Aufwendungen für Kindergesundheit.<br />
Die ersten zehn Plätze belegen Mauritius, Namibia, Tunesien, Libyen, Marokko, Kenia, Südafrika, Malawi, Algerien und die<br />
Kapverden. Auf den letzten zehn Plätzen finden sich Guinea-Bissau, der Staat mit den schlechtesten Noten, sowie Eritrea, die<br />
Zentralafrikanische Republik, Gambia, São Tomé und Príncipe, Liberia, der Tschad, Swasiland, Guinea und die Komoren.<br />
Ganz besonders hebt der neue Report hervor, dass vier arme Staaten die größten Investoren in die Kindergesundheit sind: Burkina<br />
Faso, Ruanda, Liberia und Malawi. Alles in allem liegen 16 Staaten zehn Plätze oder mehr über ihrer Position in einem Ranking<br />
nach dem Bruttoinlandsprodukt. Der neue Bericht ist der erste seiner Art für den afrikanischen Kontinent. Er wurde mit<br />
Hilfe der Hilfswerke 'Plan International' und 'International Child Support' (ICS) finanziert. �<br />
6 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
Großmütter kämpfen gegen Aids in Swasiland<br />
DIE WELT ANDERS SEHEN<br />
Mbabane/New York – Das kleine Königreich Swasiland ist das Land mit der weltweit höchsten Aids-Infektionsrate. Fast 40 Prozent<br />
der Bevölkerung sind HIV-positiv. Der Rest lebt in ständiger Gefahr, sich mit dem Tod bringenden Virus anzustecken. Ein<br />
neuer Dokumentarfilm nimmt die Großmütter in den Blick, die als letzte die durch Aids zerfallende Gesellschaft zusammenhalten.<br />
Auf dem diesjährigen New Yorker Margaret-Meade-Festival für Film und Video vom 14. bis 16. November feierte 'Today the<br />
Hawk Takes One Chick' (Heute nimmt der Falke sich ein Küken) Premiere. In dem Film folgt Regisseurin Jane Gillooly dem Alltag<br />
dreier Großmütter in der ostswasischen Region Lubombo, wo 38,5 Prozent der Menschen HIV-infiziert sind.<br />
Eine der drei 'Gogos', wie die Großmütter im südlichen Afrika genannt werden, ist die Krankenschwester Thandiwe Mathujwa.<br />
Sie besucht täglich Familien, um Aidspatienten zu betreuen und Aufklärung zu leisten. Maria Shongwe wiederum versucht unter<br />
größten Schwierigkeiten, ihre zehn Enkel durchzubringen, die ihr die an der Immunschwächekrankheit verstorbenen Kinder hinterlassen<br />
haben. Albertina Skhosana, die ebenfalls für ihre Enkel sorgen muss, fragt sich, ob ihre Kinder noch am Leben wären,<br />
hätte sie sie vor fünf Jahren besser über Aids Bescheid gewusst.<br />
"Was passiert, wenn die Gogo einmal nicht mehr lebt?" ist eine der<br />
entscheidenden Fragen im Film. Es geht aber bei weitem nicht nur<br />
um dem Überlebenskampf der Gogos sondern die Geschichte einer<br />
ganzen Kultur und Gesellschaft, die alles zu verlieren droht, was<br />
bisher von einer Generation zur nächsten weitergegeben wurde.<br />
Wie sehr aber die Gesellschaft Swasilands zu zerfallen droht, wird<br />
beim Besuch einer Familie deutlich, die nur noch aus Kindern besteht.<br />
Thandiwe ist die einzige Erwachsene, mit der sie zu tun haben.<br />
Die Krankenschwester weist darauf hin, dass Aidswaisen das<br />
Wissen um die kulturellen Traditionen verlieren und folglich auch<br />
nicht weitergeben können. Die Gogos erscheinen als letzte Trägerinnen<br />
einer bedrohten Kultur. "Uns steht eine andere Welt bevor, in<br />
der Kinder das tun, wonach ihnen ist, weil nie jemand auf sie aufgepasst<br />
hat", so Thandiwe.<br />
© www.janegillooly.com<br />
Nach einem Bericht der UN-Ernährungs- und Landwirtschaftsorganisation<br />
FAO gab es 2007 69.000 Aidswaisen in dem eine Million<br />
Einwohner zählenden Land. Die Internationale Arbeitsorganisation ILO geht davon aus, dass sich die Infiziertenrate 2<strong>01</strong>0 bei 36<br />
Prozent einpendelt. Bis dahin wird das Land ein Viertel seiner Bevölkerung an Aids verloren haben.<br />
Der Film zeigt mit Ausnahme der Nahrungsmittelhilfe, wie sie von US-Entwicklungsbehörde USAID und Welternährungsprogramm<br />
(WFP) geleistet wird, wenig, was die internationale Gemeinschaft tut, um Swasiland zu helfen. Aufklärungs- und Präventivmaßnahmen<br />
scheinen eher Sache kleiner lokaler Initiativen zu sein. So ist Krankenschwester Thandiwe diejenige, die mit<br />
Frauen über Aids und Kondome redet.<br />
Die Regierung hat zwar einige Initiativen gegen Aids ins Leben gerufen, doch erreicht hat sie deutlich zu wenig. 1999 erklärte<br />
König Mswati III. die Epidemie zu einer nationalen Krise. Doch die finanziellen Ressourcen im Kampf gegen ihre Ausbreitung der<br />
Krankheit reichen bei weitem nicht aus. Nach einem Regierungsbericht stehen dafür nur 0,25 Prozent des Haushaltsbudgets zur<br />
Verfügung. Auch die staatliche Altersversorgung reicht nicht aus, um zumindest den Gogos weiterzuhelfen. Was an Renten gezahlt<br />
werde, seien Peanuts, berichtet Thandiwe. Und so kennzeichnet die Angst um die Zukunft Swasilands den Film. Thandiwe<br />
spricht einmal in einem Gesundheitszentrum der Region zu wenigen Zuhörern über Aids und die Folgen für die Kinder: "Wenn sie<br />
nicht gut auf sich aufpassen, wird Swasiland nicht mehr existieren", warnt sie. �<br />
Marokkaner gründet Menschenrechts-Netzwerk<br />
Casablanca – Mostafa Hannaoui hat ein ehrgeiziges Ziel: Der<br />
Marokkaner will 300 Millionen Menschen im arabischen Raum<br />
dazu ermuntern, für ihre Menschenrechte einzutreten. Dazu<br />
hat er ein einzigartiges Netzwerk ins Leben gerufen, das die<br />
Menschen in 24 arabischen Ländern über ihre Rechte aufklären<br />
soll und gegen staatliche Unterdrückung ankämpfen will.<br />
Immer noch gilt in vielen arabischen Ländern die Todesstrafe.<br />
Menschen werden unterdrückt, verfolgt und bespitzelt.<br />
Mit seinem 'Rights and People'-Projekt will Hannaoui die<br />
Bürger in der arabischen Welt über ihre Rechte aufklären<br />
und ihnen alle wichtigen Informationen zugänglich machen.<br />
Wie Hannaoui in einem IPS-Interview erläutert, gibt es in<br />
der gesamten arabischen Welt keine größere Organisation,<br />
die sich vehement für die Einhaltung der Menschenrechte<br />
einsetzt. Das grundlegendste Recht eines Menschen, das<br />
Recht auf Leben, werde kaum verteidigt, so der Menschenrechtsaktivist.<br />
"Material über die Todesstrafe und die Menschenrechte<br />
in arabischer Sprache ist kaum zu finden. Hier<br />
werden wir den Hebel ansetzen und alle Publikationen in<br />
Arabisch ins Internet stellen. Denn alle Bürger sollen die<br />
Möglichkeit erhalten, ihre Rechte wahrzunehmen und zu<br />
schützen."<br />
Hannaoui will auch kulturelle Denkmuster überprüfen.<br />
"Allzu oft werden Gerichtsurteile in der arabischen und asiatischen<br />
Welt mit der Scharia oder kulturellen Werten begründet.<br />
Hier muss eine komplette Neubewertung her. Diese<br />
Lehren sind mehrere hundert Jahre alt und entstammen den<br />
damaligen Begebenheiten."<br />
Wie der Menschenrechtler ausführt, basierten viele dieser<br />
Lehren auf der Annahme, dass die Welt eine Scheibe sei.<br />
"Heute aber sind wir auf einem ganz anderen Kenntnisstand.<br />
Deshalb braucht auch die arabische Welt eine moderne Scharia,<br />
die den heutigen Lebensumständen angepasst ist." Aufgabe<br />
der Mitarbeiter von Rights and People wird sein, religiöse,<br />
kulturelle und soziale Strukturen in der arabischen Welt<br />
zu studieren, Menschenrechtsverletzungen und ungerechtfertigte<br />
Gerichtsurteile zu dokumentieren sowie Missstände<br />
publik zu machen. "Wir erhoffen uns eine große Wirkungskraft,<br />
da wir professionell arbeiten und alle Informationen<br />
frei zugänglich veröffentlichen werden", so Hannaoui. �<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 7
OPINION<br />
Daisaku Ikeda is a Japanese Buddhist philosopher and peace‐builder and president of the Soka<br />
Gakkai International (SGI) grassroots Buddhist movement (www.sgi.org).<br />
No Law Says That<br />
By Daisaku Ikeda<br />
Our world today faces unprecedented problems,<br />
for a start, the current environmental<br />
and financial crises. Without global solidarity<br />
and a conscious commitment to peaceful<br />
coexistence both within human society and<br />
with the systems of life that support us, it is<br />
becoming clear that there is no future for<br />
us. We have reached a point where we each<br />
need to strive in our own unique way to<br />
make the greatest possible contribution to<br />
the realisation of human rights.<br />
"Human rights are the essence of the reason<br />
and spiritual values that characterise<br />
humanity, the manifestation of the most<br />
noble qualities of the human being."<br />
These are the profound words of Austregesilo<br />
de Athayde, president of the Brazilian<br />
Academy of Letters, one of the active<br />
participants in the process of drafting of the<br />
Universal Declaration of Human Rights<br />
(UDHR).<br />
The principles voiced in the Declaration,<br />
adopted sixty years ago, have since been<br />
codified in the form of various international<br />
human rights instruments and have further<br />
been enshrined in the constitutions of many<br />
countries. The Declaration stands as a powerful<br />
beacon in humanity's struggle for human<br />
rights.<br />
However, the reality of today is that people<br />
in many places around the world are<br />
deprived of their basic human rights and<br />
freedoms and struggle under the heel of<br />
oppression. In addition to armed conflicts in<br />
various regions, extreme poverty, and<br />
shortages of food, drinking water, and<br />
medical supplies claim nearly 24,000 lives<br />
every day.<br />
Opportunity to reflect<br />
In East Asian tradition, one's 60th birthday<br />
signifies the completion of a cycle of life, an<br />
opportunity to reflect and reassess. What is<br />
important now is to heighten people's<br />
awareness of human rights, to return once<br />
more to the spirit in which the UDHR was<br />
created and ensure that people around the<br />
world deepen their commitment to bringing<br />
human rights to life and make them a central<br />
priority of the 21st century.<br />
The core of the UDHR consists of "firstgeneration<br />
human rights" -which are essentially<br />
related to civil and political rights-<br />
and "second-generation human rights" -<br />
economic and social rights. Since the UDHR<br />
was promulgated, and with the achievement<br />
of independence by countries in Africa and<br />
Asia in the second half of the 20th century,<br />
increasing attention has been given to<br />
"third-generation human rights" -the socalled<br />
"solidarity rights", which include the<br />
right to development, to a safe and healthy<br />
environment, to peace, and to access humanity's<br />
common heritage.<br />
8 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
People Have to Suffer<br />
Two trends become apparent as<br />
we review the history of human<br />
rights.<br />
The first is a shift from a reactive<br />
approach of protecting<br />
people from human rights<br />
abuses to a more proactive<br />
approach of engagement in<br />
realising a better life and a<br />
better society. The second is a<br />
shift from a focus on the rights<br />
of individuals in isolation to a<br />
broader, more inclusive emphasis<br />
on human solidarity and<br />
creative coexistence with the<br />
environment.<br />
Ultimately, the promise of<br />
human rights can only be fulfilled<br />
through the development<br />
of a rich spirituality rooted in a<br />
respect for the lives of others<br />
and heartfelt concern for the<br />
natural environment.<br />
It is by taking action for the<br />
sake of others, for the sake of<br />
society, and for the sake of<br />
future generations that human<br />
beings can grasp the significance<br />
of our having been born<br />
in this world and can experience<br />
genuine fulfilment and<br />
happiness. This is also the true<br />
significance of Athayde's statement.<br />
According to the Buddhist understanding<br />
of interdependence,<br />
nothing in this world can<br />
exist in isolation. We exist<br />
within a web of mutually supporting<br />
and sustaining relationships.<br />
In a sense, humanity is<br />
one family, interconnected<br />
through the "ocean of life" that<br />
is the Planet Earth. Any attempt<br />
to build personal happiness or<br />
societal flourishing on the suffering<br />
of others cannot, in the<br />
long term, succeed.<br />
More than 100 years ago, the<br />
first president of the Soka Gak-<br />
www.tmakiguchi.org<br />
Austregéliso‐de‐Athayde| Wikipedia Commons<br />
OPINION<br />
kai (Value-creating Society) movement, Tsunesaburo Makiguchi (1871-1944) - the founder of Soka education who was imprisoned<br />
for his opposition to Japan's militarist regime and died in prison- surveyed the development of international society and called<br />
for the world to move from military, political, and economic forms of competition to an age of "humanitarian competition". This<br />
may be understood as a call for a change in our sense of values, to a striving for the welfare and happiness of both the self and<br />
others.<br />
Rosa Parks, the mother of human rights in the US, once spoke of the advice she received from her mother: "My mother taught<br />
me self-respect. She said, 'There's no law that says people have to suffer." She stressed it was important not only to respect<br />
others, but to be the kind of person other people respect.<br />
Contributing to others, working for the sake of others, is not a matter of duty. It is not simply a matter of morality. It is the<br />
highest pinnacle of our lives as humans. As can be strongly affirmed by mothers around the world who cherish life, to be able to<br />
contribute to the happiness of others is, indeed, a human right.<br />
Contributing to others opens the path of greater value than the quest for material possessions. This is the path toward the<br />
flourishing and blooming of the fathomless world of the human heart. © IPS | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 9
OPINION<br />
Choosing which developments of the past year may prove of<br />
enduring significance, whether as the most positive or negative<br />
or some mixture of both, is inevitably subjective, but this<br />
observer of the global scene would spotlight the following:<br />
Ten Best<br />
Bush agrees to Iraq withdrawal. After nearly six years of<br />
summoning America to fight till “victory” in Iraq, President<br />
George W. Bush capitulated to the demands of the elected<br />
regime the United States had brought to Baghdad for the<br />
complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops by 2<strong>01</strong>1. Far from<br />
locking in an open-ended U.S. military presence in the Arab<br />
heartland as advocates of the invasion had expected, the<br />
status of forces agreement became the rallying point for a<br />
fractious Iraqi political class - emboldened by an improving<br />
security situation—to unite in demanding that the Americans<br />
go home.<br />
Cuba opens the door a crack. The Castro family continued<br />
to hold the reins in Havana after an incapacitated Fidel’s<br />
resignation, but successor Raúl initiated a series of steps to<br />
loosen the straitjacket of his brother’s purist communism:<br />
permitting Cubans to buy cell phones and computers; issuing<br />
private taxi licenses; opening foreign tourist enclaves to Cubans;<br />
allowing farmers to buy land and sell produce directly;<br />
even eliminating some salary caps. Though security services<br />
continued to jail dissenters, Cuba signed the International<br />
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that Fidel had long<br />
opposed, prompting the European Union to relax sanctions<br />
against Havana and again join this year’s lopsided U.N. majority<br />
(185–3) calling for an end to the failed U.S. embargo.<br />
ICC prosecutor targets Sudan president on Darfur. Luis<br />
Moreno-Ocampo, chief prosecutor for the International<br />
Criminal Court (ICC), threw the UN Security Council into turmoil<br />
by demanding from the ICC tribunal an arrest warrant<br />
against Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, charging him<br />
with ordering genocide - Moreno did not shy away from the<br />
word - in the guise of “counterinsurgency.” Echoing longstanding<br />
arguments made by U.S. opponents of the ICC, Russia<br />
and China warned that an indictment would get in the<br />
way of a political deal to “solve” the Darfur crisis; human<br />
rights defenders, by contrast, saw the execution of arrest<br />
warrants as a big step toward a real solution, one founded on<br />
justice.<br />
Iraq accountability gathers steam. Raising hopes among<br />
U.S. advocates of the rule of law, the expiring Bush administration<br />
found itself under intensifying pressure on multiple<br />
fronts regarding widespread alleged illegalities in Iraq and in<br />
its treatment of detainees. Federal courts insisted on judicial<br />
review of Guantánamo detentions, inspectors-general documented<br />
massive waste in the U.S. occupation and willful<br />
deception on its failures, the administration’s favored private<br />
security force faced indictments for wanton killing of<br />
Iraqi civilians and expulsion from the country—and the Senate<br />
Armed Services Committee officially traced responsibility<br />
for torture directly to top administration officials.<br />
Literacy campaign produces progress. Halfway through<br />
the United Nations’ decade-long global effort to conquer<br />
illiteracy - of which U.S. First Lady Laura Bush has been a<br />
chief patron and honorary ambassador—the UN Educational,<br />
Scientific and Cultural Organization reported a jump in the<br />
global literacy rate from 76 to 84 percent so far this decade.<br />
With the largest pools of illiterate adults residing in such<br />
high-growth developing economies as Brazil, China, and India,<br />
these countries’ redoubled investment in literacy should<br />
The Best and the Worst of 2008<br />
By Jeffrey Laurenti<br />
yield major reductions in the worldwide total of adults disabled<br />
by illiteracy, but UNESCO warns that most other developing<br />
countries are not on track to meet the Millennium Development<br />
Goal of halving every country’s illiteracy rate by<br />
2<strong>01</strong>5.<br />
Lula’s Brazil eclipses Venezuela as lighthouse for the<br />
Latin left. Venezuela’s Bush-bashing president Hugo Chávez -<br />
beset by electoral setbacks at home and an abrupt crash in<br />
the oil revenues that had fueled his patronage of like-minded<br />
leaders abroad—continued to lose traction with Latin America’s<br />
resurgent democratic left. Brazil’s Lula da Silva, steadier<br />
and respected across the ideological spectrum, cemented<br />
his position as leader of the Latin left—deftly able to confront<br />
conservative Washington without provoking it, even<br />
while admitting communist Cuba into the Latin/Caribbean<br />
region’s Rio Group.<br />
Multiplying mediators move Middle East peace. As President<br />
Bush’s Annapolis “peace process” promising an accord<br />
between Israelis and Palestinians by the end of 2008 stalled<br />
out, other mediators emerged to facilitate negotiations that<br />
he could not—with Egypt and Qatar mediating talks between<br />
Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza (and between Hamas and Palestinian<br />
president Mahmoud Abbas’s West Bank-based authority),<br />
and Turkey as go-between for Israeli and Syrian negotiations.<br />
Though embattled prime minister Ehud Olmert outraged<br />
his former allies on the Israeli right by confessing that<br />
long-held “messianic dreams” of a greater Israel are unattainable<br />
and a return to the 1967 borders essential for Israel’s<br />
survival, his lame-duck government’s massive assault<br />
on Gaza when a fraying truce expired at year’s end left prospects<br />
for peace in <strong>2009</strong> problematical.<br />
Obama election excites worldwide “hope.” The world<br />
watched with amazement as American voters defied all expectations<br />
to nominate and then elect as president a biracial<br />
son of Africa, raised in Muslim Indonesia and pan-Asian Hawaii—symbolically<br />
as well as substantively as complete a<br />
repudiation as could be imagined of the harsh ideology<br />
Americans had accepted with Bush in 2004. The unprecedented<br />
200,000 people who gathered in July to hear the candidate<br />
in Berlin evidenced the hopes for change invested in<br />
Barack Obama worldwide, as well as a reawakened admiration<br />
of America’s ideals, which his post-election commitment<br />
to “strengthening international institutions” did not disappoint.<br />
Polio, eliminated from Somalia, is again in retreat. Despite<br />
war and political anarchy, Somalis - supported financially<br />
by UN agencies, governments, and private funders such<br />
as Rotary International - succeeded in 2008 in eliminating<br />
polio, which had re-entered the country three years ago from<br />
northern Nigeria. With new polio infections worldwide having<br />
fallen from 350,000 twenty years ago to 1,308 in 2007, the<br />
World Health Organization this year targeted Afghanistan and<br />
Pakistan as the next countries to be made polio-free, leaving<br />
India and Nigeria as the last redoubts of the disease.<br />
Wobbly Pakistan returns generals to the barracks. Despite<br />
military ruler Pervez Musharraf’s efforts to cling to<br />
power through manipulated elections, Pakistan’s voters<br />
swept his loyalists out of parliament and handed power to a<br />
democratic coalition that forced the general into retirement.<br />
But the Islamabad security establishment—long involved with<br />
Islamic extremists in fomenting conflict in both Afghanistan<br />
and India - continues to resist control by elected civilians, as<br />
do restive tribal regions near Afghanistan, and the fate of<br />
Pakistan’s restored democracy remains very much in doubt.<br />
10 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
Ten Worst<br />
Afghanistan unravels. Hamid Karzai’s beleaguered government<br />
in Kabul proved increasingly ineffectual in providing<br />
services to its population, or even security in its supposed<br />
strongholds, as Taliban insurgents extended their attacks<br />
throughout the country. Few European allies seemed to<br />
share the emerging Washington political consensus that more<br />
Western troops are needed to turn the tide militarily, and<br />
Karzai himself helplessly demanded control over highcasualty<br />
U.S. air strikes and invited direct talks with the<br />
Taliban’s Mullah Omar on an all-Afghan peace settlement.<br />
Burma cyclone heightens country’s misery and isolation.<br />
Myanmar’s rigid military rulers, whose violent suppression of<br />
Buddhist monks’ protests in September 2007 had outraged<br />
the West, adamantly rejected nearly all outside assistance<br />
when Cyclone Nargis, Asia’s most violent storm in two decades,<br />
slammed into the low-lying Irrawaddy delta, killing<br />
some 146,000 people. The upland-based military regime’s<br />
fierce indifference to survivors’ desperate circumstances<br />
seemed especially callous after even China<br />
welcomed aid following a deadly earthquake<br />
just weeks later, and it triggered calls in some<br />
Western circles for military intervention to<br />
deliver aid supplies (and presumably topple the<br />
regime) under guise of a “responsibility to protect.”<br />
Climate change negotiations stall. Even as<br />
UN meteorologists reported another year of<br />
rising average temperature and extreme<br />
weather, and despite the warning shot of a<br />
staggering spike in oil prices, negotiations on a<br />
global pact to reverse greenhouse gas emissions<br />
failed to make substantive progress, with the<br />
Bush administration frozen in continuing denial<br />
and newly industrializing countries coy about<br />
restricting their fast-growing emissions. With<br />
Italy’s Silvio Berlusconi citing the global economic<br />
crisis as a reason to block European Union<br />
commitments to deep reductions, even the<br />
Europeans began backpedaling, approving a climate-change<br />
package late in the year that the World Wide Fund for Nature<br />
charged would actually lower E.U. carbon emissions just<br />
4 percent—not the promised 20 percent—below 1990 carbon<br />
emissions levels.<br />
Congo war drains lives and resources. Hopes that the UNsponsored<br />
election in 2006 would lead to Congo’s peaceful<br />
reunification evaporated this year, as president Joseph<br />
Kabila’s government suffered demoralizing military reversals<br />
at the hands of Rwandan-backed rebel forces in eastern<br />
provinces and erosion in its authority elsewhere in the country.<br />
The Congo war, while drawing far less international<br />
attention than Darfur, continued as the world’s deadliest<br />
conflict, producing an estimated 5 million fatalities and tying<br />
down the UN’s largest peacekeeping operation of 19,000<br />
troops at a cost of $1.2 billion a year.<br />
India, Pakistan veer toward confrontation. The progress<br />
that South Asia’s two nuclear-armed antagonists had seemed<br />
to make toward détente, especially after elected civilians<br />
regained office in Pakistan, was reversed late in the year<br />
after a Pakistan-based extremist group long tied to Islamabad’s<br />
secret security services launched a devastating terrorist<br />
attack on Mumbai. U.S. officials, anxious to keep Pakistan’s<br />
troops in its western provinces to suppress armed<br />
elements aiding Afghanistan’s Taliban, worked feverishly to<br />
contain the crisis; by explicitly citing Kashmir as part of the<br />
regional puzzle, President-elect Obama raised concerns<br />
among Indian officials who have long and successfully strived<br />
to keep the state’s status off the international agenda.<br />
OPINION<br />
Irish block EU integration. Ireland’s voters, whose spectacular<br />
economic growth has resulted directly from gaining<br />
membership in the European Union, in June voted down the<br />
Lisbon Treaty, a streamlined version of the draft E.U. constitution<br />
that was derailed in 2005. Though Dublin vowed to<br />
hold a new referendum in <strong>2009</strong>, advocates of the overhaul to<br />
free E.U. decision-making from a single member’s veto<br />
feared that the continent’s small island outpost may have<br />
dashed hopes for a united Europe to become a credible<br />
heavyweight on the international stage.<br />
Russia’s estrangement divides the West. Russia - already<br />
irate about Bush administration plans to place antimissile<br />
facilities in Poland and expand NATO to include the ex-Soviet<br />
republics of Ukraine and Georgia—made good on its threat to<br />
counter Western recognition of Kosovo’s independence by<br />
crushing Georgia’s bid to seize control of South Ossetia and<br />
recognizing it and Abkhazia as independent. Washington<br />
found ready allies among NATO’s ex-communist member<br />
states for rushing Kiev and Tbilisi into the Atlantic alliance,<br />
but western Europeans lead by Germany,<br />
France, and Italy—all determined to prevent<br />
a gratuitous new cold war with Moscow—adamantly<br />
opposed extending NATO<br />
security guarantees to the two seemingly<br />
unready and politically divided states.<br />
Somalia breakdown spawns pirate<br />
swarms. Somalia’s bickering “transitional<br />
government” was poised to transit out of<br />
Mogadishu by year’s end as the Ethiopian<br />
troops that the Bush administration had<br />
recruited two years earlier to battle<br />
Islamist factions proved unable to control<br />
their resurgence. Unchecked by any government<br />
authority, Somali seafarers revived<br />
the ancient practice of piracy, hijacking<br />
freighters for ransom and imperiling<br />
shipping through the Red Sea; and the<br />
UN Security Council’s call for naval forces<br />
to suppress the pirates afforded China’s<br />
modernizing navy the chance to make its international debut.<br />
U.S. leads world economy over the brink. The freemarket<br />
“pirates” who had hijacked the U.S. politicalfinancial<br />
complex and infected financial institutions worldwide<br />
with their unregulated toxic securities sought government<br />
rescue as their house of cards collapsed, dragging one<br />
pillar of the U.S. economy after another into the black hole<br />
of a global financial meltdown. Spurning the Washington<br />
orthodoxy imposed on other troubled economies in recent<br />
decades, American authorities spent freely on serial bailouts<br />
hoping to free up credit, prop up demand, and avert a second<br />
Great Depression—leaving America’s yawning financial<br />
and trade imbalances with East Asia (and consequent power<br />
realignments) to the incoming Obama administration to sort<br />
out.<br />
Vise tightens on Zimbabwe. The desperate economic conditions<br />
caused by the aging Robert Mugabe’s implacable land<br />
expropriations led to his defeat in the first round of Zimbabwe’s<br />
presidential election, but he clung to power through<br />
a wave of terror unleashed by loyalist goons. While a number<br />
of African countries finally broke with the one-time liberation<br />
hero, South Africa led a Security Council bloc that rebuffed<br />
Western eagerness to intervene - but South Africa’s<br />
own much touted “quiet diplomacy” proved utterly incapable<br />
of persuading Mugabe to share power with the elected<br />
opposition, as by year’s end a cholera epidemic delivered<br />
nature’s own harsh verdict on his sclerotic regime.<br />
© The Century Foundation | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
Jeffrey Laurenti<br />
This article has been reprinted by permission of The Century Foundation www.tcf.org.<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 11
WINDOW ON EUROPE<br />
'We Were Very Good Students of NEO-LIBERAL Ideology'<br />
Zoltan Dujisin interviews Hungarian economist ANDRAS INOTAI<br />
A region that has enthusiastically embraced free market economics since the collapse of state socialism is facing new socioeconomic<br />
and political challenges. Dr. Andras Inotai, director-general of the Institute for World Economics of the Hungarian<br />
Academy of Sciences, says countries of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) that have not oriented themselves exclusively to the<br />
West may have a better chance to adapt to a new economic reality.<br />
IPS: How will the post-communist<br />
countries in CEE react to the global<br />
financial crisis?<br />
Andras Inotai: There will be an<br />
evolving macroeconomic crisis, with<br />
the deepest depression since World<br />
War II and a deceleration of growth<br />
rates which in CEE were around 4 to<br />
6 percent. This will have social implications<br />
with losses in health and<br />
pension funds and the stock exchange.<br />
IPS: What are the causes of the<br />
expected halt in economic growth?<br />
AI: The crisis may hit individual<br />
CEE economies differently. The<br />
economies of the region had not only<br />
different growth rates but also different<br />
engines of growth. Domestic<br />
consumption, investments and exports<br />
were the three usual factors<br />
for economic growth.<br />
In south-eastern Europe the main<br />
driving force was domestic consumption,<br />
and the crisis will hit them<br />
hardest. The Czech Republic, Slovakia,<br />
Poland and Hungary were benefiting<br />
from export growth and their<br />
future depends on the main exports<br />
markets, but Western Europe is the<br />
largest market for these countries.<br />
IPS: But Western Europe is going<br />
into recession...<br />
AI: The Czech Republic, Slovakia<br />
and Poland are deeply integrated in<br />
the German market, much more<br />
than Hungary, therefore the German<br />
recession will have a larger impact<br />
for them.<br />
It is important to see what will be<br />
the answer from big car manufactur-<br />
ing companies. They have more competitive subsidiaries in CEE, and if they cut<br />
production the question is where. If German taxpayers give billions of euros to save<br />
a car manufacturer, they won't want that money to go to the Slovak subsidiary,<br />
even if it is more competitive.<br />
IPS: Which social groups are more at risk in this crisis?<br />
AI: Interestingly, not those employed by the private sector, but the public administration<br />
and public services that remained state-owned enterprises, such as<br />
railways, urban transportation and health sector. But the most dangerous consequence<br />
of the crisis, particularly for Central Eastern Europe, could be an ideological<br />
crisis.<br />
IPS: What sort of ideological crisis?<br />
AI: With a deep recession, declining income and higher unemployment, there is<br />
fertile ground for populism, demagogy, nationalism and extremism, and in all countries<br />
in the region you will find politicians who will gladly use this opportunity to<br />
seize power by promising a country of honey and milk with no special sacrifice.<br />
IPS: In Ukraine the internal political struggle has been postponed to face the crisis.<br />
AI: This would be the reasonable answer to a crisis situation, to stop political and<br />
ideological polarisation and join forces. But I am doubtful that many big political<br />
parties are ready for this.<br />
IPS: What difference can social cohesion make?<br />
AI: A society with a high level of solidarity is more likely to avoid high costs in the<br />
crisis. But if each social group starts playing against the other, and if the domestic<br />
political environment becomes uncertain, we will only aggravate the situation,<br />
particularly in CEE where divisions are strong.<br />
IPS: Where should government support go? Many are speaking of aiding small and<br />
medium enterprises (SME).<br />
AI: Governments should do everything to avoid deepening the crisis, but the different<br />
groups must understand they should take part of the burden for the crisis.<br />
One area of government support is in physical infrastructure: railways, highways,<br />
bridges, ports, environmental protection, where there are tasks that need to be<br />
done, and now you can accelerate the process just to create new jobs for people.<br />
These investments will become profitable, maybe not in the first year, but surely in<br />
the future.<br />
However, I fully disagree with plans to give money to those SMEs which are not and<br />
will never be competitive; money could disappear in the pockets of so-called entrepreneurs<br />
who are only directed by a tax cheating mentality and getting government<br />
subsidies. We just cannot afford this luxury anymore. We must only give<br />
money to those companies that prove to be competitive.<br />
12 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
"The economies of the region had not only<br />
different growth rates but also different<br />
engines of growth. Domestic consumption,<br />
investments and exports were the three<br />
usual factors for economic growth."<br />
– Dr. Andras Inotai<br />
WINDOW ON EUROPE<br />
IPS: State intervention and ownership is likely to grow everywhere in the world; what will happen in countries<br />
such as Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia where free market ideology has played an important<br />
role?<br />
AI: The current crisis and state interventions in the United States and Western Europe constitute a very bad<br />
message to those countries that in the last 20 years were trained and influenced by neo-liberal ideas. CEE<br />
was a very good student of this neo-liberal ideology, and now we see that this ideology may have created<br />
the crisis.<br />
I would be a bit careful with this assessment, but we did criminally ignore the lack of regulation of global<br />
financial markets. State regulation, not direct intervention, is necessary. If this regulation is done at the EU<br />
rather than the national level this will be good because it will deepen European integration, but at the<br />
moment there is a danger that everyone does something at the national level.<br />
IPS: The Slovak government recently warned companies not to lay off employees, adopting a tougher language<br />
towards businesses in a country where car manufacturing is crucial. Is this signalling a new relation<br />
between businesses and politics in the region?<br />
AI: Yes. This can easily lead to the strengthening of national economic policies at the expense of European<br />
economic policies and European integration, but it can also create nationalist ideology. When living standards<br />
are going down, people will be more impatient and they will be quick to blame someone; not their<br />
own governments but Brussels, the Americans -- to some extent this is justified because the crisis started<br />
there -- international financial circles, the New York-Tel Aviv axis, Russia and Germany, or their<br />
neighbours. You will always find an enemy.<br />
IPS: There are fears in Hungary and Ukraine, where national currencies risked collapse, that the substantial<br />
IMF loans provided may have dangerous conditions attached.<br />
AI: We don't know the exact conditions. The main requirement is that the process of cutting budget deficits<br />
should not be brought to a halt. The best is if we don't use these loans at all, they are an umbrella, a message<br />
to investors that the government will fulfil its tasks. It only makes sense to use this loan to pay back<br />
credits with higher interest rates than that of the IMF's money.<br />
IPS: But citizens from CEE do not trust the political class, and tend to see it as corrupt. Are there reasons<br />
to worry about where this money will end up?<br />
AI: There has been a clear counter-selection concerning the political elite. If they lose their position as a<br />
politician most of them cannot do anything, either they don't have a diploma or it is outdated, and that's<br />
why we have so many 'survival politicians', playing the most immoral games to maintain their positions.<br />
IPS: The region has also been known for its Atlanticism. Will the crisis have geopolitical implications?<br />
AI: There are geopolitical implications, but not as a result of the crisis. The crisis is to some extent a consequence<br />
of the already advancing shift in global geography. China and Asia in general have become the<br />
growth centre of the global economy, the Transatlantic region is no longer the centre of future growth.<br />
IPS: For those countries that did not look only westwards, there may be a possibility to export to emerging<br />
economies.<br />
AI: Much will depend on their capacity to reorient exports to countries with markets that are still growing.<br />
China, the Balkans, the Arab countries, India, the Far East and Russia could become new targets of CEE exports.<br />
Poland and Hungary have been very successful in exports to Russia, and Hungary was the leading regional<br />
exporter to China, whereas the Czech Republic and Slovakia rely very much on EU markets, and I don't<br />
know to what extent they will be flexible to go to other markets as well. IPS | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 13
WINDOW ON EUROPE<br />
Just When Hope Was at Hand<br />
By Vesna Peric Zimonjic from Belgrade<br />
The Balkans region, crippled by the wars of the 1990s and then<br />
pushed through painful transition to a market economy, has been<br />
hit hard by the global economic crisis just when everyone believed<br />
the time had come for promising new development.<br />
"For the first ten months of 2008, we have seen one of the best<br />
economic years for more than a decade," Serbian Prime Minister<br />
Mirko Cvetkovic said at a press conference in Belgrade Dec. 17.<br />
"However, the effects of the worst global crisis seem about to hit<br />
us as hard. This is a kind of crisis none of us has seen in our lives."<br />
Thousands have been laid off across Bosnia, Croatia, Serbia and<br />
Macedonia. Albania and Montenegro too have run into economic<br />
stagnation over the past couple of months.<br />
The hardest hit are the metal processing and textile industries,<br />
together with tourism and services. The last two have been the big<br />
boost for economic growth, particularly in Croatia and Montenegro.<br />
"The region cannot avoid the global crisis," Nobel Prize winning<br />
economist Joseph Stiglitz said on a recent visit to Belgrade. He now<br />
heads an expert body for monitoring the financial crisis, set up by<br />
the United Nations General Assembly in September.<br />
"Some countries will be hit directly on the trade level, others because<br />
of the fall of the price of raw materials," he said. "This crisis<br />
began at the centre, in the U.S., but the periphery will be hit the<br />
most, because exports and direct foreign investments will suffer.<br />
The region depends on Europe, which will suffer even greater consequences<br />
than the U.S."<br />
"We are already witnessing that," analyst Goran Nikolic told IPS.<br />
"Serbia relies on exports; food and raw materials such as copper<br />
and iron make 40 percent of exports. The price of copper dropped<br />
by half in the past two months."<br />
Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic |Wikipedia<br />
The international conglomerate Rio Tinto, potential investors in<br />
the Serbia copper industry, announced in November that it will lay<br />
off more than 13,000 people worldwide. "So, Serbia cannot expect much from there," Nikolic said. Similarly with plans to sell<br />
Russia oil enterprises in Serbia worth some 400 million euros. With Russia also in recession, prospects for that sale are now<br />
small.<br />
Slowdown all around<br />
Serbia's deal with the Italian company Fiat to revive the<br />
car industry in the central town Kragujevac is also in doubt,<br />
with Fiat struggling to survive at home. "If Serbia reaches 3<br />
percent growth in <strong>2009</strong>, that will be a success," analyst<br />
Stojan Stamenkovic told IPS. "That is a major blow, as<br />
growth was around 7.5 percent for 2008, which is likely the<br />
figure for the region."<br />
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia saw 6 percent growth in<br />
the first ten months of the year, Macedonia 5.2 percent and<br />
Montenegro 7 percent. All that is now expected to slow to<br />
less than half. "It would be a miracle if Croatia reaches 2<br />
percent growth next year," analyst Zeljko Lovrincevic from<br />
the Economy Institute of Zagreb told local media.<br />
"There will be a dramatic fall of investment into tourism,<br />
construction and the ship building industry." The three are<br />
the big engines of the Croatian economy.<br />
"The slowdown in economic activity will last till the end of<br />
2<strong>01</strong>0 or beginning of 2<strong>01</strong>1," he added.<br />
Fears are mounting that the high unemployment rate<br />
could go up. Bosnia's official unemployment rate stands at<br />
30 percent, but is more likely to be around 45 percent. In<br />
Croatia it is 12.6 percent, and in Macedonia 34.9 percent.<br />
Montenegro puts it at 11 percent, and Serbia 20 percent.<br />
Little is being said about the former southern Serbian<br />
province Kosovo, which declared independence in February.<br />
So far, this least developed area of the Balkans has received<br />
little foreign investment. But small private business that saw<br />
some momentum over the past years are now recording<br />
decline, going by figures at the business registration office<br />
of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.<br />
"Of the 90,000 businesses registered, around 50 percent<br />
can be considered inactive," Mehdi Pllashniku, head of the<br />
business registration office told local media.<br />
According to Safet Gerxhaliu from the Kosovo Chamber of<br />
Commerce, the high number of inactive businesses is worrying.<br />
"This clearly illustrates that business in Kosovo is in<br />
crisis," he told local media.<br />
In neighbouring Albania, the situation seems to be much as<br />
in other areas of the Balkans. Albanian Prime Minister Sali<br />
Berisha said at a business roundtable recently that the<br />
economy would be affected by the global downturn.<br />
"Albania is not directly affected by the crisis, but will see<br />
a slowdown in emigrant remittances, which account for<br />
almost a billion euros (1.47 billion dollars) every year," Berisha<br />
said.<br />
More than 700,000 Albanians are working abroad, supporting<br />
more than two million people in their country.<br />
"For us there is little more to do than to continue our work<br />
that improves the environment for investments, despite<br />
what happens in the international markets," Berisha said.<br />
Serbian President Boris Tadic told reporters that Serbian<br />
authorities will "do whatever is necessary to maintain jobs<br />
for the employed."<br />
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader called for a "tightening<br />
of belts" to survive the crisis. But he brushed off predictions<br />
that 150,000 people might be left jobless in near future.<br />
IPS | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
14 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
WINDOW ON EUROPE<br />
Mega Solar Power Plant Begins to Operate in Portugal<br />
The most ambitious and innovative<br />
solar power project in the world kicked<br />
off Dec. 29 in this white-walled village<br />
in the southern Portuguese municipality<br />
of Moura, one of the most impoverished<br />
areas in the European Union.<br />
The Acciona Energy S.A. company<br />
has put into service the Amareleja<br />
photovoltaic power plant, located 150<br />
km south of Lisbon, which is capable of<br />
producing enough energy to supply<br />
30,000 households in the south-central<br />
region of Alentejo.<br />
Almost simultaneously, the mayor of<br />
Moura, José María Prazeres Pós-de-<br />
Mina, was selected as one of the ten<br />
finalists for the prestigious 2008 People<br />
of the Year award granted by One-<br />
World, a non-governmental news network<br />
that is one of the most highlyrespected<br />
international organisations<br />
devoted to raising environmental<br />
awareness and promoting change.<br />
The only requirement for nomination<br />
was that the candidates embody the<br />
values of OneWorld, which include<br />
human rights for all, fair distribution of<br />
the world's natural and economic resources,<br />
simple and sustainable ways<br />
of life, the right of every individual to<br />
inform and be informed, participation<br />
and transparency in decision-making,<br />
and social, cultural, and linguistic<br />
diversity.<br />
Pós-de-Mina, who was born 50 years<br />
ago in Pías, another village in the municipality<br />
of Moura, keeps a low profile,<br />
but has nevertheless become<br />
famous throughout Europe as "the<br />
mayor of the future" for his pioneering<br />
work in renewable energy.<br />
The grandson, son and nephew of<br />
prominent anti-fascist activists who<br />
were persecuted and incarcerated by<br />
Portugal’s 1926-1974 dictatorship, Pósde-Mina<br />
became politically active at an<br />
early age when he joined the Union of<br />
Communist Students, an organisation<br />
that played a major role in the opposition<br />
to the dictatorial regime.<br />
But his militant background did not<br />
prevent Pós-de-Mina from becoming a<br />
skilful businessman, and after earning<br />
a BA in business administration he took<br />
on the challenge of founding the Amper<br />
Solar power company, planting the<br />
seed for what is now the world’s largest<br />
solar energy plant.<br />
Located in the Baldio da Ferraría, a<br />
250-hectare sun-scorched plain, the<br />
plant was built at a cost of 410 million<br />
dollars in the sunniest area of Portugal,<br />
the European country with the<br />
By Mario de Queiroz in Amareleja<br />
greatest number of sunlight hours per<br />
year.<br />
The reputation of this unassuming<br />
mayor of a small municipality of Portugal<br />
has transcended national borders,<br />
as he has come to be known as the<br />
architect of the most ambitious renewable<br />
energy project in the world.<br />
"It all happened without my even realising<br />
it," Pós-de-Mina confessed modestly<br />
when he learned that OneWorld<br />
described him as "the mayor of the<br />
future."<br />
The Amareleja Power Plant project<br />
involves photovoltaic (PV) technology<br />
that uses semiconductors to convert<br />
the sun’s rays into electric power.<br />
Within a year, the plant will have an<br />
installed capacity of 46 megawatts<br />
(MW).<br />
It is expected to be operating at full<br />
capacity by the year 2<strong>01</strong>0, when it will<br />
produce 64 MW using 2,520 solar trackers<br />
supporting 262 modules with<br />
268,000 PV panels producing 93 gigawatts/hour<br />
per year, generating sufficient<br />
electricity to power 30,000<br />
homes.<br />
The plant’s solar power production<br />
will contribute enormously to helping<br />
Portugal meet its greenhouse gas reduction<br />
commitments, drastically cutting<br />
carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by<br />
152,000 tons a year.<br />
"This project is important for Moura<br />
and for Alentejo, but it is also important<br />
because of its contribution to the<br />
development of Portugal and its significance<br />
in Europe due to its size, as it<br />
will convert sunlight into 64 million<br />
watts," making it 12 times bigger than<br />
the largest solar power plant that<br />
exists today in the EU, which is located<br />
in Germany and produces five million<br />
watts, Pós-de-Mina told IPS in a recent<br />
interview.<br />
At the same time, the municipality<br />
of Moura launched the Sunflower project,<br />
which involves a network of eight<br />
municipalities from eight different<br />
countries in Europe (Bulgaria, Britain,<br />
the Czech Republic, France, Greece,<br />
Italy, Portugal, and Spain) that seek to<br />
transform their towns into what the EU<br />
calls "Zero Carbon Communities" under<br />
its Intelligent Energy - Europe (IEE)<br />
programme for the promotion of alternative<br />
energy sources.<br />
Sunflower’s goal is to "convert these<br />
EU communities into environments free<br />
of CO2 emissions by turning them into<br />
areas where only renewable energies<br />
are used," Pós-de-Mina added. The<br />
idea is to "conduct campaigns to raise<br />
awareness on the use of renewable<br />
energies and the benefits for the population,"<br />
he said.<br />
Pós-de-Mina’s work in Amareleja and<br />
the Sunflower project earned him the<br />
nomination for the OneWorld award.<br />
Both efforts began as a way of finding<br />
solutions to the area’s growing economic<br />
problems, but eventually turned<br />
into pioneer initiatives that serve as<br />
encouraging examples for the entire<br />
world.<br />
For this pragmatic communist mayor<br />
and businessman, harnessing Alentejo’s<br />
abundant sunlight seemed like "the<br />
most obvious way" to develop alternative<br />
renewable energy sources that<br />
would in turn create jobs in a region<br />
where unemployment -- at 15 percent -<br />
- is twice the national average.<br />
In 2007, the municipality of Moura<br />
sold the 88 percent stake it held in<br />
Amper Solar -- owner of the plant<br />
installation rights -- to the Spanish<br />
company Acciona, which has since<br />
become the sole shareholder in the<br />
solar plant, after the minority shareholders<br />
decided to follow the municipality’s<br />
example.<br />
Portugal’s solar, wind, and wave energy<br />
projects have received unconditional<br />
backing from the European<br />
Commission, the executive body of the<br />
EU, which seeks to speed up the continent’s<br />
transition to a low-CO2 economy.<br />
Until April 2004, Portugal’s solar and<br />
wind power generation was very low,<br />
in spite of the fact that the country is<br />
extremely sunny and windy.<br />
The wind energy generated in Portugal<br />
prior to 2007 was in fact practically<br />
marginal. At present, this country of<br />
92,000 square kilometres and 10.6<br />
million inhabitants is one of the top<br />
wind power generators in the EU.<br />
From 2004 to 2006, several wind<br />
power parks were built in Portugal,<br />
producing a total of 500 MW and putting<br />
this country in third place in the<br />
EU, after Germany (357,000 sq km and<br />
82 million inhabitants), which produces<br />
1,808 MW, and Spain (504,000 sq km<br />
and 46 million inhabitants), with a<br />
production of 1,764 MW, and ahead of<br />
Italy (3<strong>01</strong>,000 sq km and 59 million<br />
inhabitants), which has a total production<br />
of 452 MW.<br />
The change has been so drastic that<br />
Portugal went from being at the bottom<br />
of the EU’s renewable energy<br />
ranking to becoming one of the continent’s<br />
leading generators.<br />
IPS | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 15
COVER STORY | TITELTHEMA<br />
Poverty May Be Halved, After All<br />
By Global Perspective Monitoring Unit<br />
Despite the current financial turmoil and sharp slowdown in growth anticipated<br />
for this year, longer-term prospects for developing countries have<br />
changed only modestly compared with the year 2008 forecast, according<br />
to the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects <strong>2009</strong>.<br />
In part prospects are little changed because a slowdown had already<br />
been anticipated, albeit to a much lesser degree.<br />
Poverty in developing countries by region, selected years<br />
Region or country 1990 2005 2<strong>01</strong>5<br />
Number of people living on less than $1.25/day (millions)<br />
East Asia and the Pacific 873.3 316.2 137.6<br />
of which China 683.2 207.7 84.3<br />
Europe and Central Asia 9.1 17.3 9.8<br />
Latin America and the Caribbean 49.6 45.1 30.6<br />
Middle East and North Africa 9.7 11.0 8.8<br />
South Asia 579.2 595.6 403.9<br />
of which India 435.5 455.8 313.2<br />
Sub-Saharan Africa 297.5 388.4 356.4<br />
Total 1,818.5 1,373.5 947.2<br />
Number of people living on less than $2.00/day (millions)<br />
East Asia and the Pacific 1,273.7 728.7 438.0<br />
of which China 960.8 473.7 260.9<br />
Europe and Central Asia 31.9 41.9 26.7<br />
Latin America and the Caribbean 86.3 91.3 72.4<br />
Middle East and North Africa 44.4 51.5 33.3<br />
South Asia 926.0 1,091.5 959.5<br />
of which India 7<strong>01</strong>.6 827.7 714.5<br />
Sub-Saharan Africa 393.6 556.7 585.0<br />
Total 2,755.9 2,561.5 2,115.0<br />
Percentage of the population living on less than $1.25/day<br />
East Asia and the Pacific 54.7 16.8 6.8<br />
of which China 60.2 15.9 6.1<br />
Europe and Central Asia 2.0 3.7 2.2<br />
Latin America and the Caribbean 11.3 8.2 5.0<br />
Middle East and North Africa 4.3 3.6 2.5<br />
South Asia 51.7 40.3 23.8<br />
of which India 51.3 41.6 25.4<br />
Sub-Saharan Africa 57.6 50.9 37.1<br />
Total 41.7 25.2 15.5<br />
Percentage of the population living on less than $2.00/day<br />
East Asia and the Pacific 79.8 38.7 21.6<br />
of which China 84.6 36.3 18.9<br />
Europe and Central Asia 6.9 8.9 6.0<br />
Latin America and the Caribbean 19.7 16.6 11.8<br />
Middle East and North Africa 19.7 16.9 9.3<br />
South Asia 82.7 73.9 56.6<br />
of which India 82.6 75.6 57.9<br />
Sub-Saharan Africa 76.2 73.0 60.8<br />
Total<br />
Source: World Bank.<br />
63.2 47.0 34.6<br />
16 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
COVER STORY | TITELTHEMA<br />
Despite the current financial turmoil and sharp slowdown in growth anticipated for this year,<br />
longer-term prospects for developing countries have changed only modestly compared with<br />
the year 2008 forecast, according to the World Bank's Global Economic Prospects <strong>2009</strong>.<br />
In part prospects are little changed because a slowdown had already been anticipated, albeit<br />
to a much lesser degree.<br />
The primary reason, however, lies in the longterm<br />
supply potential of developing countries,<br />
which should allow output to recoup the lost<br />
production induced by the coming growth recession<br />
during the first five years of the next decade.<br />
Per capita GDP in developing countries over<br />
the period 2<strong>01</strong>0–2<strong>01</strong>5 is expected to expand at a<br />
relatively rapid annual pace of 4.6 percent,<br />
much faster than the 2.1 percent pace of the<br />
1990s and the 0.6 percent average of the 1980s,<br />
replicating the average performance of this<br />
decade.<br />
Improvements in macroeconomic policies --<br />
lower inflation, relaxation of trade restrictions,<br />
more flexible exchange rate regimes, and lower<br />
fiscal deficits -- have combined with structural<br />
reforms such as privatization and regulatory initiatives<br />
to reduce uncertainty and generally improve<br />
incentives for investment.<br />
Projected future growth rates are higher than<br />
in the 1990s -- and much more so than in the<br />
1980s) -- in every developing region except East<br />
Asia and the Pacific, where growth is expected<br />
to decline somewhat because of an aging population.<br />
Rapid growth<br />
Rapid growth should enable developing countries,<br />
as a group, to achieve the Millennium Development<br />
Goal of halving poverty by 2<strong>01</strong>5.<br />
The poverty forecast for 2<strong>01</strong>5 is 15.5 percent,<br />
well below the target of 20.9 percent—half of<br />
the revised 1990 level as explained in more detail<br />
below.<br />
The East Asia and Pacific region has clearly surpassed<br />
its individual target, and South Asia is on<br />
target. The main concern remains Sub-Saharan<br />
Africa.<br />
Although the incidence of poverty in the region<br />
has been declining over the past decade,<br />
at about 37.1 percent in 2<strong>01</strong>5, the share of<br />
people living in extreme poverty will remain<br />
well above the region’s target of 29 percent<br />
(see poverty table on page 16).<br />
This year’s poverty forecast is consistent with<br />
the World Bank’s revised poverty estimates for<br />
developing countries.<br />
The new poverty estimates largely result from<br />
a revision of purchasing power parities (PPP) by<br />
using a new International Comparison Project<br />
survey of prices paid by households.<br />
The 2005 survey improved on the 1993 data<br />
and methods used to prepare previous estimates.<br />
The new price data reveal that the cost of living<br />
is higher in low-and middle-income countries<br />
than had been suggested by past surveys.<br />
Other factors influencing the changes to the<br />
poverty estimates include revisions to national<br />
accounts and the incorporation of new and<br />
more recent household surveys.<br />
The new poverty estimates provide a significantly<br />
different picture of global poverty - back<br />
to 1990 and in the most recent year, 2005.<br />
Global poverty in 1990, the benchmark year for<br />
the MDGs, is now estimated to have been 41.6<br />
percent of the developing country population<br />
(compared with the previous estimate of 28.7<br />
percent using the old prices and guidelines).<br />
This implies that the target for the poverty<br />
MDG is 20.9 percent, rather than the previous<br />
14.4 percent.<br />
The revisions had a significant affect on all<br />
regions, except Latin America and the Caribbean,<br />
which saw only minor adjustments.<br />
The case of China is illustrative. The headcount<br />
index for 1990 jumped from 33 percent to<br />
60.2 percent.<br />
This dramatic change was attributable mainly<br />
to the poor price comparison basis for the earlier<br />
estimate rather than to any underlying<br />
change in China itself.<br />
The combination of a new estimate of mean<br />
consumption and a new poverty line also implies<br />
a change in the starting value of the growth-topoverty<br />
elasticity.<br />
Even if the shape of the income distribution is<br />
broadly the same as in earlier income surveys<br />
(as is the case for many countries), the fact<br />
that the poverty line intersects the distribution<br />
at a different spot means that the impact of a<br />
given increase in per capita incomes has<br />
changed.<br />
Nevertheless, the rate of improvement in the<br />
headcount poverty rate between 1990 and 2005<br />
has not changed that much using the new estimates.<br />
This year’s forecast reports an annual decline in<br />
global poverty between 1990 and 2005 of some<br />
3.3 percent, which is very close to the earlier<br />
estimated annual decline of 3.2 percent.<br />
However, the higher poverty level means that<br />
25.2 percent of the developing world’s population<br />
was living on less than $1.25 a day in 2005,<br />
compared with last year’s estimate of 18.1 percent<br />
for 2004.<br />
As before, much of decline in global poverty<br />
between 1990 and 2005 results from increased<br />
incomes in China, where the level of extreme<br />
poverty fell from over 60 percent in 1990 to less<br />
than 16 percent in 2005. It should be noted that<br />
the impact on the poverty forecast of the recent<br />
rise in food and energy prices is not fully<br />
reflected in these projections, which largely reflect<br />
neutral changes in per capita incomes.<br />
The increase in food prices between January<br />
2007 and January 2008 is likely to have increased<br />
global poverty by between 130 million<br />
and 155 million people, or by 1.3–1.5percentage<br />
points. With prices now declining but not expected<br />
to return to their earlier levels, at least<br />
some of this deterioration is likely to be permanent.<br />
WORLD BANK | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 17
COVER STORY | TITELTHEMA<br />
Afghan Expectations Belied<br />
By Ramesh Jaura, InDepthNews (IDN)<br />
The Afghan peoples' expectations would appear to have been belied to a large extent despite seven years<br />
of international engagement in the country. The Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission<br />
(AIHRC) paints rather a gloomy picture of this beleaguered country in a new report.<br />
"Given the fact that the majority of Afghan population lives in rural areas, agriculture should be the<br />
backbone of Afghanistan’s development strategy. It received, however, only about 3 percent of total development<br />
money invested in the country since 20<strong>01</strong>," says the report.<br />
This is some half-a-billion dollars compared to some 15 billion dollars in total aid distributed to Afghanistan.<br />
The rights watchdog points out that to improve standard of living of the rural population, the government<br />
needs to focus on agriculture as matter of priority.<br />
"To ensure that the rural population can produce at least the food it consumes throughout the year,<br />
there is a need to improve irrigation system and provide farmers with access to both credit and high quality<br />
foundation seeds. The government needs to rehabilitate irrigation systems, rebuilding canals and karez<br />
as well as reducing water loss by improving the quality of canals and constructing irrigation dams."<br />
Agriculture needs more money<br />
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, Afghanistan utilises only 30 percent<br />
of available water resources. Rehabilitated irrigation will help to increase food production, says the AIHRC<br />
report. A case in point is that crop from irrigated land produces at least twice the crop from rain-fed land.<br />
For example, one hectare of irrigated land in Helmand or Herat in 2008 produced about seven to eight<br />
tons of wheat, whereas rain-fed land produced about 1.5 tons. Since the FAO program started operating in<br />
Afghanistan, roughly 500,000 hectares of irrigated land has been rehabilitated and among this, 100,000<br />
hectares of new land.<br />
Afghanistan has another 500,000 hectares of land that has yet to be rehabilitated, say the report.<br />
In total, roughly 75 million dollars were spent on irrigation reconstruction in Afghanistan and another 28<br />
million dollar investment is planned. This, however, represents only a fraction of the resources that is<br />
spent on other development efforts, the report says. "There is also a need to expand other opportunities<br />
for farmers. Access to credit is limited; it is easier to find informal credit to produce opium than to grow<br />
wheat."<br />
This report measures progress of the Afghan government towards securing the social and economic rights<br />
of its people, covering the period between January 2007 and March 2008. The Commission released two<br />
previous reports on Economic and Social Rights in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, respectively. These reports<br />
are available at the AIHRC’s web page, at www.aihrc.org.af.<br />
Establishing a stable state with a functional bureaucracy, accessible and affordable basic services, rule<br />
of law and gender equality requires long-term investments and careful planning.<br />
To ensure economic and social rights, Afghanistan’s legal and policy framework is drawn from two main<br />
legal documents, the 2004 Constitution of Afghanistan and the International Covenant on Economic, Social<br />
and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), coupled with the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for Afghanistan, and<br />
the Afghanistan National Development Strategy (ANDS).<br />
Under these legal and policy provisions, the government of Afghanistan has a responsibility to its citizens<br />
in protecting and promoting labour rights, providing social security, creating an environment to achieve an<br />
adequate standard of living, reintegrating returnees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), protecting<br />
family life, and providing education and health services to the Afghan citizens.<br />
Fulfilling obligations to guarantee Afghan citizens an adequate standard of living and protect their economic<br />
and social rights is proving to be a difficult task, says the report. Despite the facts that 2007 saw<br />
some economic growth and hosted one of the best crop productions in years, the situation of average Afghans<br />
still remains precarious.<br />
Rising food prices in the world and the onset of the severe drought of 2008 created unprecedented numbers<br />
of foodinsecure people. The security situation has continuously deteriorated throughout the year. And<br />
the global economic crisis has yet to take its toll on the development of Afghanistan. These are only some<br />
of the challenges that the government has to address. Regardless, these cannot be made to excuse the<br />
current slow progress in securing social and economic rights for the Afghan people.<br />
Vulnerable Populations<br />
The report finds that vulnerable populations in Afghanistan continue to be excluded from development<br />
programs. Though, human rights based development is one of the important prerequisites to exercising social<br />
and economic rights. It is a fundamental component of a dignified life ensuring access to basic resources,<br />
education, health services, food, housing, employment, and the fair distribution of income.<br />
However, vulnerable populations in Afghanistan are excluded on three levels: (i) Donor-driven priorities<br />
strip Afghan citizens from their right to shape their lives. (ii) The policy-makers in Afghanistan fail to hear<br />
the needs of the people despite extensive consultations and remain largely tuned in to the desires of the<br />
international funding environment. (iii) Poor Afghans are excluded at the community level where poverty<br />
creates pockets of chronically underserved populations.<br />
Some extracts from the report follow.<br />
18 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
COVER STORY | TITELTHEMA<br />
In total, roughly 75 million dollars were spent on irrigation reconstruction in Afghanistan<br />
and another 28 million dollar investment is planned. This, however, represents only a fraction<br />
of the resources that is spent on other development efforts, the report says.<br />
Law Enforcement<br />
No law enforcement, weak protection mechanisms<br />
and a dysfunctional civil registry undermine access<br />
to and the enjoyment of economic and social rights.<br />
Under Afghanistan Constitution and ratified International<br />
human rights laws which on paper guarantee<br />
access to the social and economic rights. However,<br />
the system of law enforcement and justice remains<br />
weak and inefficient. Few legal provisions are accompanied<br />
of administrative instructions or other<br />
means for implementation, limiting the effectiveness<br />
of rights protection, prevention of violations,<br />
and law enforcement in general.<br />
Furthermore, the main government registries for<br />
issuing IDs, birth and marriage certificates, and divorce<br />
registrations are dysfunctional. At best, the<br />
system reaches provincial centers, leaving out the<br />
majority of population concentrated in rural areas.<br />
Without a functional and efficient administrative<br />
system, the government of Afghanistan will continue<br />
to struggle in understanding the needs and protecting<br />
and promoting the rights of its population.<br />
Labor Rights<br />
Labor rights remained largely unprotected due to<br />
failure of the government to develop regulations and<br />
protection mechanisms to enforce the law. In particular,<br />
this refers to the workers employed in the<br />
informal economy, child labour, labour migrants,<br />
and women.<br />
At the time of writing this report, there were no<br />
legal provisions addressing irregular and casual labour,<br />
including the lack of mechanisms to estimate<br />
numbers or to understand the needs and protect the<br />
rights of workers employed in the informal economy<br />
and relying on a daily-wage labour.<br />
Casual workers have no access to skills upgrading<br />
or avenues for collective bargaining to improve their<br />
quality of life. Child labour is prevalent; nearly a<br />
quarter of children in Kabul work despite the legal<br />
ban on any full-time labour under 18 years of age.<br />
The conditions of work are hazardous: long hours in<br />
unhealthy environments with unsafe equipment. The<br />
situation of casual workers and children make them<br />
vulnerable to trafficking and forced labour.<br />
An anti-trafficking law is being developed and two<br />
units were formed to combat trafficking in persons;<br />
their work, however, is sporadic.<br />
Of particular concern is the deportation of irregular<br />
labor migrants from Iran during the winter of<br />
2007-2008. A portion of these deportees might have<br />
been trafficked or worked in forced labor situations.<br />
Afghan irregular labour migrants in Iran are unprotected<br />
and the government of Afghanistan failed to<br />
secure their rights to due process during deportation<br />
and to protection upon their arrival in Afghanistan.<br />
Rights and protection of women in both formal and<br />
informal employment need special attention.<br />
Currently, maternity leave is the only measure<br />
implemented to protect the rights of working<br />
women. There is a need to extend their protection,<br />
in particular, with regard to sexual abuse and harassment<br />
at the workplace. As of now, there are no<br />
existing mechanisms to protect women and offer<br />
safe avenues to report incidents. There are also no<br />
incentives to attract more women into the workforce<br />
such as the provision of childcare and job<br />
training as well as gender-sensitive workforce policies.<br />
The Constitution of Afghanistan offers an excellent<br />
basis for an equitable and just society. Law enforcement,<br />
however, needs to be strengthened. The<br />
government needs to implement labor codes, particularly<br />
in regards to daily-wage workers, health<br />
care, a safe work environment, and child labor.<br />
Social Security System<br />
The social security system in Afghanistan is focused<br />
only on the provision of pensions to persons with<br />
disabilities, former government employees, and<br />
families of martyrs, and services for children. Despite<br />
constitutional provisions for support to older<br />
persons, ill or women without caretakers, no protection<br />
mechanisms were developed and the implementation<br />
of the law remains sporadic.<br />
Extremely vulnerable households that are headed<br />
by females, children, older persons, IDPs, returnees,<br />
and those who have more than eight children have<br />
no additional protection even as they have less social<br />
tools to cope. At the time of writing this report,<br />
civil society organizations and international community<br />
were the sole providers of social services to<br />
these groups; service delivery relies entirely on international<br />
donors.<br />
Situation of Women<br />
Based on the Constitution and commitments of the<br />
government, women saw little improvement in exercising<br />
their right to protection in family life. In Afghanistan,<br />
this would include a right to marry consensually<br />
without coercion, freedom from underage<br />
marriage, the right to equality between men and<br />
women during marriage and its dissolution, and protection<br />
from domestic violence.<br />
Prevalence of child marriage is a particular concern<br />
since roughly 60 percent of females in Afghanistan<br />
marry before their 16 th birthday. Forced marriage<br />
is prevalent, and couples that decide to marry<br />
without parental consent are often prosecuted and<br />
persecuted by respective family members.<br />
Despite the fact that both underage and forced<br />
marriage are illegal and punishable by up to two<br />
years in prison, not one sentence has been issued<br />
under this article of the law. Violence against<br />
women is pandemic and remains largely unpunished<br />
even when it results in murder.<br />
The pressure of repayment of debt is a potential<br />
threat to women’s rights; a number of documented<br />
cases and anecdotal evidence show that women are<br />
sometimes compelled to marry to settle debts and<br />
re-pay credits. This has particular implications for<br />
micro credit schemes and for policy makers since<br />
currently there is neither tracking mechanism nor<br />
efficient bankruptcy laws to ensure that women are<br />
not adversely affected by the credit practices of<br />
their families. IDN | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 19
COVER STORY | TITELTHEMA<br />
No Clear End in Thailand’s Political Theatre<br />
Political stress<br />
But this was but the latest chapter in the long-running<br />
drama in this South-east Asian country, which in less than<br />
a year has seen anti-government protesters occupying<br />
state buildings and facilities in order to drive out sitting<br />
elected governments, authorities carrying out violent<br />
crowd dispersals, and courts handing down verdicts that<br />
effectively kicked out governments.<br />
The tensions have not been eased much by the Dec. 15<br />
selection of the British-born, Oxford-educated Abhisit as<br />
Thailand’s 27 th prime minister – and head of the third Thai<br />
government in just three months.<br />
In fact, many wonder how long the Democrat-led government<br />
can survive. Not least, the way Abhisit came to<br />
power – not after a general election but in the wake of<br />
anti-government protests and what many say is military<br />
backing – has raised legitimacy concerns.<br />
By end-December, the Abhisit government found itself<br />
facing the same kind of protests that the elected government<br />
it replaced did – thousands of angry protesters surrounding<br />
Parliament in order to prevent the new prime<br />
minister from making the policy address required before<br />
the government can operate.<br />
But while the style was similar, the shoe was now on the<br />
other foot. This time, the December protests were by the<br />
group supporting ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra<br />
and called the United Front for Democracy Against Dicta-<br />
By Johanna Son*<br />
One December evening, crowds broke out in laughter as they watched pantomime actors<br />
mimic oh-so-familiar politicians who were foes one minute and instant friends the next --<br />
after an exchange of money -- and then posed for the cameras with wide, fake smiles.<br />
But what the actors parodied at the Bangkok Theatre Festival, held just after a new government<br />
emerged from the rubble of the latest round of political instability in Thailand, was<br />
what many believe happened in real life.<br />
After all, they have been watching political theatre unfold on the national stage through<br />
2008.<br />
Toward yearend, politicians of different parties and stripes, many of whom would not be<br />
seen talking to each other lest shaking each other’s hands, were crossing loyalties as the<br />
Democrat Party jockeyed to produce the numbers to get its candidate – now Prime Minister<br />
Abhisit Vejjajiva – elected in Parliament.<br />
One party official was quoted by ‘The Nation’ newspaper as saying that cash rewards and<br />
Cabinet posts were “offered to those who could retrieve defecting MPs”.<br />
torship (UDD), which wants the House dissolved and new<br />
elections called to replace the Abhisit government. “This<br />
government lacks legitimacy and is unconstitutional,” UDD<br />
leader Suporn Atthawong was quoted as saying.<br />
In October, it was the UDD’s foes – the anti-Thaksin<br />
People’s Alliance for Democracy (PAD) – that tried to prevent<br />
Abhisit’s predecessor, then Prime Minister Somchai<br />
Wongsawat, from entering and addressing Parliament.<br />
Abhisit had to postpone the Dec. 29 Parliament address<br />
to the next day, and held the session at the Foreign Ministry<br />
instead, pledging to “restore normalcy” to a country<br />
tired of political stress.<br />
“Something like this is not really a surprise,” sighed<br />
Bangkok resident Lek. “PAD was able to do these things<br />
before, so what did we really expect the other side to do,<br />
given the past? Is it fine for one group to do, but not the<br />
other? I don’t know what happens next.”<br />
The December events reflect how the deep social and<br />
political conflicts that led to the ouster of the two<br />
elected, pro-Thaksin governments this year – continue to<br />
simmer.<br />
Right after Abhisit got voted prime minister in December,<br />
angry UDD supporters rammed concrete blocks into<br />
the car windshields of parliamentarians who had switched<br />
sides to Abhisit. Others lobbed locked grenades onto the<br />
lawns of defector MPs.<br />
Class conflict?<br />
At the core of the political drama in Thailand are questions around respect for the value of electoral votes, how political legitimacy<br />
is earned and lost, how a national mandate is reversed or changed, and how political conflict is resolved.<br />
These arise against a backdrop where the poorer majority in Thailand has realised that it has the numbers to vote into power<br />
its leaders – such as Thaksin and the two allies that succeeded him as prime minister – but faces an elite used to seeing one of<br />
their familiar own on top, and has the resources to try to effect political change.<br />
These tensions are a “complex form of class warfare” between the middle class and a populist government or group backed by<br />
rural and urban poor, says political analyst Walden Bello of the Bangkok-based non-government group Focus on the Global South.<br />
Despite the seeming respite brought in by Abhisit’s emergence, the political awareness and anger of the rural poor -- who<br />
have seen their votes reversed twice in this year’s changes in government-- has far from waned.<br />
It is very hard to legitimise getting power by saying that majority rule -- as played out in elections that are a fulcrum of a<br />
democratic system -- apply only if the result is palatable to certain sections of society, analysts say. “My sense is that the<br />
recent events have started the country on a slippery downward slope where elections will begin to matter less than street mobilisations<br />
as a way to resolve the question of power,” Bello said an interview. “Think 1928 to 1933 in Germany,” he added.<br />
While Thaksin has a blemished human rights record given his assaults on press freedom and his war on drugs where more than<br />
3,000 people were killed, Pokpong Lawansiri of the Asian Forum for Human Rights and Development (FORUM-ASIA) pointed out<br />
that the bigger issue is one of respect for democratic processes, regardless of the personalities involved. “If the majority of the<br />
population voted for the said party or candidates, we should respect the voice of the majority,” Pokpong said.<br />
*Johanna Son, a journalist for more than 20 years, is director of IPS Asia-Pacific (www.ipsnewsasia.net) and has covered<br />
foreign policy and political affairs in the region. She is based in Bangkok. [Pictures on page 21 are by Johanna Son.]<br />
20 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
COVER STORY | TITELTHEMA<br />
". . . what the actors parodied at the Bangkok Theatre Festival, held just<br />
after a new government emerged from the rubble of the latest round of<br />
political instability in Thailand, was what many believe happened in real<br />
life. After all, they have been watching political theatre unfold on the<br />
national stage through 2008."<br />
Likewise, rearranging the political landscape – through<br />
public protests by PAD, court decisions, and military involvement<br />
that local media say was key to the Democrat<br />
Party’s getting enough defections to seal the prime ministership<br />
– does not address the rural poor’s sentiments of being<br />
left out by elites in power and its belief that it benefited<br />
from Thaksin’s populist policies. (These policies included a<br />
universal health scheme and village loans, which PAD leaders<br />
say Thaksin – and his allies, successor and now ousted prime<br />
ministers Samak Sundaravej and Somchai Wongsawat, had<br />
used to duped rural voters into supporting them.)<br />
“I doubt if the Democrats will be able to stabilise the<br />
country. All sorts of elite arrangements were tried in Argentina<br />
after the popular (Juan) Peron was ousted, but none<br />
achieved any stability owing to their attempt to exclude the<br />
Peronists from power,” explained Bello. “You now have a<br />
massive Thaksin base in Thailand with the same social weight<br />
and depth as the Peronist movement in Argentina.”<br />
Populist pulse<br />
The PAD, led by Bangkok-based conservative elites, has been<br />
wanting Thaksin and any tinge of his influence out of the<br />
national government for years now. It played a key role in<br />
protests that forced Thaksin – now in exile after being convicted<br />
on corruption - out of office in 2006 due to a military<br />
coup.<br />
Yellow vs red<br />
Because Samak’s People’s Power Party – the successor to<br />
Thaksin’s dissolved Thai Rai Thai (Thais Love Thais) party –<br />
still had the numbers in Parliament, it then chose a new<br />
prime minister, Thaksin brother-in-law Somchai Wongsawat.<br />
The PAD rejected him, and protests continued.<br />
For their part, red-clad pro-government supporters staged<br />
their own rallies and called on the military to stay away from<br />
a coup. Thailand has had 18 coups since becoming a constitutional<br />
monarchy in 1935.<br />
The PAD’s anti-government protests peaked in late November,<br />
when thousands of yellow-shirted protesters surrounded<br />
the domestic and international airports in Bangkok, leading<br />
to their closure for a week.<br />
This raised the stakes in what had largely been a domestic,<br />
if convoluted, affair. More than 350,000 tourists were<br />
Since the 20<strong>01</strong> general election, the voters’ choice has<br />
been for Thaksin and/or his political allies, whose bailiwicks<br />
are the poorer rural regions of Thailand, especially the north<br />
and the north-east.<br />
Thaksin finished a full first term – far from an easy feat in<br />
a country where revolving-door governments marked much<br />
of the nineties. His second term, marked by massive protests,<br />
was cut short by the September 2006 coup.<br />
In retrospect, PAD and its allies found unacceptable the<br />
rise of a political figure like Thaksin, who had shrewdly<br />
wooed rural voters. Because polls delivered a corrupt leader<br />
like Thaksin, PAD called for ‘new politics’ where there are<br />
less elected members of Parliament and perhaps an appointed<br />
Prime Minister as well.<br />
So in May this year, yellow-clad PAD groups stepped up<br />
their public action against the government of Samak, which<br />
won in the December 2007 polls. Those polls were the first<br />
held since the 2006 coup against Thaksin – and voters sent<br />
back to Parliament the politicians sympathetic to him.<br />
PAD occupied a bridge and then later, Government House<br />
(the Prime Minister’s seat of power) and said it would not<br />
budge till Samak left. Samak refused but had to leave office<br />
after the Constitutional Court ruled in September that he<br />
had violated a bar on earning extra income when he hosted<br />
TV cooking shows.<br />
stranded during the tourist peak season. The cost of the<br />
airport closure was estimated at 22 billion dollars.<br />
As fears rose of open clashes between the PAD yellowshirts<br />
and the pro-government redshirts, the Constitutional Court<br />
once again stepped in. In early December, it ruled on an<br />
electoral offence case and ordered dissolved the ruling People’s<br />
Power Party and two other coalition partners.<br />
This led to the exit of Somchai’s government – and paved<br />
the way for shifting the political balance in Parliament to<br />
make way for a government that was not led by pro-Thaksin<br />
forces. Local media reported on how military leaders – which<br />
at one point had gone on television to advice Somchai to step<br />
down to ease the crisis – met politicians from different parties<br />
to try to have an ‘acceptable’ government emerge from<br />
Parliament. In mid-December, the Democrats announced it<br />
had the votes to form the next government.<br />
What next?<br />
As news comes in about political woes helping push projections of Thai economic growth down to .06 percent in <strong>2009</strong> – the lowest<br />
since the 1997 economic crisis -- many would be happy to just have some stability. “When will this end?” a frustrated employee<br />
said upon reading of the redshirts’ blocking of Parliament in December.<br />
Looking back at the political scene this year, a Thai employee in her thirties fears more of the same upheavals ahead. “If<br />
people think that the (past) government was bad, there should be other ways, democratic ways, to solve the problems, since<br />
the leaders of the anti-government protesters claim to be middle-class elite and some even graduated from Western countries<br />
where democracy is supposed to exist. Therefore, laws should be respected. But what I saw was that the two groups of protesters<br />
(red and yellow) ignoring the laws if these did not suit their goals.”<br />
For now, it’s wisest to stay away from wearing yellow or red, given the risks of being put on either side of the political fence,<br />
said one teacher here. “I’m not wearing any of those colours for some time,” he quipped. <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 21
COVER STORY | TITELTHEMA<br />
Uganda on the Global Market Track to Prosperity<br />
Uganda's finance ministry has ambitious plans to reduce the<br />
country’s donor dependence. With foreign funds accounting<br />
for almost 50 percent of the national budget, officials believe<br />
a slew of measures announced in the 2008/09 budget could<br />
bring that down to about 30 percent.<br />
An enthusiastic Minister for Finance, Planning and Development,<br />
Dr Ezra Suruma, who calls his "a prosperity for all<br />
budget", predicts Uganda will be able to fund itself domestically<br />
"sooner than later".<br />
Hopes are pinned on booming agricultural exports of<br />
tea, coffee, cotton, fruits, honey, rice, potatoes, dairy products,<br />
vegetable oil, poultry and fish. The government is investing<br />
billions in greater commercialisation of agriculture,<br />
improved seeds, building warehouses, upgrading the marketing<br />
infrastructure and the Commodity Exchange.<br />
Tea exports touched 44,<strong>01</strong>5 tonnes of tea last year. This is<br />
expected to increase to 46,000 tonnes, according to Isaac<br />
Munabi, executive secretary of the Uganda Tea Association. In<br />
2007, earnings from tea exports were 47.6 million dollars as<br />
per official records. With some 21,000 hectares of tea gardens,<br />
average yields in Uganda are about 2,500 kgs per hectare,<br />
according to the association. Last year, coffee exports<br />
too fetched an impressive 21 million dollars, the coffee development<br />
board says.<br />
The resource envelope for the current 2008/09 financial<br />
year is based on the assumption that a projected real growth<br />
rate of 8.1 percent will be achieved and that low and stable<br />
inflation will be maintained.<br />
Roughly three million dollars will come from domestic revenues<br />
comprising tax revenues of another three million dollars,<br />
non-tax revenues of over 70 million dollars and loan repayments<br />
from government parastatals,15 million dollars.<br />
Financing from the domestic banking system amounts to 160<br />
million dollars. The difference of some 100 million dollars is<br />
support from external sources.<br />
For the country’s landless and subsistence farmers (70 percent<br />
of farm labour is women) the government has set up a<br />
land acquisition loan facility -- a revolving fund of roughly 3<br />
million dollars. The facility is to be disbursed through Post<br />
Bank and participating small farmers grouped in cooperative<br />
societies or SACCOs.<br />
Rose Nakito (40) is a resident of Mayuge district, in eastern<br />
Uganda. She and her husband Bosco Baligeya are farmers like<br />
their aging parents. Nakito tends coffee on a small plantation<br />
owned by her husband, to supplement the meagre salary he<br />
draws as a teacher at the nearby Wandegeya primary school.<br />
Nakito also works on a separate garden growing food crops<br />
such as maize, beans and potatoes to feed the family of seven<br />
and sells anything left over.<br />
By Joshua Kyalimpa*<br />
There is rarely any surplus to earn her cash and she largely<br />
depends on her teacher husband for some money from the<br />
sale of coffee sales or his salary.<br />
Uganda’s secretary to the treasury Keith Muhakanizi told IPS<br />
that Nakito will be able to draw money from the revolving<br />
fund. An agreement has already been signed with Post Bank to<br />
ensure timely and efficient disbursement of the facility.<br />
But independent analysts warn the budget may not be able<br />
to deliver on promises.<br />
Social scientist Dr Aaron Mukwaya of Makerere University<br />
says most of the plans may never be implemented since a<br />
significant portion of the funds are projected to come from<br />
donors who may renege on their promises due to the global<br />
financial crisis.<br />
According to Mukwaya, the areas that Uganda’s national<br />
budget seeks to address are popular with donors but are not<br />
necessarily likely to lead the nation to prosperity. "Our budget<br />
is almost 50 percent donor funded and when we look at the<br />
current economic situation globally, donors cannot provide the<br />
money. Yet the budget is emphasising public sector spending<br />
and the private sector seems to have been ignored."<br />
The Uganda government has put aside about 60 million dollars<br />
for the National Agricultural Advisory Services -- to supply<br />
improved varieties of seeds and inputs to farmers linked to the<br />
production of specific commodities including coffee, tea,<br />
cotton, fish and fruits. But Uganda has no control over world<br />
markets, argues Mukwaya. In addition, the budget’s emphasis<br />
on technologically improved inputs are linked to the production<br />
of cash crops, which are largely the preserve of men.<br />
The government intends to draw more farmers into commercial<br />
agriculture by improving marketing infrastructure,<br />
refurbishing 173 commodity stores, constructing warehouses<br />
and extending support to the operations of the Uganda Commodity<br />
Exchange (UCE).<br />
But Dr Lawrence Bategeka, a research fellow at the Kampala-based<br />
economic policy research centre, says most of the<br />
farmers in Uganda work small land holdings and the national<br />
budget seems to be ignoring them. He says the emphasis of<br />
the budget should be on how to empower subsistence farmers.<br />
"I was moving around upcountry and met a farmer who had<br />
100 goats on a one-acre farm and could earn from the farm<br />
about 10 million shillings per year. That kind of small farmer<br />
could up his earnings if helped by the government," Bategeka<br />
says Finance Minister Suruma insists various stakeholders were<br />
consulted during the budget process but argues that while the<br />
2008/<strong>2009</strong> Budget may not have answered all the issues, it<br />
lays the foundation for progress.<br />
But then can his budget bring "prosperity for all"? The jury is<br />
still out on this. IPS | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
22 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
COVER STORY | TITELTHEMA<br />
Äthiopien sucht ausländische Käufer für Agrarland<br />
Von Michael Chebsi in Addis Abeba<br />
In Äthiopien stehen Millionen Kleinbauern Jahr für Jahr vor dem Problem, sich und ihre Familien durchzubringen. Denn sie, die<br />
ihre Felder noch weitgehend auf herkömmliche Art bestellen, sind Wetterkapriolen schutzlos ausgeliefert und somit auch ständig<br />
vom Hunger bedroht. Um die Ernährung der Bevölkerung zu sichern, will die Regierung jetzt im großen Stil Agrarland an ausländische<br />
Investoren verkaufen.<br />
Tola Melka, Kleinbauer aus dem ländlichen Zentraläthiopien, hatte sich eine Rekordernte erhofft. Doch Ende Oktober zerstörten<br />
unerwartete Regenfälle sein Getreidefeld. "Ich frage mich, wie ich meine Kinder satt bekommen soll", sagt Melka. Schon<br />
2007 mussten er und seine Frau Shashe Dima hungern. Damals hatte es zuwenig geregnet. "Die Natur scheint sich gegen uns<br />
verbündet zu haben", sagt Dima.<br />
Die Familie ist nur eine von vielen, deren winzige Ernten auch in diesem Jahr nicht für den Eigenbedarf reichen. Offiziell sind<br />
6,4 Millionen Menschen in dem nordostafrikanischen Land vom Hunger bedroht. Den Behörden bereitet die Situation zunehmend<br />
Kopfzerbrechen, obwohl sie der Landwirtschaft höchste Priorität einräumen.<br />
Äthiopisches Hochland | Wikimedia Commons<br />
Agrarrevolution<br />
Seit 1992 versucht Äthiopien die<br />
Wirtschaft des Landes über eine Agrarrevolution<br />
anzukurbeln. Vorrangig<br />
geht es darum, neun Millionen Kleinbauern<br />
dabei zu helfen, ihre Ernten<br />
zu steigern. Doch das ambitionierte<br />
Ziel, die Agrarproduktion in den ersten<br />
neun Monaten des Haushaltsjahrs<br />
2007/2008 auf rund 28 Tonnen Getreide<br />
zu steigern, wurde nicht erreicht.<br />
Das Output belief sich auf nur<br />
16,4 Millionen Tonnen, wie aus einem<br />
Bericht des Landwirtschaftsministeriums<br />
hervorgeht.<br />
Die Regierung setzt ihre Hoffnung<br />
nun auf das Ausland. So hat Regierungschef<br />
Meles Zenawi Saudi-Arabien<br />
hunderttausende Hektar Land für den<br />
Getreideanbau zugesagt. Dschibuti<br />
hat bereits 5.000 Hektar erhalten.<br />
Zudem läuft die Suche nach weiteren<br />
geeigneten Agrarflächen für ausländische<br />
Investoren auf Hochtouren. Für<br />
diese Zwecke wurden in den Regionen<br />
Oromia und Amhara, in denen ein<br />
Großteil des Getreides produziert<br />
wird, bisher rund zwei Millionen Hektar<br />
ausgemacht.<br />
Saudi Arabien und China kaufen auf<br />
Kritiker warnen indes vor den Risiken der neuen Strategie. Sie befürchten, dass die von ausländischen Unternehmen produzierten<br />
Nahrungsmittel am Ende doch exportiert werden, weil die äthiopischen Verbraucher mit den internationalen Preisen nicht<br />
mithalten können.<br />
Saudi-Arabien zählt bereits zu den drei wichtigsten Handelspartnern Äthiopiens. Nach Regierungsangaben beläuft sich das<br />
Handelsvolumen beider Staaten auf eine Milliarde US-Dollar. Rund 240 saudische Firmen wurden bereits mit Lizenzen ausgestattet.<br />
Den Schätzungen zufolge werden sie insgesamt 2,5 Milliarden Dollar investieren.<br />
Berichten zufolge kaufen Saudi-Arabien und China überall auf der Welt Ackerland auf. Doch auch andere Staaten, die ihre Bevölkerung<br />
nicht selbst ernähren können, machen bei dem Geschäft mit. Dazu zählen Ägypten, Dschibuti, Libyen, Indien, Japan,<br />
Malaysia, Südkorea, Bahrain, Jordanien, Kuwait, Katar und die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate.<br />
Diese Nationen nehmen jedoch nicht nur Äthiopien, sondern auch zahlreiche andere Länder ins Visier, wie Wolday Amaha vom<br />
unabhängigen äthiopischen Wirtschaftsverband erläutert. Der Regierung in Addis Abeba empfiehlt der Experte, sicherzustellen,<br />
dass durch die Präsenz der ausländischen Investoren dem nordostafrikanischen Land keine Verluste entstehen.<br />
Regierungsvertreter argumentieren, dass die Investoren zudem neue Technologien ins Land bringen. Einheimische Bauern<br />
könnten von den High-Tech-Unternehmen lernen. "Bisher verstehen sich äthiopische Bauern nur auf traditionelle Landwirtschaft",<br />
sagt Ken Ohashi, Landesdirektor der Weltbank. "Fast überall ziehen noch Ochsen die Pflüge und Aussaat und Ernte erfolgt<br />
in Handarbeit."<br />
Bauern wie Melka hoffen, dass die Ankunft der Fremden für sie alternative Arbeitsmöglichkeiten erschließt. "Es ist riskant, nur<br />
von seiner eigenen Farm abhängig zu sein", sagt er. "Man braucht noch weitere Einkommensmöglichkeiten."<br />
Fest steht, dass Äthiopiens Agrarsektor, der immer noch knapp 45 Prozent des Bruttonationaleinkommens erwirtschaftet, im<br />
Wandel begriffen ist. Die Regierung ist zuversichtlich, dass sie ihr Ziel, bis 2<strong>01</strong>0 knapp fünf Millionen Hektar mehr an kultivierbarem<br />
Land zu schaffen, mit Hilfe der ausländischen Investitionen erreichen wird. IPS | <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> �<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 23
COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN<br />
United Nations climate change conference<br />
ended on a bitter note in the early hours of<br />
Dec. 13 in the western Polish city of Poznan.<br />
The developing and emerging economies<br />
accused the industrialised nations of "callousness"<br />
and a "vision gap" that were reflected<br />
in their rejection of a key deal that<br />
would enable the poor states to cope with<br />
global warming.<br />
The deal at issue is a special fund established<br />
to finance concrete projects and programmes<br />
aimed at adapting to climate<br />
change in developing countries.<br />
The Fund is to be fed essentially with a<br />
share of proceeds from clean development<br />
mechanism (CDM) project activities. The<br />
share of proceeds amounts to 2 percent of<br />
certified emission reductions (CERs) issued<br />
for a CDM project activity.<br />
The CDM allows an industrial country<br />
committed to reduce or limit emissions under<br />
the Kyoto Protocol to implement one or<br />
more projects in a developing country that<br />
would help reduce its emissions.<br />
Such projects can earn saleable CER credits,<br />
each equivalent to one tonne of CO2,<br />
which can be counted towards meeting an<br />
industrial country's Kyoto targets.<br />
The mechanism is seen by many as a trailblazer.<br />
CER is the first environmental investment<br />
and credit scheme of its kind,<br />
providing a standardised emissions offset<br />
instrument.<br />
A CDM project activity might involve a rural<br />
electrification project using solar panels<br />
or the installation of more energy-efficient<br />
boilers.<br />
The mechanism thus stimulates sustainable<br />
development and emission reductions, while<br />
giving industrialised countries some flexibility<br />
in how they meet their emission reduction<br />
or limitation targets.<br />
When the special financing facility called<br />
the Adaptation Fund aimed at helping developing<br />
countries take to adaptation measures<br />
came up for discussion at the Poznan conference<br />
on Dec. 11, delegates of several countries<br />
representing diverse groupings at the<br />
UN argued that the special levy of 2 percent<br />
on CERs should be increased to 3 percent.<br />
This would provide additional money for<br />
the current 60 million dollar fund that helps<br />
poor countries protect themselves against<br />
floods, drought and storms. While the industrial<br />
nations admitted that billions of dollars<br />
are needed for the challenging task, they did<br />
not agree to increase from two to three the<br />
percentage of levy from the carbon market.<br />
This brought the talks to an inevitable collapse.<br />
A source present at the meeting said<br />
the opponents of the scheme were led by<br />
Poznan Produces a 'Vision Gap'<br />
By Ramesh Jaura<br />
Maciej Nowicki<br />
the European Union, Japan, Canada, Australia<br />
and Russia.<br />
The collapse became evident about three<br />
hours into the start of the final plenary session<br />
of the UN conference.<br />
Before that, Poland's environment minister<br />
Maciej Nowicki, president of the Poznan<br />
conference of parties (COP), as such gatherings<br />
are called in UN jargon, had announced<br />
that an Adaptation Fund that would provide<br />
money to least developed countries (LDC) to<br />
cope with climate change effects had become<br />
operational at the Poznan summit.<br />
"It was India which brought the collapse<br />
out into the open, through Prodipto Ghosh,<br />
member of the Prime Minister's Council on<br />
Climate Change," said Joydeep Gupta, an<br />
Indian journalist covering the Poznan meeting.<br />
Ghosh is reported to have said at the<br />
meeting: "In the 12 COPs I have been privileged<br />
to attend so far, this is one of the<br />
saddest moments I have witnessed."<br />
Ghosh said the Article 9 review, which was<br />
looking at the increase of the levy from two<br />
to three percent, "fell apart for one, and one<br />
reason only; that is the refusal of some parties<br />
(countries) to experience the least loss<br />
of profits from trading in carbon.<br />
"Let us look at why this refusal is tragic<br />
and painful," Ghosh told those of the over<br />
3,000 delegates from 186 countries who<br />
were still left in the final plenary session.<br />
"Even now, millions of poor people in developing<br />
countries are losing their homes,<br />
their livelihoods, and their lives from impacts<br />
of climate change. Most live in extreme<br />
privation at the best of times; climate<br />
change takes away their pitiable homes,<br />
hearths and bread."<br />
In responding to this situation, Ghosh said:<br />
"What did we hear from the parties who<br />
could not bear to be parted from a small<br />
share of their carbon profits? That we need<br />
to agree on the overall architecture before<br />
they can provide any money.<br />
"In the face of the unbearable human<br />
tragedy that we in developing countries see<br />
unfolding every day, we see callousness,<br />
strategising and obfuscation. We can all of<br />
us, now see clearly what lies ahead at Copenhagen."<br />
"We're going to have to put much more energy<br />
into bridging the growing gap between<br />
the two sides," the Ghanaian delegation told<br />
the meeting. "It's the vision gap and that is<br />
not a good sign for the future."<br />
The two-week long discussions in Poznan also<br />
brought little progress on the most contentious<br />
issues -- notably, cuts in emissions<br />
blamed for global warming.<br />
"What did we hear from the parties who could not bear to be parted from a small share of their<br />
carbon profits?<br />
24 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN<br />
"Governments have sent a strong political signal that despite the financial and economic<br />
crisis, significant funds can be mobilised for both mitigation and adaptation in<br />
developing countries with the help of a clever financial architecture and the institutions<br />
to deliver the financial support." – UNFCCC Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer.<br />
But sources at the secretariat of the UN framework<br />
convention on climate change (UNFCCC) said the Poznan<br />
gathering – 14th in the series of COPs since the global<br />
treaty entered into force in March 1994 -- was "a milestone<br />
on the road to success for the processes which<br />
were launched under the Bali road map" in December<br />
2007.<br />
The meeting came midway between COP 13 in Bali,<br />
which saw the launch of negotiations on strengthened<br />
international action on climate change, and COP 15 next<br />
year in Copenhagen, the Danish capital, at which the<br />
negotiations are set to conclude.<br />
Over 11,000 participants attended the Poznan conference,<br />
which "both advanced international cooperation on<br />
a future climate change regime and ensured progress on<br />
key issues," a source at the UNFCCC secretariat said.<br />
While playing down the significance of the North-South<br />
showdown between the industrialised and developing or<br />
emerging countries, conference president Nowicki said<br />
the conference had concluded with "a clear commitment<br />
from governments to shift into full negotiating mode<br />
next year in order to shape an ambitious and effective<br />
international response to climate change, to be agreed<br />
in Copenhagen at the end of <strong>2009</strong>."<br />
Progress was made in the area of technology with the<br />
endorsement of the Global Environment Facility's Poznan<br />
Strategic Programme on Technology Transfer. The aim of<br />
this programme is to scale up the level of investment by<br />
levering private investments that developing countries<br />
require both for mitigation and adaptation technologies,<br />
he said.<br />
"We will now move to the next level of negotiations,<br />
which involves crafting a concrete negotiating text for<br />
the agreed outcome," said Nowicki. Parties agreed that a<br />
first draft of the text would be available at a UNFCCC<br />
Poznań International Fair Ltd.<br />
gathering in Bonn in June <strong>2009</strong>.<br />
"In addition to having agreed the work programme for<br />
next year, we have cleared the decks of many technical issues," Nowicki said. "Poznan is the place where the partnership<br />
between the developing and developed world to fight climate change has shifted beyond rhetoric and turned into real action,"<br />
he said.<br />
The success of the conference was also stressed by the UNFCCC secretariat. It said a key event at the conference was a<br />
ministerial round table on a shared vision for long-term cooperative action on climate change.<br />
"Governments have sent a strong political signal that despite the financial and economic crisis, significant funds can be<br />
mobilised for both mitigation and adaptation in developing countries with the help of a clever financial architecture and the<br />
institutions to deliver the financial support," said Yvo de Boer, UNFCCC executive secretary in a statement.<br />
We now have a much clearer sense of where we need to go in designing an outcome which will spell out the commitments of<br />
developed countries, the financial support required and the institutions that will deliver that support as part of the Copenhagen<br />
outcome," he added. IPS | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
The United Nations Climate Change Conference in Poznań on 13 December with a clear commitment from<br />
governments to shift into full negotiating mode next year in order to shape an ambitious and effective international<br />
response to climate change, to be agreed in Copenhagen at the end of <strong>2009</strong>. Parties agreed that the<br />
first draft of a concrete negotiating text would be available at a UNFCCC gathering in Bonn in June of <strong>2009</strong>.<br />
At Poznań, the finishing touches were put to the Kyoto Protocol’s Adaptation Fund, with Parties agreeing<br />
that the Fund would be a legal entity granting direct access to developing countries. Progress was also made<br />
on a number of important ongoing issues that are particularly important for developing countries, including:<br />
adaptation; finance; technology; reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD); and<br />
disaster management. – UNFCCC Secretariat<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 25
COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN<br />
FairClimate Ambassadors' Poznan Diary<br />
By Anne Marie Kortleve and Suzanne Maas<br />
Anne Marie Kortleve and Suzanne Maas attended the UNFCCC climate conference in Poznan. Together with five other students<br />
they form the FairClimate ambassadors of Dutch development organisation. This diary was made available to the this magazine<br />
for international cooperation by the Utrecht-based ICCO. The two ambassadors introduce themselves.<br />
I am 26 years old, recently graduated from Wageningen University in Applied Communication Sciences. Nowadays I work for the<br />
Province of South Holland as secretary of several State Committees.<br />
In my spare time I am a FairClimate Ambassador, striving for a more fair and equitable climate for all. While visiting countries<br />
like Brazil and Ethiopia, I realised that developing countries are facing tremendous problems like droughts, famine and floods. I<br />
can not sit back and wait until something might happen, it is time to act!<br />
Anne Marie Kortleve Suzanne Maas<br />
I am 26 years old, recently graduated from Wageningen University<br />
in Applied Communication Sciences. Nowadays I work for<br />
the Province of South Holland as secretary of several State<br />
Committees.<br />
In my spare time I am a FairClimate Ambassador, striving for a<br />
more fair and equitable climate for all. While visiting countries<br />
like Brazil and Ethiopia, I realised that developing countries are<br />
facing tremendous problems like droughts, famine and floods. I<br />
can not sit back and wait until something might happen, it is<br />
time to act!<br />
I am a 22 year old student in environmental studies at<br />
Utrecht University in the Netherlands. I wish for a world<br />
without poverty, injustice, animal abuse and environmental<br />
destruction. In order to help achieve this goal I have been<br />
active in youth, animal rights and environmental movements<br />
and am currently advocating for a fair climate as a youth<br />
ambassador. I believe we have the power to change this<br />
world to make it more inclusive and sustainable and I am<br />
very happy to contribute to making this world a better place<br />
for all.<br />
Day 1, December 6: Climate action!<br />
On our first day in Poznan we hit the street. There is a big demonstration by NGOs and youth from all over the world to convince<br />
our political leaders that we need climate action and justice now! The streets are filled with polar bears, banners, ticking clocks<br />
and lots of demanding voices. The relevance of such a demonstration is clearly explained by one of the participants: “if there is<br />
a lot of pressure from the street, the political leaders will have to listen!”<br />
Day 2, December 7: You gotta have faith<br />
Sunday: not a day of rest at the climate conference, but surely a day of contemplation. We attend a meeting of the Climate<br />
Action Network and discuss the first week of the negotiations with NGO representatives. In their opinion it has mainly been a<br />
disappointment and they strongly express their hopes for developed countries to take a leading role in the following week of the<br />
climate negotiations, in order to secure that progress will be made at this Conference of the Parties (COP). Later that day we<br />
visit the climate church. Reverend Abramides preaches that we have to care for our environment. According to him, “if you take<br />
no action, knowing and considering the changes in our climate, it is a sin”. When asking people attending the service on how to<br />
address climate change, their solution is to have faith and act!<br />
Day 3, December 8: Like David and Goliath<br />
Today we spoke to Tosi, a member of the Congolese delegation. Congo is one of the least developed countries in the world and<br />
therefore vulnerable for disasters like droughts and famine. At the same time, this country is rich in minerals and tropical forest,<br />
crucial for the capture of CO2. . . . A fair international climate treaty is essential for countries like Congo. But with only<br />
two delegates in the conference, they are fighting a battle like David against Goliath.<br />
26 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN<br />
Tosi often has to work from nine in the morning till 2 o’clock in the night. He can not attend all the meetings that are scheduled.<br />
Industrialized countries have over 20 delegates present at the conference and have the advantage of dividing the work and<br />
knowledge. Congo can not…<br />
Less represented as these developing countries are, they are fighting for proposals on combating and adapting to climate<br />
change, but unfortunately these are completely ignored by the developed countries. Let’s hope that during the week the negotiations<br />
will lead to something more constructive.<br />
Day 4, December 9: Politics in Warsaw<br />
At the same time the climate conference in Poznan is taking place, the European Union is gathered in Brussels to negotiate on<br />
their climate and energy package for the coming years. The results of this meeting will influence the outcomes of the UN conference<br />
on climate change to a big extent. If the EU will not come forward as a leader in the climate negotiations because they<br />
have not resolved their internal disputes, it will be unlikely that ambitious plans will be made in Poznan. That’s why today we<br />
leave Poznan and take the train to Warsaw, where prime ministers Merkel (Germany) and Tusk (Poland) – who are blocking the<br />
negotiations on the climate and energy package – are meeting to discuss climate change We join a demonstration in front of the<br />
presidential building to show that we find it very important that agreement on climate action is reached in Brussels and Poznan.<br />
Ben Wikler, who organized the demonstration, explains: “the negotiations in the EU affect the negotiations at the UN, and the<br />
negotiations at the UN determine humanity’s response to climate change. The decisions they make today affect the entire<br />
world”. He believes the world leaders have an opportunity to get the world cheering, by investing in clean solutions and the<br />
creation of green jobs. If they don’t do it, they are destroying their international reputation for years to come.<br />
ICCO'S FairClimate Ambassadors<br />
Day 5, December 10: Meeting our minister<br />
Jacqueline Cramer, the Dutch minister of the environment is also present in Poznan. Today we had the chance to meet her at<br />
the exhibition hall of the conference. Together we get a tour of innovative projects and energy solutions for the future. We<br />
even go for a dance with her to generate energy in the sustainable dance booth of Dutch danceclub Watt. We also interview her<br />
about statements and expectations of the conference. She says her main points are “to convince industrialized countries to cut<br />
in their emissions, and to assist developing countries that already experience the effects of climate change – such as droughts,<br />
floods and sea level rise – by providing money and knowledge for adaptation”. When asking what advice she would give the<br />
world on climate change, she states “the financial crisis is no excuse to put the climate crisis in the fridge!” We are glad she<br />
takes this point of view and hope she is able to convince the other developed countries of the importance to act now.<br />
Day 6, December 11: High level statements?<br />
Today the environmental ministers of over 190 countries arrived in Poznan to make their statements at the high level segment<br />
of the conference. Although some of the speeches are truly inspirational – such as the one by the minister of the environment of<br />
Denmark, encouraging world leaders to get serious about the need for a fair and effective Kyoto Protocol follow-up in Copenhagen<br />
next year – most of them are predictable or even boring. When listening to them, we get the feeling these speeches are<br />
little more than empty statements and we sincerely hope they get some real work done, so that the conference in Poznań can<br />
be reviewed as a successful milestone on the road to Copenhagen.<br />
Day 7, December 12: Wrapping up<br />
The impasse between developed and developing countries remains. Developed countries stress that they do not want to commit<br />
themselves to high emission reductions unless the developing countries (including booming countries such as China and India)<br />
agree on reductions as well. On the other hand, developing countries maintain their viewpoint that the industrialized world<br />
should take leadership and make efforts, since they are the ones who are historically (and currently for the greatest part) responsible<br />
for climate change. The EU does not take up its position as leader, but – after quarrelling internally on the energy and<br />
climate package – comes forward with a weakened proposal. The main outcome of the climate conference in Poznan is that<br />
more meetings are necessary. We are hugely disappointed and can only hope for and try to influence a more successful outcome<br />
of the conference in Copenhagen next year. But, as an inhabitant of Tuvalu so strikingly put: “we may not be around then anymore…”<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 27
COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN<br />
Arktis in fünf Jahren in den Sommermonaten eisfrei<br />
Von Stephen Leahy in Quebec-Stadt<br />
Deutsche Bearbeitung: Karina Böckmann<br />
Das Worst Case Scenario des Weltklimarats, wonach die Arktis in spätestens 70 Jahren in den Sommermonaten kein Eis mehr mit<br />
sich führt, wird nach neusten Schätzungen bereits in den nächsten fünf bis zehn Jahren traurige Wirklichkeit werden. Spätestens<br />
ab 2<strong>01</strong>5, so warnen Experten, ist das Nordpolargebiet in der Sommerzeit eisfrei.<br />
Wie der Klimatologe David Barber an der Universität von Manitoba auf einer jüngsten Konferenz im kanadischen Quebec berichtete,<br />
gehen Entwicklungen in der Arktis besonders schnell vonstatten. Gerade für Klimaexperten ist sie mit ihren rasanten<br />
Temperatursprüngen besonders gut geeignet, um die Folgen des Klimawandels zu evaluieren.<br />
Barber hatte letzten Winter im Rahmen eines 40 Millionen US-Dollar teuren Forschungsprojektes im Arktischen Meer auf dem<br />
kanadischen Eisbrecherschiff 'Amundsen' zugebracht. Anders als erwartet blieb die Amundsen nicht im arktischen Winter, in dem<br />
die Sonne wegbleibt und die Temperaturen auf minus 50 Grad Celsius absinken, über mehrere Monate hinweg feststecken, sondern<br />
konnte sich aufgrund der dünnen Eisschicht frei bewegen.<br />
Barber führt diesen Umstand auf die Restwärme zurück, die im Sommer 2007 das Meer aufgeheizt hatte. Dadurch verzögerte<br />
sich auch die Bildung des winterlichen Packeises in einigen Teilen des Arktischen Meeres. Hinzu kamen Stürme, Winde und mehr<br />
Schnee.<br />
Wettlauf gegen die Sonne<br />
Für die Arktisregion seien das völlig neue Klimaphänomene. Zusätzlicher Schnee wirkt Wärme isolierend und verhindert die weitere<br />
Eisbildung. Entsteht im Winter weniger Eis, schmilzt die Eisdecke im Sommer schneller und flächendeckender, was wiederum<br />
der Sonne erlaubt, mehr Wasser zu erwärmen.<br />
Im Sommer 2007 büßte die polare Eiskappe 30 bis 40 Prozent ihres Volumens ein. Damit lag die Eismenge<br />
um 2,6 Millionen Quadratkilometer unter dem bisher niedrigsten Durchschnittswert. Da das verbliebene<br />
Eis nach Erkenntnissen der Wissenschafter dünner als sonst war, sind die Voraussetzungen,<br />
dass es <strong>2009</strong> zu einer weiteren Schmelze kommen wird, gegeben.<br />
"Sonnenlicht heißt Leben", sagte Kevin Arrigo, ein Meeresbiologe an der Stanford-Universität auf der<br />
Konferenz 'Arctic Change 2008', an der vom 9. bis 12. Dezember fast 1.000 Wissenschaftler und Indigenenvertreter<br />
teilnahmen. Zusammen mit Kollegen konnte er in arktischen Gewässern eine Zunahme von<br />
Phytoplankton um 300 Prozent nachweisen.<br />
Phytoplankton sind mikroskopisch kleine Pflanzen, die im Oberflächenwasser der Meere wachsen und<br />
mit Hilfe der Photosynthese aus Kohlendioxid (CO2) und Nährstoffen wie Phosphor, Stickstoff, Eisen und<br />
Silikon seine Körpersubstanz aufbauen. Eisen macht Phytoplanktion zu regelrechten CO2-Fessern. Arri-<br />
Kevin Arrigo<br />
Bild: ocean.stanford.edu<br />
www.arctic‐change2008.com<br />
go schätzt, dass durch ein Mehr an Phytoplankton mehr als 14 Gigatonnen zusätzliches CO2 aufgenommen<br />
werden kann.<br />
Wie aus einer Untersuchung von David Lawrence vom Nationalen Zentrum für atmosphärische Forschung<br />
in Boulder im US-Bundesstaat Colorado hervorgeht, wird der Trend, dass weite Teile Eis im Sommer schmelzen, in einer Entfernung<br />
von 1.500 Kilometer spürbar sein, Anhand von Computer-Modellen konnte gezeigt werden, dass der beschleunigte Verlust<br />
des Eises im Sommer die Temperaturen der Landoberfläche in der westlichen Arktis um das 3,5-Fache ansteigen lässt und dadurch<br />
eine Degradierung des Permafrostes verursacht. Gleichzeitig dringt die Wärme bis zu 1.500 Kilometer ins Inland vor.<br />
Hinter dem Begriff Permafrost verbergen sich Torfmoore, die weitere Teile Alaskas, Kanadas und Russlands bedecken und die ab<br />
einer gewissen Tiefe dauerhaft gefroren sind. Sie speichern mehr als das Doppelte der derzeit in der Atmosphäre befindlichen<br />
Menge CO2, wie aus einer von Ted Schuur, Ökologe an der Universität von Florida, veröffentlichter Untersuchung hervorgeht.<br />
Weniger Permafrost, mehr Treibhausgase<br />
Das Verbrennen fossiler Treibstoffe generiert jedes Jahr rund 8,5 Milliarden Tonnen CO2. Permafrostböden können mehr als 1,67<br />
Billionen Tonnen CO2 aufnehmen. "Das ist weit mehr, als wir erwartet haben", sagte Schuur in einer Pressemitteilung. Er geht<br />
davon aus, dass durch das Abtauen der Permafrostregionen zusätzlich 0,8 bis 1,1 Milliarden CO2 in die Erdatmosphäre gelangen.<br />
Das entspricht in etwa der Menge, die weltweit durch die jährliche Entwaldung freigesetzt wird. Besorgnis erregend ist, dass das<br />
auf diese Weise generierte klimaschädliche Treibhausgas CO2 nicht in den Klimahochrechnungen berücksichtigt wurde.<br />
Besondere finanzielle Zuwendungen im Internationalen Polarjahr haben Messungen der Permafrosttemperaturen durch ein<br />
Netzwerk aus Spezialisten möglich gemacht. So werden nach Angaben von Nikolay Shiklomanov, Permafrost-Experte an der Universität<br />
von Delaware in Kanada, in den Permafrostregionen Bohrlöcher für Temperaturmessgeräte gebohrt, die – einmal installiert<br />
– aufschlussreiche Informationen liefern sollen.<br />
Staaten wie Kanada verfügen derzeitig über äußerst dürftiges Zahlenmaterial, was die Entwicklung der Permafrostregionen<br />
angeht. Außerdem fehlt es an geeigneten Messstationen. Die Daten aus Alaska und Sibirien wiederum sind mehr als 20 Jahre alt,<br />
obwohl es auch dort in den letzten Jahren zu großen Temperatursprüngen gekommen ist.<br />
"Im arktischen System vollzieht sich derzeit ein Wandel", sagte Paul Wassmann, Ozeanograph an der University von Tromso in<br />
Norwegen. Das vorliegende Datenmaterial und die bisherigen Informationen seien unzuverlässige Indikatoren, um die Entwicklungen<br />
der Zukunft zu erfassen. Die Arktis werde wie sich alle Ökosysteme der Welt unwiederbringlich verändern. "Der menschliche<br />
Fingerabdruck ist überall auf dem Globus zu spüren. Das gilt besonders für den Norden." IPS | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
28 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
Climate Change Threatens Livelihoods<br />
By Pilirani Semu-Banda in Lilongwe<br />
Climate change will affect the Zambezi River basin more severely than any other river<br />
system in the world, according to Kenneth Msibi, Water Policy and Strategy Expert for<br />
the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Increased floods, drought and<br />
increased levels of disease threaten lives and livelihoods all along the river’s length.<br />
"Frequent floods and intense droughts are becoming more frequent occurrences in<br />
our region. We need to use our existing water resources as a catalyst for development<br />
so that we don’t get overwhelmed by the effects of climate change," said Msibi.<br />
Coordinator for the Climate Change and Adaptation in Africa project, Miriam<br />
Kalanda-Sabola, told IPS that farming communities in Malawi and Tanzania, for instance,<br />
have in the past 30 years experienced considerable negative climate change<br />
effects in both semi-arid and high rainfall areas.<br />
Throughout the basin, agriculture is mostly rain-fed, and the people of these states<br />
are facing declining agricultural productivity which is being linked to worsening poverty<br />
and increasing food insecurity.<br />
The semi-arid areas of Tanzania have seen declining crop yields, poor livestock production,<br />
and increasing domestic animal diseases. Many communities have abandoned<br />
the production of traditional crops. But farmers in areas of high rainfall are also in difficulty.<br />
"The high rainfall areas in Tanzania are facing declining soil fertility, stunted crop<br />
growth, destruction of mature crops in the field and stored ones," said Kalanda-<br />
Sabola.<br />
In Malawi's semi-arid areas, communities are seeing increasing periods of hunger and<br />
loss of property due to floods while droughts have reduced grazing for livestock due to<br />
droughts.<br />
Meanwhile, the high rainfall areas are experiencing soil erosion and frequent landslides,<br />
increasing incidence of malaria and loss of crops and animals due to floods.<br />
"The most vulnerable victims facing the effects of the changes in climatic conditions<br />
are the poor, women, children, elders, people with less education, sick people and<br />
communities in areas with poor infrastructures and less social network," said Kalanda-<br />
Sabola.<br />
New and increased levels of disease are also having a negative impact on agriculture,<br />
according to Professor Moses John Chimbari, Deputy Director at Harry Oppenheimer<br />
Okavango Research Centre (HOORC), a research institute at the University of<br />
Botswana.<br />
He says droughts and floods due to rising temperatures are creating a conducive environment<br />
for diseases such as malaria and meningitis. He said there are already many<br />
more episodes of malaria in the riparian states because of the favourable atmosphere<br />
for mosquitoes that has already been created due to the climatic changes.<br />
"This has a great impact on agriculture and the economies since people are sick most<br />
of the times and they are not being very productive," said Chimbari.<br />
Little capacity to adapt<br />
He said most countries in the Zambezi riparian states have little capacity to adapt to<br />
high incidence of diseases and that this makes many people even more vulnerable.<br />
He worried that HIV/AIDS is also adding to these stresses.<br />
"We need to reverse the trends that increase vulnerability to climate change through<br />
food security. We will actually be the most vulnerable region if we continue to be<br />
where we are now," said Chimbari.<br />
The researcher called for states to improve their health facilities and be able to<br />
cope with the health hazards being posed by climate change.<br />
The adaptation strategies that are being employed in Malawi include switching to<br />
drought-resistant crops like cassava, increased irrigation farming, growing earlymaturing<br />
hybrid varieties of crops and the use of organic manure.<br />
In Tanzania, farmers are also turning to drought resistant crops such as sunflowers,<br />
and employing small scale irrigation, improved social networks such as cooperatives<br />
and the use of improved seed varieties.<br />
Kalanda-Sabola approves of all these strategies and further calls for more livestock<br />
farming -- especially in the high rainfall sites -- and timely access to vital and simple<br />
information on climate change and variability. She says farmers in the region are being<br />
hampered by resource limitations including lack of enough crop land, lack of accessibility<br />
to loans and farm inputs. She underlines the need for a strengthening of capacity<br />
for implementation among communities. "Most farmers are failing to meet transaction<br />
costs necessary to acquire adaptation measures as they also have no or little access to<br />
external markets," she said. IPS | <strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> �<br />
COUNTDOWN TO COPENHAGEN<br />
<strong>GLOBAL</strong> <strong>PERSPECTIVES</strong> | JANUARY <strong>2009</strong> 29
KINOTIPP<br />
Film erzählt Erfolgsstory Liberias<br />
Von Marie-Helene Rousseau in New York<br />
Über ein Jahrzehnt war Liberia fast ununterbrochen im Bürgerkrieg versunken, da träumte die Sozialarbeiterin Leymah Gbowee<br />
davon, wie sie Frauen um sich sammelte, um für Frieden zu beten. 2003 machte sie ihren Traum in der St. Peters-Kirche von<br />
Monrovia wahr. Aus dem Gebetstreffen wurde eine landesweite Bewegung, die nicht nur ein Ende des Krieges, sondern auch eine<br />
Frau ins höchste Staatsamt brachte.<br />
Der Dokumentarfilm 'Pray the Devil Back<br />
to Hell' zeichnet den Weg der mutigen<br />
Gründerinnen des Frauennetzwerks für<br />
den Frieden (WIPNET) nach. Gedreht<br />
wurde er von Gini Reticker und produziert<br />
von Abigail Disney und jetzt beim<br />
renommierten New Yorker Tribeca-<br />
Filmfestival als bester Dokumentar-<br />
Featurefilm ausgezeichnet.<br />
In den ersten Szenen des Films umreißt<br />
Leymah Gbowee die vielfältigen Konflikte,<br />
die dem Krieg zugrunde lagen: Die<br />
weite Spanne zwischen Arm und Reich,<br />
der Hass zwischen den verschiedenen<br />
Volksgruppen des Landes und der Kampf<br />
um die natürlichen Ressourcen Liberias –<br />
"Macht, Geld, Ethnie und Gier", wie sie<br />
zusammenfassend kommentiert.<br />
Unterlegt wird diese Analyse mit harschen<br />
Bildern: Leichen, die durch die<br />
Straßen geschleift werden, Kinder mit<br />
Waffen, Massenbegräbnisse, dazu der<br />
Soundtrack ständigen Schießens. Die<br />
www.praythedevilbacktohell.com/v2 | Bild: Pewee Flomoku<br />
porträtierten Frauen bringen die unterschiedlichsten<br />
Hintergründe mit in die Friedensbewegung – es kommen Journalistinnen und Marktfrauen, Christinnen und Musliminnen.<br />
So wurde WIPNET nicht nur zu einer Kraft für den Frieden, sondern auch ein Symbol der Einheit in einem Land mit rund<br />
16 verschiedenen Religionen und Volksgruppen.<br />
"Ob Muslimin oder Christin – wir standen zusammen", erinnert sich Asatu Bah Kenneth, heute stellvertretende Polizeichefin des<br />
Landes, bei einer Vorführung des Films bei den Vereinten Nationen. "Wir suchten aus beiden Religionsgruppen Gebetsführerinnen<br />
aus. Wir hätten jederzeit umkommen können, es ist aber meines Wissens in der ganzen Zeit niemand von unserer Gruppe getötet<br />
worden." Bah Kenneth zufolge wurden die Frauen damals für verrückt gehalten. "Aber ich bin gläubig, und wenn du an Gott<br />
glaubst, kann der Glaube Berge versetzen. Es gab keine Diskriminierung innerhalb der Gruppe, weil wir alle den Frieden wollten."<br />
Der Film zeigt, wie unnachgiebig die Frauen waren. Die Friedensgesprächen 2003 in Ghana zogen sich endlos hin, weil die Delegierten<br />
sie praktisch als Erholungsurlaub betrachteten. Die Frauen machten ihrem Unmut Luft, indem sie das Konferenzzentrum<br />
mit einer Menschenkette abriegelten. Kein Delegierter sollte mehr hinaus dürfen bis es Fortschritte gab. Die Polizei war machtlos<br />
gegen diese Form des Protests, schließlich schlossen sich sogar Beamte den Frauen an, gaben ihnen taktische Hinweise, etwa<br />
wenn Verhandlungsteilnehmer sich durch die Fenster davonmachen wollten.<br />
Der Eifer der Bewegung erlahmte auch nicht nach Ende der Gespräche und dem Exil des bisherigen Machthabers Charles Taylor.<br />
Der Film zeigt, wie Frauen, unzufrieden mit der Effizienz der UN-geführten Friedenstruppe, die Entwaffnung der Rebellen selbst<br />
in die Hand nahmen. "Die Friedenstruppe fand keine Ansprechpartner mit Befehlsgewalt vor", berichtet Asatu Bah Kenneth, "sie<br />
wusste nicht, was sie machen sollte. Also übernahmen wir Frauen die Führung."<br />
Natürlich waren mit dem offiziellen Ende des Bürgerkriegs nicht alle Probleme Liberias automatisch gelöst. Nach 2007 konstatierte<br />
die Hilfsagentur 'ActionAid', das Vergewaltigungen immer noch gang und gäbe sind. "Unsere Präsidentin will über zwischengeschlechtliche<br />
Gewalt schon früh in der Schule aufklären lassen", sagt Kenneth. "Ich glaube, das könnte etwas bewirken."<br />
Das Familien- und Entwicklungsministerium arbeite an einem Programm zur Stärkung der Rolle der Frau, und ihre eigene Polizei<br />
werde zu 13 Prozent von Frauen gestellt.<br />
Im Bürgerkrieg griffen die Frauen zu gewaltlosen Mitteln wie Sexverweigerung und Demonstrationen. "Die Rolle der Frauen im<br />
Krieg blieb immer unsichtbar", sagt die Produzentin der Dokumentation, Abigail Disney. "Und zweifelsohne sind wir zu lange<br />
nicht in den Friedensprozess eingebunden worden – speziell heutzutage, wo die meisten Kriegsopfer Zivilisten sind und Frauen<br />
ganz gezielt ins Visier genommen werden, um die Bevölkerung zu terrorisieren. Die Botschaft des Films ist die Hoffnung, dass<br />
das Gute über das Böse siegen kann und normale Menschen Außerordentliches bewirken können."<br />
IPS |<strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> �<br />
30 <strong>KOMMUNIKATION</strong> <strong>GLOBAL</strong> | JANUAR <strong>2009</strong>
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